Hind

“ The word is not an Indian one, and both pronunciations, with ō and with ū, are current in India at the present day, but that with ō is unquestionably the one demanded by the history of the word and of the form which other Persian words take on Indian soil. On the other hand “Hindu” is too firmly established in English for us to suggest the spelling “Hindo.”. The word “Hindī” has another derivation, being formed from the Persian Hind, India (Avesta hindu, Sanskrit sindhu, the Indus) . “Hindi” means “of or belonging to India,” while “Hindu” now means “a person of the Hindu religion.” ”

“ Now conforming to the true pronunciation one should say In-tu."—Hwen T'sang, in Pèl. Bouddh., ii. 57.
c. 944.—"For the nonce let us confine ourselves to summary notices concerning the kings of Sind and Hind. The language of Sind is different from that of Hind...."—Maṣ'ūdī, i. 381.
c. 1020.—"India (Al-Hind) is one of those plains bounded on the south by the Sea of the Indians. Lofty mountains bound it on all the other quarters. Through this plain the waters descending from the mountains are discharged. ”

“ Such, in the briefest outline, is the character of Hind literature during the period when it grew and flourished through its own original forces. Founded by a popular and religious impulse in many respects comparable to that which, nearly 1600 years before, had produced the doctrine and literature, in the vernacular tongue, of Jainism and Buddhism, and cultivated largely (though by no means exclusively) by authors not belonging to the Brahmanical order, it was the legitimate descendant in spirit, as Hindī is the legitimate descendant in speech, of the Prākrit literature which preceded it. ”

“ It would be tedious to enumerate the many authors who succeeded the great period of Hind poetical composition which extended through the reigns of Akbar, Jahāngīr and Shāhjahān. None of them attained to the fame of Sūr Dās, Tuls Dās or Bihārī Lāl. Their themes exhibit no novelty, and they repeat with a wearisome monotony the sentiments of their predecessors. The list of Hindī authors drawn up by Dr G. A. Grierson, and printed in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1889, may be consulted for the names and works of these epigoni. ”

“ Hinde, and has been connected with the Goth. hinÞan (hinthan) , to seize, which may be connected ultimately with “hand” and “hunt.” “Hart,” from the O.E. heort, may be in origin connected with the root of Gr. κέρας, horn. “Hind” (O.E. hine, probably from the O.E. hinan, members of a family or household) , meaning a servant, especially a labourer on a farm, is another word. In Scotland the “hind” is a farm servant, with a cottage on the farm, and duties and responsibilities that make him superior to the rest of the labourers. ”

“ We come, finally, to that member of our family which has lived its life within the borders of India. Not all the numerous dialects which fill this immense peninsula, between the impassable wall of the Himalayas and the Indian ocean, own kindred with the Indo-European tongues, but only those of its northern portion, of Hindustan proper, ranging from the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges, together with a certain extent of the sea-coast and its neighbourhood stretching southward on either side. ”

“ The most sacred places both of Buddhist and Hindu India are those where a mountain torrent pours over a scarp of rock curved like the crescent moon on Siva's brow, reminding the pious pilgrim of the holy Ganges as she descends into the plains of India at Hardwar over Himālayan wooded precipices—the tangled locks of the Great Yogi of Kailāsa, who represents the Brahman ideal of the Enlightened One. ”

“ For Hindus are the most devout Nature-worshippers on the face of the earth. To them, beauty of place translates itself as God's direct cry to the soul; and in the isolated glade of Kajiar, with its sweep of shelving turf, its encircling pines and deodars, and its towering snow-peaks standing sentinel in the north,—deity reigns supreme; deity and the great grey ape of the Himalayas. ”

“ The East, the land of myth and legend, is the natural home of the fable, and Hindustan was the birthplace, if not of the original of these tales, at least of the oldest shape in which they still exist. ”

“ Strange to say I have known gentlemen to be resident from ten, to thirty, years in India, without being able to summon resolution to acquire sufficient of the Hindui language even to take their accounts! ”

“ The perception of manifoldness is Maya or illusion, says a modern pro-Hindu writer. And again, "To India, all that exists is but a mighty curtain of appearances, tremulous now and again with breaths from the unseen that it conceals." ”

“ Indra.—The sun, Indra, the mighty one, "king of the world and master of creatures," bright and warm, traverses the heavens on a car drawn by azure steeds; he it is who hurls the thunderbolt, sends the rain, and banishes the clouds. India is a country of violent tempests; the Hindoo struck with this phenomenon explained it in his own fashion. ”

“ The old literature of India, its epics and itihases, are the very home of mythical geography, of lotus lands, white islands, seas of milk, and distant hills behind which, far beyond the sea, the suns go down to die, which never even Sindbad saw. It is all one gigantic dream, fairy tale reduced to a kind of system, where wild imagination is reality, and the commonplace is not. Teach the Hindoo the earth goes round the sun ”

“ If an animal, instead of a bird, appears in the dream, the Indian takes his hide, claws, or teeth; and throughout his life never leaves it behind him, unless in another dream a greater charm is offered. ”

“ I can hardly think of anything that you could safely predicate of all the inhabitants of India, and I confess to a little nervous tremor whenever I see a sentence beginning with 'The people of India,' or even with 'All the Brahmans,' or 'All the Buddhists.' What follows is almost invariably wrong. There is a greater difference between an Afghan, a Sikh, a Rajput, a Bengali, and a Dravidian than between an Englishman, a Frenchman, a German, and a Russian yet all are classed as Hindus, and all are supposed to fall under the same sweeping condemnation. ”

“ What the Dipavali is to the Gujaratis in the Gujaratipet of Madras, so is Krittika to the other Hindus: A row of lights will be observed in front of every house on this night in the whole of Southern India. ”

“ Their only ambition was to acquire knowledge of the universe,—of its origin and cause,—and to understand the whence and whither, the who and what of the human soul.” The early pioneers of Hindu thought lay down for rest on the open, fertile plains of the Ganges during the fragrant summer nights of India, and their eyes sought the starry heavens above. Then they looked into themselves, and must have asked, “What are we? What is this life on earth meant for? ”

“ As in many other countries, nearly all the early vernacular literature of Hindōstān is in verse, and works in prose are a modern growth. [2] Both Hindī and Urdū are, in their application to literary purposes, at first intruders upon the ground already occupied by the learned languages Sanskrit and Persian, the former representing Hindū and the latter Musalmān culture. ”

“ HINDĪ, WESTERN, the Indo-Aryan language of the middle and upper Gangetic Doab, and of the country to the north and south. It is the vernacular of over 40,000,000 people. Its standard dialect is Braj Bhāshā, spoken near Muttra, which has a considerable literature mainly devoted to the religion founded on devotion to Krishna. Another dialect spoken near Delhi and in the upper Gangetic Doab is the original from which Hindostani, the great lingua franca of India, has developed (see Hindostani) . ”

“ Hist. Graec., ii. 402.)
A.D. c. 140.—"Τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ινδοῦ πρὸς ἔω, τοῦτό μοι ἔστω ἡ τῶν Ἰνδῶν γῆ, καὶ Ἰνδοὶ οὖτοι ἔστωσαν."—Arrian, Indica, ch. ii.
c. 590.—"As for the land of the Hind it is bounded on the East by the Persian Sea (i.e. the Indian Ocean) , on the W. and S. by the countries of Islām, and on the N. by the Chinese Empire.... ”

“ The people on the wayside platforms are swathed in blankets and shawls, and look as miserable as the Hindu usually contrives to appear in chilly weather. All day long the monotonous plains of Central India are traversed. ”

“ In this wide range it embraces climates, scenery, soils, and products varying as greatly as do the languages of the nations that inhabit its different provinces. It will be readily understood that what is said of the Hindus by a writer in one part of India may not be true of the inhabitants of other portions of the country. ”

“ The numerals of the ancient Tamils, who, like the mountaineers of Appalachian America, conserve the traditions of a more remote civilization, show us that the Hindu peoples originally had special symbols not only for the first nine units, but also for the nine tens, the nine hundreds and even the nine thousands. ”

“ It is more difficult to prove that the Hindu was the last to leave this common home, that he saw his brothers all depart towards the setting sun, and that then, turning towards the south and the east, he started alone in search of a new world. ”

“ The sombre and meditative cast of Indian thought is not due to physical degeneration or a depressing climate. Many authors speak as if the Hindus lived in a damp relaxing heat in which physical and moral stamina alike decay. ”

“ We can hardly suppose that the rude people, whom the Hindus found in the Archipelago, had no idea of numbers at all, and that they readily adopted Hindu words to supply their deficiency, for these same people have the rest of their numerals complete with pure Polynesian words, and even the savages of New Holland can count up to two and three, but no further. ”

“ The first thing in the morning on awaking the Hindu turns to the East and prays to his Sun-god, then to the river to cleanse himself and perform his ablutions, asking his god to keep him from all temptation, all sin in taste, touch, word, thought or deed. ”

“ All these tribes and many low-caste Hindus in Northern India lay out platters of food under the eaves of the house during the period of mourning, and they ascertain by peculiar marks which they examine next day whether the spirit has partaken of the food or not. ”

“ The poems of India, especially those devoted to descriptions of Nature, abound in such bold, picturesque personifications, which are touching, despite their extravagance, through their intense sympathy with Nature. They shew the Hindoo attitude toward Nature in general, as well as his boundless fancy. ”

“ Impressed with the importance of some knowledge of the Indian epics on the part of everyone directly or indirectly interested in the life and opinions of the strange and highly intellectual Hindu race, which has preserved its marked individuality of character through so many centuries of foreign domination, I have written, for the benefit of those, whether Europeans or Indians, who may be acquainted with the English language, the brief epitomes of them contained in the following pages ”

“ Now, since these thousand years have, in India, left behind them a very remarkable literature which, even in these latter days, is the root of all life and thought in that vast peninsula, it is as well to attempt a slight sketch of the time, as a whole, before embarking on actual history ”

“ These are ingrained feelings, and every Hindu would at once recite the popular verses, “Accompanying her husband, she shall reside so long in Svarga (Heaven) as are the thirty-five millions of hairs on the human body.” ”

“ It cannot be denied that the early Indians possessed a knowledge of the true God; all their writings are replete with sentiments and expressions noble, clear and severely grand, as deeply conceived and reverently expressed as in any human language in which men have spoken of their God.... Among nations possessing indigenous philosophy and metaphysics, together with an innate relish for these pursuits, such as at present characterises Germany; and in olden times, was the proud distinction of Greece, Hindustan holds the first rank in point of time. ”

“ HINDOO, n.p. P. Hindū. A person of Indian religion and race. This is a term derived from the use of the Mahommedan conquerors (see under INDIA) . The word in this form is Persian; Hindī is that used in Arabic, e.g.
c. 940.—"An inhabitant of Mansūra in Sind, among the most illustrious and powerful of that city ... had brought up a young Indian or Sindian slave (Hindī aw Sindī) ."—Maṣ'ūdī, vi. 264.
In the following quotation from a writer in Persian observe the distinction made between Hindū and Hindī:
c. ”

“ The Hindús have a great liking for this play, and not one of the enlightened Hindú community will fail to acknowledge your translation to be a very perfect one. Our object in acting Hindú plays is to bring home to the Hindús the good lessons that our ancient authors are able to teach us. If there is one lesson in these days more than another which familiarity with the fountains of Western literature constantly forces upon the mind, it is that our age is turning its back on time-honoured creeds and dogmas. ”

“ They are of low size, with broad shoulders and chests, and present a striking contrast to the Hindus in the size of their arms and calves, while resembling them in their small and delicate hands and feet. ”

“ We seldom hear of a good or smart saying from a Hindu, such 161as we have in large numbers from English, German, or French statesmen or poets. The people of India are still a deep secret to us, and if I have succeeded in withdrawing the curtain from only a small portion of their inmost thoughts and feelings, if, here and there, I have helped to change mere curiosity about them into a warm human sympathy with them, my reminiscences will have fulfilled their true object. ”