The History of India, Volume 1

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John Murray, 1841

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Page 121 - Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down ; revolution succeeds to revolution ; Hindu, Pathan, Moghul, Mahratta, Sikh, English, are masters in turn ; but the village communities remain the same." " The union of the village communities, each one forming a separate little State in itself, has, I conceive, contributed more than any other cause to the preservation of the people of India...
Page 60 - Naked and shorn, tormented with hunger and thirst, and deprived of sight, shall the man who gives false evidence, go with a potsherd to beg food at the door of his enemy.
Page 120 - The village communities are little republics, having nearly everything that they want within themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations. They seem to last where nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down; revolution succeeds to revolution; Hindoo, Patan, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, English, are all masters in turn ; but the village communities remain the same.
Page 276 - The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all...
Page 72 - Perfect truth; perfect happiness; without equal ; immortal; absolute unity; whom neither speech can describe, nor mind comprehend ; all-pervading ; all-transcending; delighted with his own boundless intelligence, not limited by space or time ; without feet, moving swiftly ; without hands, grasping all worlds ; without eyes, all-surveying ; without ears, all-hearing ; without an intelligent guide, understanding all ; without cause, the first of all causes ; all-ruling; all-powerful; the Creator, Preserver,...
Page 369 - EunUch, excels in the qualities of a slave" and that "In the still more important qualities, which constitute what we call the moral character, the Hindu ranks very low" (Mill, 1916: 115, 365,366). And that, "the most prominent vice of the Hindus is want of veracity, in which they outdo most nations even of the East
Page 7 - The hot season commences in March and continues till the beginning of June. The sun is then scorching, the ground brown and parched, dust flies in whirlwinds, the brooks become dry, small rivers scarcely keep up a stream, and the largest are reduced to comparatively narrow channels in the midst of vast sandy beds.
Page 34 - Elphinstone (1841) deduced that the condition of sudras 'was much better than that of the public slaves under some ancient republics, and, indeed, than that of the villains of the Middle Ages, or any other servile class with which we are...
Page 550 - Mahmud cried out that he would rather be remembered as the breaker than the seller of idols, and clove the god open with his mace. Forthwith a vast treasure of jewels poured forth from its vitals, which explained the liberal offers of the priests, and rewarded the disinterested piety of the monarch. The growth of this fable can be clearly traced, but it is still repeated.
Page 74 - He, whom the mind alone can perceive, whose essence eludes the external organs, who has no visible parts, who exists from eternity, even he, the soul of all beings, whom no being can comprehend, shone forth in person. He, having willed to produce various beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed in them a productive seed...

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