DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0475
Caste in relation to Trades and Industries. 465
tools and seek another employer. Nor does it ever enter into
the heads of even the better class of workmen to think of
availing themselves of any modern scientific improvements.
If the most wonderful labour-saving machine were offered for
their use, they would still prefer the machinery of their fingers,
and the old traditionary practices received from their fathers.
And, perhaps, the great secret of the beauty of Indian art
lies in the suppleness and flexibility of Indian fingers, and the
consequent delicacy of Indian manipulation. The hand of
the commonest menial servant in an Indian household is often
as delicately formed as that of the most refined aristocratic
beauty at a European court. Yes, we must go to India for
the best illustration of the truth that the human hand is the
most wonderful of all machines. In Europe, manufacture is
no longer, as it ought to be according to its etymology, hand-
work. But in India the hand is still the chief implement
employed; and a fervent hope may be expressed that no
European machinery may soon take its place. No greater
calamity could befall Indian art than that it should abandon
its own traditions and principles for meretricious ideas derived
from European sources. If any one doubts this, let him visit
the Indian Museum at South Kensington and examine the
specimens there collected. No one could fail to admire the
exquisite carvings, the delicate silver filigree work, the artistic
feeling displayed in the fashioning of ornaments ; the gor-
geous richness of the Kincob work, with its gold, silver, and
silken threads, woven into the texture of the fabric; the
tasteful designs and matchless colouring of Cashmere and
Delhi scarfs and shawls; the marvellous skill and taste
displayed in the sandal wood-carving and inlaid wood-work;
the sumptuous gold and silver plate-work and highly-tem-
pered steel weapons of Kutch ; the exquisite embroidery and
needlework of Amritsar and Delhi; the exquisitely fine
muslin produced at Dacca.
In this last kind of manufacture the Hindu artisan is
Hh
tools and seek another employer. Nor does it ever enter into
the heads of even the better class of workmen to think of
availing themselves of any modern scientific improvements.
If the most wonderful labour-saving machine were offered for
their use, they would still prefer the machinery of their fingers,
and the old traditionary practices received from their fathers.
And, perhaps, the great secret of the beauty of Indian art
lies in the suppleness and flexibility of Indian fingers, and the
consequent delicacy of Indian manipulation. The hand of
the commonest menial servant in an Indian household is often
as delicately formed as that of the most refined aristocratic
beauty at a European court. Yes, we must go to India for
the best illustration of the truth that the human hand is the
most wonderful of all machines. In Europe, manufacture is
no longer, as it ought to be according to its etymology, hand-
work. But in India the hand is still the chief implement
employed; and a fervent hope may be expressed that no
European machinery may soon take its place. No greater
calamity could befall Indian art than that it should abandon
its own traditions and principles for meretricious ideas derived
from European sources. If any one doubts this, let him visit
the Indian Museum at South Kensington and examine the
specimens there collected. No one could fail to admire the
exquisite carvings, the delicate silver filigree work, the artistic
feeling displayed in the fashioning of ornaments ; the gor-
geous richness of the Kincob work, with its gold, silver, and
silken threads, woven into the texture of the fabric; the
tasteful designs and matchless colouring of Cashmere and
Delhi scarfs and shawls; the marvellous skill and taste
displayed in the sandal wood-carving and inlaid wood-work;
the sumptuous gold and silver plate-work and highly-tem-
pered steel weapons of Kutch ; the exquisite embroidery and
needlework of Amritsar and Delhi; the exquisitely fine
muslin produced at Dacca.
In this last kind of manufacture the Hindu artisan is
Hh