India Discovered

****/*****                                                                                                                                                                       History

India Discovered-The Recovery of a Lost Civilization

John Keay

                In eighteenth century the vast historical and cultural heritage of India lay unexplored, known neither to the world and nor, unfortunately, to Indians themselves. In this book John Keay charts the history of the discovery of India by the Englishmen. These Englishmen were the orientalists who revealed to the modern western world, hitherto unknown wonders of Indian culture and heritage. Till then India was known to this fraction of humanity only as the land of exotic Kings and wild beasts, of weird sadhus and worshippers of strange gods, a land of limitless wealth but of paltry and insignificant history and culture. Only event in history of India which was dated till then was 326 BC, the year Alexander invaded Punjab. World knew nothing of the richness of the early Sanskrit poetry. The epics Mahabharat, Ramayan and Geeta had not been translated into any European language. Innumerable sites of such supreme magnificence and beauty as the cave paintings of Ajanta; marvelous stone carvings of Ellora, Elephanta and Khajurao; temples of Mahabalipuram and Halebid; lay buried in jungles or smothered in desert sand. Prehistoric cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were concealed beneath the successive layers of clay spread by the annual flooding of Punjab plains by its mighty rivers. It was not even known that Buddha was a historical figure and not a mythological god. In face of such absolute and dense ignorance, passionate steadfastness of these early orientalists in their beliefs and their quest can only excite our awe and reverence.

                John Keay brings the weight of his erudition and deep knowledge of the history of this region to bear upon this work. He liberally quotes from various journals, Government of India’s old gazettes, and other books. Every page in the book bears the mark of his subtle humor. Interspersed with anecdotal material and personal accounts of its characters, history is fun to read.  Mastery and thorough understanding of the subject though essential while writing a work of nonfiction, cannot engender a great book unless author also possesses gift of a charming language. John Keay combines a firm grip on language with his clear and concise understanding of the history and his books gratify the urge for knowledge and for good prose, alike.

In the book he refrains from giving his opinion on controversial issues in Indian culture, religion, architecture or such other topics. He merely states the views of the personalities he is writing about. For this book is more about the process by which Indian history was discovered and about the persons who pioneered this search, rather than about Indian history itself. Most of these orientalists were the employees of the East India Company and later the Government of India. They were the true Indophiles: William Jones, who spearheaded the drive for the discovery of Indian culture in late eighteenth century; James Princep, who deciphered the old Indian scripts; Alexander Cunningham, the father of Indian archeology; James Fergusson, who classified Indian Architecture and whose classification is still in vogue; Professor Ernest Havell, who stoically fought the condescending and imperial views of the Victorian intelligentsia and gave a new insight to the understanding of Indian painting and sculpture; Francis Buchanan, Colin Mackenzie, William Lambton, and George Everest, who undertook the monumental and arduous task of mapping of India; and innumerable other discoverers whose unwavering quests led to discovery of the countless architectural wonders dotting the landscape of India. But with these John Keay also writes about the monumental apathy of British government of the day towards upkeep of the monuments, various acts of vandalism committed by the government officials or overlooked by them, the bigoted and Eurocentric views of Macaulay and his likes. Though the book is modest in size it is mammoth in its scope and information which it provides. This is a must read for every history buff and should I say every Indian, who ever bothered about the origin of our country and its culture.