A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos
Including a Minute Description of their Manners and Customs, and Translations from their Principal Works

Volume 1 of this influential early nineteenth-century British work on Hinduism, describing the many deities and objects of worship.

William Ward (Author)

9781108007917, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 February 2010

416 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.53 kg

William Ward's account of the Hindu communities among whom he served as a Baptist missionary in Serampore in West Bengal was first published in 1811 and reprinted in this third edition in 1817. It was an extremely influential work that shaped British views of the newly defined entity of 'Hinduism' in the early nineteenth century. Ward and his fellow missionaries promoted social reforms and education, establishing the Serampore Mission Press in 1800 and Serampore College in 1818. Ward devoted twenty years to compiling his study of Hindu literature, history, mythology and religion, which was eventually published in four volumes. It provided richly detailed information, and was regarded as authoritative for the next fifty years. It is therefore still an important source for researchers in areas including Indian history, British colonialism, Orientalism and religious studies. Volume 1 describes and categorises Hindu deities and objects of worship, celestial, terrestrial, animate and inanimate.

Book I. Objects of Worship: 1. Of God
2. Of the gods
3. Of the goddesses
4. Inferior celestial beings objects of worship
5. Of the terrestrial gods
6. Terrestrial goddesses
7. Deities worshipped by the lower orders only
8. Worship of beings in strange shapes
9. Worship of human beings
10. Worship of beasts
11. The worship of birds
12. The worship of trees
13. The worship of rivers
14. The worship of fish
15. The worship of books
16. The worship of stones
17. A log of wood worshipped.

Subject Areas: Buddhism [HRE]