09-05-2004, 02:59 AM
This is from "Imagining Hinduism" pp 46-49. [not verbatim, except when it is quotes...]
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William Jones: Within a short time of coming to India he bagan
composing hymns to female deities. He appropriates Hindu goddesses and constructs a different Hinduism in the process. <b>Three hymns are discussed - two of which are concerned with pragmantic matters (British Rule in India) while the other one is abour recovering for Hindus their glorious past.</b> It is ironic that Jones sought "pagan" deities' favor in order to legitimize colonial authority.
His appeal to lakshmi (1799) is because of the appeal lakshmi has in her representation and usefulness in establishing the colonial rule. Lakshmi symbolizes good fortune, peace, happiness, well being and harmondy. <b>So, all that lakshmi signifies for hindus, was selected to legitimize colonial project.</b>
<b>"He (Jones) implores Laksmi to instruct the "erring Hindu mind"
muddled by "priestly wiles" and urges the Hindu to look to the
British who have come to establish a just and benign rule - with "the wand of empire, not the rod". Obviously Jones sees the British government as a blessing for the natives who are still too much in their infancy to be able to manage their own affairs and who are therefore in need of the benevolent support of the colonial parent."</b>
Oh! Bid the patient Hindu rise and live
His erring mind, that wizard lore beguiles
Clouded by priestly wiles,
To senseless nature bows for nature's GOD.
Now, stretch'd o'er ocean's vast from happier isles,
He sees the wand of empire, not the rod:
Ah, may those beans, that western skies illume,
Disperse th' unholy gloom!
Meanwhile may laws, by myrriads long rever'd
Their strife appease, their gentrler claims decide;
So shall theri victors, mild with virtous pride,
To many a cherish'd grateful race endear'd
with temper'd love be fear'd:
Though mists profance obscure their narrow ken,
They err, yet feel; though pagans, they are men.
[Jones 1799c;365]"
"<i>We may be inclined perhaps to think that the wild fables of the
idolaters are not worth knowing, and that we may be satisfied with mis-spending our time in learning the Pagan theology of old Greece and Rome; but we must consider, that the allegories contained in the Hymn to Lacshmi[sic] constitute at this moment the prevailing of a most extensive and celebrated Empire, and are devoutly believed by many millions, whose industry adds to the revenue of Britain, and whose manners, which are interwoven with theri religious opinions, nearly affect all Europeans, who reside among them [<b>Jones 1799c:356</b>]"</i>
As with his hymn to ganga, Jones is concerned with the implementation of the imperial project in India. <b>One of the marks of colonialism is that it makes the vanquished participate in their defeat and offer their gratitude to those who dispossed them. In this, Jones speaks as a hindu, playing the role of a native, who welcomes the arrival of the british and their desire to govern Indian subjects. He further attributes this work to a "BRAHMEN, in the early age of ANTIQUITY".
In treating this work as of a brahmin pandit of antiquity, he not only legitimized British rule, thus presenting brahmin pandits as willing collaborators in the establishment of British Rule in India. In the last stanza to Goddess Ganga, Jones implores Ganga to be kind to the British rulers who have come from colder regions to govern the natives by their own Sanskrit Laws.</b>
Mmore on other hymns later..
===============
William Jones: Within a short time of coming to India he bagan
composing hymns to female deities. He appropriates Hindu goddesses and constructs a different Hinduism in the process. <b>Three hymns are discussed - two of which are concerned with pragmantic matters (British Rule in India) while the other one is abour recovering for Hindus their glorious past.</b> It is ironic that Jones sought "pagan" deities' favor in order to legitimize colonial authority.
His appeal to lakshmi (1799) is because of the appeal lakshmi has in her representation and usefulness in establishing the colonial rule. Lakshmi symbolizes good fortune, peace, happiness, well being and harmondy. <b>So, all that lakshmi signifies for hindus, was selected to legitimize colonial project.</b>
<b>"He (Jones) implores Laksmi to instruct the "erring Hindu mind"
muddled by "priestly wiles" and urges the Hindu to look to the
British who have come to establish a just and benign rule - with "the wand of empire, not the rod". Obviously Jones sees the British government as a blessing for the natives who are still too much in their infancy to be able to manage their own affairs and who are therefore in need of the benevolent support of the colonial parent."</b>
Oh! Bid the patient Hindu rise and live
His erring mind, that wizard lore beguiles
Clouded by priestly wiles,
To senseless nature bows for nature's GOD.
Now, stretch'd o'er ocean's vast from happier isles,
He sees the wand of empire, not the rod:
Ah, may those beans, that western skies illume,
Disperse th' unholy gloom!
Meanwhile may laws, by myrriads long rever'd
Their strife appease, their gentrler claims decide;
So shall theri victors, mild with virtous pride,
To many a cherish'd grateful race endear'd
with temper'd love be fear'd:
Though mists profance obscure their narrow ken,
They err, yet feel; though pagans, they are men.
[Jones 1799c;365]"
"<i>We may be inclined perhaps to think that the wild fables of the
idolaters are not worth knowing, and that we may be satisfied with mis-spending our time in learning the Pagan theology of old Greece and Rome; but we must consider, that the allegories contained in the Hymn to Lacshmi[sic] constitute at this moment the prevailing of a most extensive and celebrated Empire, and are devoutly believed by many millions, whose industry adds to the revenue of Britain, and whose manners, which are interwoven with theri religious opinions, nearly affect all Europeans, who reside among them [<b>Jones 1799c:356</b>]"</i>
As with his hymn to ganga, Jones is concerned with the implementation of the imperial project in India. <b>One of the marks of colonialism is that it makes the vanquished participate in their defeat and offer their gratitude to those who dispossed them. In this, Jones speaks as a hindu, playing the role of a native, who welcomes the arrival of the british and their desire to govern Indian subjects. He further attributes this work to a "BRAHMEN, in the early age of ANTIQUITY".
In treating this work as of a brahmin pandit of antiquity, he not only legitimized British rule, thus presenting brahmin pandits as willing collaborators in the establishment of British Rule in India. In the last stanza to Goddess Ganga, Jones implores Ganga to be kind to the British rulers who have come from colder regions to govern the natives by their own Sanskrit Laws.</b>
Mmore on other hymns later..