Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/293

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vincial boundaries, the Central Provinces, Bombay, and Madras, which deal with different races, must remain for future considera- tion. Here I propose merely to discuss the general characters of the Reports, and to call attention to some contributions of special interest. As a whole, they deserve the study of all anthropologists who realize that no other country presents a more interesting mass of problems, and that nowhere else is to be found a more valuable collection of material.

The Indian provinces naturally fall into two classes. Some, like the Panjab and the United Provinces, have been subject to British rule for a long period, and much material is already on record. In others, like Baluchistan, for instance, the administra- tion is only just beginning to reduce a number of savage tribes into some semblance of order. There is a further difference in others, like the United Provinces, where Mr. Blunt has been able to sup- plement the obvious deficiencies of the Census Report for 1901, which displayed little or no first-hand knowledge of the rural population. In the Panjab Pandit Harikishan Kaul has been able only to glean the fragments which fell from the tables of his predecessors, Ibbetson, Maclagan, and Rose.

It is interesting to observe that two of these Reports are the work of native officials. In the mechanical work of compilation, and in their reviews of statistics, they reach the average standard; they write wonderfully good English, considering that it is to them a foreign tongue. But students who look to them for a more thorough presentation of peasant beliefs, and for much needed light on the darker regions of social life, will, I venture to think, be disappointed. The learned native finds it difficult to interest himself in beliefs and usages which conflict with orthodoxy, while the observant European finds the living folk of the village more engrossing than the sacred books of the Maulavi or Pandit. To take an example, the cult of the goddess Devi is of special interest, but, when the Pandit from the Panjab discusses it, he bases his conclusions on the Vedas and Puranas, not the village worship. To explain the Devi cult the Pandit looks to the Brahman philo- sophy of Sakta worship.^ Thus he begins at the wrong end, and his investigation is of little value.

^ Panjab Report, vol. i., pp. 114 et seq.