Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/75

 INTRODUCTION. 45 Turanian group ; but, as hinted above, the Dravidians belonged to a different and more westerly branch of that great family of mankind. These, however, are speculations which hardly admit of proof in the present state of our knowledge, and would con- sequently be quite out of place here, were it not that some such theory seems indispensable to explain the phenomena of the architectural history of India. That of the north is so essentially different from that of the south that they cannot possibly belong to the same people. Neither of them are Aryan ; and unless we admit that the two divisions of the country were occupied by people essentially different in blood, though still belonging to the building races of mankind, we cannot possibly understand how they always practised, and to the present employ, styles so essentially different. Until these various ethnographical and mythological problems are understood and appreciated, the styles of architecture in India seem a chaos without purpose or meaning. Once, however, they are grasped and applied, their history assumes a dignity and importance far greater than is due to any merely aesthetic merits they may possess. Even that, how- ever, is in many respects remarkable, and, when combined with the scientific value of the styles, seems to render them as worthy of study as those of any other people with whose arts we are acquainted. STATISTICS. It would add very much to the clearness of what follows if it were possible to compile any statistical tables which would represent with anything like precision the mode in which the people of India are distributed, either as regards their religious beliefs or their ethnographical relations. The late census of 1901 has afforded a mass of material for this purpose, but the information is distributed through some thirty folio volumes, in such a manner as to make it difficult to abstract what is wanted so as to render it intelligible to the general reader. Even, however, if this were done, the result would hardly, for several reasons, be satisfactory. The uneducated masses have hazy ideas even with regard to their religion, and can hardly be expected to know to which of the larger sections of Hinduism their particular sect belongs. Hence, in the tables we are given the enumeration of the members of numerous Hindu sects, but not classified under Saiva, Vaishnava, etc., though these larger groups are the most interesting for us.