FOLK-LORE OF NORTHERN INDIA
BATHING IN THE GANGES, HARDWAR.
VOL. I.
A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ILLUSTRATED
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO.
2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W.
1896
[v]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The success of this book has been much beyond myexpectations. That a considerable edition has been exhausted within afew months after publication proves that it meets a want.
I have now practically re-written the book, and have taken theopportunity of introducing a considerable amount of fresh informationcollected in the course of the Ethnographical Survey of theNorth-Western Provinces, the results of which will be separatelypublished.
For the illustrations, which now appear for the first time, I amindebted to the photographic skill of Mr. J. O’Neal, of theThomason Engineering College, Rurki. I could have wished that theycould have been drawn from a wider area. But Hardwar and its shrinesare very fairly representative of popular Hinduism in NorthernIndia.
W. Crooke.
Saharanpur,
February, 1895.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
Many books have been written on Brâhmanism, orthe official religion of the Hindu; but, as far as I am aware, this isthe first attempt to bring together some of the information availableon the popular beliefs of the races of Upper India.
My object in writing this book has been threefold. In the firstplace I desired to collect, for the use of all officers whose work liesamong the rural classes, some information on the beliefs of the peoplewhich will enable them, in some degree, to understand the myste