History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.5

v5.c74.5

¹²³⁹ Tagore in his 'Sādhanā' (p 9) remarks 'India chose her places of pilgrimage wherever there was in nature some special grandeur or (*Continued on the next page*) beauty so that her mind could come out of its world of narrow necessities and realize its place in the Infinite. This was the reason why in India a whole people who once were meat-eaters gave up taking animal food to cultivate the sentiment of universal sympathy for life, an event unique in the history of mankind.' There is a fundamental difference in the outlook of modern Westerners and that of ancient and medieval Indians (which persists to a large extent even now). If there is a beauty spot anywhere most men in the West would think of building a hotel there for tourists, while ancient and medieval Indians would have thought of erecting a shrine there.