*Social Scene: '5 - Aab': During The Gurus
[ 'O! East is East : and West is West: and never, the 'twain will meet…!': so said Kipling: ! But they have finally met ! In :- The land of the Indus five rivers: JEHLUM, CHENAB, RAVI, BEAS, SUTLUJ : which flow from the roof of the world : the Himalayas, along the plateaus, foothills, plains, delta to the Arabian Sea : for successive : INDUS VALLEY civilizations : A very sacred land : a meeting place for almost all the ancient major religions: of the East : and of the West : all had their way and wave, wars and warriors, sword and sway : here : one after another : evolving the latest religion of : Sikhism !!!!! Hence these 'excerpts' glimpse facets of the Punjab & Punjabis : Before/ During/ After : 'The Gurus' : ('5 Aab : wst') ]
" To the student of religion and sociology the Provinces present features of peculiar interest.
In the earliest days of Hinduism the people of the Punjab Proper were a bye-word in the mouths of the worshippers of Brahma, and Brahmanism has always been weaker there than perhaps in any other part of India.
Neither Islam nor the Hindu religion has ever been able to expel from the lives of the people the customs and superstitions which they brought with them from the homes of their ancestors; and the worship of godlings unknown to the Hindu pantheon.
The social customs which still survive in full force among the majority of the nominal adherents of either religion, and -the peculiar cults of the inferior and outcast races, offer for investigation an almost virgin field f till of the richest promise.
In the Punjab hills the Hindu religion and the caste system to which it gave birth are to be found free in a very unusual degree from alteration by external influences, though doubtless much deteriorated by decay from within.
Among the Bishnois of the Hariana is to be found a curious offshoot from the national religion which is peculiar to them alone.
For the inquiry into primitive institutions and the early growth of property in land the Punjab and North-West Frontier Provinces afford material of singular completeness and importance.
Tribal organisation and tenures are to be found nowhere in India in such primitive integrity as on the western frontier of the NWFP Province.
In the eastern plains of the Punjab the village communities are typically perfect in their development.
Between the two extremes every step in the gradation from one form to the other is exemplified.
In the hills of Kangra and Shimla community of rights, whether based on the tribe or on the village, is unknown.
The Punjab can show no vast cities to rival Calcutta and Bombay no great factories, no varied mineral wealth ; but the occupations of its people are still not without an interest of their own.
The husbandmen of the Punjab furnish to the English market supplies of wheat.
The pursuits of the nomad pastoral tribes of the western doabs and of the river populations of the Indus and Sutlej, the POWINDAH traffic of Dera Ghazi Khan and the salt mines of Jhelum are all well worthy of investigation and description.
The silk and pashm fabrics and embroideries of Delhi, Ludhiana and Amritsar, the enamels of Multan, the damascening of Sialkot and Gujrat the potterv of Multan, and the beautiful jewellery and miniature painting of Delhi, have acquired a fame extending far beyond the limits of the Province.
Sikhism must be studied in the Punjab if at all. "
[ * A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North - West Frontier Provinces: compiled by H.A. ROSE. Based on the Census Report for the Punjab, 1883 : By Sir DENZIL IBBETSON, K.C.S.I., and the Census Report for the Punjab, 1892, and the Hon. Mr E.D.MacLAGAN, C.S.I., Pub : Director, Language Department, Punjab. ]