Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 21

HISTORY OF DUBOIS'
MSS.
xv
— a modest sum, no doubt, judged by latter-day standards
literary remuneration
but, then, the Abbe's wants
were modest. According to Major Wilks all that he hoped
for was
a recompense sufficient to shield his future life
from those miseries of extreme want which he had once
of
;
'
already encountered.'
In summing up his own opinion of the Abbe's work
Lord William Bentinck remarked with characteristic can-
dour and good sense
:
my own
observation during my residence
that the Europeans generally know little or
nothing of the customs and manners of the Hindus. We
are all acquainted with some prominent marks and facts,
which all who run may read but their manner of think-
ing, their domestic habits and ceremonies, in which cir-
cumstances a knowledge of the people consists, is, I fear,
in great part wanting to us.
We understand very imper-
fectly their language.
They perhaps know more of ours ;
but their knowledge is by no means sufficiently extensive
to give a description of subjects not easily represented by
the insulated words in daily use. We do not, we cannot,
associate with the natives.
We cannot see them in their
houses and with their families. We are necessarily very
much confined to our houses by the heat all our wants
and business which would create a greater intercourse
with the natives is done for us, and we are in fact strangers
I have personally found the want of a work
in the land.
to which reference could be made for a just description
I am of opinion that,
of the native opinions and manners.
in a political point of view, the information which the
work of the Abbe Dubois has to impart might be of the
greatest benefit in aiding the servants of the Government
in conducting themselves more in unison with the customs
and prejudices of the natives.'
'
The
result of
in India
is
;
;
The purchase of the MS. was reported by the Madras
Government to the Board of Directors in 1807 as an
arrangement ... of great public importance
and the
MS. itself was transmitted to London at the same time for
'
'
;