History Of India Vol. I

Mountstuart Elphinstone

• Publisher: Normanby Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781782894773
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

"Appointed through family influence to the East India Company, Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859) arrived on the subcontinent in 1796, quickly learning Persian and developing an interest in Indian civilisation. After postings in Benares, Afghanistan and Poona, he became governor in 1819 of the recently acquired territory that became known as the Bombay Presidency, where he remained until his resignation in 1827. On his return to England, he devoted much of his time to writing and was a founder member of the Royal Geographical Society. This two-volume history, based on a range of Indian sources and first published in 1841, is infused with his lifelong understanding of Indian culture, science and philosophy. A scholarly refutation of James Mill's History, it was the most popular work of its kind among the early Victorian public. Volume 1 takes the history of the subcontinent up to the thirteenth century, while Volume 2 continues to the demise of the Mogul empire in the mid-eighteenth century."- Cambridge Library Collection

Book 1 – Hindus – State of the Hindus at the Time of Menu’s Code

Preliminary observations

As the rudest nations are seldom destitute of some account of the transactions of their ancestors, it is a natural subject of surprise, that the Hindus should have attained to a high pitch of civilisation, without any work that at all approaches to the character of a history{15}. The fragments which remain of the records of their transactions are so mixed with fable, and so distorted by a fictitious and extravagant system of Chronology, as to render it hopeless to deduce from them any continued thread of authentic narrative.

No date of a public event can be fixed before the invasion of Alexander; and no connected relation of the national transactions can be attempted until after the Mahometan conquest.

But notwithstanding this remarkable failure in the annals of the early Hindus, there is no want of information regarding their laws, manners, and religion; which it would have been the most useful object of an account of their proceedings to teach: and if we can ascertain their condition at a remote period, and mark the changes that have since taken place, we shall lose very little of the essential part of their history.

A view of the religion of the Hindus is given, and some light is thrown on their attainments in science and philosophy, by the Vedas, a collection of ancient hymns and prayers which are supposed to have been reduced to their present form in the fourteenth century before the Christian era; but the first complete picture of the state of society is afforded by the Code of Laws which bears the name of Menu, and which was probably drawn up in the ninth century before Christ{16}.

With that Code, therefore, every history of the Hindus must begin.

But to gain accurate notions even of the people contemporary with the supposed Menu, we must remember that a code is never the work of a single age, some of the earliest and rudest laws being preserved, and incorporated with the improvements of the most enlightened times. To take a familiar example, there are many of the laws in Blackstone the existence of which proves a high state of refinement in the nation; but those relating to witchcraft, and the wager of battle, afford no correspondent proof of the continuance of barbarism down to the age in which the Commentaries were written.

Even if the whole Code referred to one period, it would not show the real state of manners. Its injunctions are drawn from the model to which it is wished to raise the community, and its prohibitions from the worst state of crime which it was possible to apprehend. It is to the general spirit of the Code, therefore, that we must look for that of the age; and even then, we must soften the features before we reach the actual condition of the people. I have adhered to the usual phraseology in speaking of this compilation; but, though early adopted as an unquestionable authority for the law, I should scarcely venture to regard it as a code drawn tip for the regulation of a particular state under the sanction of a government. It seems rather to be the work of a learned man, designed to set forth his idea of a perfect commonwealth under Hindu institutions. On this supposition it would show the state of society as correctly as a legal code; since it is evident that it incorporates the existing laws, and any alterations it may have introduced, with a view to bring them up to its preconceived standard of perfection, must still have been drawn from the opinions which prevailed when it was written. These considerations being premised, I shall now give an outline of the information contained in Menu; and, afterwards, a description of the Hindus as they are to be seen in present times.

The alterations effected during the interval will appear from a comparison of the two pictures; and a view of the nation at a particular point of the transition will be afforded from the accounts which have been left to us by the Greeks.

Chapter 1 – Division and Employment of Classes

Bramins – Cshetryas – Veisyas – Sudras – Mixture of Classes

The first feature that strikes us in the society described by Menu, is the division into four classes{17} or casts (the sacerdotal, the military, the industrious, and the servile). In these we are struck with the prodigious elevation and sanctity of the Bramins, and the studied degradation of the lowest class.

The three first classes, though by no means equal, are yet admitted into one pale: they all partake in certain sacred rites, to which peculiar importance is attached throughout the code; and they appear to form the whole community for whose government the laws are framed. The fourth class and the outcasts are no further considered than as they contribute to the advantage of the superior casts.

Bramins

A Bramin is the chief of all created beings; the world and all in it are his: through him, indeed, other mortals enjoy life{18}; by his imprecations he could destroy a king, with his troops, elephants, horses, and cars{19}; could frame other worlds and regents of worlds, and could give being to new gods and new mortals.{20} A Bramin is to be treated with more respect than a king{21}. His life and person are protected by the severest laws in this world{22}, and the most tremendous denunciations for the next{23}. He is exempt from capital punishment, even for the most enormous crimes{24}. His offences against other classes are treated with remarkable lenity{25}, while all offences against him are punished with tenfold severity{26}.

Yet it would seem, at first sight, as if the Bramins, content with gratifying their spiritual pride, had no design to profit by worldly wealth or power. The life prescribed to them is one of laborious study, as well as of austerity and retirement.

The first quarter of a Bramin’s life he must spend as a student{27}; during which time he leads a life of abstinence and humiliation. His attention should be unremittingly directed to the Vedas, and should on no account be wasted on worldly studies. He should treat his preceptor with implicit obedience, and with humble respect and attachment, which ought to be extended to his family. He must perform various servile offices for his preceptor, and must labour for himself in bringing logs and other materials for sacrifice, and water for oblations. He must subsist entirely by begging from door to door{28}.

For the second quarter of his life, he lives with his wife and family, and discharges the ordinary duties of a Bramin. These are briefly stated to be, reading and teaching the Vedas; sacrificing and assisting others to sacrifice; bestowing alms, and accepting gifts.

The most honourable of these employments is teaching{29}. It is remarkable that, unlike other religions, where the dignity of the priesthood is derived from their service at the temples, a Bramin is considered as degraded by performing acts of worship or assisting at sacrifices, as a profession{30}. All Bramins are strongly and repeatedly prohibited from receiving gifts from low-born, wicked, or unworthy persons.{31} They are not even to take many presents from unexceptionable givers, and are carefully to avoid making it a habit to accept of unnecessary presents{32}. When the regular sources fail, a Bramin may, for a mere subsistence, glean, or beg, or cultivate, or even (in case of extreme necessity) he may trade; but he must in no extremity enter into service; he must not have recourse to popular conversation, must abstain from music, singing, dancing, gaming, and generally from everything inconsistent with gravity and composure{33}.q

He should, indeed, refrain from all sensual enjoyments, should avoid all wealth that may impede his reading the Vedas{34}, and should shun all worldly honour as he would shun poison{35}. Yet he is not to subject himself to fasts, or other needless severities{36}. All that is required is, that his life should be decorous and occupied in the prescribed studies and observances. Even his dress is laid down with minuteness; and he may easily be figured (much as learned Bramins are still) quiet and demure, clean and decent, “his hair and heard clipped, his passions subdued, ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Preface
• Introduction
• Book 1 - Hindus - State of the Hindus at the Time of Menu’s Code
• Book 2 - Changes since Menu, and State of the Hindus in Later Times
• Book 3 - State of the Hindus in Later Times, continued
• Book 4 - History of the Hindus up to the Mahometan Invasion
• Book 5 - Mahometans - From the Commencement of the Arab Conquests to the Establishment of a Mahometan Government in India
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER