The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

INTRODUCTION

xxix

anatomy

'

—morepractical

thanthatwhichistaughtinWestern

academies

—hasfinally disposedof theold European miscon-

ceptions

ofthatsubject. YetWesternanatomyand

perspective

arestill taught inGovernment schools as

the

correct

formulae

forarteducation

in

India.

With

greater

rashnessIcalled

attentionin

1901

toanother

errorinthesummaryoftheDistrictOfficer'sknowledgeofIndia,

the statement in the then current edition of the

"

Imperial

Gazetteer"that"thegreatestindustryinIndia,afteragriculture,

is thespinningand weavingcarried on in power-loom mills."

I

showed,

by

facts

andfigurestaken fromthecensus

of

India,

thatthis industry

was

of

infinitelylesseconomicimportance

to

Indiathanonewhichwasomittedaltogetherfromofficialstatis-

tics of industry, although carriedon under the eyes of every

District Officer—the village hand-weaving industry. That

broughtmeinto

departmental disgraceatonce. Onlyasenti-

mentalistandidealist

wouldthinkof mentioning an industry

whichwasmoribund

anddoomedtodisappearbeforethe march

ofWesternprogress. Whatdid5,000,000villagehand-weavers

matter

when

350,000

coolieswereworking the latest Western

machineryin

the mills of Bombay and Calcutta? However,

as theresultofmy indiscretion,

duringthe lastthirteen years

someknowledgeoftheeconomicsof

Indianvillagelifehasbeen

slowly

tricklingon tothe officialfiles.

Twoyearsago I made

another offering at the shrine of

Truth by calling public attention

to the work of the living

Indianmaster-builder,whoseexistence

is ignoredbythe "Im-

perialGazetteer."

Departmentalismbecame

seriouslyalarmed.

Hewasnot onthefile

—the DistrictOfficerhad not

seen him.

He must

beextinct,forSir

LepelGriffin,K.C.S.L,when

Agent

to the

Governor-General for Central

India, had written that

' "

SomeNotesonIndian

Anatomy,"byAbanindro

NathTagore,CLE. Published

bytheIndianSociety

ofOrientalArt,

Calcutta.