DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0164
PEOPLE OF INDIA
of the time when they were coined and of the nation which
produced them. They hold good for their birth-place, but not
for all the world.
It need hardly be said that the proverbs and sayings
relating to caste which are brought together
Indian proverbs A j- r j <. j ,i •
of caste. ln Appendix 1 and are commented on in this
chapter belong for the most part to the
second of the two classes noticed above. In respect both of
their subject-matter and of their form they are local and
particular rather than universal and general. Yet now and
then one finds a truth of universal experience rendered in
terms of caste relations, and the fact is instructive in so far as
it bears witness to the supremacy of the caste sentiment in
India and to the prominent place that it occupies in the daily
life of the people.
No one indeed can fail to be struck by the intensely popular
character of Indian proverbial philosophy and by its freedom
from the note of pedantry which is so conspicuous in Indian
literature. These quaint sayings have dropped fresh from the
lips of the Indian rustic; they convey a vivid
AVilgagiieryrtl'ait impression of the anxieties, the troubles, the
annoyances, and the humours of his daily
life ; and any sympathetic observer who has felt the fascination
of an oriental village would have little difficulty in constructing
from these materials a fairly accurate picture of rural society
in India. The ntise en scene is not altogether a cheerful one.
It shows us the average peasant dependent upon the vicissitudes
of the season and the vagaries of the monsoon, and watching
from day to day to see what the year may bring forth. Should
rain fall at the critical moment his wife will get golden earrings,
but one short fortnight of drought may spell calamity when
"God takes all at once." Then the forestalling Baniya
flourishes by selling rotten grain, and the Jat cultivator is
ruined. First die the improvident Musalman weavers
(Jolaha), then the oil-pressers for whose wares there is no
demand ; the carts lie idle, for the bullocks are dead, and the
bride goes to her husband without the accustomed rites. But
be the season good or bad, the pious Hindu's life is ever
overshadowed by the exactions of the
The Brahman. u -u u ^u- . . , • .
Brahman—"a thing with a string round its
neck " (a profane hit at the sacred thread), a priest by appear-
ance, a butcher at heart, the chief of a trio of tormentors
gibbeted in the rhyming proverb :—
of the time when they were coined and of the nation which
produced them. They hold good for their birth-place, but not
for all the world.
It need hardly be said that the proverbs and sayings
relating to caste which are brought together
Indian proverbs A j- r j <. j ,i •
of caste. ln Appendix 1 and are commented on in this
chapter belong for the most part to the
second of the two classes noticed above. In respect both of
their subject-matter and of their form they are local and
particular rather than universal and general. Yet now and
then one finds a truth of universal experience rendered in
terms of caste relations, and the fact is instructive in so far as
it bears witness to the supremacy of the caste sentiment in
India and to the prominent place that it occupies in the daily
life of the people.
No one indeed can fail to be struck by the intensely popular
character of Indian proverbial philosophy and by its freedom
from the note of pedantry which is so conspicuous in Indian
literature. These quaint sayings have dropped fresh from the
lips of the Indian rustic; they convey a vivid
AVilgagiieryrtl'ait impression of the anxieties, the troubles, the
annoyances, and the humours of his daily
life ; and any sympathetic observer who has felt the fascination
of an oriental village would have little difficulty in constructing
from these materials a fairly accurate picture of rural society
in India. The ntise en scene is not altogether a cheerful one.
It shows us the average peasant dependent upon the vicissitudes
of the season and the vagaries of the monsoon, and watching
from day to day to see what the year may bring forth. Should
rain fall at the critical moment his wife will get golden earrings,
but one short fortnight of drought may spell calamity when
"God takes all at once." Then the forestalling Baniya
flourishes by selling rotten grain, and the Jat cultivator is
ruined. First die the improvident Musalman weavers
(Jolaha), then the oil-pressers for whose wares there is no
demand ; the carts lie idle, for the bullocks are dead, and the
bride goes to her husband without the accustomed rites. But
be the season good or bad, the pious Hindu's life is ever
overshadowed by the exactions of the
The Brahman. u -u u ^u- . . , • .
Brahman—"a thing with a string round its
neck " (a profane hit at the sacred thread), a priest by appear-
ance, a butcher at heart, the chief of a trio of tormentors
gibbeted in the rhyming proverb :—