Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 70

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THE FOUNDATIONS OF CASTE
would necessarily
fall into a stale of hopeless anarchy,
and, before the present generation disappeared, this nation,
so polished under present conditions, would have to be
reckoned amongst the most uncivilized of the world.
The legislators of India, whoever they may have been,
were far too wise and too well acquainted with the natural
character of the people for whom they prescribed laws to
leave it to the discretion or fancy of each individual to
cultivate what knowledge he pleased, or to exercise, as
seemed best to him, any of the various professions, arts,
or industries which are necessary for the preservation and
well-being of a State.
They set out from that cardinal principle common to all
ancient legislators, that no person should be useless to the
commonwealth. At the same time they recognized that
they were dealing with a people who were indolent and
careless by nature, and whose propensity to be apathetic
was so aggravated by the climate in which they lived, that
unless every individual had a profession or employment
rigidly imposed upon him, the social fabric could not hold
together and must quickly fall into the most deplorable
These ancient lawgivers, therefore, being
state of anarchy.
well aware of the danger caused by religious and political
innovations, and being anxious to establish durable and
inviolable rules for the different castes comprising the
Hindu nation, saw no surer way of attaining their object
than by combining in an unmistakable manner those two
great foundations of orderly government, religion and
politics.
Accordingly there is not one of their ancient
usages, not one of their observances, which has not some
Everything,
religious principle or object attached to it.
indeed, is governed by superstition and has religion for its
motive. The style of greeting, the mode of dressing, the
cut of clothes, the shape of ornaments and their manner of
adjustment, the various details of the toilette, the archi-
tecture of houses, the corners where the hearth is placed
and where the cooking pots must stand, the manner of
going to bed and of sleeping, the forms of civility and
politeness that must be observed
all these are severely
regulated.
During the many years that I studied Hindu customs
: