DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0013
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
AND
LIFE IN INDIA.
Introductory Observations.
The present work is intended to meet the wants of those
educated Englishmen who may be desirous of gaining an
insight into the mental, moral, and religious condition of the
inhabitants of our Eastern empire, and yet are quite unable
to sift for themselves the confused mass of information—
accurate and inaccurate—spread out before them by innu-
merable writers on Indian subjects. Its aim will be to
present trustworthy outlines of every important phase of
religious thought and life in India, whether Hindu, Buddhist,
Jain, Zoroastrian, or Muhammadan. Even Indian Chris-
tianity will receive a share of attention ; for it must be borne
in mind that the existence of at least a million and a half
of native Christian converts—Roman Catholic and Protestant
—justify the inclusion of Christianity among the religious
systems permanently established on Indian soil.
Having been a student of Indian sacred literature for more
than forty years, and having twice travelled over every part
of India, from Bombay to Calcutta, from Cashmere to Ceylon,
I may possibly hope to make a dry subject fairly attractive
without any serious sacrifice of scientific accuracy, while at
the same time it will be my earnest endeavour to hold the
scales impartially between antagonistic religious systems and
AND
LIFE IN INDIA.
Introductory Observations.
The present work is intended to meet the wants of those
educated Englishmen who may be desirous of gaining an
insight into the mental, moral, and religious condition of the
inhabitants of our Eastern empire, and yet are quite unable
to sift for themselves the confused mass of information—
accurate and inaccurate—spread out before them by innu-
merable writers on Indian subjects. Its aim will be to
present trustworthy outlines of every important phase of
religious thought and life in India, whether Hindu, Buddhist,
Jain, Zoroastrian, or Muhammadan. Even Indian Chris-
tianity will receive a share of attention ; for it must be borne
in mind that the existence of at least a million and a half
of native Christian converts—Roman Catholic and Protestant
—justify the inclusion of Christianity among the religious
systems permanently established on Indian soil.
Having been a student of Indian sacred literature for more
than forty years, and having twice travelled over every part
of India, from Bombay to Calcutta, from Cashmere to Ceylon,
I may possibly hope to make a dry subject fairly attractive
without any serious sacrifice of scientific accuracy, while at
the same time it will be my earnest endeavour to hold the
scales impartially between antagonistic religious systems and