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Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite
The group of Brahmins (Hindu priests) who, like generations of men before them, have been charged with following the Moonstone wherever it goes in an attempt to retrieve it (which requires them to give up their caste, or social honor, in India). Throughout the book, they make various attempts to recover the stone; they show up at the Verinder estate just when Franklin Blake arrives there with the Diamond and then again on the night of Rachel’s birthday; they violently search Godfrey Ablewhite and Mr. Septimus Luker for the stone in London, and they ultimately kill the dark-skinned sailor (whom Sergeant Cuff reveals to be Godfrey) in order to bring the Moonstone back to India, which they successfully do in the Epilogue narrated by Mr. Murthwaite. The Indians are at once sinister, supernatural, and arguably bloodthirsty—a characterization that takes advantage of Western stereotypes about Asia—but also brilliant, shrewd defenders of their culture who beat England’s best investigator at his own game. Through this double depiction, Collins also pushes back against stereotypes to a degree by showing how the Indians outdo Britons in terms of politeness, intelligence, and loyalty to a higher cause—something most British citizens of the time would have assumed the ostensibly inferior Indians incapable of doing.
The Three Indians Quotes in The Moonstone
The The Moonstone quotes below are all either spoken by The Three Indians or refer to The Three Indians. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Loss of the Diamond: 5 Quotes
If he was right, here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond—bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man.
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The Discovery of the Truth 1: 1 Quotes
When the Christian hero of a hundred charitable victories plunges into a pitfall that has been dug for him by mistake, oh, what a warning it is to the rest of us to be unceasingly on our guard! How soon may our own evil passions prove to be Oriental noblemen who pounce on us unawares!
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The Discovery of the Truth 2: 3 Quotes
“In the name of the Regent of the Night, whose seat is on the Antelope, whose arms embrace the four corners of the earth.
Brothers, turn your faces to the south, and come to me in the street of many noises, which leads down to the muddy river.
The reason is this.
My own eyes have seen it.”
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Epilogue: 3 Quotes
The curtain between the trees was drawn aside, and the shrine was disclosed to view.
There, raised high on a throne—seated on his typical antelope, with his four arms stretching towards the four corners of the earth—there, soared above us, dark and awful in the mystic light of heaven, the god of the Moon. And there, in the forehead of the deity, gleamed the yellow Diamond, whose splendour had last shone on me in England, from the bosom of a woman's dress!
Yes! after the lapse of eight centuries, the Moonstone looks forth once more, over the walls of the sacred city in which its story first began. How it has found its way back to its wild native land—by what accident, or by what crime, the Indians regained possession of their sacred gem, may be in your knowledge, but is not in mine. You have lost sight of it in England, and (if I know anything of this people) you have lost sight of it for ever.
So the years pass, and repeat each other; so the same events revolve in the cycles of time. What will be the next adventures of the Moonstone? Who can tell!
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"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Three Indians Character Timeline in The Moonstone
The timeline below shows where the character The Three Indians appears in The Moonstone. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 3
...money. At 25, he finally returned to England. On this day, Betteredge first encountered three Indians with drums and a “delicate-looking light-haired English boy” behind them. Envious of the Indians’ good...
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Penelope then wakes up her father Betteredge and insists they lodge the three Indians. She had watched them argue and ask the young English boy to “hold out [his]...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 5
...attractive, much more than her mother (and Betteredge agrees). They return to discussion of the Indians, and Franklin pulls out a parcel to reveal the mysterious “It” the men were talking...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 6
...its imperfection, the Diamond would be worth even more. The point was that, for the Indians seeking to get their Moonstone back, the gem as a whole was sacred. Betteredge now...
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...man” following him. He thinks the jugglers’ ink-pouring is “hocus-pocus,” but he wonders whether the Indians truly are able to keep track of and follow the Diamond. Betteredge and Franklin joke...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 8
...Franklin’s arrival, Betteredge shows him the bottle of liquor and they agree it was the Indians’ “hocus-pocus” tool, although they also wonder whether the Indians might be able to see magically...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 9
...and jolly sisters. Franklin affirms that he has the Diamond and has not seen the Indians.
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 10
...performance—including Rachel, brandishing the Diamond on her dress. Mr. Murthwaite, however, begins talking to the Indians “in the language of their own country” and frightens them, leading them to stop their...
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Everyone returns inside except Franklin and Murthwaite, who call Betteredge over. Murthwaite explains that the Indians are not jugglers, but “high-caste Brahmins,” and that when he told them he knew their...
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Franklin, Murthwaite, and Betteredge decide that they will release the dogs if the Indians return, and then they head back inside. Betteredge turns to Robinson Crusoe and stumbles upon...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 11
...the Indian jugglers are apprehended at once. He suggests to Betteredge that one of the Indians might have hidden in the house all evening.
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Betteredge wonders how one of the Indians could have stolen the Diamond when the doors and windows stayed locked and the dogs...
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Seegrave tells Betteredge that he believes the thief was collaborating with the Indians, whom he now plans to interrogate in prison. He goes with Franklin, Godfrey, and one...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 16
...passionate argument about roses with the gardener. He gives Cuff a written note about the Indians, and Cuff asks for Mr. Murthwaite’s contact information before returning to his argument.
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 18
...Betteredge at the front door and explains what he learned. First, he knows that the Indians came to steal the Moonstone—and will continue trying, although they were not responsible for its...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 22
...Yollands will get in touch with him when Rosanna’s letter arrives on Monday, the three Indians will reemerge wherever Rachel happens to be, and the moneylender, Septimus Luker, will somehow come...
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The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 23
...the gem dealer Septimus Luker is being harassed by a persistent group of “three strolling Indians,” whom he thinks might have some relation to an Indian employee who he suspected was...
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The Discovery of the Truth: First Narrative: Miss Clack: Chapter 1
...the bank in question, but they had seen no sign of the receipt nor the Indians. The police investigated, and it became clear that the men were planning to rob whatever...
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The Discovery of the Truth: First Narrative: Miss Clack: Chapter 3
...suspicion: Godfrey was present during the Diamond’s theft and it was no coincidence that the Indians pursued him in London. Clack cites Sergeant Cuff’s conclusion, and Bruff insists that he believes...
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The Discovery of the Truth: Second Narrative: Mathew Bruff: Chapter 1
...for ending the engagement—which Bruff alone knows. Secondly, his conversations with one of the three Indians and Mr. Murthwaite are quite relevant to the story of the Moonstone.
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The Discovery of the Truth: Second Narrative: Mathew Bruff: Chapter 2
...that Bruff prefers to summarize rather than recount their conversation. A few days before, the Indians’ leader visited Mr. Luker, who was “quite paralyzed with terror,” as these same Indians had...
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The Discovery of the Truth: Second Narrative: Mathew Bruff: Chapter 3
...loan. To Murthwaite, the man’s motive is obvious. He first points out that the three Indians are too young to be the same ones who followed Colonel Herncastle to England after...
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Murthwaite and Bruff agree that Herncastle’s death was the Indians’ first opportunity to take the Diamond, and that the Indians could easily find out where...
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Murthwaite corrects Bruff: the Indians did not know that Franklin put the Diamond in the bank, which is why they...
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Murthwaite continues: the Indians’ “second chance” at stealing the Diamond occurred “while they were still in confinement.” The prison’s...
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...antelope. The remaining sentences seem to implore the recipients to go to London—as the three Indians did after their release from jail. To Murthwaite, it is obvious that the writer of...
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Returning to the timeline of the Indians’ actions, Murthwaite suggests that Mr. Luker is responsible for “the loss of their second chance...
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The Discovery of the Truth: Third Narrative: Franklin Blake: Chapter 8
...to follow Luker when he does so and discover who actually pawned the Diamond. The Indians are likely to do the same, which makes this a dangerous game.
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The Discovery of the Truth: Third Narrative: Franklin Blake: Chapter 10
...suggests that this theory “rests on a mere assumption” and could be completely wrong—perhaps the Indians wrongly searched Luker and Godfrey Ablewhite, and Luker was telling the truth when he said...
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The Discovery of the Truth: Fourth Narrative: Ezra Jennings
...gets out of bed and continues talking about the Diamond—“anybody might take it […] the Indians may be hidden in the house.” And then, suddenly, Franklin gets back into bed—and back...
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The Discovery of the Truth: Fifth Narrative: Franklin Blake
...he is going to the bank to withdraw the Moonstone, for some fear of the Indians. The boy, Bruff explains, “is one of the sharpest boys in London” and does errands...
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...dark-skinned man “dressed like a sailor,” whom the others had suspected of working for the Indians, and whom Gooseberry had seen receiving something from Luker. Gooseberry followed the man as he...
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...a taxi to talk with the mechanic. Franklin realizes that the sailor is not the Indians’ employee, but more likely “the man who had got the Diamond.”
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Sergeant Cuff tells Franklin what he suspects: the sailor likely had the Diamond, the Indians likely sent the mechanic, and the mechanic likely went upstairs in the pub in order...
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The Discovery of the Truth: Sixth Narrative: Sergeant Cuff: Chapter 2
Cuff is certain that Godfrey Ablewhite was murdered by the Indians, who smothered him with a pillow in order to get The Moonstone. The coroner’s report...
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...and while the mechanic has proven untraceable, there are some leads in regards to the Indians.
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The Discovery of the Truth: Sixth Narrative: Sergeant Cuff: Chapter 5
In closing, Cuff repeats for the reader that it is still possible to find the Indians, who are on their way to Bombay, where the police plan “to board the vessel,...
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Epilogue: The Finding of the Diamond: Chapter 1
...Sergeant Cuff's Man (1849),” the narrator explains that he was called to follow the three Indians from London to Rotterdam, where he learns that they had actually departed their boat before...
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Epilogue: The Finding of the Diamond: Chapter 2
...of the Captain (1849),” the narrator—the captain of the Bewley Castle, on which the three Indians sailed—explains that these men kept a low profile during their journey. At the end, they...
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Epilogue: The Finding of the Diamond: Chapter 3
...and three men stand before the Moon god’s statue—Murthwaite immediately recognizes them as the three Indians from the Verinder estate. A companion explains to Murthwaite that these men were Brahmins but...
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