Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 23

EARLIER EDITIONS
was completely
altered, recast
and enlarged,
xvii
until
it
bore
hardly more resemblance to the original work than a rough
outline sketch does to a finished picture.
And yet this rough sketch, so to speak, has up to this
day been all that English readers have had presented to
them of the Abbe's work. I do not for one moment desire
to detract from the artistic and literary value of that sketch,
admirable as it is, and as it has been acknowledged to be
by the authorities quoted above. But what I do mean to
say is that the sketch is only an extremely poor representa-
tion of what the Abbe's great work really was.
The true history was this. When the MS. was returned
to him in 1815, the Abbe put into it all the additions and
corrections suggested by many years of additional study
and investigation and when he sent it back to the Govern-
ment of Madras, it was, practically speaking, a different
work altogether. On receipt of the revised MS. the Govern-
ment of Madras decided that the only course open to them
was to send it to the Court of Directors in England, as the
original MS. had been.
Unfortunately, however, before
the revised MS. could reach England the original draft had
been translated and published and it is this edition which
has been sold ever since, and upon which the Abbe's repu-
;
;
tation has rested.
It is true that a so-called
some
thirty
'
edition was published
was merely a reprint (and
revised
odd years ago, but
it
'
unfortunately a very considerably curtailed reprint) of the
original English edition.
The only sign that I have been
MS. in the Fort having been
able to discover of the revised
is the inclusion of a dedicatory page that had been
added by the Abbe when he sent his finally corrected copy
to the Madras Government before leaving India.
As far
as I can ascertain the chief effect of this new edition was
consulted,
a
demand
for a verbatim reprint
of the original edition