Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
University Books (1974), 560 pages
Description
This book, first published in 1932, demonstrates how the control of certain '-isms' has for long moulded the interpretation of Indian belief and ritual by Western writers particularly. In every chapter there is some new coordination, often iconoclastic of then-accepted theory, whilst the new wealth of customs carefully recorded is astonishing. Long disputed problems such as that of the Maratha 'devak', or that of the ceremonial sowing of seedlings known to Western scholars as the 'gardens of Adonis', have at last been settled through careful research.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0821602195 / 9780821602195
Local notes
A reprint of a book from 1932 by an Indian Civil servant of the Raj, J. Abbot, a graduate of Corpus Christi College at Oxford. It has a lot of dated terminology, like "Mohammedan" instead of "Muslim" and uses a lot of Muslim and Arabic terms in preference to Hindi or Sanskrit. Still, it is a compendium of great interest, if one can see past the colonialist perspective.