Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s4.1

c7.s4.1

The analysis of the manners of a people or an age is an extremely difficult task. Very few generalizations are so misleading as those which relate to national characteristics, for the obvious reason that they do not take account of social and individual variability. In Indian society, as we have so often pointed out, these variations from one class to another, and even from one individual to another, were very wide. However, in comparison with the modern complex of society and social manners, the age with which we deal was simpler and more uniform, more compact and homogeneous. *Dharma*—a Hindu term of very wide and comprehensive meaning and very difficult to render in English, purports to assign the respective duties of various classes and castes towards each other. Stripped of its spiritual character, the term is an attempt to fix the moral attitudes of a social group. Its existence similarly reflects a very developed form of group behaviour and moral attitudes.