The seed of race, an essay on Indian education

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THE SEED OF RACE

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THE SEED OF RACE:

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

BY

SIR JOHN WOODROFFE

fe

I i

C/W

GANESH & CO. MADRAS
1919

The Cambridge Press Madras

t*

THE SEED OF RACE

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

¥ N the discussions, now happily current, as
regards the nature of, and necessity for,
the preservation of racial culture in India, and
the nature of the education which should be
given towards that end, it is necessary to
understand quite clearly what is meant by the
term Racial Soul. For if this is understood we
have the key to the settlement of the dispute
between those extreme Conservatives who
would maintain the status quo in all respects,
those extreme Radicals who would subvert
Hindu civilization and substitute for it
European institutions and culture, and those

511

THE SEED OF RACE

who, following a middle path, recognise both
the necessity of adaptation to present circum-
stances and needs, and of basing such
adaptation on cultural principles which have
come down from a remote past. A great deal
of confusion exists, because the nature of the
Eacial Soul and the meaning of the phrase
"maintenance of racial culture " is not under-
stood. Indian philosophy supplies us with
some principles which make this matter very
clear.

Racial Soul is the Soul either of a particular
individual of what is called a Race, or of the
collectivity of the individuals who constitute
that Race. The first is in Sanskrit (which
supplies us with so many useful terms) the
Vyashti and the second the Samashti Soul.

Then what is ** Soul," to use the English
term ? According to Hindu notions, so clear cut
and meaningful, what is called (often vaguely
enough) " Soul " in English is in Sanskrit
subtle body (Sukshma-deha). Each Jiva is
6

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

Spirit that is Atm& or Shiva, and Shakti, or
the Power of Shiva, as mind (Antahkarana)
and body (Sthula-deha). The gross body (Sthula-
deha) is composed of the compounds of the
Bhuta or sensible matter. The subtle body is
all else than this. According to Ved&nta the
Sukshma Deha is the " 17 ", namely, the
Antahkarana or mind as Buddhi and Manas
(including Ahangkara), the ten senses (Indri-
yas), and the five forms of vital force (Prana).
The Sankhyans include, instead of the Pr&na
Pentad, the five Tanmatras or forms of super-
sensible matter. For practical purposes there-
fore we may describe the Soul or Subtle Body
as the mental or psychical body, and the gross
body as the material body of sensible matter
(Annamayakosha). Both of these are creative
projections of the Causal Body (Karanadeha
or Paradeha as the Shaiva-Sh&ktas call it)
which is the Brahman in Its aspect as the
cause of the subtle or mental (Sukshma Deha),
and gross or material bodies (Sthula Deha).

7

THE SEED OF RACE

This causal body (Karana Deha) is thus the
Seed (Bija) of the other two bodies in which it
is manifested. The collective (Samashti)
causal body (Karana Deha) is the seed of the
totality of the minds and bodies of a Race and
the individual (Vyashti) causal body is the seed
of the particular member of that Race.

What then for our purposes is the nature of
that seed (Bija) ? This is the individual or
collective Sangskara. At creation (Srishti)
fshvara, by His will, lets the Seed or Sangs-
k&ras which inhere in His Power, as material
cause (Maya Shakti) ripen, and the hidden
Seed manifests itself as Mind and Body, the
vehicle of Spirit as an individual ( Jiv&tma).

What again is Sangsk&ra? It is the impres-
sion upon, and tendency of, the mind, produced
by previous action (Karma) and which again in
its turn generates Karma. It inheres during
dissolution in the M&ya Shakti of Ishvara,
though latent as cosmic memory. At creation
this becomes patent, that is, arises in the mind
8

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

of Ishvara as the memory of the past universes.
Through His will there is a going forth or
realizing of it as Mind and Matter. But there
are many currents in the outward flow. Any
particular racial consciousness is thus a parti-
cular defined stream in the whole Cosmic Flow.
A particular part of the general Cosmic Memory
realises itself as a Race with its beliefs, prac-
tices, and social institutions.

Now what is of main importance is the
Essence or Sangskara, and not the particular
and transient forms with which it is vested — in
short, the General Memory or Spirit of the
race, the fundamental characteristics and out-
look on life which distinguishes the people of
one race from all others. In this Sangskara or
Seed is held the Type of Race of which the
individuals are the variational forms. Thus we
find in any particular Race some who, by
reason of purity of stock or intensity of soul,
represent better than others the spirit of Race.
So we say of a man that he is a typical
9

THE SEED OF RACE

Englishman. Again, the beliefs, practices and
institutions of a Race vary during the course
of Its History. Nothing is absolutely stable
and lasting but the Supreme Brahman Itself.
This is due to changes in time, place and
circumstance, and in the racial consciousness
itself. This is recognised in various ways in
Br&hmanism in its doctrine of cycle (Kalpa),
four ages (Yuga), Yugadharma, Lokachara
and Desha, Kala, P&lva or time, place and
object. The nature of this Cycle is one
which requires investigation. Whether it be
a mere cycle, or a cycle combined with an
upward movement, such as is shown by the
spiral, need not be here discussed. It is sufficient
to note that variation due to time, place, and
circumstance exists. But undoubtedly, so long
as a Race exists as a body of men with certain
defined characteristics, there is throughout its
historical development an element, namely, the
Spirit of the Race, which persists throughout
all the varying forms in which it clothes itself.
10

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

This Spirit is a manifestation of the Essence
of National Character, namely, the collective
Sangskara. Brahmanism accepts the doctrine
of Re-incarnation but the principles of educa-
tion here advocated may also be justified upon
the Western theory of Heredity.

Now what we must do is to distinguish
between the Seed of Race latent as Sangskara,
patent as general national character, and the
particular cultural forms which it produces.
The former more constantly endures ; the latter
more constantly change under the influence of
time and other conditions affecting the Race.
Where the evolution of the Race is slow it may
well be that the forms of a preceding genera-
tion are adopted in the present with little or
uo change. Where however the evolution
becomes rapid, due to internal or external
causes, a question then arises which demands
an urgent answer, namely, whether these forms
should be preserved, modified (and in what
way), or destroyed- This is the state of matters
11

THE SEED OF RACE

now when, owing to English rule, English
-education, and Western influence in general,
the question presses for solution whether the
Indian people should retain what is called
orthodox belief and practice, whether these
should be modified to meet new social and
economic ideas and conditions, or whether
Indian civilization should not be, to a greater
or less extent, scraped as out of date.

It is quite clear to me what the answer
should be, though the particular application in
any case of the principle stated may be the
subject of discussion. I would say that we
should look primarily not to the produced but to
the producer, not to transient forms but to the
lasting Racial Spirit moulded through the ages
of which spirit they are the embodiment ; not
to past cultural forms, which may or may not
be applicable to present needs, but to the Spirit
of the Race which manifested in them. Thus the
Indian Spirit may, in the 10th century, have
produced new, or maintained inherited forms.
12

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

True conservatism however is not necessarily-
bound up with the maintenance in the twentieth
century of forms a thousand years old, but with
the maintenance in its purity of the Racial
Spirit which produced or adopted certain forms
in the 10th century, and which will produce, if
necessary, other new forms or modification of
ancient forms to-day. After all it is the general
Spirit and Principle which counts. The strictly
orthodox may be alarmed at this statement, but
they may, in large part (that is as to essentials)
rest assured. For if the ancient spirit is
conserved, that is if the Racial Sangskara is
maintained, such modification and even
apparent novelty as are produced must be, from
the nature of the case, in true relation and
conformity with the Sangskara out of which
they have arisen. In other words an Indian
soul can never for any length of time wander
far from the essentials of its inherited civiliza-
tion.

But what of the extreme Westernizer in-

13

THE SEED OF RACE

theory and practice ? Have we not here a
breach with tradition and a new Karma? Will
not this Karma generate a new Sangskara?
Certainly there is a breach and a new Karma
but that it can generate a Sangskara which can
altogether overpower, in the general body, that
accumulated in countless past ages I do not
believe to be possible. This assumes of course
that the present people continue as an indepen-
dent racial unity and do not disappear either
through disease, intermingling with other
stocks or, according to Hindu ideas, pass away
upon the rebirth of Indian Souls in other
bodies and of other Souls in Indian bodies.
The persistence of racial characteristics and
what is described as the " call of the blood "
is observed in even highly unfavourable sur-
roundings. Temporarily, however, the Racial
Sangskara (though not lost) may be submerged.
That is what has happened in some cases
through Western Influences in the India of
to-day.

14

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

In referring to Race, the natural question is
— what race ? Commonly we speak of the
Aryan race. But nobody knows with certainty
who were the peoples to whom this term
is applied. Aryan is not properly a term
of race at all, but refers to a common language
and culture spoken by, and belonging to, a
group of individuals or peoples. The fact that
people speak the same language does not
necessarily show unity of race. We hear of
some Aryans who, like the JEnglish and other
northern races were fair skinned with auburn

hair" (Shukla-varna, pinggala-kesha) but
these even at an early date had become so
rare that they were spoken of as belonging to
another Kalpa. Then there were Aryas who J^7

HE? IW

were swarthy. But whoever the so-called
Aryans were at the date of their immigration
into India, it is clear that a large number of
the Indian people are not (and probably none
are) of pure Aryan descent, though some are
purer than others. The dark colour and

THE SEED OF RACE

features of many of the people to-day are

evidence of this. There are "black Brahmanas"

and " fair Shudras " which are considered

inauspicious types. In the natural course of

things the " Aryans " must have mingled with

the pre-\edic peoples inhabiting the peninsula.

Caste has throughout been a preservative

institution as regards the higher stock, but

caste has not always been rigidly observed and

was loosened, where it was not destroyed,

during the predominance of Buddhism. Like

other peoples the modern Hindus are in vary-
6-

ing degree of mixed stock. India however has

suffered from such mixture more than some
^\.yvj6^ other races, as for instance the English r

A * r

because in the latter case the mixture was cf
kindred stocks of fairly equal value, whilst in
this country there have been and still are both
high and very low stocks. One has only to look
, at a fair high caste Brahmana and a Dhangar.
This fact is overlooked by European critics of

the caste system. So far as the physical features

*v

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

of race are concerned, there is not in England
much, if indeed any, difference between a
member of the lowest social classes and the
highest. And so individuals rise from the first 4 a,bt°
to the second and again fall again. But in India
the difference between a high class Br&hmana . *■ J
and a Dhangar is the difference which exists ®$$
between races far removed. India contains all yfebb
type of culture extending almost from the'-: ' ^
neolithic to the present age. Probably- this
juxtaposition and, in cases, admixture of high ft^i
and low types, is one of the main, if not the
chief material cause, of the arrested develop- vu^ek
ment and degeneracy of this country, which
has made it for centuries a prey to any one
who desired it. The racial tangle is such that
one hesitates to base conclusions on it. We are
however on surer grounds when we proceed on
the basis of culture. There is no doubt that
there was a specific Aryan culture (Arya-
dharma), whatever may have been the race of
those whose culture it was. In its essential
' 17

2

THE SEED OF RACE

definition " Hinduism " or*" Brahmanism,'' the
developed product of the Arya or Vaidika
Dharma, is not merely a specific " religion "
but a particular culture. This Culture was
spread throughout India and affected in vary-
ing degrees the Avaidik peoples. But the
original Arya Dharma was itself affected. For
this reason k Hinduism " as it exists to-day is
not the Arya Dharma as it was known in

!?4vvU**.«^ early .ages. Thus, to take the instance of reli-
gion, the original Aryas had neither temples
nor images. What critical and informed person
looking at the images of Kali, Tara, Chhinna-
masta can imagine them to be in their origin

uj fab*. Aryan concepts. Many " sooty superstitions,"
as an English writer has called them, have
their origin in the black races of India.

For my present purpose, however, there is no
need to go back to origins. Kali may have been
a deified princess of the black Vindhyan or < / - "
other tribes,and her garland of white heads may
have been those of the Aryans. Brahmanism
18

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

however took this concept and others into its
system. Her image stands as the symbol for
advanced concepts which would have been
incomprehensible to Her original worshippers.
Thus her " severed heads'* are the fifty letters
(Varna). And so with other matters. Thus
several races and cultures have gone to the
production of the Aryan body and soul as
they now exist. The Seed of Race to-day is thus
the Indian Sangsk&ra which has produced the
minds and bodies of the Indian people of our
time, amongst whom some are rejecting their
Dharma as a whole, others are rejecting only
what they deem to be corrupt accretion with a
view to recover essential principle, and others
again are adhering with a firm and sometimes
fanatic devotion to everything which they have
received from their fathers. The middle path
is here, as in so many other cases, the best.
.For it is the path of evolution whilst the first
is an attempt at revolution with little chanoe
of present success, and the last is an endea-
19

THE SEED OF RACE

I vour to crystallise for all future time what is
itself the product of ages of change. Like
however the middle path it is a manifestation
of the Racial Spirit. The first, in so far as it
professes to reject the Arya Dbarma in prin-
ciple and detail, is a tendency away from it.
Vital people require no counsel as to the direc-
tion they should take. Being themselves they
take it. For this reason a counsel to English
people to be themselves would seem to be
rather absurdly out of place. Here, however, the
circumstances are different. Whilst the present
position and its conflicting tendencies may
puzzle some, the point really resolves itself
into the negative counsel to avoid mere imita-
tion, to be oneself, and to thus enter on the path
of evolution which is natural. The call in fact
is to be vital, true to oneself and thus in
harmony with Nature. In short, the call is for
the maintenance of those elements of the
Aryan culture which have value. This does not
spell any static attitude, which is in fact not
20

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

possible, but natural development of the Racial
Spirit or the product of Aryan culture by
assimilation of foreign stuff, if necessary, as
opposed to mere imitativeness and automatism,
the signs of feebleness and lack of vitality.
What in fact is produced by the independent
Racial Spirit is another matter with which I
am not here concerned beyond saying that it
is not necessary and not likely that it will
merely reiterate the past.
■«" Now education means to " educe " or " bring
forth " what is within the child. We cannot
bring forth that which is not there, though it is/ fls^^*
possible to superimpose something from with- ^r*
out. Such acquisition however is not natural
or lasting. True education, in the case of an
Indian, is therefore the bringing forth of the
Indian Sangskara. A senior member of the $o*At
Indian Educational Service, to whom I shall
later also refer, has criticised this and other
statements of mine in a note which I submitted
to the University Commission by the observa-
21

fH

THE SEED OF RACE

tion that according to this principle the child
of a Thug should be brought up to Thuggi and
the child of a member of a criminal tribe
should be brought up to be a thief. Such
criticism is considerably below the average
of intelligence which we are entitled to expect
from a member of such a Service. Probably in

every man there are some bad elements.
Education does not mean the fostering of
these, but of the good elements of character.
Evil elements are eliminated by appeal to, and
encouragement of, those which are gdod. In
Indian education, as it exists to-day, the matter
of first importance is to give the inherited
Sangsk&ra a full, free, play. It will then, with
some guidance, develop itself rightly. This
means that the primary process is a neqatin
one, that is the clearing away of all the foreign
incongruous stuff, which is piled over and chok-
ing the Sangsk&ra, as it were a mass of mixed
earth and rubbish thrown upon a young shooting
plant. Clear this away and let the plant grow.
22

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

The next stage of the process is a positive
one. Nourish the plant properly.

English education has in the past threatened
to smother the Indian Sangsk&ra. Because I
have stated this and advocated a system which
should give it freedom, some absurd opinions
have been attributed to me. I have been thus
represented by this critic and some others as a
reactionary who would throw back the land
into mediaeval M darkness," who would exclude
all knowledge of the English language and
Western science, and as holding that the
English education given has been wholly bad,
and so forth. On the contrary I have repeatedly
said that English education has had some good,
as well as some evil, results. The knowledge
of the English language, which is that of a vast
and increasing part of the world, and of
Western science, is essential to the progress of
this country, and only one who was either
without sense, or an enemy of its advancement ,
could hold otherwise.

23

THE SEED OF RACE

The case which I desire to put forward for
consideration is this :— There is the Racial
Sangskara or Seed of Race. Education is the
bringing forth of, and giving free development
to, this. How may this best be done ? In the
first case we must consider the instrument by
which education is given. At present the
education is generally a Western education
given by Englishmen or English-educated
Indians, whose outlook is often more an
endeavour to follow that of their own teachers —
the English, than the outlook of their own
people; that is, the education is substantially
an education by aliens. I have said else-
where (what has been said before me) that
there are in some respects probably no two
persons more dissimilar than a Hindu and an
Englishman. A similar observation has been
made by that acute thinker Professor Lowes
Dickinson. The educational expert to whom
I have referred has given his opinion that
such a statement could not either be sanely
24

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

or honestly held. It is possible that others
may not share my opinion, but I think that
few Englishmen resident in India will be
found amongst them. But of those who
disagree with what I say, I would ask the
following question. If the two peoples are
alike in their character, mode of thinking,
habits and so forth, why do not the English
people associate socially with them as they do
amongst themselves ? Why, even when the
Indian is English-educated and follows the
English mode of life, is he not admitted to
English Clubs ? The members of such clubs
have every right to be exclusive, and I have no
sympathy with those who attempt to force
their company on those who do not want it ;
but is it not obvious that the reason of this
exclusiveness is to be found in the fact that the
characteristics and ways of life of the two
races are different. We need not discuss
whether the one or the other race is superior.
I believe that no Race is superior to another in
25

THE SEED OF RACE

everything. It is sufficient to say that they are
different. That there are also points of cultural
similarity I think. If this were not so, English
Literature would not be appreciated as it is.

Are the English then altogether disqualified
from teaching the Indian youth ? Of course not.
To begin with there is the case of the expert.
His knowledge entitles him to teach. And it
is advantageous to use his knowledge, of
whatever race, nation or creed he may be.
Then there is the teaching of the English lan-
guage and of Western culture, its philosophy,
literature, art and so forth. This will not
ordinarily be better done by an Indian, to whom
such culture is as alien as is that of India to
the Englishman. Perhaps some will have the
conceit to think otherwise. Only the other day
I heard of a Bengali saying that he did not
speak English like the English because the
latter did not know how to pronounce their
own language. With however Indian self-
development and an increasing knowledge of
26

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

European thought and ways, the English
teacher may be gradually dispensed with, un-
less where, being a technical expert of higher
attainments than can be found in this country,,
his services are necessary. On the other hand
Indian culture can best be taught by Indians
provided that they themselves have a know-
ledge of, and respect for, it. If they are mere
copies of the English, the latter as the original
and stronger character, are vastly to be
preferred. What however is required are true
educationists and not the bureaucratic type,
self-conscious of being " officials," or the
(generally vulgar) missionary of Imperialism.
We live in an age of advertisement, of
publicity boards and the like. But bagmen's
methods should have no place in education.
What is desired is an increase in the number
of Indians who can give what is called
nowadays a " national education."

Knowledge is not the property of any
people. Whether the term " national M be
27

THE SEED OF RACE

appropriate or not, what is meant is an educa-
tion suited to the needs of the Indian people.
The facts of science may be taught by any.
The personal or racial equation enters very
little, if at all, into the matter here. As I have
said elsewhere, two and two make four in India
as in Europe. But racial qualifications do very
largely enter into the question of the compe-
tency to teach Indian religion, philosophy,
literature and art. It is natural that an
Indian should best appreciate what his race
has produced. It is this side of culture
which has been neglected in the education
hitherto given to Indian youth. Further,
the purely objective sciences must be studied
with reference to Indian questions. Thus, it is
not enough to study Economics from English
Text-books based on English conditions. The
fact of Indian life must be considered. These
prima facie are best known and understood by
the people who take part in that life. It seems
to me obvious that a qualified and properly
28

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

educated Indian teacher will better understand
his boys, than the best of English teachers are
likely to do.

Then, again, in the giving of education, the
local conditions should be considered more
than at present. Let me give an example
which was recently related to me. In a village
school the boys were taught in the early hours
of the day— a natural time for a hot climate.
This was objected to on the ground that teach-
ing should be between (if I remember rightly)
10 o'clock and 3 o'clock, at any rate during the
middle and in the hottest hours of the day. It
was pointed out that this is not a good time for
small children to work. Further, it was not
possible for them to take food and drink
to their fathers in the fields. The objection
was overruled with the result that the boys
could not attend. Again brick and mortar i&
considered necessary for education in this
country. There must be pucca buildings with
tables, benches, blackboards and what-not.
29

THE SEED OF RACE

Why ? Because that is the European way. Of
old) and even to-day, children are taught in the
oj>en air (as is the modern fashion in some
places in Europe) under the wide-spreading
Indian trees. It is sometimes said that there is
not enough money in this country to give
education. Why then make it still more diffi-
cult by requiring expensive accessories ? For
centuries a simple and even advanced education
has been given without them. It is not chairs,
tables and P.W.D. buildings which give know-
ledge. If pucca buildings and the rest can be
given, well and good. Give them. If not, give
knowledge without them, under the conditions
with which for hundreds of years this country
is familiar. In all cases let us go, not accord-
ing to the artificial departmental rules, but
practically according to actual needs and
means.

To sum up therefore, the charge of education
should be increasingly placed in the hands of
the right type of Indian. And by this I mean a
30

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

man who has knowledge of, and reverence for*
his civilization and will carry it forward with
devotion to truth and the needs of living men
and women. Otherwise the right type of
Englishman is better.

The next question is, what should be taught?
The answer to this depends on what is consi-
dered valuable. If English culture is alone
such, then it alone should be taught, and it can
be taught best by Englishmen and women. If
Indian culture has value, it also should be
taught to Indians by Indians. This is the
whole gist of the matter. Is Indian culture
to be neglected as in the past, as something
without value, or is it to take a place with
English studies ? It would be absurd to wholly
exclude these last. But it is unnatural and
injurious to wholly neglect the cultural
inheritance of the people whose education
is in question. I have been charged with
holding the ridiculous opinion that science
should be excluded. I must therefore be excused
31

THE SEED OF RACE

from platitude in saying that science is of
primary importance and must be taught. And
so also the English language and culture must
be taught, both on account of their own
intrinsic importance, and of the fact that
the English are the Rulers of this country and
one of the foremost, if not the foremost, power
in the world, which Power is also a great centre
of culture. It would be useless to say anything
on a matter so plain, were it not for the fact
that there are a class of persons who are ready
to think that any one who has a word to say
in favour of Indian culture, and the necessity
for the maintenance of racial character, there-
by condemns all foreign cultures, and is
endeavouring to foster some system of racial
segregation. As I have elsewhere said, all
separatism is becoming increasingly difficult,
having regard to the form of present world-
development. Knowledge belongs to the world
and not to any one people, and the more the

Indian people know of the rest of the world
32

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

and its thoughts, the better for them, provided
that what is taken in can be assimilated, that is,
adopted without prejudice to the individuality
of the Indian organism.

The point before us is however a very-
different one. It is not whether the English
language and culture should be taught, but
whether the Indian culture should be*neglect-
ed. This has been the case in the past. It
should be given co-ordinate rank. We all
know how little value was attached to any
thing Indian by Macaulay, the protagonist
of English culture, and many, perhaps most,
have since then shared, though sometimes in
tempered form, his views. Such have regarded
Indian religion as a false superstition, Indian
philosophy as antiquated guess-work without
present value, Indian art and literature as
crude and grotesque, its science "seas of
butter and oceans of milk " and so on. The
young Indian has been subjected to such a
strong and continuous suggestion of his inferi-
33

3

THE SEED OF RACE

ority, that it is a wonder that any spirit
of self-assertion has at all survived. He has
been told that he has had no glorious past,
that the history of his country is lacking in
great personalities, that the " progressive "
West is superior to the " immobile " East and
its old-world civilization and so forth, and that
therefore his only chance of making himself
the equal of Western peoples is by giving up
his " Barbarism " (as a recent English author
has called it) and making himself as like his
civilized Western teachers and rulers as
possible. If day in and day out, suggestions of
his innate inferiority are made to a boy, and the
superiority of a foreign civilization is affirmed,
he will, according to every probability, come to
depreciate his own people and culture. This
is what has happened and the racial
Sangskara has been veiled. These suggestions
can, and should be, countered by others based
on a,n accurate appreciation of the Indian
character and its cultural achievements. The
34

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

seed of Race will then commence to sprout
and flower. When racial character is re-
established, an autonomous centre of receptivity is
established capable of receiving (without risk of
being overwhelmed thereby) every form of
foreign culture. This is possible because there
is then a healthy organism capable of assimi-
lating every form of food presented to it. A
knowledge of foreign life aud thought is as
essential to India as a knowledge of what is
its own. It is this last which has been
neglected.

One of the extraordinary features of a
section of Indian public opinion on this point
is the difficulty which some seem to have in
understanding what " national " education is.
How, it is said, can knowledge be " national ?"
It is true that the teaching of objective facts is
not affected by considerations of Race. There
is not, for instance, an Indian and European
Science of Biology. Biology or any other science
is the same whether in East or West, and may
35

THE SEED OF RACE

be taught as well by an Indian or European,
provided that either know their business. But
there are forms of culture into which a strong
subjective or otherwise peculiar element
enters. Of these one of the more salient
examples is Art. We legitimately speak of
Greek Art, Japanese Art, Indian Art and so
forth. Literature, Religion and Philosophy
are other instances. History again is supposed
to be a record of objective facts. But one
would need to be a child to accept the record
as altogether, or even largely, veracious. It
is a record not only of some true facts but also
of racial, national, and credal prejudices and
untruths. " Don't read me History " said the
sick Walpole to his companion. " I know it to
be lies." But even if we assume history to be
all truth, it is obvious that certain portions of
history concern one people more than another.
In India for instance, in the past at any rate,
attention has been given to the history of the
English and Mogul occupation, the student
36

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

being left in ignorance of the happenings of the
■specifically Hindu period. As regards litera-
ture again, it is doubtless necessary for the
student of English to know Shakespeare and
other great poets and prose authors. On the
other hand he should know more of his litera-
ture than a few Cantos of Raghuvangsha or the
like. Years ago (I do not know whether it is so
now) Flint's " Theism " was prescribed for
undergraduates, with entire neglect of the
Indian treatment of the subject, as if it were
unknown to this country and its literature.
Even to-day, as H. E. the Governor of Bengal
pointed out, students of philosophy learn the
Western systems first before their own, and so
on and so forth. Government is not alone
responsible for this. A considerable number of
persons who claim political equality with the
English are earnest to dissociate themselves
from Indian " superstition " and " barbarism ",
and to show that there is nothing in their past
to warrant their present claims and hopes

37

THE SEED OF RACE

for the future. Of superstition it is not easy
to give more than a formal description : but
taking the term in the sense in which these
people use it, superstition is to be found every-
where. But a belief is not superstitious
because it is of the East, any more than it is
well-founded because it bears the import stamp
of the West.

If however the Indian people have done
nothing which was of value in the past, what is
the warrant for supposing that they will ever
do anything in the future ? Is not the place
of those who merely imitate the English, not
on the seat of equality with the latter, but as
humble disciples at the feet of their Guru.
Some think it clever that the weak should
imitate the strong. There is however always
the risk that in imitating others we cease to
be and lose ourselves. It is curious to find
some professing not to understand what the
movement for national education means. The
least intellectual Englishman will at once
38

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

understand what is meant by the phrase " to
bring up one's boy like an Englishman." I am
aware of the possibility that with the evolution
of man many differences which now divide may
disappear.I am as much opposed as any one else
to Nationalism on its hind legs anywhere. My
hope is the Confraternity of Men. I believe how-
ever in the possibility of the friendly co-exist-
ence of differing cultural characteristics, and
that before India can fully express the more
universal culture, which some believe the
future may show, She must first realise, in its
purity, or recover where it has been lost, Her
Self. To deny this is to deny to Her civiliza-
tion any intrinsic value. The Seed of Race
must be first disencumbered of all which
impedes its development and then fostered by
an education suitable both as to its instruments
and subject matter. The disencumbrance of
which I speak, refers not only to foreign
impediments but also the decaying products of
the past growth of this Seed. It is not the
39

THE SEED OF RACE

product of past ages which as such has to be
maintained or reproduced. It may in fact be
maintained if it is good. We are all concerned
with the present and the maintenance of the
Seed of Bare. If this be free and strong, it will
develop into a plant which will live, that is,
a plant suitable to the time, place and circum-
stance under which it grows : for nothing can
live which does not fulfil these conditions. It
may be that the Racial Spirit will in some
respects reproduce what it has produced
before. It may be that, nourished in part by
the food of a new and Western civilization, it
may reproduce subject to certain modifica-
tions, or may put forth some entirely new
developments. What is produced is immaterial
provided that it is the issue of the freely
developing Seed of Race. It must be free to
develop as it will. Essential alone is the main-
tenance of the Seed of Race, let it develop
howsoever it may. The Tightness of the
orthodox upholder of the Sanatana Dharma
40

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

consists in his staunch maintenance of the
Spirit of his Ancient Race. The Tightness of
the so-called Reformer consists in his desire to
uphold only that which is truly eternal, in a
form suited to time, place and circumstance,
rejecting what is corrupted, upholding a free
development as opposed to a mere mechanical
and static continuity. Whether a particular
" reformation " is justified, depends on the facts
of the case. It is a true expression of the Indian
Spirit if it proceeds from it. The wrongness of
others consists in the neglect or betrayal of
the Racial Spirit, in their attempt to wholly
break with the past and their denial of the
Racial Self. Nothing can thus persist. For
persistence is a present and future rooted in the
past. Ultimately we are not concerned with
any Race but with the good of men (Nara) at
large, the earthly embodiment or likeness of the
Divine Narayana. The form of these embodi-
ments varies. Dharma is the law of form. The
only contribution which India can make tc the
41

THE SEED OF RACE

general human good is one which springs from
Her own Mind and Heart and not from that of
any other.

It must not be supposed that ill opinions, or
justifiable criticism, of the country and its
people are those of foreigners only. They may
be found amongst Indians themselves who have
had an English education, for others have not
yet learnt to concern themselves with such
matters. Recently one of these has described
the Indian people as backward, indolent, in
the slough of selfishness and slaves. The State
must therefore educate them " imperially " and
this will create "spiritual bonds." As " Supersti-
tion, erotic sentiment, and fantastic mysticism
are the great theuies of Oriental poetry, no
Oriental nation would be a loser if it forgot its own
tongue and learned English instead" The people
are *' unpractical metaphysicians or selfish
cowards or passive slaves," For lofty idealism
one must go to England — to London apparently
by preference, as it is " the heart and brain " of
42

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

" our goal and ideal " the railway-named
11 British-Orient-African commonwealth " of
the future. England is the Indians' " spiritual
mother." " The Empire cannot develop if
the Orientals prefer their barren literature
and uninspiring history with its sickening
record of Sultans, massacres, slavery, empires,
and degeneracy," " The ideals of Oriental
life are antiquated." " Nothing in the Orient
is greater than English literature and
English History." Greek philosophy must be
introduced to "undermine superstition in
Asia." Then the history of the Roman Empire
may be used to show the Indian people that their
eyes are in front and not at the back of their
heads. Indians must revere England as " their
spiritual mother," and Greece as " their spiri-
tual grandmother," whilst as for India she
is for the people nothing, not even their great
grandmother or aunt. In this way the Empire
will advance via the " British-Orient-African
Commonwealth " to the " Parliament of man "
43

THE SEED OF RACE

of the poet's dreams. There is doubtless some
truth in this writer's criticisms of his country-
men of to-day, particularly as regards the class
of lazy, selfish, cowardly and subservient
persons of whom he speaks. The great man
Sv&mi Vivek&nanda was himself wont to give
such people a whipping of vigorous speech. It
was he who wrote of his own people " We are
immensely selfish " " Our insincerity is awful ;
what we want is character." "We want the
heart to feel." "We have become real earth-
worms crawling at the feet of everyone who
dares to put his foot on us," and many another
trenchant denunciation of the cowardice,
selfishness and falsities of Indian life to-day.

English literature is amongst the most
glorious in the world and breathes the spirit of
a free and vitally creative people. Greece too
was great, how great only the Western, nursed
in her cultural tradition and lover of the
Powerful and Beautiful can know. But for
Her culture she was indebted in part at least
44

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

to India. It is however only ignorance which
can see nothing in India but superstition. She
has produced in the philosophers of Brahma-
nism and Buddhism some of the deepest and
freest thinkers the world has known, howsoever
fallen and imitative may be the minds of many
of their descendants to-day. Does not the
Mahabharata say kt There is no Muni who has
not an opinion of his own." Notwithstanding
some truths, these opinions, if sincere, are, I
think, the clearest amongst the articulate
expressions of degeneracy which I have come
across. The writer outcasts himself from any
Motherland. The " spirituality " which calls
itself " imperial " is understood in this country
for what it is worth. The true brotherhood of
men and peoples is spiritual. The true path is,
whilst purifying one's country of its defects, to
uphold what it possesses of essential greatness ;
whilst honouring what is great in the present
and past Western peoples, not to fail in respect
for the land of one's race and birth. Rightly
45

THE SEED OF RACE

has it been said that when a man loses faith
in his own historic past, he cannot have any
faith in, and respect for, himself.

Together with the teaching of the so-called
higher sciences, a technical, industrial, agri-
cultural, commercial education must be given.
There are many who favour this and think that
education has hitherto been of too general and
literary a character. This in turn has produced
a veritable legal pestilence. Let it be noted
that efficiency in work was not only valued in
actual practice but was enjoined by the old
Dharma-shastras. At present slovenly habits
are overcoming the Indian artisans and the
present talk amongst some is for a cheap
eastern market where anything and everything
can be sold regardless of quality. This result
in an evil time such as ours is due to the
exhausting poverty of the country, which gives
neither time to the artisan to perfect his work
nor choice to the purchaser of it. The artizan
has often to work with bad tools, and bad raw
46

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

materials both of which he has to borrow.
The commercialisation of his craft proceeds
apace, because greedy middlemen are anxious
to secure the fruits of somebody else's labour
at a price which gives to the worker the
minimum wage on which existence is possible.
Sometimes not even that is offered and the
artizan finds it better to till the soil. And so
the number of landless labourers has swollen
in recent years, having increased, I am told,
from 10 to 11 lakhs in 1901 to about 45 lakhs
in 1911. If, as is likely, the rate is the same for
the subsequent period, then the next census
may show something like two crores of
landless labourers, descendants of the old and
famed artisans of India. This is the class
which gets one meal a day and which is the
first to fall a victim to the recurrent famines.
The subject here touched on is of vital import-
ance and would require a volume. If I have
not gone into detail on the subject of scientific
and technical education, it is not because I
47

THE SEED OF RACE

undervalue it, but because in the first place
such details may best be dealt with by experts
and secondly because the principle for which
I contend is generally ignored. What I labour
for is the preservation in a regenerated form
of the Indian soul and the rejection of all mere
imitativeness. This is the root of all questions.
If there is success here, then " all else shall be
added to you." For here we approach the
Springs of Life. All evil is a symptom of some
taint at this source. It is no use treating a
pathological symptom. One must cure the
sick spirit which has produced it.

What I have here and elsewhere contended
for is the ancient principle of Svadharma.
Such novelty as if there is in the position
is due to the fact that recourse is had to an
ancient Eastern principle, and not, in the
more fashionable way, to one or other of
the dozens of modern western theories which
jostle one another in their claim for public
acceptance to-day. Svadharma, as a counsel,
48

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

is a bidding to hold to our own. In fact,
there is no question of choice in the matter
if we would survive. Dharma is the law of
all being, and Svadharma is the nature of,
and law governing, any particular being in
regard to which the term is used. A being
which does not act according to its true nature
cease to be. Dharma is one of the profoundest
concepts which the mind of India has
produced. Dharma is worshipful. " Self deter-
mination " of which we hear so much to-day is
only a limited application in a particular
realm-that of politics-of a doctrine which was
preached thousands of years ago by Shri
Krishna in the Gita — To understand and
follow Dharma, is to have true religion. What
is Dharma is another question.

This principle of Svadharma and its practical 7i
application to the various problems of life was,
as I have been recently reminded, the constant
theme and burden of the message which it was
the mission of the great Svami Vivek&nanda,
49

THE SEED OF RACE

to deliver to Modern India. Said he : " We
have seen that our vigour, our strength, nay,
our national life is in our religion. I am not
going to discuss now whether it is right or not,
whether it is correct or not, whether it is
beneficial or not in the long run, to have this
vitality in religion, but for good or evil it is
there ; you cannot get out of it, you have it
now and for ever, and you have to stand by it,
even if you have not the same faith, that I
have, in our religion. You are bound by it, and
if you give it up, you are smashed to pieces.
That is the life of our race and that must be
strengthened. ** That is the national mind,
that is the national life-current. Follow it
and it leads to glory. Give it up and you die ;
death will be the only result, annihilation the
only effect, the moment you step beyond that
life-current. I do not mean to say that other
things are not necessary. I do not mean to
say that political or social improvements
are not necessary but what I mean is this,
50

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

and I want you to bear it in mind, that they
are secondary here, and that religion is
primary. The Indian mind is first religious,
then anything else. So this is to be strengthen-
ed, and how to do it f ' Who helps to uphold
the world, has religion. How can those who
cannot uphold themselves, help to uphold
others? Those who truly seek it, will always ^tfr$
find the Source of Strength called by many
names. The difficulty is that religion is so
misunderstood. Both creed and worship may
be present without religion. It is sufficient to

say here that Dharma is the law of Form.

1 *5*ER

Svadharma is that which upholds one s Form.

— * „ \ ~

It is the true nature of the Seed of Race and its
manifestations.

Having regard to the past and present
circumstances of this country, education given
by English teachers or Indians who have been
educated by them has produced and now
produces some benefits. We must recognise
facts. Rightly understood, there is truth in the
51

THE SEED OF RACE

saying that M What is, is right." This does not
mean that what exists in fact to-day is to be
approved and continued, but that, until there
exists the will and power to effectually change
such fact, its past history justifies its present
existence. Those who believe in the governance
of the world and in Dharma believe that what
happens is, under the circumstances, for the
best. If India had had in the past the will and
power to direct her own education and other
affairs, She would have done so, and there
would have been neither the need nor oppor-
tunity for English control. Education by the
English was therefore necessary and what is
necessary is beneficial.

But it does not follow that it will always
continue to be so, or at least to the same extent
as heretofore. India like other countries is
changing, with increasing rapidity. The spirit
of the Indian peoples is acquiring power to
express itself — that is its Indian self. What
the English can teach is of value. But that is
52

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

not now enough, except for those who are
content to be their shadow. What is now
needed is an education which, whilst teaching
what is of worth in the West, will yet help the
Indian people to value their own past
contribution to world-culture and to realise
their own Indian selves. A conscious and
independent self may, and will, assimilate any
foreign food which is good for it. The function
of the English is to raise this country to life
and power. But when so aroused, is this
country to merely reflect the light of others, or
to be an independent source of light itself? Is
the Seed of Race to bear its true fruit? If so, the
collaboration of Indian teachers becomes more
and more necessary, the aim being in the words
of an English writer " Home rule in education "
that is, control by Indians over the education
to be given to Indians. Abstractedly con-
sidered, the claim is in itself so obviously right
that it needs no discussion. The real question
is a practical one, namely, to what extent it can
53

THE SEED OF RACE

be given effect to in the best interests of the
country. Is there a sufficiency of Indian
teachers of the class required, and so forth ?
Valuable as much of English education is,
particularly in its development of a free spirit,
it requires to be balanced by an education
devised to educe the Sangskaras which are the
Seed of Race. This portion of education can
prima facie be best given by Indian Teachers.
But these must be truly Indian themselves and
not mere " sedulous apes " of a foreign civiliza-
tion. If they are, then the English teacher is in
every respect preferable. He is original and not
a copyist ; he has a free and not a copyist's
soul. Only a man who is himself free, can
bring others up to be free.

Indian culture has a great aesthetic value.
But it is not on this ground alone that it is
worthy of being maintained. My educational
critic, to whom I have already referred, says
of the note I submitted to the University
Commission that I praise " pretty turbans-" I
54

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

have never done anything of the kind and
dislike the word " pretty." And all turbans
are not such. But let it pass as a manner
of symbolic speech. He cites in this
connection the comments (in his own
language) of a Japanese journal of the " new
school H on Sir Edwin Arnold's appreciation of
Japanese scenery, character and art and says
" Art forsooth, scenery, and sweetness of dis-
position. What care we for these ? Why did
not Sir Edwin praise us for huge industrial
enterprises, for commercial talent, for wealth,
political sagacity and strong armaments? Of
course it is because he could not honestly
do so. He has gauged us at our true value
and tells us in effect that we are pretty
weaklings." He quotes from Basil Halls
Chamberlain's " Things Japanese " " Whatever
you do, do not praise in the presence of the
Japanese of the new school those old quaint
and beautiful things Japanese which rouse
your most genuine admiration. They want
55

THE SEED OF RACE

to be something else than what they have been
and still partly are."

In so far as these statements imply that the
prosperity of Japan is due to her preference of
foreign to national ideals, an anonymous
correspondent has well pointed out in reply,
that notwithstanding Japan's use of such
knowledge as is serviceable to Her, she is still
Buddhist in religion ; instruction is still
imparted in Japan through the vernacular ; the
national philosophy and national literature are
still given a prominent place in the school and
college curriculum. The Japanese as a whole
have kept their traditional religion, traditional
morality and traditional culture. What they
have done is not to slavishly follow foreign
culture, but to engraft such of it as they
desired on to the parent stock of their ancestral
culture.

The Japanese have not been changed into " a
quasi-English breed." They are Japanese first
and everything else next. Last but not least,
56

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

the Japanese govern themselves, and if they
take anything from the West it is because as a
free people they choose to do so. All this my
critic and some others who speak of a " free
manhood M conveniently ignore. I am not
concerned to defend everything the Japanese
have done. There are some who think that they
have taken over some things from the West
which the latter had better rid itself of. Accord-
ing to Mr. Basil Chamberlain there are, or more
probably have been, some Japanese who, like
some Indians, " want to be something else than
what they have been and still partly are." If
by this is meant the abandonment of racial
personality, the position is not a true one. If
however it is meant that the Racial Soul is to
be kept integral, but such of its past products
as are really unsuitable for the times are to be
cast away and the Racial Soul is to equip
itself for the struggle of life to-day, then the
position is a true one and none other than that
for which I contend. How and in what way
.57

THE SEED OF RACE

this principle should receive practical applica-
tion is another matter on which there will be
difference of opinion. It appears to me that the
Japanese are endeavouring to preserve their
racial spirit and that, to speak generally, what
they have done is with that object. They have
recognised that they may be Japanese, and
yet take what is of advantage to them from
the West. Owing to their acquired capacity to
kill successfully with modern weapons they
are now recognised as a M civilized M people.

I do think the old life of this country, as
also that of Europe prior to the " epoch of the
machine," had great aesthetic value. Therefore
I love it. I believe that, as has been well said,
art is not, in its broadest sense, something that
rests outside our ordinary life, to be enjoyed
by the initiated or leisured few, but the
striving after the Beauty, the Order, and the
Fitness of things, to which we all respond in
some degree, and which should be the goal of
all achievement.

58

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

But the aesthetic value of past institutions
and practices is not a sufficient ground for
preserving them, if they are bad or otherwise
unsuitable. Beautiful as they are, they must
go if they no longer serve the interests of the
people. Other forms, as beautiful as we can
make them, must take their place. Let us
however be certain, before we abandon what is
old and beautiful, that it is really necessary to
do so. When saying that India is to evolve
on lines of Her own (an obvious truth I should
have thought), I am supposed to have meant
that She is not in any matter to look to the
West for (to use my critic's words) " help to
enable her to rise to the height of free
manhood." Let me repeat that India may take
what She desires from the West or elsewhere,
provided that She is not false to Her own
Racial Soul.

Moreover I have no doubt that the Govern-
ment, in giving such education as has been
imparted, has done in this matter what it
59

THE SEED OF RACE

thought best, both in its own interests and in
that of this country. The reasons for this
conclusion are obvious. As an English
Government, it has naturally thought that its
own civilization was the best, and that both
its own and this country's interests would
be served by propagating it. This natural
standpoint has been reinforced by a very
general attitude assumed by the educated
Indians themselves. As many of these have, in
the past, depreciated their own culture what is
more natural than to assume that if Indian
culture is not valued by Indian people, it is
without real value ? In fact, the English people
might have served their material interests
better if they had not introduced English
education and left the Indian people in
cultural seclusion. Only the other day I
heard of the statement by a Bengali — " If the
English would but leave us our philosophy and
religion, we should be content. '' As a matter
of fact, what has been done has acted as a
60

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

ferment in every sphere of Indian life. The
Hand of God is here plainly shown.

For the reasons stated, there may be
some who support Indian culture and
institutions as tending to the political stability
of the country. Further the keeping apart of
the eastern and western culture prevents
" infection " of the latter by the former. Such
calculations have no chance of realization
to-day. There are still to be found men, who
would have supported the " Orientalists," had
they been living at the date of their controversy
with the " Anglicists/' But it is now too late. I
am not concerned with political policy, but to
urge that such Education as is given is bene-
ficial to those who receive it. My own view is
that education should be continued to be given
as regardsEnglish and other western languages,
modern science and so forth, though in a better
way both as to instruments and subject matter
than in the past, but that it should be accom-
panied by an Indian culture which should
61

THE SEED OF RACE

be regarded as primary and as designed to
foster the Racial Spirit or Seed of Race. If this
be done, there will no longer be an attempt to
impose one civilization on another, that is, to
anglicise the Indian people: They will then
remain Indian with all the benefits which a
true English education can give them.

But if this result is to be attained, the Indian
people must show themselves desirous of it and
press for its realization. The old Indian idea
that the King is the father of his people was a
beautiful one, and has survived amongst some
to-day in the notion that the Government and
its officers are " M& bap." But the trend of
political evolution is away from such ideas.
The People and the State tend to become one,
and in this country, with every step towards
political advancement, the Indian people will
become more and more their own " Ma " and
their own " Bap." The " salt " of Government
which they eat will be eventually discovered
to be, as in fact it now is, their own salt. There-
62

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

fore, if they would retain their racial self, they
must themselves work to that end. None other
can save it for them.

They will gain power (Shakti) to uphold their
race and will receive all their desires if they
serve their country in the belief that service
(Seva) of Shri Bharata is worship (Seva) of
the Mahashakti Shri Bhagavati who, though
appearing in one of Her forms as Bharata
Shakti. is not merely a Devi of the Hindus
but their name for the one Mother of the
World.

From this Great power the whole universe
comes. In Her womb is the seed of every being
in the universe. This universe is not lawless,
either as to its parts, or their relation with one
another. Each being has its law — the law of its
being and the law of its growth. This is its
Svadharma. The law or Dharma is not some-
thing imposed from without. It is inherent in
being, and is in fact the true nature of it. It is
the law of form and function. If therefore
63

THE SEED OF RACE

action (Karma) of any being is not according
to the law (Dharma) of its being, that being
suffers. Besides the laws common to all human
form, there is the law of class (Jati) or Race.
Each member of that race by fulfilling his
Dharma is an expression, blissful and success-
bringing, of the Creative Idea which has given
him birth. He lives in harmony with all, and
with strength achieves his purposes. He who
in all his acts has devotion to Mah^hakti,
on him She, with all Aishvarya, descends
(Shaktipata). Those who want Power must
work for it. Those who wish to see India
powerful must preserve Her Racial Personality
by acting according to Svadharma one of the
forms of which is the law of Race.

Swami Vivekananda was wont to say. M This
Atman cannot be attained by the weak." Who
worships Mahashakti gains power. What is
that power? Not something instilled from
without. Not the power of some one else,
English or other. But the power inherent in
64

AN ESSAY ON INDIAN EDUCATION

the individual and the Race* Worship is given
to Mahashakti in Her form as the Mother-seed
of Race, and then in such form She shines.

19th August, 1919.

WORKS BY ARTHUR AVALON
ON TANTRA SHASTRA

RS. A.

Tantra of the Great Liberation.

(Mahanirvdna Tantra). A Translation
from the Sanskrit, with Introduction
and Commentary by Arthur Avalon ... 8 0

Hymns to the Goddess. From the
Tantra and other Shastra and the Stotra
of Shangkariicbiryya. With Introduc-
tion and Commentary. Translated
from the Sanskrit by Arthur and Ellen
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Principles of Tantra. Part 1. The Tan-
tratattva of Shriyukta Shiva Chandra
Vidvarnava Bhattacharyya Mahodaya.
Edited with an Introduction and Com-
mentary by Arthur Avalon ... 8 0

Do do Part II. With an

Introduction by Shriyukta Barada
Kanta Majumdar- Edited by Arthur
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"Wave of Bliss" (Anandalahari) a
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11 Greatness of Shiva" (Mahimnastava
of Pushpaddnta) a translation and com-
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natha Chakraviirtti ... ... 18

Origin of the Vajrayana Devatas by

Arthur Avalon ... ... ... 0 8

TANTRIK TEXTS

UNDER GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF
ARTHUR AVALON

RS. A.

Vol. I. Tantrabhidhana with Btfa-
Nighatttu and Mudrtf-Nighantu. — A Tan-
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Vidyaratna with an Introduction in
English by Arthur Avalon ... 2 0

Vol. II. Shatchakranirupana. — A

work on the six centres of the body by
Purnananda Svami, with Commentary
of Shangkara. Padukapanchaha— {"Five-
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from the Tika of Vishvanatha on the
Second Patala of Kaivalya Kalika Tan-
tra;withan Introduction in English
by Arthur Avalon ... ... 2 0

Vol. III. Prapanchasara Tantra. —

Edited by Taranatha Vidyaratna, with
an Introduction in English by Arthur
Avalon ... ... ..3 0

Vol. IV. Kulachudamani Nigama. —

Edited by Girisha Chandra Vedanta-
tirtha. With an Introduction by
Akshaya Kumara Maitra ... ... 2 0

Vol. V. Kularnava Tantra.— Edited by
Taranatha Vidyaratna, with Introduc-
tion in English by Arthur Avalon. {A
full translation of this Tantra is in prepara-
tion) ... ... ... ... 3 o

RS.

Vol. VI. Kalivilasa Tantra.— Edited
by Parvati Charana Tarkatirtha with
English Introduction by Arthur Avalon 2

Vol. VII. Shrichakrasambhara — A
Buddhist Tantra, edited by Kazi
Dausamdup with a foreword on the
Vajrayfma by Arthur Avalon

Vol. VIII. First Part Tantraraja
(Kadimaia) Edited by Mahamahopa-
dhyaya Lakshmana Shastri Dravida ... 3

In the Press

Vol. IX. The Second Part of same is
in preparation ...

Vol. X. Kamakalavilasa, a Tantrik
Prakarana of the Kashmir School by
Punyananda with Commentary by
Anantanatha

Vol. XI. Advaitabhavopanishad,
Kalyupanishad, Taropanishad, Kaulo-
panishad. With Introduction by
Arthur Avalon ...

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YB 44026