40 
E. T. Atkinson —Note on the history 
[No. 1, 
out the history of the various developments of the ascertained jDrimitive 
forms of belief in India which have combined to give us the popular 
religion of the present day. Every one that deals with a subject like the 
present one, must feel the magnitude of the task, and the necessity that 
exists for the greatest caution in attempting to establish any general 
propositions. The notes on this subject that I have collected are there¬ 
fore offered as a humble effort to aid others in the true method of inquiry 
into the history of religion in India, and I am not aware that their subject 
has ever been noticed before. My researches have been confined to the 
tract in the Himalaya between the Sarda on the east and the Tons on the 
west including the British districts of Kumaon, Garhwal and Jaunsar 
under the Government of the North-West Provinces of the Bengal Presi¬ 
dency. It is to be understood, therefore, that my remarks refer only to 
this tract, and that whatever merit they may be held to possess is due 
to the fact that they are the outcome of a very close examination of the 
religious phenomena of a country famous in Indian history. The oldest 
Indian books mention the great shrines of Badarinath and Kedarnath, 
mounts Meru and Kailas, the holy lake Manasarovara and the places 
become sacred by the wanderings of Krishna and Arjuna, Rama and 
Sita, Draupadi and the Pandavas and in comparatively modern times the 
scene of the labours and the final resting-place of the great reformer 
Sankara A chary a. 
Religion in India .—There is no country, perhaps, in the world in 
which religion exercises more influence on social and political life than 
in India. Religion gives the key-note to most of the great changes that 
have occurred in the history of the races inhabiting this* country from the 
earliest ages to the present day. To almost every individual in this land 
its forms are ever present and exercise a perceptible influence on his 
practices, both devotional and secular, and yet the true history of religious 
thought in India has yet to be written. There is an esoteric school and 
an exoteric school: to the former too much attention has been paid, to 
the great neglect of the living beliefs which influence the masses of the 
people. Most writers on India have looked to the Vedas and the works 
connected with them as the standard by which all existing forms of reli¬ 
gious belief in India are to be judged and to which all are to be referred. 
Influenced doubtless by the antiquity, richness and originality of the 
Vaidik records, they have sought to connect them with the popular 
religion, and have viewed modern beliefs more as to what they ought to 
be than as to what they actually are. As a matter of fact the Vedas are 
practically unknown to, and uncared for, by the majority of Hindus. 
There is no translation of them into the vulgar tongue in use amongst 
the people, and it would be contrary to the spirit of Brahmanism to 
