Letters on India.

Allow me to congratulate you on your
recent appointment; and on the accomplishment
of the wish you have so often expressed
to visit the East. I feel highly flattered by your
applying to me for information concerning the
country you are so soon to see, and to judge
of for yourself; but conscious of my inability to
satisfy you as I could wish, on many subjects
relating to it, I had once thoughts of referring
you to such books as contain the best accounts
of the country, its customs, and its inhabitants.
However, on reflecting that your time must be
too fully occupied in preparations for your voyage,
to allow you to engage in the perusal of
very voluminous works, I have, though with
considerable diffidence, determined to send you
the abstract you request, of the notes made for
my own use.

I perfectly agree with you that many of the
evils complained of in the intercourse between
the European residents and the native inhabitantsB 2 B1v
of India, are owing to the want of mutual
understanding, and of mutual knowledge. The
happiness of so many millions of our fellow-
creatures, now brought still nearer as our fellow-subjects,
cannot be a matter of indifference.
But we can scarcely be interested for those
whom we do not know, and I have, therefore,
always thought, that it would be an acceptable
service to collect from the more elaborate works
on India such a popular view of the history,
literature, science and manners of that country,
as should excite an interest in its inhabitants;
and by exhibiting a sketch of its former
grandeur and refinement, restore it to that place
in the scale of ancient nations, which European
historians have in general unaccountably neglected
to assign to it.

This idea induced me to collect the notes in
question; I shall send you a portion of them
from time to time, and if you have not leisure
to read them before your departure, they may,
perhaps, serve to amuse you in your passage to
“India and the Golden Chersonese and farthest
Indian Isle Taprobane”.

On looking over the map of modern India,
one is astonished at the immense tract of
country contained within the lines which mark
the British possessions, nor is the wonder lessened
by the consideration, that the territory 3 B2r
nominally under the government of the
Nizam ul Muluc, or Soubadar of the Deccan,
and that subject to the Peishwa of
Poonah, are guarded and garrisoned by British
subsidiary forces, while these princes, not
less than the shadow of the Great Mogul, are
prisoners in their palaces, to troops paid by
themselves. Thus the whole of the immense
region from the frontiers of Cabul to Cape Comorin
north and south, and from the Indus to
the Ganges east and west, is virtually under the
British dominion; while the very few really independant
chiefs and princes preserve that independance
merely by sufferance, as you may
convince yourself by an inspection of their geographical
positions relatively to the British territory.
But after all, it is chiefly the empire of
opinion that supports us in our possessions, for
the natives outnumber us in such a proportion as
must make us tremble, if ever injuries offered to
them, or interference in those points of religion
or custom to which they are attached, shall
rouse them to the exercise of the physical superiority
they undoubtedly possess, and to shake
off the timid and humble peacefulness which
has hitherto distinguished them.

Long before the Mohomedan conquest of
Hindostan the great monarchies of that country
had been torn by internal commotions, and B2 B2v 4
divided into many smaller kingdoms, which like
their parent states contained in themselves the
seeds of destruction, from the vicious principles
on which they were founded. Though it might
be true, that if angels could descend to rule over
men, absolute monarchy would be the best
form of government, yet as we are constituted,
such a government can scarcely possess stability.
And the slight traces of Indian history which
remain to us, would confirm, if it were needful,
this well known truth. If in one picture we are
presented with a Hindoo monarch reigning with
justice, or extending his conquests over the
whole Peninsula, in the next we see an insignificant
race of successors at first governed, and
afterwards dethroned, by their more enterprising
servants, who, in founding new dynasties, only
prepared for their descendants the same train
of miseries they had themselves inflicted on their
unfortunate masters.

The better authenticated history of the Mahomedan
kingdoms of Hindostan presents us
with the same scenes; and as the Musselman
sovereigns and usurpers were even more absolute
than those of the Hindûs, on whom the
sacerdotal class was always a considerable check,
the changes were still more sudden and violent;
so that, before the arrival of the Europeans in
India, the Mahomedan monarchy was already B3r 5
weakened by the detachment of some of its
richest provinces. And although Aureng Zebe
succeeded in re-uniting them to the crown of
Delhi, and even in extending his dominions beyond
the former conquests, his successors were
gradually spoiled of province after province, till
his throne was filled by a mere shadow of royalty,
placed and upheld there by the army of a company
of western merchants.

But I must defer entering into the history of
Musselman India at present, as I think I should
but ill perform your wishes if I neglected to
preface it with that of the most ancient possessors
of the soil that we are acquainted with,
and there are besides some interesting topics on
which it would not perhaps be amiss previously
to enter.

Nature seems to have taken pleasure in embellishing
and enriching the favoured country
of Hindostan with every choicest gift. Under
a pure sky and brilliant sun the soil produces
the most exquisite fruits, and the most abundant
harvests; the rocks are rich in gems, the
mountains teem with gold, and the fleecy pod
of the cotton furnishes in profusion the light
garment fitted to the climate. In travelling in
the interior your eyes will often be enchanted
with the most delicious landscapes. Amidst
stupendous forests you will not unfrequently be B3v 6
charmed with a cultivated spot, where, if ever,
you might realize the dreams of the poets, and
indulge in that impassioned indolence which is
the parent of poetry and of the fine arts.

One would imagine Milton had mused in oriental
groves when he describes “Insuperable heights of loftiest shade, Cedar and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene―― Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, If true, here only, and of delicious taste: Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Grazing the tender herb were interposed On palmy hillock; or the flowery lap Of some irriguous valley spread her store, Flow’rs of all hues, and without thorn the rose.”

I might go on to quote all his descriptions of
Paradise and all its bowers, before I could exhaust
the resemblances.

But, alas! it is not the natural riches of the
country, nor the exquisite beauty of its sylvan
scenery, that will most attract your attention.
Vast cities now too large for their diminished
inhabitants, towns embellished with temples and
with tombs now falling to decay, and absolutely
unpeopled, and stupendous monuments of art, 6 B4r 7
which have not served to transmit even the
names of their founders down to our times, will
frequently arrest yours steps; but while these are
hastening to decay, the customs and habits of the
natives seem immortal, and present us now with
the same traits under which they are painted by
the Greeks who visited them two thousand
years ago.

Perhaps in their moral character the Hindûs
are worse than their ancestors, but before we
absolutely condemn them we shall do well to
consider the causes of their depravity. The
poet has said, “Whatever day, makes man a
slave, takes half his worth away,” and in our
measure of censure against the falsehood and
perjury we meet with in India, we should remember
that for many centuries they have been
slaves to hard masters, and that if by subterfuge
they could not conceal their property, they had
only to expect robbery and violence; thus
falsehood became the only defence of the weak
against the strong, and lost something, at least,
of its criminal character.

Yet that is not the peculiar character of the
Hindûs, or encouraged by their laws or their
faith, we may convince ourselves by referring
to those sublime passages in their Sastras, where
truth is identified with the Almighty mind, and
described at once in the most awful and the B4v 8
most enchanting colours; and though in the
modern Hindûs every generous feeling seems
broken down, and replaced by an almost brute
apathy, yet the spark though smothered is not
extinguished, but ready to blaze forth if properly
awakened, into all that genius and fancy can
hope; or, if aroused by ill timed or ill directed
interference with principles, which through loss
of liberty, of empire, of riches, have clung
closely round every heart and entwined themselves
with every fibre, into vengeance, before
which, ordinary means of safety will be vain,
and ordinary courage subdued.

But I trust, that as we have hitherto used our
power soberly, and on the whole, have made
our government beneficial to the inhabitants of
India, so we shall continue in the same wise moderation,
and conduct the innovations necessary
for their permanent improvement and our own
security, in such a manner as that the hand of
authority be never seen, but in the punishment
of crimes, and her voice never heard, but in the
dispensing of justice.

Into whatever part of the country you travel,
or wherever you may be stationed, you will find
much to examine; and if it be your good fortune
to see various and distant parts of India,
you will find a considerable variety of character,
and sufficient difference of customs and of faith, B5r 9
to interest you; but in order to derive every
possible advantage from your change of situation,
you should seriously apply yourself to the
study of some of the native languages. The
Hindostanee is the most widely diffused, though
should you be stationed in Bengal, the Bengalee
or ancient language of Gaur will be most useful,
as it is spoken over a pretty extensive district.
However if you wish to travel much, learn
Persian, which may be called the French of the
East; for you will not find a village where at
least one person cannot speak it. Besides, it
will gain respect from the natives, who consider
a knowledge of various languages as the mark
of a superior education, not to mention the
great importance it must be of to an officer to
understand the language of those whom he is to
command. It was not perhaps the least part of
the policy of the Romans, to plant their language
in every conquest, in order to attach their
new subjects; and the emperor Akbar increased
the number of schools in Hindostan, and caused
the Persian and Hindostanee to be publicly
taught, together with the Sanscrit, and encouraged
the translation of poems and scientific
works from the ancient language of the Bramins
into the vernacular tongues, by which means
they became more popular. Perhaps if something
of the same kind were done by the English, B5v 10
if translations of their own books were given to
them, it would induce them to learn the language
more generally, and thus open to them the
road to all those improvements of which we hear
so much said, but which I fear our countrymen
do not go the right way to introduce. I think
if I were a powerful person, I should propose a
reward to the little Hindû boys who should read
or repeat most fluently a tale from Mr. Wilkins’s
Heetopadesa. I am sure the boy would read
English much sooner by giving him the ideas he
was accustomed to in his own country, clothed
in our language, than by imposing upon him
the double difficulty of a new language and new
ideas also; and I am equally sure, that when
the boy grew up and found that by his knowledge
of English, he could carry on his trade
without the intervention of an interpreting clerk
to make out his English accounts, he would
prize the language the more, and be the more
anxious that his children should be instructed in
it; thus interest would tend to diffuse knowledge
if it were once put within the reach of the
people.

But I must have already tired you with this
long letter, and I dare say we shall have occasion
to return to this very important subject in
our future correspondence. Mean time adieu,
and receive my best wishes.

Letter II.

I thank you for your kind though
very short letter, and in reply to your question
about the Sanscrit, I have only to say that I do
not think it would be worth your while to begin
to study it, unless you had a prospect of a much
longer residence in the East, than I trust you
look forward to. But that your curiosity respecting
it may not be wholly unsatisfied, I
shall give you a short account of that venerable
tongue, and of some of the languages derived
from it, which I have taken from Mr. Colebrooke’s
interesting essay on the subject.

Were all other monuments swept away from
the face of Hindostan, were its inhabitants destroyed,
and its name forgotten, the existence
of the Sanscrit language would prove that it
once contained a race who had reached a high
degree of refinement, and who must have been
blest with many rare advantages before such a
language could have been formed and polished.
Amidst the wreck of the nations where it flourished,
and superior to the havoc of war and of
conquest, it remains a venerable monument of
the splendor of other times, as the solid pyramid
in the deserts of Egypt attests, that where
now the whirlwind drives the overwhelming B6v 12
sand-wave, and plows up the loose and barren
dust, a numerous population once enlivened the
plain, and the voice of industry once gladdened
the woods.

The languages of India are usually reckoned
to be four.

The Sanscrit or language of the gods.

The Prácrit or spoken language.

The Paisachi or language of the demons.

The Magad’hi.

Some writers however substitute for the two
latter the Apabhransa or Jargon, and the Misra
or mixed language.

The word “Sanscrit” literally means “adorned”,
and that language is indeed highly polished; it
is cultivated through India as the language
of science and literature, of laws and religion;
and of its great antiquity some comparative idea
may be formed from the time in which most of
the elegant poets flourished, which was about
the century preceding the Christian æra. Now,
many ages must have elapsed, before so rich, so
perfect a language could have been framed, and
its rules so accurately fixed. “It evidently
draws its origin” (says Mr. Colebrooke) “from a
primeval tongue which was gradually refined in
different climates, and became Sanscrit in India,
Pelavi in Persia, and Greek on the shores of
the Mediterranean.”

7 B7r 13

Although the Sanscrit is now a dead language,
it was probably at one period the spoken language
of most parts of India, and the objections
which might be made to this opinion, such as
the inordinate length of the compound words,
and the strict rules for the permutation of letters
in these compounds, are obviated by the fluency
with which those persons deliver themselves
who still speak the language.

I think that, from the fragments of the history
and literature of the Bramins which have been
translated—and from these only I can judge—
we are authorized to conclude, that excepting
in times of great civil commotion or religious
wars, the Bramins lived a life of retired indolence;
not, indeed, like the western monks,
withdrawn from domestic cares within the walls
of a monastery, but in sacred groves and caverned
rocks, where, surrounded by their pupils
and their slaves, they cultivated poetry, music,
and astronomy; and only deigned to appear in
the active world to receive the homage of a
court, and direct its monarchs; or sometimes
to pronounce on them the malediction, which
was almost sure to be followed by the desertion
of their servants and the rebellion of their
subjects.

It was in these retirements that, given up to
study, the Bramins perfected their sacred language,
and composed those numerous and profound B7v 14
treatises of grammar, which have since
employed so many commentators, whose works
have been considered as of such high consequence,
that the writers are said to have been
inspired. Of the original treatises, the grammar
of Panini is the most ancient that remains to
us, and of the highest authority: but its great
antiquity and studied brevity have required and
received numerous scholiæ, all esteemed divine.
The Amera-cosha, the most esteemed of all the
vocabularies, was composed by Amera Sinha,
one of the nine poets who adorned the court of
VrcramadityaVicramaditya,Open note 1Back to note ¹, and who was either a Jaina or a
Baud’ha: his work has passed through the hands
of numerous commentators, and many vocabularies
have been formed to supply its deficiencies,
besides various nomenclatures, and the Nighanti
of the Vedas, which explains obsolete words
and unusual acceptations.

The Prácrit language formerly included all
the written dialects used in the common intercourse
of life, and cultivated by men of letters;
but the term “Prácrit” is now commonly restricted
to the language spoken on the banks of the
Seraswattee.

There appear to have been ten polished dialects B8r 15
in India, prevailing in as many different
civilized nations, who occupied the provinces of
Hindoostan and the Deckan.

The Saraswati was a people which occupied
the banks of the river Seraswattee, and the Bramins
of that nation now inhabit the Panjab.
Their language may have prevailed over the
southern and western parts of Hindoostan
Proper, and is probably the idiom called
Prácrit. It is a cultivated language, and great
part of most dramas, and many poems, are
written in it.

The Canyacubjas possessed a great empire,
the capital of which was Cannoge. Their language
seems to be the groundwork of the modern
Hindustani or Hindwi, of which there are
numerous poems, and both abound in songs, or
rather ballads, and odes. Well educated people
in Hindustan and the Deckan, use this language,
and there is scarcely a village where
some of the inhabitants do not understand it;
which I beg you to observe, is the reason I
particularly advised you to study it, that you
may not be among those speakers of jargon,
whom one hears violating all the rules of grammar
and good sense, at our settlements in
India, till they have actually produced a tongue B8v 16
that I am persuaded no Hindû, fresh from the
interior, would understand.

The Gaura, or Bengali, is spoken in the provinces
of which the ancient city of Gaur was
once the capital, and of which nothing remains
but widely spread ruins. The language
contains some original poems, besides many
translations from the Sanscrit: it appeared to
me, when I heard it spoken, to be a soft agreeable
language, though less pleasing to the ear
than the Hindustani.

The Mait’hila, or Tirhuctya, is used in the
Circar of Tirhut and the adjoining districts, and
appears not to have been much cultivated.

The language and alphabet called Uriga are
used in the Suba of Orissa, whose ancient names
are Utcala and Odradesa.

These five countries are called the five Gaurs,
and occupy the northern and eastern parts of
India, though Orissa seem more properly to
belong to the five Dravinas which occupy the
Peninsula as far as Cape Comorin; and Guzerat,
which is sometimes reckoned among the Dravinas,
would find a more natural place among
the Gaurs.

The language of Guzerat or Gurjera is
nearly allied to the Hindwi, and, like it, is
commonly written in an imperfect form of the C1r 17
Devarangi character, in which the Sanscrit is
expressed.

Dravira is the southern extremity of India,
and extends from Cape Comorin to twelve or
thirteen degrees of north latitude. The language
is the Tamel, called by the Europeans
Malabars. I have seen translations from some
Tamel songs, both of love and of war: and one
I recollect of a humorous description, purporting
to be the quarrel between a man’s two
wives, one of whom was a Tamel and the other
a Tailinga lady; but as it appeared that one
was much younger and handsomer than the
other, the quarrel was naturally enough decided
in her favour, though I own that, to me, the
other seemed to have the right side of the
argument.

The Maharashtra, or Mahratta, is a nation
which has in the two last centuries greatly enlarged
its boundaries; but it anciently comprehended
only a mountainous district south of the
Nermada, and extending to the Cocan. The
language boasts of some treatises of logic and
philosophy, besides many original poems, chiefly
in honour of Rama and Crishna, and some
translations from the Sanscrit.

Carnata, or Canara, is the ancient language
of Carnataca, a province which has given names
to districts on both coasts of the Peninsula; the C C1v 18
dialect still prevails in the intermediate mountainous
tract.

Tailangana must formerly have comprehended
not only the province of that name, but those
on the banks of the Crishna and Godavery. Its
language (Telinga) has been cultivated by
poets, if not be prose writers.

Besides these ten polished dialects, there are
some others, derived, like them, from the
Sanscrit, and, like them, written in a character
more or less corrupted from the Deva Nagari.
There are also some spoken by the mountaineers,
who are probably the aborigines of India,
and which have certainly no affinity with the
Sanscrit.

Some of these tongues are divided into local
and provincial dialects, and many beautiful
pastorals are written in the two most remarkable
—the Panjãbi, spoken in the Panjãb or
country of the five rivers, and the Vraja Bhasha,
spoken in the neighbourhood of Mathura, which
derives its name from the cow-pens, Vraja, of
the forests of Vrindha.

Translations of at least part of two Sanscrit
Grammars appears in English in the year
18081808; the first from Saraswata, by Mr. Colebrooke,
and the second, by Mr. Carey, is partly
a translation, partly original, from the Grammars used in Bengal, where the teachers have C2r 19
unfortunately accommodated the sacred language
to the vernacular idiom and pronunciation.
A Sanscrit Grammar, by Mr. Wilkins,
appeared in the same year, which has the character,
among the learned, of accuracy, preciseness,
and perspicuity, notwithstanding its
great length, which the multitude of rules and
exceptions in the language has swelled to 656
pages.

The author of the able article upon this
Grammar, in the thirteenth volume of the
Edinburgh Review, has given a very interesting
table of the analogy of the Sanscrit with some
other languages, which certainly goes far to
confirm the opinion of Mr. Colebrooke and of
Sir William Jones, concerning the primeval
tongue from which these languages may have
been derived, and which I quoted in the early
part of this Letter. The first part of the analogy
consists of words expressing the names of
different parts of the body, and the relations of
consanguinity, thus—

Sanscrit.	Latin.	Persian.	German.	English:
pitara	pater	pider	vater	father
matara	mater	mader	muder	mother
bhratara	frater	brader	bruder	brother

In this last word, there is an example of the
manner in which the Sanscrit double letters are C2 C2v 20
changed into letters of the West,—a transposition
not accidental but constant, the bh into f, the
ch into qu, as in “chator”, “quator” (four), and many
others.

The second point is the analogy in the structure
of some of these languages, perceived in
the distinctions of the feminine and neuter
genders; the declensions of nouns; the signs of
comparison; the infinitives and declensions of
verbs, which goes so far as the irregularity and
defectiveness of the substantive verb.

The eight cases render the use of prepositions
superfluous; they are, therefore, exclusively
prefixed to verbs, being without signification
alone. But I shall venture no farther on this
subject, which, I fear, I can hardly render as
interesting as I should wish; for I intend, in my
next Letter, to notice some of the principal
writers in the languages I have been mentioning:
and I hope to present you with rather an
agreeable picture of ancient Hindostan, when
I lay before you the amusements of King Vicramaditya’s
court, and introduce you—if you
have not already introduced yourself—to the
elegant Calidas, and the pious and venerable
Valmiki.

The Indian poetry is rich, high, and varied,
abounding in luxuriant descriptions, and occasionally
displaying both grandeur and tenderness: C3r 21
but it must be confessed, that it is often
rendered dull by repetition and bombast, and
deformed by an indelicacy unknown to European
writers. “They loudest sing The vices of their deities, and their own In fable, hymn, or song, so personating Their gods ridiculous, themselves past shame!” Paradise Regained. You will, nevertheless, find something to please,
and more to interest you. India, it is probable,
if not certain, is the parent of all the western
gods; and, consequently, of that beautiful
body of poetry which has the Grecian mythology
for its basis: and though the child be
grown up to a beauty and strength, of which
the mother could never boast, we cannot behold
without reverence, the origin of all that has delighted
and instructed us, of those heavenly
strains which have soothed our griefs or quieted
our passions, and in a manner given us a new
moral existence. How often in our evening
walks on the banks of the Thames, or amid the
woody glens of Scotland, has the spring of life,
the breathing flood of existence around us,
seemed to realize the fables of the poets, and to
people every tree and every wave with a tutelary
deity! And believe me, that in the forests of 6 C3v 22
Hindostan, and on its caverned mountains, the
same divinities have been adored, for the same
feelings and passions have filled the hearts of
their votaries.

Letter III.

Since the Bramins were almost exclusively
the lettered men of India, it will not
appear extraordinary that the literature of that
country should be so intimately blended with its
religion, that it seems impossible to separate
them: however, I shall put off to another time
the history of the Vedas, or four sacred books
of the Hindoos, and content myself at present
with profaner poems. But, before I proceed, I
must say one word of the Sanscrit prosody,
which is said to be richer in variations of metre
than any other known language.

Sanscrit and Prácrit poetry is regulated by
the number, length, and disposition of the syllables,
and is disposed into several classes, each of
which is again subdivided. Some of the metres
admit any number of syllables, from twenty-
seven to nine hundred and ninety-nine; and
others are equally remarkable for their brevity: C4r 23
but the most common Sanscrit metre, is the
stanza of four verses, containing eight syllables
each.

Sanscrit poetry admits both of rhyme and
blank verse, and is in some instances subject to
very rigid rules, although, in others, there is
scarcely any restraint.

The rules of prosody are contained in brief
aphorisms, called Sutras, the reputed author of
which is Pingalana, a fabulous being, in the
shape of a serpent, and who, under the name of
Patanjali, is the author of the Maha Bhashya,
or great commentary on grammar. The Sutras
have been commented on by a great variety of authors; and there are also some other original
treatises on the subject, the most remarkable
of which, is that by the poet Calidasa,
who teaches the laws of versification in the very
metres to which they relate.

Every kind of ornament seems to be admissible
in the Indian poetry, and some embellishments
which we should look upon as burlesque, are
admitted even in the most pathetic poems.
Calidasa himself, in the Nalodáya, gives an
example of a series of puns on a pathetic subject,
and employs both rhyme and alliteration
in the termination of his verses.

When you have time, I advise you, if you
wish to know all the varieties of metre, and C4v 24
their rules, to look into Mr. Colebrooke’s Essay
on the Sanscrit and Prácrit Poetry, in the tenth
volume of the Asiatic Researches, from which
I take the greater part of the substance of
this Letter, and perhaps, occasionally, his very
words.

I will now proceed to mention the books of
the Hindoos, on which Sir William Jones and
Mr. Colebrooke will be our guides. There are
eighteen orthodox Vedyas, or parts of knowledge.
The first four are the Vedas, of which
I propose hereafter to give you a particular
account. The four following are the Upavedas,
or treatises on medicine, music, war, and mechanical
arts. The six Angas treat of pronunciation, religious ceremonies, grammar, prosody,
astronomy, and the explanation of the
difficult words and phrases in the Vedas. Lastly,
the four Upangas contain—first, eighteen Puranas,
for the instruction and entertainment of man; second, books on apprehension, reason,
and judgment:; third, moral and religious duties
and laws; and fourthly, the books of law and
justice.Open note 2Back to note ²

C5r 25

The Maha Bharata, and the Ramayuna are
the most ancient historical books, and for the
information of the lower classes there are some
works adapted for them, as none but the twice born, that is the three highest castes are permitted
to read either the eighteen Vedyas or the
two great poems.

There are besides these works of the heterodox
sects upon almost all the subjects above
enumerated.

The most ancient Indian poem is the Ramayuna,
of Valmiki. Three volumes of it have
been printed at Serampore, in the Devanagari
character, accompanied by a literal translation
by the missionaries Cary and Marshman. I do
not know whether it was wise to translate literally
so long a poem, especially as it abounds
in those repetitions and tedious details which
deform the eastern writings, and as the closeness
of the translation to the original, naturally
makes it obscure to persons accustomed to the
English idiom, and takes from it, to me at least,
the character of poetry.Open note 3Back to note ³

The first section of the first book may be C5v 26
considered as the argument of the whole poem.
It opens with a salutation to Rama, the
hero of the poem, and to Valmiki the author,
who is denominated a Kokila, (a singing-bird)
mounted on the branch of poetry chanting the
delightful note Rama, Rama, Rama! Valmiki
is then introduced consulting Nareda, the deity
of song, upon a fit hero for the subject of a
poem, and is accordingly directed to Rama,
the son of Dusharuthra, king of Ayodhya or
Oude.

The pious Dusharuthra, in order to obtain
children, performed an Aswa-medha, or the sacrifice
of a horse to the gods, and soon afterwards
were born to him four sons—Rama, whose
mother was Kooshulya; Bharata, whose mother
was Kikeeya, and Lukshmana and his twin
brother, sons of Soomitra. The old king designed
Rama for his heir, and had already
prepared all the ceremonies for his inauguration,
when Kikeeya, the mother of Bharata,
claimed a promise that her son should reign,
upon which, “To preserve inviolate the promise,
made through affection to Kikeeya, the
hero at his father’s command, departed into the
forest. He departing into exile the wise, heroic
Lukshmana, his younger brother, through affection,
accompanied him. His beloved spouse, C6r 27
always dear as his own soul, the Videhan
Sita, of Januka’s race, formed by the illusion
of the Deva, amiable, adorned with every charm,
obedient to her lord followed him into exile.
Endued with beauty, youth, sweetness, goodness,
and prudence, she was inseparably attendant
on her lord as light on the moon. Accompanied
by the people and his sire Dusharuthra,
he dismissed his charioteer at Shringuvera,
on the banks of the Ganges.”

The three illustrious exiles built themselves a pleasant bower on the mountain Chitrakoota,
and shortly afterwards Dusharuthra “departed
to heaven lamenting his son.” Bharata who was
called to the succession, immediately sought
Rama, and intreated him to reign, but the
hero, respecting his father’s promise, gave his
sandals to Bharata, and commanded him as
his elder brother to return and govern the
kingdom.

Rama and his companions retired into the
forest of Dundacca, whence after some adventures
he departed and fixed his residence in
the country of Panchwattee, where he carried
on an exterminating war against the Rakshusas,
and while absent on one of his warlike expeditions,
Ravuna, the king of Lanka, entered his
bower and carried off Sita. Rama and his brother
then turned their arms to the South, and in C6v 28
their way towards Lanca met with many singular
adventures, and performed deeds of arms
which would have graced the knights of Ariosto,
and like them they also met with enchantresses
and wizards, who alternately assisted and distressed
them. At length, however, they met
with the monkey Hanumân who became their
constant and most useful attendant. Hanumân
introduced them to his king Soogriva, who, delighted
with Rama’s prowess, became his friend,
on condition that he should aid him in his war
with Bali, a rival baboon monarch.

“The chiefs of monkeys and of men, Rama
and Soogriva entered the cave of Kishkindhya.
There the mighty ape roared like thunder. At
this terrible sound Bali, lord of the monkeys,
came forth. Having comforted Tara, he went
out to meet Soogriva, and was there slain by an
arrow of Rama’s.”

The monkeys then went to the difference quarters
of the earth in search of Sita; and Hanumân
being directed by the vulture Sumpati,
having leaped across the ocean, obtained a
sight of her in the gardens of Lanca, and was
even able to deliver to her a pledge from Rama,
and to receive one in return, with which he
hastened back to the impatient hero.

Rama having conquered and slain Ravuna,
suspected Sita of infidelity towards him, but she, C7r 29
indignant at the accusation, went through the
fiery ordeal, and having thus established her
innocence, she was received by Rama, while
heavenly music sounded in the air, and showers
of flowers fell upon the earth.

Rama and his companions then took leave of
the sylvan nations, and returned to Ayodhya,
where he reigned happily and honoured.

Valmiki lived at the court of the monarch
whose actions he has immortalized, and whose
reign Major Wolford places at least -1499fifteen centuries
before Christ.

Besides the mere subject of the poem, there
are many curious topics treated of in the Ramayuna,
particularly details of religious sacrifices
and ceremonies, descriptions of cities,
and of the pomp of royalty and of the priesthood.
But I am particularly pleased with the
picture it gives of the amusements of the court
of Rama. After a great and pompous sacrifice,
accompanied by games and exercises, the two
disciples of Valmiki, the sons of Rama and
Sita, Kooshee, and Luva, with voices by nature
melodious, and skilled in music, rehearsed the
actions of their father in the assembly, when
the surrounding sages united in a joyful burst
of applause, saying, “Excellent! excellent!
The poem, the very expression of nature, the C7v 30
song, the air!” And each bestowed a gift upon
the young minstrels.

I am sure you will immediate recollect the
songs of Demodocus and the plaudits of his
hearers in the eighth book of the Odyssey, and
if it be true that Homer meant the blind poet
as a picture of himself, Valmiki’s recording the
homage paid to his own strains will not appear
to be any extraordinary degree of vanity, though
I confess to our taste they may not be so well
deserved as those that even to these times are
almost piously bestowed upon the blind Melesigenes.

The other great historical poem entitled the
Mahabharut contains the adventures of the
hero Crishna, and the great wars which distracted
India in the fourteenth century before
Christ, and which introduced some very important
changes in the religion of the Hindûs. It
is written by Vyasa, who is the reputed compiler
of the Puranas. I shall probably have to
notice more particularly the events which form
the subject of the Mahabharut in a future letter,
and as I have never seen any translation of any
part of it, or of the Bhagavat, though I know
that a portion of the latter has been translated
by the elegant pen of Mr. Wilkins, I shall proceed
to mention other works.

C8r 31

Next to these great poems which are held sacred,
the epic poem of Megha may be ranked.
It is called Sisupala bad’ha and describes the
death of Sisupala, slain in war by Crishna. In
the first Canto, Nareda commissioned by Indra,
like the evil dream sent by Jupiter to Agamemnon,
incited Crishna to war with his cousin
and enemy Sisupala, king of the Chédis. Accordingly
on the first occasion which presented
itself, namely, contempt shewn by Sisupala and
his followers for Crishna, by withdrawing from
a solemn sacrifice performed by the Rajah Yudishthera,
where divine honours were paid to
Crishna, the hero assembles his troops, and
the armies of the rivals meet, when that of
Sisupala being destroyed, the two chiefs engage
in single combat contending with supernatural
weapons, Sisupala employing arms of
fire which are overcome by the watery trisool
of Crishna, who finally slays his foe with an arrow,
which ends the twentieth Canto. This
poem is one of the six excellent compositions
in Sanscrit, which I shall name together.

The second is the Ciratarjuníya of Bharavi, and
contains the history of the hero Arjuna’s journey
and penance on the mountain of India Keiladree,
in order to obtain celestial weapons from the
gods, to be employed against king Duryod’hana.
That part of his adventures which gives the title C8v 32
to the poem is his wrestling with Siva, who appeared
to him in the form of a Kerata or sylvan
king.

The third is the Naishadhíya of Sriharsha, by
some esteemed the most beautiful poem in the
language. It is founded on an interesting story,
which however is not related at length, but is
to be found in the Nalodaya of Calidasa. It
describes the marriage of Nala king of Nishada,
and Damayanti daughter of Bhima king of
Viderbha, and the loss of his kingdom by gambling,
through the artifices of Cali in a human
shape. After that misfortune he deserts his
wide, and suffers a transformation, under which,
after many wanderings and much distress, Damayanti
discovers him; which, like the conclusion
of the Fairy Tales, seems to have broken the
spell which bound him to his monstrous form,
for he immediately recovered, and they were
restored to their kingdom.

The three other excellent works are by the
poet Calidasa, and are the Cumara, Raghu, and
Meghadata. Of the first of these only a
part remains; the subject is the birth or origin
of Cumara the son of Parvati, but the fragment
closes with the marriage of the goddess. In it
all the personages not excepting her father, the
snowy mountain Hymalaya, are described with
the human form and human manners.

D1r 33

The Raghu contains the history of Rama
and his predecessors, from Dilpa the father of
Raghu and his successors to Agniverna. It is
impossible to enumerate the poets who have celebrated
Rama, both in the Sanscrit and Prácrit
languages, and indeed in every Indian dialect.

The Megha-duta consists of no more than a
hundred and sixteen stanzas. It supposes a
Yacsha or attendant of Cuvera, to have been
separated from a beloved wife by an imprecation
of the god Cuvera, who was irritated by the
Yacsha’s negligence in suffering the heavenly
garden to be trodden down by India’s elephant.
The distracted demi-god, banished from heaven
to earth, takes his abode on a hill, and intreats
a passing cloud to convey an affectionate message
to his wife. The great elegance and tenderness
of this little poem have entitled it, notwithstanding
its brevity, to a place among the
six chef d’œvres of the Hindû poets. Its author
Calidasa appears to have been a most voluminous
writer, for besides the three masterpieces I have
just named, he has left other poems, besides a
work on prosody and some dramas, one of which
you are probably already acquainted with from
the translations of Sir William Jones and Mr.
Wilkins. The drama of Sacontala is founded
on the marriage of Dushmanta, one of the ancestors
of Vicramaditya, whose court Calidasa D D1v 34
adorned, and before whom the prologue gives
us to understand it was played. The scene
opens with a hunting party of the youthful
monarch, where he appears chasing the deer in
a chariot drawn by horses, and guided by a
young charioteer to the confines of a sacred
grove. Dushmanta, in order not to violate the
holy place, dismisses his charioteer and advances
alone in the direction of some female voices, and
discovers Sacontala, a young princess under the
guardianship of the high priest of the grove,
with her attendants. The Bramin being absent,
the young damsels perform the rites of hospitality,
and the prince and Sacontala mutually
fall in love and contract a marriage unknown to
any but the attendants of the latter; a few days
afterwards the king being called to his capital,
departs, and gives Sacontala a ring as a token of
their marriage. On the return of the Bramin
to the grove, he is informed by inspiration of all
that has happened in his absence, and sends
Sacontala to the court of Dushmanta, accompanied
by proper persons to deliver her to her
husband; but in the mean time Sacontala having,
in the first moments of her grief for the departure
of the king, neglected to perform the rites
of hospitality towards a Bramin, the irritable
priest pronounces a malediction upon her, by
which, he on whom she was then thinking should 7 D2r 35
forget her. However her companions who alone
heard the curse, rely on the ring for recalling
her to his mind, but in bathing for the last
time before she quits the grove of her foster-
father, she drops the ring into the water, and thus
loses the talisman. When she presents herself at
court, the young king, though charmed with her
beauty, refuses to accept her, alleging he
knows her not, and that she must be the wife of
some other man. On this Sacontala faints and
is conveyed to the heavenly court of Casyapa
the father of the gods, where her son Bharata
is born. Meanwhile the fatal ring is found by
some fishermen in the belly of a fish, and on
its being restored to Dushmanta, he remembers
Sacontala and bitterly laments her loss, weeping
over her picture and forgetting his pleasures and
his business, till his assistance is required by the
gods in quelling the demons. After having relieved
the divinities from their distress, he goes
to the court of Casyapa, and there meets a
beautiful child dragging along a lion’s whelp;
this child he proves to be his own by handling
a magic bracelet, which only the parents of the
young prince could touch with impunity; Sacontala
then appears in a widow’s garb, and
being recognized by her lord, all the mysteries
are explained and they return happily to earth.

Such is the outline of Sacontala; but my D2 D2v 36
description, short as it must be, can convey no
idea of the beauty of the sentiments, and the
native tenderness which the poet has bestowed
on the young recluse, and which even in translation
must charm. This drama presents us with
a picture curious in itself, and interesting as
it regards the ancient braminical Hindûs. It
pourtrays the simple and austere manners of the
priesthood, their proud dominion over their
monarchs, their constant vigilance, which induced
them even to condescend to act the part
of court buffoons, and the prodigious influence
they must have possessed, as they appear to have
been charged with the education of the royal
children of both sexes, to whom they performed
the part of guardians as well as tutors, and into
whom they were thus at liberty to inculcate their
own maxims and instil their own sentiments.
But to me the most interesting part is the pleasing
light in which it places the early condition
of the Hindû women, before the jealous Mahomedan
maxims had shut them up in zenanas, and
reduced them to the degrading situation in
which they are now placed. Here we see the
king’s mother charged with the care of the royal
city and council during her son’s absence. The
young women of the forest practising the rights
of hospitality, and exercising all the functions
of rational creatures, admitted to a considerable D3r 37
share of the religious learning of their preceptors,
and skilled in the fine arts, as we see in the
young paintress whom Dushmanta employs to
paint the portrait of Sacontala after he had lost
her, and who by the description of the poet was
not content with the cold delineation of the features,
but represented the princess as the hero
first beheld her in the forest, surrounded by
her young companions at their pastoral occupations.

In short, if we may judge by this specimen, I
should think the dramatic part of the Hindû literature
would be the most pleasing to Europeans
were it better known, and this opinion is confirmed
by Mr. Colebrooke, to whom we are indebted
for a sketch of the subject of another drama,
and for a translation of some of the scenes.

The plot, setting aside the supernatural part,
which, however, the firm belief of the Hindûs in
magic and necromancy rendered pleasing to
them, is such as would do no discredit to an
European pen. It is called Malati-Mad’hava,
written by the poet Bhavabhuti, and is in ten
acts, the five first of which are the most interesting,
and seem to form the natural development
of the story. Bhurivasu, minister of the king of
Padmavati, and Devarata, in the service of the
king of Vidherba, had agreed, while their
children were yet infants to crown their long D3v 38
friendship by the marriage of Malati daughter
of the first with Mad’hava son of the latter.
Meantime the king having hinted at an intention
to propose a match between Malati and his favourite
Nandana, who was old and ugly, the
two fathers concert a plan for throwing their
children in each other’s way, and conniving at a
clandestine marriage, in pursuance of which
Mad’hava is sent to finish his studies in the city
of Padmavati under the care of the old priestess
Camandaci, by whose contrivance, aided by
Lavangica the foster-sister of Malati, the young
people meet and become mutually enamoured.
At this period the play opens with a dialogue
between the old priestess and a female pupil, in
which all the preceding events are naturally
mentioned, and we are prepared for the appearance
of the other characters of the piece, and
particularly of Saudamini a former pupil of the
priestess, who has arrived at supernatural power
by religious austerities, and of Aghoraghanta a
tremendous magician, and his female pupil Capalacundala,
who both frequent the temple of
Carala the dreadful goddess, near the cemetery
of the city.

Mad’hava, his companion Macaranda and
servant Calapansa then appear upon the scene,
and Mad’hava discloses his meeting with Malati
and his love for her. His attendant then shews D4r 39
him his own picture drawn by Malati, which he
had obtained from one of her damsels, and in
return Mad’hava draws the features of the young
heroine on the same tablet, and writes under it a
passionate stanza. The tablet is conveyed by
the attendants alternately to the lovers, whose
affection is thus fostered and increased. Meantime
the king sends to Bhurivasa, to make the
projected proposal for the marriage of his
daughter with the favourite Nandana, and the
minister having answered that the king may dispose
of his daughter as he pleases, the lovers
are thrown into great agitation. Camandaci
then contrives another interview between them
in a public garden, but at the same moment a
cry of terror announces that a tremendous tyger
had rushed from the temple of Siva, and the
youthful Madayantica sister of Nandana is in
great danger, when Madhava’s companion Macaranda
is seen rushing to her rescue. He
kills the tyger, is himself wounded behind the
scenes, and is brought in insensible, but revives
by the care of the women, and Madayantica
whom he has saved falls in love with him.

The preparations for the marriage of Malati
with Nandana are then announced, and Mad’hava
takes a resolution which none but a Hindû
lover could have imagined, namely, that of
going to the cemetery and selling his living flesh D4v 40
to the ghosts and malignant spirits, in order to
obtain the accomplishment of his wishes. While
he is wandering by night for this purpose among
the tombs, where in a soliloquy he thus describes
the cemetery, “the river that bounds it,
and tremendous is the roaring of the stream
breaking away the bank, while its waters are
embarrassed among fragments of skulls, and its
shores resound horribly with the howling of
shakals and the cry of owls screeching amidst
the contiguous woods,” he is alarmed by the
voice of a female in distress, and recognises the
voice of Malati.

The scene opens and discovers the enchanter
and sorceress above named, with Malati adorned
as a victim, the inhuman wizard having stolen
her while sleeping for the purpose of a sacrifice
to the dreadful goddess. While he is preparing
the horrid rites, Mad’hava rushes forward and
Malati flies to his arms for protection, when
voices are heard without in search of her; Mad’hava
places her in safety and encounters the
magician, when they quit the stage fighting.
The event of the combat is told by the sorceress,
who vows vengeance against the hero for slaying
her preceptor. And here an European writer
would have finished his piece with his fifth act;
but a Hindû, whose story can never be too long,
continues it through five other acts, and relates 6 D5r 41
the contrivance of the priestess to dress Macaranda
in the habit of Malati, and thus to disgust
Nanda and obtain an interview for the disguised
lover with Nanda’s sister, who agrees to accompany
him to the place of Malati’s concealment,
where however they do not find her; for the
sorceress has carried her off in a flying car. The
lover and friends are now in the utmost despair,
till the arrival of Saudamini the pupil of the
priestess, who by her preternatural power releases
Malati, and the play concludes with a double wedding.

This story you perceive has considerable interest,
and, bating the preternatural part, is
really dramatic. But I have already said so much of it that I fear I shall have tired you,
and therefore I shall say adieu.

P.S. I had forgotten while on the subject of
dramatic writing, that as we have had our mysteries
and moralities in Europe, the Hindûs are
not without a sort of mystic drama, the only
specimen of which that I have seen is entitled
The Rise of the Moon of Intellect, and its
subject is the war between king Reason and king
Passion, wherein all the orthodox virtues and
follies fight for the first, and the poor heretics
are all turned over to the service of king Passion,
who is not overcome till the birth of young D5v 42
Intellect, I forget whether male or female, when
the play ends.Open note 4Back to note ⁴

Letter IV.

Your enquiry concerning the lyric
and amatory poetry of the Hindûs, encourages
me to hope that my last letter was more interesting
to you than I had dared to believe when
I dispatched it. There certainly can be no
difference of opinion concerning the puerile
taste that could tolerate Hanumân and his
baboon associates in an epic poem; yet we
must not forget that one of our best poets in
the present age has his Gylbin Horner.

As the belief of necromancy and magic was
general in India, I cannot see the impropriety
of introducing it in poems of every description.
The magic of Medea and the incantations of
the Weird Sisters are great examples of the
sublime use that may be made of this supernatural,
and I had almost said, picturesque machinery;
and though my knowledge of the classics
is only a kind of secondhand acquaintance D6r 43
through the medium of translation, like the
man who fancied himself intimate with the village
lord, because he had crossed the ferry in
the same boat with his lordship’s horses, I will
venture to ask you, if the sorceress of Bhavabhuti
be not at least as poetical a personage as
Lucan’s old witch? The fatal effects of the
hasty curse pronounced by the choleric Brahmin
in Sacontala, shocks you, but you forget
how many Greeks fell sacrifices to the vengeful
imprecations of Chryses, or how Ajax perished
and Ulysses wandered, the victims of supernatural
curses.

I know you will laugh at all this, but remember
I am not saying that the luxuriant shoots of
the Oriental palm-tree surpass in beauty or in
flavour the purple clusters of the European
vine, but only that there is a beauty, inferior
indeed, but striking and characteristic in these
monuments of eastern civilization and literature.

I believe that there are many lyric poets
among the Hindû writers, but I can only name
Jayadeva, whose odes the Hindûs are fond of
explaining in a moral and religious sense, as the
Persians do those of Hafiz, but I believe that
the poets certainly mean what they say, and not
what their countrymen choose to attribute to
them, and I think you will be of the same opinion D6v 44
unless you discover a spiritual sense in such
lines as
“When in the goblet’s ruddy dies I see the sun of bliss arise, In her bright cheek who hands the wine A thousand mantling blushes shine.”
Or,
“If in the breeze thy sighing breath Should pass where Hafiz sleeps in death, Quick should the flow’rets fragrant bloom, And gaudy tulips deck his tomb.”

The amatory poetry of India is said not to
be deficient of tenderness of expression and
thought, but the passion it sings is too little
refined for our western taste, though its language
is highly polished. There is, however,
a serious kind of love poem, the description of
which is exceedingly laughable, though it be
written in sober earnest. In it, various descriptions
of lovers and mistresses distinguished by
age, temper, and circumstances, are systematically
classed and logically defined, with the utmost
seriousness and precision, as if they were
intended for the bureau de mariages, which
I hear has lately been opened at Paris. Nor is
this the only childishness the venerable Bramins
have tolerated; for though I cannot learn
that they ever hit upon the pretty conceit of
writing verses in the shape of a hatchet or an D7r 45
egg, they have metres where the lines increase
in arithmetical progression, and poems composed
with such studied ambiguity that the
reader may at his own option read in them
either of two distinct stories totally unconnected
with each other.

There is a class of writings not uncommon in
Sanscrit called champú, consisting of a mixture
of prose and verse, in the manner of the History
of the Civil Wars of Grenada, in the Spanish,
great part of which is related in those simple and
pathetic ballads we have seen occasionally translated.
And there are some exquisitely polished prose works, which from their extreme elegance
are ranked among poems like Telemaque
and Tod Abels.

The story of one of these so nearly resembles
the Oberon of Wieland that I cannot resist
giving it to you, only observing, that the Hindu
hero is not required so far to transgress the
bounds of decorum as to steal the teeth and
mustaches of his unfortunately father-in-law.

“Candarpa-cetu, a young and valiant prince,
son of Chintamani, king of Cusumapura, sees
in a dream a beautiful girl of whom he becomes
enamoured. Impressed with a belief of the
real existence of the damsel, he resolves to travel
in search of her, accompanied only by his
friend Macaranda. While reposing under tree
in the forests of the Vindhya mountains, the D7v 46
favourite overhears two birds discoursing, and
learns from them that the princess Vasavadatta
had refused the hands of many suitors, having
seen prince Candarpa-cetu in a dream, wherein
she not only became acquainted with his person
and manners, but his name. Meanwhile the
young lady’s confidante having been sent by
her mistress in search of the hero, discovers the
two friends in the forest, and delivering a letter
to the young prince conducts him to the palace,
whence after mutual explanations he conveys
the princess. Misfortune, however, pursues
them, for scarcely had they reached the
forest, when in the darkness of the night the
lover loses his mistress, upon which after a
fruitless search, being arrived at the sea-shore,
he resolves to cast himself into the sea, but is
arrested by a voice from heaven promising the
recovery of the princess and indicating the
means.” Here the resemblance to the story of
Wieland stops, for Vasavadatta is discovered
spell-bound, in the form of a marble statue
from which Candarpa-cetu alone can release her.
After her restoration, she relates her separate
adventures, and they proceed together to Cusumapura,
where they pass a long life in uninterrupted
happiness.

Probably if we knew a little more of the native
tales of India, we might trace the sources
whence many of the early romances of Europe D8r 47
came to us through the Arabs and Moors; and
possibly also, the origin of some of the Norse
and Scaldic fables; but I am, unfortunately, so
totally unacquainted with any oriental language,
that I am obliged to stop where I find English
guides fail, but it is scarcely possible not to be
struck with the singular resemblances one finds
in the Hindû legends and customs, to those of
our ancestors.

One of the most obvious of these, is the custom
of entertaining a family bard to sing the
exploits of the heroes whose descendants he
serves, and which has not entirely ceased in
the East, any more than the family musician in
the Highlands of Scotland, though in the latter
the song be exchanged for the pibrach. Sometimes
these bards, or bawts as they are called, are
employed to tell tales of pure invention, sometimes
to chant to productions of ancient poets,
and oftener to recite the adventures of the ancient
heroes who have become the gods of Hindostan.
There is also a set of itinerant taletellers
and poets, who, like the ancient minstrels
and troubadours, wander from province to province
secure of a hospitable reception; and by
their own romantic adventures, furnishing subjects
either for their own future songs, or those
of other bawts.

Traces of the profession of the bardai, as the
Hindûs call the bards, may be found in almost D8v 48
every nation, and perhaps it is connected with
the natural progress of civilization among men.
Before writing was invented, the only method
of transmitting history to posterity, was by oral
tradition, and as verses would be more easily
remembered, and besides, their harmony gave
pleasure to the auditors, they became the natural
vehicle of such traditions; and those gifted
men who had the power of composing them,
would infallibly acquire a sacred character
among their less favoured companions.

In the early part of the sacred scriptures, we
find frequent injunctions to the patriarchs to
teach the laws to their sons, and their sons’ sons,
that they might be had in remembrance. And
even after the promulgation of the written law,
one of the great duties of the Levites, was
yearly to read or chant the law to the people,
besides the prescribed lectures from the other
books of scripture, containing the actions and
adventures of the forefathers of the Jews.

I do not know whether you will permit me
to lay any great stress on the manners described
by Ossian; which, I must confess, appear too
refined for his age, if we believe that Britain
had not, in some very remote period, a nearer
connection than we suppose with that people,
from whom we derive all the arts and sciences
with our languages, and who (to use the words
of a great writer) have left us everything but E1r 49
a knowledge of themselves. However, the feast
of the bards in the hall of shells has its foundation
in nature, and, I am persuaded, existed
even before Ossian. Does not the young Greenlander
invite the poet of his village to celebrate
his triumph over the first seal which falls by his
hand, and to recite the actions of his tribe and
family while the feast that places him among the
men of that tribe is held? Even Mexico and
Peru had their poets, or rather minstrels, who
celebrated their sun-descended monarchs. And
I am disposed to regard the chorus of the ancient
tragedies as only a relique of the more
antique bards; for such a cumbrous machine
would hardly have been invented, had there
not been some prototype in nature. In the
stories of the East, the great personages are
always entertained with concerts at a signal,
which proves that the musicians were always
waiting, and, therefore, naturally ready to take
part in every action that was going on, and to
give that information to new comers which
was necessary for carrying on the action of a
piece. In my favourite Sacontala, there is a
chorus of wood-nymphs in the groves, and another
of minstrels in the palace; and the poets
fable, that the court of the great deity on Kailassa,
is the abode of the gandhavas or musicians,
and the bardai or poets—an idea of magnificenceE E1v 50
undoubtedly derived from the splendour
of earthly monarchs; a small remnant of
which you will be apt to remind me is preserved
among ourselves, in the appointment of the
laureat and his yearly odes; save that, unfortunately,
the praises of ancestors gives place
to more direct flattery in our plain-dealing
days.

I am no musician; and, therefore, can only
tell you, that the few Indian airs I had an opportunity
of hearing, were remarkable for their
extreme simplicity, and some of them pleased
my uncultivated ear, as those of Scotland and
Ireland do, because they seem expressive of the
sentiments described in the songs they accompany.
The instrumental part of their music did
not please me so well; however, I believe I did
not hear any of the best. It appears to me
too noisy, from the constant use of drums of all
sizes, and of trumpets and pipes, from that so
large as to require a man to bear the mouth on
his shoulder while it is played by another, to
the smallest reed. I have, however, heard
some extremely sweet pipes; and I have seen
the double pipe, which we observe in antique
sculptures, but which is not remarkable for the
beauty of its tones. There are several instruments
of the guitar and lute kind, some of
which are formed with hollow gourds, by way 8 E2r 51
of sounding-boards; and I once saw a kind of
triangular harp or lyre, the tones of which were
charming. There is also an instrument played
with a now, which put me a good deal in mind
of a dancing-master’s kit. The strings of all these
being of iron or brass wire, and in general the
fingers used for fretting the strings being armed
with thimbles of metal, the tones produced
have not that mellowness which we admire in
Europe.

That ancient music of Hindostan was infinitely
superior to the modern, we may reasonably
infer from the treatises concerning it in
the Sanscrit language, and from the effects ascribed
to it by the poets, which seem not inferior
to those produced by the lyre of Orpheus.
It was natural that the invention of so enchanting
an art should have been ascribed to the
gods; accordingly, the Bramins suppose it
to have been communicated to man by Brahma
himself, or his consort Seraswati, the goddess
of speech; and gable, that Nareda, an ancient
lawgiver, who was the inventor of the vina (a
kind of guitar) and the cach’hapi or testudo, was
the son of Brahma and the same goddess.
Bherat, the inventor of natucs or dramas represented
with songs and dances, or what we term operas, was considered as inspired; and
Hanumân, the friend of Rama, who is also E2 E2v 52
Pavan or Pan, is the author of a most popular
mode of music. Sir William Jones, in his
Essay on the musical modes of the Hindûs,
quotes several treatises, particularly the Damodar,
Narayan, Bhagavi bodha, and Retnacara.
These describe particularly four matas or systems
of music, by Iswara or Siva (perhaps Osiris) Bherat, Hanumân, and Callinath, an Indian
philosopher: there are, however, different
systems peculiar to almost each province of
Hindostan. Some of the sweetest of these seem
to have prevailed in the Panjâb, and in the
neighbourhood of Mat’hura, the pastoral people
of which, delighted in singing the loves and
adventures of their hero Crishna, who was
himself the patron of music, and is often represented
dancing while he plays on a reed.
The scale of the Hindûs comprehends seven
sounds, called sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, and
in the octave they reckon twenty-two quarters
and thirds. They also count eighty-four modes,
formed by subdividing the seven natural sounds;
these modes are called ragas a word which properly
signifies passion, each mode being intended
to move one or other of our affections.
Hence the fabulists have sometimes imagined
them so various, as to make up the number of
sixteen thousand; more temperate writers,
though the admit almost as many possible E3r 53
modes, only reckon twenty-three as applicable
to practice.

The Indian poets seem to have employed the
utmost elegance and richness of their talents
to adorn the fables connected with this divine
art.

The six chief modes are personified as beautiful
youths, the genii of music, and presiding
over the six seasons. Bhairava is lord of the
cheerful, dry, or autumnal season, and his strains
invite the dancer to accompany them. Malava
rules the cold and melancholy months, and with
his attendant Ragnis, complains of slighted love,
or bewails the pains of absence. Sriraga patronizes
the dewy season, which is the time of delight,
that ushers in the spring, the fragrant and
the flowery time over which Hindola or Vasanta
presides. When the oppressive heat comes on, the
soft and languid melody of Dipaca sympathises
with the fevered feelings, while the refreshing
season of the new rains bestows a double pleasure,
when accompanied by the sweet strains of
Megha.Open note 5Back to note ⁵ To aid the Ragas come their faithful
spouses, the thirty Raginis, five of which attend each youth, presenting to him eight little genii, E3v 54
their sons, whose lovely voices aid and vary the
melodies of their sires.

Such is the outline of the beautiful picture
drawn by the poets, and which is also a favourite
subject with the Indian painters; but their
works, like the music of modern Hindostan, do
not furnish materials by which to judge of the
state of the art, when India was in the zenith of
her glory. Of the ancient music, indeed, the history
has been preserved in elaborate scientific
treatises and poetical tales; but ancient pictures
must long ago have perished; and it is
only by a detached hint, scattered here and
there, in writings on other subjects, that we can
guess that painting was once highly cultivated.

The specimens of Hindû art I have seen,
are minute imitations of nature, on a scale in
general more diminutive than our common miniatures;
but there is a delicacy of handling
about them, that seems like the remains of a
more perfect art, which survives only in its
mechanical part, while the soul and genius that once guided it are long since fled.

Sculpture had made considerable progress in
Hindostan at an early period; and however rude
the first attempts at hewing a stone, and polishing
it into the resemblance of the human
figure, still it serves as a model which other
artists may improve.

facing E3v [Gap in transcription—library stampomitted] facing E4r E4r 55

The first figures of the ancient Egyptians, and
even of the Greeks, had their hands straight,
and attached to the body, and the legs were not
divided; the Hindûs had attained to an imitation
of attitude and action, and though their
forms wanted that exquisite grace which even
now enraptures us, when we behold the wonders
of the Grecian chissel, I have seen some which
are not without elegance, particularly a dancing figure at the entrance to the cave of Carli,
which possesses considerable ease and gracefulness:
and there is no little skill displayed in
the grouping of some of the sculptures at the
Seven Pagodas, particularly one representing
Crishna protecting his followers from the
wrath of Indra. Perhaps one great reason of
the arrestation of the farther progress of sculpture,
after it had advanced so far, was the
attempt to represent, by gigantic bulk, the
greatness of the heroes and the gods, which necessarily,
as it rendered the work less manageable,
made it coarse: whereas the Greeks,
though, in a few instances, they formed colossal
statues, commonly confined themselves to the
beautiful proportions of nature, and sought to
place greatness in expression. The bending of
the brown of Jupiter, conveyed at once all that
is sublime and majestic in the Father of gods
and men; but the giant Siva must frown, and E4v 56
gnash his teeth, and raise his numerous terribly
armed hands, ere the Hindû sees his awful
divinity, or recognises the powerful father and
destroyer of all. Besides, it is probable that,
as the religion of the Egyptians forbade the alteration,
even for the sake of improvement,
of any figure intended for the service of the
temples, so the same cause might have prevented
the Hindû sculptor from departing from
the figure and attitude which his ancestors had
bestowed on his gods.

In the lower parts of sculpture, applicable to
architectural ornaments, the Hindû chissel has
perhaps seldom been surpassed; its light and
airy foliage, its elegant volutes, and the variety
of its subjects, vie at once with Italian art and
Gothic fancy, to which last style it has, indeed,
occasionally a remarkable likeness.

The most ancient remains of Indian architecture
are most probably those wonderful excavations
and sculptured rocks, in Elephanta and
Salsette, at Ellora, the Seven Pagodas, and
among the Mahratta mountains. In the first of
these, the effect is produced by the massiness
of the pillars, as much as by the great extent of
the cavern and its sculptured sides, where the
gigantic deities and saints give it an air of the
palace of some enchanter, so unlike are they in
size and form to any thing in common nature. E5r 57
The caves of Salsette are interesting, as I think
they present us with the civil architecture of
India at a very early period. Most of these
small caves appear evidently to have been private
dwellings: each of them has a little portico,
and a cell within, at one end of which there is
a raised part, which, on my visiting them, I
imagined was designed for a bed place; but
since that time, a passage in SacontalaOpen note 6Back to note ⁶ has
made me conjecture that it was the consecrated
hearth where the sacred fire was kept, and this
appears to me to be confirmed by the circumstance
that there is near the largest and first
cavern, one to which I was obliged to be lifted
up, when I found a considerable platform, and
a figure of the deity in the back ground. Now,
the height to which this platform is raised, corresponds
with the description of Dushmanta’s
hearth, and might have belonged to the superior
of that society, which, from the number
of caverns, their contiguity, and the conveniences E5v 58
of baths and reservoirs with which they
are supplied, we may conclude once inhabited
the now deserted mountains of Salsette. These
scenes brought to my mind the opening of
Mason’s Caractacus:— “............ the place Where, but at times of holiest festival, The druid leads his train. ............ up the hill Mine eye descries a distant range of caves Delv’d in the ridges of the craggy steep; And this way still another. On the left Reside the sages skilled in nature’s lore, &c.”

The rocky hill in which these dwellings are
dug, contains probably some hundreds of caves,
of different sizes. I saw a great number; but,
I believe, scarcely half of those which are known.
One of them appears to have been a temple:
it is of an oblong form, terminating in a semi-
circle, in which is one of those solid masses
which the Jines and Bhaudd’has suppose to
cover part of the ashes of their respective
saints, and which are sometimes, as in Salsette,
and at Carli in the Mahratta mountains,
formed of rocks, wrought in their native bed;
and sometimes, as in the temple courts of
all the sacred places I saw in Ceylon, built
of brick or other materials, plaistered over with facing E5v [Gap in transcription—library stampomitted] facing E6r Figure Printed captionSpecimens of
Architecture. Eight separate engraved illustrations of columnal architectural details. Top left depicts the capital of a column featuring triangular borders and a small human figure. Center top shows an entranceway featuring lifesize upright animal figures on either side of the door. Top right is the capital of a plainer column, square at the very top, then with rounded layers and a crack in the column near the bottom of the area of detail. Middle left is a column holding up the edge of a roof which appears to be made of unhewn stone topped with a largely undecorated capital stone. Middle right is a square column decorated near the top with inset designs. Bottom left is a tapering cone column, bottom half is square, top half is round with a abstracted cluster of grapes at the top. Bottom center is a freestanding column sitting on a wall, with a human figure at the bottom, shrubbery growing from the upper parts of the stone and three lion figures on the column’s top. Bottom right is a thin round column holding up a decorative horizontal beam with a dome shaped capital and a wolf-like animal figure making up the bottom of the column. E6r 59
fine chunam or stucco, and generally of a conical
form. These monuments or altars, as
they have been sometimes called, are often
without ornament; frequently, however, they
are very much enriched, and have generally on
the top a member which spreads a little, so as to
form a kind of umbrella, which you know is, in
the East, the ensign of dignity.

The great caverns both at Canara, in Salsette,
and at Carli, are supported by polygonal pillars,
with peculiar bases and capitals, possessing
considerable dignity and solidity, though they
are far behind the Greek columns in elegance.
I send you some sketches of specimens of these,
and also of some which supported the entrances
to some of those smaller caves which I take to have been dwellinghouses. At Carli, these
dwellinghouses are in different stories, in the
perpendicular face of the rock, and communicating
with each other by stairs within, while
the outside only presents here and there a
window, or a colonnade. At Canara, the dwellings
enter from without; before each door
there is usually a reservoir, and in most of them
I found excellent water. The communication
between distant parts of the mountain is facilitated
by winding paths, or steps hewn in the
rock; and on the summit there are larger
reservoirs and baths, which were probably in E6v 60
common. The hewing of all these is extremely
skilful, and marks a knowledge of the sciences
and arts connected with architecture, of no ordinary
degree. The construction of arches,
alone, is a proof of the great progress of the
Hindûs in the arts which tend so materially to
the comfort and embellishment of society; and
the buildings erected for astronomical purposes,
of which the ruins still remain, are a farther
evidence of their skill and ingenuity.

The religious buildings of the Hindûs probably
partook originally of that grandeur and
simplicity so remarkable in the cavern temples;
but that they very early adopted a style of excessive
ornament is evident from the “pagodas”,
as the English choose erroneously to call them,
hewn out of the rock at Ellora and at Mahvellepoor,
or the Seven Pagodas. Every moulding,
every angle, is adorned with grotesque heads or
images, or pinnacles, extremely enriched with
pilasters, and what we should call corbels, supporting
them. The roofs of the buildings are
oblong, they are generally covered with a moulding,
along the to poftop of which is placed a row of
vases, or if square, they terminate in a kind of
dome, ribbed on the outside with an ornament
not unlike the Gothic crockets. The interstices
between the ornaments of the sides of the temples,
are generally filled up with sculptures re-6 facing E6v [Gap in transcription—library stampomitted] facing E7r FigureEngraved scene depicting a scene in a Hindu temple, lower walls and trees in the background, and a square gazebo with a very high roof in the foreground. A small human figure sits on the stairs at the left of the gazebo, which has stairs on all four sides up to a low platform, with a thin tall column at each corner, topped by a multi-tiered roof with upturned corners, then a layer which appears to feature relief-carved figures of buildings, then a round layer with miniature columns, topped finally with an onion dome and a finial. Drawn by M. G.
Etched by I. D. G. Printed captionMuntapum.
Specimen of Hindu Architecture E7r 61
presenting the persons of the Hindû mythology,
and the pillars which support or embellish them,
are occasionally fluted or otherwise adorned. On
the whole coast of Coromandel, the modern temples
are built in the style of these very ancient
sculptures, but, in general, with considerably
more numerous embellishments, and with less
taste. I, however, send you a sketch of one
which pleased me exceedingly when I saw it,
it is a muntapom or open temple, in which, on
days of festivals, the deity is placed, having
been brought from an adjoining temple to receive
the personal addresses of his votaries.
The style of building is, however, very different
in different provinces, as you may convince
yourself by looking at Daniels’s beautiful prints.
Those of the north appear to be the most simple;
and one might thence, perhaps, argue, that
they were the most ancient: however, the
sculptured rocks are incomparably the most
authentic monuments of the ancient architecture;
and when these shall be better known, it
may perhaps be possible to class the different
models, and to form some sort of regular system
of orders.

With the Mahommedan architecture, introduced
in the 1100–129912th and 13th centuries into India
by its conquerors, and probably blended with
that of the natives, I am but little acquainted. E7v 62
But you will find most magnificent specimens in
the tombs of the kings at Veyjeyapoor, and in
the monuments built by Shah Jehan to the memory
of his wife, near Agra, and called after
her the Taje Mahal; it is of white marble, and
beautifully inlaid. The tomb itself is inlaid
with precious stones, in so beautiful a mosaic,
that it has been ascribed to Italian artists in the
service of the Mogul. The mosques of Delhi
and Agra will also excite your admiration for
their grandeur and extent, as well as for the
beauty of form and workmanship you will discover
in them. Like the Hindû temples, their
walls usually enclose a large area, the centre of
which is occupied by a consecrated tank or reservoir
of masonry; and often adorned with trees,
pillars, and seats, along the brink, from which,
to the bottom, there is usually a flight of steps.
The buildings around the court, something like
the cloisters to our colleges, are, with the
Hindûs, the residence of priests and other holy
men; with the Mussulmans, they are consecrated
to hospitality, where travellers of every nation
find shelter and rest. The choultry of the
Hindûs was naturally separated from the temple
to prevent pollution by the admittance of impure
tribes, but near enough to answer the humane
purpose of protecting the traveller from
insult or danger. Some of the most admirable E8r 63
works of the Hindûs are their tanks or reservoirs
of water; some of which have been constructed
with consummate ingenuity and incredible
labour, by damming up the outlets of
narrow valleys, and thus making use of the
surrounding rocks as walls. Others, in the flat
countries, have been dug and lined with masonry,
covering frequently not less than a hundred
acres; and wells of every description, for
the purposes of agriculture or the relief of travellers,
are met with all over the country, more
or less in repair, as the towns or villages near
them have flourished or been destroyed by war,
oppression, or famine.

Among the great public works of Hindostan,
there are none more worthy of remark than
the canals of Sultaun Firoze, which were dug
to supply the city of Hissar Firozeh with water.
The first of these passed from the Jumna to
Sufedoon, a hunting palace, and thence to
Hissar, and was one hundred and fourteen geographical
miles in length. This canal was repaired
about 1626A.D. 1626, by Shah Jehan, who
prolonged it to Delhi, making in the whole one
hundred and seventy-four geographical miles.

The other canal brought the waters of the Sutlege
to Hissar: it is said to have been one hundred
miles in length; and both these canals are
said to have been intended by Firoze to have E8v 64
answered the purposes of navigation, as well as
giving water to the town and adjacent country.

I copy verbatim the following note of
Major Rennel from Captain Kirkpatrick’s manuscripts.
—“Besides the main canals that have
been mentioned, it seems that several others
were cut, which united them in different parts
and in different directions. The banks, both
of the main canals and their branches, were
covered with towns—such as Juneed, Dhatara,
Hansi, and Toglucpoor. Firoze, by sanction
of a decree of the Cauzees assembled for the
purpose, levied a tenth of the produce of the
lands fertilized by these canals, which he applied,
together with the revenue of the lands
newly brought under cultivation, to charitable
uses. The lands of Firozeh, which before had
produced but one scanty harvest, now produced
two abundant ones. This Sircar, ever since the
conquest of Hindostan by the Moguls, has constituted
the personal estate of the heir apparent
of the empire.”

Such works as these are really worthy of a
great monarch; and the labours of Firoze, and
the laws of Akbar, are among the most honourable
monuments of conquest that the warriors
or monarchs of any age, or any faith, have
left.

The early military architecture of India must F1r 65
have been of that inartificial kind which was
sufficient to guard against the incursions of wild
beasts or the surprise of a human enemy, whose
bow and arrow were his chief weapons; these
were constructed either of kneaded clay, brick,
or stone, according to the nature of the country
which was to be defended, and were more or
less strong according to the treasure to be
guarded or the importance of the situation.
Many of the ancient forts were on the summits
of steep rocks, and required little assistance
from art to be impregnable, except by starving
their garrisons; but as civilization advanced, the
arts of war kept pace with those of peace, and
that of fortifying towns, of course improved in
proportion to the improvement in the modes of
attack. The Mahomedans would naturally introduce
such methods of defence as were used
in their native country when they found those
of the conquered people defective; but the
science of fortification has always continued in
the East in an extremely rude state, although
many of the Mussulman monarchs, particularly
Aureng Zebe in the 1600–169917th century, and Tippoo
Sultaun in our own times, employed European
engineers in constructing works for the defence
of their principal cities.

On the coast of India you will everywhere
find the forts of the Portuguese, Dutch and F F1v 66
other Europeans, who have usually been obliged
to construct such defences for their factories.
Many is not most of these are in a ruinous condition,
and it is only at the three presidencies
that you will see them on a very extensive scale
and carefully kept up. The inland forts I am
less able to speak of, but I believe some of them
to possess considerable strength against any
native force, though few, excepting those whose
natural situations are strong,Open note 7Back to note ⁷ could resist a regular
attack from European troops. Among
these the mud forts are probably the best calculated
for resistance, as the substance of which
they are built being strong kneaded clay, possesses a
tenuity which deadens the effect of shot and
renders it difficult to effect a breach.

But you will think I am straying out of my
proper province and trenching upon yours, and,
to say the truth, the useful and exact lines of a
fortress have in general few charms for a lady’s
eyes, however she may delight in the more
showy structure of palaces and temples. Therefore F2r 67
I will take leave in time, and beg you to
believe me as ever, &c.

Letter V.

In mentioning the fine arts as they
once flourished in Hindostan, I ought not to have
omitted Calligraphy, which, in a country where
printing is unknown, becomes really an art, of
no trifling importance. Accordingly we find in
the East, where the means of multiplying books
by printing have not yet superseded the pen of
the scribe, the most beautiful and correct manuscripts
often enriched with costly illuminations
and gilding. Though paper be now pretty
generally used to write on in India, and that of
a very smooth and even kind, yet the more ancient
methods still prevail in some districts.
One of these which is most frequently practised
is writing upon the leaf of the palmyra with an
iron style; so that you see people going about
with their little bundle of leaves in appearance
like a large fan, tied up between two bits of
wood cut to fit them, either as ledgers and billbooks,
or the legendary tales of their country,
or the holy texts of their shastras, which may
possibly have been originally written with the
same materials. Another kind of writing of F2 F2v 68
which you will see a particular account in
Wilk’s excellent History of the South of India,
is the Cudduttum, Curruttum, or Currut. It is a strip of cotton cloth covered on both sides
with a mixture of paste and charcoal. The writing is done with a pencil of lapis ollaris,
called Balapum, and may be rubbed out like
that on a slate; the cloth is folded in leaves
like a pocket-map, and tied up between thin
boards painted and ornamented. This mode of
writing was anciently used for records and other
public papers, and in some parts of the country
is still employed by merchants and shopkeepers.
It is very durable, indeed probably more so,
than either paper, parchment, or the palm leaf.
Col. Wilks supposes it to be the linen or cotton
cloth on which Arrian states that the Indians
wrote.

Many grants of land and other public documents
have been discovered engraved on copperplates,
a number of which are frequently fastened
together with a ring and seal, and numerous
inscriptions on stone are met with on the sites
of most ancient towns and places of worship.

The writing on paper and parchment is performed
with a reed shaped nearly like our common
pens; the ink in substance and colour resembles
a thick solution of the common Indian
ink, but the writing is often traced in various F3r 69
colours, such as red and azure, or occasionally
with gold.

The character in which the Sanscrit is written
is called Deva Nagari, the etymology of which
name does not seem determined, excepting that
the first part of it proclaims its holiness.Open note 8Back to note ⁸ It is
written from the left to the right-hand like our
own, and has a square appearance as if a line
were drawn on the top of each word. You will
see some beautiful manuscripts in the museum
of the India-House, especially one of extraordinary
length, illuminated and embellished with
pictures of the gods of the Hindû Mythology,
which is most delicately written upon very fine
parchment.

Among other substances used for writing
upon, there is a very precious, because very
scarce, kind of yellow parchment, made of the
skin of the hogdeer, which is used on occasions
of ceremony, when the writing is commonly
coloured and gilt.

Although it be generally understood that
learning in all its branches is interdicted to the
lower castes of the Hindûs, this ought only to
be understood of such parts as are contained in
the sacred books, the Vedas, Vedangas and
sacred poems. But there are many treatises F3v 70
written expressly for the use of the lower people,
and in case they do not find occupation in
their own callings they are permitted to have recourse
to any other, excepting the reading and
teaching the Vedas, among which writing is
enumerated, and in so populous a country where
literature had become a luxury, we may be sure
that very many hands must have been employed
in administering to that luxury. We may suppose
without any great stretch of imagination,
that the lords and ladies of king Vicrama’s court
would, after the representation of Sacontala, be
eager to read so charming a production, and
the ornamented and perfumed manuscript
would eagerly be offered to her, whose darks eyes
emulated those of the interesting princess, and
the hope of recommending himself to favour
and wealth would incite the writer to excel his
competitors, till the perfection of the art itself
became the primary object.

We have often smiled at the naïve account
which Froissart gives of presenting his rich
manuscript to his patron, and I cannot suppose
that the Indian poet was less eager for distinction
than the western chronicler, or that the
Hindoo monarch would with less complacency receive
the legends of his heaven-descended ancestors,
than the Count de Foix did those of
his own contemporaries.

The warriors of Hindostan whose family Barts F4r 71
led their troops on to battle, chanting the
strains of victory, on returning to their halls of
peace, held feasts in honour of the gods or
heroes, where the minstrel after the martial exercises, made the lofty roofs resound with the
songs of other times, or in his own numbers
drew tears from eyes that seldom wept; sometimes
the drama with all its pomp delighted the
eyes and ears of the attentive audience, and at
others the historic and legendary scrolls were
unfolded, and the reading of past events occupied
the heroes who were one day to be enrolled
on the same list with their progenitors.

Far different were the scenes in which these
legends were composed; retired in the deepest
recesses of the sacred groves consecrated to the “Hidden power, that reigns ’Mid the lone majesty of untamed nature.”
Was the abode of “Sages skilled in nature’s lore: The changeful universe, its numbers, powers Studious they measure, save when meditation Gives place to holy rites.”
Caractacus Act 1st.

These sages controuling, by their sacred character
of mediators between the gods and men,
the councils of monarchs and the enterprises of
warriors, appeared but to command respect;
and in their hours of solitude composed or compiled F4v 72
from ancient tradition the codes of religion,
morality and law, which have acquired such unbounded
influence over their countrymen, and
which time seems to strengthen rather than to
diminish.

Of all the writings left by these extraordinary
men, the Vedas are the most interesting. Their
existence was long doubted by the learned in
Europe, perhaps owing in some degree to the
unwillingness of the Brahmins to impart them to
strangers. But early in the seventeenth century
they had been partly translated for the use
of the accomplished prince Dara Shekoh,Open note 9Back to note ⁹ into
the Persian language, and considerable portions
had been rendered into the Hindûi tongue. At
length several English gentlemen, among whom
the most distinguished was Sir William Jones,
procured copies of valuable portions of the the originals;
but it is to Mr. Colebrooke that we are
indebted for the most complete accounts of these
ancient writings.

Some persons have hastily pronounced the
Vedas to be modern forgeries; but Mr. Colebrooke
has brought forward the most convincing
arguments corroborated by various proofs, that
notwithstanding the possible inaccuracy of a few
passages, the great body of the Vedas as now F5r 73
received consists of the same compositions which
under the title of Vedas have been revered by the
Hindûs for hundreds if not thousands of years.

These Vedas are four in number: the Rigveda,
the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the At’harva
Veda; and some writers reckon the books
It’hasa and the Puranas as a fifth or supplemental
Veda. By the age of the Vedas is not meant
the period at which they were actually composed,
but that in which they were collected and
arranged by the sage Dwapayana surnamed Vyasa
or the Compiler, or about -1300fourteen centuries before
the Christian æra, and nine hundred years
before Pisistratus performed the same office for
the works of Homer, in danger of being lost,
owing to the practice of the public rehearsers who
only declaimed detached passages and episodes.

The At’herban or more properly At’herva
Veda is supposed to be more modern than the
other three books, and indeed to be a compilation
from them. The antiquity also of many of the
puranas is questioned, but their real author and
precise date is of little consequence, since the
fact of their being really the sacred books of India
is acknowledged.

The Vedas consist of a compilation of prayers
or Muntras and hymns, the complete collection
of which is called Sanhita, and of precepts and
maxims called Brahmana. The theology of 2 F5v 74
Indian scripture including the argumentative
part or Vedanta is contained in tracts called
Upanishads, and to each Veda a treatise called
Jyotish is annexed, explaining the adjustment
of the calendar for religious purposes.

The Rigveda contains chiefly encomiastic
muntras, and its name is derived from the verb
“Rich” to laud; these prayers are mostly in verse,
and together with similar passages in any other
Veda are called Rich. The authors of these
hymns are various, some of them being ascribed
to different deities male and female, others to
kings and princes, or to sages and holy men.
This Veda contains in its last chapter the celebrated
Gayatri, or Indian priest’s confession of
faith, which is thus translated by Mr. Colebrooke.

“This new and excellent praise of thee, O
splendid playful sun! is offered by us to thee.
Be gratified by this my speech, approach this
craving mind, as a fond man seeks a woman.
May that sun (Pushasi) who contemplates and
looks into all world be our protector. Let us meditate on the adorable light
of the divine ruler (Savitri). May it guide our intellect. Desirous of food we
solicit the gift of the splendid sun (Savitri)
who should be studiously worshipped. Venerable
men, guided by the understanding, salute the
divine sun (Savitri) with oblations and praise.” F6r 75

I do not wonder that one of the first objects
of worship should have been him who “With surpassing glory crown’d Looks from his sole dominion like the God of this new world.”
Or that the “splendid playful sun,” should have
been regarded as the embodying of that divine
intellect which pervades and governs all things.
But soon the type was considered as the thing
typified, and the once adored as God, there
were no bounds to the wanderings of the human
imagination; and though the instructed sages ever
considered the sun, the air, the fire, as types of
their Creator, the vulgar soon adopted that mythology
which personifies the elements and planets,
and peoples heaven and earth with various
orders of beings. Thus though the Vedas distinctly
recognize but one God, their poetic language
does not sufficiently distinguish the Creator
from the creature; and though the numerous
titles of the deity be all referable to the sun, the
air and fire, and these three again but signify
the one God, these titles insensibly became
the names of separate deities, who usurped
the worship due only to the Supreme intelligence.

The name of the Yajurveda signifies that it
concerns oblations and sacrifices. Soon after it
was compiled by Vyasa it became polluted, and 3 F6v 76
a new revelation called the White Yajush was
granted to Yajnyawalkya, while the remains of
the former Yajush is distinguished by the title
of the Black Yajurveda. Some of the prayers
called Rich are included in this Veda, but its
own peculiar muntras are in prose.

A peculiar degree of holiness is attributed to
the Samaveda, as its name signifies that which
destroys sin. Its texts are usually changed,
and I have occasionally been delighted with the
solemn tones issuing from the domes of the
native temples, at sunset, before the moment
for the ceremonial ablutions had arrived.

The last or At’harvan Veda is chiefly used at
rites for conciliating the deities, or for drawing
down curses on enemies, and contains some
prayers used at lustrations. As a specimen of
the Hindû taste in curses, I send you the following:
“Destroy, O sacred grass,Open note 10Back to note ¹⁰ my foes; exterminate
my enemies; annihilate all those who
hate me, O precious gem!”

The most remarkable part of the At’harvan
Veda consists of the treatises called UpanishatsUpanishads.
The meaning of this word is divine science, or
the knowledge of God; and the whole of the
Indian theology is professedly founded on the
Upanishads, which are either extracts from the F7r 77
Vedas, or essays belonging to the Indian Scriptures.

To give you an idea of the doctrines contained
in the Vedas, and of the style in which
they are conveyed, I shall transcribe some passages
from that portion of the Rigveda called
Aitareya Aranyaca, the four last lectures of
which, containing the most sublime account of
the creation, excepting that in the book of Genesis,
that I have ever met with, are translated
by Mr. Colebrooke in his essay on the Vedas,
published in the eighth vol. of the Asiatic Researches.

The fine passage, however, which opens this
portion of the sacred writings, is followed by
some of a very different cast; which make it
“lose discountenanced, and like folly show;”
so that one knows not whether most to admire
the great man who conceived the first, or to
despise the compiler who could place such ill-
assorted materials together.

“Originally this universe was indeed soul
only; nothing else whatever existed, active or
inactive. He thought, I will create worlds. Thus he created these various worlds; water,
light, mortal beings, and the waters. That
water, is the region above the heaven, which
heaven upholds; the atmosphere comprises light;
the earth is mortal; and the regions below are
the waters.”

F7v 78

After proceeding to describe the production
of all beings from the mundane egg floating
on the waters, the Aitaréya asks, “What is
this soul? that we may worship him. Which is
the soul? Is it that, by which a man sees? By
which he hears? By which he smells odours?
By which he utters speech? By which he discriminates
a pleasant or an unpleasant taste? Is
it the heart, or understanding? Or the mind, or
will? Is it sensation? or power? or discrimination?
or comprehension? or perception? or retention?
or attention? or application? or taste
(or pain?) or memory? or assent? or determination?
or animal action? or wish? or desire?

All these are only various forms of apprehension.
But this (soul consisting in the faculty
of apprehension) is Brahma; he is Indra, he is
(Prajapati) the lord of creatures: these gods
are he; and so are the five primary elements,
earth, air, the etherial fluid, water and light;
these, and the same joined with minute objects
and other seeds of existence, and again other
being produced from eggs, or borne in wombs,
or originating in hot moisture, or springing from
plants; whether horses, or kine, or men, or elephants,
whatever lives, and walks, or flies, or
whatever is immoveable, as trees and herbs:
all that is the eye of intelligence. On intellect
every thing is founded: the world is the eye of F8r 79
intellect; and intellect is its foundation. Intelligence
is (Brahme) the great one. By this intuitively intelligent soul, that
sage ascended from the present world to the
blissful region of heaven, and, obtaining all his
wishes, became immortal. He became immortal.
May my speech be founded on understanding;
and my mind be attentive to my utterance.
Be thou manifested to me, O self-manifested
(intellect!) For my sake, O speech and
mind! approach this Veda. May what I have
heard be unforgotten: day and night may I
behold this, which I have studied. Let me
think the reality: let me speak the truth. May
it preserve me; may it preserve the teacher;
me may it preserve; the teacher may it preserve;
may it preserve the teacher.”

To this long quotation I will only add the
conclusion of a hymn on the same subject,
which is found in a different part of the Rigveda.

“Who knows exactly, and who shall in this
world declare, whence and why this creation
took place? The gods are subsequent to the
production of this world; then who can know
whence it proceeded? or whence this varied
world arose? or whether it uphold itself or not?
He, who is in the highest heaven, the ruler F8v 80
of this universe, does indeed know; but not
another can possess that knowledge.”

Perhaps you will be as much struck as I was
with the grandeur and simplicity of “He
thought, I will create worlds; thus He created
these worlds.” But you must be aware that
this is the creed of the learned, and not that
of the people, who are taught the common mythological
fables of the alternate destruction and
renovation of the earth, with the periodical
sleep of Brahma, or rather of Vishnu, the preserving
power, during whose slumbers the genius
of destruction prevails.

These better notions of the Vedas, and particularly
those of the Aitaréya Aranyaca are
professedly the fundamental doctrines of the
philosophers of the Vedanta sect, whose speculations
appear to coincide nearly with those of
Berkeley, and perhaps, of Plato. The Sastra
which contains the doctrine of the Vedantas is
ascribed to Vyasa, and the commentator is Sancara,
who explains and enlarges the very ancient
and almost obsolete texts of this author.
The opinions of this school concerning matter
are, that it has no existence independent on
mental perception, and consequently that existence
and perceptibility are controvertible terms.
That external appearances and sensations are
illusory, and would vanish into nothing if the G1r 81
divine energy which alone sustains them were
suspended but for a moment.

Their notions concerning the human soul approach
nearly to the Pantheism of some other
philosophical sects, and may be understood from
the following text. “That spirit from which
these created beings proceed; through which,
having proceeded from it, they live; toward
which they tend, and in which they are ultimately
absorbed, that spirit study to know; that
spirit is the great one.”Open note 11Back to note ¹¹

The oldest philosophical sect in India appears,
however, to have been that of the followers
of Capila, inventor of the Sanc’hya or
numeral philosophy which Sir William Jones
thought resembled the metaphysics of Pythagoras,
who is said, indeed, to have travelled
into India in search of knowledge, and who
might possibly have adopted the tenets of the G G1v 82
Brahmins his instructors. Next to the Sanc’hya,
Gotama and Canáda invented the Nyáya or logical
philosophy, admitting the actual existence
of material substance in the popular sense of the
word matter, and comprising a body of dialectics,
with an artificial method of reasoning, with distinct
names for the three parts of a proposition
and even for those of a regular syllogism.Open note 12Back to note ¹²

The philosophy of the Baudd’ha and Jaina
religious sects is branded with the name of
atheism by the orthodox Brahmins, who assert
that they deny the existence of spirit independent
on matter, and consequently that of the
supreme intelligence. But we may, I think,
doubt how far the assertions of enemies and rivals
are entitled to belief.

Thus you see the forests and groves of Hindostan
produced systems of philosophy long before
she “From heav’n descended to the low-roofed house Of Socrates.”

G2r 83

And conjecture, and even tradition seem to
point them out as the origin of all the “Streams that watered all the schools Of academies old and new, with those Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe.”

A thousand circumstances concur to identify
the ancient religions of India and Egypt; and
to render it most probable that the relation of
their sciences and philosophy was not less intimate.
Which was the most anciently civilized
of the two countries will probably ever remain
undetermined; but the Indians seem on many
accounts to lay claim to a superior antiquity.
Their physical situation, so well adapted to the
production of all that nature requires, while it
must have been long before the muddy shores
of the Nile were habitable, is not the least argument
in their favour; besides, their traditions
and poems all seem to point to the north as
the quarter whence they received their religion,
their science, their language, and their conquerors,
which could not have been the case
if they were originally from Egypt. It is possible
that the same origin may be common to
them both, and that the similarity observed in
the monuments of every kind in the two nations
may be drawn from one common source.

Now the Greeks confessedly borrowed from G2 G2v 84
the Egyptians, but transporting their coarse
and clumsy imagery into their own charming
climate, genius refined and purified it with her
magic touch, and formed even in the infancy
of happy Greece those models, which like the
ideal beauty of the painter, future times have
sought unceasingly to emulate, but sought in
vain; while the ancient mothers of art, continued
their massy and ill-formed works, as if
the palsied hand of time had brought them
back to a state of infancy and fixed them in
irrecoverable mediocrity. You have only to
compare the rude sketch I send you of a still
ruder deity,Open note 13Back to note ¹³ with the beautiful head of the
Apollo, and if for a moment you can forget its
deformity to think of the ingenuity that made
the elephant’s head the symbol of the god of
letters, I shall think you deserve to be born a
Brahmin in your next visit to this world, and
to be one of Genesa’s especial favourites, with
whose name I conclude this letter, the subject
of which is peculiarly his own.

Letter VI.

You flatter me extremely by desiring
the continuance of so grave a correspondence
as mine on the subject of India has hitherto G3r 85
been, and, what is worse, I fear I cannot promise
to be much more amusing in future. The
truth is, that the literature of the East has hitherto
been kept so totally distinct from that
of Europe, that the moment one touches on an
oriental subject, one conjures up the figures of
grave professors with cauliflower wigs, and expects
to hear beef and mutton talked of in the
original Hebrew. Now really it has often mortified
me, to think I was living under the same
government and protected by the same laws
with my fellow-subjects in India, and that I
knew as little about them as about the inhabitants
of Mercury, who are so enveloped in sunbeams
as to be dark with excess of light; so
that you owe to my vanity all these long
stories of philosophers and poets with which I
have treated you for some time past.

I am not sure that I was not once liable to
the reproach of European prejudice so far as to
despise immeasurably the Hindu meekness, and
half polish; and perhaps I should be ashamed to
own that I had so far strayed from good-nature
and good-sense, as to forget, that whatever reproaches
may be deservered by some of the Hindus
for their moral practices, the fundamental
principles of morality itself are so firmly implanted
in the soul of man that no vicious
practice and no mistaken code can change G3v 86
their nature, and that we should look on the
historian who should tell us of laws which
enacted theft and murder, or punished honesty
and benevolence, with as little credit, as on him
who should talk of “men whose heads do grow
beneath their shoulders.”

Our missionaries are very apt to split upon
this rock, and in order to place our religion in
the brightest light, as if it wanted their feeble
aid, they lay claim exclusively to all the sublime
maxims of morality, and tell those they
wish to convert, that their own books contain
nothing but abominations, the belief of which
they must abandon in order to receive the purer
doctrine of Christianity. Mistaken men! could
they desire a better opening to their hopes than
to find already established that morality which
says, it is enjoined to man even at the moment
of destruction to wish to benefit his foes, “as
the sandal tree in the instant of its overthrow sheds
perfume on the axe that fells it.”

How happy would it be if instead of fighting
with the air as these good men persist in doing,
they were employed in teaching the rudiments of
knowledge, in searching for, and compiling such
moral passages from the ancient Hindû books,
as, taught to the young Indians, might improve
them, and render them worthy of still further
advantages, an improvement they would be far G4r 87
from refusing, as it would accord with their
prejudices, and being founded on the wisdom
of their forefathers would carry with it the authority
of religion and the attractions of affection.
Should we hear of the habitual want of
truth in the Hindûs, if from their infancy they
were exercised in those sacred passages where
truth in all her sublime and attractive array is
identified with the universal soul, and made
familiar with the strains of the poet, who speaking
of the inviolability of a promise, sings,
“Before the appointed hour even thou thyself
art not able to destroy the tyrant to whom thou
hast promised life; no more than the sun is able
prematurely to close the day which he himself
enlightens.”Open note 14Back to note ¹⁴

In short I consider morality like the sciences
and arts, to be only slumbering not forgotten
in India; and that to awaken the Hindûs to a
knowledge of the treasures in their own hands
is the only thing wanting to set them fairly in
the course of improvement with other nations.

Everywhere in the ancient Hindû books we
find the maxims of that pure and sound morality
which is founded on the nature of man as a rational
and social being. Their laws themselves G4v 88
pronounce future punishments against the hypocrite
and fraudulent; while the violation of the
social relations by the commission of adultery is
punished with a severity beyond that exercised
by almost any other people. Even the minor
moral or rule of courtesy has not been neglected
by the lawgivers, for Menu says, “Let one
not insult those who want a limb, who are unlearned,
who are advanced in age, who have no
beauty, no wealth, or who are of ignoble birth.”
Maxims which might have become the noble
courtesy of the Spartans, while Athenian politeness
scarcely exceeds that other saying of
the sage, “Let a man say what is true, but let
him say what is pleasing.”

The Hindûs claim the honour of having invented
the method of teaching by apologues,
and whatever we may think of the justice with
which the claim is made, when we remember
the fables used by Samson, it is beyond a
doubt that one of the oldest collections of fables
in existence is that long known in Europe by
the title of Pilpay’s Fables, but which Mr.
Wilkins has restored to its original name of
Heetopadesa, where rules and maxims for the
government of a state, a household, and one’s
own conduct, are aptly illustrated in a series of
apologues related by a Brahmin tutor, to his G5r 89
pupils, two young princes whom he prepares for
the exercise of regal power at the request of
their father.

I am not sure that I need defend the laws of
the Hindûs as I have done their morality, because
I do not recollect ever having been unjust towards
them myself; but I think that they bear the impression
of a certain state of civilization, which
does no appear to have been far enough advanced,
to have restored to men that portion of
liberty which in times of high cultivation is naturally
recovered from the laws instituted in the
early stages of society, when lawgivers, delighted
with their first triumphs over savage man, attempt
to render their regulations perfect, by
making them reach to every offence and degree
of offence whether public or private. Accordingly
we find among the Hindû laws, a number
of frivolous and vexatious details interfering
with almost every employment and every action
of human life; for instance, the laws of Menu
contain prohibitions against biting the nails, or
washing the feet in a pan of yellow mixed metal,
with cautions not to walk in the shadow of a
copper-coloured or red-haired man, besides tedious
sumptuary laws, especially regarding the
dress of women.

However, there are among these laws many
that shew the legislator to have been wise and G5v 90
humane, and give us a high idea of the governments
of ancient India. The laws of Menu
which you may read in Sir William Jones’s Translation, are said to have been compiled
about -0800nine centuries before Christ; but as the
age of the Vedas is fixed considerably earlier,
we may conclude that the laws themselves are
much more ancient, whether handed down by
tradition or preserved in writing.Open note 15Back to note ¹⁵

From this code it appears that the ancient
Hindû courts were held openly by the king or
by his judges, who might be chosen from either
of the three first or twice-born castes, although
a Brahmin was preferred. The judges are enjoined
to understand the expedient, but to pronounce
according to the strict interpretation of
the law. Three witnesses were required to prove
an accusation, which witnesses might be of any
class, and where women were concerned, women
were also to be witnesses. I am sure you will
admire the address which the judge is directed
to make to the witnesses. “The soul itself is
its own witness, the soul itself is its own refuge: G6r 91
Offend not thy conscious soul the supreme internal
witness of men! The sinful have said in
their hearts, None sees us; yes, the gods distinctly
see them; and so does the spirit within
their breasts.”Open note 16Back to note ¹⁶ I think you must recollect me
telling you that the Parsees in Bombay regulated
their own affairs by their Panchaït or village
council. This Panchaït is borrowed by
them from the Hindus, and consisted of a little
jury which received and decided on evidence
under the head man of the village or Patel, who
was again subject to the governor of a larger
district, and so on through several gradations
to the sovereign himself. Every village or rather
township was surrounded with its fields,
which were sometimes cultivated in common,
but more frequently each man tilled his own
ground, and there was besides a village waste,
which served for the common pasturage of the
inhabitants. In each township there were twelve
principal persons, 1st, the patel or magistrate;
2d, the registrar; 3d, and 4th, the watchmen of
the village and of the crops, 5th, the distributer
of the waters; 6th, the astrologer, who announced G6v 92
the seasons for sowing and reaping;
7th, the smith; 8th, the carpenter; 9th, the
potter; 10th, the washerman; 11th, the barber,
and 12th, the silversmith, who is sometimes excluded
from the number, and his place filled by
the village poet or schoolmaster. These twelve
received a compensation for their labour in land
on in fees from the crops of their neighbours;
and such was the constitution of each township,
whose internal regulations suffered no change,
whatever political revolutions might happen in
the state. The laws or customs concerning the
property of land have unfortunately either been
lost or are so vaguely expressed as to have led
to considerable controversy in our times; and
to a more serious disadvantage in the difficulty
of settling a fixed revenue without committing
injustice to the landholder. Very many authorities
have been adduced to prove that the
sovereign was the possessor of the soil, and that
the usufruct only belonged to the landholder. But
I own that to me the arguments for the contrary
opinion appear the strongest, inasmuch as the
right of sale and inheritance are unquestioned.Open note 17Back to note ¹⁷
The king’s revenue arose from a sixth of the
produce of the land, which might be legally, G7r 93
and indeed often was, redeemed for a price in
money.

The Hindû law of inheritance divides the
property into equal shares, two of which go to
the eldest son, one and a half to the next, and
one to each of the others; or the eldest son
takes one share, and the best article out of
the chattels of his father; besides which, a single
sheep or other animal may not be divided, but
is given to the eldest. To the unmarried daughters
the brothers give each a fourth of his share
as portions. The sons inherit first, then the
daughters and wife, after whom all descendants,
either male or female, real or adopted, before collateral
relations.

Should a whole family choose to remain together,
the eldest son takes his father’s place,
and enjoys the property undivided, providing
for all the rest as his father did in his lifetime;
a custom which reminds one of the patriarchal
times when Lot sojourned with Abraham till
they increased so greatly, when Abraham divided
the property and they parted, Lot journeying
towards the East, and Abraham dwelling in the
land of Canaan.

I feel a little angry however with one part of
the code of Menu, where he says that a woman
may never be independent, but that in her
youth she belongs to her father, on her marriage 2 G7v 94
to the husband, and on his death to her sons or
other male relations; and again, that a wife, a
son, and a slave can have no property independent
on the husband, father or master; thus
classing them together.

However we must not look upon the state of
slaves in the East in the same light in which we
have been accustomed to consider the negroes
in the West Indies. A man purchased by
a Hindû or Mahomedan becomes one of his
family, and is liable to no greater hardships
than the son of his purchaser, and is frequently
treated with as much consideration. The eldest
servant of Abraham’s house ruled over all that
he had, and was charged by his master with the
care of providing a wife for his only son; and the
manners in the East have been so stationary that
no material change has taken place in the situation
of slaves. All the laborious occupations of
husbandry which European merchants forced
their slaves in foreign climates to perform, have
always been carried on in the East by free husbandmen,
and all the mechanical arts by free
persons of particular classes, so that the slaves
could only be household servants, and by living
constantly in the families to which they belonged,
they acquired claims to tenderness and
consideration which were seldom if ever resisted.

In perusing the laws of Menu you will no G8r 95
doubt be struck as I was with the number of
laws favourable to the Brahminical order. For
instance, in the 8th chapter, “Never shall the
king slay a Brahmin though convicted of all
possible crimes: let him banish the offender
from his realm; but with all his property secure
and his body unhurt. No greater crime is
known on earth than slaying a Brahmin, and
the king therefore must not even form in his
mind an idea of killing a priest.” And again,
in the 1st chapter, “Whatever exists in the
universe is all in effect, though not in form, the
wealth of the Brahmins, since the Brahmin is
intitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence
of birth.”

Would one not imagine that the spirit, if not
the letter, of these laws had transmigrated into
the popes and their myrmidons during the middle
ages? If the unfortunate brother of Chandragupta,
whom the Greeks call Sandracottus, fell a
victim to his expressions of contempt for a filthy
and deformed Brahmin, we have seen an emperor
(Henry IV.) distinguished for many virtues and
possessed of considerable talents, standing for
three days barefooted in the depth of winter, at
the gate of the haughty bishops of Rome; and
another Henry, among the most virtuous of the
English monarchs, receiving stripes at the tomb
of him who had made his life a constant martyrdom.3 G8v 96
If the Brahmins, protected in their persons
and property, yet presided in courts where
they condemned others to the severest penalties
of the laws, the priesthood of Europe, no less
privileged, while they claimed exemption from
all secular jurisdiction, exercised the power of
life and death in their own courts, to which
every man was amenable, whose strength in
arms was not sufficient to protect him. Happily
for Europe the priesthood was not hereditary or
confined to one class. The constant influx of
new members who brought something of the
common world into the cloister, preserving their
family relations and the connections of country,
prevented their becoming a distinct caste, an
evil which would inevitably have prolonged the
darkness which so long overwhelmed the western
world, if it had not confirmed it for ever. It is
scarcely possible to imagine any two systems
more nearly allied than those of the Brahmins
and of the priests of the middle ages. The
monasteries in the West, endowed by royal
patrons, and enriched by the pious contributions
of all ranks, were only rivalled by the
magnificence of the Hindû temples, supported
by royal and private grants of land, and other
valuables, and adorned with the jewels of the
pious, or the expiatory offerings of the offender.
The priests of both classes esteemed it more H1r 97
honourable to subsist by alms than to labour,
and both arrogated to themselves the right of
instructing and guiding the people, and of directing
the secret councils of their monarchs.

The trials by ordeal so common in Europe in
the middle ages, have subsisted from time immemorial
in India, and, though generally disused,
they are still of authority, and have been
appealed to at Benares so late as 1783A.D. 1783.
Robertson, in his History of Charles the Fifth,
supposes that these trials were invented in Europe
to remedy the defects of the judicial proceedings
of those times, and to guard against the numerous
frauds, and the injustice which could not
but arise from the practice of allowing a man to
clear himself from any accusation by compurgation,
or the oaths of himself and his neighbours or
relations. But the extreme similarity between
the trial by ordeal as practised in India, and the
appeal to the justice of God common in Europe,
would lead us to believe that they had a common
and more ancient origin. The principles
on which such appeals rest, are indeed founded
in human nature, and have given rise not only
to these absurdities, but to the belief in magic,
and the train of follies attendant on it. It is
natural for the savage, in such cases as his own
sagacity is incompetant to investigate and to decide,
to look to some superior power for aid, H H1v 98
and in many cases the workings of conscience
itself, on being brought to a test, which it was
firmly believed was directed by a Supreme omniscient
Being, would produce effects consonant
to the justice of the cause, and every such event
would give strength to the popular faith in the
efficacy of the trials. The rocking-stones which
are found on the coast of Cornwall, and other
parts of England, were used as an ordeal by the
Druids; and well might fear palsy the hand ere
it touched the rock of trial, while innocence
boldly approached and moved the mighty
mass.Open note 18Back to note ¹⁸ Notwithstanding these considerations
which account for a similarity of principle,
the exact coincidence of many of the forms
used, persuades me, that they are so many
traces of the ancient and intimate connexion
which Sir William Jones pronounces, it would
be possible to prove, between the first race
of Persians and the Indians, to whom we may
add the Greeks and Romans, the Goths and
the old Egyptians or Ethiops, who according
to him originally spoke the same language,
and professed the same popular faith: And
probably the more familiar we become with the
antique customs, laws and manners of Hindostan, H2r 99
the stronger will the resemblances be found,
and the clearer the traces of the ancient connexion
and subsequent separation of these various
tribes.

But I will not detain you with my own opinions
on the subject, but state the facts on
which they are grounded. The trial by ordeal
is of nine kinds, 1st, by the balance, 2d, by
fire, 3d, by water, 4th, by poison, 5th, by the
cosha, 6th, by rice, 7th, by boiling oil, 8th, by
red-hot iron, and 9th, by images.

The first, a trial by the balance, is made
by the accused person performing worship to
the fire, and afterwards fasting a whole day,
when he is weighed twice or thrice, and if at
the second or third weighing he is found heavier
than at first he is guilty. The writing on the
wall over against Belshazzar king of Babylon,
“thou art weighed in the balance, and found
wanting,” ( Daniel, chap. v. ver. 27) of which
text Milton has made so noble a use in the end
of the 4th book of the Paradise Lost. “The fiend looked up and knew His mounted scale aloft, nor more but fled Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.”
Probably refers to a similar trial used by the
Babylonians; and Homer also makes Jove hang
out the scales of life to weigh the fate of his son
Sarpedon.

H2 H2v 100

The second and third ordeals, those by
fire and water, were administered pretty much
in the same manner as in the western courts.
In the former, the culprit after his accusation
had been publicly declared, walked through
fire or over hot embers. The antiquity of this
trial needs no farther proof than the passage of
the Ramayuna, where Sita to dispel the suspicions
of Rama passed through the fire. Its existence
in ancient Persia is proved by Ferdousi,
one of whose heroes, Syawousch, the eastern
Hippolytus, passes through the fiery ordeal to
clear himself from the guilt imputed to him by
his mother-in-law. But the most extraordinary
use of the fire ordeal that I recollect, belongs
to Europe: I mean the famous trial of the Musarabic
and Romish liturgies in Spain, during
the 1000–109911th century, which was had recourse
to after the trial by judicial combat; when, contrary
to the wishes of the court, and the interest
of the superior clergy, the champion of the
Musarabic book, had triumphed over the knight
of the Roman faith.Open note 19Back to note ¹⁹ The last legal trials by
fire or by water in England were in King John’s H3r 101
reign; but I suspect that since that time many
an old woman has been drowned in endeavouring
to prove her innocence of witchcraft, by the
trial whether she sank or swam in water. This
mode of trial differs but little from that of the
Hindûs, among whom the accused is compelled
to put his head under water, and if he raises it
before a person appointed for the purpose has
walked a certain distance, he is guilty.

The trials by poison are of two kinds. One
is by swallowing poison from the hand of a
Brahmin after worshipping the fire, when the
culprit is absolved if he survives, and the other
method is to take a ring out of a vase in which
a venomous snake has been confined, who at
once convicts and punishes the unfortunate
wretch if he bites him.

The trial by the Cosha resembles that mentioned
in the fifth Chapter of Numbers, which
treats of the law of jealousy. Among the Hindûs
it is conducted by making the accused person
drink of the water in which idols have been
washed, while the Jews put the dust that
covered the floor of the tabernacle into the
water. In both cases indisposition within a prescribed
time after the draught was the sign of
guilt.

The trial by rice was performed by chewing
consecrated rice, and if it came out of the
mouth bloody or dry the accused person was H3v 102
condemned. The trial by images, called Dherma
and Adherma, or justice and injustice, consisted
in taking out of a covered vase a figure of
lead or other base metal, or one of silver. The
silver image absolved, and the base metal condemned.
Sometimes pieces of black and white
cloth with the images painted on them were used.

The trial by red-hot iron has been used in
Europe in various forms. In the early history
both of France and England, there are instances
of accused persons of high rank, particularly
women, walking over red-hot ploughshares; and
you doubtless remember the anecdote of one of
the Paleologi, who, when required by the patriarch
of Constantinople to take a red-hot ball
off the altar, begged the holy man to set him the
example, as certainly his innocence must be
sufficient to guard him from harm, if it were
possible that a soldier might remain unhurt.
In this latter form of handling a hot ball, a man
was tried at Benares, in the year 17831783, on the
following occasion. A man accused one Sancar
of larceny, who pleaded not guilty, and as the
theft could not be proved by legal evidence, the
trial by ordeal was offered to the appellee, and
accepted by him; and after obtaining permission
from the Honourable Company’s government, it
was conducted as follows, in the presence of
Ali Ibrahim Khan, chief magistrate of Benares,
from whose account of it, in the first volume of H4r 103
the Asiatic Researches, I take the story, and
indeed the rest of the history of Indian ordeals.

“The Pandits of the court and city having
worshipped the god of knowledge,Open note 20Back to note ²⁰ and presented
their oblation of clarified butter to the
fire, formed nine circles of cow-dung on the
ground; and, having bathed the appellee in the
Ganges, brought him with his clothes wet, when,
to remove all suspicion of deceit, they washed
his hands with pure water; then having written
a state of the case, and the words of the Muntra,
on a palmyra-leaf, they tied it on his head; and
put into his hands, which they opened and
joined together, seven leaves of pippal, seven of
jend, seven blades of darbha grass, a few flowers,
and some barley moistened with curds,
which they fastened with seven threads of raw
white cotton. After this, they made the ball
red-hot, and taking it up with tongs, placed it
in his hands: he walked with it, step by step,
the space of three gaz and a half, through each
of the seven intermediate rings, and threw the
ball in the ninth, where it burnt the grass
that had been left in it. He next, to prove
his veracity, rubbed some rice in the husk between
his hands, which were afterwards examined,
and were so far from being burned, that
not even a blister was raised on either of them.
Since it is the nature of fire to burn, the officers H4v 104
of the court, and people of Benares, near five
hundred of whom attended the ceremony, were
astonished at the event; and this well-wisher to
mankind was perfectly amazed. It occurred to
his weak apprehension, that probably the fresh
leaves and other things which, as it has been
mentioned, were placed in the hands of the accused,
had prevented their being burned; besides,
the time was short between his taking the
ball and throwing it down: yet it is positively
declared in the Dherma Sastra, and in the
written opinions of the most respectable Pundits,
that the hand of a man who speaks truth cannot
be burned; and Ali Ibrahim Khan certainly
saw with his own eyes, as many others also saw
with theirs, that the hands of the appellee in
this cause were unhurt by the fire: he was,
consequently, discharged; but, that men might in future be deterred from demanding the
trial by ordeal, the appellor was committed for
a week. Nearly about the same time, another man
submitted to the trial of hot oil, plunging his
hand into a vessel full of it, to take out a ring;
but the result was different, for his hand was
burnt, and he was obliged to pay the value of
the property he was accused of stealing.”

Such are the Indian ordeals, for the practice
of which I know no absurdity more like than the
practice of sitting in dherna—a method of obtaining H5r 105
justice, or of enforcing a petition,
founded, I suspect, on the fear of drawing down
punishment by injuring a Brahmin, by whom
this species of importunity is chiefly practiced.
When a person wishes to gain a point that he has
no other means of carrying, and therefore resolves
to sit in dherna, he places himself at the door of
the person to whom it is to be obtained with a
dagger or poison in his hand, which he threatens
to use if the master of the house goes out, or
attempts to molest him; and as no sin is comparable
to that of causing the death of a Brahmin,
the unfortunate person is thereby completely
arrested. The Brahmin continues to sit fasting;
and it is customary for the person arrested to fast
also; so that it generally happens that the prosecutor
obtains his wish, partly by the dread of his
death, and partly by his importunity. I believe
this custom properly belongs to the Brahmins;
but I recollect a curious instance of it among a
lower tribe in Bombay. Shortly after I went there,
my tailor brought me a letter, intreating me to
beg the magistrates to take away a man who sate
in dherna at his door. On inquiring into the
case, I found that it was to recover a wife. It
seems the prosecutor having a wife whom he was
unable to support, during a time of scarcity,
had made her over to the tailor, who having a
good business, was not only able to maintain
her, but to dress her so well, that in time of H5v 106
plenty she never thought of returning to her
former husband; who nevertheless, as she was
able to do a good deal of work, wished to have
her back again. Not being able to obtain her
by intreaty, he had recourse to the method by
dherna, which I believe did not succeed, the
tailor rather choosing to give him a sum of
money than to part with the lady.

Many Brahmins obtain a subsistence from
other Hindoos by sitting in dherna before their
houses; but their demands in this case are so
moderate, as to be readily complied with. Some
of the Pundits admit the validity of an obligation
exhorted by dherna, while others reject it.

There is another kind of extrajudicial method
of extorting justice, called the koor. A circular
pile of wood is erected, and on it is placed a
cow, or an old woman, when the whole is set
fire to at once. The object of this is to intimidate
the officers of government or others
from importunate demands, the whole guilt of
the sacrifice being supposed to fall on those
who force the constructor of the koor to adopt
the cruel expedient.

These two barbarous methods of obtaining
justice, mark a greater degree of insecurity than
the general tenor of the Indian laws and police
would induce us to attribute to the state of society
in ancient India. It is probably, therefore,
that they had their origin during the civil wars, H6r 107
which desolated that country for some time
previous to the Mussulman invasion, or were
borrowed from some of the savage tribes who
occasionally made their inroads from the North.
Some other circumstances seem to give colour
to such a supposition—such as the murder of
innocent persons, in order that their ghosts may
haunt an enemy. Of this crime, you will find
several instances detailed in the twenty-second
article of the ninth volume of the Asiatic Researches,
but which are too shocking to dwell
upon: however, I cannot help noticing the
custom which prevailed in some of the Rajpoot
tribes, of putting to death their female
infants.

It was only in the year 17891789 that this custom
was known to prevail; and shortly afterwards,
measures were taken to induce them by arguments
sanctioned not only by natural feeling
and humanity, but also by the religion they profess,
to enter into an agreement to bring up
their female children. Happily, this measure
was productive of the best effects, and it is
probable, that at present the custom scarcely
exists.

Here is a very long letter; I only hope it
may entertain, or rather interest you, and that
my endeavours to shew the Hindûs, upon the
whole, in a more favourable light that you allow
them to deserve, or that I confess I once thought H6v 108
them worthy of, will not have entirely failed:
at the same time we see them men, and men
fallen from a high state of civilization to one
the most humiliating, with all the train of
vices which that humiliation is calculated to
produce.

But we must not forget what they were once.
Athens herself, alas! groans under the sway of
a Turkish Janissary; and the “mother of arts
and eloquence”—she who was “native to famous
wits, or hospitable”—now languishes in
her ruins; and instead of the voice of commerce
in her streets, and of the Muses in her groves,
echoes only the pitying sigh of the traveller. If
indeed her genius still survives, and watches
over her august ruins, she has been soothed by
one bright gleam, which has shone upon her
from our North, though it has been but to gild
her tomb.—
“’Tis Greece—but living Greece no more! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start;—for soul is wanting there. Hers is the loveliness in death That parts not quite with parting breah: But beauty with that fearful bloom, That hue which haunts it to the tomb— Expression’s last receding ray, A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of feeling past away! Spark of that flame—perchance of heav’nly birth— Which gleams, but warms no more its cherish’d earth!”
Giaour.

Letter VII.

You will think me very presumptuous
when I tell you I am going to mention the
Indian astronomy in this Letter: but I measure
my endeavours to give you the little information
I have myself, by the curiosity I know you to
possess, rather than by my abilities.

Of all the sciences cultivated by man, astronomy
is that which seems to raise him highest
in the scale of beings. Sublime as the heavens
in which it is conversant, it seems to detach him
from earth, and to place him in the midst of
beauty, order, and harmony. The magnificent
vault of heaven, studded with its brilliant gems,
revolving in ceaseless and silent course, must
naturally have attracted the earliest regards of
man; and to trace the progress of astronomy
from its first rude observations, would be to
follow the history of human progress from the
beginning of the world.

It was natural that the remains of a profound
knowledge of the laws of the heavenly bodies,
with exact and perspicuous rules for calculating
their phænomena, when first discovered in India, H7v 110
should have attracted no common share of attention
from the European philosophers But
on examination, the state of astronomy in modern
India exhibits the same melancholy traces
of decline and ruin which are discernible in
every other science which once flourished in
that venerable country.

The antiquity which may be assigned to the
Indian astronomy has been disputed; but the
general conclusion, drawn from the most respectable
authorities, gives its earliest recorded
observations in from -5000–-3001three to four thousand years
before the Christian æra. The arguments of those
who contend that the Indians received their
astronomy from the Greeks or Arabs, are refuted
by the fact, that though the astronomers of
Greece had every advantage over those of Hindostan,
excepting what they derived from the
antiquity of their science, they fell into
errors which the Hindûs entirely avoided; to
which may be added, that the calculus of the
Hindûs, more correct than that of Greece,
agrees in its delineation of the heavens at a
remote period with the improved state of astronomy
in modern Europe. Of the many proofs,
however, of the originality of the science in
Hindostan, the most remarkable is the rectification
of the circle, the rule for computing the H8r 111
length of its circumference, being used in India
before it was known in Europe.Open note 21Back to note ²¹

The existence of the Indian astronomy was
not known in Europe till M. de la Loubere,
ambassador of Louis XIV. at the court of Siam,
brought with him to France some tables and
rules for calculating the places of the sun and
moon, which were examined by Cassini, who
bore testimony to their accuracy. Other tables
were sent to Paris by the French missionaries;
and M. le Gentil, on his return from India,
where he had been to observe the transit of
Venus, 1769A.D. 1769, brought with him another
set of tables, and the Indian methods of calculating;
and in 17871787, M. Bailly published his Astronomie
Indienne, while in 17891789 Mr. Playfair’s
paper on the same subject appeared in the Edinburgh Transactions. Such was the state of
knowledge on this highly interesting subject
when the Asiatic Society was established. Since
that time, the volumes of their Researches have
been enriched with a variety of papers on
the Indian astronomy, from which I take the
facts I write to you, in hopes that though
I understand nothing whatever of the science
myself, you may be induced, in the East, to go H8v 112
on with studies in which I know you have already
made some progress.

The Hindû books on astronomy have the general
name of the Jyotish Sastras, in which are
to be discovered traits of a bright light, which
must have illumined mankind at so very early a
period, that M. Bailly seems to doubt whether
we should not regard them as remains of antediluvian
science, fragments of a system that is
lost, and whose ruins only serve to excite our
admiration.

The Surya Sidd’hantaOpen note 22Back to note ²² seems to be the Jyotish
Sastra of highest authority, if it be not the
oldest. It is said to have been revealed by
Surya, or the sun, to the sage Meya, according
to some about the year of the world 1956. The
obliquity of the ecliptic is stated in it to be 24°,
which, if founded on actual observation at the
time of compiling that Sastra, would confirm its
supposed antiquity.

The Hindû division of the zodiac into signs 3 I1r 113
and degrees, is the same as ours. Their year is
sidereal, and commences at the instant of the
sun’s entering the sign Aries, each astronomical
month containing as many days and fractions of
days as he stays in each sign. The civil time
differs from the astronomical year, in rejecting
the fractional parts, and the civil year and
month are begun at sunrise instead of midnight.

The epocha from which the Hindûs compute
the motions of the planets, is that point of time
counted back, when, according to their motions,
they must have been in conjunction at the first
point of Aries, or above a thousand millions of
years ago, it will take nearly double that period
before they are again in the same situation; and
the enormous interval between these conjunctions
is called a calpa, and mythologically a day
of Brahma. The calpa is divided into manuantaras,
and great and little yugs, the use of some
of which divisions is not now apparent; but the
greater yug is an anomalistic period of the sun
and moon, at the end of which they are found
together in the first of Aries. The division of
the great yug into the Satya, Treta, Dwapar,
and Cali yugs, are by some supposed to have
originated in the precession of the equinoxes
(Cranti), but by others they are considered
as purely mythological, like the golden, I I1v 114
silver, brazen, and iron ages, among the western
poets.

The really learned Jyotish Pandits have just
notions of the figure of the earth, and of the
œconomy of the universe; but they, in appearance,
agree with the popular notions on these
subjects—such as, that eclipses are caused by a
monster who occasionally interposes his head or
his tail (Cetu and Rahu, or the ascending and
descending nodes) between the earth and the
sun and moon; and that the earth is a plain,
supported on the backs of elephants, resting on
a tortoise, and other equally puerile superstitions.

But the return to the Jyotish Brahmins: one
of their methods for finding the latitude is by
an observation of the Palabha, or shadow projected
from a perpendicular gnomon, when the
sun is in the equator; and the longitude is directed
to be found by observation of lunar
eclipses, calculated for the first meridian, which
the Surya Sidd’hanta makes pass over Lanca
Rohitaca, Avanti (now Ougein) and Sannihitasaras.
In the Surya Sidd’hanta, the method of
observing the places of the stars is briefly hinted,
“The astronomer should frame a sphere, and examine
the apparent latitude and longitude.” Commentators
on this passage describe the method
of making the observation. They direct a spherical I2r 115
instrument (golayantra)Open note 23Back to note ²³ to be constructed.
On the pins of the axis of the sphere must be
suspended an intersecting graduated circle,
which appears to be a circle of declination.
The golayantra is then rectified, so that the
axis points to the pole, and the horizon is true
by a water level. “The instrument being thus I2 I2v 116
placed, the observer is instructed to look at the
star Revati through a sight fitted to an orifice at
the centre of the sphere; and having found the
star, to adjust by it the end of the sign Pisces
on the ecliptic. The observer is then to look,
through the sight at the chief (yóga) star of
Aswini, or any other proposed object, and to I3r 117
bring the moveable circle of declination over it.
The distance in degrees, from the intersection
of this circle and the ecliptic to the end of Pisces
(Mina), is its longitude in degrees; and the
number of degrees on the movable circle of declination
from the point of intersection to the
place of the star, is its latitude.” These latitudes
and longitudes of course require correction,
for which some rules are given; but, I
imagine, the manner of observing will be sufficient
for you at present. Another mode is
taught in the Sidd’hanta Sundara,Open note 24Back to note ²⁴ and expounded I3v 118
in the Sidd’hanta Sarvabhanma, the only work
in which the true latitudes and longitudes of the
stars are attempted to be given.

The notion of a polar star common to the Indian
and Greek astronomers could not be taken from
the present polar star in the Little Bear; Bailly
conjectures that one of the stars in the DragonOpen note 25Back to note ²⁵
was the polar star mentioned by Eudoxus, which
was nearest to the pole -13261326 years
before Christ; and it is possible, that either that, or
the great star in the same constellationOpen note 26Back to note ²⁶ which
was within one degree of the pole -28362836 years
before Christ, may be the polar star of the ancient
Hindû astronomers.

The Hindûs have a division of the ecliptic
and zodiac into twelve signs or constellations,
agreeing in figure and designation with those of
the Greeks, and differing merely in the place of
the constellations which are carried by them a
little further to the westward than by the Greeks.
But their most ancient distribution of the ecliptic
was into twenty-seven parts, nearly agreeing
with the Manzil or mansions of the moon used
by the Arabs, who might either have borrowed it
from the Hindûs, or derived it from the same common
source of some more ancient astronomy.Open note 27Back to note ²⁷

I4r 119

The principal star of each Nacshatra is called
Yogatara, but they are not the same with the
Yogas which regard astrology, and are also employed
in regulating moveable feasts. The
yoga is a mode of indicating the sum of the longitudes
of the sun and moon; the rules given for
its computation make it obvious that the yogas
are twenty-seven divisions of 360° of a great
circle measured on the ecliptic. The twenty-
eight yogas of the astrologers correspond with
the nacshatras, but vary according to the day of I4v 120
the week; they have also a division of the zodiac,
called dreshcana, answering to the Decani of
European astrologers. Each of the twelve signs
is divided into three dreshcanas, and over these
divisions thirty-six guardians are appointed whose
figure and habit are described minutely: these
dreshcanas are used in casting nativities and determining I5r 121
fortunate and unfortunate days or
hours, and the figures of their guardians are inscribed
on amulets or other charms. They correspond
not only with the Decani of the Greeks,
but with the Rab ul Wajeh of the Arabs who
were not less addicted to judicial astrology than
the Hindûs.

A modern Hindû will upon no account undertake
a journey or an enterprise of any kind
without consulting the astrologer, and you may
remember that I mentioned him as one of the
twelve chief persons in a village, where his office
is to declare the proper times for the different
operations of agriculture, to adjust the calendar
for religious festivals, besides the proclamation
of lucky and unlucky days. All of which, after
all, only proves that men are the same in ever
climate and under every circumstance: the augurs
of Greece and Rome, the soothsayers of
Israel, and the conjurors of modern Europe, like
the astrologers of Hindostan, had equally the
credulity of their fellow-mortals to work upon,
and as a knave sometimes ends in being as great
a dupe as those he deceives, the deception that
was begun from interested motives may be carried
on with the good faith of superstition.

Thus the most sublime science that the mind
of man ever aspired to grasp, has been made
subservient to purposes the most ridiculous, as if 3 I5v 122
poor human nature was destined to be humbled
even where she might justly have exalted herself.
Thank Heaven the days of the triumph of
astrology in the West are over, and there is little
danger of our seeing an army run away in consequence
of a bad omen, or a general keep his
tent because of an unlucky conjunction of the
stars! The lights of heaven now shine with beneficent
lustre to guide the mariner over the
trackless deep, and the “bands of Orion and
the sweet influences of the Pleïades”Open note 28Back to note ²⁸ cheer the
traveller as he wanders on through distant nations,
imparting and receiving knowledge.

The industry and ability of Mr. Strachey has
lately furnished us with a translation of a Sanscrit
work on algebra, called Bija Gannita, written
by Bhascara Acharya about the year 11881188 of
our æra. The work appears to have been written
with a view to astronomy, and seems to have
been compiled from more ancient materials: I
would fain refer you entirely for an account of
it to the Edinburgh Review for 1813-07July 1813, where,
among other curious remarks, you will find a
very ingenious explanation of use of the
word “colours” for unknown quantities. As the
operations of arithmetic received the name of I6r 123
“calculus” from the pebbles with which they were
carried on before the invention of numerical
signs, so the unknown quantities of the Indian
algebra must have received those of the colours
from the use of different coloured shells, flowers,
or pieces of cloth, when the first rude essays towards
inventing the science were made. This
may rationally be considered as a collateral proof
of the originality of the Hindû algebra; but
there appear to be others much more direct in
the solutions of various difficult problems given
in the Bija Gannita, some of which continued to
be unknown in Europe until the time of Euler,
which could scarcely have been the case if they
had been derived from the Greek and Arabian
writers, whose works are the foundation of modern
science. But I am so ignorant on this subject,
that I have written even the name of algebra
in fear and trembling, and only ventured to do
so as an excuse to tell you where you might
look for the best account of it in its Indian guise
that we yet possess in this country.

The mode of dividing time in India is very
unequal, as it depends on the seasons and consequent
length of day and night: the great divisions
are four day watches and four night
watches, each of which must of course vary with
the season; but the watches are subdivided into
ghurrees which are fixed, and contain twenty- I6v 124
four English minutes, so that there are sixty
ghurrees in the twenty-four hours, although the
number of ghurrees in each watch or puhur is
perpetually changing. The ghurree is divided
into sixty puls, the pul into sixty bipuls, and the
bipul into sixty till or anoopul. The way in
which these periods are measured for the common
purposes of life is with a kutoree, or thin
brass cup perforated at the bottom and placed
on the surface of water in a large vessel where
nothing can disturb it, when the water has filled
it to a certain line, which has been previously
adjusted astronomically by an astrolabe, the
ghurree allee or watchman strikes the ghurree
with a wooden mallet on a shallow bell-metal
pan, like those we bring from China under the
name of gongs, and besides the number of the
ghurree, that of the puhur is rung at the end of
each watch. The same kind of water measure,
but very delicately arranged, is used for astronomical
purposes. None but great men can afford
the luxury of a ghurree al or clock, as it
requires the attendance of numerous servants,
and the only public clocks in India are those
attached to the armies.

Letter VIII.

A thousand thanks for the patience
you have had with my last letter, which has
really encouraged me to begin this, and to go
on with the plan I had proposed. Since, then,
we have done with the heavens, it will not be
amiss to inquire what the ancient Hindûs thought
of the earth.

Their systems of geography are extremely curious,
though involved in considerable obscurity,
owing to the exuberance, or poverty, shall I say,
of the Hindû imagination, which delights in describing
mountains of precious stones, seas of
milk, and rivers of honey or butter; and has
pleased itself with rendering the world so equal,
that for every mountain in the south there is its
equivalent in the north, and that no river can
flow without a sister stream in an opposite direction.
Notwithstanding these disguises, however,
it is plain that the Hindûs had a very general
and tolerably correct notion of the old continent;
and though at first sight they appear
completely separated from the rest of the world,
the means by which they acquired their true
notions of it, become, on a little attention,
abundantly apparent.

I7v 126

In the first place, the rich productions of their
country, and the excellence of their manufactures,
would naturally draw a number of traders
to their cities, and as naturally lead them to
travel with their merchandise. Besides, they
believe that their ancestors came from the north,
and it is certain that to this day several places in
Tartary are visited by pilgrims as places of worship;
and Mr. Duncan, the late governor of
Bombay, told me he had seen one who had even
been to Moscow on a similar errand.Open note 29Back to note ²⁹ A pretty
regular intercourse has been at all times kept up
between India and Samarkand, Balkh, and other
northern cities where there are colonies of
Hindûs, established from time immemorial; and
one of the great pilgrimages from Hindostan is
to the place called the Fiery Mouth, on the
borders of the Caspian Sea.

We must not wonder that, in the early stages
of society, the recitals of pilgrims and merchants
concerning remote countries, should have been
embellished not only by themselves, but by those
who took upon them to record and preserve
them; and hence, in all probability, arose part,
at least, of the absurdity we remark in the Hindû
systems of geography.

I8r 127

These systems differ considerably among
themselves, even as related in the Puranas; but,
for the most part, they divide the earth into
seven Dwipa, or islands, the first of which,
Jambhu Dwipa, is evidently India itself, with
the countries surrounding it, bounded on the
east by the Yellow Sea, on the west by the Caspian,
extending north as far as the Frozen
Ocean, and washed on the south by the Indian
Sea.Open note 30Back to note ³⁰

The Mount Meru occupies the centre of
Jambhu Dwipa, and is described by the poets as
composed of gold and precious gems, three-
peaked, the habitation of the immortals, and
from it flow four rivers to the four quarters of
the earth, among which the Ganges rolls through
the southern quarter, and its source leads us to
the true position of Meru, the base of which is
the land of Illavrati, surrounded on all sides by
lofty mountains. Now this inclosed land is
found in Western Tartary, having on the south
Thibet, on the east the sandy desert of Cobi, on
the west the Imaus, and on the north the Altai
mountains; and from the four extremities of
this raised plain four of the largest rivers of the
old continent take their rise.

North and south of Meru three parallel ranges I8v 128
of mountains are described. The first range, on
the north, is the Nila, or blue mountains, which
appears to be part of the Altai, and is said to
inclose Ramanaca, or Dauria. Second, the
Sweeta, or white mountain, divides Ramanaca
from Heranya, or the gold country, whose inhabitants
are tall, robust, and rich in gold.Open note 31Back to note ³¹
Thirdly, the Sringavan mountains separate Heranya
from Ottara Curu, the northern Curu, or Siberia, which Pliny calls Ottorocoro. Here the
river Bhadra, probably the Irtush, flows into
the Northern ocean at the extremity of Jambhu
Dwipa. South of Meru are the Nishada mountains,
corresponding with the northern range of
Thibet hills, which country is named Herivarsha,
and is separated by the Himecuta mountains
from the land of Kinnara, comprising Srinagur,
Nepal, and Butan, and divided from
Bharata, or India, by the snowy chain of Hymaleya
or Imaus.

To the east of Meru, the mountains of Málayaván
divide Illavritta from the land of Badrawa,
which is bounded by the Golden Sea
(called by our geographers the Yellow Sea), into
which a river, called the Eastern Sita, empties K1r 129
itself, after passing through the lake Arunda,
(Orinnor) and is probably the Whang-ho, Haramoren,
or Yellow river. To the west of Meru
lies mount Vipula, an extension of Imaus; and
between it and the western sea, or Caspian, lies
the country of Cetumálá, comprising Sogdiana,
Bactriana, and Margiana, with part of the country
of the Sacæ. A river, called in some Puranas,
the Chaxu, in others the Javanxu, (Oxus,
or Jaxartes) after flowing through the lake Sitoda,
falls into the Caspian.

Major Wilford supposes the other six Dwipas
to comprehend all the rest of Asia and Europe,
even as far as Iceland, dividing those countries
as follows:—Cusa dwipa contains the countries
from the Indus to the Caspian and the Persian
Gulph. Placsha dwipa occupied the space between
those seas and the Mediterranean and
Euxine, or Lesser Asia, Armenia, Syria, &c.
Salmali Dwipa from the Tanais to Germany.
Crauncha dwipa contained Germany, France, and the adjacent countries. Sacam the British
islands, and Pushcara dwipa Iceland.

This gentleman, whose learned and ingenious
works adorn the Asiatic Researches, has an idea
that the British Isles are the sacred isles of the
West, mentioned in the Sastras of the Hindûs.
Should this opinion prove to have been unfounded,
no one will regret, however, that Major K K1v 130
Wilford has been induced to entertain it; for the
researches in which he engaged, in order to support
it, have made us acquainted with the geographical
systems of the Hindûs, and with the
true situations of almost all the kingdoms and
cities mentioned by ancient writers, both native
Hindûs, and Greeks and Romans, whose descriptions
are thus verified, and new confirmations
added to history.

Of the books from which the Hindû systems
of geography are to be learned, the Puranas are
the chief. To each of these there is a book annexed,
called Bhuvana Cosha, or dictionary of
countries. Besides these, Major Wilford mentions
several geographical treatisesOpen note 32Back to note ³² of the orthodox
Hindûs, and others of the Jines and
Baudd’has. The Hindûs, as I before mentioned,
consider Mount Meru as the center of the
world; and some of their books describe the
seven dwipas as disposed in concentric circles
around it, descending gradually from its summit,
and separated from each other by seas,
some of which they imagine to be salt, others
milky, or of the juice of the sugar cane, K2r 131
with other similar absurdities. The Baudd’has
of Thibet suppose Meru to be a square
pillar, and the dwipas, of course, square also;
while others among the Baudd’has imagine
the dwipas to be disposed in circles between
Jambhu dwipa and Mount Meru, which they thus
place at the north pole. This notion of the
circular divisions of the earth with interposing
seas, is not peculiar to the ancient Indians. The
Hindûs make the sacred Ganges wind seven
times round the base of Meru, thus forming the
seven dwipas; the Baudd’ha’s sea of milk encompasses
the same mountain eight times, while
the StyxOpen note 33Back to note ³³ of the western mythologists wound
nine times round the earth. “And with nine circling streams the captive souls inclosed.” 6th Æneis.—Dryden.

The fables of the Ædda agree also remarkably
with these notions; and perhaps their common
origin may be traced in Genesis, chap. II.
v. 10.

“And a river went out of Eden to water the
garden; and from thence it was parted, and became
into four heads.” K2 K2v 132

The four rivers of the Hindûs, into which the
Ganges separates, after circumambulating Meru,
are discharged from rocks having the faces of
different animals. Ganges descends from the
cow’s mouth, and is collected in the lake ManaSarovara,
to rest itself, after its fall from Meru,
before it descends to earth. Pliny and Q. Curtius
both mention this resting of the river in this
lake, the usual name of which is Mapanh. It
lies between thirty-three and thirty-four degrees
of north latitude, and between eighty-one and
eighty-two of east longitude. The Chaxu, the
Sita, and the Bhadra, which I have already mentioned,
flow in like manner through the heads
of animals: the last through that of a lion, the
second through that of an elephant, and the first
through that of a horse; which different animals
are supposed to impart their characters to
the nations watered by their streams, after their
sacred repose in their appropriate lakes.

This, I fancy, will be a sufficient specimen of
the geography of the Hindû books: I shall
therefore detain you no longer with it, but,
with the help of Major Wilford, endeavour to
reconcile the accounts of India, left us by the
ancients of the West, with the actual positions
of the places now existing, or whose remains
can yet be traced; and afterwards the ancient
divisions of the peninsula of India, according to K3r 133
their own historians, with those to which we
are now familiarized.

I cannot do better, I believe, than begin by
Major Wilford’s account of the famous royal, or
Nyssæan road, as described by Pliny and the
Peutingerian tables. Some of the measures and
distances given by the ancients, as they received
their accounts only by hearsay, are naturally
enough wrong, though, upon the whole, they
agree wonderfully well with the distances calculated
by Major Rennell.

This road, according to Dionysius Periegetes,
was made out with great care, and at the end
of every Indian itinerary measure a small column
was erected. To accompany this description, I
send you a little map which I made for my own
use; and, if not very exact, it will at least serve
to show the general line of the road. The first
part of this road, from the Indus to the Hyphasis,
is that pursued by Alexander in his expedition
into India, and the rest is that leading to
Palibothra, at that time the capital of the Hindû
empire.

Alexander crossed the Indus at the ferry of
Tor-Beilam, or the black shore, to the westward
of Peucolais, now Pirhola or Pucali, and advanced
to Taxila, the true name of which was
Tacsha Syala, or Tachila. It is now completely
in ruins, as well as a city which was built on its K3v 134
site by the Mussulmans, and called Turruck
Pehri. Thence he proceeded to Rotas, whose
Hindû name was Hridu, and on to the Hydaspes,
whose native names are Jailam and Behat.
Near the ferry there, was Alexandria Bucephalos,
remarkable for the neighbouring mountain,
called by Plutarch the mountain of the elephant,
by which title it is still known, and is remarkable
as a holy place, whence it is commonly
called Bal-Nath-Thileh, or the mountain of the
lord elephant. He then crossed the Acesines,
Chandra Bhaga, or Chinab river, near the town
called Spatura or Simtura by the Europeans,
and probably the modern Sadhorah. The city
of Lobaca, on the Hydraotes, or Ravi (the Iravati
of the Puranas) was the next station. It is
the modern Lahore, whose real name is Lavaca or Labaca, from Lava or Laba, a son of Rama,
and Lahore is corrupted from Lava-wara, the
place of Lava.

From Lahore the road crossed the Hyphasis or
Beya, and the Zadadrus or Satadru rivers, to the
town called Tahora or Tihotra; thence to Ketrora,
really C’hettri-wara, the capital of a
powerful tribe of C’hettris or Xetries, who lived
in a beautiful and woody country, whom Pliny
calls Cetriboni, from Xetri-ban, the forest of
Xetries. Ketrora is now Tanehsar. From Ketrora K4r 135
the road led to the Jumna, which it crossed
at Cunjpoora, and to the Ganges at Hustinapour,
the true situation of which was first discovered
by Major Wilford. This magnificent
capital, the seat of the monarchs descended
from Puru, had been supposed, by Abu Fazzle
and his followers, to have stood near Tanehsar,
to the west of the Jumna; but its true situation
is a few miles south-west of Darinagar, on a
branch of the Ganges, formerly the bed of that
river. It is the Bacinora of the Peutingerian
tables, and the Storna of Ptolemy. Bacinora is
a corruption of Hastinora or Wastinora, synonymous
with Hastinagara or Hastinapoor. Of
so large a city, there now remains only a small
place of worship, and the site of the city is
covered with large ant-hills. The next stage
from Hastinapoor was the Rodapha of Pliny
and the Rapphe of Ptolemy, now called Hurdowah,
from which Calinipaxa, properly Calinibasa,
of which there is no remains but the river
that gave it name, led to Allahabad, called
Gangapoor, or the town of the Ganges by Artemidorus.
From Allahabad to Palibothra the
road lay along the southern bank of the Ganges;
and Ptolemy gives the following stations: First,
the river Tuso, now the TouseTonse; thence to Cindia,
now Cauntee, on the banks of the Ganges,
almost opposite to Goopy Gunge, which, though K4v 136
now not in the road, might have been so formerly,
as the course of the river is considerably
changed.

After Cauntee, two cities, called Sagala, are
mentioned, one of which is Mirzapoor, and the
other Monghir. These places are said to have
a subterraneous communication, opened by
lightning, which may account for their having
the same name, while both the ancient Sanscrit
and modern names are different. The true
name for the first, Sagala, is Vindhya Vasini,
and of the second Mudgala. The first is a name
of the goddess Cali, and the second descriptive
of the charms of the situation. From Sagala
the distance is short to Palibothra or Baliputra,
called also Raja Griha. There is every reason
to believe that the Baliputras, or sons of Bali,
whose capital Palibothra was, abandoned it as
soon as the kings of Gaur or Bengal became
powerful, as it was too near their frontier; and
they afterwards fixed their residence at Padmavati
or Patna, which had also the names of Magad’ha,
Elimaied, and Almaied.

You have here the great Indian road, which
extends over a space of 1,476 British miles at
least, as mentioned by the western ancients;
but the regular road, instead of beginning with
the Tor Beilam, probably crossed the Indus at
Attock Benares, a few mile farther to the north. K5r 137
Ptolemy mentions some other roads used by the
traders to China; one of which departed from
Cabolitæ, or Cabul, and went through the mountains
north of the Panjab, where it was joined
by one from Tahora, at a point called Aris, in
the mountains of Haridwar. These two roads
are frequented to this day, and the place of
meeting called Khama lang. The road then goes
to Aspacora, in Thibet, mentioned by Ptolemy,
where it met with another from the Gangetic
provinces, and passed through Parthona, now
Kelten, with the epithet of Panjuling, whence,
perhaps, the Paliana of Ptolemy. This road
ends, in the tables at Magaris, corruptly for the
Thogaris of Ptolemy, now Tonkar, near Lassa.

The road from the Gangetic provinces came
from a place called Carsinac or Cartasina, now
Carjuna, near BurdwarBurdwan, whence through Scobaru,
now Cucshubaru, to Aspacora, which it
is probably was the rendezvous also of the caravans
which, according to Pliny, went by land
from Ceylon, or Taprobane, to China.

I have marked these routes on my little map,
in which I have abstained from putting any
names but those absolutely necessary.

The first division of India, which I noticed
while speaking of the languages in Hindostan, is
into the five Guars and the five Draviras, and K5v 138
concerning these authorities nearly agree. That
they really formed separate states, I should think
admitted of no doubt, as they each had a separate
language, which had been cultivated by
poets, if not by prose writers; and a nation
must have been long consolidated and independent
before it could form its language and
polish its style; and, on this account, I chuse
to begin with this division rather than with those
which have obtained in later times, but which I
shall notice.

The first of these nations was named from the
principal river which flowed through their country,
namely, the Sareswata. They probably occupied
all the Panjab as far west as the Indus,
and bounded to the south by Guzerat. In this
tract we find Lahore, Multan and part of Ajmere,
and that portion of Delhi, which contains
Hissar Firoze, which I mentioned to you before,
on account of its canals. This country is particularly
interesting, as it contains the whole
space marched over by Alexander, and the
course of his fleet down the Hydaspes and Indus
to the ocean.

The Canyacubjas, whose capital was Canoge,Open note 34Back to note ³⁴
appear to have been a warlike nation, and oc facing K5v Figure map of India with script place names, rivers, and political kingdom boundaries drawn in dotted lines. Printed captionTen Kingdoms of Bharata
or Ancient India facing K6r K6r 139
casionally to have carried their arms, and extended
their dominion, over great part of India,
so that it would be difficult to fix their boundary,
especially as the language formed upon
theirs is understood over almost the whole of
Hindostan and the Deccan. Their dominion,
however, may be considered as extending over
part of the province of Delhi, with Oude, Agra,
Serinagur, and, probably, Allahabad and Kashmeer.
It was bounded on the north by the Himaleyah,
or snowy mountains, whence flow the
Junma, Ganges, Serju, and other rivers; and it
was also watered by the Sinde, Chumbul, Tonsa,
and Sona, from the Ricksha hills. I should be
inclined to think this kingdom the paradise of
Brahminism. Canoge itself is situated on the
Holy Ganga. Delhi, anciently Indrapati, or
the city of Indra, occupies a station, little inferior
in sanctity, on the Junma. Hastinapoor,
the residence of the kings of Puru’s race, surrounded
by its sacred groves, and washed by
the daughter of Jahnu (Ganges) divided with
Canoge the honours of the capital; and the two
holy cities, Gungapoor (Allahabad) and Casi (Benares) still pride themselves on their antiquity
and sanctity.

Mait’hila, or Tirhut, extended from the Cusi
(Causica) to the Gundhuc (Gandhaca) and
from the Ganges to the mountains of Nepaul, 7 K6v 140
and contained the modern Sircars of Tirhut, and
the adjoining districts of Hajipoor, Betnah, and
perhaps Tirhucti, celebrated for its race of Brahmins,
its schools, and its learning.

Gaura, or Bengala, extended over the province
of Bengal, and probably part of Bahar, the
ancient Maghada, whose monarchs succeeded to
those of Canoge, if they were not the same
race, in the extensive dominion they possessed
in India. This province formed part of the kingdom
of the Prasii, or Prachii (people of the East,)
whose capital, the famous Palibothra (Baliputra)
occupied the place of the modern Rajemahl, and
was only abandoned for Patali Putra, or Patna,
when the kings of Gaur Proper began to emerge
from obscurity, and fixed their residence at
the city of Gaur, on the opposite side of the
Ganges.

Utcala, or Odradesa, now the Subah of Orissa,
extended along the shores of the bay of Bengal
from Balasore to Point Godavery, and inland,
as far as Sammalpoor; it comprehended the Company’s
provinces of Mednapoor, Cuttack, and
the Circars, and the Nizam’s countries of Singboom,
Mohurgunge, Gangpoor, and Sumbulpoor.
It is watered by several fine rivers, the
chief of which is the Mahanuddy. On the low
sandy shore stands the celebrated Jaggernaut Pagoda,6 K7r 141
where Crishna is worshipped under the
figure and attributes of Jagnaut’h. The province
of CuttachCuttack is low and swampy, and I assure
you, from experience, that the coast is not
the most agreeable in the world for navigators.
Point Palmyras is only discovered, when within
dangerous distance, by the tops of the Palmyra
trees, whence it takes its name; and from thence
begin the sand-heads, as they are called, an assemblage
of shoals continually shifting, as the
matter brought down from the interior by the
rivers that fall into the head of the bay increases.
A number of pilot-vessels continually cruize in
the neighbourhood, to conduct ships bound for
Calcutta up the Hoogley, which, without them,
would be inaccessible, as nothing but experience
can enable men to perform the navigation with
safety. The inhabitants of Orissa, and their
language, were anciently called Urrigas.

Dravira extends from Cape Comorin to between
twelve and thirteen degrees of north latitude,
and comprehends Madura, Travancore,
and the intermediate provinces up to Mysore
and the Carnatic part of each of which are
within its boundary. It is watered by the Cavery,
which rises in the Sahya hills, or that part
of the Ghauts near Poona, and by several tributary
streams which flow from the mountains
of Malaya and Mahendra. This country has been K7v 142
famous from the spirit and enterprise of its mountain
tribes, the extreme beauty of its landscape,
and above all, for the great place of Hindu pilgrimage,
which rivals if it does not exceed even
Jaggernaut,—I mean Ramisseram, situated on
a point at the head of the Gulf of Manar, and
appearing to communicate with Ceylon by the
little chain of islands which the Hindûs call
Rama’s Bridge, but which the Mussulmans,
and after them the Christians, have transformed
into the Bridge of Adam. Here it was that the
indefatigable Hanumân made a road for the
armies of Rama Chandra, when he invaded
Ceylon, whence the sacredness of the place and
the yearly offerings to Rama. The western part
of Dravira is remarkable, as the country of the
Christians of India, and on its coast is Calicut,
where the first Europeans, under Vasco de
Gama, visited India by way of the Cape of Good
Hope.

North of Dravira was the kingdom of Carnataca,
which has given name both to the Carnatic,
and the shores of Choromandel or Shola
Mandel (the country of Shola,) on which stood
the famous city of Maha Bali Pooram, now better
known as a sea-mark by the name of the
Seven Pagodas, and presenting, even in its ruins, K8r 143
marks of early grandeur. Its sculptured rocks
and antique buildings are among the most curious
monuments in India. “On the sandy shore, beside the verge Of ocean here and there, a rock-hewn fane Resisted in its strength the surf and surge That on their deep foundations beat in vain. In solitude the ancient temples stood, Once resonant with instrument and song, And solemn dance of festive multitude: Now, as the weary ages pass along, No voice they hear, save of the ocean flood Which roars for ever on the restless shores; Or, visiting their solitary caves, The lonely sound of winds, that moan around Accordant to the melancholy waves.” Southey’s Curse of Kehama.

Tailingana extended over the country between
the Kistna and Godavery, and even beyond
them on either side, and lay between
Odradesa, Muru, and Carnataca, and probably
contained part of the provinces of Bejapoor and
Aurungabad, with Beder and Hydrabad. Its
three rivers, the Godavery, Kistna, and Beema,
are sacred. It is part of the Deccan, properly so
called, and was the seat of the great Mahomedan
kingdom of Bejapoor, under the Bhamani dynasty.
Its mountains and forests furnish the scenery
of some of the great poems of the Hindûs; and K8v 144
within its limits is the celebrated fortress of
Dowlatabad, formerly Deogir, which Major Wilford
has identified with the Tagara of the ancients.

The country of Muru, or the Maharashtras,
now called Marhattas, occupied the mountainous
district south of the Nermada (Nerbudda) and
the maritime country of the Kócán, or Candeish,
part of Berar, Aurungabad, and Bejapoor, and
the Cocan, still retaining its ancient name. The
Brahmins of this country are supposed to have
been raised from the people of low caste, after an
extirpation of the priesthood, who had made
themselves obnoxious to the monarchs. The
people are warlike, and have distinguished themselves
particularly in the last century. The inhabitants
of the coast have, from the earliest
times, carried on both trade and piracy, for
which their numerous small ports are admirably
adapted. The Marhattas have also cultivated
literature and philosophy in a remarkable degree,
and are said to possess even books of
history.

In the country of Muru we find most of those
wonderful excavations which the ancient Hindûs
have left as monuments of their power and ingenuity.
Elephanta and Salsette, Carli and
Poonah, with the caverned mountains near Fort
Vittoria or Bancoot, where my friend Shahabo’dien, L1r 145
a native of the place, assured me there were
thirty-two caves, are all in Muru; and I believe
that the mountains of Ellora may also have been
within its limits. Gurjera, the modern Guzerat,
seems not to have changed its ancient limits. Being
well situated for commerce, it has at all times
been the resort of strangers. The ancient Barygaza,
now Baroach, was frequented by the
Roman merchants from Alexandria, and by the
Arabs and maritime Persians; and it was the
Rajah of Guzerat who hospitably received the
expatriated Persees, after the famous battle that
ended the dynasty of the ancient Persian monarchs
in the person of Jesdegird.

These are the ten great divisions of Bharata,
or India, which were of sufficient consequence
and stability to have formed distinct languages,
and to have cultivated science and literature.
At what period they were formed, or when they
were mingled and redivided, is hitherto unknown;
but centuries before the Mahomedan
conquest they had already changed their names
and relative importance.

The Great Akbar divided Hindostan Proper
into twelve soubahs, or viceroyalties, which
were again subdivided into sircars or provinces,
and kusbahs or townships.Open note 35Back to note ³⁵ The soubahs were L L1v 146
Allahabad, Oude, Agmere, Ahmedabad, Bahar,
Bengal, Delhi, Cabul, Lahore, Multan, and
Malwa; and upon the conquest of Candeish,
Berar, and Ahmednuggur, they were formed
into three other soubahs, though their limits
were not precisely defined.

Abu Fazel begins his account of the Soubahs
with that of Bengal, in which he includes
Orissa and Cuttack, with the country to the
south-east, as far as Chitagong. He describes
the country as rich in the extreme, and particularly
mentions that the revenue was paid in
gold and silver, and not in produce; and that
Akbar, in the assessment, conformed to the
established custom. The periodical rains begin
in April, and continue about six months, with
intervals, however, of charming weather.

Bahar, lying west of Bengal, and watered by
the Ganges and Soane, was also very fertile, and
paid its proportion of produce in money, and
the rainy season is the same as in Bengal. The
natives of this province, to the north of the
Ganges, on the banks of the Gunduck, are
afflicted with a kind of goître, and the historian
of Akbar observes, that young people are most
frequently affected.

The capital of the soubah of Allahabad is a
town of the same name, but anciently called
Piyang or Gangapuri: it is called the king of L2r 147
worshipped places, because the Ganges and
Jumna meet there; and it is said that the Sareswata
joins them at that place by a subterraneous
channel. Like the other Gangetic provinces,
it appears in the time of Akbar to have
been not only fertile but highly cultivated,
abounding in towns and villages, and flourishing
manufactures.

Oude, watered by the Goggra or Sarjew, and
the Goomty, is remarked by Abu Fazel for the
perfection of its agriculture, its manufacture of
earthen ware, and the flourishing state of its
commerce, as well as the antiquity and sanctity
of its capital. In the soubah of Agra were mines
of copper, and hot and cold springs. It produces
excellent sugar and indigo, and was celebrated
for its agriculture and its manufactures
of blankets and fine stuffs.

The climate of Malwah is described as charming
—in summer cool, and in winter temperate;
abounding with wheat and fruits; the country
naturally beautiful, and ornamented with buildings,
and the people warlike. One province,
Gurreh, is noticed as paying its share of the revenue
in money.

Candeish, called in the Ayeen Akbery Dandees,
Open note 36Back to note ³⁶ is a rich province, abounding in rivers, L2 L2v 148
and enjoying an agreeable climate. In the time
of Akbar it was highly cultivated, had some
manufactures, and its cities were famous for
their handicraftsmen. The banks of the Taptee,
its principal river, are consecrated by the
site of many holy places, particularly on the
spots where it is joined by its various tributary
streams.

Berar is also distinguished by its sacred stream
the Godavery, to the source of which annual
pilgrimages are made. This extensive province
contained cultivated lands, and also wilds, so
extensive as to harbour wild elephants and monkeys.
It contains mines of the most useful and
the most useless of minerals—namely, iron and
diamond: it also furnishes other precious stones,
and there are in it several petrifying springs.

The soubah of Guzerat is a maritime country,
and when Abu Fazel wrote, produced chiefly
jewary and bajeree, two coarse grains, which
were the principal food of the inhabitants, but
rice was imported from the Deccan, and wheat
and barley from Candeish. At present, the potatoe
is cultivated to a considerable extent. The
whole country produces abundance of fruit and
vegetables, and was famous for painters, carvers,
and other workmen, and its manufactories of
swords, dirks, and bows and arrows, besides
silks, velvets, and gold and silver stuffs.

The magnificent city of Ahmedabad was L3r 149
its capital; it contained one thousand stone
mosques, with many tombs, some erected to
royal personages, and two considerable forts.
West from Ahmedabad is a natural salt pan, of
considerable extent; beyond that the territory
of Cutch; and still farther west, the country of
Sinde, full of woods and uncultivated sands.

South of Cutch, the territory of Surat extends
from the port of Gogeh, or Gogo, to that of
Aramray: it is divided into nine parts, each
inhabited by a different tribe; the fifth being
Juzzet or Daurka, famous in Hindû fable, as the
favourite abode of Crishna; and the ninth is
distinguished as the residence of the bawts and
charums, whose profession is, like that of a
minstrel or troubadour, to sing hymns, recite
genealogies, and in battle to animate the troops
by eloquence and song. Abu Fazel says, Gurgera
contains nine circars, divided into one
hundred and ninety-eight pergunnas, of which
thirteen are sea-ports.

Agmere contains seven pergunnas; it is situated
to the west of Agra. The soil is sandy,
and water scarce, and the summer heat is intense.
The southern part is mountainous, and
contains mines of iron and copper. The following
romantic story of some of the ancient landholders,
called Rawel or Ramsa, is told by Abu
Fazel. Ancient historians relate, that Alla o’dien
Khuljee, king of Delhi, hearing that Rawel L3v 150
Rutten Sein, of Meywar, had a wife of uncommon
beauty, sent to demand her of him. The
Rawel refused to part with her, upon which the
army of the sultan besieged him in Chitore,
where he held out so long, that Alla o’dien had
at length recourse to artifice, and offered peace,
inviting Rutten Sein to be his guest. The Ranna
was at first received with great respect, but on
a signal given he was seized, and carried to the
sultan’s camp, where he was respectfully treated.
Meantime, seven hundred soldiers equipped
themselves as women, and placing themselves
in palankeens, sent word that the Rannee was
coming in state with her women, to present herself
to the sultan, but first requested an interview
with the Ranna, which request being complied
with, the soldiers had no sooner been
admitted to their prince, than they threw off
their disguises, and rescued him: his return to
Chitore being covered by posts stationed previously,
and who stood against the pursuing
enemy till their sovereign was placed in safety,
when the sultan returned disappointed to Delhi.
A second expedition was equally unavailing;
but, at length, the Rawel being decoyed to his
presence, was treacherously murdered.

The soubah of Delhi, divided into eight sircars,
was rich in natural productions and manufactures.
Its mountains were filled with mines,
and its plains with corn and cattle. It is watered L4r 151
by the Ganges and Jumna, with many of
their tributary streams, and is studded thick
with towns and villages. Here the monuments
of Hindû piety raise their venerable forms amid
the shades of Thanessar; and there the magnificence
of the Moslemin displays itself in the
canals of Firoze, and the tombs of the Alla o’
diens and the Toglucks. Throughout the East,
a tomb is not, as with us, left neglected amid a
crowd of others, where the bat “folds his dank
wing” on the over-spreading yew, but placed
in gardens of public resort, where the placid joy
diffused by the charms of nature combine with
the remembrance of the departed friend, and
mellow our grief for his loss, into that softer
feeling, which, as the twilight reminds us of the
departed sun but to give us hope of his again
riding, persuades us that our separation is not
eternal.

The soubah of Lahore contains five divisions.
Great part of it is now called the Panjab, or five
waters, from the five rivers flowing through it,
and falling into the Indus, which is its western
boundary. In the time of Akbar, its inhabitants
were famed for their handicraft and manufactures,
as well as their agriculture; and the
country produces abundance of fruit and grain,
besides metals and minerals, found in the sandy
beds of the rivers, and mines of rock salt. Lahore,7 L4v 152
the ancient Labaca, is the capital of the
soubah, and was for some time the seat of the
Mogul government, when it was the resort of
merchants, who admired its magnificence and
its riches, the elegances of its buildings, and the
beauty and variety of its gardens.

Multan lies along the banks of the Indus, and
is intersected by some of the rivers of the Panjab,
but it nevertheless contains much desert,
and is plagued with the Semoom, a wind, hot
and dry, like the siroc, and equally pernicious.
Tattah, one of the three sircars of Multan, is
famous for its breed of horses, which, if not so
handsome as the Arabs or Persians, are strong,
and capable of bearing greater fatigue. The
camels of Tattah are also esteemed; and its inhabitants
were a warlike race; they were also
navigators, and when the Ayeen Akbery was
written, possessed forty thousand boats. Rice,
in this sircar, was good and abundant, and the
fruits and flowers, fish, which was a chief
article of good among the inhabitants, and salt
and iron, were produced in great plenty. Tattah
was divided into five sircars, though itself
a sircar of Multan. Abu Fazel mentions
among its curiosities, an extraordinary and
disgusting set of witches, called Jiggerkhars
or liver-eaters, who were supposed to have
the power of fascinating people by their evil L5r 153
eyes, and thus stealing their livers, on which
they made their detestable meal. It seems that
they possessed the European witches’ faculty of
not sinking in water, and, like them, were
ill-treated and destroyed wherever they were
found.

The soubah of Cashmere comprehended Cashmere,
Pehkeli, Bhember Sewad, Bijore, Kandahar,
and Kabulistan. Of Cashmere, Abu
Fazel says, “the whole of this soubah represents
a garden in perpetual spring, and the fortifications
with which nature has furnished it,
are of astonishing height, so that the grand
and romantic appearance cannot fail of delighting
those who are fond of variety, as well as
those who take pleasure in retirement. The
water is remarkably good, and the cataracts are
enchantingly magnificent. It rains and snows
here at the same seasons as in Tartary and
Persia; and during the periodical rains of Hindostand,
there also fall light showers. The soil
is partly marshy, and the rest well watered by
rivers and lakes. Violets, roses, and narcissuses,
with innumerable other flowers, grow wild here.
The spring and autumn display scenes delightfully
astonishing. The houses, which are built
of wood, are of four stories, and some higher,
and they are entirely open, without any courtyard.
The roofs of the houses are planted with L5v 154
tulips, which produce a wonderful effect in the
spring.” Such is the description of the appearance
of Cashmere by a Mussulman; and if you
will read Bernier, who accompanied Aureng
Zebe in a journey to that delightful country,
you will find the French physician as enthusiastic
an admirer of it as the Mogul historian.

All Cashmere is holy ground to the Hindûs,
a peculiar sect of whom, calling themselves
Rishis, professed celibacy and abstinence. They
reviled no other sect, and asked nothing from
any one; but made it a duty to plant fruit trees
by the road side to refresh the traveller, and
to perform similar acts of benevolence.

Cashmere produces in abundance all fruits
of Europe and of Asia: it furnishes a great deal
of silk, and all those beautiful shawls called
Indian shawls, which are worn wherever Commerce
has extended her sails or rested her caravans.
The country is exceedingly populous,
and the inhabitants addicted to “simple” pleasures
I believe I should call them, to distinguish
them from vicious indulgencies. A weaver of
Cashmere has no sooner earned a little money,
than he proceeds to the banks of a lake or river,
and there with his family hires a boat, in which
they pass the day, rowing or sailing amidst the
most beautiful scenery in the world, and only
landing to take refreshment, or walk in the L6r 155
meadows and gardens which are fertilized by
the streams and lakes formed by the heads of
the Indus, ere he leaves their happy valley. The
country is free from poisonous snakes and scorpions,
but produces excellent sheep, elks, and
partridges; hawking and hunting are favourite
amusements, and the principal food of the inhabitants
is rice and fish.

I once saw a picture or map of Cashmere,
which was brought to Calcutta by some shawl-
merchants. It was painted upon a square of
cotton cloth, and professed not only to trace
the situations of the towns, lakes, and rivers,
but even the houses, bridges, and public pleasure
gardens. The encircling mountains were
coloured with all the gradations from the deepest
verdure at the foot, to the snowy hue of the
summits; and among the valleys, on the side
towards Cashmere, there was scarcely one which
had not a Hindû temple or a Mussulman
mosque. In the public pleasure ground, called
Almeidân, parties were represented sitting under
the shade of spreading groves; and at the different
bridges over the canals, or on the banks
of the reservoirs which water the gardens, were
multitudes of boats for hire, and the lakes and
rivers were crowded with parties in barks of
various sizes and degrees of beauty. I immediately
thought of the demesnes of the Castle of L6v 156
Indolence, and half expected to hear the syrens’
witching flute, and feel the softened air: but
the knight of arts and industry had already been
there, and the leisure which the Cashmerians
seem so passionately fond of, is the fair reward
of toil and ingenuity.

The inhabitants of this terrestrial paradise are
partly Hindû and partly Mussulman, with a
mixture, however, of Jews, who are supposed
to be part of the ten tribes carried into captivity
by Nebuchadnezzar; and Bernier, who took
some pains to ascertain the fact, seems to believe
it.

The other sircars which in the time of Akbar
formed part of the soubah of Cashmere—namely,
Pekhely, Bhember, Sewad, Bijore, Kandahar,
and Kabul, partake more or less of its physical
advantages, being all diversified with woods and
mountains, and watered with abundant streams.
They occasionally procure gold in some of their
rivers, by laying a fleece in the water, and the
next day they usually find the grains of the metal
entangled in it, so that they have only the
trouble of watching it. The whole soubah
abounds in springs, many of which are intermittent,
others are hot, some petrify, and others
produce salt. The hills and mountains, besides
the mines of various metals, contain many singular
caverns, to which the superstition of the L7r 157
people has, as usual, ascribed a miraculous
origin.

Such is the picture of Hindostan left us by
Abu Fazel, who wrote in the 1500–1599sixteenth century:
a picture probably flattering, and certainly very
different from that presented on our acquiring
possession of the territory; but the long and
happy reign of Akbar, which lasted half a century,
and was distinguished by the most regular
and wise government that ever blessed Hindostan,
since the first Mussulman invasion, had
restored to the cultivator confidence, and to the
manufacturer security. Although the taxes
were in some districts extremely high, in Cashmere
for instance, equal to one half the produce
of the land, the mildness and equity of the
government, and the greater commerce carried
on by the highest taxed soubahs, in proportion to
their cultivated lands, made the taxes on real
property as light as in those actually rated
at less.

In my next letter I shall endeavour to give
you an account of the Deccan or South. This
name has sometimes been applied to the whole
peninsula south of the Nermada; but, since the
Mahomedan conquest, seems not to have extended
further than to the banks of the Kistna.

The twelve soubahs of Akbar comprehended
some parts of the Deccan; but they may be L7v 158
easily distinguished from the true provinces of
the empire of Delhi by their situation, and perhaps
I ought to have reserved them for their
proper place, but I thought it better to present
you with the statement of the Ayeen Akbery,
without changing any thing, as it is unquestionably
the most authentic document we possess of
the former state of India.

Letter IX.

After my last long letter on the geography
of India, you will, I fancy, think me
unreasonable to begin another with the same
subject. But I had only laid before you the
ancient divisions of India, more properly called
Bharata, when we are speaking of it before the
Mahomedan conquest, and the provinces of
Hindostan Proper, or the country north of the
Nermada or Nerbudda, with the very small portion
of the South, or Deccan, in its widest extent,
that is, from the Nermada to Cape Comorin,
about fifteen degrees of latitude.

The greater part of this tract consists of high
table-land, elevated from three to five thousand L8r 159
feet above the sea, called the Balaghaut or land
above the mountains; the rest is a belt of unequal
breadth surrounding this land, and called
Payeen Ghaut, or below the mountains. In the
Deccan you may place the ancient kingdoms,
distinguished and circumscribed by their languages,
called the five Dravirs, but omitting
Guzerat and substituting Orissa. The ancient
divisions were however lost, among new and
more numerous partitions, long before any intimate
intercourse between Europeans and India.

Telingana, divided into Andra and Kalinga,
seems to have retained its distinctive name longer
than most of the Dravirs, for it was known to
the Mahomedans by it; and, at the period of
their invasion, its capital was Warankal.

Carnataca was early divided into a number
of separate states, the south-western portion of
which was Mysoor. Of the modern Carnatic a
small portion only formed part of the ancient
province, and Bejapoor occupied the northern
part, and perhaps a small part of Telingana. THe
ancient capital of Carnataca was Dhoor Summudra,
about a hundred miles north-west of
Seringapatam; but the seat of government was
removed to Tonoor, only twelve miles from that
city, upon the Mussulman invasion in 13261326,
when the ancient city was destroyed by the
army of Mahommed III.

L8v 160

About the same time a new kingdom was
founded upon the banks of the Toombudra by
some officers of the dethroned king of Warankal,
and its capital was named Videanaggur, sometimes
called Bisnuggur. This kingdom was subsequently
enlarged by the acquisition of the
greatest part of Dravira or Draveda. From
Niliseram, near which there is a considerable
wall in ruins, the country of Toolava extended
to the neighbourhood of Goa; and bordering on
it to the East is the small country of Coorg,
whose present Rajah and his father have distinguished
themselves by the desire of improving
their country and people. The three principal
parts into which Dravira was divided, were named
from the three rival dynasties, the Chola or Chora,Open note 37Back to note ³⁷
the Cheran and the Pandian. Combaconum and
Tanjore, upon the Cavery, appear to have been
the capitals of the former, which comprehended
the provinces of Tanjore, Trichinapoli, part of
the modern Carnatic, including probably Gingee
and Wandiwahi. The kingdom of Pandian included
Madura, Tinivelly, Marawas, and probably
part of Dindigul, and the country of the
Polygars; and the country of Chera comprehended8 M1r 161 Kerala or Malabar, Cochin, Travancore,
Shallam, and Coimbatoor. In this division is
Calicut, where the first European ships, under
Vasco de Gama, touched, after doubling the
Cape of Good Hope. The coast is bold, and
the most picturesque I ever saw; and the country
abounds in the finest timber in the world.
There are no harbours for any thing larger than
a boat; and it is only during the rains that the
small rapid rivers, that fall directly from the
mountains, are deep enough to float the timber
to the coasts.

At the time when the Mahrattas or Maharastras
emerged from obscurity under Sevajee
and his successors, the country anciently known
by their name was divided into a number of distinct
provinces, which were successively seized
by the Mahomedans, with the exception perhaps
of the mountainous districts near Poonah and
the Cokum. Candeish and Berar were added to
the Mogul empire; Aurungabad, Bedar, Bejapore,
and Gundwana, with their subdivisions,
formed the greatest part of the Mahomedan dominions
in the Deccan, to which must be added
Hydrabad, Golconda, and other provinces of
Telingana north of the Godavery.

Such is the general view of the division of
India at two very different periods. The first,
when its ancient kingdoms were so settled and M M1v 162
polished as to have formed and cultivated each
its own language; the last, as it was found
at the time of the first permanent European
establishments in the country. Had it been
possible to have been more minute in stating
the precise ancient boundaries of the different
provinces, I am not sure that I should
have attempted it, for the task of tracing their
perpetual variations would have been endless,
and perhaps valueless.

The British dominions extend over by far
the greater part of the above provinces, and accident,
rather than convenience, seems to have
fixed the situations of the three presidencies
from which they are governed. Calcutta, the
seat of the supreme government in India, stands
on that branch of the Ganges called the
Hoogly, about eighty miles from Saugor island,
where that river falls into the sea. The approach
to it is defended by a most dangerous
coast, owing to the shoals called the sand-heads,
which are deposited by the thousand mouths of
Ganges as it rolls into the ocean, and which,
during the floods occasioned by the rains, are
continually changing their places. The bed of
the Hoogly is also encumbered by similar sands,
and the bays formed in its low woody shores are
in general extremely unhealthy. The aspect
improves as you approach the capital, and the M2r 163
clearing of the grounds has also materially improved
its salubrity. Calcutta itself is now far
from an unhealthy place, which is in great
measure owing to draining the streets of the
Black town, and constructing good roads in all
directions from the presidency, a work, which
does the Marquis Wellesley even more honour
than his magnificent palace at the presidency,
or his charming gardens at Barrackpoor.

In the rainy season the Hoogly is navigable
quite to the Ganges; but in the dry weather
boats of all descriptions are obliged to pass
through the sunderbunds, or channels, that intersect
the Delta formed by the Ganges, into
the main stream. The country round Calcutta
is perfectly flat and very woody. In the immediate
neighbourhood are some extensive salt-
lakes, and the country in general, like the rest
of Bengal, is extremely fertile. Fort William,
which defends this presidency, is strong, but
perhaps larger than is necessary under the present
circumstances, as the army that would be
required to garrison it might certainly keep the
field, but it was built before the English possessed
either the territory or the resources they
are now masters of in India, and while the
French, Danes, and Germans possessed settlements
on the river above Calcutta.

Madras, the second in rank of our presidencies,M2 M2v 164
is perhaps more central to our dominions
than any of the others, but it has not a single
natural advantage. Built upon a low sandy
shore, against which a tremendous surf continually
beats, in the best seasons hardly to be
crossed without risk, it has no port, or even
headland, to protect the ships that resort to it.
The soil around is so arid that it scarcely produces
rice, and the most assiduous cultivation is
necessary to raise the commonest vegetables.
Nevertheless, being the seat of government for
the south of India, it is amazingly populous; and it
is the depôt for all the manufactures carried on it
the northern circars, and the countries south of
those provinces. The stuffs made there, though
imported to Madras, take its name, instead of
those of the countries where they are fabricated,
and are known in Europe as Madras muslins,
long cloths, and chintzes.

The fort of Saint George defends this settlement.
It is situated so near the sea that a hurricane,
which happened in 18051805, so completely
changed the face of the shore, that the water-
gate, which had before been at some distance
from the beach, was washed by the surf. A
canal has been cut from Fort George to Pulicat,
about sixteen miles to the northward,
whence the inhabitants of Madras are supplied
with charcoal and other necessaries.

M3r 165

Bombay possesses more natural advantages
than any other European settlement in India,
but it is, unaccountably, that which has been
most neglected; however, it is only a few years
since the Mahrattas have been so far subdued as
to render the surrounding districts safe. The
island of Bombay lies in 18° of north latitude;
it is nine miles in length and three in breadth;
full of towns and villages, and every foot of the
land in cultivation. It is connected by a causeway,
with the large and fruitful, though neglected,
island of Salsette, and forms with it, Caranja,
and Elephanta, a most commodious harbour. It
has the advantage over every port in India in
the rise of the tides, which is seventeen feet,
whereas the highest springs in Prince of Wales’s
Island, and the wonderful harbour of Trincomale
only rise to ten feet. It is consequently
well adapted for building and docking large
ships, the timber for which is furnished by the
Malabar coast; and its situation opposite to
the Persian and Arabian shores makes it peculiarly
fit for commerce. I know no place so well
situated. Its excellent well-defended harbour,
the fertility of the adjoining districts, the agreeableness
of the climate, and the extreme beauty
of the scenery, all contribute to make it one of
the most charming spots in the world, as far as
the gifts of nature are concerned, and with the M3v 166
state of its society I have at present nothing to
to do, although I feel it difficult to restrain myself
from talking of a place which is rendered
interesting to me by a thousand agreeable recollections.

I shall not attempt to delineate the present
political divisions of India, but confine myself to
the external features of the country, some of
which I have already described. The northern
part of Hindostan Proper is bounded by the
stupendous range of mountains which separates
it from Tartary and Thibet, running in a direction
north-west and south-east, called the Himalayah
mountains, or Himavat. These mountains
furnish the sources of the Indus and its
tributary streams, which water the country of
the Panjab, the Ganges, with the Jumna, and
other rivers which unite with that majestic flood,
and the Brahmaputra.

The mountains of Paryatra lie in the neighbourhood
of Ogein, to the north of the Nermada,
and from them flow the Mahie, the Sipra,
and Betwa, with some other rivers. The Recsha
mountains give rise to the Nermada, the Soane,
and many streams of less note, which, with the
exception of the Nermada, fall into other rivers.

The Vindhya mountains, among which lies
the Arcadia of India, lie to the south of
the Nermada, and contain the sources of the M4r 167
Tapi, Tapti, and several smaller rivers, while
those of the Godavery, Kistna, Bhima, Tungabadra,
and Cavery are in a less elevated range
south of the Vindhya chain, called the Tahya
hills. Four inconsiderable streams rise in the
Malaya mountains, and some others from the
high Mahendra. In general there is a deficiency
of water in the Deccan, none of the
rivers south of the Nermada being navigable for
any distance from their mouths; those on the
eastern side of the peninsula being choaked with
sand-banks, thrown by a violent surf against
their openings; and those on the western coast
descend so abruptly from the mountains of the
shore, that they have not time to collect into
streams of any magnitude before they join the
kind of rivers. There are no lakes but those
formed artificially, for the purposes of sustenance
and agriculture, but some of these are
of such vast extent, as to appear more like the
work of nature than of man; and though in
some places the mountain torrents form cascades
of exquisite beauty, there are none of sufficient
magnitude to bear a comparison with the stupendous
features of the New World.

Although travellers report that many districts
of India bear the marks of extinguished volcanos,
and many specimens of minerals, apparently
formed in these tremendous laboratories of nature, M4v 168
have been brought from different parts of
the country, there is not at present any burning
mountains in action, nor are there, I believe, records
of an such, although the “mouths of fire”,
as several streams are called which emit flame,
are frequently mentioned; such, for instance,
are those in the neighbourhood of the Caspian,
and that at Chitagong, where a temple is built
over the spring, and due oblations performed to
the sacred fire. Warm springs are not uncommon
on the western coast, nor, I believe, in other
parts of the country. Coal is found in the
north-eastern provinces; mines of copper, gold,
silver, and iron abound in those of the north;
diamond has long rendered the name of Golconda
famous; Cambay furnishes cornelian
and other opake stones; the neighbourhood of
Hydrabad produces garnets; while Ceylon
seems the great magazine of the beautiful coloured
and transparent gems.

Of that island little is known beyond the Belt
occupied by the English, which encircles the whole
island, and is from ten to thirty miles in width;
a district woody, fertile, and in general healthy.
On the western side is one of the finest harbours
in the world at Trincomale; and on the northern
coast is the pearl fishery, in the Straits of
Manar, the product of which, however, is by no
means equal to that in the Arabian seas. The 7 M5r 169
interior of Ceylon is mountainous and woody,
but it is so dangerous to the health, to pass any
time in the Jungle, and so difficult for an European
who has once entered the country to leave
it, that I can only refer you to the old traveller,
Knox, for an account of it, whose picture is of
that kind, that though one does not know the
original, one feels sure of the resemblance.

One great natural feature of India is the singular
diversity of its coasts. That of the western
side is high and bold, with some small harbours
formed by insulated rocks and promontories; such
as that of the river at Goa, and the bay at Bombay,
than which there are few finer. The eastern,
or Choromandel coast, on the contrary, is low
and sandy, full of banks, against which a tremendous
surf at all times beats, and not offering
a port of any kind. The seasons also differ
on the opposite shores, the rains setting in at
Bombay in May or June, as they do in Bengal
and the other northern provinces, while at Madras
they begin nearly as the dry weather sets
in on the western coast. During the rainy seasons
the climate is subject to violent storms and
hurricanes, particularly at the setting in and
breaking up of the Monsoons; but for eight
months in the year the weather is clear; the
land and sea breezes constantly blow; and one
may, if any where, forget the proverbial inconstancy
of the winds and waves.

M5v 170

But it is time to take leave of you for the
present. I have done with local descriptions
for some time, as I wish, if possible, to present
you with a sketch of such a part of the history
of ancient India, as has come to our knowledge
with any degree of certainty.