The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c6.10

c6.10

A bare recital of the historical fallacies which form the basis of European histories of India would fill a large volume, and the omission of essential facts another one. Perhaps one illustration will be sufficient. In the Session of 1913 the Under-Secretary of State for India, when presenting the Indian Budget to Parliament, explained that the chief difficulty of British government in India lay in the fact that the great mass of the people "still lived in the fifth century A.D." These words may express a profound historical truth, but only when taken in a sense the very opposite of that which they were intended to convey. Mr. Montagu wished to paint a picture of the Cimmerian darkness in which the Indian masses dwelt, but not to revive memories of the time when Indo-Aryan civilisation reached its zenith; when Vikrâmaditya, the hero of Indian romance and legend, had saved the liberties of Aryan India from the savage barbarians who were ravaging Europe; and when Indian culture was the inspiration of the civilised world. An impartial historian might well consider that the greatest triumph of British administration would be to restore to India all that she enjoyed in the fifth century A.D.