This book is about Hinduism. Sir Alfred ComynLyall, GCIE, KCB, PC [4 January, 1835 -11 April ,1911] was a British Civil Servant, literary historian and poet. In this book he says "When I speak of Religion in India, I mean, for the purpose of this Lecture, Hinduism. And if I were asked for -a definition of Hinduism, I could give no precise answer; I could not define it concisely by giving its central doctrines and its essential articles of faith; as I might do in describing one of the great historical Religions. For the word Hindu is not exclusively a religious denomination ; it denotes also a country, and to a certain degree a race"