DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0005
Preface. v
leading statements, when, leaving the region of their
book-learning, they venture to dogmatize in regard
to the present condition—religious, moral, and intel-
lectual—of the inhabitants of India; while, on the
other hand, the most meritorious missionaries and
others who have passed all their lives in some one
Indian province, without acquiring any scholarlike
acquaintance with either Sanskrit or Arabic,—the two
respective master-keys to the Hindu and Muhammadan
religions,—are liable to imbibe very false notions in
regard to the real scope and meaning of the religious
thought and life by which they have been surrounded,
and to do serious harm by propagating their mis-
apprehensions.
And, as bearing on the duty of studying Indian
religions, I trust I may be allowed to repeat here the
substance of what I said at a Meeting of the ' National
Indian Association,' held on December 12, 1877, under
the presidency of the Earl of Northbrook, late Viceroy
of India:—
' I am deeply convinced that the more we learn about
the ideas, feelings, drift of thought, religious develop-
ment, eccentricities, and even errors and superstitions
of the natives of India, the less ready shall we be to
judge them by our own conventional European stand-
ards ; the less disposed to regard ourselves as the sole
depositaries of all the true knowledge, learning, virtue,
and refinement existing on the earth; the less prone
to despise, as an inferior race, the men who compiled
the Laws of Manu, one of the most remarkable literary
productions of the world ; who thought out systems, of
leading statements, when, leaving the region of their
book-learning, they venture to dogmatize in regard
to the present condition—religious, moral, and intel-
lectual—of the inhabitants of India; while, on the
other hand, the most meritorious missionaries and
others who have passed all their lives in some one
Indian province, without acquiring any scholarlike
acquaintance with either Sanskrit or Arabic,—the two
respective master-keys to the Hindu and Muhammadan
religions,—are liable to imbibe very false notions in
regard to the real scope and meaning of the religious
thought and life by which they have been surrounded,
and to do serious harm by propagating their mis-
apprehensions.
And, as bearing on the duty of studying Indian
religions, I trust I may be allowed to repeat here the
substance of what I said at a Meeting of the ' National
Indian Association,' held on December 12, 1877, under
the presidency of the Earl of Northbrook, late Viceroy
of India:—
' I am deeply convinced that the more we learn about
the ideas, feelings, drift of thought, religious develop-
ment, eccentricities, and even errors and superstitions
of the natives of India, the less ready shall we be to
judge them by our own conventional European stand-
ards ; the less disposed to regard ourselves as the sole
depositaries of all the true knowledge, learning, virtue,
and refinement existing on the earth; the less prone
to despise, as an inferior race, the men who compiled
the Laws of Manu, one of the most remarkable literary
productions of the world ; who thought out systems, of