Hinduism

by Monier Monier-Williams, T.S. Wentworth (Foreword)

This book, from the series Primary Sources: Historical Books of the World (Asia and Far East Collection), represents an important historical artifact on Asian history and culture. Its contents come from the legions of academic literature and research on the subject produced over the last several hundred years. Covered within is a discussion drawn from many areas of study and research on the subject. From analyses of the varied geography that encompasses the Asian continent to significant time periods spanning centuries, the book was made in an effort to preserve the work of previous generations.

Genres: Hinduism, Religion

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Sir Monier Monier-Williams studied, documented and taught Asian languages in England, and compiled one of the most widely-used Sanskrit-English dictionaries.

Monier-Williams was the son of Colonel Monier Williams, surveyor-general in the Bombay presidency, and was born in Bombay on 12 November 1819. He was educated at University College, Oxford from 1837 and taught Asian languages at the East India Company College from 1844 until 1858, when company rule in India ended after the mutiny.

Monier-Williams was the second occupant of the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University, following Horace Hayman Wilson, who had started the University's collection of Sanskrit manuscripts upon taking the Chair in 1831. Indian studies in England were dominated by the demands of government and Christian evangelism, in ways that might be considered unacceptable in an academic environment today. Indeed, Max Müller, the most obvious candidate for the chair, was passed over because his religious views were deemed too liberal. Monier-Williams declared from the outset that the conversion of India to the Christian religion should be one of the aims of orientalist scholarship.


When Monier-Williams founded the University's Indian Institute in 1883, it provided both an academic focus and also a training ground for the Indian Civil Service. The Institute closed on Indian independence in 1947.

Monier-Williams created a Sanskrit-English dictionary that is still in print. It is also now available on CD-ROM and as the basis of the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon. He was knighted in 1886, and was made KCIE in 1889, when he adopted his Christian name of Monier as an additional surname. He died at Cannes on 11 April 1899.

Reviews

[Chakravarthy Meduri]

While the content of the book is worth reading, it is disappointing to read about the manner in which some of the things revered by Hindus are written. Unfortunately, the intent of the book, by a learned and educated man, is to spread another religion as opposed to an unbiased and objective portrayal of the matter at hand.

[Eric Villalobos]

The book is generally informative, and, as far as I can tell, accurate (but I'm not exactly an expert). However, there are small portions of the book where Barnett becomes critical of certain sects or practices to the point where he refers to a group of sects as "abortions of religions". At those points, Barnett is unscholarly.

Barnett also gives the impression at some points that Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism are merely sects of Hinduism, rather than being more independent. Other than this, the book is informative.