So 



NA TUR1-: 



[Mav 



1907 



Valley has been similarly altered) is at least worthy 

 of attentive consideration. 



In dealing with the general race question, Mr. 

 Crooke adopts the only scientific method (too often 

 neglected) of commencing at the bottom with the so- 

 called aborigines and working upwards through the 

 mixed tribes to the pure Indo-Arvan. His account 

 of the wild hill-tribes, whether Mongoloid or 

 Dravidian, is excellent, and brings together a mass 

 of information that has hitherto been scattered 

 through a number of not always accessible memoirs. 

 When he comes to the Gangctic plains he is on his 

 own ground, and writes at first hand. His un- 

 rivalled acquaintance with the people of the United 

 Provinces, their customs, and their religion, makes 

 ihis the most valuable section of the book. The 



thorny question of the origin of caste could not be 

 adequately discussed without trenching on space 

 which might more legitimately be devoted to other 

 purposes, and he contents himself with stating his 

 own opinion, which is a modification of that put for- 

 ward by Mr. Risley. He considers that castes owe 

 their inception partly to crystallisation of occupation 

 and partly to the persistence of the idea of tribe. 

 He gives the reader a vivid picture of the home-life 

 of the plains villages. It is one with which most 

 Indian officials and missionaries are familiar, but 

 which has seldom been put in print. The existence 

 of an Indian agriculturist is a laborious one, with 

 little to relieve its monotony except a rare pilgrimage 

 or the occasional chance of the greatest luxury of 

 all, a lawsuit. Perhaps Mr. Crooke lays too much 

 N"^. i960 VOL. 76] 



stress on his alleged ignorance of any literature. 

 While books are almost unknown to him, he has 

 not only ballad poetry, much of it of real excel- 

 lence, but is more or less familiar with the works 

 of the great religious writers of his country, such 

 as Kabir or Tulsi Das, and has had their best verses 

 ready on his lips since childhood. Here, too, we may 

 point out that while Mr. Crooke's account of Indian 

 village religion is, so far as it goes, masterly, it 

 only illustrates one side of the subject, the worship 

 of local deities. He has failed to take into consider- 

 ation the results of the great reformation of 

 Hinduism which swept over northern India in the 



sixteenth century, and which has, in Rilma, given 

 the village people a personal supreme deity, whom 

 they can and do worship, and who is above all the 

 local gods and godlings. The essence of the reform- 

 ation was the discovery of the Fatherhood of God, 

 and that fact alone has had immense influence in 

 moulding the general character of the population of 

 the Gangetic Valley. 



If we have criticised a few of Mr. Crooke's state- 

 ments, we freely admit that they deal with points of 

 detail, some of which are objects of controversy. 

 We can strongly recommend his book to the general 

 reader who desires information regarding the native 

 races of northern India. His style is always interest- 



