An Introduction To The Popular Religion And Folklore Of Northern India

The author reveals that many books have been written on Brahaminical traditions, the official religion of the Hindus; but, as far as he is aware, this is the first attempt to bring together some of the information available on the popular beliefs of the races of Northern India. His object in writing this book has been three-fold. In the first place, he desired to collect, for the use of all officers whose work lies among the rural classes, some information on the beliefs of the poeple which will enable them, in some degree, to understand the mysterious inner life of the races among whom their lot is cast; secondly, it may be hoped that this introductory sketch will stimulate enquiry, particularly among the educated natives of the country, who have as yet done little to enable Europeans to gain a fuller and more sympathetic knowledge of their rural brethren; and lastly, while he has endeavoured more to collect facts than to theorise upon them, he hopes that European scholars may find in these pages some fresh examples of familiar principles. His difficulty has arisen not so much from deficiency of material as in the selection and arrangement of the mass of information which lies scattered through a considerable literature, much of which is fugitive. He believes that the more they explore these popular superstitions and usages, the nearer are they likely to attain to the discovery of the basis on which Hinduism has been founded. The official creed has always been characterised by extreme Catholicism and receptivity, and many of its principles and legends have undoubtedly been derived from that stratum of the people which it is convenient to call non-Aryan or Dravidian. The necessity, then, of investigating these beliefs before they become absorbed in Brahimanism, one of the most active missionary religions of the world, is obvious. The book was first published in 1894.