History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.21

v2.c28.21

Gibbon, in explaining the doctrine of Transubstantiation, remarks truly that in popular belief what is originally rhetoric becomes subsequently logic. Most popular traditions arise in this way in poetical fancies which are eventually accepted as undeniable truths. No sane man believes that human races could have sprung from the sun or the moon. Such beliefs are certainly absurd, but the tradition of solar and lunar origins of Indo-Aryan races is of very ancient date and even goes back to the Rigveda. This tradition, therefore, absurd as it is, has a historical importance and we have already elsewhere noted the inference derivable from this tradition viz., that the Indo-Aryans must have come into India in two different hordes, an inference first suggested by Sir R. Grierson on linguistic grounds. The traditions similarly of the origins of different Rajput clans have some historical importance if they are of long standing and unvarying character. The tradition about the origin of Agnikulas might thus have been of use historically and might have supported the theory of foreign peoples being incorporated into Hindu society, if it had not been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that it originated in a poet's brain, nay it may be shown further that it is based on a misconception of that poet and is finally of quite recent date. Research has amply shown this but unfortunately western scholars have not sufficiently recognised the fact and drawn the necessary inference from it.