GIFT OF
MICHAEL REE^E
\
I
TRUBNER'S
ORIENTAL SERIES
[A /I Rights Reserved.']
MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
'< ■ i ,? '
THE INDIAN EMPIRE:
ITS PEOPLE, HISTORY, AND PRODUCTS.
BY
W. W. HUNTER, C.S.I. c.i.e. ll.d.
SECOND EDITION.
% * i > • ^ 1 i. » «
LONDON: TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL, 1886.
ts,Ft>r
. t -.u ; "
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
This book tries to present, within a small compass, an
account of India and her people. The materials on
which it is based are condensed from my larger works.
In 1869, the Government of India directed me to
execute a Statistical Survey of its dominions, — a vast
enterprise, whose records now make 128 printed volumes,
aggregating 60,000 pages. The scale of the opera-
tions, although by no means too elaborate for the
administrative purposes for which they were designed,
necessarily placed their results beyond the reach of the
general public. The hundred volumes of The Statistical
Survey were therefore reduced to a more compendious
form as the twelve volumes of The Imperial Gazetteer
of India. The present ^^k distils into one volume
the essence of the whole.
I have elsewhere explained the mechanism by which
the materials for the Statistical Survey were collected
in each of the 240 Districts, or territorial units, of British
India.i Without the help of a multitude of fellow-
workers, the present volume could never have been
written. It represents the fruit of a long process of con-
tinuous condensation. But in again acknowledging my
indebtedness to brethren of my Service in India, I wish
to specially commemorate the obligations which I also
owe to a friend at home. Mr. J. S. Cotton, late Fellow
of Queen's College, Oxford, has rendered important aid
at many stages of the work.
^ See Preface to Volume I. of The Imperial Gazetteer of I>idia.
vt INDIA.
Continuous condensation, although convenient to the
reader, has its perils for the author. Many Indian
topics are still open questions, with regard to which
divergences of opinion may fairly exist. In some cases,
I have been compelled by brevity to state my conclu-
sions without setting forth the evidence on which they
rest, and without any attempt to combat alternative views.
In other matters, I have had to content myself with
conveying a correct general impression, while omitting
the modifying details. For I here endeavour to present
an account, which shall be at once original and com-
plete, of a continent inhabited by many more races and
nations than Europe, in every stage of human develop-
ment, from the polyandric tribes and hunting hamlets
of the hill jungles, to the most complex commercial
communities in the world. When I have had to
expose old fables, or to substitute truth for long
accepted errors, I clearly show my grounds for doing
so. Thus, in setting aside the legend of Mahmud the
Idol-Breaker, I trace back the growth of the myth
through the Persian Historians, to the contemporary
narrative of Al Biruni (970-1029 A.D.). The calumnies
against Jagannath are corrected by the testimony of
three centuries, from 1580, when Abul Fazl wrote, down
to the police reports of 1870. Macaulay's somewhat
fanciful story of Plassey has been told afresh in the
words of Clive's own despatch. The history of Christi-
anity in India is written, for the first time, from original
sources and local inquiry.
But almost every period of Indian history forms an
arena of controversy. Thus, in the early Sanskrit era,
each date is the result of an intricate process of induc-
tion ; the chapter on the Scythic inroads has been pieced
together from the unfinished researches of the Archaeo-
logical Survey and from local investigations ; the growth
of Hinduism, as the religious and social nexus of the
Indian races, is here for the first time written. In
INDIA. vii
attempting to reconstruct Indian history from its original
sources in the fewest possible pages, I beg oriental
scholars to believe that, although their individual views
are not always set forth, they have been respectfully
considered. I also pray the English reader to remember
that, if he desires a more detailed treatment of the
subjects of this volume, he may find it in my larger
works.
W. W. H.
March 1886.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GENERAL PLAN.
PAGE
PAGE
Physical Aspects, .
1-42
Early Euro"pean Settlem
ents, . ZS^-m
The Population of India,
43-52
- History of British Rule,
' 37^-430-
The Non-Aryan Races, .
53-74
British Administration
f India, 431-481-
The Aryans in Ancient India,
75-131
Agriculture and Product
5, . 482-544
Buddhism in India,
132-162
Means of Communicatio
n, . 545-554
The Greeks in India,
163-173
Commerce and Trade,
. 555-597
Scythic Inroads into India,
174-190
Arts and Manufactures,
. 598-617
Rise of Hinduism,\
191-228
Mines and Minerals,
. 618-630
Christianity in India-,
229-267
Geology,
. 631-640
Early Muhammadan -Rulers, .
268-289
Meteorology,
. 641-651
The Mughal Empire,^ .
290-316
Zoology and Botany,
. 652-664
The Maratha Power, .
317-324
Vital Statistics, .
. 665-686
The Indian VernaculaFS and
Statistical Appendices, I
.-X., 687-703
their Literature, .
325-355
Index, .
• 705-747
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL ASPECTS.
\ General Description of India ; Boundaries, .
The Three Regions of India,
^ First Region ; the Himalayas ; their Scenery and Products,
Second Region ; the Northern River Plains, .
The Great Rivers ; their Work ; Land-making,
The Indus, Brahmaputra, and Ganges,
The Gangetic River System ; the Highway of Bengal, .
Great Gangetic Cities,
Three Stages in the Life of an Indian River,
Delta of the Ganges : its Age and Process of Formation,
PAGE
1-4
4
4-10
10-34
10-33
10-16
16-20
20, 21
21, 22
23-28
X TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The Rivers as Highways and as Destroyers, .
Scenery and Crops of the Northern River Plains, J
Third Region of India; the Southern Table-land,/.
The Deccan ; the Ghats, and their Passes, .
The Four Forest Regions of Southern India,
Crops and Scenery of Southern India, .
British Burma ; its Geography and Products,
PAGE
29-32
32-34
34-41
35-38
38-40
40, 41
41, 42
CHAPTER II.
THE POPULATION OF INDIA.
Feudatory India ; the Chiefs and their Powers,
The Twelve British Provinces ; how governed.
Population Tables, .......
Pressure of Population ; overcrowded Districts,
Under-peopled Provinces ; the ' immobile ' Indian Peasant,
Nomadic System of Husbandry,
The Land and Labour Question in India ; Serfdom,
Unequal Pressure of Population ; its Remedies, .
Population of India in 1872 and 1881 ; Increase, .
The Ethnical Elements of the Indian People,
43
435 44
44, 45
46
47
47
48, 49
49> 50
50
51, 52
CHAPTER IIL
THE NON-ARYAN RACES.
Kistvaen Builders ; Flint and Bronze Periods, ... 53
The Non-Aryans of Vedic India described, . . . • 53> 54
Andaman Islanders; Anamalai Hill Tribes, .... 55
Polyandry among the Nairs ; the Gonds, . . . • 55j 56
Leaf-wearing J uangs of Orissa ; Himdlayan Tribes, . . 56,57
The Santdls; Village and Tribal Government, ... 57
Santdl Customs, Religion, and History, .... 58-60
The Kandhs ; Tribal Government, Wars, and Blood Revenge, 60, 61
Kandh Marriage by Capture; Human Sacrifice, . . . 61, 62
The Three Non-Aryan Stocks — Tibeto-Burmans, Dravidians,
and Kolarians ; their Languages, . . . . . 63-69
Statistics of Non- Aryan Races in 1872 and 188 1, . . . 69-71
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Crushed Tribes ; Gipsy Clans ; Predatory Tribes, .
Character of the Non-Aryan Tribes, ....
Mhairs and Bhils ; their Reclamation by good Government,
xt
PAGE
71, 72
72,73
73.74
CHAPTER IV.
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The Indo-European Stock,
Its Early Camping-ground in Central Asia, .
Common Origin of European and Indian Religions,
The Indo-Aryans on the March, and in their new Hom
The Rig-Veda ; Widow-burning unknown, .
Development of Caste, . . 78, 87, 88, 89, 9<
Aryan Civilisation in the Veda, ....
The Aryan Tribes organized into Kingdoms,
Origin and Growth of Priestly Families,
The Four Vedas ; Brahmanas ; Sutras,
The Warrior and Cultivating Castes,
The Four Castes formed, . . . .
Struggle between the Brdhmans and Kshattriyas, .
Brdhman Supremacy established ; Brahman Ideal Life,
Brahman Theology,
Rise of the Post-Vedic Gods ; the Hindu Triad, .
Brahman Philosophy ; its Six Schools, .
Brahman Science and Grammar ; Panini,
Sanskrit mss. and Prakrit Dialects,
The Indian Alphabets,
Brahman Astronomy ; its Three Periods,
Brahman Mathematics, Medicine, and Surgery,
Hindu Art of W^ar,
Indian Music ; its Peculiarities and Modern Revival,
Indian Architecture, Art-work, and Painting,
Brahman Law j Codes of Manu and Yajnavalkya,
Hindu Customary Law ; Perils of Codification,
Secular Literature of the Hindus, ....
The Mahdbhdrata ; its Growth and Central Story,
The Polyandry of Draupadi, ....
The Rdmdyana ; its Story and its Author, Valmiki,
Later Sanskrit Epics,
es,
75
75» 76
76
76, 7 7
77, 78
94, 95, 96
79-86
87
87,88
88,89
89,90
90,91
92-94
94-97
97
97,98
98,99
100, lOI
101-104
102, 103
104-106
106-110
no
1IO-II2
112, 113
II3-II5
I16-I18
118
I I 9-1 2 2
121, 122
122, 124
124, 125
xn
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The Hindu Drama ; K^liddsa,
The Hindu Novel ; Beast Stories,
Sanskrit Lyric Poetry ; Jayadeva, .
Mediaeval Theology ; the Purinas,
The Six Attacks on Brdhmanisra, .
PAGE
. ', . 125-127
. ' . 127, 128
128
128-130 ; 216, 217
. 130, 131
CHAPTER V.
BUDDHISM (543 B.C. TO I GOO A.D.).
Buddha's Story modelled on the Sanskrit Epic,
Buddha, the Spiritual Development of the Heroic Aryan Man,
Buddha's Parentage, Early Life, and Great Renunciation,
His Forest Life, Temptation, and Teachings,
His Later Years and Death,
The Northern and Southern Buddhist Schools,
Political Life of Buddha ; his Opponents ; Devadatta, .
Doctrines of Buddha ; Kar??ta, Nirvana^
Moral Code of Buddha; its Missionary Aspects, .
Pohtical Development of Buddhism ; the Four Councils, 143
The Work of Asoka ; his Council and Edicts,
The Work of Kanishka,
The Northern and Southern Buddhist Canons,
Spread of Buddhism throughout Asia,
Buddhist Influences on Christianity,
Buddha as a Christian Saint,
Buddha's Personality denied.
Buddhism did not oust Brdhmanism,
The Chinese Buddhist Pilgrims, Fa Hian and Hiuen Tsiang,
Buddhism under SiMditya ; Monastery of Nalanda,
Mingling of Buddhism and Brdhmanism,
Buddhism an Exiled Religion ; its Foreign Conquests,
Buddhist Survivals in India,
The Jains ; their Relation to the Buddhists, .
132
1335 134
"^zz^ 134
134, 135
136, 137
138
139, 140
141, 142
143
144; 147
144-147
147
147-149
149, 150
150
i5i» 152
153
154, 155
i55>i56
156, 157
157
158
157-162
157-162
CHAPTER VL
THE GREEKS IN INDIA (327 TO 161 B.C.).
Early Greek Writers ; Hekataios, Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, .
Alexander in, India; Results of his Invasion,
163
. 164-166
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Seleukos and Chandra Gupta,
The India of Megasthenes,
Indo-Greek Treaty ; Later Greeks,
Greek Survivals in Indian Art,
Ancient and Modern Greeks ; the Yavanas,
Xllt
PAGE
. i66, 169
. 168, 169
170
• 171, 172
. 172, 173
CHAPTER VI I.
SCYTHIC INROADS INTO INDIA (126? B.C. TO 544 A.D.).
Early Scythic Migrations towards India ; Tue-Chi Settlements,
Pre-Buddhistic Scythic Influences ; the Horse Sacrifice,
Was Buddha a Scythian ? Tibetan Traditions,
Scythic Buddhism and Settlements in India, .
Scythian Elements in India ; the Jats and Rajputs
Indian Struggle against the Scythians, .
Indo-Scythic Settlements ; Sen, Gupta, and Valabhi
Pre-Aryan Kingdoms in Northern India,
The Takshaks and K'agas, ....
Ghakkars, Bhars, Bhils, Kochs, Ahams, Gonds, etc.,
Scythic and Nigd Influences on Hinduism, .
Dynasties
174,175
175,176
176-178
178, 179
179, 180
180-182
i8i, 182
T83, 184
184-186
186-189
189, 190
CHAPTER VIII.
RISE OF HINDUISM (750 TO 1520 A.D.)
Decay and Persecution (?) of Buddhism,
Twofold Basis of Hinduism — Caste and Religion,
Caste founded on ' Race,' ' Occupation,' and * Locality
The Brahman Caste analysed, ....
Building up of Caste ; Hindu Marriage Law,
Changes of * Occupation ' by Castes, .
Plasticity and Rigidity of Caste, ....
Caste a System of Trade-Guilds ; an Indian Strike,
Practical Working of Caste ; no Poor Law ; Reward
Punishments,
Religious Basis of Hinduism, ....
Buddhist Influences ; Beast Hospitals ; Monasteries,
A Japanese Temple and a Christian Church,
and
. 191,
192
.
192
. 192,
193
• 193,
194
. 194,
195
• 196,
197
.
197
• 197,
d
198
. 198-
-200
. 200,
201
. 201,
202
. 202,
203
xw
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Shrines common to Different Faiths,
Serpent-Worship ; N^ga Rites ; Phallic Emblems,
Fetish-Worship in Hinduism ; the Sdlagrdm^
Brdhman Founders of Hinduism ; Low-Caste Apostles,
The Acta Sanctorum of Hinduism, the Bhakta-M^la,
Kumdrila Bhatta ; Sankara Achdrya,
Growth of Siva- Worship ; its Twofold Aspects,
Human Offerings ; the Charak Pujd,
The Thirteen Sivaite Sects ; their Gradations,
Siva and Vishnu compared,
Friendly Vishnu ; the Vishnu Purdna, .
Brdhmanical and Popular Vishnuism, .
Vishnuite Founders ; Rdmdnuja, Ramdnand,
Kabir; Chaitanya; Vallabha-Swdmi,
Krishna- Worship ; the Chief Vishnuite Sects,
The Brahmanical and Buddhist Origin of Jagannith,
Christian Calumnies against Jaganndth,
Modem Fate of the Hindu Triad,
PAGE
203
204
205, 206
207
208
209
210-212
212, 213
. 213,214
215
215, 216
217
. 217, 218
. 218-222
. 222, 223
224
. 224-226
. 227,228
CHAPTER IX.
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA (ciRCA lOO TO 1881 A.D.).
Christianity coeval with Buddhism for 900 years, .
Origin of Christianity in India,
The Three Legends of St. Thomas, ....
St. Thomas the Apostle, Thomas the Manichaean, Thomas the
Armenian,
Wide Meaning of * India ' in the Fathers,
Early Indian Christians (190 a. d.).
The Nestorian Church in Asia; its Wide Diffusion,
* Thomas Christians ' of Persia and of India,
Mixed Worship at the alleged Shrine of St. Thomas near
Madras,
Troubles of the Ancient Indian Church,
Extinction of the Nestorian Church, . . . .241
First Portuguese Missionaries, 1500 a.d. ; the Syrian Rite,
Xavier and the Jesuits ; Work done by, . . .
Jesuit Literature in India 246,
229
229
230-
-239
•^Z"^,
232
233
234,
235
23s,
236
237
238
240
242,
243
243-
-245
244,
245
250,
253
I
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xv
PAGE
Parochial Organization of Portuguese India, . . . . 247
Jesuit Colleges and Rural Settlements, 247-250
The Jesuit Malabar Mission in the 17th and i8th CentUTieSr--.25i> 252
The Portuguese Inquisition at Goa, 253, 254
The Jesuits suppressed (i 759-1 773); re-established (18 14), . 254,255
Organization of Roman Catholic Missions, .... 255, 256
Distribution of Roman Catholics in India, .... 257,259
First Protestant Missionaries, 1705 ; Danish Lutherans, . 259,260
Schwartz; Kiernander; the Serampur Missionaries, . . 260
Bishopric of Calcutta ; Indian Sees, 261
Presbyterian and other Missions, 261
Statistics of Protestant Missions, and their Progress, . 261, 263, 265
General Statistics of Christian Population in India, . . 264
The Indian Ecclesiastical Establishment, . . . . 266, 267
CHAPTER X.
EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS (71I TO 1526 A.D.).
Early Arab Expeditions to Bombay and Sind, . . . 268
India on the Eve of the Muhammadan Conquest, . . . 268,269
Hindu Kingdoms (1000 a.d.), 269
The Muhammadan Conquests only short-lived and temporary, 270
Table of Muhammadan Dynasties (looi to 1857 a.d.), . . 271
First Tiirki Invasions; Subuktigin (977 A.D. ), . . . 272
Mahmiid of Ghazni; his 17 Invasions; Somnith, . . . 273, 274
House of Ghor (1001-1030 a.d.); Muhammad of Ghor's
Invasions, 275-278
Hindu Kingdoms; Rajput Dissensions (1184 a.d.), . . 276, 277
Muhammadan Conquest of Bengal, 277,278
Slave Dynasty (1206-1290 a.d.); Altamsh; the Empress Raziya, 278, 279
Mughal Irruptions into Northern India, and Rajput Revolts,. 279, 280
Balban's Cruelties and his Royal Pensioners; End of Slave
Dynasty, 280
House of Khilji ; Alci-ud-din's Conquest of Southern India, . 280,282
Mughal Mercenaries for the Suppression of Hindu Revolts, . 282, 283
House of Tughlak (1320-1414 a.d.); Muhammad Tughlak's
Expeditions and Cruelties, 283
His Forced Currency, Revenue Exactions ; and Revolts against
him, 283, 284
XVI
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Firuz Shah Tughlak's Canals (135 1-1388 A.D,), . . . 285
Timur (Tamerlane), 1398 a.d. ; Sayyid and Lodi Dynasties, . 285, 286
Hindu Kingdoms of the Deccan; Vijayanagar, . . 286, 287, 288
Five Muhammadan States of the Deccan; Bahmani Kings, . 287, 288
Independent Nayaks and Pdlegars of Southern India, . . 288
State of India on the Eve of the Mughal Conquest, . . 288, 289
CHAPTER XL
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE (1526 TO 1761 A.D.).
Babar's Early Life ; his Invasion of India ; Battle of Panipat
(1526),
Humayun ; Sher Shah the Afghan, ....
Akbar the Great; his Work in India (1560-1605),
His Conciliation of the Hindus ; Intermarriages, .
Akbar's Hindu Military and Revenue Officers,
Reform of Hindu Customs ; Change of Capital to Agra,
Akbar's Subjugation of Khandesh ; his Death,
Akbar's Religious Principles ; his New Faith,
Akbar's Organization of the Empire; Military and Judicial
Reforms,
Akbar's Financial System ; Table of his Revenues,
Revenues of the Mughal Empire (i 593-1 761),
Jahangir, Emperor (1605-1627); the Empress Nur Jahan,
Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador ; Drinking Bouts at Court,
Jahangfr's Personal Character ; his Justice and Religion,
Sh^h Jahan, Emperor (i 628-1 658) ; his Deccan Conquests,
Shah Jahan's Architectural Works; Taj Mahdl and Moti
Masjid, . .'
The Great Mosque and Imperial Palace at Delhi, .
Rebellion of Prince Aurangzeb, and Deposition of
Jahin,
Provinces and Revenues under Shdh Jahdn, .
Aurangzeb, Emperor (1658-1707),
Murder of his Brothers,
Conquests in Southern India ; Rise of the Marathas,
Aurangzeb's twenty years' Mardthd War; his Despair and
Death,
Aurangzeb's Oppression of Hindus ; Rajput Revolts,
Shah
290
290
, 291
2gl
-297
293
293
293
294
294
295
295
296
296
296-
-298
299
300
300
301
301,
302
302
302-
-304
304
304
305
305
306-
-312
307
307,
308
308,
309
309,
310
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Aurangzeb's Provinces and Revenues, ....
Character of Aurangzeb,
Six Puppet Successors of Aurangzeb, ...
Decline and Fall of the Mughal Empire (1707-1858), .
Independence of the Deccan, Oudh, and Rajput States,
Invasions of Nadir Shah the Persian, and Ahmad Shah the
Afghan (1739-1761), 314,315
Last Battle of Panipat (1761) and Fall of the Mughal
Empire, . 315,316
xvii
PAGE
3^0,311
312
313
3^2,313
314
CHAPTER XII.
THE MARATHA POWER (1634 TO 1818 A.D.).
India won, not from the Mughals, but from the Hindus,
Rise of the Marathas; Shahji Bhonsla (1634),
The Hindu Party in Southern India,
Sivaji the Great (162 7-1 680),
His Guerilla Warfare with the Mughals,
Sambhaji (1680-1689) ; Sahu (1707), .
Rise of the Peshwas ; Balaji Viswan^th,
Growth of the Maratha Confederacy,
Maratha Raids to Deccan, Bengal, and the Punjab; Chauth,
Defeat of the Marathas at Panipat (17 61),
The Five Great Marathd Houses ; Decline of the Peshwas,
British Wars with the Mardthas (i 779-1 781, 1 803-1 804, and
1817-1818), 323-324
J
317
317
317,318
• 318,319
319
319,320
320
320
hauth^
320,321
•
321
vas.
321-323
CHAPTER XIII.
THE INDIAN VERNACULARS AND THEIR LITERATURE.
The Three Stages in Indian History, ....
The Dravidian Route through India, ....
The Dravidian Family of Languages ; its Place in Philology,
Pre-Aryan Dravidian Civilisation, ....
Brdhmanic Influence on the Dravidians,
Dravidian Languages ; Tamil,
Aryan Languages of Northern India ; Sanskrit,
• 325,
326
327
• 327,
328
328
329
. Z2>^-
-zzz
• 334,
b
335
XVtll
TABLE OF contents:
The Prakrits or Ancient Aryan Vernaculars, ....
The Modern Vernaculars evolved from the Ancient
Prakrits,
Sanskrit, Prikrit, and Non- Aryan Elements in Modern
Vernaculars,
The Seven Modern Vernaculars, ......
The Modern Vernaculars ; their Literature and Authors,
Hindi, its Historical Development and Chief Authors, .
Marathi, its Historical Development and Chief Authors,
Bengali, its Historical Development and Chief Authors,
PAGE
336-338
339-342
342-344
343-355
345» 346
346
346-354
CHAPTER XIV.
EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS (1498 TO i8tH CENTURY A.D.).
Vasco da Gama's Expedition (1498),
Portuguese Voyages and Supremacy in the East ;
querque and his Successors, ....
Downfall of the Portuguese; their Possessions in 1881,
The Dutch in India (1602-1824),
Their Brilliant Progress, but Short-sighted Policy, .
Fall of the Dutch Power; Dutch Relics in India, .
Early English Adventurers (1496- 1596),
English East India Companies, ....
Early English Voyages (1602-1611),
Naval Fights with the Portuguese; Swally (1615),
Wars with the Dutch ; Massacre of Amboyna,
Early English Factories ; Surat, Masulipatam, Hiigli,
Madras Founded (1639); Bombay Ceded (1661),
Calcutta Founded (1686),
Other European East India Companies,
Albu-
356-358
357-360
361
361,362
362
362, 363
363J 364
364, 365
365* 366
366, 367
367, 368
368, 369
369,370
371
371-377
CHAPTER XV.
HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE (l757 TO 1885).
First British Territorial Possessions, . . . . • 378
French and English Wars in the Karndtik ; Dupleix, Clivc, . 378-380
The English in Bengal (1634- 1696), 380
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Native Rulers of Bengal (i 707-1 756); the * Black Hole
Tragedy,
Battle of Plassey (1757), and its Results,
Clive, Governor of Bengal (1758); List of Governors anc
Viceroys,
Clive's Wars in Oudh, Madras, and Bengal, .
Massacre of Patna ; First Sepoy Mutiny ; Battle of Baxar,
The Grant of the Diwdni (1765), .
Clive's Reorganization of the Company's Service (1766),
Administration of Warren Hastings (177 2-1 785), .
Abolition of the Dual System of Administration (i772\
Hastings' Policy towards Native Powers,
Rohilla, Maratha, and Mysore Wars, ....
Charges against Hastings ; his poor Excuse, .
Lord Cornwallis (i 786-1 793) ; the Permanent Settlement,
Second Mysore War, .......
Marquis of Wellesley (1798-1805); his Work in India,
Treaty with the Nizam, and Extinction of French Influence,
Third Mysore War, and Fall of Seringapatam (1799), •
Second Maratha War (1^02-1805), and Extension of British
Territory, .......
Sir George Barlow (1805) ; the Vellore Sepoy Mutiny,
Earl of Minto (1807-1813); Embassies to Persia and
Afghanistan, . . ...
Marquis of Hastings (1814-1823),
The Nepal, Pindari, and last Maratha War
Lord Amherst ( 1 823-1 828), .
First Burmese War ; Capture of Bhartpur,
Lord William Bentinck (1828-1835), .
His Financial Reforms ; Sati and Thagi suppressed.
Renewal of Charter ; Mysore protected ; Coorg annexed,
Lord Metcalfe (i 835-1 836) ; Liberty of the Press,
Lord Auckland (i 836-1 842),
The First Afghan War (1839-1841) ; its Disastrous Termina
tion,
Lord Ellenborough (i 842-1 844), .
The Army of Retribution ; ' Gates of Somnath,'
Sind War, and Gwalior Outbreak,
XIX
PAGE
380, 381
381-383
384
385
386
387
387
387-392
388
388-390
390-392
391
392,393
394
394-398
395i 396
396, 397
397, 398
399
399,400
400-402
401, 402
403, 404
404
404-406
404, 405
405, 406
406
406^ 408
408
408-410
408, 409
409, 410
XX
^^ TAJ^LE OF CONTENTS.
Lord Hardinge (i 844-1 848) ; the First Sikh War,
Earl ofDalhousie ( 1 848-1 856), . .
Second Sikh War, and Annexation of the Punjab, .
Second Burmese War, and Annexation of Pegu,
Dalhousie's Policy towards Native States; the Doctrine of
Lapse, . . . . . .
Sdtara; Jhansf; Ndgpur; Berar, .....
Annexation of Oudh,
Lord Dalhousie's Work ; Extensions of Territory, .
Earl Canning (1856-1862),
The Mutiny of 1857-1858,
Downfall of the Company ; India transferred to the Crown,
Queen's Proclamation of November I St, 1858,
Financial and Legal Reforms,
Lord Elgin (1862); Lord Lawrence (1864-1869),
Lord Mayo (1869-1872); Ambdla Darbdr ; Visit of Duke
of Edinburgh, .
Financial Reforms; Abolition of Inland Customs Lines,
Lord Northbrook (187 2-1 876) ; Visit of Prince of Wales,
Lord Lytton (1876-1880); Proclamation of the Queen as
Empress,
Famine of 1876-1878 ; Second Afghan War,
Marquis of Ripon (i 880-1 884) ; End of the Afghan War,
Rendition of Mysore ; Legal and Financial Reforms, .
Education Commission ; Abolition of Import Duties,
Bengal Tenancy Bill,
Earlof Dufferin (1884),
Annexation of Upper Burma,
PAGE
410
,411
411
-417
412
413
413
414
414
415
415
-417
417
417
-424
417
-422
422
423
423
424
424
424,
425
425
425
425
426
426,
427
426,
427
427
427-
-429
429
429
430
430
CHAPTER XVL
BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Control of India in England,
Under the Company, and under the Crown,
The Secretary of State ; the Viceroy, .
The Executive and Legislative Councils,
High Courts; the Law of India, .
Provincial Administration in different Provinces,
431
431
431
432,433
433, 434
434,435
Land
TABLE OF cdwf^fS'
'Regulation' and 'Non-Regulation' Districts,
The District Officers ; their Duties,
Districts and Sub-Districts of India, . . .
The Secretariats, Imperial and Provincial,
The Land-Tax, .......
iVncient Land System under Hindus and Musalmdns,
Land System under the Company ; the Za?mnddr^
Landed Property in India ; Growth of Private Rights,
Rates of Land-Tax ; Government Share of the Crop,
The Land Settlement; 'Survey and Settlement,' .
Permanent Settlement of Bengal, ....
Land Law of 1859; Rent Commission of 1880, .
Temporary- Settlements ; in Orissa ; in Assam,
Rdyatwdri Settlement in Madras ; Sir Thomas Munro,
Permanent Settlement in Madras ; Sub-Tenure?, .
Extension of Tillage in Madras ; Reduction of Average
Tax ........
Land System of Bombay ; the ' Survey ' Tenure, .
The Deccan Cultivator; Agriculturists' Relief Acts (1879 and
1881),
Land System of North- Western Provinces and Punjab,
Of Oudh and the Central Provinces,
Land Revenue of British India, ....
The Salt-Tax ; Systems of Manufacture,
Excise ; Distilleries and Breweries,
Opium; Gdnjd ; C haras ^
Municipal Administration ; the Old Panchdyat,
Finance and Taxation of British India, ...
Obscurities in Indian Accounts, ....
Taxation under the Mughals and the British compared
Heavy Taxation in Native States, ....
Incidence of Taxation in British India,
Balance-Sheet of British India, ....
Analysis of Indian Revenues, ....
Indian Expenditure ; Army ; Public Debt ; Famine Relief,
Exchange ; Public Works ; Railways ; Irrigation,
Imperial and Municipal Finance, . . • .
The Army of India ; its Constitution, " .
465
XXI
PAGE
435
435» 436
436, 437
437» 438
438-441
438, 439
439
439j 440
440, 441
441
441-443
443» 444
445
445> 446
446, 447
447, 448
448, 449
449, 450
451
45i>452
452
453,454
454, 455
455
455-457
457-470
458
459-463
464
464, 465
465-468
467, 468
468, 469
469, 470
470
470,471
xxtt
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Police and Jails, . 47 2
Education, 472-479
Education in Ancient India; Sanskrit Tols and Village
Schools, 47-M73
Early English Efforts; the Calcutta Madrasa and other
Colleges, 473
Mission Schools, 473
State System of Education in India, . . ... . 473,474
Education Commission of 1882-1883, 474
Education Statistics, 1878 to 1883, 474,475
Indian Universities, Colleges, and Schools, .... 475-477
Primary Schools, Girls' Schools, Normal and other Special
Schools, 477-479
The Vernacular Press ; Newspapers and Books, . . . 480-481
CHAPTER XVII.
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Agriculture almost the Sole Occupation of the People, .
Various Systems of Agriculture ; Irrigation ; Manure, .
Rice in the different Provinces ; Area ; Out-turn, .
Wheat ; Millets ; Pulses ; Oil-seeds ; Vegetables, .
Fruits ; Spices ; Palms ; Sugar,
Cotton Cultivation in different Provinces ; Exports,
Jute Cultivation and Preparation ; Exports, .
Indigo Cultivation in various Provinces,
Exports of Indigo ; System of Planting,
Opium Cultivation and Manufacture, ....
Tobacco Cultivation ; Trade and Method of Curing,
Table of Crop Statistics ; Acreage, ....
Coffee ; its Introduction into India ; Progress and Growth,
Tea in India; its History and Statistics,
Processes of Tea Cultivation and Manufacture,
Cinchona Cultivation and Manufacture ; Statistics of, .
The Company's Silk Factories,
Silk Area of Bengal ; Silk Statistics,
Jungle Silk; Lac; Lac-dye,
482, 483
483
484-486
486-490
490,491
491-494
494, 495
495> 496
497, 498
498, 499
499, 500
502-504
504-507
508, 509
509-511
511,512
512,513
513-515
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxiii
I'AGE
Model Farms ; the Problem of improved Husbandry, . . 515-517
The Impediments to better Husbandry, .... 517-519
Agricultural Stock of India, 519-523
Breeds of Cattle ; Horse-Fairs; Studs; Wild Elephants, . 520-522
The Forest Department, 522 ; 524-528
Wanton Destruction of Forests ; Indian Timber Trees, . 522 ; 524-526
Forest Conservancy ; its Results, 526,527
Nomadic Tillage ; its Destructiveness, . . . . .527,528
Irrigation; its Function in India, 528,529
Irrigated Area in Sind ; Bombay; Punjab, .... 529-532
In the N.-W. Provinces ; Oudh; Bengal; Orissa, . . . 532-535
In Madras; Mysore; Central Provinces, .... 535-537
Statistics of Cultivation and Irrigation, . .... 538
Famines; their Causes; Drought; Flood; Blight; War, . 539,540
Necessity for husbanding and utilizing the W^ater-Supply, . 540, 541
History of previous Famines (1769 to 1876), . . • 54ij 542
The Famine of 1876-1878 ; its Area, ..... 542,543
Remedial Efforts ; Mortality; Expenditure, . . . ' . 542-544
Famine, a Weak Check on Population, . . . . 544
CHAPTER XVIII.
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
Indian Railway System ; Lord Dalhousie's Trunk
Lord Mayo's Branch Lines, ....
The Four Classes of Indian Railways, .
' Guaranteed ' Railways, ....
' State Railways,' ......
' Assisted ' and ' Native State ' Railways,
Railway Statistics,
Roads ; Old Military Routes,
The Grand Trunk Road ; Bombay Inland Route,
Extension of Roads ; Bridges of Boats,
Navigable Rivers,
Navigable Canals ; Malabar Back-waters, etc..
Lines,
545
545
546
546, 547
547, 548
548, 549
549, 550
550
550
551
551,552
553, 554
XXt7>
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX.
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern Trade of India, .
Large Sea-borne Trade impossible under the Mughals,
Growth of Trading and Industrial Cities under British
Rise of Calcutta and Bombay, ....
Summary of Indian Exports (i 700-1885),
India's Balance of Trade ^and Yearly Savings,
Fourfold Division of Modern Indian Trade, .
The Sea-borne Trade of India, ....
Early Portuguese Trade (1500-1600), .
Dutch Monopoly (1600),
English Factories and Early Trade (i 600-1 700), .
Growth of Trade ; Quinquennial Table of Foreign Trade
Indian Foreign Trade Statistics ; Imports and Exports,
Imports; Cotton Goods; Treasure, . . . 565
Exports ; Raw Cotton ; Jute ; Rice ; Wheat,
Exports ; Oil-seeds ; Indigo and Dyes ; Tea ; Coffee,
Export of Cotton and Jute Manufactures,
Countries with which India trades ; England,
China ; Straits ; Ceylon ; Mauritius ; France ; Italy,
United States ; Australia, .....
Distribution of Foreign Trade of India,
Effects of the Suez Canal on Indian Trade, .
Sir R. Temple on the Balance of India's Foreign Trade
Coasting Trade of India ; Shipping Statistics,
Frontier Trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia,
The Himalayan Trade Routes ; Nepil ; Tibet,
Trade with Bhutdn and the North-Eastern Frontier,
Trade with Independent Burma and Siam,
Tables of Trans-Frontier Landward Trade,
Internal Trade ; Trading Castes, .
Local Trade ; the Village Money-lender,
Religious Fairs ; Village Markets,
Internal Trade a Safeguard against Famine,
Statistics of Internal Trade in certain Provinces,
Growth of Large Marts ; Local Trading Centres,
Rule,
566
PAGE
555.556
556
556-558
557
558
558,559
559
559, 560
560
560
560, 561
561, 562
563-581
568, 569
569-572
573-575
575.576
577
577,578
578
579,580
581
581-583
584-586
586, 587
587,588
588
588, 589
589, 590
591,592
592
593
593, 594
594, 595
595-597
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
XOiV
CHAPTER XX.
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Manufactures of India ; Art-work,
Competition with the English Artisan, .
Native Industries ; Village Crafts,
Cotton-weaving; its Decline,
But still a Domestic Industry throughout India,
Special Fabrics ; Muslins ; Chintzes ; Sdris^ .
Silk-weaving ; Classes of Silk Fabrics, .
Steam Silk Factories,
Embroidery ; Kashmir Shawls ; Leather-work,
Carpets and Rugs ; Processes of Manufacture,
Goldsmiths and Jewellers' Work ; Precious Stones,
Iron-work ; Cutlery ; Chain Armour ; Damascening,
Brass and Copper Work; Bidari Ware,
Indian Pottery and Sculpture, ....
Wood-carving; Inlaying; Ivory-carving,
European Industries ; Steam Cotton Mills, .
Their Manufactures ; Competition with Manchester,
Statistics of Bombay Cotton Mills; their Future Prospect
Jute Mills ; Manufacture of Gunny,
Exports of Jute ; Indian Consumption ; Growth
Trade,
Brewing; Paper-making; Leather, etc.,
of
,610
the
PAGE
599
599, 600
600, 601
601, 602
602, 603
603
603
604, 605
605, 606
606, 607
607, 608
608, 609
609
610-612
611, 612
611; 613
614,615
615, 616
616, 617
CHAPTER XXL
MINES AND MINERALS.
Indian Iron ; Native System of Working,
Failure of Early English Efforts, .
Difficulties of Iron-smelting in India,
Indian Coal ; its Inferior Quality,
History of Coal mining in Bengal,
The Four Great Coal Fields ; Future of Indian Coal,
Salt Manufacture ; the Punjab Salt Range, .
618
618, 619
619
619
619-621
622
622, 623
XXVI
TABLE OF CONTENTS,
Saltpetre ; Manufacture and Export of,
Gold and Gold-mining ; the Wainad Quartz Reefs,
Copper ; Lead ; Tin ; Antimony ; Cobalt, .
Petroleum and Mineral Oils, . . . .
Stone ; Lime ; Kankar ; Marble ; Slate,
Diamonds ; Carnelians ; Pearl Fisheries,
PAGE
. 6
23,
62
4
. 6
24,
62
5
. 6
25,
62
6
. 6
26,
62
7
. 6
2 7,
62
8
. 6
28,
62
9
CHAPTER XXI L
GEOLOGY.
Geology; the Himalayan Region,
The Lower Himalayas ; Siwdliks ; Salt Range,
Indo-Gangetic Plain ; its Geological Age and History,
Peninsular India ; Vindhyan Rocks,
Gondwana, Panchet, Talcher, and Damodar Series,
IMie Raniganj Coal Seams,
Deccan Trap ; Laterite, .....
Geology of Burma,
631,632
632, 633
633, 634
634, 635
635,636
637
638, 639
639, 640
CHAPTER XXIIL
METEOROLOGY.
Meteorological Geography ; the Eastern and Western Hima-
layas, . . . 641, 642
Air-currents ; Vapour-bearing Winds, 642
Punjab Frontier; Indus Plain; the Great Indian Desert, . 642, 643
Gangetic Plain ; Eastern Bengal ; Assam, .... 643, 644
Central Table-land ; Sdtpura Range, 644
Malwd Plateau ; Aravalli Range, 644
Southern Plateau ; Anamalai Hills ; Coast Strip, . . . 644, 645
Ceylon and Burma, 646, 647
Observatory Stations, 646, 647
"temperature; Atmospheric Pressure ; Wind; Humidity, etc, 647,648
■\ Rainfall Returns, 649, 650
Sun-spot Cycles, . . . 650,651
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
xxvtt
CHAP.TER XXIV.
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.
Mammals of India ; Lion ; Tiger ; Leopard,
Wolf j Fox; Jackal; Dog; Hyena,
Bear ; Elephant ; Rhinoceros ; Wild Hog, .
Sheep and Goats; Antelopes; Nilgai ; Deer,
Bison and Buffalo,
Ornithology ; Birds of Prey and Game Birds,
Reptiles ; Loss of Life from Snake-bite ; the ' Cobra,'
Fishes; Insects; Locusts,
Indian Flora in Various Provinces,
PAGE
652, 653
654, 655
^55-657
657, 658
658
659
660
661
662-664
CHAPTER XXV.
VITAL STATISTICS.
Sources of Health Returns ; their Untrustworthiness,
Death-rate in India ; Average Duration of Life,
Vital Statistics in different Provinces, .
Tables of Birth and Death Rates, ....
Health of the European Army ; Causes of Mortality,
Healtli of the Native Army ; Causes of Mortality,
Health Statistics of the Jail Population,
. 665,666
. 666,667
. 667-675
. 676-679
. C75, 680-682
. 682-684
. 684, 685
; > i '.i'
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxix
APPENDIC
PAGE
Appendix I. Area, Towns and Villages, Houses, Population,
etc., of British India in 1 88 1, . . . 689
„ 11. Towns and Villages of British India, classified
according to Population, .... 690
„ III. Cultivated, Cultivable, and Uncultivable Area,
Land Revenue, etc., in Provinces for which
Returns exist, . . . . . . 691
„ IV. Population of British India, classified according
to Sex and Age, 692
,, V. Population of British India, classified according
to Religion, 693
„ VI. Asiatic Non-Indian Population of British India,
classified according to Birthplace, . . . 694
,, VII. Non- Asiatic Population of British India, classified
according to Birthplace, .... 695
„ VIII. List of 149 Towns in British India of which
the Population exceeds 20,000, . . 696, 697
„ IX. Population of British India, classified according
to Education, 698-702
„ X. Population of British India, classified according
to Caste, Sect, and Nationality, . . . 703
Index, 705-747
V
VOWEL SOUNDS.
a has the sound of a as in rural,
d has the sound of a as in far.
e has the vowel sound in gi"ey.
i has the sound of i as in police.
1 has the vowel sound in pier.
o has the sound of o as in bone,
u has the sound of u as in bull,
u has the sound of u as in sure,
ai has the vowel sound in lyre.
Accents have been used as sparingly as possible ; and omitted in such
words or terminals as ptcr, where the Sanskrit family of alphabets takes the
short vowel instead of the long Persian one. The accents over / and u have
often been omitted, to avoid confusing the ordinary English reader, when
the collocation of letters naturally gives them a long or open sound. No
attempt has been made by the use of dotted consonants to distinguish
between the dental and lingual d^ or to represent similar refinements of
Indian pronunciation.
Where the double oo is used for u^ or the double ee for /, and whenever
the above vowel sounds are departed from, the reason is either that the
place has obtained a popular fixity of spelling, or that the Government has
ordered the adoption of some special form.
I have borne in mind four things — First, that this work is intended for
the ordinary English reader. Second, that the twenty-six characters of the
English alphabet cannot possibly be made to represent the fifty letters or
signs of the Indian alphabets, unless we resort to puzzling un-English devices
of typography, such as dots under the consonants, curves above them, or
italic letters in the middle of words. Third, that as such devices are
unsuitable in a work of general reference, some compromise or sacrifice
of scholarly accuracy to popular convenience becomes inevitable. Fourth,
that a compromise to be defensible must be successful, and that the spelling
of Indian places, while adhering to the Sanskrit vowel sounds, should be
as little embarrassing as possible to the European eye.
W. \\\ H.
A-:
V
^^■(►••t>J.';1- _• I
THE INDIAN EMPIRE.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL ASPECTS.
India forms a great irregular triangle, stretching southwards General
from Mid- Asia into the sea. Its northern base rests upon the ""'^""^•
Himalayan ranges ; the chief part of its western side is washed
by the Arabian Sea, and the chief part of its eastern side
by the Bay of Bengal. It extends from the eighth to the
thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; that is to say, from the
hottest regions of the equator to far within the temperate zone.
The capital, Calcutta, lies in 88^° e. long. ; so that when the
sun sets at six o'clock there, it is just past mid-day in England.
The length of India from north to south, and its greatest Dimen-
breadth from east to west, are both about 1900 miles ; but the ^^^"^*
triangle tapers with a pear-shaped curve to a point at Cape
Comorin, its southern extremity. To this compact dominion
the English have added, under the name of British Burma, the
strip of country on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal.
The whole territory thus described contains close on i J millions
of square miles, and over 256 millions of inhabitants: India,
therefore, has an area and a population abou^^ual to the
area and population of the whole of Europe^i^ss Russia. Its
people more than double Gibbon's estimate of 120 millions for
all the races and nations which ^beyed Imperial Rome.
This vast Asiatic peninsula has, from a very ancient period, Origin of
been known to the external world by one form or other of the l^n^a'^-*^^
name which it still bears. The early Indians did not them-
selves recognise any single designation for their numerous and
diverse races ; their nearest approach to a common appellation
for India being Bharata-varsha, the land of the Bharatas, a
noble warrior tribe which came from the north. But this term,
although afterwards generalized, applied only to the basins
of the Indus and the Ganges, and strictly speaking to only a
A
' PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Sanskrit,
Zend, and
Greek
forms.
Ruddhist
derivation
of ' In-tu.'
part of them. The Indus river formed the first great landmark
of nature which arrested the march of the peoples of Central
Asia as they descended upon the plains of the Punjab. That
mighty river impressed itself on the imagination of the ancient
world. To the early comers from the high-lying camping
grounds of inner Asia, it seemed a vast expanse of waters.
They called it in Sanskrit by the w^ord which they gave
to the ocean itself, Sindhus (from the root sya?id, ' to flow ') :
a name afterwards applied to the ocean-god (Varuna). The
term extended itself to the country around the river, and
in its plural form, Sindhavas^ to the inhabitants thereof. The
ancient Persians, softening the initial sibilant to an aspirate,
called it Hendu in the Zend language : the Greeks, again
softening the initial by omitting the aspirate altogether, derived
from it their Indikos and Indos. These forms closely corre-
spond to the ancient Persian word Idhus, which is used in
the inscriptions of Darius for the dwellers on the Indus. But
the native Indian form {Sindhus) was known to the Greeks, as
is proved by the Sinthos of the Periplus Maris Erythraei, and
by the distinct statement of Pliny, 'Indus incolis Sindus
appellatus.' Virgil says, * India mittit ebur.'
The eastern nations of Asia, like the western races of
Europe, derived their name for India from the great river of
the Punjab. The Buddhist pilgrims from China, during the
first seven centuries of our era, usually travelled landw^ard to
Hindustan, skirting round the Himalayas, and entering the
holy land of their faith by the north-western frontier of India.
One of the most celebrated of these pious travellers, Hiuen
Tsiang (629-645 a.d.), states that India 'was anciently called
Shin-tu, also Hien-tau; but now, according to the right
pronunciation, it is called In-tu.' This word in Chinese means
the moon ; and the cradle-land of Buddhism derived its name,
according to the good pilgrim, from its superior glory in the
spiritual firmament, sicut luna inter minora sidera. ' Though
there be torches by night and the shining of the stars,' he says,
' how different from the bright (cool) moon ! Just so the
bright connected light of holy men and sages, guiding the
world as the shining of the moon, have made this country
emment, and so it is called In-tu.' ^ Notwithstanding the
pious philology of the pilgrim, the great river of the Punjab is,
of course, the origin of the Chinese name.
^ Siyu'ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World; translated from
the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang by Samuel Beal. Vol. i. p. 69. Triibner
1884.
BOUNDARIES OF INDIA, 3
The term Hindustan is derived from the modern Persian
form (Hind), and properly applies only to the Punjab and the
central basin of the Ganges. It is reproduced, however, with a
wider signification in the title of the Queen-Empress, Kaisar-i- Kaisar-i-
Hind^ the Caesar, Kaiser, Czar, or Sovereign-paramount of India. ^^^^'
India is shut off from the rest of Asia on the north by a Boun-
vast mountainous region, known in the aggregate as the ^^^^^^•>
Himalayas. Among their southern ranges lie the Independent
States of Bhutan and Nepal : the great table-land of Tibet on the
stretches northward behind : the Native Principality of Kashmir "°^^^'
occupies their western corner. At this north-western angle of and nonh-
India (in lat. 36° n., long. 75° e.), an allied mountain system "^'^^^ »
branches southwards. Its lofty offshoots separate India on the
west, by the w^U-marked ranges of the Safed Koh and the Sulai- on the
man, from x\fghahistan; and by a southern continuation of lower ^^^^ '
hills (the Halas, etc.) from Baluchistan. The southernmost part
of the western land frontier of India is the river Hab ; and the
boundary ends with Cape Monze, at the mouth of its estuary,
in lat. 24° 50' N., long. 66° 43' e. Still proceeding southwards,
India is bounded along the west and south-wxst by the Arabian
Sea and Indian Ocean. Turning northwards from its southern
extremity at Cape Comorin (lat. 8° 4' 20" n., long. 77° 35' 35" e.), on the
the Bay of Bengal forms the main part of its eastern boundary, ^^st.
But in the north-east, as in the north-west, India has again a Burmese
land frontier. The Himalayan ranges at their north-eastern boundary,
angle (in about lat. 28° n., long. 97° e.) throw off long spurs
and chains to the southward. These spurs separate the British
Provinces of Assam and Eastern Bengal from Independent
Burma. They are known successively as the iVbar, Naga,
Patkoi, and Barel ranges. Turning almost due south in lat.
25°, they culminate in the Blue Mountain, 7100 feet, in lat.
22° 37'N., long. 93° 10' E. ; and then stretch southwards under
the name of the Arakan Yomas, separating British Burma from
Independent Burma, until they again rise into the great
mountain of Myin-matin (4700 feet), in 19 J degrees of north
latitude. Up to this point, the eastern hill frontier runs in
a southerly direction, and follows, generally speaking, the
watershed w^hich divides the river systems of Bengal and
British Burma (namely, the Brahmaputra, Meghnd, Kuladan,
etc.) from the Irawadi basin in Independent Burma. But from
near the base of the Myin-matin Mountain, the British frontier
stretches almost due east in a geographical line, which divides
the lower Districts and delta of the Irawadi in British Burma,
4 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
from the middle and upper Districts of that river in Inde-
pendent Burma. Proceeding south-eastwards from the delta
of the Irawadi, a confused succession of little explored ranges
separates the British Province of Tenasserim from the Native
Tenas- Kingdom of Siam. The boundary line runs down to Point
boundar' ^^ctoria at the extremity of Tenasserim (lat. 9° 59' n., long.
98° 32' E.), following the direction of the watershed between
the rivers of the British territory on the west and of Siam on
the east.
Physical The Empire included within these boundaries is rich in
aspects. varieties of scenery and climate, from the highest mountains
in the world, to vast river deltas raised only a few inches above
the level of the sea. It forms a continent rather than a country.
The three But if we could look down on the whole from a balloon, we
Regions should find that India consists of three separate and well-defined
tracts. The first includes the lofty Himalaya Mountains, which
shut it out from the rest of Asia, and which, although for the
most part beyond the British frontier, form a most important
factor in the physical geography of Northern India. The second
region stretches southwards from the base of the Himalayas,
and comprises the plains of the great rivers which issue from
them. The third region slopes upward again from the southern
edge of the river plains, and consists of a high three-sided
table-land, buttressed by the Vindhya Mountains on the north,
and by the Eastern and Western Ghats which run down the
coast on either side of India, till they meet at a point near Cape
Comorin. The interior three-sided table-land, thus enclosed,
is dotted with peaks and ranges, broken by river valleys, and
interspersed by broad level uplands. It comprises the southern
half of the peninsula.
First ^ The first of the three regions is the Himalaya Mountains
The H^ima- ^"^ ^^^^^ offshoots to the southward. The Himalayas — literally,
layas. the * Abode of Snow,' from the Sanskrit hivia^ frost (Latin,
hiems^ winter), and dlaya, a house — consist of a system of
stupendous ranges, the loftiest in the world. They are the
Emodus or Imaus of the Greek geographers, and extend in the
shape of a scimitar, with its edge facing southwards, for a
distance of 1500 miles along the northern frontier of India.
At the north-eastern angle of that frontier, the Dihang river,
the connecting link between the Tsan-pu (Sangpu) of Tibet
and the Brahmaputra of Assam, bursts through the main axis
of the Himalayas. At the opposite or north-western angle,
the Indus in like manner pierces the Himdlayas, and turns
THE HIMALAYAN NORTHERN WALL, 5
southwards on its course through the Punjab. The Himalayas,
like the Kuen-luen chain, the Tian-shan, and the Hindu
Kush, converge towards the Pamir table-land — that central
knot whence the great mountain systems of Asia radiate.
With the Kuen-luen the Himalayas have a closer connection,
as these two mighty ranges form respectively the northern and
southern buttresses of the lofty Tibetan plateau. The Himalayas
project east and west beyond the Indian frontier. Their total
length is about 1750 miles, and their breadth from north to
south from 150 to 250 miles. ^
Regarded merely as a natural frontier separating India The
from the Tibetan plateau, the Himalayas may be described as j^j^^^^ ,^
a double mountain wall running nearly east and west, with a Wall and
trough or series of deep valleys beyond. The southernmost J'^^^^'J
of the two walls rises steeply from the plains of India to
20,000 feet, or nearly 4 miles, in height. It culminates
in Kanchanjanga, 28,176 feet, and Mount Everest, 29,002
feet, the latter being the loftiest measured peak in the world.
This outer or southern wall of the Himalayas subsides on the
northward into a series of dips or uplands, reported to be
13,000 feet above the level of the sea, beyond which rises
the second or inner range of Himalayan peaks. The double
Himalayan wall thus formed, then descends into a great
trough or line of valleys, in which the Sutlej, the Indus, and
the mighty Tsan-pu (Sangpu) gather their waters.
The Sutlej and the Indus flow westwards, and pierce through
the Western Himalayas by separate passes into the Punjab.
The Tsan-pu, after a long unexplored course eastwards along
the valley of the same name in Tibet, finds its way through
the Dihang gorge of the Eastern Himalayas into Assam, where
it takes its final name of the Brahmaputra. On the north of
the river trough, beyond the double Himalayan wall, rise the
Karakoram and Gangri mountains, which form the immediate
escarpment of the Tibetan table-land. Behind the Gangris, on
the north, the lake-studded plateau of Tibet spreads itself out
at a height averaging 15,000 feet Broadly speaking, the
double Himalayan wall rests upon the low-lying plains of
India, and descends northward into a river trough beyond
which rises the Tibetan plateau. Vast glaciers, one of which
is known to be 60 miles in length, slowly move their masses
^ Some geographers hold that the Himalayan system stretches in a
continuous chain westwards along the Oxus to 68° E. long. ; and that only
an arbitrary line can be drawn between the Himalayan ranges and the
elevated regions of Tibet to the north of them.
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Himalayan
passes.
Offshoots
of the
Hima-
layas ;
on east ;
and west.
The Gate-
ways of
India.
of ice downwards to the valleys. The higher ranges between
India and Tibet are crowned with eternal snow. They rise in
a region of unbroken silence, like gigantic frosted fortresses
one above the other, till their white towers are lost in the sky.
This wild region is in many parts impenetrable to man, and
nowhere yields a passage for a modern army. It should be
mentioned, however, that the Chinese outposts extend as far
as a point only 6000 feet above the Gangetic plain, north of
Khatmandu. Indeed, Chinese armies have seriously threatened
Khatmandu itself; and Sir David Ochterlony's advance from
the plains of Bengal to that city in 1816 is a matter of history.
Ancient and well-known trade routes exist, by means of which
merchandise from the Punjab finds its way over heights of
18,000 feet into Eastern Turkistan and Tibet. The Mustagh
(Snowy Mount), the Karakoram (Black Mount), and the
Chang-chenmo are among the most famous of these passes.
The Himalayas not only form a double wall along the north
of India, but at both their eastern and western extremities
send out ranges to the southwards, which protect India's north-
eastern and north-western frontiers. On the north-east, those
offshoots, under the name of the Naga and Patkoi mountains,
etc., form a barrier between the civilised British Districts and
the wild tribes of Upper Burma. The southern continuations
of these ranges, known as the Yomas, separate British from
Independent Burma, and are crossed by passes, the most
historic of which, the An or Aeng, rises to 4517 feet, with
gradients of 472 feet to the mile.
On the opposite or north-western frontier of India, the
mountainous offshoots run down the entire length of the
British boundaries from the Himalayas to the sea. As they
proceed southwards, their best marked ranges are in turn
known as the Safed Koh, the Suliimdn, and the H^la
mountains. These massive barriers have peaks of great
height, culjninating in the Takht-i-Sulaimdn, or Throne of
Solomon, 11,317 feet above the level of the sea. But, as
already mentioned, the mountain wall is pierced at the corner
where it strikes southwards from the Himdlayas by an
opening through which the Indus river flows into India.
An adjacent opening, the Khaibar Pass (3400 feet above
sea-level, amid neighbouring heights rising to 6800 feet), with
the Kuram Pass on the south of it, the Gwalarf Pass near
Dera Ismdil Khdn, the Tal Pass debouching near Dera
Ghdzf Khdn, and the famous BoUn Pass (5800 feet at top),
still farther south, furnish the gateways between India and
HIMALAYAN WATER-SUPPLY. 7
Afghanistan. The Hdla, Brahui, and Pab mountains form
the southern hilly offshoots between India and Baluchistan ;
but they have a much less elevation than the Safed Koh or
the Sulaiman.
^ The Himalayas, while thus standing as a rampart and strong Himalayan
defence around the northern frontier of India, collect and store ^p^p["
up water for the tropical plains below. Throughout the
summer, vast quantities of water are exhaled from the Indian
Ocean. This moisture gathers into vapour, and is borne north-
ward by the monsoon or regular wind, which sets in from the
south in the month of June. The monsoon carries the water-
laden clouds northwards across India, and thus produces the
' rainy season,' on which agriculture so critically depends. But
large quantities of the moisture do not condense or fall as rain
in passing over the hot plains. This vast residue is eventually
dashed against the Himalayas. Their lofty double walls stop
its farther progress northwards, and it either descends in rain
on their outer slopes, or is frozen into snow in its attempt to
cross their inner heights. Very little gets beyond them ; so
that while the southern spurs of the Himalayas receive the Himalayan
largest measured rainfall in the world, and pour it down to "^^^^ ^ *
the Indian rivers, the great plateau of Tibet on the north of
the double Himalayan wall gets scarcely any rainfall.
At Cherra-Punji, where the monsoon first strikes the hills
in Assam, 489 inches of rain, according to returns for 25
years ending 1881, fall annually. In one year (1861) as
many as 805 inches were reported, of which 366 inches fell
in the single month of July. While, therefore, the yearly
rainfall in London is about 2 feet, and that of the plains of
India from i to 6 feet, the rainfall at Cherra-Piinji is 40 feet, a
depth more than is required to float the largest man-of-war ;
and in one year, 67 feet of water fell from the sky, or sufficient
to drown a three-storied house. The mighty mountains that
wall in India on the north form, in fact, a rain-screen which
catches the vapour-clouds from the Southern Ocean, and
condenses them for the hot Bengal plains. The outer slopes
of the Himalayas swell the Indian rivers by their torrents
during the rainy season ; their inner ranges and heights store
up the rainfall in the shape of snow, and thus form a vast
reservoir for the steady supply of the Indian rivers throughout
the year.
This heavy rainfall renders the southern slopes of the Himalayan
Himalayas very fertile, wherever there is any depth of tilth. ^^^"^O'-
But, on the other hand, the torrents scour away the surface
« PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
soil, and leave most of the mountain-sides bleak and bare.
The upper ranges lie under eternal snow; the intermediate
heights form arid grey masses ; but on the lower slopes,
plateaux, and valleys, forests spring up, or give place to a rich
though simple cultivation. The temperature falls about 3 J° F.
for each thousand feet of elevation ; and the vegetation of
the Himalayas is divided into three well-marked zones, the
tropical, the temperate, and the arctic, as the traveller ascends
from the Indian plains. A damp belt of lowland, the
tardi, stretches along their foot, and is covered with dense,
fever-breeding jungle, habitable only by rude tribes and wild
beasts. Fertile diins or valleys penetrate their outer margin.
Himalayan In their eastern ranges adjoining the Lieutenant-Governorship
vegetation, of Bengal, where the rainfall is heaviest, the tree-fern flourishes
amid a magnificent vegetation. Their western or Punjab
ranges are barer. But the rhododendron grows into a forest
tree, and large tracts of it are to be found throughout the
whole length of the Himalayas. The deodar rises in stately
masses. Thickets of bamboos, with their graceful light-green
foliage, beautify the lower valleys. Higher up, the glistening-
grey ilex, mountain oaks with brown young leaves, the Hima-
layan cedar, drooping silver-firs, spruces, pines, and the many-
hued foliage of the chestnut, walnut, and maple, not to
mention a hundred trees of a lower growth hung with bridal
veils of clematis in spring, and festooned with crimson virginia-
creepers in autumn, form, together with patches of the white
medlar blossom, a brilliant contrast to the stretches of scarlet
and pink rhododendron. At harvest-time, crops of millet
run in red ribands down the hillsides. The branches of the
trees are themselves clothed in the damper regions with a
luxuriant growth of mosses, ferns, lovely orchids, and flowering
creepers. The Himalayas have enriched English parks and
hothouses by the deodar, the rhododendron, and the orchid ;
and a great extension in the cultivation of the deodar and
rhododendron throughout Britain dates from the Himalayan
tour in 1848 of Sir Joseph Hooker, now Director of Kew
(jardens. The high price of wood on the plains, for railway
sleepers and building purposes, has caused many of the
hills to be stripped of their forests, so that the rainfall now
rushes quickly down their bare slopes, washing away the
surface soil, and leaving no tilth in which new woods might
grow up. The Forest Department is endeavouring to repair
this reckless denudation of the Himalayan woods.
Himalayan The hill tribes cultivate barley, oats, and a variety of
cultivation.
HI MALA YAN C UL TIVA TR
millets and small grains. Vegetables are also raised on a
large scale. The potato, introduced from England, is a favourite
crop, and covers many sites formerly under forest.
The hillman clears his potato ground by burning a ring round Clearing a
the stems of the great trees, and then lays out the side of the ^^^^ ^°''^^^'
mountain into terraces. After a few years the bark and leaves
drop off the branches, and the forest stands bleached and ruined.
Some of the trees rot on the ground, like giants fallen in
confused flight ; others still remain upright, with white trunks
and skeleton arms. In the end, the rank green potato crop
marks the spot where a forest has been slain and buried.
Several of the ruder hill tribes follow an even more wasteful
mode of tillage. Destitute of either ploughs or oxen, they
burn down the jungle, and exhaust the soil by a quick succes-
sion of crops, raised by the hoe. In a year or two the whole
settlement moves off to a fresh patch of jungle, which they
clear and exhaust, and then desert in like manner.
Rice is only grown in the Himalayas on ground which has Irrigation
an unfailing command of water — particularly in the damp ^"d mill-
hot valleys between the successive ranges which roll upwards
into the interior. The hillmen practise an ingenious system
of irrigation, according to which the slopes are laid out in
terraces, and the streams are diverted to a great distance by
successive parallel channels along the mountain-side. They
also utilize their water-power for mill purposes. Some of them
are ignorant of cog-wheels for converting the vertical movement
of the mill-wheel into the horizontal movement required for
the grinding-stone. They therefore place their mill-wheel
flat instead of upright, and lead the water so as to dash with
great force on the horizontal paddles. A horizontal rotary
movement is thus obtained, and conveyed direct by the axle
to the millstone above.
The chief saleable products of the Himalayas are timber, Himalayan
charcoal, barley, millets, potatoes, other vegetables, honey, pfj^^^^
jungle products, borax, and several kinds of inferior gems.
Strings of ponies and mules straggle with their burdens along
the narrow pathways, which are at many places mere ledges
cut out of the precipice. The hillmen and their hard-working
wives load themselves also with pine stems and conical baskets
of grain. The yak-cow and hardy mountain sheep are the
favourite beasts of burden in the inner ranges. The little
yak-cow, whose bushy tail is manufactured in Europe into lace,
patiently toils up the steepest gorges with a heavy burden on
her back. The sheep, laden with bags of borax, are driven
lo PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
to marts on the outer ranges near the plains, where they
are shorn of their wool, and then return into the interior with
a load of grain or salt. Hundreds of them, having completed
their journey from the upper ranges, are sold for slaughter
at a nominal price of perhaps a shilling a-piece, as they are
not worth taking back to the inner mountains.
Himalayan The characteristic animals of the Himalayas include the
and tribes, y^k-cow, musk-deer, several kinds of wild sheep and goat, bear,
ounce, leopard, and fox ; the eagle, great vultures, pheasants of
beautiful varieties, partridges, and other birds. Ethnologically,
the Himalayas form the meeting-ground of the Aryan and
Turanian races, which in some parts are curiously mingled,
although generally distinguishable. The tribes or broken clans
of non- Aryan origin number over fifty, with languages, customs,
and religious rites more or less distinct. The lifelong labours
of Mr. Brian Houghton Hodgson, of the Bengal Civil Service,
have done much to illustrate the flora, fauna, and ethnology
of the Himalayas ; and no sketch of this region would be
complete without a reference to Mr. Hodgson's work.
Second The wide plains watered by the Himdlayan rivers form the
jj^^° second of the three regions into which India is divided.
The They extend from the Bay of Bengal on the east, to the
nx)rthern Afghan frontier and the Arabian Sea on the west, and contain
Plains. the richest and most densely-crowded Provinces of the Empire.
One set of invaders after another have, from pre-historic times,
entered by the passes on the north-eastern and north-western
frontiers of India. They followed the courses of the rivers,
and pushed the earlier comers southwards before them towards
the sea. About 150 millions of people now live on and around
these river plains in the Provinces known as the Lieutenant-
Governorship of Bengal, Assam, the North-Western Pro-
vinces, Oudh, the Punjab, Sind, R^jputana and other Native
States.
The three The vast level tract which thus covers Northern India is
systems of ^'^^6^^^ by three distinct river systems. One of these river
N. India. Systems takes its rise in the hollow trough beyond the Him^-
(') /^e layas, and issues through their western ranges upon the Punjab
with the ^^ ^^ Indus and Sutlej. The second of the three river systems
Sutlej. also takes its rise beyond the double wall of the Himdlayas,
(2) The not very far from the sources of the Indus and the Sutlej. It
isan-puor / , , ... -r ,.
Brahma- turns, however, almost due east mstead of west, enters India
putra. at the eastern extremity of the Himdlayas and becomes the
Brahmaputra of Assam and Eastern Bengal. These rivers
THREE RIVERS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 1 1
collect the drainage of the northern slopes of the Himalayas,
and convey it, by long, tortuous, and opposite routes, into
India. Indeed, the special feature of the Himalayas is that
they send down the rainfall from their northern as well as
from their southern slopes to the Indian plains. Of the
three great rivers of Northern India, the two longest, namely
the Indus with its feeder the Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra,
take their rise in the trough on the north of the great
Himalayan wall. That trough receives the drainage of the inner
or northern escarpment of the Himalayas, together with such
water-supply as emerges from the outer or southern escarpment
of the lofty but almost rainless plateau of Tibet.
The third river system of Northern India receives the drainage (3) The
of the outer or southern Himalayan slopes, and unites into ^^^"2^^'
the mighty stream of the Ganges. In this way, the rainfall, jumna.
alike from the northern and southern slopes of the Himalayas,
and even from the mountain buttresses of the Tibet pbteau
beyond, pours down upon the plains of India. The long and
lofty spur of the outer Himalayas, on which stands Simla, the
summer residence of the Government of India, forms the water-
shed between the river systems of the Indus and Ganges. The
drainage from the west of this narrow ridge below the Simla
Church flows into the Arabian Sea ; while that which starts a
few feet off, down the eastern side, eventually reaches the Bay
. of Bengal.
The Indus (Sanskrit, SindJms ; 'Iv8o9, ^iv^os) rises in an The Indus,
unexplored region (lat. 32° n., long. 81° e.) on the slopes of
the sacred Kailas mountain, the Elysium or Siva's Paradise
of ancient Sanskrit literature. The Indus has an elevation of
about 16,000 feet at its source in Tibet ; a drainage basin of
372,700 square miles; and a total length of over 1800 miles.
Shortly after it passes within the Kashmir frontier, it drops to
14,000 feet, and at Leh is only about 11,000 feet above the
level of the sea. The rapid stream dashes down ravines and
wild mountain valleys, and is subject to tremendous floods.
The Indus bursts through the western ranges of the Hima-
layas by a wonderful gorge near Iskardoh, in North-Western
Kashmir — a gorge reported to be 14,000 feet in sheer depth.
Its great feeder, the Sutlej, rises on the southern slopes The Sutlej.
of the Kailas mountain, also in Tibet. It issues from one of
the sacred lakes, the Manasarowar and Ravana-hrdda (the
modern Rakhas Tal), famous in Hindu mythology, and still the
resort of the Tibetan shepherds. Starting at an elevation of
15,200 feet, the Sutlej passes south-west across the plain ot
12 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA. ,
Guge, where it has cut through a vast accumulation of deposits
by a gully said to be 4000 feet deep, between precipices of
alluvial soil. After traversing this plain, the river pierces the
Himalayas by a gorge with mountains rising to 20,000 feet
on either side. The Sutlej is reported to fall from 10,000 feet
above sea-level at Shipki, a Tibetan frontier outpost, to 3000
feet at Rdmpur, the capital of a Himalayan State about 60
miles inward from Simla. During this part of its course,
the Sutlej runs at the bottom of a deep trough, with precipices
and bare mountains which have been denuded of their forests,
towering above. Its turbid waters, and their unceasing roar
as the river dashes over the rapids, have a gloomy and dis-
quieting effect. Sometimes it grinds to powder the huge pines
and cedars entrusted to it to float down to the plains. By
the time it reaches Bilaspur, it has dropped to 1000 feet above
sea-level. After entering British territory, the Sutlej receives
the waters of the Western Punjab, and falls into the Indus
near Mithankot, after a course of 900 miles.
Lower A full account of the Indus will be found in the article on
course of ^^^ x\wti in volume vii. of The Imperial Gazetteer of India,
Indus. , .... ^ , ,
About 800 miles of its course are passed among the
Himalayas before it enters British territory, and it flows
for about 1000 miles more, south-west, through the British
Provinces of the Punjab and Sind. In its upper part it is
fordable in many places during the cold weather; but it is
liable to sudden freshets, in one of which Ran jit Singh is said
to have lost a force, variously stated at from 1200 to 7000
horsemen, while crossing by a ford. A little way above Attock,
the Indus receives the Kabul river, which brings down the waters
of Northern Afghanistan. The volume of those waters, as repre-
sented by the Kdbul river, is about equal to the volume of the
Indus at the point of junction. At Attock, the Indus has
fallen, during a course of 860 miles, from its elevation of 16,000
feet at its source in Tibet to under 2000 feet. These 2000
feet supply its fall during the remaining 940 miles of its course.
The discharge of the Indus, after receiving all its tribu-
taries, varies from 40,857 to 446,086 cubic feet per second,
according to the season of the year. The enormous mass of
water spreads itself over a channel of a quarter of a mile to
a mile (or at times much more) in breadth. The effect pro-
duced by the evaporation from this fluvial expanse is so marked
that, at certain seasons, the thermometer is reported to be
10* F. lower close to its surface than on the surrounding
arid plains. The Indus supplies a precious store of water
THE INDUS AND BRAHMAPUTRA. 13
for irrigation works at various points along its course, and
forms the great highway of the Southern Punjab and Sind.
In its lower course it sends forth distributaries across a wide
delta, with Haidarabad (Hyderabad) in Sind as its ancient
political capital, and Karachi (Kurrachee) as its modern port.
The silt which it carries down has helped to form the seaboard
islands, mud-banks, and shallows, that have cut off the ancient
famous emporia around the Gulf of Cambay from modern
commerce.
The Brahmaputra, like the Sutlej, rises near to the sacred The Tsan^
lake of Manasarowar. Indeed, the Indus, the Sutlej, and the Brahu^a-
Brahmaputra may be said to start from the same water-parting, putra.
The Indus rises on the western slope of the Kailas mountain,
the Sutlej on its southern, and the Brahmaputra at some dis-
tance from its eastern base. The Mariam-la and other saddles The Kailas
connect the more northern Tibetan mountains, to which the "^^^^"^^ ^ *
Kailas belongs, with the double Himalayan wall on the south.
They form an irregular watershed across the trough on the
north of the double wall of the Himalayas ; thus, as it were,
blocking up the western half of the great Central Asian trench.
The Indus flows down a western valley from this transverse
watershed ; the Sutlej finds a more direct route to India by a
south-western valley. The Brahmaputra, under its Tibetan
name of Tsan-pu or Sangpu, has its source in 31° n. lat. and
83° E. long. It flows eastwards down the Tsan-pu valley,
passing not very far to the south of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet ;
and probably 800 to 900 miles, or about one-half of its total
course, are spent in the hollow trough on the north of the
Himalayas. This brief account assumes that the Brahmaputra
of India is the true continuation of the Sangpu of Tibet. The
result of the latest researches into that long mooted question
are given under article Brahmaputra, in volume iii. of The
Imperial Gazetteer of India.
After receiving several tributaries from the confines of the The
Chinese Empire, the river twists round a lofty eastern range of ^"^f ""™^-
^ ' . . -^ o putra con-
the Hnnalayas, and enters British territory under the name of fluents in
the DiHANG, near Sadiya in Assam. It presently receives two Assam,
confluents, the Dibang river from the northward, and the
Brahmaputra proper from the east (lat. 27° 20' N., long. 95°
50' E.). The united stream then takes its well-known appel-
lation of the Brahmaputra, literally the ' Son of Brahma the
Creator.' It represents a drainage basin of 361,200 square
miles, and its summer discharge at Goalpara in Assam was
14
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Brahma-
putra silt.
The
lirahma-
putra in
Bengal.
(Jamuna
and
Meghna.)
for long computed at 146,188 cubic feet of water per second.
Recent measurements have, however, shown that this calcula-
tion is below the truth. Observations made near Dibrugarh
during the cold weather of 1877-78, returned a mean low-water
discharge of 116,484 cubic feet per second for the Brahma-
putra at the upper end of the Assam valley, together with
16,945 cubic feet per second for its tributary the Subansiri.
Total cold -weather discharge for the united stream, over
133,000 cubic feet per second near Dibrugarh. Several
affluents join the Brahmaputra during its course through Assam;
and the mean low-water discharge at Goalpara, in the lower
end of the Assam valley, must be in excess of the previous
computation at 146,188 cubic feet per second. During the
rains the- channel rises 30 or 40 feet above its ordinary level,
and its flood discharge is estimated at over 500,000 cubic
feet per second.
The Brahmaputra rolls down the Assam valley in a vast
sheet of water, broken by numerous islands, and exhibit-
ing the operations of alluvion and diluvion on a gigantic
scale. It is so heavily freighted with silt from the Himalayas,
that the least impediment placed in its current causes a
deposit, and may give rise to a wide-spreading, almond-shaped
mud-bank. Steamers anchoring near the margin for the night
sometimes find their sterns aground next morning on an
accumulation of silt, caused by their own obstruction to the
current. Broad divergent channels split off from the parent
stream, and rejoin it after a long separate existence of uncon-
trollable meandering. By centuries of alluvial deposit, the
Brahmaputra has raised its banks and channel in parts of the
Assam valley to a higher level than the surrounding country.
Beneath either bank lies a low strip of marshy land, which is
flooded in the rainy season. Beyond these swamps, the
ground begins to rise towards the hills that hem in the valley
of Assam on both sides.
After a course of 450 miles south-west down the Assam
valley, the Brahmaputra sweeps round the spurs of the Giro
Hills due south towards the sea. It here takes the name of
the Jamund, and for 180 miles rushes across the level plains
of Eastern Bengal, till it joins the Ganges at Godlanda (lat.
23° 50° N., long. 89° 46' E.). From this point the deltas of the
two great river systems of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra
unite into one. But before reaching the sea, their combined
streams have yet to receive, by way of the Cachar valley, the
drainage of the eastern watershed between Bengal and Burma,
CHANGES IN THE BRAHMAPUTRA. 15
under the name of the Meghna river, itself a broad and
magnificent sheet of water.
The Brahmaputra is famous not only for its vast alluvial de- Brahma-
posits, but also for the historical changes which have taken place [^^^ndr^^'
in its course. One of the islands (the Majuli char)^ which it has
created in its channel out of the silt torn away from the distant
Himalayas, covers 441 square miles. Every year, thousands of
acres of new land are thus formed out of mud and sand ; some
of them destined to be swept away by the inundations of the
following year ; others to become the homes of an industrious
peasantry or the seats of busy river marts. Such formations
give rise to changes in the bed of the river — changes which
within a hundred years have completely altered the course of
the Brahmaputra through Bengal. In the last century, the
stream, on issuing from Assam, bent close round the spurs of
the Garo Hills in a south-easterly direction. This old bed of
the Brahmaputra, the only one recognised by Major Rennel in
1765-75, has now been deserted. It retains the ancient name Great
of the Brahmaputra, but during the hot weather it is little more pli^nges in
than a series of pools. The modern channel, instead of twist-
ing round the Garo Hills to the east, bursts straight southwards
towards the sea under the name of the Jamuna, and is now
separated at places by nearly 100 miles of level land from the
main channel in the last century. A floating log thrown
up against the bank, a sunk boat, or any smallest obstruc-
tion, may cause the deposit of a mud island. Every such
silt-bank gives a more or less new direction to the main
channel, which in a few years may have eaten its way far
across the plain, and dug out for itself a new bed at a distance
of several miles. Unlike the Ganges and the Indus, the
Brahmaputra is not used for artificial irrigation. But its silt-
charged overflow annually replenishes the land. Indeed, the
plains of Eastern Bengal watered by the Brahmaputra yield
unfailing harvests of rice, mustard, oil-seeds, and the exhaust-
ing jute crop, year after year, without any deterioration.
The valley of the Brahmaputra in Assam is not less fertile,
although inhabited by a less industrious race.
The Brahmaputra is the great high-road of Eastern Bengal The
and Assam. Its tributaries and bifurcations afford innumerable Brahma-
, . 1 J 1 • putra as a
waterways, almost supersedmg roads, and at the same time high-road.
rendering road construction and maintenance very diftlculL
The main river is navigable by steamers as high up as
DiBRUGARH, about 800 miles from the sea; and its broad
surface is crowded with country craft of all sizes and rigs, from
i6
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Brahma-
putra
traffic.
the dug-out canoe and timber raft to the huge cargo ship,
with its high bow and carved stern, its bulged-out belly, and
spreading square-sails. The busy emporium of Sirajganj, on
the western bank of the Brahmaputra, collects the produce of
the Districts for transmission to Calcutta. Fifty thousand
native craft, besides steamers, passed Sirajganj in 1876.
The downward traffic consists chiefly of tea (to the
value of about i^ million sterling), timber, caoutchouc, and
raw cotton, from Assam ; with jute, oil-seeds, tobacco, rice,
and other grains, from Eastern Bengal. In return for these,
Calcutta sends northwards by the Brahmaputra, European
piece-goods, salt, and hardware; while Assam imports from
the Bengal delta, by the same highway, large quantities of
rice (amounting to 14,749 tons in 1883-84) for the labourers
on the tea plantations. The total value of the river-borne trade
of the Brahmaputra was returned at a little over three millions
sterling in 1882-83. ^'^t it is impossible to ascertain the
whole produce carried by the innumerable native boats on
the Brahmaputra. The railway system of India taps the
Brahmaputra at Goalanda and Dhubri ; while a network of
channels through the Sundarbans supply a cheaper means of
water transit for bulky produce across the delta to Calcutta.
The
Gangetic
river
system
As the Indus, with its feeder the Sutlej, and the Brahma-
putra, convey to India the drainage from the northern or
Tibetan slopes of the Himalayas, so the Ganges, with its
tributary the Jumna, collects the rainfall from the southern or
Indian slopes of the mountain wall, and pours it down upon-
the plains of Bengal. The Ganges traverses the central part
of those plains, and occupies a more prominent place in the
history of Indian civilisation than either the Indus in the
extreme west, or the Brahmaputra in the extreme east of
Hindustan. It passes its whole life to the south of the
Himalayas, and for thousands of years has formed an over-
ruling factor in the development of the Indian races.
The Ganges issues, under the name of the Bhagirathi, from
an ice-cave at the foot of a Himalayan snowbed, 13,800 feet
above the sea-level (lat. 30° 56' 4" n., long. 79° 6' 40" e.).
After a course of 1557 miles, it falls by a network of estuaries
into the Bay of Bengal. It represents, with its tributaries, an
enormous catchment basin, bounded on the north by a section
of about 700 miles of the Himalayan ranges, on the south by
the Vindhya mountains, and embracing 391,100 square miles.
Before attempting a description of the functions performed by
GROWTH OF THE GANGES. 17
the Ganges, it is necessary to form some idea of the mighty
masses of water which it collects and distributes. But so
many variable elements affect the discharge of rivers, thai
calculations of their volume must be taken merely as estimates.
At the point where it issues from its snowbed, the infant stream The
is only 27 feet broad and 15 inches deep, with an elevation of SJ^^^h
13,800 feet above sea-level. During the first 180 miles of its Ganges.
course, it drops to an elevation of 1024 feet. At this point,
Hard war, its lowest discharge, in the dry season, is 7000 cubic
feet per second. Hitherto the Ganges has been little more
than a snow-fed Himalayan stream. During the next thousand
miles of its journey, it collects the drainage of its catchment
basin, and reaches Rajmahal about 1180 miles from its source.
It has here, while still about 400 miles from the sea, a high Discharge
flood discharge of 1,800,000 cubic feet of water per second, ^^ ^^"^'^^'^•
and an ordinary discharge of 207,000 cubic feet; longest
duration of flood, about forty days. The maximum dis-
charge of the Mississippi is given at 1,200,000 cubic feet per
second.! The maximum discharge of the Nile at Cairo is
returned at only 362,200 cubic feet; and of the Thames at
Staines at 6600 cubic feet of water per second. The Meghna,
one of the many outflows of the Ganges, is 20 miles broad
near its mouth, with a depth, in the dry season, of 30 feet.
But for a distance of about 200 miles, the sea face of Bengal
entirely consists of the estuaries of the Ganges, intersected by
low islands and promontories, formed out of its silt.
In forming our ideas with regard to the Ganges, we must The
begin by dismissing from our minds any lurking comparison of J""'"^'
its gigantic stream with the rivers which we are familiar with in
England. A single one of its tributaries, the Jumna, has an
independent existence of 860 miles, with a catchment basin of
118,000 square miles, and starts from an elevation at its source
of 10,849 feet above sea-level. The Ganges and its principal
tributaries are treated of in The Jinperial Gazetteer of India, in
separate articles under their respective names. The following
account confines itself to a brief sketch of the work which these
Gangetic rivers perform in the plains of Northern India, and
of the position which they hold in the thoughts of the people.
Of all great rivers on the surface of the globe, none can Sanctity
compare in sanctity with the Ganges, or Mother Ganga, as she °f ^'^^
is affectionately called by devout Hindus. From her source in
^ Hydraulic Manual, by Lowis D'A. Jackson, Hydraulic Statistics,
Table ii. ; Appendix, p. 2 (1875).
B
i8
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Lecjend
of the
Ganges.
(1 angelic
])ilgrim-
a''es.
the Himalayas, to her mouth in the Bay of Bengal, her banks
are holy ground. Each point of junction of a tributary with
the main stream has its own special claims to sanctity. But
the tongue of land at Allahabad, where the Ganges unites with
her great sister river the Jumna, is the true Praydg, the place
of pilgrimage whither hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus
repair to wash away their sins in her sanctifying waters. Many
of the other holy rivers of India borrow their sanctity from a
supposed underground connection with the Ganges. This
fond fable recalls the primitive time when the Aryan race was
moving southward from the Gangetic plains. It is told not
only of first-class rivers of Central and Southern India, like
the Narbada, but also of many minor streams of local sanctity.
An ancient legend relates how Ganga, the fair daughter
of King Himalaya (Himavat) and of his queen the air-nymph
Menaka, was persuaded, after long supplication, to shed her
purifying influence upon the sinful earth. The icicle-studded
cavern from which she issues is the tangled hair of the
god Siva, Loving legends hallow each part of her course ;
and from the names of her tributaries and of the towns
along her banks, a whole mythology might be built ilp. The
southern offshoots of the Aryan race not only sanctified
their southern rivers by a fabled connection with the holy
stream of the north. They also hoped that in the distant
future, their rivers would attain an equal sanctity by the
diversion of the Ganges' waters through underground channels.
Thus, the Brahmans along the Narbadd maintain that in this evil
age of the world (indeed, about the year 1894 a.d.), the sacred
character of the Ganges will depart from that polluted stream,
and take refuge by an underground passage in their own river.
The estuary of the Ganges is not less sacred than her
source. Sagar Island at her mouth is annually visited by a
vast concourse of pilgrims, in commemoration of her act of
saving grace ; when, in order to cleanse the 60,000 damned
ones of the house of Sagar, she divided herself into a hundred
channels, thus making sure of reaching their remains, and so
forming the delta of Bengal. The six years' pilgrimage from
her source to her mouth and back again, known as pi-adak-
shina^ is still performed by many ; and a few devotees may
yet be seen wearily accomplishing the meritorious penance of
'measuring their length' along certain parts of the route.
To bathe in the Ganges at the stated festivals washes away
guilt, and those who have thus purified themselves carry back
bottles of her water to their kindred in far-ofif provinces.
WORK DONE BY THE GANGES. 19
To die and to be cremated on the river bank, and to have
their ashes borne seaward by her stream, is the last wish of
millions of Hindus. Even to ejaculate 'Ganga, Ganga,' at
the distance of 100 leagues from the river, say her more
enthusiastic devotees, may atone for the sins committed during
three previous lives.
The Ganges has earned the reverence of the people by Work
centuries of unfailing work done for them. She and her tribu- ^^"^ ^y
taries are the unwearied water-carriers for the densely-peopled Ganges ;
provinces of Northern India, and the peasantry reverence the
bountiful stream which fertilizes their fields and distributes
their produce. None of the other rivers of India comes near
to the Ganges in works of beneficence. The Brahmaputra and
the Indus have longer streams, as measured by the geographer,
but their upper courses lie beyond the great mountain wall in
the unknown recesses of the Himalayas.
Not one of the rivers of Southern India is navigable in Thewater-
the proper sense. The Ganges begins to distribute fertility camer^and
by irrigation as soon as she reaches the plains, within of Ben^Tai.
200 miles of her source, and at the same time her channel
becomes in some sort navigable. Thenceforward she rolls
majestically down to the sea in a bountiful stream, which
never becomes a merely destructive torrent in the rains, and
never dwindles away in the hottest summer. Tapped by
canals, she distributes millions of cubic feet of water every
hour in irrigation ; but her diminished volume is promptly
recruited by great tributaries, and the wide area of her catch-
ment basin renders her stream inexhaustible in the service
of man. Embankments are in but few places required to
restrain her inundations, for the alluvial silt which she spills
over her banks affords in most parts a top-dressing of inex-
haustible fertility. If one crop be drowned by the flood, the
peasant comforts himself with the thought that the next
crop from his silt-manured fields will abundantly requite him.
The function of the Ganges as a land-maker on a great scale
will be explained hereafter.
The Ganges has also played a pre-eminent part in the The
commercial development of Northern India. Until the open- ^^"^es
ing of the railway system, 1855 to 1870, her magnificent highway
stream formed almost the sole channel of traffic between o\ Bengal.
Upper India and the seaboard. The products not only of the
river plains, but even the cotton of the Central Provinces, were
formerly brought by this route to Calcutta. Notwithstanding
the revolution caused by the railways, the heavier and more
2 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA,
bulky staples are still conveyed by the river, and the Ganges
may yet rank as one of the greatest waterways in the world.
Traffic The upward and downward trade of the interior with
on the Calcutta alone, by the Gangetic channels, was valued in
Cinn^'es. . .
" 1 88 T at over 20 millions sterling. This is exclusive of the
sea-borne commerce. At Bamanghata, on one of the canals
east of Calcutta, 178,627 cargo boats were registered in
1876-77; at Hiigli, a river-side station on a single one of
the many Gangetic mouths, 124,357 ; and at Patna, 550
miles from the mouth of the river, the number of cargo boats
entered in the register was 61,571. The port of Calcutta is
itself one of the world's greatest emporia for sea and river
borne commerce. Its total exports and imports landward and
seaward amounted in 1881 to about 140 millions sterling.
Articles of European commerce, such as wheat, indigo, cotton,
opium, and saltpetre, prefer the railway ; so also do the imports
Not of Manchester piece-goods. But if we take into account the
b"^he^^ vast development in the export trade of oil-seeds, rice, etc.,
railway. Still carried by the river, and the growing interchange of food-
grains betAveen various parts of the country, it seems probable
that the actual amount of traffic on the Ganges has increased
rather than diminished since the opening of the railways.
At well-chosen points along her course, the iron lines touch
the banks, and these river-side stations form centres for col-
lecting and distributing the produce of the surrounding
country. The Ganges, therefore, is not merely a rival, but a
feeder, of the railway. Her ancient cities, such as Allahabad,
Benares, and Patna, have thus been able to preserve their
former importance ; while fishing villages like Sahibganj and
Goalanda have been raised into thriving river marts.
The great For, unlike the Indus and the Brahmaputra, the Ganges is a
ciUes.^ ^^ "^^^ of great historic cities. Calcutta, Patna, and Benares
are built on her banks ; Agra and Delhi on those of her
tributary, the Jumna ; and Allahabad on the tongue of land
where the two sister streams unite. Many milhons of human
Calcutta, beings live by coinmerce along her margin. Calcutta, with
its suburbs on both sides of the river, contains a popula-
tion of over J of a million. It has a municipal revenue of
;£"27o,ooo to ;£"29o,ooo; a sea-borne and coasting commerce
of about 65 millions sterling, with a landward trade of 75
millions sterling. These figures vary from year to year, but
show a steady increase. Calcutta lies on the Hugli, the
most westerly of the mouths by which the Ganges enters the
sea. To the eastwards stretches the delta, till it is hemmed
THE LIFE OF AN INDIAN RIVER. 21
in on the other side by the Meghna, the most easterly of the
mouths of the Ganges ; or rather the vast estuary by which
the combined waters of the Brahmaputra and Gangetic river
systems find their way into the Bay of Bengal.
In order, therefore, to understand the plains of Northern The part
India, we must have a clear idea of the part played by the Pj^y^" ^
great rivers ; for the rive rs fir st^reate the land, then fertilize rivers^—
it, and fina lly distribute its produce. The plai^ns of Bengal
were in many parts upheaved by volcanic forces, or deposited
in an aqueous era, before the present race of man appeared. —
But in other parts they have been formed out of the silt which the
rivers bringdown from the mountains; and at this day we may
stand by and watch the ancient process of land-making go on.
A great Indian river like the Ganges has three distinct Three
stages in its^ career from the Himalayas to the sea. In ^l^^f.'t ^" r
the first stage of its course, it dashes down the Himalayas, a river,
cutting out for itself deep gullies in the solid rock, ploughing First
up glens between the mountains, and denuding the hillsides ^^^S^ >
of their soil. In wading over the Sutlej feeders among the
hills in the rainy season, the ankles are sore from the pebbles
which the stream carries with it ; while even in the hot weather,
the rushing sand and gravel cause a prickly sensation across
the feet.
The second stage in the life of an Indian river begins at the Second
point where it emerges from the mountains upon the plains, stage.
It then runs peacefully along the valleys, searching out
for itself the lowest levels. It receives the drainage and
mud of the country on both sides, absorbs tributaries, and
rolls for\vard with an ever-increasing volume of water and
silL Every torrent from the Himalayas brings its separate
contribution of new soil, which it has torn from the rocks or
eroded from its banks. This process repeats itself through-
out more than ten thousand miles ; that is to say, down the
course of each tributary from the Himalayas or Vindhyas,
and across the plains of Northern India. During the second
stage of the life of a Bengal river, therefore, it forms a great
open drain, which gradually deepens itself by erosion of its
channel. As its bed thus sinks lower and lower, it draws off
the water from swamps or lakes in the surrounding country.
Dry land takes the place of fens ; and in this way the physical
configuration of Northern India has been greatly altered, even
since the Greek descriptions 2000 years ago.
As long as the force of the current is maintained by a
22
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
First and
second
stages of
a great
river, as
a silt-col-
lector.
Loss of
carrying
jjovver.
Third
stage of
an Indian
river, as
.'I land-
maker.
sufficient fall per mile, the river carries forward the silt thus
supplied, and adds to it fresh contributions from its banks.
Each river acquires a character of its own as it advances, a
character which tells the story of its early life. Thus, the
Indus is loaded with silt of a brown hue ; the Chenab has a
reddish tinge ; while the Sutlej is of a paler colour. The exact
amount of fall required per mile depends upon the specific
gravity of the silt which it carries. At a comparatively early
stage, the current drops the heavy particles of rock or sand
which it has torn from the Himalayan precipices. But a fall
of 5 inches per mile suffices to hold in suspension the great
body of the silt, and to add further accretions in passing
through alluvial plains. The average fall of the Ganges
between Benares and the delta-head (about 461 miles) is nearly
5 inches per mile. In its upper course its average declivity is
much greater, and suffices to bear along and pulverize the
heavier spoils torn from the Himalayas.
By the time the Ganges reaches its delta in Lower Bengal
(Colgong to Calcutta), its average fall per mile has dropped
to 4 inches. From Calcutta to the sea the fall varies in
the numerous distributaries of the parent stream, according to
the tide, from i to 2 inches. In the delta the current seldom
suffices to carry the burden of its silt, except during the rains,
and so deposits it.^
In Lower Bengal, therefore, the Ganges enters on the third
stage of its life. Finding its speed checked by the equal level
of the plains, and its bed raised by the deposit of its own silt,
it splits out into channels, like a jet of water suddenly
obstructed by the finger, or a jar of liquid dashed on the
ground. Each of the new streams thus created throws out in
turn its own set of distributaries to right and left. The
country which their many offshoots enclose and intersect forms
^ The following facts may be useful to observers in Bengal who wish to
study the most interesting feature of the country in which they live,
namely the rivers. Ten inches per mile is considered to be the fall which
a navigable river should not exceed. The average fall of the Ganges from the
point where it unites with the Jumna at Allahabad to Benares (139 miles),
is 6 inches per mile ; from Benares to Colgong (326 miles), 5 inches per mile ;
from Colgong to the delta-head, where the Bhagirathi strikes off (about
135 miles), 4 inches per mile ; from the delta-head to Calcutta (about 200
miles), also 4 inches per mile ; from Calcutta to the sea vid the Hugh'
(about 80 miles), i to 2 inches per mile, according to the tide. The fall
of the Nile from the first Cataract to Cairo (555 miles), is 6^ inches per
mile ; from Cairo to the sea, it is very much less. The fall of the Missis-
sippi for the first hundred miles from its mouth, is rSo inch per mile;
for the becond hundred miles, 2 inches; for the third hundred, 2-30
DELTAIC CHANNELS OF GANGES. 23
the delta of Bengal. The present delta of the Ganores may be The delta
, , , ^ ^ . ., . °. ^ of Bengal,
taken to commence at a pomt 1231 miles from its source, **
and 326 from the sea by its longest channel. At that point
the head-waters of the Hiigli break off, under the name
of the Bhagirathi, from the parent channel, and make their
way south to the sea. The main volume of the Ganges pursues
its course to the south-east, and a great triangle of land, with
its southern base on the Bay of Bengal, is thus enclosed.
Between the Hiigli on the west and the main channel on The
the east, a succession of offshoots strike southward from the ^j^^Jj^ii^y.
Ganges. The network of streams struggle slowly seaward taries;
over the level delta. Their currents are no longer able, by
reason of their diminished speed, to carry along the silt or
sand which the more rapid parent river has brought down
from Northern India. They accordingly drop their burden of
silt in their channels or along their margins, producing how they
almond-shaped islands, and by degrees raising their banks [j^^^ks ^^'"^
and channejs above the surrounding plains. When they spill above sm-
over in time of flood, the largest amount of silt is deposited r^Himlm.^
on their banks, or near them on the inland side. In this way
not only their beds, but also the lands along their banks, are
gradually raised.
Section of a Deltaic Channel of the Ganges.
a. The river channel : d b the two banks raised by successive deposits of silt from the
spill-water in time of flood ; c c. the surface of the water when not in flood ; d d. the low-
lying swamps stretching away from either bank, into which the river flows when it spills
over its i^anks in lune of flood; e e. the dotted lines represent the ordinary level of the
river surface.
inches; for the fourth hundred, 2-57 inches; and for the whole section
of 855 miles from the mouth to Memphis, the average fall is given as 4^
inches to the mile.
The following table, calculated by Mr. David Stevenson {Canal and
River Engineering, p. 315), shows the silt-carrying power of rivers at various
velocities : —
Inches Mile per
per Second. Hour.
3 = 0'I70 will just begin to work on fine clay.
6 = 0*340 will lift fine sand.
8 = o 4545 will lift sand as coarse as linseed.
12 = 06819 will sweep along fine gravel.
24 = I -3638 will roll along rounded pebbles i inch in diameter.
36 === 2-045 ^^'i'l sweep along slippeiy angular stones of the
size of an egi:.
24 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Delta The rivers of a delta thus build themselves up, as it were,
the^mseWes ^^^^ high-level canals, which in the rainy season overflow their
up into banks and leave their silt upon the low country on either side,
high-level Thousands of square miles in Lower Bengal receive in this way
each summer a top-dressing of new soil, carried free of cost
for more than a thousand miles by the river currents from
Northern India or the still more distant Himalayas-- a system of
natural manuring which yields a constant succession of rich crops.
Junction At Godlanda, about half-way between the delta-head and
Hrahma^^' the sea, the Ganges unites with the main stream of the
initra, and Brahmaputra, and farther down with the Meghna. Their com-
i egina. ^j^ed waters exhibit deltaic operations on the most gigantic
scale. They represent the drainage collected by the two
vast river systems of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, from
an aggregate catchment basin of 752,000 square miles on both
sides of the Himalayas, together wuth the rainfall poured into
the Meghna from the eastern Burmese watershed.
Their The forces thus brought into play defy the control even of
fleka '" modern engineering. As the vast network of rivers creeps
farther down the delta, they become more and more sluggish,
and raise their beds still higher above the adjacent flats. Each
set of channels has a depressed tract or swamp on either side,
so that the lowest levels in a delta lie about half-way between
the rivers. The stream constantly overflows into these
Deltaic depressed tracts, and gradually fills them up with its silt. The
swamps, water which rushes from the river into the swamps has some-
times the colour of pea-soup, from the quantity of silt which it
carries. When it has stood a few days in the swamps, and the
river flood subsides, the water flows back from the swamps into
the river channel ; but it has dropped all its silt, and is of a
how filled clear dark-brown hue. The silt remains in the swamp, and by
up by silt, (jegrees fills it up, thus slowly creating new land. The muddy
foliage of the trees which have been submerged bears witness
to the fresh deposit. As we shall presently see, buried roots
and decayed stumps are found at great depths ; while nearer
the top the excavator comes upon the remains of old tanks,
broken pottery, and other traces of human habitations, which
within historic times were above the ground.
T.ast scene The last scene in the life of an Indian river is a wilderness
„fjj„ ^ of forest and swamp at the end of the delta, amid whose
Indian malarious solitude the network of tidal creeks merges into the
"^'^''' sea. Here all the secrets of land -making stand disclosed.
The river channels, finally checked by the dead weight of the
sea, deposit most of their remaining silt, which emerges
THE DELTA OF BENGAL. 25
from the estuary as banks or blunted headlands. The ocean
currents also find themselves impeded by the outflow from the
rivers, and in their turn drop the burden of sand which they
sweep along the coast. The two causes combine to build up
breakwaters of mingled sand and mud along the foreshore.
In this way, while the solid earth gradually grows outward into Land-
the sea, owing to the deposits of river silt ; peninsulas and y^'i'j^ns
islands are formed around the river mouths from the sand estuary.
dropped by the ocean currents ; and a double process of land-
making goes on.
The great Indian rivers, therefore, have not only supplied
new solid ground by draining off the water from neighbouring
lakes and marshes in their upper courses, and by depositing
islands in their beds lower down. They are also constantly
filling up the low-lying tracts or swamps in their deltas, and
are forming banks and capes and masses of low-lying land at
their mouths. Indeed, they slowly construct their entire
deltas by driving back the sea. Lower Egypt was thus ' the Egypt, the
gift of the Nile,' according to her priests in the age of Hero- .jj^^JsJii '
dotus; and the vast Province of Lower Bengal is in the
strictest scientific sense the gift of the Ganges, the Brahma- Bengal,
putra, and the Meghna. The deltas of these three river of^jjjg '
systems are in modern times united into one, but three Ganges.'
distinct delta-heads are observable. The delta-head of the
Brahmaputra commences near the bend where the river
now twists due south round the Garo Hills, 220 miles from
the sea as the crow flies. The present delta-head of the
Ganges begins at the point where the Bhagirathi breaks south-
ward from the main channel, also about 220 miles in a direct
line from the sea. The delta of the Meghna, which represents
the heavy southern rainfall of the Khasi Hills together with
the western drainage of the watershed between Bengal and
Independent Burma, commences in Sylhet District.
The three deltas, instead of each forming a triangle like the Size of the
(ireek A, unite to make an irregular parallelogram, running ^e"gal
inland 220 miles from the coast, with an average breadth also of
about 220 miles. This vast alluvial basin of say 50,000 square
miles was once covered with the sea, and it has been slowly
filled up to the height of at least 400 feet by the deposits which
the rivers have brought down. In other words, the united river
systems of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna have torn
away from the Himalayas and North-eastern Bengal enough
earth to build up a lofty island, with an area of 50,000 square
miles, and a height of 400 feet.
26 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Successive Care has been taken not to overstate the work performed by
sionsfof ^'^^ Bengal rivers. Borings have been carried down to 481 feet at
the delta. Calcutta, but the auger broke at that depth, and it is impossible
to say how much farther the alluvial deposits may go. There
seem to have been successive eras of vegetation, followed by
repeated depressions of the surface. These successive eras of
vegetation now form layers of stumps of trees, peat-beds, and
carbonized wood. Passing below traces of recently submerged
forests, a well - marked peat - bed is found in excavations
around Calcutta at a depth varying from 20 to 30 feet ; and
decayed wood, with pieces of fine coal, such as occur in
mountain streams, has been met with at a depth of 392 feet.
Fossilized remains of animal life have been brought up
from 372 feet below the present surface. The footnote ^
illustrates the successive layers of the vast and lofty island,
so to speak, which the rivers have built up — an island with
an area of 50,000 square miles, and 400 feet high from its
foundation, although at places only a few inches above sea-level.
Its subter- ^ * Abstract Report of Proceedings of Committee appointed to superin-
ranean tend the Borings at Fort-William, December 1835 to April 1840,' 'After
striiCiUie. penetrating through the surface soil to a depth of about 10 feet, a stratum
of stiff blue clay, 15 feet in thickness, was met with. Underlying this
was a light-coloured sandy clay, which became gradually darker in colour
from the admixture of vegetable maUer, till it passed into a bed of peat, at
a distance of about 30 feet from the surface. Beds of clay and variegated
sand, intermixed with kankar, mica, and small pebbles, alternated to a
depth of 120 feet, when the sand became loose and almost semi-fluid in its
texture. At 152 feet, the quicksand became darker in colour and coarser
in grain, intermixed with red water- worn nodules of hydraled oxide of iron,
resembling to a certain extent the laterite of South India. At 159 feet, a
stiff clay with yellow veins occurred, altering at 163 ieet remarkably in
colour and substance, and becoming dark, friable, and apparently con-
taining much vegetable and ferruginous matter. A fine sand succeeded at
170 Ieet, and this gradually became coarser, and mixed with fragments of
quartz and felspar, to a depth of 180 feet. At 196 feet, clay impregnated
wiih iron was passed through ; and at 221 feet sand recurred, containing
Iragments of limestone with nodules of kankar and pieces of quartz and
Iclspar ; the same stratum continued to 340 feet ; and at 350 feet a fossil
bone, conjectured to be the humerus of a dog, was extracted. At 360 feel,
a piece of supposed tortoiseshell was found, and subsequently several
pieces of the same substance were obtained. At 372 feet, another fossil
bone was discovered, but it could not be identified, from its being torn and
broken by the borer. At 392 feet, a few pieces of fine coal, such as are
found in the beds of mountain streams, with some fragments of decayed
wood, were picked out of the sand, and at 400 feet a piece of limestone
was brought up. From 400 to 481 feet, fine sand, like that of the sea-
shore, intermixed largely with shingle composed of fragments of primary
rocks, quartz, felzpar, mica, slate, and limestone, prevailed, and in this
stratum the bore has been terminated.'
SIL T BRO UGIIT DO WN B V GANGES. 2 7
It should be remembered, however, that the rivers have Upper
been aided in their work by the sand deposited by the 'fi^n^hed'
ocean currents. But, on the other hand, the alluvial deposits by river
of the Ganges and Brahmaputra commence far to the north ^' ^'
of the present delta-head, and have a total area greatly
exceeding the 50,000 square miles mentioned in a former
paragraph. The Brahmaputra has covered with thick alluvium
the valley of Assam ; its confluent, the Meghna, or rather the
upper waters which ultimatel)^ form the Meghna, have done
the same fertilizing task for the valleys of Cachar and Sylhet ;
while the Ganges, with its mighty feeders, has prepared for the
uses of man thousands of square miles of land in the broad
hollow between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, far to the
north-west of its present delta. A large quantity of the finest
and lightest silt, moreover, is carried out to sea, and discolours
the Bay of Bengal 150 miles from the shore. The plains of
Bengal are truly the gift of the great rivers.
Several attempts have been made to estimate the time which Amount
the Ganges and Brahmaputra must have required for ac-°^^''^
complishing their gigantic task. The borings already cited, down,
together with an admirable account by Colonel Baird Smith
in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History} and the Rev.
Mr. Everest's calculations, form the chief materials for such an
estimate. Sir Charles Lyell ^ accepts Mr. Everest's calculation,
made half a century ago, that the Ganges discharges 6368
millions of cubic feet of silt per annum at Ghazipur.
This would alone suffice to supply 355 millions of tons a year, Ganges
or nearly the weight of 60 replicas of the Great Pyramid. ' It is ^'J^ ^^,
scarcely possible,' he says, ' to present any picture to the mind
which will convey an adequate conception of the mighty scale
of this operation, so tranquilly and almost insensibly carried
on by the Ganges.' About 96 per cent, of the whole deposits
are brought down during the four months of the rainy season,
or as much as could be carried by 240,000 ships, each of 1400
tons burthen. The work thus done in that season may be
realized if we suppose that a daily succession of fleets, each of
two thousand great ships, sailed down the river during the four
months, and that each ship of the daily 2000 vessels deposited
a freight of 1400 tons of mud every morning into the estuary.
* Vol. i. p. 324. The other authorities, chiefly from the Journal of the
Bengal Asiatic Society, are fully quoted in the Geology of Jndia, by Messrs.
Medlicott and Blanford, vol. i. pp. 396 et scq. (Calcutta Government Press,
1879).
"^ Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 47S ct seq. (1875).
28
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Estimated
silt of
united
river
system at
the delta.
Time
required
by rivers to
construct
the delta.
River
irrigation.
But the Ganges at Ghazipur is only a single feeder of the
mighty mass of waters which have formed the delta of Bengal.
The Ganges, after leaving Ghazipur, receives many of its
principal tributaries, such as the Gogra, the Son, the Gandak,
and the Kusi. It then unites with the Brahmaputra, and
finally with the Meghna, and the total mass of mud brought
down by these combined river systems is estimated by Sir
Charles Lyell to be at least six or seven times as much as that
discharged by the Ganges alone at Ghazipur. We have there-
fore, at the lowest estimate, about 40,000 millions of cubic feet
of solid matter spread over the delta, or deposited at the river
mouths, or carried out to sea, each year ; according to Sir
Charles Lyell, five times as much as is conveyed by the
Mississippi to its delta and the Gulf of Mexico. The silt borne
along during the rainy season alone represents the work which
a daily succession of fleets, each of 13,000 ships a-piece, saiHng
down the Ganges during the four rainy months would perform,
if each ship of the daily 13,000 vessels discharged a freight of
1400 tons a-piece each morning into the Bay of Bengal. This
vast accumulation of silt takes place every rainy season in the
delta or around the mouths of the Ganges ; and the process,
modified by volcanic upheavals and depressions of the delta,
has been going on during uncounted thousands of years.
General Strachey took the area of the delta and coast-line
within influence of the deposits at 65,000 square miles, and
estimated that the rivers would require 45*3 years to raise it
by I foot, even by their enormous deposit of 40,000 millions
of cubic feet of solid earth per annum. The rivers must have
been at work 13,600 years in building up the delta 300 feet.
But borings have brought up fluvial deposits from a depth of
at least 400 feet. The present delta forms, moreover, but a
very small part of the vast alluvial area which the rivers have
constructed in the great dip between the Himalayas and the
Vindhyan mountains. The more closely we scrutinize the
various elements in such estimates, the more vividly do we
realize ourselves in the presence of an almost immeasurable
labour carried on during an almost immeasurable past.
The land which the great Indian rivers thus create, they also
fertilize. In the lower parts of their course we have seen
how their overflow affords a natural system of irrigation and
manuring. In the higher parts, man has to step in, and to
bring their water by canals to his fields. Some idea of the
enormous irrigation enterprises of Northern India may be
obtained in the four articles in The Imperial Gazetteer on the
GANGES AND JUMNA CANALS. 29
Ganges and Jumna canals. The Ganges Ganal had, in 1883,
a length of 445 miles, with 3428 miles of distributaries ; an
irrigated area of 856,035 acres (including both autumn and
spring crops); and a revenue of ;£"2 79,449, on a total outlay
of 2| millions sterling (;£^2,767,538 to 1883). The Lower
Ganges Canal will bring under irrigation nearly i^ million
acres (including both autumn and spring crops). It has
already (1882-83) a main channel of 556 miles, with 1991
miles of distributaries ; an irrigated area of 606,017 acres ; and
a clear revenue of ;£"io7,ooo, or 4* 13 per cent, on the total
outlay up to 1883 (^£"2, 589,624). The Eastern Jumna Canal
has a length of 130 miles, with 618 miles of main distribu-
taries. In 1883, the total distributaries aggregated nearly
900 miles, with an irrigated area of 240,233 acres; and a
revenue of ;£^82, 665, or 28*4 per cent, on the total outlay to
that year (;£^290,839). The Western Jumna Canal measures
433 miles, with an aggregate of 259 miles of distributing
channels, besides private watercourses, irrigating an area of
374,243 acres ; with a revenue of ^74,606, or 8-4 per cent, on
a capital outlay to 1883 of ;^884,952. The four Ganges and
Jumna Canals, therefore, already irrigate an aggregate area
of over two million acres, and will eventually irrigate over
three millions. Among many other irrigation enterprises in
Upper India are the Agra, Bari Doab, Rohilkhand and Bijnor,
Betwa, and the Sutlej-Chenab and Indus Inundation Canals.
The Indian rivers form, moreover, as we have seen, the great The Rivers
highways of the country. They supply cheap transit for the ^^ "'^'^"
collection, distribution, and export of the agricultural staples.
/What the arteries are to the living body, the rivers are to the
Iplains of Bengal. But the very potency of their energy some- The Rivers
'times causes terrible calamities. Scarcely a year passes without ^^ ^^"
floods, which sweep off cattle and grain stores and the thatched
cottages, with anxious families perched on their roofs.
In their upper courses, where their water is carried by
canals to the fields, the rich irrigated lands breed fever, and
are in places rendered sterile by a saline crust called reh.
Farther down, the uncontrollable rivers wriggle across the face
of the country, deserting their old beds, and searching out new
channels for themselves, sometimes at a distance of many miles.
Their old banks, clothed with trees and dotted along their
route with villages, run like high ridges through the level
rice-fields, and mark the deserted course of the river.
It has been shown how the Brahmaputra deserted its main
channel of the last century, and now rushes to the sea by a
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Changes
of river-
beds.
Deserted
river-
capitals.
The bore
new course, far to the westwards. Such changes are on so
vast a scale, and the eroding power of the current is so irre-
sistible, that it is perilous to build large or permanent structures
on the margin. The ancient sacred stream of the Ganges is
now a dead river, which ran through the Districts of HiigU
and the 24 Parganas. Its course is marked by a line of tanks
and muddy pools, with temples, shrines, and burning ghats
along high banks overlooking its deserted bed.
Many decayed or ruined cities attest the alterations in river-
beds within historic times. In our own daj^s, the Ganges
passed close under Rajmahal, and that town, once the Muham-
madan capital of Bengal, was (1850-55) selected as the spot
where the railway should tap the river system. The Ganges
has now turned away in a different direction, and left the town
high and dry, 7 miles from the bank. In 1787-88, the Tista,
a great river of Northern Bengal, broke away from its ancient
bed. The Atrat, or the old channel, by which the Tista
waters found their way into the Ganges, has dwindled into a petty
stream, which, in the dry weather, just suffices for boats of 2
tons burthen ; while the Tista has branched to the eastwards,
and now pours into the Brahmaputra. In 1870, the Ravi, one of
the Five Rivers of the Punjab, carried away the famous shrine
of the Sikhs near Dera Nanak, and still threatens the town.
If we go back to a more remote period, we find that the
whole ancient geography of India is obscured by changes in
the courses of the rivers. Thus, Hastinapur, the Gangetic
capital of the Pandavas, in the Mahabharata, is with difficulty
identified in a dried-up bed of the Ganges, 57 miles north-
east of the present Delhi. The once splendid capital of
Kanauj, which also lay upon the Ganges, now moulders in
desolation 4 miles away from the modern river-bank. The
remnant of its inhabitants live for the most part in huts built
up against the ancient walls.
A similar fate on a small scale has befallen Kushtia, the
river terminus of the Eastern Bengal Railway. The channel
silted up (1860-70), and the terminus had to be removed to
Godlanda, farther down the river. On the Hugli river ^ a
succession of emporia and river-capitals have been ruined from
the same cause, and engineering efforts are required to secure
the permanence of Calcutta as a great port.
An idea of the forces at work may be derived from a single
well-known phenomenon of the Hiiglf and the Meghnd, the
bore. The tide advances up their broad estuaries until checked
* See article IlrcLi River, The Imperial Gazetteer of India,
THE RIVERS AS DESTROYERS, 31
by a rapid contraction of the channel. The obstructed influx,
no longer able to spread itself out, rises into a wall of
waters from 5 to 30 feet in height, which rushes onwards at a
rate nearly double that of a stage-coach. Rennel stated that
the Hugh' bore ran from Hugh Point to Hiigli Town, a
distance of about 70 miles, in four hours. The native boatmen
fly from the bank (against which their craft would otherwise
be dashed) into the broad mid-channel when they hear its
approaching roar. The bore of the Meghna is so 'temfic
and dangerous ' that no boat will venture down certain of the
channels at spring-tide.
The Indian rivers not only desert the cities on their banks, Hamlets
but they sometimes tear them away. Many a hamlet and t""^" away,
rice-field and ancient grove of trees is remorselessly eaten up
each autumn by the current. A Bengal proprietor has often
to look on helplessly while his estate is being swept away, or
converted into the bed of a broad, deep river. An important
branch of Indian legislation deals with the proprietary changes
thus caused by alluvion and diluvion.
The rivers have a tendency to straighten themselves out. River-
Their course consists of a series of bends, in each of which the windings,
current sets against one bank, which it undermines ; while it
leaves still water on the other bank, in which new deposits of
land take place. By degrees these twists become sharper and
sharper, until the intervening land is almost worn away, leaving
only a narrow tongue between the bends. The river finally
bursts through the slender strip of soil, or a canal is cut across
it by human agency, and direct communication is thus estab-
lished between points formerly many miles distant by the
windings of the river. This process of eating away soil from
the one bank, against which the current sets, and depositing
silt in the still water along the other bank, is constantly at
work. Even in their quiet moods, therefore, the rivers steadily
steal land from the old owners, and give it to new ones.
During the rains these forces work with uncontrollable fury. A railway
We have mentioned that the first terminus of the Eastern Bengal terminus
swept
Railway at Kushtid had been partially deserted by the Ganges, away.
Its new terminus at Goalanda has suffered from an opposite
but equally disastrous accident. Up to 1875, the Goalanda
station stood upon a massive embankment near the water's
edge, protected by masonry spurs running out to the river.
About ;^i 30,000 had been spent upon these protective works,
and it was hoped that engineering skill had conquered the
violence of the Gangetic floods. But in August 1875, ^^e
32 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA,
solid masonry spurs, the railway station, and the magistrate's
court, were all swept away; and deep water covered their
site. A new Goalanda terminus had to be erected two miles
inland from the former river-bank. Higher up the Ganges,
fluvial changes on so great a scale have been encountered at
the river-crossing, where the Northern Bengal Railway begins
and the Eastern Bengal Railway ends, that no costly or per-
manent terminus has yet been attempted. Throughout the
long courses of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, the mighty
currents each autumn undermine and then rend away many
thousand acres of solid land. They afterwards deposit their
spoil in their channels farther down, and thus, as has been
shown, leave high and dry in ruin many an ancient city on
their banks.
Poetry of Their work, however, is on the whole beneficent ; and a
Indian poem of Ossian might be made out of the names which the
names. Indian peasant applies to his beloved rivers. Thus, we have
the Goddess of Flowing Speech {Saraswati)^ or, a\:cording to
another derivation, the River of Pools; the Streak of Gold
{Suvarna-rekha) ; the Glancing Waters (Chitra) ; the Dark
Channel {Kdla-nadi)^ or the Queen of Death {Kdli-fiadi) ; the
Sinless One {Pdpagini = Pdpahini) ; the Arrowy {Sharavati) ;
the Golden {Suvarnatnati) ; the Stream at which the Deer
Drinks {Haringhdta) ; the Forest Hope {Bafids) ; the Old
Twister i^Burabalang) ; besides more common names, such as
the All-Destroyer, the Forest King, the Lord of Strength, the
Silver Waters, and the Flooder.
Crops of Throughout the river plains of Northern India, two harvests,
the river j^j^^ jj^ some Provinces three, are reaped each year. These
crops are not necessarily taken from the same land ; but in
most Districts the best situated fields yield two harvests within
the twelve months. In Lower Bengal, pease, pulses, oil-seeds,
The three and green crops of various sorts, are reaped in spring; the
of the^^^ early rice crops in September ; and the great rice harvest of the
year. year in November and December. Before the last has been
gathered in, it is time to prepare the ground for the spring
crops, and the husbandman knows no rest except during the
hot weeks of May, when he is anxiously waiting for the rains.
Such is the course of agriculture in Lower Bengal. But it
Rice. should always be remembered that rice is the staple crop in a
limited area of India, and that it forms the everyday food of
only about 70 millions, or under one-third of the population.
It has been estimated that, in the absence of irrigation, the rice
crop requires an annual rainfall of at least 36 inches; and an
SCENERY OF BENGAL RIVER PLAINS. 2>^
Indian District requires an average fall of not less than 40 to
60 inches in order to grow rice as its staple crop. A line might
almost be drawn across Behar, to the north of which rice
ceases to be the staple food of the people ; its place being
taken by millets, and in a less degree by wheat. There are,
indeed, rice-growing tracts in well-watered or low-lying Districts
of Northern India, and in the river valleys or deltas and level
strips around the southern coast. But speaking generally,
throughout North-Western, Central, and Southern India (except
in the coast strip), rice is consumed only by the richer classes.
The products of each Province are carefully enumerated in the Scenery of
separate provincial articles in The Imperial Gazetteer of India ^ the nver
and an account of the most important will be found under
the heading of Agriculture in the present volume. They are
here referred to only so far as is necessary to give a general
idea of the scenery of the river plains. Along the upper and
middle courses of the Bengal rivers, the country rises gently in North
from their banks in fertile undulations, dotted with mud Western
villages and adorned with noble trees. Mango groves scent
the air with their blossom in spring, and yield their abundant
fruit in summer. The spreading banyan, with its colonnades
of hanging roots; the stately //^d^/, w4th its green masses of
foliage ; the wild cotton-tree, glowing while still leafless with
heavy crimson flowers \ the tall, daintily-shaped tamarind, and
the quick-growing bdbul^ rear their heads above the crop fields.
As the rivers approach the coast, the palm-trees take possession
of the scene. The ordinary landscape in the delta is a flat stretch In the
of rice-fields, fringed round with an evergreen border of bam- ^ '^*
boos, cocoa-nuts, date-trees, areca, and other coronetted palms.
This densely-peopled tract seems at first sight bare of villages,
for each hamlet is hidden away amid its own grove of plantains
and wealth-giving trees. The bamboo and cocoa-nut play a
conspicuous part in the industrial life of the people ; and
the numerous products derived from them, including rope,
oil, food, fodder, fuel, and timber, have been dwelt on with
admiration by many writers.
, The crops also change as we sail down the rivers. In the Crops of
north, the principal grains are wheat, barley, Indian corn, JL°"*^"
and a variety of millets, such as jodr (Sorghum vulgare) and Bengal ;
bdjra (Pennisetum typhoideum). In the delta, on the other of the
hand, rice is the staple crop, and the universal diet. In a ^^Ita.
single District, Rangpur, there are 295 separate kinds of rice
known to the peasant,^ who has learned to grow his favourite
' Statistical Account of Bengal^ vol. vii. pp. 234-237.
C
34 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
crop in every locality, from the comparatively dry ground, which
yields the dman harvest, to the swamps 12 feet deep, on the
surface of whose waters the rice ears may be seen struggling
upwards for air. Sugar-cane, oil-seeds, flax, mustard, sesamum,
palma-christi, cotton, tobacco, indigo, safflower and other dyes,
ginger, coriander, red pepper, capsicum, cummin, and precious
spices, are grown both in the Upper Provinces, and in the
moister valleys and delta of Lower Bengal.
Drugs, A whole pharmacopoeia of medicines, from the well-known
seeds^' etc* ^^^ ^^^ castor - oil, to obscure but valuable febrifuges,
is derived from shrubs, herbs, and roots. Resins, gums,
varnishes, india-rubber, perfume-oils, and a hundred articles of
commerce or luxury, are obtained from the fields and the
forests. Vegetables, both indigenous and imported from
Europe, largely enter into the food of the people. The melon
and huge yellow pumpkin spread themselves over the thatched
roofs ; fields of potato, brinjal, and yams are attached to the
homesteads. The tea-plant is reared on the hilly ranges which
skirt the plains both in the North- West and in Assam; the
opium poppy about half-way down the Ganges, around Benares
and in Behar ; the silkworm mulberry still farther down in
Lower Bengal ; while the jute fibre is essentially a crop of the
delta, and would exhaust any soil not fertilized by river floods.
Jungle Even the jungles yield the costly lac and the tasar silk cocoons.
pro nets, -pj^g mahud, also a gift of the jungle, produces the fleshy
flowers which form a staple article of food in many districts,
and when distilled supply a cheap spirit. The sdl^ sissi/,
tiin^ and many other indigenous trees yield excellent timber.
Flowering creepers, of gigantic size and gorgeous colours,
festoon the jungle; while each tank bears its own beautiful crop
of the lotus and water-lily. Nearly every vegetable product
which feeds and clothes a people, or enables it to trade with
foreign countries, abounds.
Third Having described the leading features of the Himalayas on
Irfdia'— '^ the north, and of the great river plains at their base, we come
The now to the third division of India, namely, the three-sided
Southern table-land which covers the southern half or more strictly
Tableland. , , . ^ -, ,. r,,, • 1 •
penmsular portion of India. Ihis tract, known in ancient
times as the Deccan (Dakshin), literally The Souths comprised,
in its widest application, the Central Provinces, Berar,
Madras, Bombay, Mysore, with the Native Territories of the
Nizam, Sindhia, Holkar, and other Feudatory chiefs. It had
in 1 88 1 an aggregate population of about 100 millions. For
'^.^^^ ue^
THE SOUTHERN TABL
the sake of easy remembrance, therefore, we may take the in-
habitants of the river plains in the north at about 150 millions,
and the inhabitants of the southern table-land at 100 millions.
The Deccan, in its local acceptation, is restricted to the The
high inland tract between the Narbada (Nerbudda) and the ^^^^" '
Kistna rivers ; but the term is also loosely used to include the
whole country south of the Vindhyas as far as Cape Comorin.
Taken in this wide sense, it slopes up from the southern edge
of the Gangetic plains. Three ranges of hills support its Its three
northern, its eastern, and its western side, the two latter supporting
' ' , ' mountain
meeting at a sharp angle near Cape Comorin. walls.
The northern side is buttressed by confused ranges, with a The
general direction of east to west, popularly known in the ^^^^^hya
° '11^ moun-
aggregate as the Vmdhya mountains. The Vmdhyas, how- tains ;
ever, are made up of several distinct hill systems. Two sacred
peaks stand as outposts in the extreme east and west, with a
succession rather than a series of ranges stretching 800 miles
between. At the western extremity. Mount Abu, famous for
its exquisite Jain temples, rises, as a solitary outlier of the
Aravalli hiljs, 5653 feet above the Rajputana plains, like an
island out of the sea. Beyond the southern limits of that their
plain, the Vindhya range of modern geography runs almost
due east from Gujarat, forming the northern wall of the Nar-
bada valley. The Satpura mountains stretch, also east and
west, to the south of the Narbada river, and form the
watershed between it and the Tapti. Towards the heart of
India, the eastern extremities of the Vindhyas and Satpuras
end in the highlands of the Central Provinces. Passing
still east, the hill system finds a continuation in the Kaimur
range and its congeners. These in their turn end in the
outlying peaks and spurs that mark the western boundary
of Lower Bengal, and abut on the old course of the Ganges
under the name of the Rajmahal hills. On the extreme east,
Mount Parasnath — like Mount Abu on the extreme west,
sacred to Jain rites — rises to 4479 feet above the Gangetic plain.
The various ranges of the Vindhyas, from 1500 to over
4000 feet high, form, as it were, the northern wall and but-
tresses which support the central table-land. But in this
sense the Vindhyas must be taken as a loose convenient the
generalization for the congeries of mountains and table-lands ^ncient
between the Gangetic plains and the Narbada valley. Now between
pierced by road and railway, they stood in former times as a Northern
barrier of mountain and jungle between Northern and Southern southern
India, and formed one of the main difficulties in welding the India.
ir
various
ranges ;
36
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
The Ghats.
Eastern
Ghats.
Western
Ghats.
The up-
heaved
southern
angle.
The cen-
tral trian-
gular
plateau.
Passes
from the
coast ; the
Bhor-Ghat
whole into an empire. They consist of vast masses of forests,
ridges, and peaks, broken by cultivated tracts of the rich
cotton-bearing black soil, exquisite river valleys, and high-lying
grassy plains.
The other two sides of the elevated southern triangle are
known as the Eastern and Western Ghats. These ranges
start southwards from the eastern and western extremities of
the Vindhyas, and run along the eastern and western coasts
of India. The Eastern Ghats stretch in fragmentary spurs
and ridges down the Madras Presidency, receding inland and
leaving broad level tracts between their base and the coast.
The Western Ghats form the great sea wall of the Bombay
Presidency, with a comparatively narrow strip between them
and the shore. Some of them rise in magnificent precipices
and headlands out of the ocean, and truly look like colossal
* landing-stairs ' {ghats) from the sea. The Eastern or Madras
Ghats recede upwards to an average elevation of 1500 feet.
The Western or Bombay Ghdts ascend more abruptly from the
sea to an average height of about 3000 feet, with peaks up to
4700, along the coast; rising to 7000 feet and even 8760 feet
in the upheaved angle where they unite with the Eastern
Ghats, towards their southern extremity.
The inner triangular plateau thus enclosed lies from 1000 to
3000 feet above the level of the sea. But it is dotted with
peaks and seamed with ranges exceeding 4000 feet in height.
Its best known hills are the Nilgiris (Blue Mountains), with the
summer capital of Madras, Utakamand, over 7000 feet above
the sea. Their highest point is Dodabetta peak, 8760 feet,
in the upheaved southern angle. The interior plateau is
approached by several famous passes from the level coast-strip
on the western side. The Bhor-Ghat, for example, ascends a
tremendous ravine about 40 miles south-east of Bombay city,
to a height of 2027 feet. In ancient times it was regarded as
the key to the Deccan, and could be held by a small band
against any army attempting to penetrate from the coast. A
celebrated military road was constructed by the British up
this pass, and practically gave the command of the interior to
the then rising port of Bombay. A railway line has now been
carried up the gorge, twisting round the shoulders of moun-
tains, tunnelling through intervening crags, and clinging along
narrow ledges to the face of the precipice. At one point the
zigzag is so sharp as to render a circuitous turn impossible,
and the trains have to stop and reverse their direction on a
levelled terrace. The Thall Ghat (191 2 feet), to the north-
THE GHATS AND INNER PLATEAUX. 37
east of Bombay, has in like manner been scaled both by road and the
and railway. Another celebrated pass, farther down the coast, qj^^^
connects the military centre of Belgaum with the little port of
Vengurla.
These ' landing-stairs ' from the sea to the interior present
scenes of rugged grandeur. The trap rocks stand out, after
ages of denudation, like circular fortresses flanked by round Hill forts.
towers and crowned with nature's citadels, from the mass of
hills behind; natural fastnesses, which in the Maratha times
were rendered impregnable by military art. In the south of
Bombay, the passes climb up from the sea through thick
forests, the haunt of the tiger and the mighty bison. Still
farther down the coast, the western mountain wall dips deep
into the Palghit valley — a remarkable gap, 20 miles broad. The Pal-
and leading by an easy route, only 1000 feet in height, from gl^at Pass,
the seaboard to the interior. A third railway and military
road penetrate by this passage from Beypur, and cross the
peninsula to Madras. A fourth railway starts inland from the
coast at the Portuguese Settlement of Goa.
On the eastern side of India, the Ghats form a series of The rivers
spurs and buttresses for the elevated inner plateau rather ?^ ^^^
L • • 11 rr^i 11 inner
than a contmuous mountam wall. 1 hey are traversed by a plateau ;
number of broad and easy passages from the Madras coast.
Through these openings, the rainfall of the southern half
of the inner plateau reaches the sea. The drainage from the
northern or Vindhyan edge of the three-sided table-land falls
into the Ganges. The Narbada (Nerbudda) and Tapti carry
the rainfall of the southern slopes of the Vindhyas and of
the Satpura Hills, by two almost parallel lines, into the Gulf of
Cambay. But from Surat, in lat. 21° 28', to Cape Comorin, in
lat. 8° 4', no great river succeeds in piercing the Western Ghats, no exit
©r in reaching the Bombay coast from the interior table-land. ^^'^^V
° . 11- wards ;
The Western Ghats form, m fact, a lofty unbroken barrier
between the waters of the central plateau and the Indian
Ocean. The drainage has therefore to make its way across its drain-
India to the eastwards, now foaming and twisting sharply ^?jfrds?^
round projecting ranges, then tumbling down ravines,
roaring through rapids, or rushing along valleys, until the
rain which the Bombay sea-breeze has dropped on the
ridges of the Western Ghats finally falls into the Bay of
Bengal. In this way, the three great rivers of the Madras
Presidency, viz. the Godavari, the Kistna (Krishna), and
the Kaveri (Cauvery), rise in the mountains overhanging the
Bombay coast, and traverse the whole breadth of the central
38 PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA,
table-land before they reach the sea on the eastern shores of
India.
Historical 'pjjg physical geography and the political destiny of the two
cance of sides of the Indian peninsula have been determined by the
the Eastern characteristics of the mountain ranges on either coast. On the
em Ghats'- ^^^^» ^^ Madras country is comparatively open, and was always
accessible to the spread of civilisation. On the east, therefore,
the ancient dynasties of Southern India fixed their capitals.
Along the west, only a narrow strip of lowland intervenes
between the barrier range and the Bombay seaboard. This
western tract long remained apart from the civilisation of
the eastern coast. To our own day, one of its ruling races,
the Nairs, retain land tenures and social customs, such as poly-
andry, which mark a much ruder stage of human advancement
than Hinduism, and which in other parts of India only linger
among isolated hill tribes. On the other hand, the people
and of the of this western or Bombay coast enjoy a bountiful rainfall,
rainfall. unknown in the inner plateau and the east. The monsoon
dashes its rain-laden clouds against the Western Ghats, and
pours from too to 200 inches of rain upon their maritime
slopes from Khandesh down to Malabar. By the time the
monsoon has crossed the Western Ghats, it has dropped the
greater part of its aqueous burden ; and central Districts, such
as Bangalore, obtain only about 35 inches. The eastern coast
also receives a monsoon of its own ; but, except in the neigh-
bourhood of the sea, the rainfall throughout the Madras
Presidency is scanty, seldom exceeding 40 inches in the year.
The deltas of the three great rivers along the Madras coast
form, however, tracts of inexhaustible fertility ; and much is
done by irrigation to husband and utilize both the local
rainfall and the accumulated waters which the rivers bring
down.
The Four The ancient Sanskrit poets speak of Southern India as
forest buried under forests. But much of the forest land has
Southern gradually been denuded by the axe of the cultivator, or in
India. consequence of the deterioration produced by unchecked fires
and the grazing of innumerable herds of cattle, sheep, and
goats. Roughly speaking. Southern India consists of four
forest regions— First, the Western Ghdts and the plains of the
Konkan, Malabar, and Travancore between them and the sea ;
second, the Karndtik, with the Eastern Ghdts, occupying the
lands along the Coromandel coast and the outer slopes of
the hill ranges behind them ; third, the Deccan, comprising
the high plateaux of Haidardbdd, the Ceded Districts, Mysore,
FORESTS OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 39
Coimbatore, and Salem ; fourth, the forests of the Northern
Circars in the Madras Presidency.
Each of these Districts has its own peculiar vegetation. Forests of
That of the first region, or Western Ghats, largely consists of Q^TtsT^
virgin forests of huge trees, with an infinite variety of smaller
shrubs, epiphytic and parasitic plants, and lianas or tangled
creepers which bind together even the giants of the forest.
The king of these forests is the teak (Tectona grandis,
Linn). This prince of timber is now found in the greatest
abundance in the forests of Kanara, in the Wynad, and in
the Anamalai Hills of Coimbatore and Cochin. The pun
tree (Calophyllum inophyllum, Linn.) is more especially found
in the southernmost forests of Travancore and Tinnevelli, where
tall straight stems, fit for the spars and masts of seagoing ships,
are procured. The jack fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia, Linn.)
and its more common relation the aini (Artocarpus hirsuta.
Lam)., furnish a pretty yellow-coloured timber ; the black wood
(Dalbergia \2X\{oX\2^^ Roxb.) yields huge logs excellent for carved
furniture. The Terminalias (T. tomentosa and T. paniculata,
W. and A.) with the benteak (Lagerstrcemia microcarpa, Wight.)
supply strong wood suitable for the well-built houses of the / ' '
prosperous population of Malabar and Travancore. The
dammer tree or Indian copal (Vateria indica, Linn.) yields its
useful resin. The ground vegetation supplies one of the most
valuable of Indian exports, the cardamom. To enumerate all
the important trees and products of the Western Ghdts would,
however, be impossible.
In the Karnatik region, the forests rarely consist of large Forests of
timber, in consequence of the drier climate and the shorter ^^^,^^'^^
monsoon rains. Nor are they of a wide area. Most of the Karnatik.
forests consist of w^hat is known as ' Evergreen Scrub,' in which
the prominent trees are the Eugenia jambolana, La?n., Mimusops
indica, Linn., and the strychnine (Strychnos nux-vomica, Linn.).
On the slopes of the hills deciduous forest appears with teak,
Terminalias, Anogeissus, and occasional red sanders.
The Deccan region, which gets a share of both monsoons Forests
(namely the monsoon from the south-west from June to Sep- ^ ^^^
tember, and that from the north-east from September to
January), has still some large areas covered with fine forest,
and yielding good timber. Chief among these areas are the
Nallamalai Hills of Karnul, the Palkonda Hills of Cuddapah,
the Collegal Hills of Coimbatore, and the Shevaroy and
Javadi ranges of Salem and North Arcot. In the Nallamalai
Hills, bijasdl (Pterocarpus Marsupium, Roxb.) and sdj (Ter-
40
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA.
Forests of
Northern
Madras.
southern
hill
country.
minalia tomentosa, W. and A.) are the prevailing timbers ; the
valuable red sanders-wood (Pterocarpus santalinus, Linn.) has
its home in the Palkonda and adjoining ranges of Cuddapah,
while the growth on the hills of Coimbatore includes the
precious sandal- wood (Santalum album, Linn.). In the drier
country of Eellary and Penukonda, the chief tree is the
anjan (Hardvvickia binata, Poxb.)^ furnishing the hardest and
heaviest of Indian woods.
The fourth forest region is that of the Northern Circars.
It stretches from the Kistna river up to the Chilka lake, and
includes fine forests of almost untouched sal (Shorea robusta,
Gaert.), the iron-wood (Xylia dolabriformis, ^^/z///. ), the satin-
wood (Chloroxylon Swietenia, Z>. C), and many other timbers
of value.
Scenery of In wild tropical beauty nothing can surpass the luxuriance
of an untouched Coorg forest, as viewed from one of the peaks
of the Western Ghats. A waving descent of green, broken into
terraces of varying heights, slopes downward on every side.
North and south run parallel ranges of mountains, wooded
almost to the summit; while to the west, thousands of feet
below, the view is bounded by the blue line of the Arabian
Sea. Wild animals of many kinds breed in the jungle, and
haunt the grassy glades. The elephant, the tiger, and the
leopard, the mighty bison, the stately sdmhhar deer, and the
jungle sheep, with a variety of smaller game, afford adventure
to the sportsman. During the rains magnificent cataracts dash
over the precipices. The Gersappa falls, in the Western
Ghdts, have a descent of 830 feet.
In the valleys, and upon the elevated plains of the central
plateau, tillage is driving back the jungle to the hilly recesses,
and fields of wheat and many kinds of smaller grain or
millets, tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane, and pulses, spread over
the open country. The black soil of Southern India, formed
from the detritus of the trap mountains, is proverbial for its
fertility ; while the level strip between the Western Ghats and
the sea rivals even Lower Bengal in its fruit-bearing palms,
rice harvests, and rich succession of crops. The deltas of the
rivers which issue from the Eastern Ghats are celebrated as
rice-bearing tracts. But the interior of the table-land is liable to
droughts. The cultivators here contend against the calamities
of nature by varied systems of irrigation — by means of which
they store the rain brought during a few months by the monsoon,
and husband it for use throughout the whole year. Great tanks
or lakes, formed by damming up the valleys, are a striking
Crops of
Southern
India.
THE THREE REGIONS OF INDIA. 41
feature of Southern India. The food of the common people
consists chiefly of small grains, such zsjodr^ bdjra^ and rdgi. The
great export is cotton, with wheat from the northern Districts
of the table-land. The pepper trade of Malabar dates from
far beyond the age of Sindbad the Sailor, and reaches back
to Roman times. Cardamoms, spices of various sorts, dyes,
and many medicinal drugs, are also grown.
It is on the interior table-land, and among the hilly spurs Minerals ;
which project from it, that the mineral wealth of India
lies hid. Coal-mining now forms a great industry on the Coal,
north-eastern side of the table-land, in Bengal ; and also in ^^™^'
the Central Provinces. Beds of iron-ore and limestone have
been worked in several places, and hold out a possibility of a
new era of enterprise to India in the future. Many districts
are rich in building stone, marble, and the easily - worked
laterite. Copper and other metals exist in small quantities.
Golconda was long famous as the central mart for the produce
of the diamond districts, which now yield little more than a
bare living to the workers. Gold dust has from very ancient
times been washed out of the river-beds ; and quartz-crushing
for gold is being attempted on scientific principles in Madras
and Mysore.
We have now briefly surveyed the three regions of India. Recapitu-
The first, or the Himalayan, Ues for the most part beyond the ^^^ ThVee
British frontier ; but a knowledge of it supplies the key to Regions of
the climatic and social conditions of India. The second ^^'
region, or the River Plains in the north, formed the theatre
of the ancient race movements which shaped the civilisation
and political destinies of the whole Indian peninsula. The
third region, or the Triangular Table-land in the south, has a
character quite distinct from either of the other two divisions,
and a population which is now working out a separate develop-
ment of its own. Broadly speaking, the Himalayas are Their
peopled by Turanian tribes, although to a large extent ruled [^^^^ ^"^
by Aryan immigrants. The great River Plains of Bengal are guages.
still the possession of the Indo-Aryan race. The Triangular
Table-land has formed an arena for a long struggle between
the Aryan civilisation from the north, and wh^t is known as
the Dravidian stock in the south.
To this vast Empire the English have added British British
Burma, consisting of the lower valley of the Irawadi (Irra- Burma
waddy) with its delta, and a long flat strip stretching down the
42
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF INDIA,
Its valleys
and moun-
tains :
Its pro-
ducts.
Tenas-
serim.
Annexa-
tion of
Upper
Burma,
1886.
eastern side of the Bay of Bengal. Between the narrow
maritime tract and the Irawadi valley runs a backbone of lofty
ranges. These ranges, known as the Yoma (Roma) mountains,
are covered with dense forests, and separate the Irawadi
valley from the strip of coast. The Yoma ranges have
peaks exceeding 4000 feet, and culminate in the Blue
Mountain, 7100 feet They are crossed by passes, one of
which, the An or Aeng, rises to 45 1 7 feet above the sea-level.
A thousand creeks indent the seaboard ; and the whole of the
level country, both on the coast and in the Irawadi valley,
forms one vast rice-field. The rivers float down an abundant
supply of teak and bamboos from the north. Tobacco, of
an excellent quality, supplies the cigars which all Burmese
(men, women, and children) smoke, and affords an industrial
product of increasing value. Arakan and Pegu, or the
Provinces of the coast strip, and also the Irawadi valley,
contain mineral oil-springs. Tenasserim forms a long narrow
maritime Province, running southward from the mouths of the
Irawadi to Point Victoria, where the British territory adjoins
Siam. Tenasserim is rich in tin mines, and contains iron-ores
equal to the finest Swedish ; besides gold and copper in
smaller quantities, and a very pure limestone. Rice and
timber form the staple exports of Burma; and rice is also
the universal food of the people. British Burma, including
Tenasserim, has an area of over 87,000 square miles; and a
population, in 1881, of 3! million persons. It is fortunate in
still possessing wide areas of yet uncultivated land to meet the
wants of its rapidly increasing people.^
Since these sheets went to press, the persistent misconduct
of King Thebau in Upper Burma, his obstinate denial of
justice, and his frustration of Lord Dufferin's earnest endea-
vours to arrive at a conciliatory settlement, compelled the
British Government to send an expedition against him. A
force under General Prendergast advanced up the Irawadi
valley with little opposition, and occupied Mandalay. King
Thebau surrendered, and was removed to honourable confine-
ment in British India. His territories were annexed to the
British Empire, by Lord Dufferin's Proclamation, on the ist of
January 1886.
» Vide postf pp. 47, 50.
[43]
CHAPTER II.
THE PEOPLE.
The Population of India, with British Burma, amounted General
in 1 88 1 to 256 millions, or, as already mentioned, more than ^d^jf^^ie
double the number which Gibbon estimated for the Roman
Empire in the height of its power. But the English Govern-
ment has respected the possessions of native chiefs, and one-
third of the country still remains in the hands of its hereditary
rulers. Their subjects make about one-fifth of the whole Indian
people. The British territories, therefore, comprise only two-
thirds of the area of India, and about four-fifths of its inhabitants.
The native princes govern their States with the help of The Feu-
certain English officers, whom the Viceroy stations in native ^^^V
territory. Some of the Chiefs reign almost as independent
sovereigns; others require more assistance, or a stricter
control. They form a magnificent body of feudatory rulers,
possessed of revenues and armies of their own. The more Their
important of these princes exercise the power of life and death various
. . powers,
over their subjects ; but the authority of each is limited by usage,
or by treaties or engagements, acknowledging their subordination
to the British Government. That Government, as Suzerain
in India, does not allow its feudatories to make war upon
each other, or to have any relations with foreign States. It
interferes when any chief misgoverns his people ; rebukes, and
if needful removes, the oppressor; protects the weak; and
firmly imposes peace upon all.
The British possessions are distributed into twelve govern- British
ments, each with a separate head ; but all of them under the I^dia— the
orders of the supreme Government of India, consisting of Provinces,
the Governor-General in Council. The Governor-General,
who also bears the title of Viceroy, holds his court and
government at Calcutta in the cold weather, and during
summer at Simla, an outer spur of the Himalayas, 7000 feet
above the level of the sea. The Viceroy of India, and the
Governors of Madras and Bombay, are usually British states-
men appointed in England by the Queen. The heads of how
the other ten Provinces are selected for their merit from the §°^'^^"^*^ •
44
THE POPULATION OF INDIA.
Census of
1881 and
of 1872.
Anglo-Indian services, and are nominated by the Viceroy,
subject in the case of the Lieutenant - Governorships to
approval by the Secretary of State.
The Census of 1881 returned a population of 256,396,646
souls for all India. The following tables give an abstract of
the area and population of each of the British Provinces, and
The Twelve Governments or Provinces of
British India, in 1881.
Name of Province
(Exclusive of the Native States attached to it).
1. Government of Madras, ' . . .
2. Government of Bombay, with Sind,
3. Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, 2 .
4. Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjab,
5. Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-"^
Western Provinces, . . . >•
6. Chief-Commissionership of Oudh,3 J
7. Chief-Commissionership of the Central
Provinces, ......
8. Chief - Commissionership of British
Burma
9. Chief-Commissionership of Assam,*
10. Commissionership of Berar,^
11. Commissionership of Ajmere,
12. Commissionership of Coorg,
Total for British India, e
Area
in
Square
Miles.
141,001
124,122
150.588
106,632
106,111
84,445
87,220
46.341
17,711
2,711
1.583
868,465
Number
of
Total
Persons
Population.
per
Square
Mile.
31,170,631
221
16,454,414
133
66,691,456
443
18,850,437
177
44,107,869
416
9,838,791
117
3.736-771
43
4,881,426
105
2,672,673
151
460,722
170
178.302
113
199,043,492
229
' Including the three petty States of Pudukota, Banganapalli, and Sandhiir.
2 Exclusive of 5976 square miles of unsurveyed and half-submerged Sundar-
bans along the sea face of the Bay of Bengal. The Imperial Census Report
does not distinguish between the Feudatory States and British territory in the
returns for Bengal. The figures given above are taken from the Provincial
Census Report, and refer to British territory only. The area and population
of the Native States of Bengal are shown in the table on the next page.
' Oudh has been incorporated, since 1877, with the North-Western Pro-
vinces. The Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces is also
Chief-Commissioner of Oudh.
4 Assam was separated from the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal in 1874.
and erected into a Chief-Commissionership. The area includes an estimate
for the unsurveyed tracts in the Cachar, Ndgsi, and Lakhimpur Hills.
'^ Berar consists of the six 'Assigned Districts' made over to the British
administration by the Nizdm of Haidardbdd for the maintenance of the
Haidardbdd Contingent, which he was bound by treaty to maintain, and in
discharge of other obligations.
« These figures are exclusive of the population of the British Settlement of
Aden in Arabia (34,860), and of the .Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal
(14,628). These places have not been included in the tables of the Imperial
Census Report, as being outside the geographical limits of India.
BRITISH, FEUDATORY, AND FOREIGN. 45
groups of Native States, together with the French and
Portuguese possessions in India. The population in 1872
was as follows : — British India, 186 millions ; Feudatory States,
over 54 millions; French and Portuguese possessions, nearly
J of a million ; total for all India, 240,931,521 in 1872.
The Thirteen Groups of Native States forming
Feudatory India, in 1881.
1
Total
Number
of
Perbons
per
Square
Mile.
1
Name of State.
Area
in
Square
MUes.
Total
Population.
j.
'' I.
Rajputana
129,750
10,268,392
79
L^ ■
2.
Haidarabad (Nizam's Dominions)
7^,77^
9,845,594
^37
;^fe^
3-
Central Indian Agency and Bun-
1 M C 3 -
delkhand, ....
75.079
9,261,907
123
1^ °C^
4-
Baroda,
8.570
2,185,005
255
;D«3 c
5-
Mysore,'
24.723
4,186,188
169
6.
Kashmir, 2
80,900
1.534.972
19
\l.
Manipur, .....
Native States under Bombay
8,000
221,070
27
Government, ....
73.753
6,941.249
94
2
9-
Native States under Madras
s
Government
8,091
3,001,436
370
^^
10.
Native States under Bengal
1". U .
Government, ....
36,634
2,845,405
78
"Sr?
II.
Native States under Punjab
1:3-
Government, ....
35.817
3.861.683
108
12.
Native States under North-
western Provinces,
5.125
741.750
14s
n-
Native States under Central
'
Provinces, ....
Total for Feudatory India,
28,834
1,709,720
59
' 587.047
56,604,371
96
If to the foregoing figures we add the French and Portu-
guese possessions, we obtain the total for all India. Thus —
All India, including British Burma.
(Based chiefly on the Census of 188 1.)
Area in
Square
Miles.
Population.
Number of
Persons per
Square Mile.
British India
Feudatory India,
Portuguese Settlements,
French Settlements, .
Total for all India, including)
1 British Burma, . . j
868,465
587.047
2.365
203
199.043.492
56,604,371
475.172
273.611
96
201
135
1.458,080
256,396,646 ! 176
1
1
' Mysore was under direct British administration from 1830 to 1881, when
it was restored to native rule on its young chief attaining his majority.
2 The Kashmir figures relate to the year 1873.
46
THE POPULATION OF INDIA,
Density of British India, therefore, supports a population much more
the popu
lation,
than twice as dense as that of the Native States. If we
exclude the outlying and lately-acquired Provinces of British
Burma and Assam, the proportion is nearly three-fold, or
260 persons to the square mile. How thick this population
is, may be realized from the fact that France had in 1876 only
compared 180 people to the square mile ; while even in crowded England,
with wherever the density approaches 200 to the square mile it
Franceand , , , • •, 1 ,.
England, ceases to be a rural population, and has to live, to a greater
or less extent, by manufactures, mining, or city industries.^
Throughout large areas of Bengal, two persons have to live on
the proceeds of each cultivated acre, or 1280 persons to each
cultivated square mile. The Famine Commissioners reported
in 1880, that over 6 millions of the peasant holdings of Bengal,
or two-thirds of the whole, averaged from 2 to 3 acres a-piece.
Allowing only four persons to the holding, for men, women,
and children, this represents a population of 24 millions
struggling to live off 15 million acres, or a little over half an
acre a-piece.
Unlike England, India has few large towns, and no great
manufacturing centres. Thus, in England and Wales 42 per
cent., or nearly one-half of the population in 187 1, lived in
towns with upwards of 20,000 inhabitants, while in British
India only 4J per cent., or not one-twentieth of the people,
Population live in such towns. India, therefore, is almost entirely a rural
country ; and many of the so-called towns are mere groups of
villages, in the midst of which the cattle are driven a-field, and
ploughing and reaping go on. Calcutta itself has grown out
of a cluster of hamlets on the bank of the Hiigli ; and the
term ' municipality,' which in Europe is only applied to towns,
often means in India a 'rural union,' or collection of home-
steads for the purposes of local government.
We see, therefore, in India, a dense population of husband-
men. Wherever their numbers exceed i to the acre, or 640
to the square mile, — excepting in suburban districts or in
irrigated tracts, — the struggle for existence becomes hard.
At half an acre a-piece that struggle is terribly hard. In such
Districts, a good harvest yields just sufficient food for the
])eople ; and thousands of lives depend each autumn on a few
inches more or less of rainfall. The Government may, by
great efforts, feed the starving in time of actual famine ; but it
cannot stop the yearly work of disease and death among a
steadily underfed people. In these overcrowded tracts the
* Report on the Census of England and Wales for 1871.
Absence
of large
towns.
entirely
rural
Over-
crowded
Districts.
MOVEMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. 47
population reaches the stationary stage. For example, in Allah-
abad District during twenty years, the inhabitants increased
by only 6 persons in 10,000 each year. During the nine
years from 1872 to 1 881, the annual increase was 8 persons
in 10,000. In still more densely-peopled localities upon the
line of railway, facilities for migration have drained off the
excessive population, and their total number in 1872 was
less than it had been twenty years before. On the other hand,
in thinly-peopled Provinces the inhabitants quickly multiply. Under-
Thus, when we obtained the District of Amherst in 1824 from peopjed
I rovinccs.
the king of Burma, it had been depopulated by savage native
wars. The British established their firm rule ; people began
to flock in; and by 1829 there were 70,000 inhabitants. In
fifty years the population had increased by more than four-
fold, or to 301,086 in 1881.
In some parts of India, therefore, there are more husband- The ' im-
men than the land can feed ; in other parts, vast tracts of fertile 1^°^^^^
soil still await the cultivator. In England the people would peasant,
move freely from the over-populated districts to the thinly-
inhabited ones ; but in India the peasant clings to his heredi-
tary homestead long after his family has outgrown his fields.
If the Indian races will only learn to migrate to tracts where
spare land still abounds, they will do more than the utmost
efforts of Government can accomplish to prevent famines.
The facts disclosed by the Census in 1872 and 1881 prove. Move-
indeed, that the Indian peasant has lost something of his "|^"ts of
old immobility. The general tendency of the population
in Bengal is south and east to the newly-formed delta, and
north-east to the thinly-peopled valleys of Assam. In 1881,
it was ascertained that out of a specified population of 247
millions, nearly 6J millions were living in Provinces in which
they had not been bom. But the clinging of the people to
their old villages in spite of hardship and famine still forms
a most difficult problem in India.
Throughout many of the hill and border tracts, land is so
plentiful that it yields no rent Any one may settle on a patch
which he clears of jungle, exhausts the soil by a rapid succession The
of crops, and then leaves it to relapse into forest. In such tracts nomadic
no rent is charged ; but each family of wandering husbandmen of^h^T-
pays a poll-tax to the chief, or to the Government under whose bandry.
protection it dwells. As the inhabitants increase, this nomadic
system of cultivation gives place to regular tillage. Through-
out British Burma we see both methods at work side by side ;
while on the thickly-peopled plains of India the ' wandering
48 THE POPULATION OF INDIA.
husbandmen ' have long since disappeared, and each house-
hold remains rooted to the same plot of ground during
generations.
Labour In some parts of India, this change in the relation of the
fn\he"ast P^^^P^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ taken place before our own eyes. Thus,
century ; in Bengal there was in the last century more cultivable land
than there were husbandmen to till it. A hundred years of
British rule has reversed the ratio ; and there are now, in some
Districts, more people than there is land for them to till. This
change has produced a silent revolution in the rural economy
of the Province. When the English obtained Bengal in the
last century, they found in many Districts two distinct rates of
rent current for the same classes of soil. The higher rate was
paid by the thdni rdyais, literally * stationary ' tenants, who had
their houses in the hamlet, and formed the permanent body of
cultivators. These tenants would bear a great deal of extortion
rather than forsake the lands on which they had expended
labour and capital in digging tanks, cutting irrigation channels,
and building homesteads. They were oppressed accordingly ;
and while they had a right of occupation in their holdings, so
long as they paid the rent, the very highest rates were squeezed
out of them. The temporary or wandering cultivators, paikhdst
rdyats, were those who had not their homes in the village, and
who could therefore leave it whenever they pleased. They
had no right of occupancy in their fields ; but on the other
hand, the landlord could not obtain so high a rent from them,
as there was plenty of spare land in adjoining villages to which
they could retire in case of oppression. The landlords were
at that time competing for tenants ; and one of the commonest
complaints which they brought before the Company's officials
was a charge against a neighbouring proprietor of ' enticing
away their cultivators ' by low rates of rent,
and at the This state of things is now reversed in most parts of
present Bengal. The landlords have no longer to compete for
tenants. It is the husbandmen who have to compete with
one another for land. There are still two rates of rent.
But the lower rates are now paid by the * stationary * tenants,
who possess occupancy rights ; while the higher or rack-rents
are paid by the other class, who do not possess occupancy
rights. In ancient India, the eponymous hero, or original
village founder, was the man who cut down the jungle. In
modern India, special legislation and a Forest Department are
required to preserve the trees which remain. Not only has
the country been stripped of its woodlands, but in many
ITS PRESSURE ON THE LAND. 49
Districts the pastures have been brought under the plough, to
the detriment of the cattle. The people can no longer afford
to leave sufficient land fallow, or under grass, for their oxen
and cows.
It will be readily understood that in a country where, almost Serfdom
down to the present day, there was more land than there ^"^ I^^^'i^*
were people to till it, a high value was set upon the cultivating
class. In tracts where the nomadic system of husbandry
survives, no family is permitted by the native chief to quit his
territory. For each household there pays a poll-tax. In
many parts of India, we found the lower classes attached to
the soil in a manner which could scarcely be distinguished
from praedial slavery. In spite of our legislative enactments,
this system Hngered on during nearly a century of British
rule. Our early officers in South-Eastern Bengal, especially in
the great island of Sandwip, almost raised a rebellion by
their attempts to liberate the slaves. Indeed, in certain tracts
where we found the population very depressed, as in Behar,
the courts have in our own day occasionally brought to light
the survival of serfdom. A feeling still survives in the minds
of some British officers against migrations of the people from
their own Districts to adjoining ones, or to Native States.
If we except the newly - annexed Provinces of Burma Unequal
and Assam, the population of British India is nearly three Pressure of
' ^r , ,. ._- -ri- thepopula-
tunes more dense than the population of Feudatory India, tion on the
This great disproportion cannot be altogether explained by l^'^^*
differences in the natural capabilities of the soil. It would
be for the advantage of the people that they should spread
themselves over the whole country, and so equalize the
pressure throughout. The Feudatory States lie interspersed
among British territor}-, and no costly migration by sea
is involved. That the people do not thus spread themselves
out, but crowd together within our Provinces, is partly due to
their belief that, on the whole, they are less liable to oppression
under British rule than under native chiefs. But any outward
movement of the population, even from the most densely-
peopled English Districts, would probably be regarded with pain
by the local officers. Indeed, the occasional exodus of a few
cultivators from the overcrowded Province of Behar into the
thinly-peopled frontier State of Nepal, has formed a subject of
sensitive self-reproach. In proportion as we can enforce good
government under the native chiefs of India, we should hope
to see a gradual movement of the people into the Feudatory
States. There is plenty of land in India for the whole
D
so
THE POPULATION OF INDIA.
Census of
i8gi.
population. What is required is not the diminution of the
people, but their more equal distribution.
The Census, taken in February 1881, shows an increase of
15 J millions for all India, or 6*4 per cent, during the nine
years since 1872. But this general statement gives but an
imperfect insight into the local increment of the people. For
while in the southern Provinces, which suffered most from the
famine of 1 87 7-78, the numbers have stood still, or even receded.
Increase of an enormous increase has taken place in the less thickly-
the people, peopled tracts. Thus, the British Presidency of Madras shows
a diminution of i "4 per cent. ; while the Native State of
Mysore, which felt the full effects of the long-continued dearth
of 1876-79, had 17 per cent, fewer inhabitants in 1881 than
in 1872. The Bengal population has increased by 11 per cent,
in the nine years, notwithstanding the milder scarcity of 1874.
But the great increase is in the outlying, under-peopled Districts
of India, where the pressure of the inhabitants on the soil has
not yet begun tp be felt, and where thousands of acres still
await the cultivator. In Assam the increase (1872-81) has
been 1 9 per cent. — largely due to immigration ; in the Central
Provinces, with their Feudatory States and tracts of unreclaimed
jungle, 25 per cent. ; in Berar (adjoining them), 20 per cent. ;
while in Burma — which, most of all the British Provinces,
stands in need of inhabitants — the nine years have added 36
per cent, to the population, equivalent to doubling the people
in about twenty-five years.
The following table compares the results of the Census of
1872 with those of the Census of 188 1. It should be borne
in mind, however, that the Census of 1872 was not a synchron-
ous one ; and that in some of the Native States the returns of
1872 were estimates rather than actual enumerations.^
Population of India in 1872 and 1881.
•
In 1872.
In 1881.
Increase.
Per-
centage.
British Provinces, . .
Feudatory States, . .
French and Portuguese >
Possessions, . . .)
186,041,191
54,211,158
679.172
199.043.492
56,604,371
748,783
13,002,301
2.393.213
69,611
6-99
4-41
10-25
240,931,521
256,396,646
15,465,125
6-42
^ The figures for 1872 in the above table are taken from the finally
revised statements, after allowing for transfers of territory and the restora-
tion of Mysore to Native rule. How far the increase in the French and
FOUR-FOLD DIVISION OF THE PEOPLE. 51
The Ethnical History of India. — The statistical elucida- Ethno-
tion of the races and Provinces of India can only be effected °^^*
by tabular forms. At the end of this volume, therefore, will be
found a series of ten statements dealing with the various aspects
of the Indian population.^ The briefest summary of the
ethnological elements which compose that population is all
that can be here attempted.
European writers formerly divided the Indian population into Four-fold
two races — the Hindus and the Muhammadans. But when we of^j^e^"
look more closely at the people, we find that they consist of four People,
well-marked elements. These are, first, the recognised non- (i) Non-
Aryan Tribes, called the Aborigines, and their half-Hinduized Aryans,
descendants, numbering over 17J millions in British India
in 1872. Second, the comparatively pure offspring of the (2) Aryans.
Aryan or Sanskrit - speaking Race (the Brahmans and Raj-
puts), about 16 millions in 1872. Third, the great Mixed
Population, known as the Hindus, which has grown out (3) Mixed
of the Aryan and non - x\ryan elements (chiefly from the ^^"^"^•
latter), in millions in 1872. Fourth, the Muhammadans, (4) Mu-
41 millions. These made up the 186 millions of people under ^j^^J^^"
British rule in 1872. The same four-fold division applied to
the population of the 54 millions in Feudatory India in 1872,
but we do not know the numbers of the different classes.
The figures for 1872 are reproduced in the last paragraph,
as the Census of 1881 adopted a different classification, which
Portuguese Possessions is due to more accurate enumeration in 1881, cannot
be exactly ascertained.
^ Viz. — Table I. Area, villages, houses, and population, etc., in each
Province of British India in 1881.
,, II. Distribution into town and country, or 'towns and
villages in British India.'
,, III. Cultivated, cultivable, and uncultivable land in
Provinces for which returns exist.
,, IV. Population of British India classified according to age
and sex.
,, V. Population of British India classified according to
religion.
,, VI. Asiatic non-Indian population of British India classi-
fied according to birth-place.
„ VII. Non -Asiatic population of British India classified
according to birth-place.
„ VIII. Town population of India, being a list of the 149
towns of British India, of which the population
exceeds 20,cxx).
,, IX. Population of British India according to education.
,, X. Population of British India, classified according to
caste, sect, and nationality.
52 THE POPULATION OF INDIA.
does not so clearly disclose the ethnical elements of the
people. This difference will be more fully explained in the
next chapter.
According to the Census of 1881, the comparatively pure
d-esoendants of the Aryan race (the Brahmans and Rajputs)
still numbered 16 millions in British India; the mixed
population, including lower caste Hindus, Aboriginal Tribes,
and Christians, 138 milHons ; and the Muhammadans, 45
millions. These make up the 199 millions in British India
in 1 88 1. In the Feudatory States there appear to have
been 5J millions of Brahmans and Rajputs ; 46^ millions
of lower caste Hindus and Aboriginal Tribes ; and 5 millions
of Muhammadans, — making up the 56 J millions in Feuda-
tory India in 1881. The aboriginal element of the population
was chiefly returned as low-caste Hindus. Only 4f millions
were separately registered as non-Aryans, or Aborigines in
British India; and if millions in the Feudatory States;
making -61 millions for all India in 1881.
Plan of this The following chapters first treat of each of these four classes
volume in separately, namely the non- Aryan or so-called aboriginal tribes ;
with the the Aryan immigrants from the north ; the mixed population
Indian q^ Hindus; and the Muhammadans. These are the four
their elements which make up the present population. Their
history. history, as a loosely-connected whole, after they had been
pounded together in the mortar of Muhammadan conquest,
will next be traced. A narrative of the events by which the
English nation became answerable for the welfare of this vast
section of the human family, will follow. Finally, it will be
shown how the British Government is trying to discharge its
solemn responsibility, and the administrative mechanism will be
explained which has knit together the discordant races of India
into a great pacific Empire.
The two Our earliest glimpses of India disclose two races struggling
pre^hisf ' ^^^ ^^ ^°^^* '^^^ °"^ ^^^ ^ fair-skinned people, which had
India. lately entered by the north-western passes ; a people of Aryan,
literally ' noble,' lineage, speaking a stately language, worship-
ping friendly and powerful gods. The other was a race of a
lower type, who had long dwelt in the land, and whom the
lordly new-comers drove back before them into the mountains,
or reduced to servitude on the plains. The comparatively
pure descendants of these two races were in 1872 nearly equal
in numbers, total 33 J millions ; the intermediate castes, sprung
chiefly from the ruder stock, make up the mass of the present
Indian population.
[53]
CHAPTER III.
THE NON-ARYAN RACES.
The present chapter treats of the lower tribes, an obscure The Non-
people, who, in the absence of a race-name of their own, may ^^'^T^^^-
be called the non-Arj^ans or Aborigines. They have left no gines.
written records ; indeed, the use of letters, or of any simplest
hieroglyphs, was to them unknown. The sole works of their
hands which have come down to us are rude stone circles, and
the upright slabs and mounds, beneath which, like the primitive Kistvaen-
peoples of Europe, they buried their dead. From these we builders.
only discover that, at some far -distant but unfixed period,
they knew how to make round pots of hard, thin earthenware,
not inelegant in shape ; that they fought with iron weapons,
and wore ornaments of copper and gold. Coins of Imperial
Rome have been dug up from their graves. Still earlier remains
prove that, long before their advent, India was peopled as far
as the depths of the Central Provinces, by tribes unacquainted
with the metals, who hunted and warred with polished flint Flint
axes and other deftly-wrought implements of stone, similar to weapons.
those found in Northern Europe. And even these were the
successors of yet ruder beings, who have left their agate knives
and rough flint weapons in the Narbada valley. In front of
this far-stretching background of the early Metal and Stone
Ages, we see the so-called Aborigines being beaten down by
the newly-arrived Aryan race.
The struggle is commemorated by the two names which the The Non-
victors gave to the early tribes, namely, the Dasyus, or 'enemies,' ^"^^^"^ ^^
and the Dasas, or ' slaves.' The new-comers from the north by the
prided themselves on their fair complexion, and their Sanskrit Aryans,
word for 'colour' {vartia) came to mean 'race' or 'caste.'
Their earliest poets, 3000 years ago, praised in the Rig-Veda
their bright gods, who, 'slaying the Dasyus, protected the
Aryan colour;' who ' subjected the black-skin to the Aryan man.' The
They tell us of their ' stormy deities, who rush on like furious g^J^^*r^"
bulls and scatter the black-skin.' The sacrificer gave thanks
to his god for 'dispersing the slave bands of black descent,'
54 THE NON-AR YAN RA CES.
and for sweeping away 'the vile Dasyan colour.' Moreover,
the Aryan, with his finely-formed features, loathed the squat
Mongolian faces of the Aborigines. One Vedic singer speaks
Flat- of them as ' noseless ' or flat-nosed, while another praises his
own ' beautiful-nosed ' gods. Indeed, the Vedic hymns abound
in scornful epithets for the primitive tribes, as ' disturbers of
R^w- sacrifices,' ' gross feeders on flesh,' * raw-eaters,' * lawless,' ' not-
sacrificing,' ' without gods,' and ' without rites.' As time went
on, and these rude tribes were driven back into the forest, they
were painted in still more hideous shapes, till they became
The the ' monsters ' and * demons ' of the Aryan poet and priest,
ofthe^^"^ Their race-name Dasyu, ' enemy,' thus grew to signify a devil,
Aryan as the old Teutonic word for enemy (still used in that sense in
^^^^- the Germany^/////) has become the English ' fiend.'
More Nevertheless, all of them could not have been savages,
civilised \ye jiear of wealthy Dasyus, and even the Vedic hymns
tribes. speak of their ' seven castles ' and ' ninety forts.' In later
Sanskrit literature, the Aryans make alliance with aboriginal
princes; and when history at length dawns on the scene, we
find some of the most powerful kingdoms of India ruled by
dynasties of non-Aryan descent. Nor were they devoid of
religious rites, or of cravings after a future life. * They adorn,'
says an ancient Sanskrit treatise,^ * the bodies of their dead
with gifts, with raiment, with ornaments ; imagining that thereby
they shall attain the world to come.' These ornaments are
the bits of bronze, copper, and gold which we now dig up from
beneath their rude stone monuments. In the Sanskrit epic
which narrates the advance of the Aryans into Southern
India, a non-Aryan chief describes his race as 'of fearful
swiftness, unyielding in battle, in colour like a dark-blue
cloud.'2
The non- Let US now examin^ these primitive peoples, not as portrayed
theyTre?^ by their enemies 3000 years ago, but as they exist at the present
day. Thrust back by the Aryans from the plains, they have
lain hidden away in the recesses of the mountains, like the
remains of extinct animals which palaeontologists find in hill
caves. India thus forms a great museum of races, in which we
can study man from his lowest to his highest stages of culture.
The specimens are not fossils or dry bones, but living com-
munities, to whose widely-diverse conditions we have to adapt
our administration and our laws.
* Chandogya Uf>anishad^ viii. 8. 5 ; Muir's Samkrit Texts, ii. 396
(1874).
'^ Kamayana (ed. Gorresio), ill. 28. iS.
THE WILDER NON- ARYANS. 55
Among the rudest fragments of mankind are the isolated The
Andaman islanders in the Bay of Bengal. The old Arab and ^"andT^"
European voyagers described them as dog-faced man-eaters.
The English officers sent to the islands in 1855 to estabHsh
a Settlement, found themselves surrounded by naked cannibals
of a ferocious type ; who daubed themselves when festive
with red earth, and mourned in a suit of olive-coloured
mud. They used a noise like crying to express friendship or
joy ; bore only names of common gender, which they received
before birth, and which therefore had to be applicable to either
sex ; and their sole conception of a god was an evil spirit, who
spread disease. For five years they repulsed every effort at
intercourse with showers of arrows ; but our officers slowly
brought them to a better frame of mind by building sheds for
them near the British Settlement, where these poor beings might
find shelter from the tropical rains, and receive medicines and
food.
The Anamalai Hills, in Southern Madras, form the refuge Anamalai
of a whole series of broken tribes. Five hamlets of long-haired, ^ "^^"'
wild-looking Puliars were found living on jungle products, mice,
or any small animals they could catch; and worshipping demons.
The Mundavers shrink from contact with the outside world,
and possessed no fixed dwellings, but wandered over the inner-
most hills with their cattle, sheltering themselves under little leaf
sheds, and seldom remaining in one spot more than a year.
The thick-lipped, small-bodied Kaders, 'Lords of the Hills,'
are a remnant of a higher race. These hills, now almost
uninhabited, abound in the great stone monuments (kistvaens
and dolmens) which the primitive tribes erected over their
dead. The Nairs, or aborigines of South-Western India, still The Nairs.
practise polyandry, according to which one woman is the wife
of several husbands, and a man's property descends not to his
own but to his sister's children. This system also appears
among the Himalayan tribes.
In the Central Provinces, the aboriginal races form a large Non-
proportion of the population. In certain Districts, as in the ^^^^
State of Bastar, they amounted in 1872 to three-fifths of the of the
inhabitants. Their most important race, the Gonds, have made Central
some advances in civihsation ; but the wilder tribes still cling The
to the forest, and live by the chase. Some of them are Gonds.
reported to have used, within our own times, flint points for
their arrows. The Marias wield bows of great strength, which
they hold with their feet while they draw the string with both
hands. A still wilder tribe, the Maris, fled from their grass-built
56 THE NON-AR YAN RA CES.
Tax- huts on the approach of a stranger. Once a year a messenger
among^the came to them from the local Rajd to take their tribute, which
Maris. consisted chiefly of jungle products. He did not, however,
enter their hamlets, but beat a drum outside, and then hid
himself. The shy Maris crept forth, placed what they had to
give in an appointed spot, and ran back into their retreats.
The Farther to the north-east, in the Tributary States of Orissa,
•I^eS- ^"^ there is a poor tribe, 10,000 in 1872, of Juangs or Patuas,
wearers ' literally the ' leaf- wearers,' whose women wore no clothes. The
of Onssa ^j^jy covering on the females consisted of a few strings of
States; beads round the waist, with a bunch of leaves tied before
and behind. Those under British influence were, in 187 1,
clothed by clothed by order of the Government, and their Chief was
Govern- persuaded to do the same work for others. The English
officer called together the clan, and after a speech, handed
out strips of cotton for the women to put on. They then
passed in single file, to the number of 1900, before him,
made obeisance to him, and were afterwards marked on the
forehead with vermilion, as a sign of their entering into civilised
society. Finally, they gathered the bunches of leaves which
had formed their sole clothing into a heap, and set fire to it.
It is reported, however, that many of the Juang women have
since relapsed to their foliage attire.
A relic of This leaf-wearing tribe had no knowledge of the metals till
the Stone quite lately, when foreigners came among them ; and no word
^^* existed in their own language for iron or any other metal.
But their country abounds in flint weapons, so that the Juangs
Tuang form a remnant to our own day of the Stone Age. * Their
dwellings, huts,' writes the officer who knows them best, ' are among the
smallest that human beings ever deliberately constructed as
dwellings. They measure about 6 feet by 8. The head of the
family and all the females huddle together in this one shell,
not much larger than a dog-kennel.' The boys and the young
men of the village live in a building apart by themselves ;
and this custom of having a common abode for the whole male
youth of the hamlet is found among many aboriginal tribes
in distant parts of India.
Himalayan Proceeding to the northern boundary of India, we find the
tribes. slopes and spurs of the Himdlayas peopled by a great variety
of rude tribes. Some of the Assam hillmen have no word for
expressing distance by miles nor any land measure, but reckon
the length of a journey by the number of quids of tobacco or
betel-leaf which they chew upon the way. As a rule, they are
fierce, black, undersized, and ill-fed. They eked out a wretched
MORE ADVANCED NON-ARYANS. 57
subsistence by plundering the more civilised hamlets of the
Assam valley ; a means of livelihood which they have but slowly
given up under British rule. Some of the wildest of them,
like the independent Abars, are now engaged as a sort of
irregular police, to keep the peace of the border, in return for
a yearly gift of cloth, hoes, and grain. Their very names bear
witness to their former wild life. One tribe, the Akas of
Assam, is divided into two clans, known respectively as * The Akas of
eaters of a thousand hearths,' and ' The thieves who lurk in the -^ssam.
cotton-field.'
Many of the aboriginal tribes, therefore, remain in the same More
early stage of human progress as that ascribed to them by the ^^^^"ced
Vedic poets more than 3000 years ago. But others have made Arj-an
great advances, and form communities of a well-developed tribes.
type. It must here suffice to briefly describe two such races ;
the Santals and the Kandhs who inhabit the north-eastern edge
of the central plateau. The Santals have their home among
the hills which abut on the Ganges in Lower Bengal. The
Kandhs live 150 to 350 miles to the south, among the high-
lands which look down upon the Orissa delta and Madras
coast.
The Santals dwell in villages in the jungles or among the The
mountains, apart from the people of the plains. They Santals.
numbered about a million in 1872, and give their name to a
large District, the Santal Parganas, 140 miles north-west
of Calcutta. Although still clinging to many customs of a
hunting forest tribe, they have learned the use of the plough,
and settled down into skilful husbandmen. Each hamlet is
governed by its own head-man, who is supposed to be a Santal
descendant of the original founder of the village, and who is ^jjl^gf^.
assisted by a deputy head-man and a watchman. The boys of ment.
the hamlet have their separate officers, and are strictly con-
trolled by their own head and his deputy till they enter the
married state. The Santdls know not the cruel distinctions of
Hindu caste, but trace their tribes, usually numbering seven, to
the seven sons of the first parents. The whole village feasts,
hunts, and worships together; and the Santal had to take
his wife, not from his own tribe, but from one of the six
others. So strong is the bond of race, that expulsion from No castes,
the tribe was the only Santal punishment. A heinous criminal but strong
was cut off from ' fire and water ' in the village, and sent forth feeling.
alone into the jungle. Minor offences were forgiven upon a
public reconciliation with the tribe; to effect which the guilty
one provided a feast, with much rice-beer, for his clansmen.
58
THE NON-ARYAN RACES.
The six
Santal
cere-
monies.
Santal
marriages.
Santal
religion.
Race-god
Tribe-
god;
Family-
god;
Demons.
The chief ceremonies in a Santal's life, six in number, vary
in different parts of the country, but are all based upon this
strong feeling of kinship. The first is the admission of the
newly-born child into the family, — a secret rite, one act of which
consists in the father placing his hand on the infant's head
and repeating the name of the ancestral deity. The second, the
admission of the child into the tribe, is celebrated three or five
days after birth, — a more public ceremony, at which the child's
head is shaved, and the clansmen drink beer. The third
ceremony, or admission into the race, takes place about the
fifth year ; when all friends, whatever may be their tribe, are
invited to a feast, and the child is marked on his right arm with
the Santal spots. The fourth consists of the union of his own
tribe with another by marriage, which does not take place till
the young people can choose for themselves. At the end of
the ceremony, the girl's clanswomen pound burning charcoal
with the household pestle, in token of the breaking up of her
former family ties, and then extinguish it with water, to signify
the separation of the bride from her clan. The Santals respect
their women, and seldom or never take a second wife, except for
the purpose of obtaining an heir. The fifth ceremony consists of
the dismissal of the Santal from the race, by the solemn burning
of his body after death. The sixth is the reunion of the dead
with the fathers, by floating three fragments of the skull down
the Dimodar river (if possible), the sacred stream of the race.
The Santal had no conception of bright and friendly gods,
such as the Vedic singers worshipped. Still less could he
imagine one omnipotent and beneficent Deity, who watches over
mankind. Hunted and driven back before the Hindus and
Muhammadans, he did not understand how a Being could be
more powerful than himself without wishing to harm him.
* What,' said a Santal to an eloquent missionary, who had been
discoursing on the Christian God — ' what if that strong One
should eat me ? ' Nevertheless, the earth swarms with spirits
and demons, whose ill-will he tries to avert. His religion
consists of nature-worship, and offerings to the ghosts of his
ancestors ; and his rites are more numerous even than those of
; the Hindus. First, the Race-god ; next, the Tribe-god of each
of the seven clans ; then the Family-god, requires in turn his
oblation. But besides these, there are the spirits of his
forefathers, river-spirits, forest-spirits, well-demons, mountain-
demons, and a mighty host of unseen beings, whom he must
keep in good humour. He seems also to have borrowed from
the Hindus some rites of sun-worship. But his own gods
THE SANTALS UNDER BRITISH RULE. 59
dwell chiefly in the ancient sal trees which shade his hamlets.
Them he propitiates by offerings of blood ; with goats, cocks,
and chickens. If the sacrificer cannot afford an animal, it is
with a red flower, or a red fruit, that he draws near to his gods.
In some hamlets, the people dance round every tree, so that
they may not by evil chance miss the one in which the village-
spirits happen to be dwelling.
Until nearly the end of the last century, the Santals were The San-
the pests of the neighbouring plains. Regularly after the t^^? .""^^"^
December harvest, they sallied forth from their mountains, rule.
plundered the lowlands, levied black-mail, and then retired
with their spoil to their jungles. But in 1789, the British
Government granted the proprietary right in the soil to the
landholders of Bengal under the arrangements which four
years later became the Permanent Settlement. Forthwith
every landholder tried to increase the cultivated area on his
estate, now become his own property. The Santals and other
wild tribes were tempted to issue from their fastnesses by high
wages or rent-free farms. ' Every proprietor,' said a London
newspaper, the Morning Chronicle^ in 1792, 'is collecting hus- They come
bandmen from the hills to improve his lowlands.' The English t^e^^iiis"^
officers found they had a new race to deal with, and gradu-
ally won the highlanders to peaceful habits by grants of land
and ' exemption from all taxes.' They were allowed to settle
disputes ' among themselves by their own customs,' and they
were used as a sort of frontier police, being paid to deliver up
any of their own people who committed violent crimes. Such
criminals, after being found guilty by their countrymen, were
handed over for punishment to the English judge. The
Santals gained confidence in us by degrees, and came down in
great numbers within the fence of stone pillars, which the
British officers set up in 1832 to mark off the country of the
hill people from the plains.
The Hindu money-lender soon made his appearance in their The San-
settlements, and the simple hillmen learned the new luxury ^^[^ ^^j"K
of borrowing. Our laws were gradually applied to them, and to the
before the middle of this century most of the Santal hamlets Hindus,
were plunged in debt. Their strong love of kindred prevented
them from running away, and the Hindu usurers reduced them
to a state of practical slavery, by threatening the terrors of a
distant jail. In 1848, three whole villages threw up their
clearings, and fled in despair to the jungle. In June 1855,
the southern Santals started in a body, 30,000 strong, with
their bows and arrows, to walk 140 miles to Calcutta and
6o
THE NON-ARYAN RACES.
Santal
rising,
1855.
The
Kandhs or
Kondhs.
Breaking
up of the
Kandh
patri-
archal
govern-
ment.
Kandh
wars and
punish-
ments.
lay their condition before the Governor-General. At first they
were orderly; but the way was long, and they had to live.
Robberies took place ; quarrels broke out between them and
the police ; and within a week they were in armed rebellion.
The rising was put down, not without mournful bloodshed ;
and their wrongs were carefully inquired into. A very simple
form of administration was introduced, according to which
their village head-men were brought into direct contact with
the English officer in charge of the District, and acted as the
representatives of the people. Our system of justice and
government has been adapted to their primitive needs, and the
Santals have for years been among the most prosperous of the
Indian races.
The Kandhs, literally 'The Mountaineers,' a tribe about
100,000 strong in 1872, inhabit the steep and forest-covered
ranges which rise inland from the Orissa delta, and the Madras
Districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam. They form one of a
group of non- Aryan races who still occupy the position assigned
to them by the Greek geographers 1500 years ago. Before that
early date, they had been pushed backwards by the advancing
Aryans from the fertile delta which lies between the mountains
and the sea. One section of the Kandhs was completely
broken up, and has sunk into landless low-castes among the
Aryan or Hindu communities at the foot of the hills. Another
section stood its ground more firmly, and became a peasant
militia, holding grants of land from the Hindu chiefs in return
for military service. A third section fell back into the fast-
nesses of the mountains, and was recognised as a wild but free
race. It is of this last section that the present chapter treats.
The Kandh idea of government is purely patriarchal. The
family is strictly ruled by the father. The grown-up sons have
no property during his life, but live in his house with their
wives and children, and all share the common meal prepared
by the grandmother. The clan consists of a number of
families, sprung from a common father ; and the tribe is made
up in like manner from a number of clans who claim descent
from the same ancestor. The head of the tribe is usually the
eldest son of the patriarchal family ; but if he be not fit for the
post he is set aside, and an uncle or a younger brother
appointed. He enters on no undertaking without calling
together the heads of clans, who in their turn consult the
heads of families.
According to the Kandh theory of existence, a state of
war might lawfully be presumed against all neighbours with
THE KANDHS, 6i
whom no express agreement had been made to the contrary.
Murders were punished by blood-revenge, the kinsmen within Blood-
a certain degree being one and all bound to kill the slayer, '^^^^"g^'
unless appeased by a payment of grain or cattle. The man
who wounded another had to maintain the sufferer until he
recovered from his hurt A stolen article must be returned,
or its equivalent paid ; but the Kandh twice convicted of
theft was driven forth from his tribe, the greatest punish-
ment known to the race. Disputes were settled by combat,
or by the ordeal of boiling oil or heated iron, or by taking a
solemn oath on an ant-hill, or on a tiger's claw, or a lizard's
skin. When a house-father died, leaving no sons, his land was
parcelled out among the other male heads of the village ; for
no woman, nor indeed any Kandh, was allowed to hold land
who could not with his own hand defend it.
The Kandh system of tillage represented a stage half-way Kandh
between the migratory cultivation of the ruder non- Aryan ^g"*^"^*
tribes and the settled agriculture of the Hindus. They did
not, on the one hand, merely burn down a patch in the
jungle, take a few crops off it, and then move on to fresh
clearings. Nor, on the other hand, did they go on cultivating
the same fields from father to son. When their lands showed
signs of exhaustion, they deserted them ; and it was a rule in
some of their settlements to change their village sites once
in fourteen years. Caste is unknown; and, as among the
Santals, marriage between relations, or even within the same
tribe, is forbidden. A Kandh wedding consisted of forcibly Kandh
carrying off the bride in the middle of a feast. The boy's ^ ""« cT-^
father paid a price for the girl, and usually chose a strong ture.'
one, several years older than his son. In this way, Kandh
maidens were married about fourteen, Kandh boys about ten.
The bride remained as a servant in her new father-in-law's house
till her boy-husband grew old enough to live with her. She
generally acquired a great influence over him ; and a Kandh
may not marry a second wife during the life of his first one,
except with her consent.
The Kandh engaged only in husbandry and war, and despised Serfs of
all other work. But attached to each village was a row of hovels viUageT
inhabited by a lower race, who were not allowed to hold land,
to go forth to battle, or to join in the village worship. These
poor people did the dirty work of the hamlet, and supplied
families of hereditary weavers, blacksmiths, potters, herds-
men, and distillers. They were kindly treated, and a portion of
each feast was left for them. But they could never rise in the
62
THE NON-ARYAN RACES.
Kandh
human
sacrifices.
The
victims.
The
sacrifice.
The
Kandhs
under
liritish
rule.
Human
sacrifices
abolished.
The race
won over
to peaceful
industry.
social scale. No Kandh could engage in their work without
degradation, nor eat food prepared by their hands. They
can give no account of their origin, but are supposed to be
the remnants of a ruder race whom the Kandhs found in
possession of the hills when they themselves were pushed
backwards by the Aryans from the plains.
The Kandhs, like the Santd,ls, have many deities, race-gods,
tribe-gods, family-gods, and a multitude of malignant spirits and
demons. But their great divinity is the Earth-god, who repre-
sents the productive energy of nature. Twice each year, at
sowing-time and at harvest, and in all seasons of special calamity,
the Earth-god required a hum.an sacrifice {meriah). The duty
of providing the victims rested with the lower race attached
to the Kandh village. Brahmans and Kandhs were the only
classes exempted from sacrifice, and an ancient rule ordained
that the offering nmst be bought with a price. Men of the
lower race kidnapped the victims from the plains, and a
thriving Kandh village usually kept a small stock in reserve,
' to meet sudden demands for atonement.' The victim, on
being brought to the hamlet, was welcomed at every threshold,
daintily fed, and kindly treated till the fatal day arrived. He
was then solemnly sacrificed to the Earth-god, the Kandhs
shouting in his dying ear, ' We bought you with a price ; no
sin rests with us !' His flesh and blood were distributed among
the village lands.
In 1835, ^^ Kandhs passed under our rule, and these rites
had to cease. The proud Kandh spirit shrank from compulsion ;
but after many tribal councils, they agreed to give up their
stock of victims as a valuable present to their new suzerain.
Care was taken that they should not procure fresh ones. The
kidnapping of victims for human sacrifice was declared a capital
offence ; and their priests were led to discover that goats or
buffaloes did quite as well for the Earth-god under British rule
as human sacrifices. Until 1835, ^^^7 consisted of separate
tribes, always at war with each other and with the world.
But under able English administrators (especially Campbell,
Macpherson, and Cadenhead), human sacrifices were abolished,
and the Kandhs were formed into a united and peaceful race
(1837-45). The British officer removed their old necessity
for tribal wars and family blood-feuds by setting himself up
as a central authority. He adjusted their inter-tribal disputes,
and punished heinous crimes. Lieutenant Charters Macpherson,
in particular, won over the more troublesome clans to quiet
industry, by grants of jungle tracts, of little use to us, but a
THE THREE NO N- ARYAN STOCKS. 6^
paradise to them, and where he could keep them well under
his eye. He made the chiefs vain of carrying out his orders
by small presents of cattle, honorific dresses, and titles. He
enlisted the whole race on his side by picking out their best
men for the police ; and drew the tribes into amicable relations
among themselves by means of hill-fairs. He constructed roads,
and taught the Kandhs to trade, with a view to ' drawing them
from their fastnesses into friendly contact with other men.' The
race has prospered and multiplied under British rule.
Whence came these primitive peoples, whom the Aryan Origin of
invaders found in the land more than 3000 years ago, and who ^^"n"'
are still scattered over India, the fragments of a pre-historic tribes.
world? Written annals they do not possess. Their oral
traditions tell us little ; but such hints as they yield, feebly point Non-
to the north. They seem to preserve dim memories of a time tj-^ditions
when their tribes dwelt under the shadow of mightier hill ranges
than any to be found on the south of the river plains of Bengal.
* The Great Mountain ' is the race-god of the Santals, and an
object of w^orship among other tribes. Indeed, the Gonds, who
numbered i J million in the heart of Central India in 1872, have
a legend that they were created at the foot of Dewalagiri peak in
the Himalayas. Till lately, they buried their dead with the
feet turned northwards, so as to be ready to start again for their
ancient home in the north.
But the language of the non-Aryan races, that record of a Non-
nation's past more enduring than rock-inscriptions or tables of Aryan
brass, is being slowly made to tell the secret of their origin.
It already indicates that the early peoples of India belonged to The three
three great stocks, known as the Tibeto-Burman, the Kolarian, "'^'^;
• -I • Aryan
and the Dravidian. stocks.
The first stock, or Tibeto-Burman tribes, cling to the skirts (i) The
of the Himalayas and their north-eastern offshoots. They J^^^^^"
, . ^ .. . . , / Burmans.
crossed over mto India by the north-eastern passes, and m
some pre-historic time had dwelt in Central Asia, side by side
with the forefathers of the Mongolians and the Chinese.
Several of the hill languages in Eastern Bengal preserve Chinese
terms, others contain Mongolian. Thus, the Nagas in Assam
still use words for three and water which might almost be
understood in the streets of Canton.^
^ The following are the twenty principal languages of the Tibeto-Burman
group : — (i) Cachari or Bodo, (2) Garo, (3) Tipura or Mrung, (4) Tibetan
or Bhutia, (5) Gurung, (6) Murmi, (7) Newar, (8) Lepcha, (9) Miri, (10)
Aka, (11) Mishmi dialects, (12) Dhimal, (13) Kanawari dialects, (14)
Mikir, (15) Singpho, (16) Naga dialects, (17) Kuki dialects, (18) Burmese,
K'^'
64
TIfE NON-AR YAN RACES.
(2) The
Kolarians
(3) The
Dravidi-
Their con-
vergence
in Central
India.
The Kol-
arians
broken
up.
The Kolarians, the second of the three non-Aryan stocks,
appear also to have entered Bengal by the north-eastern passes.
They dwell chiefly in the north, and along the north-eastern edge,
of the three-sided table-land which covers the southern half of
India. The Dravidians, or third stock, seem, generally speaking,
on the other hand, to have found their way into the Punjab by
the north-western passes. They now inhabit the southern part
of the three-sided table-land, as far down as Cape Comorin,
the southernmost point of India. It appears as if the two
streams, namely the Kolarian tribes from the north-east and the
Dravidians from the north-west, had converged and crossed
each other in Central India. The Dravidians proved the
stronger, brol^e up the Kolarians, and thrust aside their frag-
ments to east and west. The Dravidians then rushed forward
in a mighty body to the south.
It thus came to pass that while the Dravidians formed a
vast mass in Southern India, the Kolarians survived only as
isolated tribes, so scattered as to soon forget their common
(19) Khyeng, and (20) Manipuri. ' It is impossible,' writes Mr. Brandreth,
' to give even an approximate number of the speakers included in this
group, as many of the languages are either across the frontier or only pro-
ject a short distance into our own territory. The languages included in
this group have not, with perhaps one or two exceptions, both a cerebral
and dental row of consonants, like the South-Indian languages ; some of
them have aspirated forms of the surds, but not of the sonants ; others
have aspirated forms of both. All the twenty dialects have words in
common, especially numerals and pronouns, and also some resemblances of
grammar. In comparing the resembling words, the differences between
them consist often less in any modification of the root-syllable than in
various additions to the root. Thus in Burmese we have na, *'ear;"
Tibetan, r«a-^a ; Magar, na-kep : '^q-w^lx, nai-potig ; Dhimal, na-hathotig;
Kiranti dialects, na-pro^ na-rek, na-phak ; Naga languages, ie-na-ro,
te-na-rang ; Manipuri, na-kong ; Kupui, ka-na ; Sak, aka-na ; Karen,
na-khu ; and so on. It can hardly be doubted that such additions as these
to monosyllabic roots are principally determinative syllables for the purpose
of distinguishing between what would otherwise have been monosyllabic
words having the same sound. These determinatives are generally aflftxed
in the languages of Nepal and in the Dhimal language ; prefixed in the
Lepcha language, and in the languages of Assam, of Manipur, and of the
Chittagong and Arakan Hills. Words are also distinguished by difference
of tone. The tones are generally of two kinds, described as the abrupt or
.short, and the pausing or heavy. It has been remarked that those languages
which are most given to adding other syllables to the root make the least
use of the tones, and, vice versa, where the tones most prevail the least
recourse is had to determinative syllables.' — This and the following
quotations, from Mr. E. L, Brandreth, are condensed from his valuable
paper in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ^ New Series, vol. x.
(1877), pp. 1-32.
THE KOLARIAN
origin. We have seen one of the largest of the Kolarian races,
the Santals, dwelling on the extreme eastern edge of the three-
sided table-land, where it slopes down into the Gangetic
valley. The Kurkus, a broken Kolarian tribe, inhabit a
patch of country about 400 miles to the west. They have for
perhaps thousands of years been cut off from the Santals by
mountains and pathless forests, and by intervening races of the
Dravidian and Aryan stocks. The Kurkus and Santals have Scattered
no tradition of a common origin ; yet at this day the Kurkus Kolarian
speak a language which is little else than a dialect of Santali. "^
The Savars, once a great Kolarian tribe, mentioned by Pliny
and Ptolemy, are now a poor wandering race of woodcutters
in Northern Madras and Orissa. Yet fragments of them have
lately been found deep in Central India, and as far west as
Rajputana on the other side. The Juangs are an isolated
non-Aryan remnant among an Aryan and Uriya-speaking
population. They have forgotten, and disclaim, any connection
with the Hos or other Kolarian tribes. Nevertheless, their
common origin is attested by a number of Kolarian words
which they have unconsciously preserved.^
The compact Dravidians in the south, although in after-days
^ The nine principal languages of the Kolarian group are — (i) the Santal,
(2) Mundari, (3) Ho, (4) Bhumij, (5) Korwa, (6) Kharria, (7) Juang, (8)
Kurku, and perhaps (9) the Savar, Some of them, however, are separated
only by dialectical differences. * The Kolarian group of languages,' writes
Mr. Brandreth, ' has both the cerebral and dental row of letters, and also
aspirated forms, which last, according to Caldwell, did not belong to early
Dravidian. There is also a set of four sounds, which are perhaps peculiar
to Santali, called by Skrefsrud semi-consonants, and which, when followed
by a vowel, are changed respectively into g, j\ d, and b. Gender of nouns
is animate and inanimate, and is distinguished by difference of pronouns,
by difference of suffix of a qualifying noun in the genitive relation, and by
the gender being denoted by the verb. As instances of the genitive suffix,
we have in Santali in-ren hopon "my son,'\but in-ak orak "my house."
There is no distinction of sex in the pronouns, but of the animate and
inanimate gender. The dialects generally agree in using a short form of
the third personal pronoun suffixed to denote the number, dual and
plural, of the noun, and short forms of all the personal pronouns are added
to the verb in certain positions to express both number and person, both
as regards the subject and object, if of the animate gender ; the inanimate
gender being indicated by the omission of these suffixes. No other group
of languages, apparently, has such a logical classification of its nouns as
that shown by the genders of both the South Indian groups. The genitive
in the Kolarian group of the full personal pronouns is used for the posses-
sive pronoun, which again takes all the post-positions, the genitive
relation being thus indicated by the genitive suffix twice repeated. The
Kolarian languages generally express grammatical relations by suffixes, and
add the post-positions directly to the root, without the intervention of an
E
66 THE NON-AR YAN RA CES.
The coir- subdued by the higher civilisation of the Aryan race which
pact Dra- , . ^ , , , , • ^
vidians of Pressed in among them, were never thus broken mto fragments.^
Southern Their pure descendants consist, indeed, of small and scattered
■' tribes ; but they have given their language to 28 millions of
people in Southern India. A theory has been started that
Their off- some of the islands in the distant Pacific Ocean were peopled
yond seaT?) ^^^^^^ ^^^m the Dravidian settlements in India, or from an
earlier common source. Bishop Caldwell points out that the
aboriginal tribes in Southern and Western Australia use almost
the same words for /, thou^ he, 7ve, you, etc., as the Dravidian
fishermen on the Madras coast ; and resemble in other ways
the Madras hill tribes, as in the use of their national weapon,
the boomerang. The civilisation and literature which the
Dravidians developed in Southern India will be described in
a later chapter on the Indian vernaculars.
oblique form or genitive or other suffix. They agree with the Dravidian
in having inclusive and exclusive forms for the plural of the first personal
pronoun, in using a relative participle instead of a relative pronoun, in
the position of the governing word, and in the possession of a true causal
form of the verb. They have a dual, which the Dravidians have not, but
they have no negative voice. Counting is by twenties, instead of by tens,
as in the Dravidian. The Santali verb, according to Skrefsrud, has 23
tenses, and for every tense two forms of the participle and a gerund.'
^ Bishop Caldwell recognises twelve distinct Dravidian languages : —
(i) Tamil, (2) Malayalam, (3) Telugu, {4) Kanarese, (5) Tulu, (6) Kudugu,
(7) Toda, (8) Kota, (9) Gond, (10) Kandh, (11) Uraon, (12) Rajmahal.
' In the Dravidian group,' writes Mf. Brandreth, ' there is a rational and
an irrational gender of the nouns, which is distinguished in the plural of
the nouns, and sometimes in the singular also, by affixes which appear to
be fragmentary pronouns, by corresponding pronouns, and by the agree-
ment of the verb with the noun, the gender of the verb being expressed by
the pronominal suffixes. To give an instance of verbal gender, we have
in Tamil, from the root sey, "to do," seyd-an, "he (rational) did;"
seyd-dl, "she (rational) did;" seyd-adu, "it (irrational) did ;" seyd-ar,
"they (the rationals) did;" seyd-a, " they (the irrationals) did;" the full
pronouns hting avan, "he;" aval, "she;" adii, "it;" avar, "they;"
avei, " they." This distinction of gender, though it exists in most of the
Dravidian languages, is not always carried out to the extent that it is in
Tamil. In Telugu, Gond, and Kandh, it is preserved in the plural, but
in the singular the feminine rational is merged in the irrational gender.
In Gond, the gender is further marked by the noun in the genitive relation
taking a different suffix, according to the number and gender of the noun
on which it depends. In Uraon, the feminine rational is entirely merged
in the irrational gender, with the exception of the pronoun, which preserves
the distinction between rationals and irrationals in the plural ; thus, asy
"he," referring to a god or a man; ad, "she" or "it," referring to a
woman or an irrational object ; but ar, * * they, " applies to both men and
women ; abra, " they," to irrationals only. The rational gender, besides
human beings, includes the celestial and infernal deities ; and it is further
non-
Aryan
an-
LIST OF 142 NON-ARYAN TRIBES, 67
The following is a list of 142 of the principal non- Aryan List of
languages and dialects, prepared by Mr. Brandreth for the Royal
Asiatic Society in 1877, and classified according to their gram- i
matical structure. Mr. Robert Cust has also arranged them in Stages.
another convenient form, according to their geographical habitat.
Table of the Non-Aryan Languages of India.^
Dravidian Group. Dravidian Gxom^— continued.
Tamil. Yerukala.
Malayalam. Gadaha (Kolarian ?).
jKanTese. KOLARIAN Group.
( Badaga. Santali.
Tulu. ( Mundari.
Kudugu or Coorg. ] Ho or Larka Kol.
Toda. " ( Bhumij.
Kota. Korwa.
Gond dialects. Kharria.
( Mahddeo, Juang.
\ Raj, \ Kuri.
Maria. \ Kurku.
Kandh or Ku. Mehto.
Uraon or Dhangar. Savara.
Raimahali or Maler. _, _.
Miscellaneous Dialects. Tibeto-Burman Group.
Naikude. I. ( Kachari or Bodo.
Kolami. X Mech.
Keikddi. ( Hojai.
sub-divided, in some of the languages, but in the singular only, into
masculine and feminine. The grammatical relations in the Dravidian are
generally expressed by suffixes. Many nouns have an oblique form, which
is a remarkable characteristic of the Dravidian group ; still, with the
majority of nouns, the post-positions are added directly to the nominative
form. Other features of this group are — the frequent use of formatives to
specialize the meaning of the root ; the absence of relative pronouns and
the use instead of a relative participle, which is usually formed from the
ordinary participle by the same suffix as that which Dr. Caldwell considers
as the oldest sign of the genitive relation ; the adjective preceding the
substantive ; of two substantives, the determining preceding the determined ;
and the verb being the last member of the sentence. There is no true
dual in the Dravidian languages. In the Dravidian languages there are
two forms of the plural of the pronoun of the first person, one including,
the other excluding, the person addressed. As regards the verbs, there is
a negative voice, but no passive voice, and there is a causal form. ' Bishop
Caldwell's second edition of his great work, the Comparative Grammar of
the Dravidian Languages (Triibner, 1875), forms in itself an epoch in that
department of human knowledge. Mr. Beames' Comparative Grammar
of the Modern Aryan Languages of India (Triibner, 1872) has laid the
foundation for the accurate study of North Indian speech. Colonel
Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal (Csdcntta, 1872), and Sir George Campbell's
Specimens of the Languages of India (Bengal Secretariat Press, 1874), have
also shed new and valuable light on the questions involved.
^ Brackets refer to dialects that are very closely related ; + to languages
beyond the circle of the Indian languages, {^See list above and on next page.)
68
THE NON-ARYAN RACES.
Tibeto-Burman Group — continued. Tibeto-Burman Group — continued.
Garo.
( Thado.
Pani-Koch.
\ Lushai.
Deori-Chutia.
( Hallajni.
Tipura or Mrung.
Manipuri.
II. ( Tibetan or Bhutia.
Maring.
Khoibu,
] Sarpa.
( Lhopa or Bhutani.
Kupui.
Changlo,
Tangkhul.
Twang.
Luhupa.
III. ^ Gurung.
Khungui.
1 Murmi.
Phadang.
Thaksya.
Champhung.
^ Newar.
Kupome.
\ Pahri.
Takaimi.
Magar.
Andro and Sengmai.
IV. Lepcha.
Chairel.
V. Daphla.
Anal and Namfau.
Miri.
XVIII. Kumi.
Abar.
Kami.
Bhutia of Lo.
Mru.
VI. Aka.
\ Banjogi or Lungkhe.
\ Pankho.
VII. Mishmi dialects.
Chulikata.
Shendu or Poi.
Taying or Digaru.
Sak.
Mijhu.
Kyau.
VIII. Dhimal.
• XIX. Karen dialects.
IX. Kanawari dialects.
Sgau.
( Milchan.
Bghai.
\ Tibarskad.
Red Karen.
f Sumchu.
Pwo.
X. \ Kiranti.
Tatu.
1 Limbu.
Mopgha.
Sunwar.
Kay or Gaikho.
Bramu.
Taungthu.
Chepang.
tLisaw.
Vayu.
tGyarung.
Kusunda.
tTakpa.
XI. Naga dialects.
tManyak.
Namsang or Jdipuria.
Banpdrd or Joboka.
tThochu.
tHorpa.
Mithan.
Tablung.
Khasi.
Mulung.
XII. Naga dialects.
Khasi.
Khari.
K Naugdon.
\ Tengsa.
Tai.
Lhota.
' Siamese or Thai.
Lao.
XIII. Naga dialects.
Angdmi.
Shan.
Kengma.
Ahom.
\ Kutcha.
Khamti.
lAiton.
Liyang or Kareng.
tTai Mow or Chinese Shan.
Maram.
XIV. Mikir.
Mon-Anam.
XV. j Singpho.
j Jili.
Mon.
XVI. Burmese.
tKambojan.
XVII. Kuki dialects.
tAnamese.
Khyeng.
fPaloung.
NON-ARYAN CENSUS OF INDIA.
69
We discern, therefore, long before the dawn of history,
masses of men moving uneasily over India, and violently
pushing in among still earlier tribes. They crossed the snows
of the Himalayas, and plunged into the tropical forests in
search of new homes. Of these ancient races, fragments now
exist almost in exactly the same stage of human progress as
they were described by Vedic poets more than 3000 years ago.
Some are dying out, such as the Andaman islanders, among
whom in 1869 only one family had as many as three children.
Others are increasing like the Santals, who have doubled
themselves under British rule. But they all require special
and anxious care in adapting our complex administration to
their primitive condition and needs. Taken as a whole, and
including certain half-Hinduized branches, they numbered
17,627,758 in 1872, then about equal to three-quarters of the
population of England and Wales. But while the bolder or
more isolated of the aboriginal races have thus kept them-
selves apart, by far the greater portion submitted in ancient
times to the Aryan invaders, and now make up the mass of
the Hindus.
The following table shows the distribution of the aboriginal
tribes throughout British India in 1872. But many live in
Native States, not included in this enumeration ; and the
Madras Census of 1872 did not distinguish aborigines from
low-caste Hindus. Their total number throughout all India
(British and Feudatory) probably exceeded 20 millions in
1872.
Recapitu-
lation —
the non-
Aryan
races.
Distribu-
tion of
aborigines
in India
in 1872.
Aboriginal Tribes and Semi- Hinduized Aborigines in 1872.
(Madras Presidency and the Feudatory States not included.^
Bengal,
11,116,883
Assam,
1,490,888
North-Western Provinces,
377,674
Oudh,
90,490
Punjab,
959,720
Central Provinces,
1,669,835
Berar,
163,059
Coorg,
42,516
British Burma,
1,004,991
Bombay,
711,702
17,627,758
As already stated, the Census of 188 1 adopted a classification Aborigines
which fails to clearly distinguish the aboriginal elements in the ^" *
Indian population. In the North-Western Provinces, Oudh,
70 THE NON-AR YAN RA CES.
and the Punjab, which returned an aggregate of nearly ij
millions of aboriginal or non- Aryan castes or tribes in 1872,
no separate return of the aboriginal or non- Aryan element was
Not made in 188 1. It is merged by the enumerators in the returns
separately of the Hindu low-castes. The same process has affected the
re urne . j.g|.^j.j^g q£ other Provinces. In Madras, for example, 27 castes
formerly included in the list of aboriginal tribes, were trans-
ferred to the Hindu section of the population. In Bengal, the
Census officers explain that the non-registration of the aboriginal
element is in some cases due to 'radical differences in the
system upon which the castes, and especially the sub-divisions
of castes, were classified in 1872 and in 1881.' In the North-
western Provinces and Oudh, the special officer states that
his system of classification ' is not compatible with the modern
doctrine which divides the population of India into Aryan and
aboriginal.'
No com- Under these circumstances it would be misleading to attempt
mon data g^ comparison between the returns of the aboriginal or non-
and 1881. Aryan population in 1872 and in 1881. On the one hand,
there can be no doubt that the aboriginal castes and tribes are,
Hinduiz- in many parts of the country, tending towards Hinduism ; and
ing ten- ^}^^^ many of them, as they rise in the scale of civiHsation, lose
their identity in the Hindu community. On the other hand,
it is evident that the decreased returns of the aboriginal
tribes and castes in 1881 are not entirely, or indeed chiefly,
due to this process. It would be erroneous, therefore, to
infer that the balance of i2f millions between the 17J
millions of aborigines returned for British India in 1872
and the 4J millions nominally returned in 1881, had become
Hindus.
A Hinduizing process is going on both among the
aboriginal low castes in Hindu Provinces, and among the
aboriginal tribes who border on such Provinces. But the
apparent disappearance of nearly 13 millions of aborigines
between 1872 and 1881 is due, not so much to this Hinduizing
process, as to differences in the system of classification and
registration adopted by the Census officers. That the dis-
appearance of the Indian aborigines is apparent and not real,
can be proved. The birth-rate among some of the aboriginal
races is unusually high; and, with exceptions, the abori-
ginal tribes and castes are numerically increasing, although
they are partially merging their separate identity in the Hindu
community.
In Bengal and Assam, the aboriginal races are divided into
CRUSHED TRIBES; PREDATORY CLANS. 71
nearly 60 distinct tribes.^ In the North-Western Provinces, Their
16 tribes of aborigines were enumerated in the Census of 1872. P""^^P^^
T 1 y^ . Q . races m
In the Central Provinces they numbered if millions (1872) ; the 1872.
ancient race of Gonds, who ruled the central table-land before
the rise of the Marathds, alone amounting to i J millions. In
British Burma, the Karens, whose traditions have a singularly
Jewish tinge, numbered 330,000 in 1872, and 518,294 in 1881.
In Oudh, the nationality of the aboriginal tribes has been Crushed
buried beneath waves of Rajput and Muhammadan invaders, tnhes.
For example, the Bhars, formerly the monarchs of the centre and
east of that Province, and the traditional fort-builders to whom
all ruins are popularly assigned, were stamped out by Ibrahim
Sh^rki of Jaunpur, in the 15th century. The Gaulis or ancient
ruling race of the Central Provinces, the Ahams of Assam, and
the Gonds, Chandels, and Bundelas of Bundelkhand,^ are other
instances of crushed races. In centres of the Aryan civilisa-
tion, the aboriginal peoples have been pounded down in the
mortar of Hinduism, into the low-castes and out-castes on
which the social fabric of India rests. A few of them, how- Gipsy
ever, still preserve their ethnical identity as wandering tribes ^^^"^•
of jugglers, basket-weavers, and fortune-tellers. Thus, the
Nats, Bediyas, and other gipsy clans are recognised to this
day as distinct from the surrounding Hindu population.
The aboriginal races on the plains have supplied the Aboriginal
hereditary criminal classes, alike under the Hindus, the f'^.i'^i"^'
"' , tribes on
Muhammadans, and the British. Formerly organized robber the plains.
communities, they have, under the stricter police of our days,
sunk into petty pilferers. But their existence is still recog-
nised by the Criminal Tribes Act, passed so lately as 187 1,
and still enforced within certain localities of Oudh and
Northern India.
The non- Aryan hill races, who appear from Vedic times down- Predatory
wards as marauders, have at length ceased to be a disturbing ^^^^^ ^^^^
element in India, But many of them figure as predatory
clans in Muhammadan and early British histor)'. They sallied
forth from their mountains at the end of the autumn harvest,
pillaged and burned the lowland villages, and retired to their
fastnesses laden v/ith the booty of the plains. The measures
^ Among them may be noted the Santals, 850,000 under direct British
administration, total about a million in 1872 ; Kols, 300,000 ; Uraons or
Dhangars, 200,000; and Mundas, 175,000 — within British territory. In
Assam — Cacharis, 200,000; Khasis, 95,000. These figures all refer to
1872.
* See for the origin of the Bundelas, Mr. J. Beames' Races of tJie North-
Western Provinces t vol. i, p. 45, etc. (1 869),
7 2 THE NON-AR YAN RA CES.
by which these wild races have been reclaimed, form some ot
the most honourable episodes of Anglo-Indian rule. Cleve-
land's Hill-Rangers in the last century, and the Bhils and
Mhairs in more recent times, are well-known examples of how
marauding races may be turned into peaceful cultivators and
loyal soldiers. An equally salutary transformation has taken
place in many a remote forest and hill tract of India. The
firm order of British rule has rendered their old plundering
life no longer a possible one, and at the same time has opened
up to them new outlets for their energies. A similar vigilance
is now being extended to the predatory tribes in the Native
States. The reclamation of the wild Moghias of Central India,
and their settlement into agricultural communities, has been
effected by British officers within the past five years.
Character .> The hill and forest tribes differ in character from the
^ ^^ tamer population of the plains. Their truthfulness, sturdy
non -Aryan ^ ^ . ^ , ■'
tribes. loyalty, and a certain joyous bravery, almost amountmg to
playfulness, appeal in a special manner to the English mind.
There is scarcely a single administrator who has ruled over
them for any length of time without finding his heart drawn
to them, and leaving on record his belief in their capabilities
> for good. Lest the traditional tenderness of the Indian Civil
Service to the people should weaken the testimony of such
witnesses, it may be safe to quote only the words of soldiers
with reference to the tribes with which each was specially
acquainted.
The non- * They are faithful, truthful, and attached to their superiors,'
Aryan hill writes General Briggs; 'ready at all times to lay down their
soldiers, lives for those they serve, and remarkable for their indomit-
able courage. These qualities have always been displayed
in our service. The aborigines of the Karnatik were the
sepoys of Clive and of Coote. A few companies of the same
stock joined the former great captain from Bombay, and
helped to fight the battle of Plassey in Bengal, which laid the
foundation of our Indian Empire. They have since dis-
tinguished themselves in the corps of pioneers and engineers,
not only in India, but in Ava, in Afghanistan, and in the
celebrated defence of Jalaldbdd. An unjust prejudice against
them grew up in the native armies of Madras and Bombay,
produced by the feelings of contempt for them existing among
the Hindu and Muhammadan troops. They have no preju-
dices themselves ; are always ready to serve abroad and embark
on board ship ; and I believe no instance of mutiny has ever
occurred among them.' Since General Briggs wrote these
HIGH QUALITIES OF NON-ARYANS. 73
sentences, the non- Aryan hill races have supplied some of the
bravest and most valued of our Indian regiments, particularly
the gallant little Gurkhas.
Colonel Dixon's report, published by the Court of Directors, Colonel
portrays the character of the Mhair tribes with admirable minute- ^^^^^
ness. He dilates on their * fidelity, truth, and honesty,' their Mhairs.
determined valour, their simple loyalty, and an extreme and
almost touching devotion when put upon their honour. Strong u-
as is the bond of kindred among the Mhairs, he vouches for
their fidelity in guarding even their own relatives as prisoners
when formally entrusted to their care. For centuries they had
been known only as exterminators ; but beneath the considerate
handling of one Englishman, who honestly set about under-
standing them, they became peaceful subjects and well-
disciplined soldiers.
Sir James Outram, when a very young man, did the same Outram's
good work for the Bhils of Khandesh. He made their chiefs J^^^^ ^.j^^
his hunting companions, formed the wilder spirits into a Bhil Bhils.
battalion, and laid the basis for the reclamation of this for-
merly intractable race. (See also The Dangs, Imperial
Gazetteer of India.)
Every military man who has had anything to do with the
aboriginal races acknowledges, that once they admit a claim on
their allegiance, nothing tempts them to a treacherous or disloyal
act. * The fidelity to their acknowledged chief,' wTOte Captain Fidelity of
Hunter, ' is very remarkable ; and so strong is their attach- Jj^^ "^^
ment, that in no situation or condition, how^ever desperate, can
they be induced to betray him. If old and decrepit, they will
convey him from place to place, to save him from his enemies.'
Their obedience to recognised authority is absolute ; and
Colonel Tod relates how the wife of an absent chieftain pro-
cured for a British messenger safe-conduct and hospitality
through the densest forests by giving him one of her husband's
arrows as a token. The very officers who have had to act
most sharply against them speak most strongly, and often not
without a noble regret and self-reproach, in their favour. ' It
was not war,' Major Vincent Jervis writes of the operations
against the Santals in 1855. 'They did not understand
yielding ; as long as their national drums beat, the whole party
would stand, and allow themselves to be shot down. They
were the most truthful set of men I ever met.' Ethnical
distribu-
We have seen that India may be divided into three regions — J^^". °^
the Himalayas on the north, the great River Plains that stretch races.
74 THE NON-AR YAN RA CES.
southward from their foot, and the Three-sided Table-land
which slopes upwards again from the River Plains, and covers
the whole southern half of India. Two of these regions, the
Himalayas on the north, and the Three-sided Table-land in
the south, still afford retreats to the non-Aryan tribes. The
third region, or the great River Plains, became in very ancient
times the theatre on which a nobler race worked out its
civiHsation.
[ 75 ]
CHAPTER IV.
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
This nobler race belonged to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic The
stock, from which the Brahman, the Rajput, and the English- Aryan
man alike descend. Its earliest home, visible to history, was
in Central Asia. From that common camping-ground, certain
branches of the race started for the east, others for the west.
One of the western offshoots founded the Persian kingdom ;
another built Athens and Lacedaemon, and became the Hellenic
nation ; a third went on to Italy, and reared the City on the Its
Seven Hills, which grew into Imperial Rome. A distant European
. r ^ 11-1 r Draiiches.
colony of the same race excavated the silver-ores of pre-
historic Spain ; and when we first catch a sight of ancient
England, we see an Aryan settlement fishing in wattle canoes,
and working the tin mines of Cornwall. Meanwhile, other its
branches of the Aryan stock had gone forth from the primitive Eastern
home in Central Asia to the east. Powerful bands found their
way through the passes of the Himalayas into the Punjab, and
spread themselves, chiefly as Brahmans and Rajputs, over
India.
We know little regarding these Aryan tribes in their early xhe
camping-ground in Central Asia. From words preserved in Aryans in
the languages of their long-separated descendants in Europe primitive
and India, scholars infer that they roamed over the grassy home,
steppes with their cattle, making long halts to rear crops of
grain. They had tamed most of the domestic animals ; were
acquainted with a hard metal, probably iron,^ and silver ; ^
understood the arts of weaving and sewing ; wore clothes ; and
ate cooked food. They lived the hardy life of the temperate
zone, and the feeling of cold seems to be one of the earliest
common remembrances of the eastern and the western branches
of the race. Ages afterwards, when the Vedic singers in hot
^ Sanskrit, aj^as, iron or, in a more general sense, metal, including gold
but not copper in Sanskrit ; Latin, aes, aeris, copper, bronze ; Gothic, ais,
eisam; old German, er, iron ; modern German, eisen.
2 Sanskrit, kharjura^ silver ; Latin, argevizim ; Greek, apyvpos, ipyCpiot.
76
THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
European
and Indian
languages
merely
varieties
of Aryan
speech.
Indo-
European
words.
Common
f)rigin of
European
and Indian
religions.
The Indo-
Aryans on
the march,
India prayed for long life, they still asked for *a hundred
winters.^ To this day the November rice in the tropical delta of
the Ganges is called the haimdntik (cf. Latin hieins) or crop of
the * snowy' season.
The forefathers of the Greek and the Roman, of the English-
man and the Hindu, dwelt together in Asia, spoke the same
tongue, worshipped the same gods. The languages of Europe
and India, although at first sight they seem wide apart, are
merely different growths from the original Aryan speech. This
is especially true of the common words of family life. The
names for father, mother, brother, sister, and widow (Sanskrit,
vidhavd), are the same in most of the Aryan languages, whether
spoken on the banks of the Ganges, of the Tiber, or of the
Thames. Thus the word daughter (Sanskrit, duhitri), which
occurs in nearly all of them, has been derived from the Sanskrit
root duh, ' milk,' and preserves the memory of the time when
the daughter was the little milkmaid in the primitive Aryan
household.
The words preserved alike by the European and Indian
branches of the Aryan race, as heirlooms of their common
home in Western Central Asia, include most of the terms
required by a pastoral people who had already settled down to
the cultivation of the more easily reared crops. Their domes-
ticated animals are represented by names derived from the
same root, for cattle, sheep, wool, goats, swine, dogs, horses,
ducks, geese ; also mice ; their agricultural life, by cognate
words for corn (although the particular species of the cereal
varied), flax or hemp, ploughing and grinding ; their implements,
by cognate terms for copper or iron, cart or waggon, boat,
helm ; their household economy and industries, by words from
the same roots for sewing and weaving, house, garden, yard ;
also for a place of refuge, the division of the year into lunar
months, and several of the numerals.
The ancient religions of Europe and India had a similar
origin. They were to some extent made up of the sacred
stories or myths which our common ancestors had learned
while dwelling together in Central Asia, Certain of the Vedic
gods were also the gods of Greece and Rome ; and the Deity
is still adored by names derived from the same old Aryan
root (div, to shine, hence The Bright One, the Indian Z>eva,
Latin Deus, or Divinity), by Brahmans in Calcutta, by the
Protestant clergy of England, and by Catholic priests in Peru.
The Vedic hymns exhibit the Indian branch of the Aryans
on their march to the south-east, and in their new homes.
THE RIVER SETTLEMENTS IN PUNJAB. 77
The earliest songs disclose the race still to the north of the
Khaibar Pass, in Kabul ; the latest ones bring them as far as
the Ganges. Their victorious advance eastwards through the
intermediate tract can be traced in the Vedic writings almost
step by step. One of their famous settlements lay between
the two sacred rivers, the Saraswati, supposed to be the
modern Sarsuti near Thanesar in the Punjab, and the Drishad-
vati, or Ghaggar, a day's march from it. This fertile strip of
land, not more than 60 miles long by 20 broad, was fondly
remembered by the Indo-Aryans as their Holy Land {Brahmd-
varita), 'fashioned of God, and chosen by the Creator.' As
their numbers increased, they pushed eastwards along the base
of the Himalayas, into what they afterwards called the Land
of the Sacred Singers (Brahmarshi-desha). Their settlements and in
included by degrees the five rivers of the Punjab, together with t^^^"" "e^^'
the upper course of the Jumna and perhaps of the Ganges. ments.
Here the Vedic hymns were composed ; and the steady
supply of water led the Aryans to settle down from their
old state of wandering pastoral tribes into communities of
husbandmen. Their Vedic poets praised the rivers which Function
enabled them to make this great change — perhaps the most ^}]^^
important step in the progress of a race. ' May the Indus,'
they sang, * the far-famed giver of wealth, hear us ; (fertilizing
our) broad fields with water.' The Himalayas, through whose
offshoots they had reached India, and at whose southern base
they long dwelt, made a lasting impression on their memory.
The Vedic singer praised 'Him whose greatness the snowy
ranges, and the sea, and the aerial river declare.' In all its
long wanderings through India, the Aryan race never forgot its Recollec-
northem home. There dwelt its gods and holy singers ; and ^^^^^ of
there eloquence descended from heaven among men ; while northern
beyond the mountain-wall lay the paradise of deities and home,
heroes, where the kind and the brave for ever repose.
The Rig-Veda forms the great literary memorial of the The Rig-
early Aryan settlements in the Punjab. The age of this ^^^^•
venerable hymnal is unknown. The Hindus believe, without
evidence, that it existed * from before all time,' or at least from insufficient
3 1 01 years b.c., nearly 5000 years ago. European scholars evidence
have inferred from astronomical dates that its composition posed ^"^'
was going on about 1400 B.C. But these dates are themselves dates, 3101
given in writings of modem origin, and might have been 14^^' ^
calculated backwards. We know, however, that the Vedic b.c. (?)
religion had been at work long before the rise of Buddhism in
the 6th century b.c. The antiquity of the Rig- Veda, although
78 THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA,
not to be dogmatically expressed in figures, is abundantly estab-
lished. The earlier hymns exhibit the Aryans on the north-
western frontiers of India, just starting on their long journey.
Neverthe- Before the embassy of the Greek Megasthenes, at the end of
£?ea°anti- ^^ ^^ century B.C., they had spread at least to the verge of
quity. the Gangetic delta, 1500 miles distant At the time of the
Periplus, circ. 70 a.d., the southernmost point of India was
apparently a seat of their worship. A temple to the queen of
the god Siva stood on Cape Comorin, before the end of the first
Christian century ; and the inferences of European scholarship
point to the composition of at least some of the Vedic psalms
at a period not later than twelve to sixteen centuries before the
commencement of our era.
Inspira- The Brahmans declare that the Vedic hymns were directly
tion of the inspired by God. Indeed, in our own times, the young Theistic
Church of Bengal, which rejects Brahmanical teaching, was
split into two sects on the question of the divine authority
of the Veda. The hymns seem to have been composed by
certain families of Rishis or psalmists, some of whose names
The Rig- are preserved. The Rig- Veda is a very old collection of 1017
Veda ; Qf these short lyrical poems, chiefly addressed to the gods,
hymns, ^^^d containing 10,580 verses. They show us the Aryans on
10,580 the banks of the Indus, divided into various tribes, some-
verses, times at war with each other, sometimes united against the
Caste not * black - skinned ' aborigines. Caste, in its later sense, is
known to unknown. Each father of a family is the priest of his own
^ ' household. The chieftain acts as father and priest to the tribe;
but at the greater festivals he chooses some one specially learned
in holy offerings to conduct the sacrifice in the name of the
people. The chief, although hereditary, seems to have been partly
elected; and his title of Vis-pati, 'Lord of the Settlers,' survives
in the old Persian Vis-paiti, and as the Lithuanian Wi^z-patis
in central Europe at this day. Women enjoyed a high position,
and some of the most beautiful hymns were composed by
ladies and queens. Marriage was held sacred. Husband and
wife were both ' rulers of the house ' {dampati) ; and drew
nor near to the gods together in prayer. The burning of widows
widow-^ on the husbands' funeral pile was unknown ; and the verses
in the Veda which the Brdhmans afterwards distorted into a
sanction for the practice, have the very opposite meaning.
* Rise, woman,' says the sacred text to the mourner ; * come to
the world of life. Come to us. Thou hast fulfilled thy duties
as a wife to thy husband.'
The Aryan tribes in the Veda are acquainted with most of
VEDIC CIVILISATION ; VEDIC GODS. 79
the metals. They have blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and gold- Aryan
smiths among them, besides carpenters, barbers, and other civilisation
artisans. They fight from chariots, and freely use the horse, Veda,
although not yet the elephant, in war. They have settled
down as husbandmen, till their fields with the plough, and live
in villages or towns. But they also cling to their old wander-
ing life, with their herds and ' cattle-pens.' Cattle, indeed, still
form their chief wealth — the coin (Latin, pecunia) in which
payments or fines are made ; and one of their words for war
literally means *a desire for cows.' They have learned to
build * ships,' perhaps large river-boats ; and have seen or heard
something of the sea. Unlike the modern Hindus, the Aryans
of the Veda ate beef; used a fermented liquor or beer, made
from the soma plant ; and offered the same strong meat and
drink to their gods. Thus the stout Aryans spread eastwards Spread of
throusfh Northern India: pushed on from behind by later ^^^ ^^^""^
• T/-1- 1 1-1-- ,/- 1 eastwards,
arrivals of their own stock; and driving before them, or
reducing to bondage, the earlier 'black-skinned' races. They
marched in whole communities from one river valley to
another ; each house-father a warrior, husbandman, and priest ;
with his wife, and his little ones, and cattle.
These free-hearted tribes had a great trust in themselves The gods
and in their gods. Like other conquering races, they believed ^^^
that both themselves and their deities were altogether superior
to the people of the land and to their poor, rude objects of
worship. Indeed, this noble self-confidence is a great aid to
the success of a nation. Their divinities — devas^ literally ' The
Shining Ones,' from the Sanskrit root dii\ 'to shine' — were the
great powers of nature. They adored the Father-heaven,
Dyaush-pitar in Sanskrit, the Dies-piter or Jupiter of Rome,
the Zeus of Greece, the Low German Duus^ and, through
the old French god-demon, Dus-ius, probably the Deuce of
English slang ; together with Mother-Earth ; and the Encom-
passing Sky, Varuna in Sanskrit, Uranus in Latin, Ouranos
in Greek. The Sarameyas, or two children of Indra's watch-
dog, the messengers of death, have been compared with the
Greek Hermeias, the conductor of the dead. Such common
ideas and names penetrate deeply into the mythology of the
ancient world, although they have sometimes been exaggerated.
Jupiter Feretrius^ for whom the Romans jnvented conflicting
derivations, may be really the Vritra-han, or destroyer of the
old Aryan demon Vritra. On the coins of the Republic, Juno
Sospita is represented with a skin and horns over her. General
Cunningham suggests that her epithet represents the Sanskrit
8o THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Saspatni (Sasi), a name for the moon, so called from the marks
on the moon being supposed to resemble a hare (sasa).
Influence Indra, or the Aqueous Vapour that brought the precious rain
rainy ^n which plenty or famine depended each autumn, received the
season on largest number of hymns. By degrees, as the settlers realized
jJJy^, more and more keenly the importance of the periodical rains
logy. to their new life as husbandmen, he became the chief of the
Vedic gods. ' The gods do not reach unto thee, O Indra, or
men; thou overcomest all creatures in strength.' Agni, the
God of Fire (Latin, ignis), ranks next to Indra in the number
of hymns in his honour as the friend of man, the guide of the
people, the lord and giver of wealth.
Indra and Judging, indeed, from the preponderance of the invoca-
^S"^- tions to Agni, and from the position which the corresponding
deity holds in Iranian mythology, it would appear as if
Agni and not Indra had been the chief god of the race,
while the Indian and old Persian branches still dwelt
together. Among the cold heights and on the uplands of
Central Asia, to the north-west of the Himalayas, Heat was the
great factor of fertility, the giver of human comfort, and the
ripener of the crops. When the eastern offshoots of the Aryans
descended upon the plains of India, they found, as they advanced
southward, that heat was an element of productiveness which
might be taken for granted, a constant factor in the husbandry
Moisture of the Indus and Jumna valleys. Here it was upon moisture
^' ^^^' rather than on heat that their harvest depended. To the right of
their line of march across the five rivers of the Punjab, a rather
narrow tract stretched to the foot of the Himalayas, with an ample
rainfall, now averaging 35 inches a year. But on the broad plains
to their left, the water-supply was less abundant and more capri-
cious. At the present day the tract immediately to the south of
the Aryan route receives only 20 to 30 inches per annum, di-
minishing through successive belts of rainfall down to 10 inches.
As the Aryan immigrants spread south, therefore, it was no
longer so necessary to pray for heat, and it became more
Agni gives necessary to pray for moisture. Agni, the heat-giving god,
IndrV° without being discredited, became less important, and receded
in favour of Indra, the rain-bringing deity. In the settlements
of the Punjab, Indra thus advanced to the first place among
Indra, the Vedic divinities. He is the cloud compeller, dropping
the rain- bountiful showers, filling the dried-up rivers from the Hima-
"nger. j^^^^ ^^^ bringing the rain-storms. His voice is the thunder ;
with his spear of lightning he smites open the black clouds, and
rends the black bodies of the demons who have drunk up the
INDRA AND THE RAINFALL. 8i
wished-for rains. He makes the sun to shine forth again. ' I
will sing of the victories of Indra, of the victories won by the
God of the Spear,' chanted the Rig-Vedic psalmist. ' On the
mountains he smote the demon of drought (Ahi) ; he poured
out the waters and let the river flow from the mountains : like
calves to cows, so do the waters hasten to the sea.' ' Thou hast
broken open the rain-prisons ^ rich in cattle. The bonds of
the streams hast thou burnt asunder.'^
As the Aryans pushed forward into the middle and lower Indra gives
valley of the Ganges, they found themselves in a region ofE,.'^^,'^
copious rainfall brought by the unfailing monsoons. The rain-
storms of Indra thus became less important. His waterspouts,
although well worth praying for in the Punjab, evidently
belonged to an inferior grade of divine energy than that which
presided over the irresistible, majestically ordered advance of
the periodical rains in Bengal. Indra, the Cloud-Compeller,
shared in his turn the fate of Agni, the God of Heat, and gave
way to three deities on a scale commensurate with the vaster of Brahma,
forces of nature in the Lower Gangetic valley. We shall see how g^^^""*
the abstract but potent conception of Divine energy embodied in
the Brahmanical Triad of the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer
took the place alike of Agni and of Indra, and of the other
Vedic gods. But, meanwhile, Indra, the Giver of Rain, was
the most important deity to the Aryan settlers in the Punjab.
He stands forth in the Veda as the foremost Shining One.
The Maruts were the Vedic Storm Gods, ' who make the Other
rocks to tremble, who tear in pieces the forest.' Ushas, ' the ^^^^
High-born Dawn ' (Greek, Eos\ ' shines upon us like a young
wife, rousing every living being to go forth to his work.' The
Aswins, or ' Fleet Outriders ' of the Dawn, are the first rays of
sunrise, 'Lords of Lustre.' The Solar Orb (Siirjya, Savitri),
the Wind (Vayu), the Sunshine or Friendly Day (Mitra), the
animating fermented juice of the Sacrificial Plant (Soma),
and many other Shining Ones, are invoked in the Veda ; in
all, about thirty-three gods, * who are eleven in heaven, eleven
on earth, and eleven dwelling in glory in mid-air. '
The terrible blood-drinking deities of modern Hinduism are
1 Literally, * Thou hast broken the cave of Vritra,' the demon who
imprisons the rain and causes drought, with whom Indra is constantly
waging victorious war.
2 The Rig-Vedic attributes of Indra are well summarized by Professor
Max Duncker, Ancient History of India ^ pp. 47-49 (ed. 188 1), following
Roth and Benfey ; and are detailed with completeness by Muir, ' Sanskrit
Texts,' pp. 76-139, vol. V. {1872).
F
82 THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The blood- scarcely known in the Veda. Buffaloes are indeed offered ;
deiti2 of ^"^ ^"^ hymn points to a symbolism based on human sacrifices,
Hinduism an early practice apparently extinct before the time of the
kmDwn in ^^^^^ singers. The great Horse-Sacrifice (Aswamedha) seems,
the Veda, in some of its aspects, a substitution fi^r the flesh and
blood of a man. But, as a whole, the hymns are addressed
to bright, friendly gods. Rudra, who was destined to
become the Siva of the Hindus, and the third person
or Destroyer in their Triad, is only the god of Roaring
Tempests in the Veda. Vishnu, the second person or
Preserver in the Hindu Triad, is but slightly known to the
Vedic singers as the deity of the Shining Firmament ; while
Brahma, the first person, or Creator, has no separate existence
in their simple hymns. The names of the dreadful Mahadeva,
Diirga, Kdli, and of the gentler but intensely human Krishna
and Rdma, are alike unknown.
Attitude of The Aryan settlers lived on excellent terms with their bright
sineer^to^ gods. They asked for protection with an assured conviction
his gods, that it would be granted. 'Give me cows, or land, or long
life, in return for this hymn or offering ; ' ' slay my enemy,
scatter the black-skin, and I will sacrifice to thee,' — such is
the ordinary frame of mind of the singer to his gods. But,
at the same time, he was deeply stirred by the glory and
mystery of the earth and the heavens. Indeed, the majesty of
nature so filled his mind, that when he praises any one of his
Shining Gods he can think of none other for the time being,
and adores him as the Supreme Ruler. Verses of the Veda
may be quoted declaring each of the greater deities to be the
One Supreme : * Neither gods nor men reach unto thee, O
Indra;' Soma is 'king of heaven and earth, the conqueror
of all.' To Varuna also it is said, ' Thou art lord of all, of
heaven and earth ; thou art king of all those who are gods, and
of all those who are men.' Agni is likewise addressed as the
mightiest and as the most beloved of the gods : ' No one can
approach thy darting, strong, terrible flames : burn thou the
evil spirits, and every enemy.' The more spiritual of the
Vedic singers, therefore, may be said to have worshipped One
God, although not One Alone.
Highef Some beautiful souls among them were filled not only with
concep- ^^ splendours of the visible universe, but with the deeper
tionsofthe . ^ , ^^ . i i ^
Deity in mysteries of the Unseen, and the powerlessness of man to
the Veda, search out God.
A Vedic * In the beginning there arose the Golden Child. He was
hymn. jj^g qj^^ \iQxx\ lord of all that is. He established the earth
A VEDIC HYMN: SENSE OF SIN. 83
and this sky. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
' He who gives life, he who gives strength ; whose command
all the Bright Gods revere; whose shadow is immortality,
whose shadow is death. Who is the God to whom we shall
offer our sacrifice ?
*He who, through his power, is the one king of the
breathing and awakening world. He who governs all, man
and beast. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our
sacrifice ?
* He through whom the sky is bright and the earth ' firm ;
he through whom the heaven was established, nay, the highest
heaven ; he who measured out the light and the air. Who is
the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
'■ He who by his might looked even over the water-clouds ;
he who alone, is God above all gods. Who is the God to
whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? ^
The yearning for rest in God, that desire for the wings of a ' The
dove, so as to fly away and be at rest, with which noble hearts Lan?'
have ached in all ages, breathes in several exquisite hymns of
the Rig- Veda : * Where there is eternal light, in the world
where the sun is placed, — in that immortal, imperishable world,
place me, O Soma ! Where life is free, in the third heaven of
heavens, where the worlds are radiant, — there make me im-
mortal ! Where there is happiness and delight, where joy and
pleasure reside, where our desires are attained, — there make
me immortal.' 2
Nor was the sense of sin, and the need of pardon, absent The sense
from the minds of these ancient psalmists. As a rule, an nggdof"
honourable understanding seems to have existed between the forgive-
Vedic sacrificer and his bright god : the god being equitably ^^^^" •
pledged to the fulfilment of the sacrificer's prayer in return for
the offering, although the wisest might leave it to Indra himself
to decide what was best to bestow. But even the cheerful
worshippers of the Veda at times felt deeply the sinfulness of
sin, and the fear of the sins of the father being visited upon
the children. ' What great sin is it, O Varuna,' says a h5niin
of the Rig-Veda, * for which thou seekest to slay thy worshipper
and friend?' 'Absolve us from the sins of our fathers and
from those which we committed in our own persons.' ' It was
not our own doing that led us astray, O Varuna, it was
^ Rig- Veda, x. 121 ; translated by Prof. Max Miiller, Hist. Anc. Sxnsk.
Lit. p. 569 ; Chips, vol. i. p. 29 (ed. 1867).
- Rig- Veda, ix. 1 13. 7, Max Muller's translation.
84
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Prayers
for pardon.
Primitive
Aryan
burial.
Burning
of the
dead.
necessity (or temptation) ; wine, anger, dice, or thoughtlessness.
The stronger perverts the weaker. Even sleep bringeth sin.' ^
* Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god,' says
another hymn to Varuna, * have I gone wrong : have mercy,
almighty, have mercy. I go along trembling like a cloud driven
before the wind : have mercy, almighty, have mercy. Through
want of power (to do right) have I transgressed, O bright and
mighty god : have mercy, almighty, have mercy. Whenever we
men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly host,
whenever we break the law through thoughtlessness, have
mercy, almighty, have mercy.' ^
The very ancient Aryans in Central Asia buried their dead,
although cremation seems also to have been resorted to. In
Iran the custom of burial eventually gave place to that of
exposing the corpse on a mountain to the birds of heaven ;
a custom still practised in the Parsi Towers of Silence at
Bombay and elsewhere. We have seen that Agni, god of
heat, appears to have been the chief deity of the Aryan race
in Iran ; and fire was regarded by the ancient Persian as too
sacred an element to be polluted by a human corpse. The
Aryan settlers in India for a time retained the custom of
burial. * Let me not, O Varuna, go to the house of clay,'
says one hymn of the Rig-Veda.^ * O earth, be not too narrow
for him,' says another hymn, * cover him like the mother who
folds her son in her garment.'^ But in time the Indo-Aryans
substituted the fire for the grave ; and the burning of the corpse
became a distinctive feature of the race, as contrasted with
the ruder and more primitive peoples whom they found in the
Punjab.
While the aboriginal tribes buried their dead under rude
stone monuments, the Aryan — alike in India, in Greece, and
in Italy — made use of the funeral-pyre as the most solemn
method of disposing of the mortal part of man. As the Indo-
Aryan derived his natural birth from his parents ; and a partial
regeneration, or second birth, from the performance of his
religious duties ; so the fire, by setting free the soul from the
body, completed the third or heavenly birth. His friends
^ Rig- Veda, vii. 86; translated in Muir's 'Sanskrit Texts,' vol. v. p. 66
(1872).
* Rig- Veda, vii. 89. Max MUller's beautiful translation is reproduced
by Professor Duncker, Ancient History of India^ p. 53 (1881). See also
Muir's translation, 'Sanskrit Texts,' vol. v. p. 67 (1872).
' Rig- Veda, vii. 89. i. Muir's * Sanskrit Texts,' vol. v. p. 67 (1872).
* Rig-Veda, x. 18. Roth's rendering in Duncker,, Ancient History of
India^ p. 63 (188 1).
KING OF DEATH: VEDIC OBSEQUIES. 85
stood round the pyre as round a natal bed, and commanded
his eye to go to the sun, his breath to the wind, his limbs to the
earth, the water and plants whence they had been derived.
But * as for his unborn part, do thou, Lord (Agni), quicken it
with thy heat; let thy flame and thy brightness quicken it;
convey it to the world of the righteous.'
For the lonely journey of the soul after its separation from Ar>'an
the body, the Aryans, both in Asia and Europe, provided ^-^^^
faithful guides (the Sdrameyas in Sanskrit, Hermeias in Greek). Yama, or
According to the Zend or old Aryan legend in Persia, Yama I^eath.
was a monarch in the old time, when sorrow and sickness were
unknown. By degrees sin and disease crept into the world ;
the slow necessity of death hastened its step ; and the old
king retired, with a chosen band, from the polluted earth into
a better country, where he still reigns. The Indian version of
the story makes Yama to be the first man who passed through
death into immortality. Having discovered the way to the .
other world, he leads men thither. He became the nekro-
pompos, or guide of the Aryan dead. Meanwhile his two dogs
{Sdrameyas) — ' black and spotted,' ' broad of nostril,' and ' with
a hunger never to be satisfied' — wander as his messengers
among men. ' Worship with an offering King Yama, the
Assembler of Men, who departed to the mighty waters, who
found out the road for many.' ^
Several exquisite hymns bid farewell to the dead : — ' Depart The Vedic
thou, depart thou by the ancient paths to the place whither our [t'^^T^^j ^
fathers have departed. Meet with the Ancient Ones; meet
with the Lord of Death. Throwing off thine imperfections, go
to thy home. Become united with a body ; clothe thyself in a
shining form.' ' Let him depart to those for whom flow the
rivers of nectar. Let him depart to those who, through medi-
tation, have obtained the victory ; who, by fixing their thoughts
on the unseen, have gone to heaven. Let him depart to the
mighty in battle, to the heroes who have laid down their lives
for others, to those who have bestowed their goods on the
poor.' The doctrine of transmigration was unknown. The
circle round the funeral-pile sang wnth a firm assurance that
their friend w^ent direct to a state of blessedness and reunion
with the loved ones who had gone before. * Do thou conduct
1 Rig- Veda, x. 14. i. See Dr. John Muir's ' Sanskrit Texts,' and his
essay on * Y^imz.,' Jotirjial of the Royal Asiatic Society^ part ii, , 1865, whence
many of the above quotations are derived. See also Max Miiller's essay on
the * Funeral Rites of the Brahmans,' on which the following paragraph is
chiefly based.
86
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Vedic
concep-
tions of
immor-
tality. ,
US to heaven,' says a hymn of the later Atharva-Veda ; ' let us
be with our wives and children.' ' In heaven, where our friends
dwell in bliss, — having left behind the infirmities of the body,
free from lameness, free from crookedness of limb, — there let
us behold our parents and our children.' ' May the water-
shedding spirits bear thee upwards, cooling thee with their
swift motion through the air, and sprinkling thee with dew.'
* Bear him, carry him ; let him, with all his faculties complete,
go to the world of the righteous. Crossing the dark valley
which spreadeth boundless around him, let the unborn soul
ascend to heaven. Wash the feet of him who is stained with
sin ; let him go upwards with cleansed feet. Crossing the
gloom, gazing with wonder in many directions, let the unborn
soul go up to heaven.'
The
Aryans
advance
into the
Middle
Land
The
Ganges.
Slow
advance
into the
Middle
Land.
The hymns of the Rig-Veda were composed, as we have
seen, by the Aryans in their colonies along the Indus, and on
their march eastwards towards the Jumna and upper Ganges.
The growing numbers of the settlers, and the arrival of fresh
Aryan tribes from behind, still compelled them to advance.
From * The Land of the Sacred Singers,' in the Eastern Punjab
{Brahmarshi-desha, ante, p. 77), Manu describes them as
spreading through ' The Middle Land ' {Madhya-desha). This
comprised the river system of the Ganges as far east as Oudh
and Allahabad, with the Himalayas as its northern, and the
Vindhya ranges as its southern boundary.
The Ganges is only twice mentioned, and without special
emphasis, in the Rig- Veda. The conquest of the Middle Land
seems, therefore, not to have commenced till the close of the
Rig- Vedic era. It must have been the work of many genera-
tions, and it will be referred to when we come to examine the
historical significance of the two great Sanskrit epics. Between
the time when the Aryans descended from Central Asia upon
the plains of the Indus and the age when they passed the
Ganges, they had conquered many of the aboriginal races, left
others behind on their route, and had begun to wage inter-tribal
wars among themselves, under rival Aryan heroes and rival
Vedic priests. During this advance, the simple faith of the Rig-
Vedic singers was first adorned with stately rites, and then
extinguished beneath them. The race progressed from a loose
confederacy of tribes into several well-knit nations, each bound
together by the strong central force of kingly power, directed by
a powerful priesthood, and organized on a firm basis of caste.
Whence arose this new constitution of the Aryan tribes into
ORIGIN OF PRIESTL V FAMILIES. 87
nations, with castes, priests, and kings? We have seen that The Aryan
although in their earlier colonies on the Indus each father was o"„anized
priest in his family, yet the Chieftain, or Lord of the Settlers, into
called in some man specially learned in holy offerings to ^^^"g^oms.
conduct the greater tribal sacrifices. Such men were highly
honoured, and the famous quarrel which runs throughout the
whole Veda sprang from the claims of two rival sages,
Vasishtha and Viswamitra, to perform one of these ceremonies.
The art of writing was unknown, and the hymns and sacrificial
formulae had to be handed down by word of mouth from
father to son.
It thus came to pass that the families who knew these Origin of
holy words by heart became the hereditary owners of the P^'^^?//y
1- • -1 1 , rr ■ 1 1 families,
liturgies required at the most solemn oifermgs to the gods.
Members of such households were chosen again and again
to conduct the tribal sacrifices, to chant the battle-hymn, to
implore the divine aid, or to pray away the divine wrath. Even
the early Rig-Veda recognises the importance of these sacrifices.
' That king,' says a verse, ' before whom marches the priest, he
alone dwells well established in his own house ; to him the
people bow down. The king who gives wealth to the priest,
he will conquer; him the gods will protect.' The tribesmen
first hoped, then believed, that a hymn or prayer which had
once acted successfully, and been followed by victory, would
again produce the same results. The hymns became a valu-
able family property for those who had composed or learned
them. The Rig-Veda tells how the prayer of Vasishtha pre-
vailed ' in the battle of the ten kings,' and how that of Viswa-
mitra 'preserves the tribe of the Bharats.' The potent prayer
was termed brahman (from the root brih^vrih, to increase),
and he who offered it, brahman. Woe to him v/ho despised
either ! * Whosoever,' says the Rig- Veda, ' scoffs at the prayer
which we have made, may hot plagues come upon him, may
the sky burn up that hater of Brahmans.' ^ *
Certain families thus came to have not only a hereditary Growing
claim to conduct the great sacrifices, but also the exclusive numbers
knowledge of the ancient hymns, or at any rate of the traditions
which explained their symbolical meaning. They naturally
tried to render the ceremonies solemn and imposing. By
degrees a vast array of ministrants grew up around each of the
greater sacrifices. There were first the officiating priests and
1 The following pages are largely indebted to Professor Weber's
History of Indian Literattire (Triibner, 1878), — a debt very gratefully
acknowledged.
8S THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
their assistants, who prepared the sacrificial ground, dressed
the altar, slew the victims, and poured out the libations';
second, the chanters of the Vedic hymns ; third, the reciters
of other parts of the service; fourth, the superior priests, who
watched over the whole, and corrected mistakes..
The four The entire service was derived from the Veda, or ' inspired
Vedas. knowledge,' an old Aryan word which appears in the Latin
vid-ere^ * to see or perceive ; ' in the Greek y^/^^ of Homer, and
oida^ *I know;' in the Old English, I wit ; in the modern
(i) The German and English, unssen^ wisdoi?i^ etc. The Rig- Veda
^S" ^ ^' exhibits the hymns in their simplest form, arranged in ten
* circles,' according to the families of their composers, the Rishis.
Some of the hymns are named after individual minstrels.
But as the sacrifices grew more elaborate, the hymns were
also arranged in four collections {sanhitds) or service-books
(2) The for the ministering priests. Thus, the second, or Sama-Veda,
V^'da' ^^^^ made up of extracts from the Rig- Vedic hymns used at
the Soma sacrifice. Some of its verses stamp themselves, by
their antiquated grammatical forms, as older than their render-
(3) The ing in the Rig- Veda itself. The third, or Yajur-Veda, consists
^^ajur- j^Qj. Qj^iy Qf Rig- Vedic verses, but also of prose sentences, to be
used at the sacrifices of the New and Full Moon ; and at the
Great Horse Sacrifice, when 609 animals of various kinds were
offered, perhaps in substitution for the earlier Man Sacrifice,
its {a) which is also mentioned in the Yajur-Veda. The Yajur-Veda
J/'^Wh^'^^ is divided into two editions, the Black and the White Yajur ;
editions, both belonging to a more modern period than either the Rig
or the Sama Vedas, and composed after the Aryans had spread
far to the east of the Indus.
(4) The The fourth, or Atharva-Veda, was compiled from the least
Atharva- ancient hymns of the Rig- Veda in the tenth book ; and from
the still later songs of the Brd.hmans, after they had established
their priestly power. It supplies the connecting link between
* the simple Aryan worship of the Shining Ones exhibited in
the Rig- Veda, and the complex Brahmanical system which
followed. It was only allowed to rank as part of the Veda
after a long struggle.
The four The four Vedas thus described, namely, the Rig-Veda, the
Vedas Sdma, the Yajur, and the Atharva, formed an immense body
become in- .._..•'' ^ , . . , \
sufficient, of sacrificial poetry. But as the priests grew m number and
power, they went on elaboratmg their ceremonies, until even
the four Vedas became insuflicient guides for them. They
The Brah- accordingly compiled prose treatises, called Brdhmanas, attached
com'Sed ^^ ^^^ °^ ^^ ^°"^ Vedas, in order to more fully explain the
SRUTI AND SMR
functions of the officiating priests. Thus the Brahmana of the
Rig- Veda deals with the duties of the Reciter of the Hymns
{hotar) ; the Brahmana of the Sama-Veda, with those of the
Singer at the Soma sacrifice {udgdtar) ; the Brahmana of the
Yajur-Veda, with those of the actual performer of the Sacrifice
(adhvaryti) ; while the Brahmana of the Atharva-Veda is a
medley of legends and speculations, having but little direct
connection with the Veda whose name it bears. All the SruH, or
Brahmanas, indeed, besides explaining the ritual, lay down Revealed
religious precepts and dogmas. Like the four Vedas, they
are held to be the very Word of God. The Vedas and the
Brahmanas form the Revealed Scriptures (sritti) of the Hindus ;
the Vedas supplying their divinely-inspired psalms, and the
Brahmanas their divinely-inspired theology or body of doctrine.
Even this ample literature did not suffice. The priests The Siitras
accordingly composed a number of new works, called Sutras, 25 ^^"^^
which elaborated still further their system of sacrifice, and
which asserted still more strongly their ow^n claims as a separate
and superior caste. They alleged that these Sutras, although
not directly revealed by God, were founded on the inspired
Vedas and Brahmanas, and that they had therefore a divine
authority as sacred traditions {smriti). The Sutras, literally, Smriti ;
' strings ' of aphorisms, were composed in the form of short "°\ , , ,
sentences, for the sake of brevity, and in order that their vast
number might be the better remembered in an age when writing
was little practised, or unknown. Some of them, such as their
the Kalpa-Siitras, deal with the ritual and sacrifices : others, ^ubject-
, matter,
like the * Household ' or Grihya-Siitras, prescribe the ceremonies
at birth, marriage, and death ; a still larger class of Sutras treat
of the doctrines, duties, and privileges of the priests. The
Sutras thus became the foundation of the whole legislation and
philosophy of the Brahmans in later times. They exhibit the The
Brahmans no longer as the individual sacrificers of the Vedic ca^s^g^uUv
period, but as a powerful hereditary caste, claiming supremacy formed.
alike over king and people.
Meanwhile, other castes had been gradually formed. As Growth
the Aryans moved eastwards from the Indus, some of the .
•' ' . warrior
warriors were more fortunate than others, or received larger caste
shares of the conquered lands. Such families had not to till (Kshat-
their fields with their own hands, but could leave that work
to be done by the aboriginal races whom they subdued. In
this way there grew up a class of warriors, freed from the
labour of husbandry, who surrounded the chief or king, and
were always ready for battle. It seems likely that these kinsmen
90
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA,
The culti-
vating
caste
(Vaisyas).
and companions of the king formed an important class among
the early Aryan tribes in India, as they certainly did among
the mediaeval branches of the race in Europe, and still do at
the petty courts of India. Their old Sanskrit names, Kshat-
triya, Rdjanya^ and Rdjbansi, mean 'connected with the
royal power,' or ' of the royal line ; ' their usual modern name
Rajput means * of royal descent.' In process of time, when
the Aryans settled down, not as mere fighting clans, but as
powerful nations, in the Middle Land along the Jumna and
Ganges, this warrior class grew in numbers and in power.
The black races had been reduced to serfdom, or driven back
towards the Himalayas and the Vindhyas,on the north and on
the south of the central tract. The incessant fighting, which
had formed the common lot of the tribes on their actual
migration eastwards from the Indus, now ceased.
A section of the people accordingly laid aside their arms,
and, devoting themselves to agriculture or other peaceful pur-
suits, became the Vaisyas. The sultry heats of the Middle
Land must have abated their old northern energy, and inclined
them to repose. Those who, from family ties or from personal
inclination, preferred a soldier's life, had to go beyond the
frontier to find an enemy. Distant expeditions of this sort
could be undertaken much less conveniently by the husband-
man than in the ancient time, when his fields lay on the very
border of the enemy's country, and had just been wrested
from it. Such expeditions required and probably developed a
military class ; endowed with lands, and with serfs to till the
soil during the master's absence at the wars. The old com-
panions and kinsmen of the king formed a nucleus round
which gathered the more daring spirits. They became in
time a distinct military caste.
The Aryans on the Ganges, in the ' Middle Land,' thus
found themselves divided into three classes — first, the priests,
or Brahmans ; second, the warriors and king's companions,
called in ancient times Kshattriyas, at the present day Rdjputs ;
third, the husbandmen, or agricultural settlers, who retained
the old name of Vaisyas, from the root vis^ which in the Vedic
period had included the whole ' people.' These three classes
gradually became separate castes ; intermarriage between them
was forbidden, and each kept more and more strictly to its heredi-
tary employment. But they were all recognised as belonging to
* Twice-born,' or Aryan race ; they were all present at the great
national sacrifices ; and all worshipped the same Bright Gods.
(4) Sudras. Beneath them was a fourth or servile class, called Siidras, the
The four
castes :
U) Brah-
mans,
(2) Kshat-
triyas,
(3) Vais-
yas,
THE FOUR CASTES DIFFERENTIATE. 91
remnants of the vanquished aboriginal tribes whose lives had
been spared. These were ' the slave-bands of black descent,' the
Dasas of the Veda. They were distinguished from their ' Twice-
born ' Aryan conquerors as being only ' Once-born,' and by
many contemptuous epithets. They were not allowed to be
present at the great national sacrifices, or at the feasts which
followed them. They could never rise out of their servile
condition ; and to them was assigned the severest toil in the
fields, and all the hard and dirty work of the village community.
Of the four Indian castes, three had a tendency to increase. The Brah-
As the Aryan conquests spread, more aboriginal tribes were ^^?^'
reduced to serfdom, as Siidras. The warriors, or Kshattriyas, triyas, and
would constantly receive additions from wealthy or enterprising Sudras
members of the cultivating class. When an expedition or
migration went forth to subdue new territory, the whole
colonists would for a time lead a military life, and their sons
would probably all regard themselves as Kshattriyas. In
ancient times, entire tribes, and at the present day the mass
of the population throughout large tracts, thus claim to be
of the warrior or Rajput caste. Moreover, the kings and
fighting-men of aboriginal races who, without being conquered
by the Aryans, entered into alliance with them, would probably
assume for themselves the warrior or Kshattriya rank. We see
this process going on at the present day among many of the
aboriginal peoples. The Brahmans, in their turn, appear at
first to have received into their body distinguished families of
Kshattriya descent. In later times, too, we find that sections
of aboriginal races were also ' manufactured ' wholesale into
Brahmans. Unmistakeable cases of such ' manufactures ' or
ethnical syncretisms are recorded; and besides the upper-
class agricultural Brahmans, there are throughout India many
local castes of Brahmans who follow the humble callings of
fishermen, blacksmiths, ploughmen, and potato-growers.^
The Vaisya or cultivating caste did not tend, in this manner, The
to increase. No one felt ambitious to win his way into it, J-^^^^\^
except perhaps the enslaved Sudras, to whom any change of
condition was forbidden. The Vaisyas themselves tended in
early times to rise into the more honourable warrior class ;
and at a later period, to be mingled with the labouring
multitude of Sudras, or with the castes of mixed descent. In
many Provinces they have now almost disappeared as a distinct
caste. In ancient India, as at the present day, the three
conspicuous castes were (1) the priests and (2) warriors of
1 See Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. pp. 239-264 {1872).
92
THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Struggle
between
priestly
and
warrior
castes.
Rising
pretension
of the
Brahmans.
Viswa-
mitra and
Vasishtha
Aryan birth, and (3) the serfs or Siidras, the remnants of
earlier races. The Sudras had no rights ; and, once con-
quered, ceased to struggle against their fate. But a long
contest raged between the priests and warriors for the chief
place in the Aryan commonwealth.
In order to understand this contest, we must go back to
the time when the priests and warriors were simply fellow-
tribesmen. The Brahman caste seems to have grown out of
the families of Rishis who composed the Vedic hymns, or
who were chosen to conduct the great tribal sacrifices. In
after-times, the whole Brahman population of India pretended
to trace their descent from the Seven Rishis, heads of the
seven priestly families to whom the Vedic hymns were
assigned. But the composers of the Vedic hymns were
sometimes kings or distinguished warriors rather than priests ;
indeed, the Veda itself speaks of these royal Rishis {Rdjarshis).
When the Brahmans put forward their claim to the highest
rank, the warriors or Kshattriyas were slow to admit it ; and
when the Brahmans went a step further, and declared that only
members of their families could be priests, or gain admission
into the priestly caste, the warriors seem to have disputed
their pretensions. In later ages, the Brahmans, having the
exclusive keeping of the sacred writings, effaced from them, as
far as possible, all traces of their struggle with the Kshattriyas.
The Brahmans taught that their caste had come forth from the
mouth of God, divinely ordained to the priesthood from the
beginning of time. Nevertheless, the Vedic and Sanskrit texts
record a long contest, perhaps representing a difference in race
or separate waves of Aryan migrations.
The quarrel between the two sages Vis warn itra and Vas-
ishtha, which, as has been mentioned, runs through the whole
Veda, is typical of this struggle. Viswdmitra stands as a
representative of the royal-warrior rank, who claims to perform
a great public sacrifice. The white-robed Vasishtha represents
the Brahmans or hereditary priesthood, and opposes the
warrior's claim. In the end, Viswdmitra established his title to
conduct the sacrifice ; but the Brahmans explain this by saying
that his virtues and austerities won admission for him into
the priestly family of Bhrigu. He thus became a Brahman,
and could lawfully fill the priestly office. Viswamitra serves as
a typical link, not only between the priestly and the worldly
castes, but also between the sacred and the profane sciences.
He was the legendary founder of the art of war, and his equally
legendary son Susruta is quoted as the earliest authority on
B RAHMANS AND KSHATTRJYAS. 93
Indian medicine. These two sciences of war and medicine,
together with music and architecture, form upa- Vedas^ or sup-
plementary sections of the divinely-inspired knowledge of the
Brahmans.
Another famous royal Rishi, Vitahavya, ' attained the con- Other
dition of Brahmanhood, venerated by mankind,' by a word J^^J^t
of the saintly Bhrigu. Parasu-Rama, the Divine Champion of triyas at-
the Brahmans, was of warrior descent by his mother's side, taming, to
Manu, their legislator, sprang from the warrior caste ; and his hood,
father is expressly called ' the seed of all the Kshattriyas.' But
when the Brahmans had firmly established their supremacy,
they became reluctant to allow the possibility of even princes
finding an entrance into their sacred order. King Ganaka
was more learned than all the Brahmans at his court, and
performed terrible penances to attain to Brahmanhood. Yet
the legends leave it doubtful whether he gained his desire.
The still more holy, but probably later, Matanga, wore his
body to skin and bone by a thousand years of austerities, and
was held up from falling by the hand of the god Indra himself.
Nevertheless, he could not attain to Brahmanhood. Gautama
Buddha, who in the 6th century before Christ overthrew the
Brahman supremacy, and founded a new religion, was a prince
of warrior descent; perhaps born in too late an age to be
adopted into, and utilized by, the Brahman caste.
Among some of the Aryan tribes the priests apparently failed The
to establish themselves as an exclusive order. Indeed, the four t^^ j » !i
' JLand, the
castes, and especially the Brahman caste, seem only to have focus of
obtained their full development amid the plenty of the Middle Brahman-
Land {Madhya-desha), watered by the Jumna and the Ganges.
The early Aryan settlements to the west of the Indus long re-
mained outside the caste system ; the later Aryan offshoots to the
south and east of the Middle Land only partially carried that
system with them. But in the Middle Land itself, with Delhi as
its western capital, and the great cities of Ajodhya (Oudh) and
Benares on its eastern frontier, the Brahmans grew by degrees
into a compact, learned, and supremely influential body, the
makers of Sanskrit literature. Their language, their religion,
and their laws, became in after times the standards aimed at
throughout all India. They naturally denounced all who did Aryan
not submit to their pretensions, and they stigmatized the other V;^^^^ ,
Aryan settlements who had not accepted their caste system as the Brah-
lapsed tribes or outcasts ( Vrishalas). Among the lists of such manical
fallen races we read the name aften\'ards applied to the ^^ ^' ,
lonians or Greeks ( Yavanas). The Brahmans of the Middle
94
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Brahman
discomfi-
tures.
The Brah-
man su-
premacy
estab-
lished.
They
make a
wise use
of it.
Land had not only to enforce their supremacy over the powerful
warriors of their own kingdoms; they had also to extend it
among the outlying Aryan tribes who had never fully accepted
their caste system. This must have been a slow work of ages,
and it seems to have led to bitter feuds.
There were moments of defeat, indeed, when Brahman
leaders acknowledged the superiority of the warrior caste.
' None is greater,' says the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, ' than
the Kshattriya ; therefore the Brahman, under the Kshattriya,
worships at the royal sacrifice {rdjasiiyd).^ ^ It seems likely
that numbers of the Vaisyas or cultivators would take part
with the Kshattriyas, and be admitted into their caste.
That the contest was not a bloodless one is attested by many
legends, especially that of Parasu-Rdma, or ' Rdma of the
Axe.' This hero, who was divinely honoured as the sixth
Incarnation of Vishnu, appeared on the scene after alternate
massacres by Brahmans and Kshattriyas had taken place.
He fought on the Brahman side, and covered India with the
carcases of the warrior caste. ' Thrice seven times,' says the
Sanskrit epic, ' did he clear the earth of the Kshattriyas,' and
so ended in favour of the Brahmans the long struggle.
It is vain to search into the exact historical value of such
legends. They suffice to indicate an opposition among the
early Aryan kingdoms to the claims of the Brahmans, and the
mingled measures of conciliation and force by which that
opposition was overcome. The Brihman caste, having estab-
lished its power, made a wise use of it. From the ancient
Vedic times its leaders recognised that if they were to exercise
spiritual supremacy, they must renounce earthly pomp. In
arrogating the priestly function, they gave up all claim to the
royal office. They were divinely appointed to be the guides
of nations and the counsellors of kings, but they could not
be kings themselves. As the duty of the Stidra was to serve,
of the Vaisya to till the ground and follow middle-class
trades or crafts, so the business of the Kshattriya was with
^ It is easy to exaggerate the significance of this passage, and dangerous
to generalize from it. The author has to thank Prof. Cowell and the late
Dr. John Muir for notes upon its precise application. Weber, Hist. Ltd.
Lit. p. 54 (1878), describes the rdjasiiya as 'the consecration of the king.'
The author takes this opportunity of expressing his many obligations to Dr.
John Muir, his first teacher in Sanskrit. Dr. Muir, after an honourable
career in the Bengal Civil Service, devoted the second half of his life to the
study of ancient Indian literature ; and his five volumes of Onginal Sans-
krit Texts form one of the most valuable and most permanent contributions
to Oriental learning made in our lime.
THE BRAHMAN RULE OF LII^E. 95
the public enemy, and that of the Brahmans with the national
gods.
While the Brahman leaders thus organized the occupations Four
of the commonwealth, they also laid down strict rules for their Ij^ses of a
own caste. They felt that as their functions were mysterious ijfe.
and above the reach of other men, so also must be their lives.
Each day brought its hourly routine of ceremonies, studies,
and duties. Their whole life was mapped out into four clearly-
defined stages of discipline. For their existence, in its full First stage:
religious significance, commenced not at birth, but on being T^^ .
invested at the close of childhood with the sacred thread of the [brahma-
Twice-Born. Their youth and early manhood were to be spent <^J^^ri)'
in learning by heart from some Brahman sage the inspired
Scriptures, tending the sacred fire, and serving their preceptor.
Having completed his long studies, the young Brahman (2) The
entered on the second stage of his Hfe, as a householder. He House-
married and commenced a course of family duties. When he {^cryihas-
had reared a family, and gained a practical knowledge of the iha).
world, he retired into the forest as a recluse, for the third period {3) The
of his existence ; feeding on roots or fruits, and practising his ^°^^^^"
religious rites with increased devotion. The fourth stage was {vdna-
that of the ascetic or religious mendicant, wholly withdrawn from prastha).
earthly affairs, and striving to attain a condition of mind (4) The
which, heedless of the joys, or pains, or wants of the body, is ^'^^cetic
intent only on its final absorption into the deity. The Brahman, ^,jj/j_
in this fourth stage of his life, ate nothing but what was given to
him unasked, and abode not more than one day in any village,
lest the vanities of the world should find entrance into his
heart. Throughout his whole existence, he practised a strict
temperance; drinking no wine, using a simple diet, curbing
the desires, shut off from the tumults of war, and his thoughts
fixed on study and contemplation. ' What is this world ? '
says a Brdhman sage. ' It is even as the bough of a tree, on
which a bird rests for a night, and in the morning flies away.'
It may be objected that so severe a life of discipline could Brahman
never be led by any large class of men. And no doubt there ^^^^^ ^^
have been at all times worldly Brdhmans ; indeed, the struggle
for existence in modern times has compelled the great majority
of the Brdhmans to betake themselves to secular pursuits.
But the whole body of Sanskrit literature bears witness to the
fact that this ideal life was constantly before their eyes, and
that it served to the whole caste as a high standard in its
two really essential features of self-culture and self-restraint.
96
THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Brahman
rule of
life.
Its here-
ditary
results on
the caste.
The
Brahman
type.
Incidents in the history of Buddha, in the 6th century before
Christ, show that numbers of Brahmans at that time lived
according to this rule of life. Three hundred years later, the
Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, found the Brahmans dis-
coursing in their groves, chiefly on life and death. The
Chinese travellers, down to the loth century a.d., attest the
survival of the Brahmanical pattern of the religious life. The
whole monastic system of India, and those vast religious
revivals which have given birth to the modern sects of Hin-
duism, are based on the same withdrawal from worldly affairs.
At this day, Brahman colleges, called iols^ are carried on
without fees on the old model, at Nadiya in Bengal, and
elsewhere. The modern visitor to these retreats can testify
to the stringent self-discipline, and to the devotion to learning
for its own sake, often protracted till past middle-life, and
sometimes by grey-haired students.
The Brahmans, therefore, were a body of men who, in an
early stage of this world's history, bound themselves by a rule
of life the essential precepts of which were self-culture and self-
restraint. As they married within their own caste, begat
children only during their prime, and were not liable to lose
the finest of their youth in war, they transmitted their best
qualities in an ever-increasing measure to their descendants.
The Brahmans of the present day are the result of nearly 3000
years of hereditary education and self-restraint ; and they have
evolved a type of mankind quite distinct from the surrounding
population. Even the passing traveller in India marks them
out, alike from the bronze-cheeked, large-limbed, leisure-
loving Rajput or warrior caste of Aryan descent ; and from the
dark-skinned, flat-nosed, thick-lipped low-castes of non-Aryan
origin, with their short bodies and bullet heads. The Brdhman
stands apart from both ; tall and slim, with finely modelled
lips and nose, fair complexion, high forehead, and somewhat
cocoa-nut shaped skull — the man of self-centred refinement.
He is an example of a class becoming the ruling power in a
country, not by force of arms, but by the vigour of hereditary
culture and temperance. One race has swept across India after
another, dynasties have risen and fallen, religions have spread
themselves over the land and disappeared. But since the
dawn of history, the Brahman has calmly ruled ; swaying the
minds and receiving the homage of the people, and accepted
by foreign nations as the highest type of Indian mankind.
The paramount position which the Brahmans won, resulted,
in no small measure, from the benefits which they bestowed.
WORK DONE BY THE BRAHMANS, 97
For their own Aryan countrymen, they developed a noble The work
language and literature. The Brahmans were not only the th "grah-
priests and philosophers. They were also the lawgivers, the mans for
statesmen, the administrators, the men of science, and the ^^^^^^
poets of their race. Their influence on the aboriginal peoples,
the hill and forest races of India, was not less important. To
these rude remnants of the flint and bronze ages they brought
in ancient times a knowledge of the metals and of the gods.
Within the historical period, the Brahmans have incorporated
the mass of the backward races into the social and religious
organization of Hinduism. A system of worship is a great
comfort to a tropical people, hemmed in by the uncontrolled
forces of nature, as it teaches them how to propitiate those
mysterious powers, and so tends to liberate their minds from
the terrors of the unseen.
The reflective life of the Middle Land {Madhya-desha) led Brahman
the Brahmans to see that the old gods of the Veda wxre in ^^^^^^gy.
reality not supreme beings, but poetic fictions. For when they
came to think the matter out, they found that the sun, the
aqueous vapour, the encompassing sky, the wind, and the
dawn, could not each be separate and supreme creators, but
must have all proceeded from one First Cause. They did not
shock the religious sense of the less speculative castes by any
public rejection of the Vedic deities. They accepted the old its esoteric
* Shining Ones ' of the Veda as beautiful manifestations of the ^^4 ^^°"
divine power, and continued to decorously conduct the sacrifices
in their honour. But among their own caste, the Brahmans
distinctly enunciated the unity of God. To the Veda, the
Brahmanas, and the Sutras, they added a vast body of theo-
logical literature, composed at intervals between 800 b.c. and
1000 A.D. The Upanishads, meaning, according to their great
Brahman expounder, ' The Science of God,' and His ' identity
with the soul ; ' the Aranyakas, or ' Tracts for the Forest-
Recluse ; ' and the much later Puranas, or * Traditions from of
Old,' — contain mystic and beautiful doctrines inculcating the
unity of God and the immortality of the soul, mingled with less
noble dogmas, popular tales, and superstitions. The mass of
the people were left to believe in four castes, four Vedas, and
many deities. But the higher thinkers among the Brahmans
recognised that in the beginning there was but one caste, one
Veda, and one God.
The old * Shining Ones ' of the Vedic singers were, indeed. Rise of the
no longer suitable deities, either for the life which the Aryans post-Vedic
led after they advanced into Southern Bengal, or for the country
98
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The vast
forces of
nature,
in Bengal.
The Hindu
Triad :
Brahma :
Vishnu ;
Siva.
Brahman
philoso-
phy.
in which they lived. The Vedic gods were the good ' friends '
of the free-hearted warring tribes in Northern India, settled
on the banks of fordable streams or of not overpowering rivers.
In Central and South-Eastern Bengal, the Brahmans required
deities whose nature and attributes would satisfy profoundly
reflective minds, and at the same time would be commensurate
with the stupendous forces of nature amid which they dwelt. The
storm-gods (Maruts) of the Veda might suffice to raise the
dust- whirl winds of the Punjab, but they were evidently deities
on a smaller scale than those which wielded the irresistible
cyclones of Bengal. The rivers, too, had ceased to be merely
bountiful givers of wealth, as in the north. Their accumulated
waters came down in floods, which buried cities and drowned
provinces; wrenching away the villages on their banks, de-
stroying and reproducing the land with an equal balance. The
High-born Dawn, the Genial Sun, the Friendly Day, and the
kindly but confused old groups of Vedic deities, accordingly
gave place to the conception of one god in his three solemn
manifestations as Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver,
and Siva the Destroyer and Reproducer.
Each of these highly elaborated gods had his prototype
among the Vedic deities ; and they remain to this hour the
three persons of the Hindu Triad. Brahmi, the Creator, was
too abstract an idea to be a popular god ; and in a journey
through India, the traveller comes on only one great seat of
his worship at the present day, on the margin of the sacred
lake PusHKARA, near Ajmere. A single day of Brahmd. is
2160 millions of man's years. Vishnu, the Preserver, was a more
useful and practical deity. In his ten incarnations, especially
in his seventh and eighth, as Rama and Krishna, under many
names aCnd in varied forms, he took the place of the bright
Vedic gods. Siva, the third person of the Triad, embodied,
as Destroyer and Reproducer, the profound Brdhmanical con-
ception of death as a change of state and an entry into new life.
He thus obtained, on the one hand, the special reverence of the
mystic and philosophic sects among the Brdhmans ; while, on
the other, his terrible aspects associated him alike with the
Rudra, or * God of Roaring Tempests ' of the Veda, and with
the blood-loving deities of the non-Aryan tribes. Vishnu and
Siva, in their diverse male and female shapes, now form, for
practical purposes, the gods of the Hindu population.
The truth is, that the Aryans in India worshipped — first, as
they feared ; then, as they admired ; and finally, as they reasoned.
Their earliest Vedic gods were the stupendous phenomena of
SIX SCHOOLS OF BRAHMAN PHILOSOPHY. 99
the visible world ; these deities became divine heroes in the
epic legends ; and they were spiritualized into abstractions by
the philosophical schools. From the Vedic era downward —
that is to say, during a period which cannot be estimated at
less than 3000 years — the Brahmans have slowly elaborated
the forces and splendid manifestations of nature into a har-
monious godhead, and constructed a system of belief and
worship for the Indian people. They also pondered deeply on
the mysteries of life. Whence arose this fabric of the visible
world, and whence came we ourselves — we who with conscious
minds look out upon it ? It is to these questions that philo-
sophy has, among all races, owed her birth ; and the Brahmans
arranged their widely diverse answers to them in six great
systems or darsanas, literally ' mirrors of knowledge.'
The present sketch can only touch upon the vast body of The six
speculation which thus grew up, at least 500 years before Christ. ^^^^^^"^\ .
The universal insoluble problems of thought and being, of
mind and matter, and of soul as apart from both, of the origin
of evil, of the summuvi bonum of life, of necessity and freewill,
and of the relations of the Creator to the creature, are in the
six schools of Brahmanical philosophy endlessly discussed.
The Sankhya system of the sage Kapila explains the visible (i) The
world by assuming the existence of a primordial matter from ^"^ ^^ '
all eternity, out of which the universe has, by successive stages,
evolved itself. The Yoga school of Patanjali assumes the exist- (2) The
ence of a primordial soul, anterior to the primeval matter, and ^^^ *
holds that from the union of the two the spirit of life (mahdn-
dttnd) arose. The two Vedanta schools ascribe the visible world (3> 4) The
to a divine act of creation, and assume an omnipotent god as ^ ^"^^^ '
the cause of the existence, the continuance, and the dissolu-
tion of the universe. The Nyaya or logical school of Gautama (5) The
enunciates the method of arriving at truth, and lays special ^^^'^ '
stress on the sensations as the source of knowledge. It is
usually classed together with the sixth school, the Vaiseshika, (6) The
founded by the sage Kanada, which teaches the existence of a ^^J,^^'
transient world composed of eternal atoms. All the six schools
had the same starting-point, ex nihilo nihil fit. Their sages, as
a rule, struggled towards the same end, namely the liberation
of the human soul from the necessity of existence and from
the chain of future births, by its absorption into the Supreme
Soul, or primordial Essence of the universe.^
^ Any attempt to fuse into a few lines the vast conflicting masses of
Hindu philosophical doctrines must be unsatisfactory. Objections may be
taken to compressing the sub-divisions and branching doctrines of each
100
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Summary
of Brah-
man
religion.
The Brdhmans, therefore, treated philosophy as a branch of
religion. Now the universal functions of religion are to lay down
a rule of conduct for this life, and to supply some guide to the
next. The Brahman solutions to the problems of practical
religion, were self-discipline, alms, sacrifice to and contem-
plation of the deity. But besides the practical questions of
the spiritual life, religion has also intellectual problems, such as
the compatibility of evil with the goodness of God, and the un-
equal distribution of happiness and misery in this life. Brahman
philosophy exhausted the possible solutions of these difficulties,
and of most of the other great problems which have since per-
plexed Greek and Roman sage, mediaeval schoolman, and
modern man of science. The various hypotheses of Creation,
Arrangement, and Development were each elaborated ; and
the views of physiologists at the present day are a return, with
new lights, to the evolution theory of Kapila. His Sankhya
system is held by Weber to be the oldest of the six Brahman
schools, and certainly dates from not later than 500 B.C. The
works on Religion published in the native languages in India
in 1877 numbered 11 92, besides 56 on Mental and Moral
Philosophy. In 1882, the totals had risen to 1545 on
Religion, and 153 on Mental and Moral Philosophy.
Brahman
science.
Sanskrit
grammar.
Panini.
The Brahmans had also a circle of sciences of their own.
The Science of Language, indeed, had been reduced in India
to fundamental principles at a time when the grammarians of
the West still treated it on the basis of accidental resemblances ;
and modern philology dates from the study of Sanskrit by
European scholars. Panini was the architect of Sanskrit
grammar ; but a long succession of grammarians must have
laboured before he reared his enduring fabric. The date
of Panini has been assigned by his learned editor Bohtlink
to about 350 B.C. Weber, reasoning from a statement made
(long afterwards) by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang, sug-
gests that it may have been later. The grammar of Panini
stands supreme among the grammars of the world, alike for its
precision of statement, and for its thorough analysis of the
roots of the language and of the formative principles of
words. By employing an algebraic terminology it attains a
sharp succinctness unrivalled in brevity, but at times enigma-
tical. It arranges, in logical harmony, the whole phenomena
school into a single sentence. But space forbids a more lengthy disqui-
sition. The foregoing paragraphs endeavour to fairly condense the accounts
which H. H. Wilson, Albrecht Weber, Professor Dowson, and the Rev.
K. M. Banarjf give of the Six Darsanas or Schools.
SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT. ','. ' t6i { .' l< ;
which the Sanskrit language presents, and stands forth as
one of the most splendid achievements of human invention
and industry. So elaborate is the structure, that doubts have
arisen whether its complex rules of formation and phonetic
change, its polysyllabic derivatives, its ten conjugations with
their multiform aorists and long array of tenses, could ever
have been the spoken language of a people. This question will
be discussed in the chapter on the modern vernaculars of India.
It is certain that a divergence had taken place before the Sanskrit
time of Panini (350 b.c.), and that the spoken language, or ^^^^^-^^
Pi'dkrita-bhdshd^ had already assumed simpler forms by the speech,
assimilation of consonants and the curtailment of terminals.
The Samskrita-bhdshdy literally, the ' perfected speech,' which
Pinini stereotyped by his grammar, developed the old Aryan
tendency to accumulations of consonants, with an undi-
minished, or perhaps an increased, array of inflections. In
this highly elaborated Sanskrit the Brahmans wrote. It became
the literary language of India, — isolated from the spoken
dialects, but prescribed as the vehicle for philosophy, science,
and all poetry of serious aim or epic dignity. As the Aryan
race mingled with the previous inhabitants of the land,
the spoken Prakrits adopted words of non-Aryan origin and
severed themselves from Sanskrit, which for at least 2000
years has been unintelligible to the common people of India.
The old synthetic spoken dialects, or Prakrits, underwent the
same decay as Latin did, into analytic vernaculars, and about
the same time. The noble parent languages, alike in India
and in Italy, died; but they gave birth to families of vernaculars
which can never die.
An intermediate stage of the process can be traced in the
Hindu drama, in which persons of good birth speak in Prd-
kritized Sanskrit, and the low-castes in a bhdshd, or patois,
between the old Prakrit and the modern dialects. It is chiefly
under the popularizing influences of British rule that the Indian
vernaculars have become literary languages. Until the last
century, Sanskrit, although as dead as Latin so far as the mass
of the people were concerned, was the vehicle for all intel-
lectual and artistic effort among the Hindus, their local ballads
and the writings of religious reformers excepted. In addition,
therefore, to other sources of influence, the Brahmans were
the interpreters of a national literature written in a language
unknown to the people.
The priceless inheritance thus committed to their charge Sanskrit
they handed down, to a great extent, by word of mouth. Partly ™^f^""
h'lyV^.'' ioi..: ,'v^^/: ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
No vei7 from this cause, but chiefly owing to the destructive climate ot
Ind\a!n India, no Sanskrit manuscripts of remote antiquity exist. A
Mss. fairly continuous series of inscriptions on rocks, pillars, and
copper-plates, enable us to trace back the Indian alphabets
to the 3rd century B.C. But the more ancient of existing
Sanskrit manuscripts are only four hundred years old, very
few have an age exceeding five centuries, and only two date as
far back as 1132 and 1008 a.d.i The earliest Indian ms.
1008 A.D. (1008 A.D.) comes from the cold, dry highlands of Nepal. ^ In
Kashmir, birch-bark was extensively used : a substitute for paper
also employed in India before 500 a.d., and still surviving in
the amulets with verses on them which hang round the neck
of Hindus.^ Indeed, birch-bark is to this day used by some
native merchants in the Simla Hills for their account books.
Palm-leaf The palm-leaf was, however, the chief writing material in
MSS. of ancient and mediaeval India. Two Sanskrit manuscripts on
this substance have been preserved in the Monastery of Horiuzi
in Japan since the year 609 a.d. It seems probable that
these two strips of palm-leaf were previously the property of a
520 A.D. ? Buddhist monk who migrated from India to China in 520 a.d.*
At any rate, they cannot date later than the first half of the
6th century; and they are the oldest Sanskrit manuscripts
yet discovered. They were photographed in the Anecdota
Oxoniensia, 1884.
The \yit;h regard to the origin of the Indian alphabets, the evi-
Indian , , .„ ,. ° , ^ , . ^
Alphabets, dence IS still too undigested to safely permit of cursory state-
ment. Of the two characters in which the Asoka inscriptions
were written (250 A.D.), the northern variety, or Ariano-Pdli, is
now admitted to be of Phoenician, or at any rate of non-Indian,
^ Footnote 198a to Weber's Hist. Ind. Lit. p. 182 (1878), quoting the
report of Rajendra Lala Mitra (1874), and Dr. Rost's letter (1875). Mr.
R. Cust, in a note for The Imperial Gazetteer of India ^ assigns the year 883
A.D. as the date of the earliest existing Sanskrit MS. at Cambridge. But
this remains doubtful. For very interesting information regarding the age of
Indian mss. see the official reports of the Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts
in Bengal, Bombay, and Madras ; particularly Dr. G. Buhler's (extra num-
ber of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society ^
No. xxxiv.A, vol. xii. 1877), and Professor P. Peterson's (extra numbers of
the same Journal, xli. 1883, and xliv. 1884).
' The present author has printed and sent to the India Office Library, for
public reference, a catalogue of the 332 Sanskrit Buddhist MSS. collected
by Mr. B. H. Hodgson in Nepdl.
' Dr. Buhler's Tour in Search for Sanskrit MSS. , Journal Bombay
Asiatic Society, xxxiv.A, p. 29, and footnote. 1877.
* Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series, p. 64, vol. i. Part III. (1884.) See
also Part I. of the volume, and pp. 3, 4 of Part III.
THE TWO ANCIENT INDIAN ALPHABETS, 103
parentage. The southern variety, or Indo-Pdli, is beUeved by
some scholars to be of Western origin, while others hold it to
be an independent Indian alphabet. An attempt has even been
made to trace back its letters to an indigenous system of
picture-writing, or hieroglyphs, in pre-historic India.^ Quintus
Curtius mentions that the Indians wrote on leaves in the time
of Alexander (326 b.c.).^ They do so to this hour. Few, if
any, Indian manuscripts on paper belong to a period anterior
to the 1 6th century a.d. The earliest Indian writings are on
copper or stone; the mediaeval ones generally on strips of palm-
leaves. General Cunningham possesses a short inscription,
written with ink in the inside of a lid made of soapstone,
dating from the time of Asoka, or 256 B.C. The introduc-
tion of paper as a writing material may be studied in the
interesting collection of Sanskrit manuscripts at the Deccan
College, Poona.
Sanskrit literature was the more easily transmitted by word of Sanskrit
mouth, from the circumstance that it was almost entirely written ^JJ^^"^^
in verse. A prose style, simple and compact, had grown up entirely in
during the early age following that of the Vedic hymns. But ^^^^^•
Sanskrit literature begins with the later, although still ancient,
stage of Aryan development, which superseded the Vedic
gods by the Brahmanical Triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
When Sanskrit appears definitively on the scene in the centuries
preceding the birth of Christ, it adopted once and for all a
rhythmic versification alike for poetry, philosophy, science, law,
and religion, with the exception of the Beast Fables and the
almost algebraic strings of aphorisms in the Sutras. The
Buddhist legends adhered more closely to the spoken dialects
of ancient India, prdkrita-bhdshd ; and they also have retained
a prose style. But in classical Sanskrit literature, prose
became an arrested development ; the sloka or verse reigned Prose, a
supreme ; and nothing can be clumsier than the attempts at f'^^'^otten
prose in later Sanskrit romances and commentaries. Prose-
^ By General Cunningham, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, pp.52: .,.-■- ■
1 1 6 THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Sildras. Third, a vast residue termed the Varna - sankara,
literally the ' mingled colours ; ' a great but uncertain number
of castes, exceeding 300, to whom was assigned a mixed descent
from the four recognised classes. The first British Census of
India, in 1872, proved that the same division remains the
fundamental one of the Hindu community to this day.
Growth of As the Brdhmans spread their influence eastwards and
Hindu southwards from the Middle Land of Bengal, they carried
their codes with them. The number of their sacred law-
books (Dharma-sastras) amounted to at least fifty-six, and
separate schools of Hindu law sprang up. Thus the Daya-
bhaga version of the Law of Inheritance prevails in Bengal ;
while the Mitakshara commentary on Yajnavalkya is current
in Madras and throughout Southern and Western India. But
all modern recensions of Hindu law rest upon the two codes
of Manu or of Yajnavalkya ; and these codes, as we have seen,
only recorded the usages of certain Brahmanical centres in the
north, and perhaps did not fairly record even them.
As the Brahmans gradually moulded the population of India
into Hinduism, such codes proved too narrow a basis for deahng
with the rights, duties, and social organization of the people.
Based on Later Hindu legislators accordingly inculcated the recogni-
iTw ""^^"^^ tion of the local usages or land-law of each part of the country,
and of each class or tribe. While binding together, and pre-
serving the historical unity of, the Aryan twice-born castes by
systems of law founded on their ancient codes, they made
provision for the customs and diverse stages of civilisation of
the ruder peoples of India, over whom they established their
ascendency. By such provisions, alike in religion and in law,
the Brahmans incorporated the Indian races into that loosely
coherent mass known as the Hindu population.
Plasticity It is to this plastic element that Hinduism owes its success ;
of Hindu- and it is an element which English administrators have some-
times overlooked. The races of British India exhibit many
stages of domestic institutions, from the polyandry of the
Nairs to the polygamy of the Kulin Brdhmans. The structure
of their rural organization varies, from the nomadic husbandry
of the hillmen, to the long chain of tenures which in Bengal
descends from the landlord through a series of middle-men
to the actual tiller of the soil Every stage in industrial
progress is represented ; from the hunting tribes of the central
plateau to the rigid trade-guilds of Gujardt. The Hindu legis-
lators recognised that each of these diverse stages of social
development had its own usages and unwritten law. Even
PERILS OF INDIAN CODIFI
the code of Manu acknowledged custom as a source of law, Incor-
and admitted its binding force when not opposed to express law. of 5oc°"
Vrihaspati says, * The laws {dhannd) practised by the various customs
countries, castes, and tribes, they are to be preserved ; other- ^^^j^^j^^gj^
wise the people are agitated.' Devala says, * What gods there
are in any country, . . . and whatsoever be the custom and
law anywhere, they are not to be despised there ; the law there
is such.' Varaha-Mihira says, *The custom of the country is
first to be considered ; what is the rule in each country, that
is to be done.' A learned English judge in Southern India
thus summed up the texts : ' By custom only can the Dharma- »
sastra [Hindu law] be the rule of others than Brahmans [only
one-thirtieth of the population of Madras] ; and even in the
case of Brahmans it is very often superseded by custom.' ^
The English, on assuming the government of India, wisely Perils of
declared that they would administer justice according to the modern
customs of the people. But our High Courts enforce the J^^Jj^^^^^*
Brahmanical codes with a comprehensiveness and precision
unknown in ancient India. Thus in Bengal, the non-Hindu
custom of sagai, by which deserted or divorced wives among
the lower castes marry again, was lately tried according to
*the spirit of Hindu law;' while in Madras, judges have
pointed out a serious divergence between the Hindu law as
now administered, and the actual usages of the people. Those
usages are unwritten and uncertain. The Hindu law is printed
in many accessible forms ; ^ and Hindu barristers are ever
pressing its principles upon our courts. The Hindu law is
apt to be applied to non-Hindu, or semi-Hindu, customs.
Efforts at comprehensive codification in British India are
thus surrounded by special difficulties. For it would be im-
proper to give the fixity of a code to all the unwritten half-
fluid usages current among the 300 unhomogeneous castes
of Hindus ; while it might be fraught with future injustice
to exclude any of them. Each age has the gift of adjusting
^ Dr. Bumell's Ddya-vibhagha^ Introd. p. xv. See also Hindu Law
as administered by the High Court ofjudicature at Madras, by J. Nelson,
M, A., District Judge of Cuddapah, chaps, iii. and iv. (Madras, 1877);
and Journal Roy, As. Soc, pp. 208-236 (April 1881).
2 For the latest treatment of Hindu law from the philosophical, scholarly,
and practical points of view, see the third edition of West and Biihler's
Digest of the Hindu Law of Inheritance, Partition, atid Adoption. 2 vols.
Bombay 1884. From the writings of Mayne, Burnell, and Nelson in
Madras, and those of the Honourable Raymond West and Dr. Bflhler
in Bombay, a new and more just conception of the character of Hindu law
and of its relations to Indian custom may be said to date.
1 1 8 THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
Codes
versus
survival of
fittest
customs.
Restricted
scope of
Indian
codifica-
tion.
its institutions to its actual wants, especially among tribes
whose customs have not been reduced to written law. Many
of those customs will, if left to themselves, die out. Others
of them, which prove suited to the new social developments
under British rule, will live. A code should stereotype the
survival of the fittest ; but the process of natural selection
must be the work of time, and not an act of conscious
legislation.
This has been recognised from time to time by the ablest
of Anglo-Indian codifiers. They restrict the word code to
the systematic arrangement of the rules relating to some
well-marked section of juristic rights, or to some executive
department of the administration of justice. ' In its larger
sense,' write the Indian Law Commissioners in 1879, ' of a
general assemblage of all the laws of a community, no attempt
has yet been made in this country to satisfy the conception of
a code. The time for its realization has manifestly not arrived.'
The number of works on Law, published in the native languages
of India in 1877, was 165; and in 1882, 181, besides 157 in
English; total, 338 works on law published in India in 1882.
Secular
literature
of the
Hindus.
Its chief
branches.
TheMaha
bharata ;
The Brahmans were not merely the depositaries of the
sacred books, the philosophy, the science, and the laws of
the ancient Hindu commonwealth ; they were also the creators
and custodians of its secular literature. They had a practical
monopoly of Vedic learning, and their policy was to trace
back every branch of knowledge and of intellectual effort to
the Veda. In this policy they were aided by the divergence
which, as we have seen, arose at a very early date between the
written and spoken languages of India. Sanskrit literature,
apart from religion, philosophy, and law, consists mainly of two
great epics, the drama, and a vast body of legendary, erotic,
and mystical poetry.
The venerable epic of the Mahdbhdrata ranks first. The
orthodox legend ascribes it to the sage Vyasa, who, according
to Brahman chronology, compiled the inspired hymns into the
four Vedas, nearly five thousand years ago (3101 B.C.). But
one beauty of Sanskrit is that every word discloses its ancient
origin in spite of mediaeval fictions, and Vyasa means simply
the * arranger,' from the verb * to fit together.' No fewer than
twenty-eight Vydsas, incarnations of Brahma and Vishnu,
came down in successive astronomical eras to arrange and
promulgate the Vedas on earth. Many of the legends in
the Mahibhdrata are of Vedic antiquity, and the main story
STOR Y OF THE MAHABHARA TA. 1 1 9
deals with a period assigned, in the absence of conclusive
evidence, to about 1200 B.C. ; and certainly long anterior to
the time of Buddha, 543 B.C. But its compilation into its
present form seems to have taken place many centuries later.
Panini (350 B.C.) makes no clear reference to it. The in- Its date;
quisitive Greek ambassador and historian, Megasthenes, does
not appear to have heard of it during his stay in India, 300
B.C. Dion Chrysostomos supplies the earliest external evi-
dence of the existence of the Mahabharata, circ. 75 a.d. The
arrangement of its vast mass of legends must probably have
covered a long period. Indeed, the present poem bears
traces of three separate eras of compilation ; during which
its collection of primitive folk-tales grew from 8800 slokas its
or couplets, into a cyclopaedia of Indian mythology and growth,
legendary lore extending over eighteen books and 220,000
lines. The twenty-four books of Homer's Iliad comprise only
15,693 lines; the twelve books of Virgil's ^Enetd, only 9868.
The central story of the Mahabharata occupies scarcely Central
one-fourth of the whole, or about ^50,000 lines. It narrates ^[°^y°L
... ' -^ ' the Maha-
a pre-historic struggle between two families of the Lunar bharata.
race for a patch of country near Delhi. These families,
alike descended from the royal Bharata, consisted of two
brotherhoods, cousins to each other, and both brought up under
the same roof. The five Pandavas were the miraculously born
sons of King Pandu, who, smitten by a curse, resigned the
sovereignty to his brother Dhrita-rashtra, and retired to a
hermitage in the Himalayas, where he died. The ruins of
his capital, Hastinapura, or the ' Elephant City,' are pointed
out beside a deserted bed of the Ganges, 57 miles north-east
of Delhi, at this day. His brother Dhrita-rashtra ruled in his
stead, and to him one hundred sons were born, who took the
name of the Kauravas from an ancestor, Kuru. Dhrita-rashtra
acted as a faithful guardian to his five nephews, the Pandavas,
and chose the eldest of them as heir to the family kingdom.
His own sons resented this act of supersession ; and so arose
the quarrel between the hundred Kauravas and the five Pan-
davas which forms the main story of the Mahabharata. The
nucleus of the legend probably belongs to the period when the
Aryan immigrants wer^ settling in the upper part of the triangle 12th cen-
of territory between the Jumna and the Ganges, and before ^^"^ ^'^'
they had made any considerable advances beyond the latter
river. It is not unreasonable to assign this period to about
the 12th century B.C.
The hundred Kauravas forced their father to send away their Its outline.
1 20 THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
five Pandava cousins into the forest. The Kauravas then burned
down the woodland hut in which the five Pandavas dwelt. The
five escaped, however, and wandered in the disguise of Brah-
mans to the court of King Draupada, who had proclaimed a
swayam-vara, or maiden's-choice, — a tournament at which his
daughter would take the victor as her husband. Arjuna, one
of the Pandavas, bent the mighty bow which had defied the
strength of all the rival chiefs, and so obtained the fair princess,
Draupadi, who became the common wife of the five brethren.
Their uncle, the good Dhrita-rashtra, recalled them to his
capital, and gave them one-half of the family territory towards
the Jumna, reserving the other half for his own sons.
The Pandava brethren hived off to their new settlement,
Indra-prastha, afterwards Delhi ; clearing the jungle, and
driving out the Nagas or forest-races. For a time peace
reigned ; but the Kauravas tempted Yudishthira, ' firm in
fight,' the eldest of the Pandavas, to a gambling match, at
Gambling which he lost his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and last of
matches, all, his wife. Their father, however, forced his sons to restore
their wicked gains to their cousins. But Yudishthira was
again seduced by the Kauravas to stake his kingdom at dice,
again lost it, and had to retire with his wife and brethren
into exile for twelve years. Their banishment ended, the five
Pandavas returned at the head of an army to win back their
Final kingdom. Many battles followed. Other Aryan tribes between
overthrow the Jumna and the Ganges, together with their gods and divine
Kauravas. heroes, joined in the struggle, until at last all the hundred
Kauravas were slain, and of the friends and kindred of the
Pandavas only the five brethren remained.
Reign of Their uncle, Dhrita-rdshtra, made over to them the whole
the five kingdom ; and for a long time the Pindavas ruled gloriously,
Pandavas. celebrating the aswa-niedha^ or ' great horse sacrifice,' in token
of their holding imperial sway. But their uncle, old and blind,
ever taunted them with the slaughter of his hundred sons,
until at last he crept away with his few surviving ministers,
his aged wife, and his sister-in-law the mother of the Pandavas,
to a hermitage, where the worn-out band perished in a forest
fire. The five brethren, smitten by remorse, gave up their
kingdom ; and taking their wife, Draupadi, and a faithful dog,
Their pil- they departed to the Himalayas to seek the heaven of Indra
enmage to q^ Mount Meru. One by one the sorrowful pilgrims died upon
the road, until only the eldest brother, Yudishthira, and the
dog reached the gate of heaven. Indra invited him to enter,
but he refused if his lost wife and brethren were not also
GR O IV TH OF THE MAHABHARA TA. 121
admitted. The prayer was granted, but he still declined unless
his faithful dog might come in with him. This could not be
allowed, and Yudishthira, after a glimpse of heaven, was thrust
down to hell, where he found many of his old comrades in
anguish. He resolved to share their sufferings rather than enjoy
paradise alone. But having triumphed in this crowning trial, the
whole scene was revealed to be indyd or illusion, and the reunited
band entered into heaven, where they rest for ever with Indra.
Even this story, which forms merely the nucleus of the Slow
Mahabharata, is the collective CTowth of far-distant asfes. For Sjowth of
, , , , , , , ^ , , • , the central
example, the two last books, the 17th and i8th, which narrate story.
' the Great Journey ' and * the Ascent to Heaven,' are the
product of a very different epoch of thought from the early
ones, which portray the actual life of courts and camps in
ancient India. The swayatn-vara or husband - choosing of
Draupadi is a genuine relic of the tournament age of Aryan
chivalry. Her position as the common wife of the five
brethren preserves a trace of even more primitive institutions
— institutions still represented by the polyandry of the Nairs The poly-
and Himalayan tribes, and by domestic customs which are draupadi
survivals of polyandry among the Hinduized low-castes all over
India. Thus, in the Punjab, among Jat families too poor to
bear the marriage expenses of all the males, the wife of the
eldest son has sometimes to accept her brothers-in-law as joint
husbands. The polyandry of the Ghakkars, the brave people
of Rawal Pindi District, was one of their characteristics which
specially struck the advancing Muhammadans in 1008 a.d.
The Karakat Vellalars of Madura, at the opposite extremity
of the peninsula, no longer practise polyandry ; but they
preserve a trace of it in their condonement of cohabita-
tion with the husband's kindred, while adultery outside the
husband's family entails expulsion from caste.
Such customs became abhorrent to the Brahmans. The
Brahmans justify Draupadi's position, however, on the ground
that as the five Pandava brethren were divinely begotten emana-
tions from one deity, they formed in reality only one person,
and could be lawfully married to the same woman. No such
afterthought was required to uphold the honour of Draupadi
in the age when the legend took its rise. Throughout the whole
Mahabharata she figures as the type of a high-born princess,
and a chaste, brave, and faithful wife. She shares in every
sorrow and triumph of the five brethren ; bears a son to each ;
and finally enters with the true-hearted band into the glory
of Indra: Her husbands take a terrible vengeance on insult
122 THE AR VANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The rest of
the Maha-
bharata.
The ^
Rama-
yana.
Its alle-
gorical
character.
Its central
idea
offered to her, and seem quite unaware that a later age would
deem her position one which required explanation.^
The struggle for the kingdom of Hastinapura forms, how-
ever, only a fourth of the Mahabharata. The remainder con-
sists of later additions. Some of these are legends of the early
Aryan settlements in the Middle Land of Bengal, tacked on to
the central story ; others are mythological episodes, theological
discourses, and philosophic disquisitions, intended to teach the
military caste its duties, especially its duty of reverence to the
Brahmans. Taken as a whole, the Mahabhdrata may be said
to form the cyclopaedia of the Heroic Age in Northern India,
with the struggle of the Pandavas and Kauravas as its original
nucleus ; and the submission of the military power to priestly
domination as its later didactic design.
The second great Indian epic, the Rdmayana, recounts the
advance of the Aryans into Southern India. Unlike the
Mahabharata, its composition is assigned not to a compiler
{vydsa) in the abstract, but to a named poet, Vdlmiki. On
the other hand, the personages and episodes of the Ramayana
have an abstract or mythological character, which contrasts with
the matter-of-fact stories of the Mahabharata. The heroine
of the Ramayana, Sita, is literally the ' field-furrow,' to whom
the Vedic hymns and early Aryan ritual paid divine honour.
She represents Aryan husbandry, and has to be defended
against the raids of the aborigines by the hero Rama, an incar-
nation of the Aryan deity Vishnu, and born of his divine nectar.
Rama is regarded by Weber as the analogue of Balarama,
the ' Ploughbearer ' {Jialabhrit). From this abstract point of
view, the Ramayana exhibits the progress of Aryan plough-
husbandry among the mountains and forests of Central and
Southern India ; and the perils of the agricultural settlers from
the non-ploughing nomadic cultivators and hunting tribes.
The abduction of Sita by an aboriginal or demon prince, who
carried her off to Ceylon ; her eventual recovery by Rama ;
and the advance of the Aryans into Southern India, form the
central story of the Ramayana. It differs therefore from the
central legend of the Mahabharata, as commemorating a period
when the main arena of Aryan enterprise had extended itself far
* The beautiful story of Savitrf, the wife faithful to the end, is told in
the Mahabharata by the sage Markandeya in answer to Yudishthira's
cjuestion, whether any woman so true and noble as Draupadl had ever been
known. Savitrf, on the loss of her husband, dogged the steps of Yama,
King of Death, until she wrung from him, one by one, many blessings for
her family, and finally the reluctant restoration of her husband to life.
STORY OF THE RAMAYANA. 123
beyond their ancient settlements around Delhi; and as a pro- later than
duct of the Brahman tendency to substitute abstract personifica- ^hlrata
tions for human actors and mundane events. The nucleus of Legend,
the Mahabharata is a legend of ancient life ; the nucleus of the
Rdmayana is an allegory. Its most modern form, the Adhyatma
Ramayana, still further spiritualizes the story, and elevates Rama
into a saviour and deliverer, a god rather than a hero.^
Its reputed author, Vdlmiki, is a conspicuous figure in Vdlmiki.
the epic, as well as its composer. He takes part in the
action of the poem, receives the hero Rama in his hermitage,
and afterwards gives shelter to the unjustly banished Sita and
her twin sons, nourishing the aspirations of the youths by
tales of their father's prowess. These stories make up the
main part of the Ramayana, and refer to a period which has
been loosely assigned to about 1000 B.C. But the poem
could not have been put together in its present shape many
centuries, if any, before our era. Parts of it may be
earlier than the Mahabhdrata, but the compilation as a whole
apparently belongs to a later date. The Ramayana consists of
seven books {Kdfidas) and 24,000 slokas, or about 48,000 lines.
As the Mahabharata celebrates the lunar race of Delhi, so Outline of
the Rdmayana forms the epic chronicle of the solar race of l^ama-
Ajodhya or Oudh. The two poems thus preserve the legends
of two renowned Aryan kingdoms at the two opposite, or
eastern and western, borders of the Middle Land {Madhya-
desha). The opening books of the Ramayana recount the The local
wondrous birth and boyhood of Rama, eldest son of Dasa- ^^^^
ratha. King of Ajodhya ; his marriage with Sita, as victor at her
swayam-vara^ or tournament, by bending the mighty bow of
Siva in the public contest of chiefs for the princess ; and his
appointment as heir-apparent to his father's kingdom. A
zandna intrigue ends in the youngest wife of Dasaratha
obtaining this appointment for her own son, Bharata, and in
the exile of Rama, with his bride Sita, for fourteen years to
the forest. The banished pair wander south to Prayag (Allah-
abad), already a place of sanctity ; and thence across the river to
the hermitage of Valmiki, among the Bdnda jungles, where a
hill is still pointed out as the scene of their abode. Meanwhile
Rama's father dies, and the loyal youngest brother, Bharata,
although the lawful successor, refuses to enter on the inherit-
^ The allegorical character of the Ramayana has allowed scope for
various speculations as to its origin. Such speculations have been well
dealt with by Mr. Kashinath Trimbak Telang in his Essay, Was the
Kdmdyana copied from Homer 1 (Bombay, 1873.)
124 THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The
al)duction
of Sita.
Her
rescue
ance, but goes in quest of Rdma to bring him back as rightful
heir. A contest of fraternal affection takes place. Bharata
at length returns to rule the family kingdom in the name of
Rama, until the latter shall come to claim it at the end of the
fourteen years of banishment appointed by their late father.
So far, the Rdmayana merely narrates the local chronicles of
the court of Ajodhya. In the third book the main story begins.
Ravana, the demon or aboriginal king of the far south, smitten
by the fame of Sita's beauty, seizes her at the hermitage while
her husband is away in the jungle, and flies off with her in
a magical chariot through the air to Lanka or Ceylon. The
next three books (4th, 5th, and 6th) recount the expedition of
the bereaved Rama for her recovery. He makes alliances with
the aboriginal tribes of Southern India, under the names of
monkeys and bears, and raises a great army. The Monkey
general, Hanuman, jumps across the straits between India and
Ceylon, discovers the princess in captivity, and leaps back
with the news to Rama. The Monkey troops then build a
causeway across the narrow sea, — the Adam's Bridge of modern
geography, — by which Rama marches across and, after slaying
the monster Ravana, delivers Sita. The rescued wife proves
her unbroken chastity, during her stay in the palace of Ravana,
by the ancient ordeal of fire. Agni, the god of that element,
himself conducted her out of the burning pile to her husband ;
and, the fourteen years of banishment being over, Rama and
Sfta return in triumph to Ajodhya. There they reigned
gloriously ; and Rama celebrated the great horse sacrifice
{aswa-medha) as a token of his imperial sway over India. But
a famine having smitten the land, doubts arose in Rama's
heart as to his wife's purity while in her captor's power at
Ceylon. He banishes the faithful Sitd, who wanders forth
again to Vdlmiki's hermitage, where she gives birth to Rama's
two sons. After sixteen years of exile, she is reconciled to
her repentant husband, and Rama and Sita and their children
are at last reunited.^
The Mahdbhdrata and the Ramdyana, however overladen with
skrit epics, f^^jg^ fQj.j^ ^j^g chronicles of the kings of the Middle Land
of the Ganges, their family feuds, and their national enter-
prises. In the later Sanskrit epics, the legendary element is
more and more overpowered by the mythological. Among
them the Raghu-vansa and the Kumara - sambhava, both
assigned to Kalidasa, take the first rank. The Raghu-vansa
' Respectful mention should here be made of Growse's translation of the
Hindi version of the Rdmdyaiia by Tulsi Das. (410. Allahabad, 1883.)
Later San-
Raghu-
vansa.
LATER EPICS: THE SANSKRIT DRAMA. 125
celebrates the solar line of Raghu, King of Ajodhya ; more
particularly the ancestry and the life of his descendant Rama.
The Kumara-sambhava recounts the birth of the War-god.^ Kumara-
It is still more didactic and allegorical, abounding in sentiment ^^™ ^^'^'
and in feats of prosody. But it contains passages of ex-
quisite beauty of style and elevation of thought From the
astrological data which these two poems furnish, Jacobi infers
that they cannot have been composed before 350 a. d.
The name of Kalidasa has come down, not only as the Kalidasa.
composer of these two later epics, but as the father of the
Sanskrit drama. According to Hindu tradition, he was one
of the ' Nine Gems ' or distinguished men at the court of
Vikramaditya. This prince is popularly identified with the
King of Ujjain who gave his name to the Samvat era,
commencing in the year 57 b.c But, as Holtzmann
points out, it may be almost as dangerous to infer from this
latter circumstance that Vikramaditya lived in 57 b.c., as to King Vik-
place Julius Caesar in the first year of the so-called Julian r^madiiya.
Calendar, namely, 4713 B.C. Several Vikramadityas figure in
Indian history. Indeed, the name is merely a title, * A very
Sun in Prowess,' which has been borne by victorious monarchs
of many of the Indian dynasties. The date of Vikramaditya
has been variously assigned from 57 b.c. to 1050 a.d. ; and
the works of the poets and philosophers who formed the 55° a.d. ?
* Nine Gems ' of his court, appear from internal evidence to
have been composed at intervals during that long period. The
Vikramaditya, under whom Kalidasa and the 'Nine Gems'
are said to have flourished, ruled over Malwa probably from
500 to 550 A.D.
In India, as in Greece and Rome, scenic representations Age of the
seem to have taken their rise in the rude pantomime of a very fansknt
^ drama,
early time, possibly as far back as the Vedic ritual \ and the
Sanskrit word for the drama, ndtaka^ is derived from nata, a
dancer. But the Sanskrit dramas of the classical age which
have come down to us, probably belong to the period between
the I St century b.c. and the 8th century a.d. They make
mention of Greek slaves, are acquainted with Buddhism in its
full development, and disclose a wide divergence between
Sanskrit and the dialects used by the lower classes. The Maha-
* Translated into spirited English verse by Mr. Ralph T. H. Griffith,
M.A., who is also the author of a charming collection of 'Idylls from the
Sanskrit,' based on the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Raghu-vansa, and Kali-
dasa's Seasons.
126 THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
bharata and Ramayana appear in the Sanskrit drama as part
of the popular literature, — in fact, as occupying very much the
same position which they still hold. No dramas are known
to exist among the works which the Hindus who emigrated
to Java, about 500 a.d., carried with them to their new
homes. Nor have any dramas been yet found among the
Tibetan translations of the Sanskrit classics.
Sakuntala. The most famous drama of Kalidasa is Sakuntala, or the
' Lost Ring.' Like the ancient epics, it divides its action
between the court of the king and the hermitage in the forest.
Prince Dushyanta, an ancestor of the noble Lunar race, weds
by an irregular marriage a beautiful maiden, Sakuntala, at
her father's hermitage in the jungle. Before returning to his
capital, he gives his bride a ring as a pledge of his love ;
but smitten by a curse from a holy man, she loses the ring, and
cannot be recognised by her husband till it is found. Sakun-
tala bears a son in her loneliness, and sets out to claim recog-
nition for herself and child at her husband's court. But she
is as one unknown to the prince, till, after many sorrows and
trials, the ring comes to light. She is then happily reunited
with her husband, and her son grows up to be the noble
Bharata, the chief founder of the Lunar dynasty whose
achievements form the theme of the Mahabharata. Sakun-
tald, like Sita, is the type of the chaste and faithful Hindu
wife ; and her love and sorrow, after forming the favourite
romance of the Indian people for perhaps eighteen hundred
years, have furnished a theme for the great European poet of
our age. * VVouldst thou,' says Goethe,
* Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms, and the fruits of its decline,
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed, —
VVouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine ?
I name thee, O Sakuntala ! and all at once is said.'
Other
dramas
Sanskrit,
Sakuntala has had the good fortune to be translated by Sir
William Jones (1789), and to be sung by Goethe. But other
of the Hindu dramas and domestic poems are of almost equal
interest and beauty. As examples of the classical period,
may be taken the Mrichchakati, or ' Toy Cart,' a drama in ten
acts, on the old theme of the innocent cleared and the guilty
punished ; and the poem of Nala and Damayanti, or the * Royal
Gambler and the Faithful Wife.' Such plays and poems fre-
quently take an episode of the Mahdbharata or Rdmdyana for
their subject ; and in this way the main incidents in the two
great epics have been gradually dramatized or reduced to the
still more popular form of household song. The modern
MODERN PLAYS: OLD BEAST STORIES. 127
drama was one of the first branches of Hindu secular literature and
which accepted the spoken dialects ; and the native theatre i"odern.
forms the best, indeed the only, school in which an English-
man can acquaint himself with the in-door life of the people.
In our own day there has been a great dramatic revival Recent
in India : new plays in the vernacular tongues issue rapidly f^ramatic
from the press ; and societies of patriotic young natives form
themselves into dramatic companies, especially in Calcutta
and Bombay. Many of the pieces are vernacular render-
ings of stories from the Sanskrit epics and classical dramas.
Several have a political significance, and deal with the phases
of development upon which India has entered under the
influence of British rule. One Bengali play, the Nil-darpan,^
or the ' Indigo Factory,' became the subject of a celebrated trial
in Calcutta ; while others — such as Ekeiki bale Sabhyatd ? 'Is
this what you call civilisation ? ' — suggests many serious thoughts
to a candid English mind. In 1S77, 102 dramas were pub-
lished in India in the native tongues ; and in 1882, 245.
Closely allied to the drama is the prose romance. In 1823, The
Dr. H. H. Wilson intimated that Hindu literature contained ^"^»i
collections of domestic narrative to an extent surpassing those
of any other people. The vast growth of European fiction
since that date renders this statement no longer accurate. But
Wilsons translations from the Vrihat-katha may still be read
with interest,^ and the Sanskrit Beast-stories now occupy an Beast-
even more significant place in the history of Indo-European atones ;
literature than they did then. Many fables of animals familiar
to the western world, from the time of ^sop downwards, had
their original home in India. The relation between the fox and
the lion in the Greek versions has no reality in nature. It was
based, however, upon the actual relation between the lion and his
follower the jackal, in the Sanskrit stories.^ Weber thinks that
complete cycles of Indian fables may have existed in the time
of Panini (350 B.C.). It is known that the Sanskrit Pancha-
tantra, or Book of Beast Tales, was translated into the ancient their
Persian as early as the 6th century a.d., and from that render- spread
ing all the subsequent versions in Asia Minor and Europe have wards,
been derived. The most ancient animal fables of India are at
^ Literally, 'The Mirror of Indigo.'
2 Oriental Quarterly Magazine, Calcutta, March 1824, pp. 63-77. Also
vol. iii. of Wilson's Collected Works, pp. 156-268. London, 1864.
' See, however, Weber's elaborate footnote, No. 221, for the other
view, Bist. Ind. Lit., p. 21 1. Max MUller's charming essay on the
Migration of Fables {Chips, vol. iv. pp. 145-209, 1875) traces the actual
stages of a well-known story from the East to the West.
128
THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
the present day the nursery stories of England and America.
The graceful Hindu imagination delighted also in fairy tales ;
and the Sanskrit compositions of this class are the original
source of many of the fairy tales of Persia, Arabia, and
Christendom. The works of fiction published in the native
languages in India in 1877 numbered 196 ; and in 1882, 237.
Sanskrit
lyric
poetry. -
In mediaeval India, a large body of poetry, half-religious, half-
amorous, grew up around the legend of the youthful Krishna
(the eighth incarnation of Vishnu) and his loves with the
shepherdesses, the playmates of his sweet pastoral life. Kali-
dasa, according to Hindu tradition, was the father of the
erotic lyric, as well as a great dramatic and epic poet. In
his Megha-diitaor ' Cloud Messenger,' an exile sends a message
by a wind-borne cloud to his love, and the countries beneath
its long aerial route are made to pass like a panorama before
the reader's eye. The Gita Govinda, or Divine Herdsman
of Jayadeva, is a Sanskrit 'Song of Solomon' of the 12th
century a.d. A festival once a year celebrates the birthplace
of this mystical love-poet, in the Birbhiim District of Lower
Bengal ; and many less famous compositions of the same
class now issue from the vernacular press throughout India.
In 1877, no fewer than 697 works of poetry were published
in the native languages in India; and in 1882, 834.
A.D.
The The mediaeval Brdhmans displayed a marvellous activity in
Puranas, theological as well as in lyric poetry. The Purdnas, literally
century * The Ancient Writings,' form a collection of religious and philo-
sophical treatises in verse, of which the principal ones number
eighteen. The whole Puranas are said to contain 1,600,000
lines. The really old ones have either been lost or been
incorporated in new compilations ; and the composition of the
existing Puranas probably took place from the 8th to the i6th
century a.d. As the epics sang the wars of the Aryan heroes,
so the Purinas recount the deeds of the Brdhman gods. They
deal with the creation of the universe ; its successive dissolu-
tions and reconstructions ; the stories of the deities and their
incarnations ; the reigns of the divine Manus ; and the
chronicles of the Solar and Lunar lines of kings who ruled, the
former in the east and the latter in the west of the Middle
Land (Madhya-desha).
The Purdnas belong to the period after the mass of the
people had split up into their two existing divisions, as wor-
shippers of Vishnu or of Siva, post^ 700 a.d. They are
Contents
of the
Puranas.
Their
seels.
INDIAN LITERARY ACTIVITY, 1882. 129
devoted to the glorification of one or other of these two
rival gods, and thus embody the sectarian theology of Brah-
manism. While claiming to be founded on Vedic inspira- Their
tion, they practically superseded the Veda, and have formed influence,
during ten centuries the sacred literature on which Hinduism
rests. ^
An idea of the literary activity of the Indian mind at the Indian
present day may be formed from the fact, that 4890 works were ^^7h\ ,
published in India in 1877, of which 4346 were in the native In 1877
languages. Only 436 were translations, the remaining 4454
being original works or new editions. The number of Indian
publications constantly increases. In 1882, 6198 works were and 1882.
published in India, 5543 being in the native languages.
The translations numbered 720, and the original works, in-
cluding new editions, 5478. These figures only show the
publications officially registered under the Act. A large
number of unregistered pamphlets or brochures must be added ;
together with the daily and weekly issue of vernacular news-
papers, exceeding 230 in number and circulating over 150,000
copies.
This chapter has attempted to trace the intellectual and Absence of
religious development of the early Aryans in India, and their territorial
constitution into castes and communities. Regarding their
territorial history, it has said almost nothing. It has, indeed,
indicated their primeval Hne of march from their Holy Lan(J
among the seven rivers of the Punjab, to their Land of the
Sacred Singers between the upper courses of the Jumna and
the Ganges ; and thence to their more extensive settlements in
the Middle Land of Bengal {Madhya-desha) stretching to beyond
the junction of these two great rivers. It has also told very
briefly the legend of their advance into Southern India, in the
epic rendering of the Ramayana. But the foregoing pages
have refrained from attempts to fix the dates or to fill in the
* The foregoing pages have very briefly reviewed the most important
branches of Sanskrit literature ; the influence of that literature upon
Hinduism will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter. To fully appreciate
the connection between ancient thought and present practice in India, the
student may also refer to Professor Monier Williams' Modern India and tJu
Indians (Triibner, 1879). That work unites the keen observation of a
traveller new to the country with the previous learning acquired during a
lifetime devoted to Oriental studies. Professor Monier Williams is thus
enabled to correlate the existing phenomena of Indian life with the historical
types which underlie them.
I
130 THE ARYANS IN ANCIENT INDIA.
details of these movements. For the territorial extension of
the Aryans in India is still a battle-ground of inductive history.
Its indue- Even for a much later period of Indian civilisation, the
tive data. ^^^^ continue under keen dispute. This will be amply apparent
in the following chapters.^ These chapters will open with the
great upheaval of Buddhism against Brahmanism in the 6th
century before Christ. They will summarize the struggles of
the Asiatic races in India during a period of twenty-three
hundred years. They will close with the great military revival
of Hinduism under the Maratha Brahmans in the i8th century
of our era. An attempt will then be made, from the evidence
of the vernacular literature and languages, to present a view of
Indian thought and culture, when the European nations came
in force upon the scene.
The Brah- Meanwhile, the history of India, so far as obscurely known
mans in ^-q ^jg before the advent of the Greeks, 327 b.c., is essentially
history. ^ literary history, and the memorials of its civilisations are
mainly literary or religious memorials. The more practical
aspects of those long ages, which were their real aspects to
the people, found no annalist. From the commencement of
the post-Vedic period, the Brahmans strove with increasing
success to bring the Aryan life and civilisation of India more
and more into accord with their own priestly ideas.
In order to understand the long domination of the Brahmans,
and the influence which they still wield, it is necessary also to
keep in mind their position as the great literary caste. Their
priestly supremacy has been repeatedly assailed, and was during
a space of nearly a thousand years overpowered by Buddhism.
The six But throughout twenty-two centuries the Brahmans have been
attacks on ^^ counsellors of Hindu princes and the teachers of the Hindu
Brahman- , ,^, .„ 1 , * ..... -
ism, 6th people. They still represent the early Aryan civilisation of
century India. Indeed, the essential history of India is a narrative of
19th cen- the attacks upon the continuity of their civilisation, — that is
tury A.D. to say, of attacks upon the Brahmanical system of the Middle
Land, and of the modifications and compromises to which that
system has had to submit.
1 Namely, on Buddhism, the Greeks in India, the Scythic Inroads, the
Rise of Hinduism, Early Muhammadan Rulers, the Mughal Empire, and
the Maratha Power. We still await the complete evidence of coins and
inscriptions ; although valuable materials have been already obtained from
these silent memorials of the past. Mr. K. T. Telang's Introduction to the
Mndrdrdkshasa, with Appendix, shows what can be gathered from a
minute and critical examination of the historical data incidentally contained
in the Hindu drama.
SIX SOL VENTS OF BRAHMANISM. 131
Those attacks mark out six epochs. First, the religious up- i. Buddh-
rising of the non-Aryan and the partially Brahmanized Aryan ^s™-
tribes on the east of the Middle Land of Bengal \ initiated by
the preaching of Buddha in the 6th century B.C., culminating in
the Buddhist kingdoms about the commencement of our era,
and melting into modern Hinduism about the 8th century a.d.
Second,warlike inroads of non-Brahmanical Aryans and Scythic 2. Greeks,
races from the west ; strongly exemplified by the Greek invasions o"^.i •
in the 4th century B.C., and continuing under the Greco-Bactrian
empire and its Scythic rivals to probably the 5th century a.d.
Third, the influence of the so-called aborigines or non-Aryan 3. Non-
tribes of India and of the non-Aryan low-castes incorporated Airan
into the Hindu community ; an influence ever at work — indeed
by far the most powerful agent in dissolving Brahmanism into
Hinduism, and specially active after the decline of Buddhism
about the 7th century a.d.
Fourth, the reaction against the low beliefs, priestly oppres- 4. Hindu
sion, and bloody rites which resulted from this compromise ^^^^^•
between Brahmanism and aboriginal worship. The reaction
received an impetus from the preaching of Sankar Acharya,
who founded his great Sivaite sect in the 8th century a.d.
It obtained its full development under a line of ardent
Vishnuite reformers from the 12th to the i6th centuries a.d.
The fifth solvent of the ancient Brahmanical civilisation of 5. Muham-
India was found in the Muhammadan invasions and the rule madans.
of Islam, 1000 to 1765 A.D. The sixth, in the English 6. English,
supremacy, and in the popular upheaval which it has produced
in the i8th and 19th centuries. Each of these six epochs will,
so far as space permits, receive separate treatment in the
following chapters.
t
[n2]
^
CHAPTER V.
BUDDHISM IN INDIA (543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.).
Buddhism, 'pjjj, f^j-g^ gj.g^|. solvent of Brdhmanism was the teaching of
Gautama Buddha. The life of this celebrated man has three
sides, — its personal aspects, its legendary developments, and its
religious consequences upon mankind. In his own person,
Buddha appears as a prince and preacher of ancient India.
In the legendary developments of his story, Buddha ranks as
a divine teacher among his followers, as an incarnation ot
Gautama Vishnu among the Hindus, and as a saint of the Christian
Buddha, church, with a day assigned to him in both the Greek and
Roman calendars. As a religious founder, he left behind a
system of belief which has gained more disciples than any
other creed in the world ; and which is now more or less
accepted by 500 millions of people, or nearly one-half the
human race. According to the Pali texts, Buddha was born
622 B.C., and died 543 b.c.^ Modern calculations fix his death
about 480 B.C.2
The story i^^e Story of Buddha's earthly career is a typical one. It is
of Buddha, , , , , , ^ ,. . , , ^. , , , ,./^ , . ,
modelled based on the old Indian ideal of the noble hfe which we have
on the epic seen depicted in the Sanskrit epics. Like the Pandavas in
^^^' the Mahdbharata, and like Rdma in the Ramdyana, Buddha is
the miraculously born son of a king, belonging to one of the two
great Aryan lines, the Solar and the Lunar ; in Buddha's case, as
in Rama's, to the Solar. His youth, like that of the epic heroes,
is spent under Brdhman tutors, and like the epic heroes he
obtains a beautiful bride after a display of unexpected prowess
with the bow ; or, as the northern Buddhists relate, at an actual
swayam-vara, by a contest in arms for the princess. A period of
voluntary exile follows an interval of married happiness, and
Buddha retires like Rdma to a Brdhman's hermitage in the forest.
Buddha The sending back of the charioteer to the bereaved father's
and Kdma. capital forms an episode in the story of both the young princes.
As in the Ramdyana, so in the legend of Buddha, it is to the
' Childers' Dictionary of the Pdli Language^ s.v, Buddho, p. 96.
* Oldenberg's Buddha^ Sein Leben etc. (Hoey's excellent translation,
p. 197). Vide post, p. 153.
EARL V LIFE OF B UDDHA. 133
jungles on the south of the Ganges, lying between the Aryan
settlements and the aboriginal races, that the royal exile
repairs. After a time of seclusion, the Pdndavas, Rama,
and Buddha alike emerge to achieve great conquests ; the two The
former by force of arms, the last by the weapons of the Spirit, j " ^d
Up to this point the outline of the three stories has followed
the same type ; but henceforth it diverges. The Sanskrit epics
depict the ideal Aryan man as prince, hermit, and hero. In
the legend of Buddha, that ideal has developed into prince,
hermit, and saint.
Gautama, afterwards named Buddha, ' The Enlightened,' Parentage
and Siddhdrtha, * He who has fulfilled his end,' was the only f^^l"^'
son of Suddhodana, King of Kapilavastu. This prince, the Buddha,
chief of the Sakya clan, ruled over an outlying Aryan settle-
ment on the north-eastern border of the Middle Land, about 622 b.c.
a hundred miles to the north of Benares, and within sight
of the snow-topped Himalayas. A Gautama Rajput of the
noble Solar line, he wished to see his son grow up on the
warlike model of his race. But the young prince shunned the His lonely
sports of his playmates, and retired to solitar}' day-dreams in ^^"^ ' ^^"
nooks of the palace garden. The king tried to win his son to
a practical career by marrying him to a beautiful and talented
girl ; and the youthful Gautama unexpectedly proved his
manliness by a victory over the flower of the young chiefs at
a tournament. For a while he forgot his solemn speculations
on the unseen, in the sweet reaUties of early married life.
But in his drives through the city he deeply reflected His mar-
on the types of old age, disease, and death which met ^^}^^\
his eye ; and he was powerfully impressed by the calm of
a holy man, who seemed to have raised his soul above the
changes and sorrows of this world. After ten years, his wife
bore to him an only son ; and Gautama, fearing lest this new-
tie should bind him too closely to the things of earth, retired
about the age of thirty to a cave among the forest-clad spurs
of the Vindhyas. The story of how he turned away from the His Great
door of his wife's lamp-lit chamber, denying himself even a ^^^""cia-
parting caress of his new-born babe lest he should wake the 29-30. *
sleeping mother, and galloped off" into the darkness, is one of
the many tender episodes in his life. After a gloomy night ride,
he sent back his one companion, the faithful charioteer, with
his horse and jewels to his father. Having cut off" his long
Rajput locks, and exchanged his princely raiment for the rags
of a poor passer-by, he went on alone a homeless beggar.
This abandonment of earthly pomp and power, and of loved
134 BUDDHISM, 543 B,C. TO 1000 A.D.
wife and new-born son, is the Great Renunciation which forms
a favourite theme of the Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit, Pali,
Tibetan, and Chinese. It has furnished, during twenty cen-
turies, the type of self-sacrifice which all Indian reformers must
follow if they are to win the trust of the people.
Buddha's For a time Buddha studied under two Brahman recluses, near
JJf^2o-36 Rajagriha, in Patna District, learning from them that the
or 29-34.^ path to divine knowledge and tranquillity of soul lies through
the subjection of the flesh. He then buried himself deeper in
the south-eastern jungles, which at that time covered Gaya
District, and during six years wasted himself by austerities
in company with five disciples. The temple of Buddh-Gaya
marks the site of his long penance. But instead of earning
peace of mind by fasting and self-torture, he reached a crisis
of religious despair, during which the Buddhist scriptures
affirm that the enemy of mankind, Mara, wrestled with him
in bodily shape. Torn with doubts as to whether, after all
588 B.C. his penance, he was not destined to perdition, the haggard
ascetic, in a final paroxysm, fell senseless to the earth.
When he recovered, the mental struggle had passed. He
His spiri- felt that the path to salvation lay not in self- torture in a
tual crisis, mountain cave, but in preaching a higher life to his fellow-
men. His five disciples, shocked by his giving up penance,
forsook him ; and Buddha was left in solitude to face the ques-
tion whether he alone was right and all the devout minds of
his age were wrong. The Buddhist scriptures depict him as
His temp- sitting serene under a fig-tree, while the great Enemy and his
tation. crew whirled round him with flaming weapons. 'When the
conflict began between the Saviour of the World and the
Prince of Evil,' says one of their sacred texts,^ the earth shook ;
the sea uprose from her bed, the rivers turned back to the
mountains, the hill-tops fell crashing to the plains, the sun was
darkened, and a host of headless spirits rode upon the tempest.
From his temptation in the wilderness, the ascetic emerged
His * En- with his doubts for ever laid at rest, seeing his way clear, and
lighten- henceforth to be known as Buddha, literally 'The Enlightened.'^
This was Buddha's second birth ; and the pipal fig or
Bo (Bodhi), literally the Tree of the Enlightenment, under
whose spreading branches its pangs were endured, has become
^ The Madhurattha-Vilasinf, Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society ^ vol.
vii. p. 812. Rhys Davids' Buddhism^ p. 36.
' According to the Ceylonese texts, Buddha * obtained Buddhahood ' in
588 B.C. This would make him 34, not 36 years of age. Childers' Pali
Dictionary ^ s.v. Buddho.
POPULAR PREACHING OF BUDDHA. 135
the sacred tree of 500 millions of mankind. It is the
Ficus religiosa of Western science. The idea of a second
birth was familiar to the twice-born Aryan castes of ancient His story
India, and was represented by their race-ceremony of in- ^^jl^^r^ ^^^
vesting the boy at the close of childhood with the sacred types,
thread. In this, as in its other features, the story of Buddha
adheres to ancient Aryan types, but gives to them a new
spiritual significance. Having passed through the three pre-
scribed stages of the Aryan saintly life, — as learner, house-
holder, and forest recluse, — he now entered on its fourth stage
as a religious mendicant. But he developed from the old
Brahmanical model of the wandering ascetic, intent only on
saving his own soul, the nobler type of the preacher, striving
to bring deliverance to the souls of others.
^ Two months after his temptation in the wilderness, Buddha Public
commenced his public teaching in the Deer- Forest, on the gu^^jj'f °*
outskirts of the great city of Benares. C Unlike the Brahmans, cet. 36-80.
he addressed himself, not to one or two disciples of the sacred
caste, but to the mass of the people. His first converts were
laymen, and among the earliest were women. After three
months of ministry, he had gathered around him sixty disciples,
whom he sent forth to the neighbouring countries with these He sends
words : ' Go ye now and preach the most excellent Law.' The ^^^^ ^^^
essence of his teaching was the deliverance of man from the
sins and sorrows of life by self-renunciation and inward self-
control. While the sixty disciples went on their missionary
tour among the populace, Buddha converted certain celebrated
hermits and fire-worshippers by an exposition of the philo-
sophical side of his doctrine. With this new band he
journeyed on to Rajdgriha, where the local king and his
subjects joined the faith, but where also he first experienced
the fickleness of the multitude. Two-thirds of each year he
spent as a wandering preacher. The remaining four months of
the rainy season he abode at some fixed place, often near
Rajagriha, teaching the people who flocked around his little
dwelling in the bamboo grove. His five old disciples, who He con-
had forsaken him in the time of his sore temptation in the '^erts the
wilderness, penitently rejoined their master. Princes, mer-
chants, artificers, Brihmans and hermits, husbandmen and
serfs, noble ladies and repentant courtesans, were yearly added
to those who believed.
Buddha preached throughout a large part ot Behar, in the
Oudh, and the adjacent Districts in the North - Western Gangetic
Provinces. In after ages monasteries marked his halting-
Buddha
converts
his own
family.
J
He pro-
phesies his
death.
J
Buddha's
last words.
543 B.C.
Different
versions
of the
Legend.
136 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
places ; and the principal scenes of his life, such as
AjODHYA, Buddh-Gaya, Sravasti, the modern Sahet Mahet,
Rajagriha, etc., became the great places of pilgrimage for
the Buddhist vi^orld. His visit to his aged father at Kapila-
vastu, whence he had gone forth as a brilliant young prince,
and to which he returned as a wandering preacher, in dingy
yellow robes, with shaven head and the begging bowl in his
hand, is a touching episode which appeals to the heart of
universal mankind. The old king heard him with reverence.
The son, whom Buddha had left as a new-born babe, was
converted to the faith ; and his beloved wife, from the
threshold of whose chamber he had ridden away into the
darkness, became one of the first of Buddhist nuns.
The Great Renunciation took place in his twenty-ninth year.
After silent self-preparation, his public ministry commenced
in his thirty-sixth, and during forty-four years he preached to
the people. In prophesying his death, he said to his
followers : * Be earnest, be thoughtful, be holy. Keep stedfast
watch over your own hearts. He who holds fast to the law
and discipline, and faints not, he shall cross the ocean of life
and make an end of sorrow.' He spent his last night in
preaching, and in comforting a weeping disciple; his latest
words, according to one account, were, ' Work out your salva-
tion with diligence.' He died calmly, at the age of eighty,^
under the shadow of a fig-tree, at Kusinagara, the modern
Kasia, in Gorakhpur District.
Such is the story of Gautama Buddha's life derived from
Indian sources, a story which has the value of gospel truth to
31 millions 2 of devout believers. But the two branches even
of Indian or Southern Buddhism have each their own version,
and the Buddha of the Burmese differs in important respects
from the Buddha of the Ceylonese.^ Still wider is the diver-
^ According to some accounts ; according to others, at about seventy.
But the chronology of Buddha's life is legendary.
2 The following estimate is given by Mr. Rhys Davids of the number
of the Southern Buddhists, substituting for his Indian figures the results
ascertained by the Census of 1881 : —
In Ceylon 1,520,575
,, India and British Burma, . . . nearly 4,ocx),cxx)
,, Burma, 3,000,000
,, Siam, . . . . . . . . . 10,000,000
,, Anam, 12,000,000
,, Jains, 485,020
Total, . .. 3i»oo5.595
' The original Pali text of the Commentary of the Jdtakhas is assigned
LATER YEARS OF BUDDHA. 137
gence which the Northern or Tibetan Buddhists give to the
legend of the life and to the teaching of their Master. The
southern texts dwell upon the early career of Buddha up to
the time of his Enlightenment in his 34th or 36th year. The
incidents of that period have a peculiar pathos, and appeal to
the most sacred experiences of humanity in all ages. They
form the favourite episodes of European works on Buddhism.
But such works are apt to pay perhaps too little attention to
the fact that the first thirty-four years of Buddha's life were
only a self-preparation for a social and religious propaganda
prolonged to an extreme old age.
The forty-six years of intense personal labour, during which Later
Buddha traversed wide regions, converted nations, withstood g^^J^ha
kings, eluded assassins, and sifted out false disciples, receive
more attention in the northern legends. These legends have
lately been compiled from the Tibetan texts into a work which
furnishes a new and most interesting view of Buddha's life.^
The best authority on the Southern Buddhism of Burma states
that the history of the Master ' offers an almost complete blank
as to what regards his doings and preachings during a period
of nearly twenty-three years.' ^
The texts of the Northern Buddhists fill up this blank. Northern
Southern Buddhism modelled its biographies of the Master ^*^^*
to Ceylonese scribes, circ. 450 A.D. The first part of it was published by
Fausboll in 1875 (Copenhagen) ; and Mr. Rhys Davids' translation, with
valuable introduction and notes, appeared under the title of Buddhut
Birth Stories in l88o (Triibner, London). Mr. Childers* Dictionary 0/ the
Pali Language is a storehouse of original materials from Ceylonese sources,
and has been used for verifying all statements in the present chapter. A
compendious view of Southern Buddhism, ancient and modern, will be
found in Spence W2ctdy's Manual of Buddhism, translated from Singalese
MS. The Burmese branch of Southern Buddhism is well represented by
Bishop Bigandet's Life or Legend of Gaudama (third edition, 2 vols.,
Triibner, 1880), and by Mr. Alabaster's The Wheel of the Law ^ a transla-
tion or paraphrase of the Siamese Pathama Sambodhiyan. Mr. Rhys
Davids' Buddhism, and his Bibber t Lectures, give an excellent review of
the faith. The French works, the original authorities in Europe, have (in
some respects) been superseded by Oldenberg's Btiddha^ Sein Leben etc.
^ The Life of the Buddha, and the Early History of his Order, deHved
from Itbetan Works in the Bkah-hgyur and Bstan-hgyur, translated by
\V. Woodville Rockhill, Second Secretary to the United States Legation
in China (Trdbner & Co., London 1884). Mr. Beal's Si-yu-ki, or
Buddhist Records of the Western World, translated from the Chinese of
Hiuen Tsiang, throws curious side-lights upon the traditions which the
Chinese pilgrim brought with him or heard in India regarding the local
incidents of Buddha's life.
2 From the fifty-sixth to the seventy-ninth year of his life. Bishop
.Bigandet's Life or Legend of Gaudama, vol. i. p. 260, and footnote.
The
Indian
epic type
The
Tibetan
iype.
The philo-
sophical
type
of the
Southern
Buddha.
The
northern
concrete
type.
138 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO looo A.D.
upon the Indian epic type. Such biographies, as already stated,
reproduce the three stages in the life of an Aryan hero, depicted
by the Mahabhirata and Rdmayana; except that the three
ideal stages have developed from those of prince, hermit, and
warrior, to those of prince, hermit, and saint. In the northern
conditions of China and Tibet, Buddha appears by no means as
an Aryan hero. He is rather the representative of a race with
birth-customs and death-rites of its own — of a race dwelling
amid the epic Aryan kingdoms of India, but with traces of a
separate identity in the past. He is a Sakya (perhaps a
Scythic) prince, whose clan had settled to the south of the
Himalayas, and preserved relics of a non- Aryan type.
The artificial character which the southern legends give to
the life of Buddha, arose from their tendency to assimilate him
with epic Indian types. It was intensified by the equally Indian
tendency to convert actual facts into philosophical abstractions.
Gautama or Sakya-Muni became only a link in a long series of
just men made perfect. According to the Ceylonese texts, a
Buddha is a human being who has obtained perfect self-control
and infinite knowledge. Having attained Enlightenment himself,
he spends the rest of his life in preaching the truth to others.
At his death he is reabsorbed into the Divine Essence, and his
religion flourishes for a certain period until it dies out, and a new
Buddha appears to preach anew the lost truth. (The attainment
of Buddhahood is the final result of virtue and self-sacrifice during
many previous lives. Innumerable Buddhas have been born
in this world; 24 of whom are separately named. Gautama was
only the latest, and his doctrine is destined to give place to the
Metteya Buddha, or Buddha of Kindness, who is next to come.^ )
The Buddha of the northern legends is a reformer of a more
concrete type. The Tibetan texts give prominence to the
political aspects of his Reformation. Incidentally, indeed, they
amplify several of the touching episodes familiar to Southern
Buddhism. The * great Fear ' which impelled the young prince
forth from his palace into the darkness to seek a higher life ;
the dirt and stones thrown at the wanderer by the village girls ;
the parables of the Mango-tree, the Devout Slave, and many
others; the rich young man who left all for the faith and
was not exceeding sorry ; and Buddha's own retirement from
Benares to avoid the gifts and honours which were being thrust
upon him, — receive fresh illustration from the Tibetan texts.^
^ Mr. Childers' Pdli Dictionary, p. 96. Sanskrit, MaHraya.
'^ The materials for the following paragraphs are derived mainly from
Mr. Rockhill's work (1884), already cited.
POLITICAL ASPECTS OF BUDDHA. 139
. But it is from the political and historical aspects that the Political
Tibetan life of Buddha possesses its special value. We learn \l^?\.
that Buddhism was in its origin only one of many conflicting
sects ; indeed, that alike to its royal patrons and opponents it
appeared at first in the light of a new order rather than in the
light of a new faith. ^ The early struggles of Buddhism were
neither with the old Aryan gods, nor with the Brahmans as a
caste ; but with rival orders of philosophers or ascetics, and
with schismatics among its own followers. The gods of the
Veda, Brahma, Indra, and the Shining Ones, appear in friendly
relations with Buddha, and attend upon him in more than one
crisis of his life. The Brahmans were no longer a caste alto-
gether devoted to a spiritual life. The Tibetan texts disclose
them as following partly religious, partly secular avocations,
and as among ' the great nobles ' of an Indian kingdom. The
Brahman attitude to the new faith was by no means one of con-
federate hostility. The main body of Brahmans continued non-
Buddhistic, and taught their doctrines at royal courts. But many
conspicuous converts were drawn from among them, and the
Tibetan texts almost uniformly speak of Brihmans with respect.
The opponents of the Tibetan Buddha were rival sects Buddha's
whom he found in possession of the field, and the false ^^'^
. . . ^ , . •,. . , ^, , , opponents.
brethren who arose among his own disciples. The older
hostile sects were confuted, sometimes by fair discussion, but
more often by superior magical feats. Indeed, transformations
and miraculous appearances seem for a time to have furnished
the most potent arguments of the new faith. But eventually
Buddha forbade resort to such testimonies, and magic became
to the orthodox Buddhist an unholy art. In his later years,
Buddha more than once insists that his doctrine is essentially
one to be understanded of the people ; that he was keeping back His
no secret for an initiated few ; and that he was the preacher "magical
of a strictly popular religion without any esoteric side.
It was from among his own disciples that his bitterest
enemies came. The Sakya race of Kapilavastu had adopted
his teaching as a nation, without much pretence of individual
conversion. Buddha's modest beginnings, first with the five
followers, then with the sixty, then with the thousand, now Wholesale
took a national development. In the fervour of the new ^^^y^ .
, r, 1 I'll ,- conversion
movement, the Sakyas proclaimed that one man out of every
family must enter the Buddhist mendicant order ; and it was
from this ordinance, to which Buddha was compelled to give a
reluctant assent, that the troubles of his later life arose.
1 Rockhill, op. cit. Also Rhys Davids' liibbert Lectures, p. 156.
140 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
Schism of The discontent among the forced disciples found a leader
a. -^ Buddha's own cousin, Devadatta, who aspired by superior
asceticism to the headship. For the schism which he created,
Devadatta won the support of the Heir-apparent of Magadha.
A struggle, partly religious partly political, ensued. Devadatta
was for a time triumphant. He abetted the murder of the
Magadha king, the father of his ally ; forced the aged Buddha
into retirement; and plundered and oppressed the people.
The miraculous deliverances of ' the Blessed One ' from the
catapult, and from the wild elephant let loose against him in a
narrow street, mark, however, the turning-point in the fortunes
of the schism. Devadatta was confuted by magical arts, and
his royal patron was converted to the true faith. The traitor
disciple having thus failed to usurp the spiritual leadership of
the Sakyas, attempted to seduce the wife whom Buddha had
left in solitude. The apostate hoped with her aid to stand
forth as the king or temporal leader of the Sakya race. His
contemptuous rejection by the loyal Sakya princess, his acts of
His fall despairing cruelty, and his fall into hell with a lie in his mouth,
into hell. f^|.]y q\q^^ the career of the first great schismatic.
Buddha, Throughout the Tibetan texts, Buddha figures as a typical
pdnce Sakya ; first as a young Kshattriya or prince of the royal line,
and then as a saintly personage who turns back an army sent
against his nation by the force of his piety alone. Such
spiritual weapons, however, proved a feeble defence in early
India. Eventually, the Sakya capital was attacked by over-
whelming numbers. For a time the enemy were repulsed
without the Buddhists incurring the sin of taking Hfe. But
their firm adherence to their Master's commandment, 'Thou
shalt not kill,' in the end decided the fate of the Sakya city.
Some escaped into exile and founded settlements in distant
parts as far as the other side of the Punjab frontier. The fall
of the city ended in the slaughter of 77,000 Sakyas, and in
the dispersion of the remnants of the race. The story of the
five hundred Sakya youths and five hundred Sakya maidens
Disasters ^^^^ "^tTt, carried into captivity is a pathetic one. The five
of his race, hundred youths were massacred in cold blood ; and the faithful
Sakya maidens, having refused to enter the harem of their
conqueror, were exposed to the populace with their hands and
feet chopped off. How Buddha came to them in their misery,
dressed their wounds, and comforted them with the hope of a
better life, * so that they died in the faith,' is affectingly told.
The foregoing narrative touches only on one or two aspects
of the Tibetan texts. It suffices to show the characteristic
BUDDHA'S DOCTRINE OF KARMA. 141
divergences between the northern and the southern legend. Other
In the northern, there is a gradually developed contrast be- of^the^
tween two main figures, the traitor Devadatta and his brother Tibetan
Ananda, the Beloved Disciple. The last year of Buddha's ^^^^ *
ministry is dwelt on by both. But its full significance and its
most tender episodes are treated with special unction in the
northern version of the Book of the Great Decease. The Fo-wei-
kian-king,^ or * Dying Instruction of Buddha,' translated into
Chinese between 397 and 415 a.d. from a still earlier Sanskrit
text, gives to the last scene a peculiar beauty. ' It was now in the Chinese
middle of the night,' it says, 'perfectly quiet and still : for the sake S^^^J^ »
of his disciples, he delivered a summary of the law.' After laying dying dis-
down the rules of a good life, he revealed the inner doctrines of course,
his faith. From these a few sentences may be taken. 'The heart
is lord of the senses : govern, therefore, your heart ; watch well
the heart' 'Think of the fire that shall consume the world,
and early seek deliverance from it.' ' Lament not my going
away, nor feel regret. For if I remained in the world, then
what would become of the church ? It must perish without
fulfilling its end. From henceforth all my disciples, practising
their various duties, shall prove that my true Body, the Body The
of the Law (Dharmakaya)^ is everlasting and imperishable, ^^p^^fu
The world is fast bound in fetters ; I now give it deliverance,
as a physician who brings heavenly medicine. Keep your
mind on my teaching ; all other things change, this changes
not. No more shall I speak to you. I desire to depart. I
desire the eternal rest {Nirvana). This is my last exhortation.'
The secret of Buddha's success was that he brought spiritual
deliverance to the people. He preached that salvation was
equally open to all men, and that it must be earned, not by
propitiating imaginary deities, but by our own conduct. His
doctrines thus cut away the religious basis of caste, impaired the
efficiency of the sacrificial ritual, and assailed the supremacy of
the Brahmans as the mediators between God and man. Buddha
taught that sin, sorrow, and deliverance, the state of a man in this
life, in all previous and in all future lives, are the inevitable results
of his own acts {Karma). He thus applied the inexorable law of Law of
cause and effect to the soul. What a man sows, he must reap. ^^'''''^•
As no evil remains without punishment, and no good deed
without reward, it follows that neither priest nor God can prevent
' Translated in Appendix to the Catalogue of the Manuscripts presented
by the Japanese Government to the Secretary of State for India, and now
in the India Office. — Concluding letter of Mr. Beal to Dr. Rost, dated
1st September 1874, sec. 5.
VA'
7
The liber-
ation of
the soul.
142 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
each act bearing its own consequences. Misery or happiness in
this life is the unavoidable result of our conduct in a past life ;
and our actions here will determine our happiness or misery
in the life to come. When any creature dies, he is born again
in some higher or lower state of existence, according to his
meri or demerit. His merit, or demerit, that is his character,
consists of the sum total of his actions in all previous lives.
\/ By this great law of Karma, Buddha explained the inequali-
ties and apparent injustice of man's estate in this world as
the consequence of acts in the past ; while Christianity
compensates those inequalities by rewards in the future. A
system in which our whole well-being, past, present, and to
come, depends on ourselves, theoretically leaves little room for
the interference, or even existence, of a personal God.^ But
the atheism of Buddha was a philosophical tenet, which so
far from weakening the sanctions of right and wrong, gave them
new strength from the doctrine of Karma, or the Metem-
psychosis of Character.
To free ourselves from the thraldom of desire and from the
fetters of selfishness, was to attain to the state of the perfect
disciple, Arahat in this life, and to the everlasting rest after
Nirvdna. death, Nirvana. Some Buddhists explain Nirvdfza as absolute
annihilation, when the soul is blown out like the flame of a
lamp. Others hold that it is merely the extinction of the
sins, sorrows, and selfishness of individual life. The fact is,
that the doctrine underwent processes of change and develop-
ment, like all theological dogmas. 'But the earliest idea
of Nirvana,^ says one of the greatest authorities on Chinese
Buddhism, 'seems to have included in it no more than the
enjoyment of a state of rest consequent on the extinction
of all causes of sorrow. '^ The great practical aim of Buddha's
teaching was to subdue the lusts of the flesh and the cravings
of self; and Nirvana has been taken to mean the extinc-
tion of the sinful grasping condition of heart which, by the
inevitable law of Karma, would involve the penalty of renewed
individual existence. As the Buddhist strove to reach a
state of quietism or holy meditation in this world, namely, the
^ 'Buddhism,' says Mr. Beal, Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, p. 153,
' declares itself ignorant of any mode of personal existence compatible with
the idea of spiritual perfection, and so far, it is ignorant of God.'
2 Beal, Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese^ p. 157, ed.
1871 ; and the Buddhist Tripitaka, App., Letter to Dr. Rost, sec. 6. Max
Miiller deals with the word from the etymological and Sanskrit side in his
Chips from a German Workshops vol. i. pp. 279, 296, ed. 1867. But see,
specially, Childers' Pdli Dictionary ^ s.v. Nilbanam, pp. 265-274.
MISSIONAR V WORK OF B UDDHISM, 143
state of the perfect disciple or Arahat ; so he looked forward
to an eternal calm in a world to come, Nirvdria.
Buddha taught that this end could only be attained by the Moral
practice of virtue. He laid down eight precepts of morality, ^° ^'
with two more for the religious orders, making ten command-
ments {dasasild) in all. He arranged the besetting faults of
mankind into ten sins, and set forth the special duties appli- The Ten
cable to each condition of life ; to parents and children, to nients.
pupils and teachers, to husbands and wives, to masters and
servants, to laymen and the religious orders. In place of the
Brahman rites and sacrifices, Buddha prescribed a code of . /
practical moraHty as the means of salvation. The four /
essential features of that code were — reverence to spiritual I
teachers and parents, control over self, kindness to other men, I
and reverence for the life of all sentient creatures.
He urged on his disciples that they must not only follow Missionary
the true path themselves, but that they should preach it to all ^^P?^!^- °^
mankind. Buddhism has from the first been a missionary
religion. One of the earliest acts of Buddha's public ministry
was to send forth the Sixty ; and he carefully formulated the
four chief means of conversion. These were companionship ^
with the good, listening to the Law, reflection upon the truths
heard, and the practice of virtue. He also instituted a re-
ligious Order, one of whose special duties it was to go forth
and preach to the nations. While, therefore, the Brahmans
kept their ritual for the twice-born Aryan castes. Buddhism
addressed itself not only to those castes and to the lower
mass of the people, but to all the non-Aryan races through-
out India, and eventually to almost the whole Asiatic world.
Two features of the Buddhist Order were its fortnightly
meetings and public confession, or ' Disburdenment ' of sins.
On the death of Buddha, five hundred of his disciples met The First
in a vast cave near Rajagriha to gather together his sayings. ?°^"^p'/?\^
This was the First Council. They chanted the lessons of
their master in three great divisions — the words of Buddha to
his disciples ; ^ his code of discipline ; ^ and his system of
doctrine. 3 These became the Three Collections ^ of Buddha's
teaching ; and the word for a Buddhist Council ^ means
literally ' a singing together.' A century afterwards, a Second Second
Council, of seven hundred, was held at Vaisali, to settle disputes Cou^ciT*
between the more and the less strict followers of Buddhism. 443 b.c. (?)
It condemned a system of ten * Indulgences ' which had grown
^ Sutras. 2 Vinaya. 3 Abhidharma.
* Fitakas, lit. * baskets ; ' afterwards the five Nikdyas. ^ Sangiti in Pali.
144 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
The work
of Asoka.
up ; but it led to the separation of the Buddhists into two
hostile parties, who afterwards split into eighteen sects.
B^ddh* During the next two hundred years Buddhism spread over
Council, Northern India, perhaps receiving a new impulse from the Greek
244 B.C. (?) kingdoms in the Punjab. About 257 b.c, Asoka, the King of
Magadha or Behar, became a zealous convert to the faith.^ Asoka
was grandson of the Chandra Gupta whom we shall meet as an
adventurer in Alexander's camp, and afterwards as an ally of
Seleukos. Asoka is said to have supported 64,000 Buddhist
priests ; he founded many religious houses, and his kingdom is
called the Land of the Monasteries (Vihara or Behar) to this day.
Asoka did for Buddhism what Constantine afterwards effected
for Christianity ; he organized it on the basis of a State reli-
gion. This he accomplished by five means — by a Council
to settle the faith, by edicts promulgating its principles, by a
State Department to watch over its purity, by missionaries to
spread its doctrines, and by an authoritative revision or canon
of the Buddhist scriptures. In 244 B.C., Asoka convened
at Patna the Third Buddhist Council, of one thousand elders. '
Evil men, taking on them the yellow robe of the Order, had
given forth their own opinions as the teaching of Buddha.
Such heresies were now corrected ; and the Buddhism of
Southern Asia practically dates from Asoka's Council.
1 Much learning has been expended upon the age of Asoka, and various
dates have been assigned to him. But, indeed, all Buddhist dates are open
questions, according to the system of chronology adopted. The middle of
the 3rd century B.C. may be taken as the era of Asoka. The following
table from General Cunningham's Corpus Inscriptionum Indicaruni^ p. vii.
(1877), exhibits the results of the latest researches on this subject : —
(i) His
Great
Council.
B.C. 264
AsOKA, Struggle with brothers, 4 years.
260
Comes to the throne.
257
Conversion to Buddhism.
256
Treaty with Antiochus.
255
Mahindo ordained.
251
Earliest date of rock edicts.
249
Second date of rock edicts.
248
Arsakes rebels in Parthia.
246
Diodotus rebels in Bactria.
244
Third Buddhist Council under Mogaliputra.
243
Mahindo goes to Ceylon.
242
Barabar cave inscriptions.
234
Pillar edicts issued.
231
Queen Asandhimitta dies.
228
Second Queen married.
226
Her attempt to destroy the Bodhi tree.
225
Asoka becomes an ascetic.
224
Issues Rupnath and Sasseram edicts.
223
Dies.
215
Dasaratha's cave inscriptions, Ndgdrjuni.
BUDDHIST COUNCIL UND
In a number of edicts, before and after the synod, he published (2) His
throughout India the cardinal principles of the faith. Such edicts
are still found graven deep upon pillars, caves, and rocks, from
the Yusafzai valley beyond Peshawar on the north-western
frontier, through the heart of Hindustan and the Central Pro-
vinces, to Kathiawar in the west, and Orissa in the east coast
of India. Tradition states that Asoka set up 84,000 memorial
columns or topes. The Chinese pilgrims came upon them in
the inner Himalayas. Forty-two inscriptions still surviving
show how widely these royal sermons were spread over India
itself 1
In the year of the Council, Asoka founded a State Depart- (3) His
ment to watch over the purity, and to direct the spread, of the j^gnrof
faith. A Minister of Justice and Religion (Dharma Mahdmatra) Public
directed its operations ; and, as one of its first duties was to "^^orship.
proselytize, this Minister was charged with the welfare of the ^
aborigines among whom his missionaries were sent. Asoka
did not think it enough to convert the inferior races, without
looking after their material interests. Wells were to be dug,
and trees planted, along the roads ; a system of medical aid was
^ Major-General Cunningham, Director-General of the Archaeological
Survey of India, enumerates 14 rock inscriptions, 17 cave inscriptions,
and II inscribed pillars. The rock inscriptions are at — (i) Shahbazgarhi
in the Yusafzai country, 40 miles east-north-east of Peshawar ; (2) Khalsi
on the west bank of the Jumna ; (3) Girnar in Kathiawar, 40 miles north
of Somnath ; (4 to 7) Dhauli in Cuttack, midway between Cuttack
and Purl, and Jaugada in Ganjam District, 18 miles north-north-west of
Barhampur, — two inscriptions at each, virtually identical ; (8) Sasseram, at
the north-east end of the Kaimur range, 70 miles south-east of Benares ;
(9) Rupnath, a famous place of pilgrimage, 35 miles north of Jabalpur ;
(10 and 11) Bairat, 41 miles north of Jaipur ; (12) the Khandgiri Hill,
near Dhauli in Cuttack ; (13) Deotek, 50 miles south-east of Nagpur ; (14)
Mansera, north-west of Rawal Pindi, inscribed in the Bactrian character.
The cave inscriptions, 17 in number, are found at — (i, 2, 3) Barabar, and
(4, 5, 6) Nagarjuni Hills, both places 15 miles north of Gaya ; (7 to 15)
Khandgiri Hill in Cuttack, and (16 and 17) Ramgarh in Sirguja, The
eleven inscribed pillars are — (i) the Delhi-Siwalik, at Delhi ; (2) theDelhi-
Meerut, at Delhi ; (3) the Allahabad; (4) the Lauriya-Araraj, at Lauriya,
77 miles north of Patna ; (5) the Lauriya-Navandgarh, at another
Lauriya, 15 miles north-north-west of Bettia ; (6 and 7) two additional
edicts on the Delhi-Siwalik, not found on any other pillar ; (8 and 9) two
short additional edicts on the Allahabad pillar, peculiar to itself; (10) a
short mutilated record on a fragment of a pillar at Sanchi, near Bhilsa; (11)
at Rampura in the Tarai, north-east of the second Lauriya, near Bettia.
The last-named pillar and the rock inscription at Mansera (No. 14) are
recent discoveries since the first edition of this work was published. The
Mansera rock inscription is interesting as being the second in the Bactrian
character, and for its recording twelve Edicts complete.
K
(4) Mis-
sionary
efforts.
(5) Re-
formed
canon of
Buddhist
scriptures.
Edicts of
Asoka.
146 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
established throughout his kingdom and the conquered Pro-
vinces, as far as Ceylon, for man and beast. ^ Officers were
appointed to watch over domestic life and public morality,^ and
to promote instruction among the women as well as the youth.
Asoka recognised proselytism by peaceful means as a State
duty. The Rock Inscriptions record how he sent forth mis-
sionaries * to the utmost limits of the barbarian countries/ to
' intermingle among all unbelievers,' for the spread of religion.
They shall mix equally with soldiers, Brahmans, and beggars,
with the dreaded and the despised, both within the kingdom
* and in foreign countries, teaching better things.' ^ Conversion
is to be effected by persuasion, not by the sword. Buddhism
was at once the most intensely missionary religion in the world,
and the most tolerant. This character of a proselytizing faith,
which wins its victories by peaceful means, so strongly impressed
upon it by Asoka, has remained a prominent feature of
Buddhism to the present day. Asoka, however, not only
took measures to spread the religion, he also endeavoured to
secure its orthodoxy. He collected the body of doctrine
into an authoritative version, in the Magadhi language or
dialect of his central kingdom in Behar ; a version which for
two thousand years has formed the canon {pitakas) of the
Southern Buddhists. In this way, the Magadhi dialect became
the Pdli or sacred language of the Ceylonese.
Mr. Robert Cust thus summarizes Asoka's Fourteen Edicts : —
1. Prohibition of the slaughter of animals for food or sacrifice.
2. Provision of a system of medical aid for men and animals, and i)f
plantations and wells on the roadside.
3. Order for a quinquennial humiliation and re-publication of the great
moral precepts of the Buddhist faith.
4. Comparison of the former state of things, and the happy existing
state under the king.
Appointment of missionaries to go into various countries, which are
enumerated, to convert the people and foreigners.
Appointment of informers (or inspectors) and guardians of morality.
Expression of a desire that there may be uniformity of religion and
equality of rank.
8. Contrast of the carnal pleasures of previous rulers with the pious
enjoyments of the present king.
9. Inculcation of the true happiness to be found in virtue, through
which alone the blessings of heaven can be propitiated.
* Rock Inscriptions, Edict ii., General Cunningham's Corpus Inscrip-
tio/ium, p. 118.
*^ Rock Inscriptions, Edict vi. etc., Corpus Inscriptionuvi, p. 120. These
Inspectors of Morals are supposed to correspond to the Sixth Caste of
Megasthenes, the *£«-/>*<>»«< of Arrian.
3 Rock Inscriptions, Edict v. etc., Corpus Inscriptionum, p. 120.
BUDDHIST COUNCIL UNDER KANISHKA. 147
10. Contrast of the vain and transitory glory of this world with the
reward for which the king strives and looks beyond.
11. Inculcation of the doctrine that the imparting of dharma or teaching
of virtue to others is the greatest of charitable gifts.
12. Address to all unbelievers.
13. (Imperfect) ; the meaning conjectural.
14. Summing up of the whole.
The fourth and last of the great Buddhist Councils was held Fourth
under King Kanishka, according to one tradition four centuries S°""Tl!
after Buddha's death. The date of Kanishka is still uncertain ; (40 a.d. ?)
but, from the evidence of coins and inscriptions, his reign has
been fixed in the ist century after Christ, or, say, 40 a.d.^
Kanishka, the most famous of the Saka conquerors, ruled over
North - Western India, and the adjoining countries. His
authority had its nucleus in Kashmir, but it extended to both
sides of the Himalayas, from Yarkand and Khokand to Agra
and Sind.
Kanishka's Council of five hundred drew up three com-
mentaries on the Buddhist faith. These commentaries sup-
plied in part materials for the Tibetan or Northern Canon, 'Greater
completed at subsequent periods. The Northern Canon, or, ^^'"c^^-
as the Chinese proudly call it, the ' Greater Vehicle of the
Law,' includes many later corruptions or developments of the
Buddhism which was originally embodied by Asoka in the
' Lesser Vehicle,' or Canon of the Southern Buddhists (244 B.C.). * Lesser
The Buddhist Canon of China, a branch of the 'Greater Vehicle,' V^^^i^l^-'
was gradually arranged between 67 and 1285 a.d. It includes
1440 distinct works, comprising 5586 books. The ultimate
divergence between the Canons is great. They differ not
only, as we have seen, in regard to the legend of Buddha's
life, but also as to his teaching. With respect to doctrine, one
example will suffice. According to the Northern or ' Greater
Vehicle,' Buddhist monks who transgress wilfully after ordina-
tion may yet recover themselves ; while to such castaways the
Southern or ' Lesser Vehicle ' allowed no room for repentance.-
The original of the Northern Canon was written in the Northern
Sanskrit language, perhaps because the Kashmir and northern ^^^ ,
priests, who formed Kanishka's Council, belonged to isolated Canons.
Himalayan settlements which had been little influenced by the
^ The latest efforts to fix the date of Kanishka are little more than
records of conflicting authorities. See Dr. James Fergusson's paper in the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Article ix., April 1880; and Mr. E.
Thomas' comprehensive disquisition on the Sah and Gupta coins, pp. 18 79
of the Report of the Archceological Survey of Western India for 1874-75,
410, London, 1876. ^ Beal, Catena, p. 253.
148 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
growth of the Indian vernacular dialects. In one of these
dialects, the Magadhi of Behar, the Southern Canon had been
compiled by Asoka and expanded by commentators. Indeed,
the Buddhist compilations appear to have given the first literary
^ impulse to the Prakrits or spoken Aryan dialects in India ; as
represented by the Pali or Magadhi of the Ceylonese Buddhist
scriptures, and the Maharashtri of the ancient sacred books of
the Jains. The northern priests, who compiled Kanishka's
Canon, preferred the ' perfected ' Sanskrit, which had become
by that time the accepted literary vehicle of the learned
throughout India, to the Prakrit or ' natural ' dialects of the
Gangetic valley. Kanishka and his Kashmir Council (40
A.D. ?) became to the Northern or Tibeto-Chinese Buddhists,
what Asoka and his Patna Council (244 b.c.) had been to the
Buddhists of Ceylon and the South.
Buddhism Buddhism was thus organized as a State religion by the
national Councils of Asoka and Kanishka. It started from Brah-
religion ; manical doctrines ; but from those doctrines, not as taught in
hermitages to clusters of Brahman disciples, but as vitalized by
a preacher of rare power in the capital cities of India. Buddha
did not abolish caste. On the contrary, reverence to Brah-
mans and to the spiritual guide ranked among the four great
sets of duties, with obedience to parents, control over self, and
acts of kindness to all men and animals. He introduced,
however, a new classification of mankind, on the spiritual basis
of believers and unbelievers.
Its religious 'pj^g former took rank in the Buddhist community, —
orders; ... . •'
at first, accordmg to theu" age and merit ; m later tmies, as
. laity 1 and clergy 2 {i.e. the religious orders). Buddhism carried
transmigration to its utmost spiritual use, and proclaimed our
own actions I0 be the sole ruling influence on our past, present,
and future states. It was thus led into the denial of any ,
external being or god who could interfere with the immutable /
law of cause and effect as applied to the soul. But, on the'
other hand, it linked together mankind as parts of one
universal whole, and denounced the isolated self-seeking of
the human heait as 'the heresy of individuality.'^ Its mission
was to make men more moral, kinder to others, and happier
themselves ; not to propitiate imaginary deities. It accord-
ingly founded its teaching on man's duty to his neighbour,
instead of on liis obligations to God; and constructed its
' Upasdka.
' Sramana, hhikshti {monk or religious mendicant), bhihhunl (nun).
3 Sakdyaditthi.
SPREAD OF BUDDHISM. 149
ritual on the basis of relic- worship or the commemoration of and
good men, instead of on sacrifice. Its sacjed buildings were ^^orality.
not temples to the gods, but monasteries {vihdras) for the
religious orders, with their bells and rosaries ; or raemoiial
shrines,^ reared over a tooth or bone of the founder of the faith.
The missionary impulse given by Asoka quickly bore fruit. Spread of
In the year after his great Council at Patna (244 b.c), his son Buddhism.
Mahindo - carried Asoka's version of the Buddhist scriptures
in the Magadhi language to Ceylon. He took with him- a in the
band of fellow-m.issionaries ; and soon afterwards, his sister, ^^"J^*'
the princess Sanghamitta, who had entered the Order, followed etc., 244
with a company of nuns. It was not, however, till six hundred b-c. to
years later (410-432 a.d.) that the Ceylonese Canon was ^
written out in Pali, the sacred Magadhi language of the
Southern Buddhists. About the san>e time, missionaries from
Ceylon finally established the faith in Burma (450 A.D.), The
Burmese themselves assert that two Buddhdst preachers landed
in Pegu as early as 207 B.C. Indeed, some Burmese date the
arrival of Buddhist missionaries just after the Patna Council,
244 B.C., and point out the ruined city of Tha-tun, between the
Sitaung (Tsit-taung) and Salwin estuaries, as the scene of their
pious labours. Siam was converted to Buddhism in 638 a.d. ;
Java received its missionaries direct from India between the 5th
and the 7th centuries, and spread the faith to Bali and Sumatra.^
While Southern Buddhism was thus wafted across the In the
ocean, another stream of missionaries had found their way J?^.*^^^'
by Central Asia into China. Their first arrival in the Chinese 2ndcentury
empire is said to date from the 2nd century b.c, although it ^-c to
was not till 65 a.d. that Buddhism there became the estab-
lished religion. The Greco-Bactrian kingdoms in the Punjab,
and beyond it, afforded a favourable soil for the faith. The
Scythian dynasties who succeeded the Greco-Bactrian s accepted
Buddhism; and the earliest remains which recent discovery has
^ StiipaSy topes, literally * heaps or tumuli ; ' dagobas or dhdtu-gopas^
* relic-preservers ; ' chaityas. - Sanskrit, Mahendra.
' All these dates are uncertain. They are founded on the Singalese
chronology, but the orthodox in the respective countries place their national
conversion at remoter periods. Occasionally, however, the dates can be
tested from external sources. Thus we know from the Chinese traveller
Fa-Hian, that up to about 414 A.D. Java was still unconverted. Fa-
Hian says, ' Heretics and Brahmans were numerous there, and the law of
Buddha is in nowise entertained.' The Burmese chroniclers go back to a
time when the duration of human life was ninety millions of years ; and
when a single d}Tiasty ruled for a period represented by a unit followed
by 140 cyphers. See The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Article Sandoway.
rso
BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO looo A.D.
unearthed in Afghanistan are Buddhist. Kanishka's Council,
soon after the commencement of the Christian era, gave the great
impetus to the faith beyond the Himalayas. Tibet, South Central
Asia, and China, lay along the regular missionary routes of
Northern Buddhism ; the Kirghiz are said to have carried the re-
ligion as far west as the Caspian; on the east, Buddhism was in-
y/ troduced into the Corea in 372 A.D.,and thence into Japan in 552.
Buddhist Buddhist doctrines are believed to have deeply affected/
on ChrJs^- ^^ligio^s thought in Alexandria and Palestine. The question|
tianity. is yet undecided as to how far the Buddhist ideal of the holy"
life, with its monks, nuns, relic-worship, bells, and rosaries,
influenced Christian monachism ; and to what extent Buddhist ;
philosophy aided the development of the Gnostic heresies,
particularly those of Basilides and Manes, which rent the early
church. It is certain that the analogies are striking, and have
been pointed out alike by Jesuit missionaries in Asia, and by
oriental scholars in Europe.^ The form of abjuration for those
who renounced the Gnostic doctrines of Manes, expressly
mentions Bo88a and the ^/cv^iavos (Buddha and the Scythian
or Sakya) — seemingly, says Weber, a separation of Buddha
the Sakya into two. At this moment, the Chinese in San
^Francisco assist their devotions by pictures of the Buddhist
Goddess of Mercy, imported on thin paper from Canton, which
the Irish Roman Catholics identify as the Virgin Mary with
the Infant in her arms, an aureole round her head, an adoring
' figure at her feet, and the Spirit hovering in the form of a bird.^
But it is right to point out that the early Nestorian Chris-
tians in China may have been the source of some of these
resemblances. The liturgy of the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan-
yin, in which the analogies to the Eastern Christian oflice are
most strongly marked, have been traced with certainty only as
far back as 141 2 a.d. in the Chinese Canon.^ Professor Max
^ For the latter aspect of the question, see Weber, founding on Lassen,
Renan, and Beal, Hist. Ind. Lit., p. 309, note 363, ed. 1878.
' See also post, p. 153. Polemical writers, Christian and Chinese, have
with equal injustice accused Buddhism and Christianity of consciously
plagiarizing each other's rites. Thus Kuang-Hsien, the distinguished
member of the Astronomical Board, who brought about the Chinese perse-
' cution of the Christians from 1665 to 1671, writes of them : 'They pilfer
this talk about heaven and hell from the refuse of Buddhism, and then turn
round and revile Buddhism.' — The Death-blow to the Corrupt Doctrines of
Vien-chti {i.e. Christianity), p. 46 (Shanghai, 1870). See also the remarks
of Jao-chow — * The man most distressed in heart'— in the same collection.
^ For an excellent account from the Chinese texts of the worship and
liturgy of Kwan-yin, * the Saviour,' or in her female form as the Goddess of
Mercy, see Beal's Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, 383-397 (TrUbner, 1871).
BUDDHA AS A CHRISTIAN SAINT. 151
Miiller endeavoured to show that Buddha himself is the original j ()-Ho '
of Saint Josaphat, who has a day assigned to him by both the 1
Greek and Roman churches.^
Professor Miiller's Essay ^ has led to an examination of the Buddha as
whole evidence bearing on this subject.^ The results may be g^nt?^^^^'^
thus summarized. The Roman ISIartyrology at the end of the
saints for the 27th November, states: 'Apud Indos Persis
finitimos sanctorum Barlaam et Josaphat (commemoratio),
quorum actus mirandos Joannes Damascenus conscripsit.'
Among the Indians w/w border on Persia, Saints Barlaam and
Josaphat, whose wonderful works have been ivriftefi of by St. John
of Da?nascus. The story of these two saints is that of a young Legend of
Indian prince, Josaphat, who is converted by a hermit, Barlaam. faam^lnd'^'
Josaphat undergoes the same awakening as Buddha from the Josaphat.
l^leasures of this world. His royal father had taken similar
precautions to prevent the youth from becoming acquainted
with the sorrows of life. But Josaphat, like Buddha, is struck
by successive spectacles of disease, old age, and death; and
abandons his princely state for that of a Christian devotee.
He converts to the faith his father, his subjects, and even
the magician employed to seduce him. For this magician,
Theudas, the Buddhist schismatic Devadatta is supposed to
have supplied the orginal; while the name of Josaphat is
itself identified by philologers with that of Boddhisattwa, the
complete appellation of Buddha.*
This curious transfer of the religious teacher of Asia to the Early
Christian Martyr ology has an equally curious history. Saint ^[^^^^ "^^
John of Damascus wrote in the 8th century in Greek, and
an Arabic translation of his work, belonging to the nth
century, still survives. The story of Josaphat was popular in
the Greek Church, and was embodied by Simeon the Meta-
phrast in the lives of the saints, circ. 11 50 a.d. The Greek
form of the name is 'Ia>ao-a', it was chiefly outlying States, Hke
Kashmir and Orissa, that remained faithful. When the Muham-
madans come permanently upon the scene. Buddhism as a
popular faith has almost disappeared from the interior Provinces
of India. Magadha, the cradle of the religion, still continued
Buddhist under the Pal Rajas down to the Musalman conquest
of Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1199 a.d.^
* Identified with the modern Baragaon, near Gaya. The Great Monastery
can be traced by a mass of brick ruins, 1600 feet long by 400 feet deep.
General Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, pp. 468-470, ed. 187 1.
^ Beal's Catena of Buddhist Scriphires from the Chinese^ p. 371, ed. 187 1.
^ MS. materials supplied to the author by General Cunningham, to
158 BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
Buddhism During nearly a thousand years, Buddhism has been a
religion, banished reh'gion from its native home. But it has won greater
1000 A.D. triumphs in its exile than it could have ever achieved in the
land of its birth. It has created a literature and a religion for
nearly half the human race, and has affected the beliefs of
the other half. Five hundred millions of men, or forty per
cent, of the inhabitants of the world, still acknowledge, with
more or less fidelity, the holy teaching of Buddha, Afghanistan,
Nep^l, Eastern Turkistan, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria,
China, Japan, the Eastern Archipelago, Siam, Burma, Ceylon,
and India, at one time marked the magnificent circumference
Its foreign of its conquests. Its shrines and monasteries stretched in a
conquests, continuous line from what are now the confines of the Russian
Empire to the equatorial islands of the Pacific. During
twenty-four centuries, Buddhism has encountered and outlived
a series of powerful rivals. At this day it forms, with
Christianity and Islam, one of the three great religions of the
world j and the most numerously followed of the three.
Buddhist In India its influence has survived its separate existence.
i^n7ndti^ The Buddhist period not only left a distinct sect, the Jains ; but
it supplied the spiritual basis on which Brahmanism finally
developed from the creed of a caste into the religion of the
people. A later chapter will show how important and how
permanent have been Buddhistic influences on Hinduism.
The Buddhists in British India in 1881 numbered nearly 3^
millions, of whom 3 J millions were in British Burma; and
166,892 on the Indian continent, almost entirely in North-
Eastern Bengal and Assam. Together with the Jain sect, the
Buddhist subjects of the Crown in British India amount to close
on four millions (1881).^ The revival of Buddhism is always
a possibility in India. This year (1885) an excellent Buddhist
journal has been started in Bengali, at Chittagong.
The Jains. The Jains number about half a million in British India.
Like the Buddhists, they deny the authority of the Veda, except
whose Archieological Reports and kind assistance this volume is deeply
indebted.
^ The Buddhists proper were returned in i88i for British India at
3,418,476; of whom 3,251,584 were in British Burma; 155,809 in the
Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal ; and 6563 in Assam. The Jains
proper were returned at 448,897 in British India by the Census of 1881.
But except in a few spots, chiefly among the spurs of the Himalayas and in
Assam and South-Eastern Bengal, the Indian Buddhists may be generally
reckoned as Jains.
JAIN DOCTRINES AND TEMPLES. 159
in so far as it agrees with their own doctrines. They disregard
sacrifice ; practise a strict morality ; believe that their past and
future states depend upon their own actions rather than on any
external deity ; and scrupulously reverence the vital principle
in man and beast. They differ from the Buddhists chiefly in
their ritual and objects of worship. The veneration of good
men departed is common to both, but the Jains have expanded
and methodized such adoration on lines of their own.
The Buddhists admit that many Buddhas have appeared
in successive lives upon earth, and attained Nirz'd?ia or
beatific extinction ; but they confine their reverence to a
comparatively small number. The Jains divide time into Jain doc-
successive eras, and assign twenty-four y/w^j-, or just men made -'^^"^^•
perfect, to each.^ They name twenty-four in the past age,
twenty-four in the present, and twenty-four in the era to come ;
and place colossal statues of white or black marble to this
great company of saints in their temples. They adore above
all the two latest, or twenty-third and twenty-fourth Jinas of
the present era — namely, Parsvanath 2 and Mahavira.
The Jains choose wooded mountains and the most lovely jain
retreats of nature for their places of pilgrimage, and cover them temple
with exquisitely-carved shrines in white marble or stucco.
Parasnath Hill in Bengal, the temple city of Palitdna in
Kathiawar, and Mount Abu, w^hich rises with its gems of
architecture like a jewelled island from the Rajputana plains,
form well-known scenes of their worship. The Jains are a
wealthy community, usually engaged in banking or wholesale
commerce, devoid indeed of the old missionary spirit of
Buddhism, but closely knit together among themselves.
Their charity is boundless ; and they form the chief sup-
porters of the beast hospitals, which the old Buddhistic
tenderness for animals has left in many of the cities of India.
Jainism is, in its external aspects. Buddhism equipped with Relation
a mythology — a mythology, however, not of gods, but of saints, of J^ii^^sm
But in its essentials, Jainism forms a survival of beliefs ism.
anterior to Asoka and Kanishka. According to the old view,
the Jains are a remnant of the Indian Buddhists who saved
themselves from extinction by compromises with Hinduism,
and so managed to erect themselves into a recognised caste.
^ Under such titles as Jagata-prabhu, * lord of the world ; ' Kshinakarma,
* freed from ceremonial acts ; ' Sarvajna, ' all-knowing ; ' Adhiswara,
* supreme lord ; ' Tirthankara, ' he who has crossed over the world ; ' and
Jina, *he who has conquered the human passions.'
^ Popularly rendered Parasnath.
i6o BUDDHISM, 543 B.C. TO 1000 A.D.
Jains According to the later and truer view, they .represent in an
earlier unbroken succession the Nigantha sect of the Asoka edicts.
Buddhists? ^^^ Jains themselves claim as their founder, Mahavira, the
teacher or contemporary of Buddha ; and the Niganthas
appear as a sect independent of, indeed opposed to, the
Buddhists in the Rock Inscriptions of Asoka and in the
Southern Canon {pitakas).
Mahavira, who bore also the spiritual name of Vardhamana,
'The Increaser,' is the 24th Jina or 'Conqueror of the Pas-
sions,' adored in the present age of Jain chronology. Like*
Buddha, he was of princely birth, and lived and laboured in the
same country and at the same time as Buddha. According
to the southern Buddhistic dates, Buddha 'attained rest' 543
B.C., and Mahavira in 526 B.C. According to the Jain texts,
Mahavira was the predecessor and teacher of Buddha.
Antiquity A theory has accordingly been advanced that the Buddhism
Tains^ of Asoka (244 B.C.) was in reality a later product than the
Nigantha or Jain doctrines.! The Jains are divided into the Swet-
ambaras, 'The White Robed,' and the Digambaras, 'The Naked.'
The Tibetan texts make it clear that sects closely analogous to
the Jains existed in the time of Buddha, and that they were
antecedent and rival orders to that which Buddha established. ^
Even the Southern Buddhist Canon preserves recollections of a
struggle between a naked sect like the Jain Digambaras, and
the decently robed Buddhists.^ This Digambara or Nigantha
sect (Nirgrantha, 'those who have cast aside every tie') was
very distinctly recognised by Asoka's edicts; and both the
Swetambara and Digambara orders of the modern Jains find
mention in the early copper-plate inscriptions of Mysore, chr.
5th or 6th century a.d. The Jains in our own day feel strongly
on this subject, and the head of the community at Ahmadabdd
has placed many arguments before the writer of the present
work to prove that their faith was anterior to Buddhism.
Until quite recently, however, European scholars did not
admit the pretensions of the Jains to pre-Buddhistic antiquity.
^ This subject was discussed in Mr. Edward Thomas' yainism, or the
Early Faith of Asoka ; in Mr. Rhys Davids' article in The Academy of
I3lh September 1879 ; in his Hibbert Lectures, p. 27 ; and in the Nutnis-
mata OHentalia (Ceylon fasciculus), pp. 55, 60.
'^ Mr. Woodville Rockhill's Z«/^ of the Buddha, from the Bkah-Hgyur and
Bstan-Hgyur in z/flirm /<7/i (from Arabic
e/y the, and Sanskrit z'd/ia, domestic elephant), is also cited.
^ Sir G. Bird wood's Handbook to the British Indian Section of the Paris
Exhibition of 1 878, pp. 22-35. -^^r economic intercourse with ancient
India, see Del Mar's History of Money in Ancient Countries^ chaps, iv.
and V. (1885).
^ Hebrew, Kophim, tukijim, almugim = Sanskrit, kapi, sikhl^ valgukam.
* Professor Max Duncker's Ancient History of India, p. 13 (ed. i88i).
164
THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
Alexan-
der's ex-
pedition,
327-325
B.C.
ambassador resident at a court in the centre of Bengal
(306-298 B.C.), had opportunities for the closest observation.
The knowledge of the Greeks concerning India practically
dates from his researches, 300 b.c.i
Alexander the Great entered India early in 327 B.C.; crossed
the Indus above Attock, and advanced, without a struggle,
over the intervening territory of the Taxiles ^ to the Jehlam
(Jhelum) (Hydaspes). He found the Punjab divided into petty
kingdoms jealous of each other, and many of them inclined to
join an invader rather than to oppose him. One of these local
monarchs, Porus, disputed the passage of the Jehlam with a
force which, substituting chariots for guns, about equalled
the army of Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Punjab in the present
century.^ Plutarch gives a vivid description of the battle from
Alexander's own letters. Having drawn up his troops at a
bend of the Jehlam, about 14 miles west of the modern field
of Chilianwala,^ the Greek general crossed under cover of a
tempestuous night. The chariots hurried out by Porus stuck
in the muddy margin of the river. In the engagement which
followed, the elephants of the Indian prince refused to face the
^ The fragments of the Indika of Megasthenes, collected by Dr.
Schwanbeck, with the first part of the Indika of Arrian ; the Periplus
Maris Erythraei, with Arrian's account of the voyage of Nearkhos ; the
Indika of Ktesias ; and Ptolemy's chapters relating to India, have been
edited in four volumes with prolegomena by Mr. J. W. M'Crindle, M.A.
(Triibner, 1877, 1879, 1882, and 1885). They originally appeared in the
Indian Antiquary^ to which this volume and the whole Imperial Gazetteer
of India are much indebted. General Cunningham's Ancient Geography
of India, with its maps, and his Reports of the Archaeological Survey,
Vincent's Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients (2 vols. 4to, 1807),
and the series of maps, on an unfortunately small scale, in General-
Lieutenant von Spruner's Histor-isch-Geographischen Atlas (Gotha), have
also been freely availed of.
* The Takkas, a Turanian race, the earliest inhabitants of Rawal
PiNDi District. They gave their name to the town of Takshasila or
Taxila, which Alexander found *a rich and populous city, the largest
between the Indus and Hydaspes,' identified with the ruins of Deri
Shahan. Taki or Asarur, on the road between Lahore and Pindi
Bhatiyan, was the capital of the Punjab in 633 A. n. When names are
printed in capitals, the object is to refer the reader to the fuller informa-
tion given in the Imperial Gazetteer of India.
* Namely, * 30,000 efficient infantry ; 4000 horse ; 300 chariots ; 200
elephants' [Professor Cowell]. The Greeks probably exaggerated the
numbers of the enemy. Alexander's army numbered 'about 50,000,
including 5000 Indian auxiliaries under Mophis of Taxila.'— General Cun-
ningham, Anc. Geog. of India, p. 172. See his lucid account of the battle,
with an excellent map, pp. I59-I77» ed. 1871.
* And about 30 miles south-west of Jehlam town.
ALEXANDER IN INDIA, 327-325 b.c 165
Greeks, and, wheeling round, trampled his own army under
foot. His son fell early in the onset; Porus himself fled
wounded ; but on tendering his submission, he was confirmed
in his kingdom, and became the conqueror's trusted friend.
Alexander built two memorial cities on the scene of his victory,
— Bucephala on the west bank, near the modern Jaj^alpur,
named after his beloved charger, Bucephalus, slain in the battle ;
and Nikaia, the present Mono, on the east side of the river.
Alexander advanced south-east through the kingdom of the Alexander
younger Porus to Amritsar, and after a sharp bend backward ^^^^-^h
to the west, to fight the Kathaei at Sangala, he reached the 327-326
Beas (Hyphasis). Here, at a spot not far from the modern ^^-c-
battle-field of Sobraon, he halted his victorious standards.^
He had resolved to march to the Ganges ; but his troops were
worn out by the heats of the Punjab summer, and their spirits
broken by the hurricanes of the south-west monsoon. The
native tribes had already risen in his rear, and the Conqueror
of the World was forced to turn back, before he had crossed
even the frontier Province of India. The Sutlej, the eastern
Districts of the Punjab, and the mighty Jumna, still lay between
him and the Ganges. A single defeat might have been fatal to
his army ; if the battle on the Jehlam had gone against him,
not a Greek would probably have reached the Afghan side
of the passes. Yielding at length to the clamour of his men,
he led them back to the Jehlam. He there embarked 8000
of his troops in boats previously prepared, and floated them
down the river ; the remainder marched in two divisions along
the banks.
The country was hostile, and the Greeks held only the Alexander
land on which they encamped. At Multan, then as now the !,^?p^f,'
capital of the Southern Punjab, Alexander had to fight a pitched
battle with the Malli, and was severely wounded in taking the
city. His enraged troops put every soul within it to the sword.
Farther down, near the confluence of the five rivers of the
Punjab, he made a long halt, built a town, — Alexandria, the
modern Uchh, — and received the submission of the neighbour-
ing States. A Greek garrison and Satrap, whom he here left
behind, laid the foundation of a more lasting influence. Having
constructed a new fleet, suitable for the greater rivers on which
he was now to embark, he proceeded southwards through
^ind, and followed the course of the Indus until he reached
^ The change in the course of the Sutlej has altered its old position
relative to the Beas at this point. The best small map of Alexander's route
is No. V. in General Cunningham's Anc. Gejg. of India, p. 104, ed. 1871.
1 66
THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
Leaves
India,
August
325 B.C.
Results of
Greek ex-
pedition,
327-325
B.C.
Seleukos,
323-312
B.C.
the ocean. In the apex of the delta he founded or refounded
a city — Patala — which survives to this day as Haidarabad, the
native capital of Sind.^ At the mouth of the Indus, Alexander
beheld for the first time the majestic phenomenon of the
tides. One part of his army he shipped off under the com-
mand of Nearkhos to coast along the Persian Gulf; the other
he himself led through Southern Baluchistan and Persia to
Susa, where, after terrible losses from want of water and famine
on the march, he arrived in 325 b.c.^
During his two years' campaign in the Punjab and Sind,
Alexander captured no province, but he made alliances,
founded cities, and planted Greek garrisons. He had trans-
ferred much territory from the tribes whom he had half-
subdued, to the chiefs and confederations who were devoted
to his cause. Every petty court had its Greek faction ; and the
detachments which he left behind at various positions from
the Afghan frontier to the Beas, and from near the base of
the Himalayas to the Sind delta, were visible pledges of his
return. At Taxila (Deri-Shahan) and Nikaia (Mono) in the
Northern Punjab ; at Alexandria (Uchh) in the Southern
Punjab ; at Patala (Haidarabad) in Sind ; and at other points
along his route, he established military settlements of Greeks
or their allies. A body of his troops remained in Bactria. In
the partition of the Empire after Alexander's death in 323 B.C.,
Bactria and India eventually fell to Seleukos Nikator, the
founder of the Syrian monarchy. •
Chandra
Gupta,
326 B.C.;
Meanwhile, a new power had arisen in India. Among the
Indian adventurers who . thronged Alexander's camp in the
Punjab, each with his plot for winning a kingdom or crushing
a rival, Chandra Gupta, an exile from the Gangetic valley,
seems to have played a somewhat ignominious part. He tried
to tempt the wearied Greeks on the banks of the Beas with
' For its interesting appearances in ancient history, see General Cun-
ningham's Anc. Geog. of India, pp. 279-287, under Patala or Nirankot.
It appears variously as Pattala, Pattalene, Pitasila, etc. It was formerly
identified with Tatta (Thatha), near to where the western arm of the
Indus bifurcates. See also M'Crindle's Commerce and Navigation of the
Erythrccati Sea^ p. 156 (Trlibner, 1879). An excellent map of Alexander's
campaign in Sind is given at p. 248 of Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India.
* The stages down the Indus and along the Persian coast, with the
geographical features and incidents of Nearkhos' Voyage, are given in tlie
second part of the Indika o( Arrian, chapter xviii. to the end. The river
stages and details are of value to the student of the modern delta of the
Indus. — M'Crindle's Commerce and Navigation of the Erythrccan Sea, pp.
153-224 (1879).
SELEUKOS IN INDIA, 312-306 b.c. 167
schemes of conquest in the rich south-eastern Provinces ; but
having personally offended Alexander, he had to fly the camp
(326 B.c). In the confused years which followed, he managed,
with the aid of plundering hordes, to found a kingdom on
the ruins of the Nanda dynasty in Magadha, or Behar (316 316 b.c;
B.c.).i He seized their capital, Pataliputra, the modern Patna ;
established himself firmly in the Gangetic valley, and com-
pelled the Punjab principalities, Greek and native alike,
to acknowledge his suzerainty.^ While, therefore, Seleukos
Nikator was winning his way to the Syrian monarchy during
the eleven years which followed Alexander's death, Chandra
Gupta was building up an empire in Northern India Seleukos
reigned in Syria from 312 to 280 B.C.; Chandra Gupta in the 312 b.c.
Gangetic valley from 316 to 292 B.C. In 312 b.c, the power
of both had been consolidated, and the two new sovereignties
were soon brought face to face.
About that year, Seleukos, having recovered Babylon, pro- Seleukos
ceeded to re-establish his authority in Bactria and the Punjab. ^" I^<^i'^>
In the Punjab, he found Greek influence decayed. Alex- ^.c.
ander had left a mixed force of Greeks and Indians at Taxila.
But no sooner had he departed from India, than the Indians
rose and slew the Greek governor. The Macedonians next
massacred the Indians. A new governor, sent by Alexander,
murdered the friendly Punjab prince, Porus ; and was himself
driven out of India, by the advance of Chandra Gupta from the
Gangetic valley. Seleukos, after a war with Chandra Gupta,
determined to ally himself with the new power in India rather
than to oppose it. In return for 500 elephants, he ceded the
Greek settlements in the Punjab and the Kabul valley ; gave
his daughter to Chandra Gupta in marriage ; and stationed an
ambassador, Megasthenes, at the Gangetic court (306-298 b.c). 306-298
Chandra Gupta became familiar to the Greeks as Sandrokottos, ^■^'
King of the Prasii and Gangaridae ; his capital, Pataliputra,^
or Patna, was rendered into Palimbothra. On the other hand,
the Greeks and kings of Grecian dynasties appear in the rock-
inscriptions under Indian forms.^
1 Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarmn, i. 7. Jacobi'sya/«a SiitraSy xliii.
2 For the dynasty of Chandra Gupta, see Numismata Orientalia (Ceylon
fasciculus), pp. 41-50.
3 The modern Patna, or Pattana, means simply * the city.' For its
identification with Pataliputra by means of Mr. Ravenshaw's final dis-
coveries, see General Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India, p. 452 et seq.
* The Greeks as Yonas (Yavanas), from the 'laovsj or lonians. In the
Inscriptions of Asoka, five Greek princes appear : Antiochus (of Syria) ;
Ptolemy (Philadelphos of Egypt) ; Antigonos (Gonatos of Macedon) ;
1 68 THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
The India Megasthenes has left a lifelike picture of the Indian people.
theneT^^" Notwithstanding some striking errors, the observations which
300 B.C. he jotted down at Patnd, three hundred years before Christ,
give as accurate an account of the social organization in the
Gangetic valley as any which existed when the Bengal Asiatic
Society commenced its labours at the end of the last century
(1784). Up to the time of Megasthenes, the Greek idea of
India was a very vague one. Their historians spoke of two
classes of Indians, — certain mountainous tribes who dwelt in
Northern Afghanistan under the Caucasus or Hindu Kush,
and a maritime race living on the coast of Baluchistan. Of
the India of modern geography lying beyond the Indus, they
practically knew nothing. It was this India to the east of the
Indus which Megasthenes opened up to the western world.
His seven He describes the classification of the people, dividing them,
ofTh? however, into seven castes instead of four,i — namely, philo-
people. sophers, husbandmen, shepherds, artisans, soldiers, inspectors,
and the counsellors of the king. The philosophers were the
Brahmans, and the prescribed stages of their life are indicated.
Megasthenes draws a distinction between the Brahmans
(Bpa^/xavcs) and the Sarmanai (^ap/xavai), from which some
scholars infer that the Buddhist Sramanas or monks were a
recognised order 300 B.C., or fifty years before the Council of
Asoka. But the Sarmanai might also include Brihmans in the
first and third stages of their life as students and forest
recluses. 2 The inspectors,^ or sixth class of Megasthenes, have
been identified with the Buddhist supervisors of morals, after-
wards referred to in the sixth edict of Asoka. Arrian's name
for them, cVto-KOTrot, is the Greek word which has become our
modern Bishop or overseer of souls.
* Errors 'of It must be borne in mind that Indian society, as seen by
Megas- Megasthenes, was not the artificial structure described in
Manu, with its rigid lines and four sharply demarcated castes.
It was the actual society of the court, the camp, and the
capital, at a time when Buddhist ideals were conflicting with
Brahmanical types. Some of the so-called errors of Megas-
Magas (of Kyrene) ; Alexander (11. of Epirus). — Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit.^
pp. 179, 252. }3ut see also Wilson, ycurn. Koy. As. Soc, vol. xii. (1850),
and Cunningham's Corpus Inscrip. Indie, pp. 125, 126.
^ Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian^ being fragments
ofthelndika, by J. W. M'Crindle, M.A., p. 40, ed. 1877.
^ Brahmacharins and Vanaprasthas {Ikofim). Welder very properly
declines to identify the lupfjid.vai exclusively with the Buddhist Sramanas.
Jlist. Ind. Lit., p. 28, ed. 1878.
^ The 'i(pefu (Deodorus, Strabo), WurxoTot (Arrian).
THE INDIA OF MEGASTHENES, 169
thenes have been imputed to him from a want of due apprecia-
tion of this fact. Others have been proved by modern inquiry
to be no errors at all. The knowledge of India derived by
the Greeks chiefly, although by no means exclusively, from
Megasthenes includes details which were scarcely known to
Europeans in the last century. The Aryan and Aboriginal
elements of the population, or the White and Dark Indians ;
the two great harvests of the year in spring and autumn ; the
salt-mines ; the land-making silt brought down by the rivers
from the Himalayas ; the great changes in the river-courses ;
and even a fairly accurate measurement of the Indian
peninsula — were among the points known to the Greek writers.
From those sources, the present writer has derived pregnant The old
hints in regard to the physical configuration of India. The I}''dian
account which Megasthenes gives of the size of the Indus and
its lakes, points to the same conclusion as that reached by
the most recent observations, in regard to the Indian rivers
being originally lines of drainage through great watery regions.
In their upper courses they gradually scooped out their beds,
and thus produced a low-level channel into which the fens
and marshes eventually drained. In their lower courses they
conducted their great operations of land-making from the silt
which their currents had brought down from above. In regard
to the rivers, as in several other matters, the ' exaggerations '
of Megasthenes turn out to be nearer the truth than was
suspected until the Statistical Survey of 187 1.
The Brahmans deeply impressed Alexander by their learning Kalanos,
and austerities. One of them, Kalanos by name, was tempted, the Brah-
notwithstanding the reproaches of his brethren, to enter the
service of the conqueror. But falling sick in Persia, Kalanos
determined to die like a Brahman, although he had not consist-
ently lived as one. Alexander, on hearing of the philosopher's
resolve to put an end to his life, vainly tried to dissuade him ;
then loaded him with jewels, and directed that he should be
attended with all honours to the last scene. Distributing the
costly gifts of his master as he advanced, wearing a garland of 323 b.c.
flowers, and singing his native Indian hymns, the Brahman
mounted a funeral pyre, and serenely perished in the flames.
The Greek ambassador observed with admiration the ab- Indian
sence of slavery in India, the chastity of the women, and the society,
''OO B C
courage of the men. In valour they excelled all other Asiatics \^
they required no locks to their doors ; above all, no Indian was
ever known to tell a lie. Sober and industrious, good farmers,
and skilful artisans, they scarcely ever had recourse to a law-
170 THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
suit, and lived peaceably under their native chiefs. The kingly
government is portrayed almost as described in Manu, with its
Petty hereditary castes of councillors and soldiers. Megasthenes
kingdoms, mentions that India was divided into 1 1 8 kingdoms ; some
of which, such as that of the Prasii under Chandra Gupta,
exercised suzerain powers. The village system is well described,
each little rural unit seeming to the Greek an independent
republic. Megasthenes remarked the exemption of the hus-
bandmen (Vaisyas) from war and public services ; and enume-
rates the dyes, fibres, fabrics, and products (animal, vegetable,
and mineral) of India. Husbandry depended on the periodical
rains ; and forecasts of the weather, with a view to ' make
adequate provision against a coming deficiency,' formed a
special duty of the Brahmans, ' The philosopher who errs in
his predictions observes silence for the rest of his life.'
Indo- Before the year 300 B.C., two powerful monarchies had thus
treat^ begun to act upon the Brahmanism of Northern India, from
256 B.'c. the east and from the west. On the east, in the Gangetic
valley, Chandra Gupta (316-292 b.c.) firmly consolidated the
dynasty which during the next century produced Asoka
(264-223 B.C.), established Buddhism throughout India, and
spread its doctrines from Afghanistan to China, and from
Central Asia to Ceylon. On the west, the heritage of Seleukos
(312-280 B.C.) diffused Greek influences, and sent forth Greco-
Bactrian expeditions to the Punjab. Antiochos Theos (grand-
son of Seleukos Nikator) and Asoka (grandson of Chandra
Gupta), who ruled these probably conterminous monarchies,
made a treaty with each other, 256 b.c. In the next century,
Eukratides, King of Bactria, conquered as far as Alexander's
royal city of Patala, the modern Haidaribdd in the Sind
Delta; and sent expeditions into Cutch and Gujarat, 181-161
Greeks in B.C. Menander advanced farthest into North-Western India,
India, • ^^^ j^ig coins are found from Kdbul, near which he pro-
B.C. bably had his capital, as far as Muttra on the Jumna. The
Buddhist successors of Chandra Gupta profoundly modified
the religion of Northern India from the east ; the empire of
Seleukos, with its Bactrian and later offshoots, deeply influenced
the science and art of Hindustan from the west.
Greek in- We have already seen how much Brdhman astronomy owed
fluence on |.q ^j^g Greeks, and how the builders' art in India received its
' first impulse from the architectural exigencies of Buddhism.
The same double influence, of the Greeks on the west and of
the Buddhists on the east of the Brdhmanical Middle Land of
GRECO-INDIAN SCUIPTURE. 1 7 1
Bengal, can be traced in many details. What the Buddhists
were to the architecture of Northern India, that the Greeks were
to its sculpture. Greek faces and profiles constantly occur in
ancient Buddhist statuary. They enrich almost all the larger
museums in India, and examples may be seen at South Kensing-
ton. The purest specimens have been found in the Punjab,
where the Greeks settled in greatest force. In the Lahore col-
lection there was, among other beautiful pieces, an exquisite little
figure of an old blind man feeling his way with a staff. Its
subdued pathos, its fidelity to nature, and its living movement
dramatically held for the moment in sculptured suspense,
are Greek, and nothing but Greek. It is human misfortune,
that has culminated in wandering poverty, age, and blindness
— the very curse which Sophocles makes the spurned Teiresias
throw back upon the doomed king —
* Blind, having seen ;
Poor, having rolled in wealth ; he with a staff
Feeling his way to a strange land shall go. '
As we proceed eastward from the Punjab, the Greek type Greek and
begins to fade. Purity of outline gives place to lusciousness Hindu
of form. In the female figures, the artists trust more and sculpture,
more to swelling breasts and towering chignons, and load the
neck with constantly-accumulating jewels. Nevertheless, the
Grecian type of countenance long survived in Indian art. It
is perfectly unlike the coarse, conventional ideal of beauty
in modern Hindu sculptures, and may perhaps be traced as
late as the delicate profiles on the so-called Sun Temple at
Kanarak, built in the 12th century a.d. on the.Orissa shore.
Not only did the Greek impulse become fainter and fainter Greek
in Indian sculpture with the lapse of time, but that impulse ^^"^^^ ^^^
was itself gradually derived from less pure and less vigorous
sources. The Greek ideal of beauty may possibly have been
brought direct to India by the officers and artists of Alexander
the Great. But it was from Graeco-Bactria, not from Greece
itself, that the practical masters of Greek sculpture came to the
Punjab. Indeed, it seems probable that the most prolific stream
of such artistic inspirations reached India from the Roman
Empire, and in Imperial times, rather than through even the
indirect Grecian channels represented by the Bactrian kingdom.
It must suffice here to indicate the ethnical and dynastic Foreign
influences thus brouf^ht to bear upon India, without attempt- ^"^"ences
- . ^ . . , , , ^f on India,
mg to assign dates to the mdividual monarchs. The
chronology of the twelve centuries intervening between the
172 THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
Grseco - Bactrian period and the Muhammadan conquest
still depends on a mass of conflicting evidence derived from
inscriptions, legendary literature, unwritten traditions, and
coins.^ Four systems of computation exist, based upon the
Vikramdditya, Saka, Seleucidan, and Parthian eras.
In the midst of the confusion, we see dim masses
moving southwards from Central Asia into India. The
Graeco-Bactrian kings are traced by coins as far as Muttra on
the Jumna. Their armies occupied for a time the Punjab, as
far south as Gujarat and Sind. Sanskrit texts are said to
indicate their advance through the Middle Land of the
Brahmans {Madhya - deshd) , to Saketa (or Ajodhya), the
capital of Oudh, and to Patnd in Behar.^ Megasthenes was
Greeks in only the first of a series of Greek ambassadors to Bengal.'^
liengal. ^ Grecian princess became the queen of Chandra Gupta at
Patnd. {circ. 306 B.C.). Graeco-Bactrian girls, or Yavanis, were
welcome gifts, and figure in the Sanskrit drama as the per-
sonal attendants of Indian kings. They were probably fair-
complexioned slaves from the northern regions. It is right
to add, however, that the word Yavan has a much wider
application than merely to the Greeks or even to the Bactrians.
Greek The credentials of the Indian embassy to Augustus in
survivals 22-20 B.C. were written on skins; a circumstance which per-
haps indicates the extent to which Greek usage had overcome
Brahmanical prejudices. During the century preceding the
Christian era, Scythian or Tartar hordes began to supplant
the Graeco-Bactrian influence in the Punjab.
The The term Yavana, or Yona, formerly applied to any non-
'Vavanas; gf^hmanical race, and especially to the Greeks, was now ex-
tended to the Sakae or Scythians. It probably includes many
various tribes of invaders from the west. Patient effort will be
Ancient required before the successive changes in the meaning of
^"^ Yavana, both before and after the Greek period, are worked
^ Report of the Archaological Surrey of Western India for 1874-75, p.
49 (Mr. E. Thomas' monograph).
2 Goldstucker assigned the Yavana siege of Saketa (Ajodhya), men-
tioned in the Mahabhashya, to Menander ; while the accounts of the Gargi
Sanhita in the Yuga Purana speak of a Yavana expedition as far as Patna.
But, as Weber points out {Hist. Ind. Lit., p. 251, footnote 276), the ques-
tion arises as to whether these Yavanas were Groeco- Bactrians or Indo-
Scythians. See, however, Report of Archctological Survey of Western India
for 1874-75, p. 49, and footnote.
» Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit., p. 251 (ed. 1878), enumerates four.
THE YAVANAS. 173
out The word travelled far, and has survived with a strange
vitality in out. of the way nooks of India. The Orissa
chroniclers called the sea-invaders from the Bay of Bengal,
Yavanas, and in later times the term was applied to the
Musalmans.i At ^^ present day, a vernacular form of the
word is said to have supplied the local name for the Arab
settlers on the Coromandel coast.^
1 Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. pp. 25, 85, and 209 to 232 (ed. 1872).
2 Bishop Caldwell gives Yavanas (Yonas) as the equivalent of the
Sonagas or Muhammadans of the western coast : Comparative Grammar
of the Dravidian La7iguages, 2nd edition, p. 2 (Trlibner, 1875).
[174]
CHAPTER VII.
SCYTHIC INROADS INTO INDIA (126? B.C. TO 544 A.D.).
Migrations The foregoing chapters have dealt with two streams of popula-
trarA^lT* ^^°^ which, starting from Central Asia, poured through the north-
western passes of the Himalayas, and spread themselves out
upon the plains of Bengal. Those two great series of migrations
are represented by the early Vedic tribes, and by the Grseco-
Bactrian armies. The first of them gave the race-type to
Aryan, Indian civilisation ; the second impressed an influence on
Indian science and art, more important and more permanent
than the mere numerical strength of the invaders would seem
to justify. But the permanent settlement of the early Vedic
tribes, and the shorter vehement impact of the Grseco-Bactrian
invaders, ahke represent movements of the Aryan section of the
human race. Another great family of mankind, the Turanian,
and Tur- had also its home in Central Asia. The earliest migrations of the
anian. Turanians belong to a period absolutely pre-historic ; nor has
inductive history yet applied its scrutiny to Turanian antiquity
with anything like the success which it has achieved in regard
to the beginnings of the Aryan peoples.
Scythic Yet there is evidence to show that waves of Turanian origin
movements overtopped the Himalayas or pierced through their openings
India. i^to India from very remote times. The immigrants doubtless
represented many different tribes, but in the dim twilight of
Indian history they are mingled together in confused masses
known as the Scythians. There are indications that a branch of
the Scythian hordes, who overran Asia about 625 B.C., made its
way to Patala on the Indus, the site selected by Alexander in
325 B.C. as his place of arms in that delta, and long the capital
of Sind under the name of Haidardbdd. One portion of these
Patala Scythians seems to have moved westwards by the Persian
Gulf to Assyria ; another section is supposed to have found its
way north-east into the Gangetic valley, and to have branched
off into the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, among whom Buddha
THE SCYTHIAN KANISHKA, 40 a.d. (?) 175
was born.i During the two hundred years before the Christian
era, the Scythic movements come a little more clearly into
sight, and in the first century after Christ those movements
culminate in a great Indian sovereignty. About 126 B.C., Tue-Chi
the Tartar tribe of Su are said to have conquered the Greek settlements
^ . 126 B.C. (?)
dynasty in Bactria, and the Grseco-Bactrian settlements m the
Punjab were overthrown by the Tue-Chi.^
Two centuries later, we touch solid ground in the dynasty Kanishka,
whose chief representative, Kanishka, held the Fourth Bud- "^^ '^■^•^'^
dhist Council, circ. 40 a.d., and became the royal founder of
Northern Buddhism. But long anterior to the alleged Tue-
Chi settlements in the Punjab, tribes of Scythic origin had
found their way into India, and had left traces of non-Aryan
origin upon Indian civilisation. The sovereignty of Kanishka
in the first century a.d. was not an isolated effort, but the
ripened fruit of a series of ethnical movements.
Certain scholars believe that even before the time of Buddha, Pre-BuJ-
there are relics of Scythic origin in the religion of India. It c .uj^
has been suggested that the Aswa?nedha, or Great Horse influences.
Sacrifice, in some of its developments at any rate, was based
upon Scythic ideas. ' It was in effect,' writes Mr. Edward
Thomas, ' a martial challenge, which consisted in letting the
victim who was to crown the imperial triumph at the year's
end, go free to wander at will over the face of the earth ; its
sponsor being bound to follow its hoofs, and to conquer or The Horse
conciliate ' the chiefs through whose territories it passed. Such Sacrifice.
a prototype seems to him to shadow forth the life of the
Central Asian communities of the horseman class, * among
whom a captured steed had so frequently to be traced from
camp to camp, and surrendered or fought for at last.' ^ The
curious connection between the Horse Sacrifice and the Man
Sacrifice of the pre-Buddhistic rehgion of India has often been
noticed. That connection has been explained from the Indian
point of view, by the substitution theory of a horse for a human
victim. But among the early shepherd tribes of Tibet, the
two sacrifices coexisted as inseparable parts of The Great
1 Catena of the Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese, by S. Beal, pp.
126-130. See also Herodotus, i. 103 to 106; Csoma de Koros, y^/^rwa/
As. Soc. Beiig. 1833 ; and H. H. \s\\%ox\, Ariana Antiqzta, p, 212, quoted
'by Weber, hist. Ind. Lit. p. 285, ed. 1878.
^ De Guignes, supported by Professor Cowell on the evidence of coins.
Appendix to Elphinstone's History of India, p. 269, ed. 1866.
^ Report of Archicological Survey of Western India, pp. 37, 38 (1876).
But see, in opposition to Mr. Thomas' view, M. Senart in the French
Joiirn. Asiatiquc, 1875, p. 126.
176 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.
Oath. Each year the Tibetans took The Little Oath to their
chiefs, and sacrificed sheep, dogs, and monkeys. But every
third year they solemnized The Great Oath with offerings of
men and horses, oxen and asses.^
Buddha, a Whatever significance may attach to this rite, it is certain
Scythian(?) ^^^ ^-^^ ^^ advent of Buddhism, Scythic influences made
themselves felt in India. Indeed, it has been attempted to
establish a Scythic origin for Buddha himself. One of his
earHest appearances in the literature of the Christian Church
is as Buddha the Scythian. It is argued that by no mere
accident did the Fathers trace the Manichaean doctrine to
Scythianus, whose disciple, Terebinthus, took the name of
Buddha.2 As already stated, the form of abjuration of the
Manichaean heresy mentions BoSSa and ^Kv^tavos (Buddha
and the Scythian or Sakya), seemingly, says Weber, a separation
of Buddha Sakya-muni into two.^ The Indian Buddhists of the
Southern school would dwell lightly on, or pass over altogether,
a non-Aryan origin for the founder of their faith. We have
seen how the legend of Buddha in their hands assimilated
itself to the old epic type of the Aryan hero. But a Scythic
origin would be congenial to the Northern school of Buddhism :
to the school which was consolidated by the Scythic monarch
Kanishka, and which supplied a religion during more than ten
centuries to Scythic tribes of Central Asia.
Meaning We find, therefore, without surprise, that the sacred books
of Sakya. Qf Tibet Constantly speak of Buddha as the Sakya. In them,
Buddha is the heir-apparent to the throne of the Sakyas ; his
doctrine is accepted by the Sakya race; and a too strict
adherence to its tenets of mercy ends in the destruction of the
Sakya capital, followed by the slaughter of the Sakya people."*
If we could be sure that Sakya really signified Scythian, this
evidence would be conclusive. But the exact meaning of Sakya,
although generally taken to be the Indian representative of
Scythian, as the Persian Sakae was the equivalent of Scythae,
has yet to be determined. At one time it seemed as if the
^ Early History of Tibet, in Mr. Woodville Rockhill's Life of the Btiddha,
from the Tibetan Classics, p. 204 (Triibner, 1884).
* *I believe the legend of Sakya was perverted into the history of
Scythianus,' Beal's Catena of the Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese^
p. 129 (Triibner, 187 1).
' Weber's History of Indian Literature^ p. 309, footnote 363 (Triibner,
1878). But Buddhism probably reached the Early Church through the
Scythians ; so that Buddha might be called Skuthianos, as the Scythian
religious founder, without implying that he was a born Scythian. Vide
post^ chap. ix. * Vide ante, \\ 140.
THE TIBETAN TRADITIONS. 177
Tibetan records might settle the point. These hopes have,
however, been disappointed, as the earliest Tibetan records
prove to be a reflex of foreign influences rather than a deposi-
tory of indigenous traditions.
Tibet, Khoten, and other countries to the north of the Artificial
Himalayas, on adopting Buddhism, more or less unconsciously xjbetan
re-cast their national traditions into Buddhist moulds.^ These traditions,
countries formed the meeting-place of two distinct streams of
civilisation, — the material civilisation of China, and the religious
civilisation of India. Some of the early Tibetan legends seem
to be clumsy copies of the stories of the first Chinese sovereigns
recorded in the Bamboo Books. ^ The Tibetan classics further
obscure the historical facts, by a tendency to trace the royal lines
of Central Asia to the family or early converts of Buddha ; as
certain mediaeval families of Europe claimed descent from
the Wise Men of the East ; and noble gentes of Rome found
their ancestors among the heroes of the Trojan war. Thus
the first Tibetan monarch derived his line from Prasenadjit,
King of Kosala, the life-long friend of Buddha; and the
dynasty of Khoten claimed, as its founder, a son of King
Dharmasoka.
The truth is, that while Tibet obtained much of its material Sources of
civilisation from China, its medicine, its mathematics, its j^j^^s and
weights and measures, its chronology, its clothing, its mul- traditions,
berries, tea, and ardent spirits ; it received its religion and letters
from India, together with its philosophy, and its ideal of the
spiritual life. The mission of the seven Tibetan nobles to India
to find an alphabet for the yet unwritten language of Tibet, is an
historical event of the 7th century a.d. The Indian monastery
of Nalanda was reproduced with fidelity in the great Hsamyas,
or religious house at Lhasa. The struggle between Chinese
and Indian influences disclosed itself alike in the public disputa-
tions of the Tibetan sects, and in the inner intrigues of the
palace. One of the greatest of the Tibetan monarchs married
two wives, — an Indian princess who brought Buddhist images
from Nepal, and a Chinese princess who brought silk-brocades
and whisky from China.^ We must therefore receive with
caution the evidence as to the original signification of the
word Sakya, derived from the records of a nation which
was so largely indebted for its ideas and its traditions to later
foreign sources.
^ Early Histories of Tibet and Khoten, in Mr. Rockhill's Life of the
Buddha, p. 232, etc.
" Idem, p. 203. 3 Idevi, pp. 2 1 3-2 1 5.
M
178 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAGA RACES,
Evidence That evidence should, however, be stated. The Tibetan
traditions sacred books preserve an account of the Sakya creation ; of the
as to the non-sexual procession of the ancient Sakya kings ; and of the
Sakyas. settlement of the Sakyas at Kapila, the birthplace of Buddha.
Their chief seat was the kingdom of Kosala, near the southern
base of the Himalayas. Tibetan traditions place the early
Indian homes of the Sakyas on the banks of the Bhagirathi, as
distinctly as the Vedic hymns place the homes of the primitive
Aryans on the tributaries of the Indus. They claim, indeed,
for Buddha a Kshattriyan descent from the noble Ishkvaku or
Solar line. But it is clear that the race customs of the Indo-
Sakyas differed in some respects from those of the Indo-Aryans.
Sakya race At birth, the Sakya infant was made to bow at the feet of a
tribal image, Taksha Sakya-vardana, which, on the presentation
of Buddha, itself bowed down to the divine child. ^ In regard
to marriage, the old Sakya law is said to have allowed a man
only one wife.^ The dead were disposed of by burial, although
cremation was not unknown. In the topes or funeral mounds
of Buddhism is apparently seen a reproduction of the royal
Scythian tombs of which Herodotus speaks.^ Perhaps more
remarkable is the resemblance of the great co-decease of
Buddha's companions to the Scythian holocausts of the
followers, servants and horses of a dead monarch."* On the
death of Buddha, according to the Tibetan texts, a co-decease
of 18,000 of his disciples took place. On the death of the
faithful Maudgalyayana, the co-decease of disciples amounted
to 70,000; while on that of Sariputra, the co-decease of
Buddhist ascetics was as high as 80,000.^. The composite
idea of a co-decease of followers, together with a funeral
m.ound over the relics of an illustrious personage, was in
accordance with obsequies of the Scythian type.
Scythic Whatever may be the value of such analogies, the influence
in"lndia"^ of the Scythian dynasties in Northern India is a historical
40-634 fact. The Northern or Tibetan form of Buddhism, represented
by the Scythian monarch Kanishka and the Fourth Council ^
in 40 A.D., soon made its way down to the plains of Hindu-
stan, and during the next six centuries competed with the
earlier Buddhism of Asoka. The Chinese pilgrim in 629-645
1 Mr. Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, p. 17. 2 /,/.;//^ p. j^.
' Herodotus, iv. 71, 127.
* The slaughter of the king's concubine, cup-benrer, and followers is
also mentioned in Herodotus, iv. 71 and 72.
» Mr. Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, p. 141, footnote 3, and p. 148.
• Numiiinata Oricntalia (Ceylon fasc), p. 54.
A.D.
SCYTHIC (?) JATS AND RAJPUTS. 179
A.D. found both the Northern or Scythic and the Southern
forms of Buddhism in full vigour in India. He spent fourteen
months at China-pati, the town where Kanishka had kept his
Chinese hostages in the Punjab ; and he records the debates
between the Northern and Southern sects of Buddhists in
various places. The town of China-pati, ten miles west of the
Beas river,^ bore witness to later ages of the political connection
of Northern India with the Trans-Himalayan races of Central
and Eastern Asia. The Scythic influence in India was a Scythic
dynastic as well as a religious one. The evidence of coins settlements
, , ^ ^ ,. ., ...... , m India.
and the names of Indian tribes or reigning families, such as
the Sakas, Huns, and Nagas, point to Scythian settlements
as far south as the Central Provinces. -
Some scholars believe that the Scythians poured down upon Scythian
India in such masses as to supplant the previous population, elements in
The Jats or Jats,^ who now number 4^ millions and form one- latlo^^^^"
fifth of the inhabitants of the Punjab, are identified with the
Getae ; and their great sub-division the Dhe with the Dahae,
whom Strabo places on the shores of the Caspian. This
view has received the support of eminent investigators, from
Professor H. H. Wilson to General Cunningham, the late
Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India.'' The
existing division between the Jats and the Dhe has, indeed, been (i) The
traced back to the contiguity of the Massa-getae or Great J^^^-
Getae,^ and the Dahae, who dwelt side by side in Central Asia,
and who may have advanced together during the Scythian
movements towards India on the decline of the Graeco-Bactrian .
Empire. Without pressing such identifications too closely in
the service of particular theories, the weight of authority is in
favour of a Scythian origin for the Jats, the most numerous and
valuable section of the agricultural population of the Punjab.^
A similar descent has been assigned to certain of the Rajput
* General Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India, p. 200.
* Muir's Sanskrit Texts, chap. v. vol. i. (1868) ; Sir C. Grant's Gazetteer
of the Central Provinces, Ixx., etc. (Nagpur, 1870) ; Reports oi the ArcJiceo-
logical Survey of India and of Western India; Professor H. H. Wilson
(and Dr. F. Hall), Vishnu Furdna, ii. 134.
^ The word occurs as Jats and Jats ; but the identity of the two forms
has been established by reference to the Ain-i-Akbari, Some are now
Hindus, others Muhammadans.
* See among other places, part iv. of his Arch ecological Reports, p. 19.
' Massa means ' great ' in Pehlevi.
^ It should be mentioned, however, that Dr. Trumpp believed them to
be of Ar}-an origin {Zeitsch. d. Dentsch. Morg. Gesellsch., xv. p. 690). See
Mr J, Beames' admirable edition of Sir Henry Elliott's Glossary of the Rcues
of the Ncrth-Westsrn Provijiccs, vol. i. pp. 130-137, ed. 1869.
i8o SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.
(2)The
Rajputs.
tribes. Colonel Tod, still the standard historian of Rajasthan,
strongly insisted on this point.
The relationship between the Jats and the Rajputs,
although obscure, is acknowledged ; and although the jus
connubii no longer exists between them, an inscription seems
to show that they intermarried in the 5th century a.d.^
Professor Cowell, indeed, regards the arguments for the Scythic
descent of the Rdjputs as inconclusive.^ But authorities of
weight have deduced, alike from local investigation ^ and
from Sanskrit literature,^ a Scythic origin for the Jats and for
certain of the Rdjput tribes. The question has lately been
discussed, with the fulness of local knowledge, by Mr. Denzil
Ibbetson, the chief Census officer for the Punjab in 1881.
His conclusions are — First, that the terms Rajput and Jdt
indicate a difference in occupation and not in origin. Second,
that even if they represent distinct waves of migration, sepa-
rated by an interval of time, ' they belong to one and the same
ethnic stock.' Third, 'that whether Jats and Rajputs were
or were not originally distinct,' ' the two now form a common
stock ; the distinction between Jat and Rajput being social
rather than ethnic' ^ We shall see that earlier migrations of
Central Asian hordes also supplied certain of the Ndga, or
so-called aboriginal, races of India.
The Scythic settlements were not effected without a struggle.
As Chandra Gupta had advanced from the Gangetic valley, and
Indian
struggle
Scythians, rolled back the tide of Graeco-Bactrian conquest, 312-306 B.C.,
' Inscription discovered in Kotah State ; No. i of Inscription Appendix
to Colonel Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rdjdsthdn, vol. i. p. 701,
note 3 (Madras Reprint, 1873). Although Tod is still the standard
historian of Rajputana, and will ever retain an honoured place as an
original investigator, his ethnical theories must be received with caution.
' Appendix to Elphinstone's Hist. Ind., pp. 250 et seq., ed. 1866.
'Tod's Rdjdsthdn^ pp. 52, 483, 500, etc., vol. i. (Madras Reprint,
1873).
* Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall's edition of Professor H. H. Wilson's Vishnu
Purdna^ vol. ii. p. 134. The Hiinas, according to Wilson, were 'the
white Huns who were established in the Punjab, and along the Indus, as
we know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy, confirmed by recent discoveries
of their coins and by inscriptions.' *I am not prepared,' says Dr. Fitz-
Edward Hall, * to deny that the ancient Hindus when they spoke of the
Hiinas included the Huns. In the Middle Ages, however, it is certain
that a race called Huna was understood by the learned of India to form a
division of the Kshattriyas. ' Professor Dowson's Diet. Hind. Mythology ^
etc., p. 122.
* See the ethnographical volume of the Punjab Census for 1881, paras.
421, 422 et seq.y by Mr. Denzil Jelf Ibbetson, of the Bengal Civil Service,
p. 220 (Government Press, Calcutta, 1883).
SAMVAT AND SAKA ERAS. i8i
so the native princes who stemmed the torrent of Scythian
invasion are the Indian heroes of the first century before and
after Christ. Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain, appears to have
won his paramount place in Indian story by driving out the
invaders. An era, the Samvat, beginning in 57 B.C., wsls Samvaf
founded in honour of his achievements. Its date ^ seems ^^^' 57
at variance with his legendary victories over the Scythian
Kanishka in the ist century after Christ.^ But the very title
of its founder suffices to commemorate his struggle against
the northern hordes, as Vikramaditya Sakari, or Vikramaditya,
the Enemy of the Scythians.
The name of Vikramaditya, * A very Sun in Prowess,' was
borne, as we have seen, by several Indian monarchs. In
later ages their separate identity was merged in the ancient
renown of the Slayer of the Scythians, who thus combined the
fame of many Vikramadityas. There was a tendency to
assign to his period the most eminent Indian works in science
and poetry, — works which we know must belong to a date long
after the first century of our era. His reign forms the Augustan
era of Sanskrit literature; and tradition fondly ascribed the
highest products of the Indian intellect during many later cen-
turies to the poets and philosophers, or Nine Gems, of this
Vikramaditya's Court. As Chandra Gupta, who freed India from
the Greeks, is celebrated in the drama Mudra-rakshasa ; so
Vikramaditya, the vanquisher of the Scythians, forms the central
royal personage of the Hindu stage.
Vikramaditya's achievements, however, furnished no final de- Sdia or
liverance,but merely form an episode in the long struggle between Scythian
the Indian dynasties and new races from the north. Another a.d. ^
popular era, the Sdka, literally the Scythian, takes its com-
mencement in 78 A.D.,3 and is supposed to commemorate the
defeat of the Scythians by a king of Southern India, Salivahana.*
During the seven centuries which followed, three powerful mon-
archies, the Senas, Guptas, and Valabhis, established themselves
^ Samvafsara, the 'Year.' The uncertainty which surrounds even this
long-accepted finger-post in Indian chronology may be seen from Dr. J.
Fergusson's paper * On the Saka and Samvat and Gupta eras ' {JourJial
Roy. As. Soc, New Series, vol, xii. ), especially p. 172.
- The Hushka, Jushka, and Kanishka family of the Rdjd Tarangini,
or Chronicles of Kashmir, are proved by inscriptions to belong to the 4th
century of the Seleucidan era, or the 1st century a.d.
' Monday, 14th March 78 A.D., Julian style.
* General Cunningham ; see also Mr. Edw. Thomas' letter, dated i6th
September 1874, to The Academy, which brings this date within the period
of the Kanishka family (2 B.C. to 87 A.D.).
i82 -'sCYTmC INROADS AND NAGA RACES.
Sena (Sah) in Northern and Western India. The Senas and Singhas, or
6o"^^^A Satraps of Surashtra, are traced by coins and inscriptions from 60
235 A.D. or 70 B.C. to after 235 a.d.^ After the Senas come the Guptas
of Kanauj,2 in the North-Western Provinces, the Middle Land
Gupta of ancient Brahmanism. The Guptas introduced an era of
"1^0-170 ^^^^^^ ^^^'"' commencing in 319 a.d. ; and ruled in person or
A.I). by viceroys over Northern India during 150 years, as far to
the south-west as Kathiawar. The Gupta dynasty was over-
thrown by foreign invaders, apparently a new influx of Huns
or Tartars from the north-west (450-470 a.d.).
Valabhi The Valabhis succeeded the Guptas, and ruled over Cutch,
^^^^^y» north-western Bombay,3and Malwa, from 480 to after 722 a.d.*
A.D. The Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, gives a full account of
the court and people of Valabhi (630-640 a.d.). Buddhism was
the State religion, but heretics, i.e. Brahmans, abounded ; and
the Buddhists themselves were divided between the northern
school of the Scythian dynasties, and the southern or Indian
school of Asoka. The Valabhis seem to have been overthrown
by the early Arab invaders of Sind in the 8th century.
Long The relations of these three Indian dynasties, the Senas,
struggle Guptas, and Valabhis, to the successive hordes of Scythians,
Scythic who poured down on Northern India, are obscure. There
invaders, is abundant evidence of a long-continued struggle, but the
544 A. i). efforts to affix dates to its chief episodes have not yet pro-
duced results which can be accepted as final. Two Vikrama-
ditya Sakaris, or vanquishers of the Scythians, are required
for the purposes of chronology ; and the great battle of Koriir
near Miiltan, in which the Scythian hosts perished, has been
shifted backwards and forwards from 78 to 544 a.d.-^
The truth seems to be that, during the first six centuries of
the Christian era, the fortunes of the Scythian or Tartar races
rose and fell from time to time in Northern India. They more
than once sustained great defeats ; and they more than once
overthrew the native dynasties. Their presence is popularly
^ By Mr. Newton. See Mr. E. Thomas on the Coins of the Sah Kings,
Archtjcol. Kep. Western India, p. 44 (1876) ; and Dr. J. Fergusson, 'Journal
Roy. As. Soc., 1880.
^ Now a town of only 16,646 inhabitants in Farukhabad District, but
with ruins extending over a semicircle of 4 miles in diameter.
^ Lat-desha, including the collectorates of Surat, Broach, Kaira,
and parts of Baroda territory.
* The genealogy is worked out in detail by Mr. E. Thomas, «/ sitp-a,
pp. 80-82.
* 78 A.D. was the popularly received date, commemorated by the Sd^-a
era ; 'between 524 and 544 a.d.' is suggested by Dr. Fergusson (p. 284
K)\ 'Journal Roy. As. Soc, vol. xii.) in 1880.
PRE-AR VANS IN INDL
attested during the century before Christ by Vikramaditya
(57 B.C. ?); during the ist century After Christ, it is represented
by the Kanishka family (2 B.C. to 87 a.d.) ; it was noted by
Cosmas Indicopleustes, about 535 a.d.
A recent writer on the subject ^ believes that it was the
white Huns who overthrew the Guptas between 465 and 470
A.D. He places the great battles of Korur and Maushari,
which 'freed India from the Sakas and Hiinas,' between 524
and 544 A.D. But these dates still lie in the domain of in-
ductive, indeed almost of conjectural, history. Cosmas Indico-
pleustes, who traded in the Red Sea about 535 a.d., speaks of
the Huns as a powerful nation in Northern India in his days.^
While Greek and Scythic influences had thus been at work in The pre-
Northern India during nine centuries (327 B.C. to 544 a.d.), ^^J^^" . •
another (so-called indigenous) element was profoundly aff"ecting ancient
the future of the Indian people. A previous chapter has traced India,
the fortunes, and sketched the present condition, of the pre-
Aryan 'aborigines.' The Brahmanical Aryans never accomplished
a complete subjugation of these earlier races. The tribes and
castes of non-Aryan origin numbered in 1872 about 18 millions
in British territory; while the castes who claim a pure Aryan
descent are under 16 millions.^ The pre- Aryans have influ-
enced the popular dialects of every Province, and in Southern
India they still give their speech to 28 millions of people.
The Vedic setdements along the five rivers of the Punjab
were merely colonies or confederacies of Aryan tribes, who had
pushed in among a non-Aryan population. When an Aryan Their
family advanced to a new territory, it had often, as in the case j'^^tmg
of the Pandava brethren, to clear the forest and drive out the
aboriginal people. This double process constantly repeated
itself; and as late as 1657, when the Hindu Rajd founded the
present city of Bareilly, his first work was to cut down the
jungle and expel the old Katheriyas. The ancient Brahmanical
kingdoms of the Middle Land {Madhya-desha), in the North-
western Provinces and Oudh, were surrounded by non-Aryan
tribes. All the legendary advances beyond the northern centre
of Aryan civilisation, narrated in the epic poets, were made into
^ Dr. J. Fergusson, Journal Roy. As. Soc, pp. 282-284, etc. (1880).
^ Topographia Christiana^ lib. xi. p. 338 ; apiid Fergusson, ut supra.
* This latter number included both Brahmans (10,574,444) and Kshattriyas
and Rajputs (5,240,495). But, as we have just seen, some of the Rajput tribes
are believed to ])e of Scythic origin, while others have been incorporated from
confessedly non- Aryan tribes (z/zV/^ a«/^, p. 91). Such non-Aryan Rajputs
more than outnumber any survivals of the Vaisyas of pure Aryan descent.
i84 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.
Pre-
Aryan
kingdoms
in
Northern
India.
The
'lakshaks
of Rawal
rindi
District.
The
Takshaks.
Sixth Cen-
tury B.C.;
327 R-C.
the territory of non-Aryan races. When we begin to catch
historical glimpses of India, we find .the countries even around
the northern Aryan centre ruled by non-Aryan princes. The
Nandas, whom Chandra Gupta succeeded in Behar, appear as
a Siidra or non- Aryan dynasty; and according to one account,
Chandra Gupta and his grandson Asoka came of the same stock.^
The Buddhist religion did much to incorporate the pre- Aryan
tribes into the Indian polity. During the long struggle of the
Indo-Aryans against Grseco-Bactrian and Scythian inroads (627
B.C. to 544 A.D.), the Indian aboriginal races must have had an
increasing importance, whether as enemies or allies. At the end
of that struggle, we discover them ruling in some of the fairest
tracts of Northern India. In almost every District throughout
Oudh and the North-Western Provinces, ruined towns and forts
are ascribed to aboriginal races who ruled at different periods,
according to the local legends, between the 5th and nth
centuries a.d. When the Muhammadan conquest supplies a
firmer historical footing, after 1000 a.d., non-Aryan tribes were
still in possession of several of these Districts, and had only
been lately ousted from others.
The Statistical Survey of India has brought together many
survivals of these obscure races. It is impossible to follow that
survey through each locality ; the following paragraphs indicate,
with the utmost brevity, a few of the results. Starting from the
West, Alexander the Great found Rawal Pindi District in
the hands of the Takkas or Takshaks, from whom its Greek
name of Taxila was derived. This people has been traced
to a Scythian migration about the 6th century b.c.^ Their
settlements in the 4th century b.c. seem to have extended
from the Paropamisan range ^ in Afghanistan to deep into
Northern India. Their Punjab capital, Takshasila, or Taxila,
was the largest city which Alexander met with between the Indus
and the Jehlam (327 b.c.).^ Salihdvana, from whom the Sdka
^ The Mudrd-rdkshasa represents Chandra Gupta as related to the last
of the Nandas ; the Commentator of the Vishnu Purdna says he was the
son of a Nanda by a low-caste woman. Prof. Dowson's Did. Hindu
Mythology, etc., p. 68 (Triibner, 1879).
* Such dates have no pretension to be anything more than intelligent
conjectures based on very inadequate evidence. With regard to the Tak-
shaks, see Colonel Tod and the authorities which he quotes, Rdjdsthduy
vol. i. p. $1 passim, pp. 93 et scij. (Madras Reprint, 1873).
3 Where Alexander found them as the Parae-takae — pahari or Hill
Takae(?).
* Arrian. The Brahman mythol(^ists, of course, produce an Aryan pedi-
gree for so important a person as King Taksha, and make him the son of
Bharata and nephew of Rama-chandra.
NAGAS AND TAKSHAKS. 185
or Scythian era took its commencement (78 a.d.), is held by The
some authorities to have been of Takshak descent. ^ In the Takshaks
7th century a.d., Taki,^ perhaps derived from the same race,
was the capital of the Punjab. The Scythic Takshaks, indeed, ^^
are supposed to have been the source of the great Serpent Race, 1881 a.d.
the Takshakas or Nagi.s, who figure so prominently in Sanskrit
literature and art, and whose name is still borne by the Naga
tribes of our own day. The Takkas remaining to the present
time are found only in the Districts of Delhi and Karnal.
They number 14,305, of whom about three - fourths have
adopted the faith of Islam.
The words Naga and Takshaka in Sanskrit both mean The^
a * snake,' or tailed monster. As the Takshakas have been ^'^g^s.
questionably connected with the Scythian Takkas, so the Nagas
have been derived, by conjecture in the absence of evidence,
from the Tartar patriarch Nagas, the second son of Elkhan.^
Both the terms, Nagas and Takshakas, seem to have been
loosely applied by the Sanskrit writers to a variety of non-Aryan
peoples in India, whose religion was of an anti- Aryan type.
We learn, for example, how the five Pandava brethren of
the Mahabharata burned out the snake-king Takshaka from
his primeval Khandava forest The Takshaks and Nagas
were the tree and serpent worshippers, whose rites and
objects of adoration have impressed themselves deeply on the
architecture and sculptures of India. They included, in a
confused manner, several different races of Scythic origin.
The chief authority on Tree and Serpent Worship in India Indo-
has deliberately selected the term ' Scythian ' for the anti-Aryan Jr'^'^^?'^.
elements, which entered so largely into the Indian religions
both in ancient and in modern times.^ The Chinese records
give a full account of the Naga geography of ancient India.
The Naga kingdoms were both numerous and powerful, and
Buddhism derived many of its royal converts from them. The
1 Tod, Rdjdsthdji, vol. i. p. 95 (ed. 1873).
2 Taki, or Asarur, 45 miles west of Lahore. General Cunningham, Anc.
Geog. of India, p. 191, and Map vi. (ed. 1871). This Taki lies, however,
considerably to the south-east of the Takshasila of Alexander's expedition.
' Tod, Kdjdsthdn, vol. i. p. 53 (ed. 1873) 5 ^ ^^^ doubtful authority.
* Dr. J. Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 71, 72 (India
Museum, 4to, 1868). For the results of more recent local research, see
Mr. Rivett-Carnac's papers in the Journal of the As. Soc, Bengal, 'The
Snake Symbol in India,' 'Ancient Sculpturings on Rocks,' 'Stone Carv-
ings at Mainpuri,' etc. ; the Honourable Rao Sahib Vishvanaks Narayan
Mandlik's 'Serpent-Worship in Western India,' and other essays in the
Bombay As. Soc. Journal; also, Reports of Archteological Survey, Western
India.
i86 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAGA RACES.
Chinese chroniclers, indeed, classify the Nagd, princes of India
into two great divisions, as Buddhists and non - Buddhists.
The serpent-worship, which formed so typical a characteristic
of the Indo-Scythic races, led the Chinese to confound those
tribes with the objects of their adorations ; and the fierce Indo-
hecome Scythic Nagas would almost seem to be the originals of the
Dragon- Dragon races of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese art. The
races of compromises to which Buddhism submitted, with a view to
China. winning the support of the Naga peoples, will be referred
to in the following chapter, on the Rise of Hinduism.
As the Greek invaders found Rd,wal Pindi District in
possession of a Scythic race of Takkas in 327 b.c, so the
Musalman conqueror found it inhabited by a fierce non- Aryan
The race of Ghakkars thirteen hundred years later. The Ghakkars
of^RdwaT ^°^ ^ ^^"^^ imperilled the safety of Mahmud of Ghazni in 1008.
Pindi, Farishta describes them as savages, addicted to polyandry and
1008-1857 infanticide. The tide of Muhammadan conquest rolled on,
but the Ghakkars remained in possession of their sub-Hima-
layan tract.i In 1205 they ravaged the Punjab to the gates of
Lahore; in 1206 they stabbed the Muhammadan Sultan in
his tent ; and in spite of conversion to Islam by the sword, it
was not till 1525 that they made their submission to the
Emperor Babar in return for a grant of territory. During the
next two centuries they rendered great services to the Mughal
dynasty against the Afghan usurpers, and rose to high influence
in the Punjab. Driven from the plains by the Sikhs in 1765
A.D., the Ghakkar chiefs maintained their independence in
the Murree (Marri) Hills till 1830, when they were crushed
after a bloody struggle. In 1849, Rd.wal Pindi passed, with
the rest of the Sikh territories, under British rule. But the
Ghakkars revolted four years afterwards, and threatened
Murree, the summer capital of the Punjab, as lately as 1857.
The Ghakkars are now found in the Punjab Districts of Rdwal
Pindi, Jehlam, and Hazdra. Their total number was returned
at 25,789 in 1881. They are described by their British officers
as * a fine spirited race, gentlemen in ancestry and bearing, and
clinging under all reverses to the traditions of noble blood.' ^
Pre- The population of Rawal Pindi District has been selected to
BareinV ^^^"^trate the long-continued presence and vitality of the pre-
Uistrict. Aryan element in India. Other parts of the country must be
* For a summary of their later history, see article on Rawal Pindi
DlSTVUCT, The Impei'ial Gazetteer of India.
2 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, article Rawal Pindi District.
THE BHARS AND KOCH. 187
more briefly dealt with. Proceeding inwards into the North-
Western Provinces, we everywhere find traces of an early
Buddhist civilisation in contact with, or overturned by, rude
non-Aryan tribes. In Bareilly District, for example, the wild
Ahi'rs from the north, the Bhils from the south, and the Bhars
from the east, seem to have expelled highly-developed Aryan
communities at some period before 1000 a.d. Still farther to
the east, all remains of pre-historic masonry in Oudh and the
North-Western Provinces are assigned to the ancient Buddhists
or to a non- Aryan race of Bhars.
The Bhars appear to have possessed the north Gangetic The Bhars
plains in the centuries coeval with the fall of Buddhism. ^" Oudh.
Their kingdoms extended over most of Oudh. Lofty mounds
covered with ancient groves mark the sites of their forgotten
cities ; and they are the mysterious * fort-builders ' to whom
the peasantry ascribe any ruin of unusual size. In the
central valley of the Ganges, their power is said to have
been crushed by the Sharki dynasty of Jaunpur in the end injaun-
of the 14th century. In the Districts north of the Gan- P^'"-
getic plain, the Bhars figure still more prominently in local
traditions, and an attempt has been made to trace their con-
tinuous history. In Gorakhpur District, the aboriginal inGorakh-
Tharus and Bhars seem to have overwhelmed the early P^^^-
outposts of Aryan civilisation several centuries before Christ.
Their appearance on the scene is connected with the rise of
Buddhism. They became vassals of the Buddhist kingdom
of Behar on the south-east; and on the fall of that power,
about 550 A.D., they regained their independence. The
Chinese pilgrim in the 7th century comments in this region
on the large number of monasteries and towers — the latter
probably a monument of the struggle with the aboriginal
Bhars, who were here finally crushed between the 7th and the
loth centuries a.d. In 1881, the total Bhar population of
Oudh and the North-Western Provinces numbered 349,113.
As we advance still farther eastwards into Bengal, we find
that the non-Aryan races have within historical time supplied a
large part of the Hindu population. In the north, the Koch The Koch
established their dominion upon the ruins of the Aryan ?; ,
kingdom of Kamrup, which the Afghan King of Bengal had Bengal,
overthrown in 1489. The Koch gave their name to the
Native State of Kuch Behar ; and their descendants, together In Kuch
with those of other non-Aryan tribes, form the mass of the ^^^^^•
people in the neighbouring British Districts, such as Rangpur. In Rang-
In 1 88 1, they numbered \\ million in Northern Bengal and P"""'
SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.
Kuch
Behar
Rajas.
Behar. One part of them got rid of their low origin by becom-
ing Musalmans, and thus obtained the social equality which
Islam grants to all mankind. The rest have merged more or
less imperfectly into the Hindu population ; and about three-
quarters of a million of them claim, in virtue of their position
as an old dominant race, to belong to the Kshattriya caste.
They call themselves Rajbansis, a term exactly corresponding
to the Rajputs of Western India. The Hinduized Rajas of
Kuch Behar obtained for their ancestors a divine origin from
their Brahman genealogists, in order to efface their aboriginal
descent ; and among the nobility all mention of the Koch tribe
was avoided. The present Maharaja married the daughter
of the celebrated theistic apostle, Keshab Chandra Sen, the
leader of the Brahmo Samaj. He is an honorary major in the
British army, and takes a prominent part in Calcutta and
Simla society.
Ahams of
Assam.
Proceeding still eastwards, the adjacent valley of Assam was,
until the last century, the seat of another non-Aryan ruling
race. The Ahams entered Assam from the south-east about
1350 (?) A.D. ; had firmly estabHshed their power in 1663 ;
gradually yielded to Hinduism ; and were overpowered by
fresh Buddhist invasions from Burma between 1750 and 1825,
when the valley was annexed to British India. The Ahams
have been completely crushed as a dominant race ; and their
old national priests, to the number of 253,860, have been
forced to become tillers of the soil for a living. But the
people of Assam are still so essentially made up of aboriginal
races and their Hinduized descendants, that not 130,000
persons of even alleged pure Aryan descent can be found in a
population exceeding 4-| millions.^
Pre-
Aryan
element
south of
the
Ganges.
Aborigines
in Central
India;
The foregoing summary has been confined to races north of
the Ganges. Passing to the southern Gangetic plain, we find
that almost every tract has traditions of a pre-Aryan tribe,
either as a once-dominant race or as lying at the root of the
local population. The great Division of Bundelkhand con-
tains several crushed peoples of this class, and takes its name
from the Bundelas, a tribe of at least semi-aboriginal descent.
^ The Brahmans in Assam number only 119,075 (being fewer than the
Kalitas or old priests of the Ahams, 253,860), out of a total population
in Assam of 4,881,426 ; while the Koch alone number about 230,382, and
even the crushed Ahams 179,314. For further particulars regarding these
races, see The Imperial Gazetteer 0/ India, article Assam.
LASTING NON-AR VAN I NFL UENCES. 189
As we rise from the Gangetic plains into the highlands of
the Central Provinces, we reach the abiding home of the non-
Aryan tribes. One such race after another — Gaulis, Nagas,
Gonds, Ahirs, Bhi'ls — ruled from the Satpura plateau. ^ Some
of their chiefs and leading families now claim to be Kshattriyas;
and a section of one of the lowest races, the Chauhans,
borrowed their name from the noble ' Chauhan ' Rajputs.
In the Lower Provinces of Bengal, we find the delta in Lower
peopled by masses of pre-Aryan origin. One section of them ^^"S^l ;
has merged into low-class Hindus ; another section has sought
a more equal social organization by accepting the creed of
Muhammad. But such changes of faith do not alter their
ethnical type ; and the Musalman of the delta differs as widely
in race from the Afghan, as the low-caste Hindu of the delta
differs from the Brahman. Throughout Southern India, the in
non-Aryan elements form almost the entire population, and Southern
have supplied the great Dravidian family of languages, which
are spoken by 28 millions of people. Two of our oldest and
most faithful allies in the Madras Presidency, the enlightened
dynasty of Travancore, and the ancient princes of Pudukotta,
are survivals of the time when non- Aryan sovereigns ruled over
Southern India.
The Scythic inroads, and the ancient Ndga and so-called Scythic
aboriginal tribes, have, however, not merely left behind influences
remnants of races in individual Districts. They have afifected on
the character of the whole population, and profoundly Hinduism,
influenced the religious beliefs and domestic institutions of
India. In the Veda we see highly developed communities
of the Aryan stock, worshipping bright and friendly gods,
honouring woman, and assigning to her an important position
in the family life. Husband and wife were the Dafnpati, or
joint rulers of the Indo-Aryan household. Traditions of the
freedom of woman among the ancient Aryan settlers survive in
the swayavivara or Maiden's Own Choice of a Husband, in
the epic poems.
The curtain of Vedic and Post-Vedic literature falls upon On the
the scene before the 5th century B.C. When the curtain rises ^^'^2^°"
on the domestic and religious life of mediaeval India, in the domestic
life of
1 See Central Provin'ces, The Imperial Gazetteer of India. The Gaulis modern
are locally believed to have been earlier fort-builders than the Gonds (see •'^^^^'^•
for example, article Saoner) ; and some of the Gond chiefs trace their
descent through 54 generations to a well-recorded ancestor assigned to 91
A.D. (see The Imperial Gazetteer of India, article Saranghar).
190 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.
Puranas about the loth century a.d., a vast change has taken
place. The people are no longer sharply divided into civilised
Aryans and rude non-Aryans, but into castes of a great mixed
population. Their religion is no longer a worship of bright
and friendly gods, but a composite product of Aryan spiritual
conceptions and non-Aryan superstitions. The position of
woman has also altered for the worse. Husband and wife are
no longer 'joint rulers' of the household. The Maiden's Own
Choice has fallen into disuse, or survived only as a Court
pageant; the custom of child-marriage has grown up. The
widow has been condemned to a life of privation, or has
been taught the merit of extinguishing her existence on her
husband's funeral pile.
The following chapter will exhibit this amorphous growth,
popularly known as Hinduism. Orthodox Hindus are
The unfortunately in the habit of claiming the authority of the
^he* Veda ^^^^ ^"^^ ^^^^^ mediaeval institutions, for the evil as well as for
the good. As a matter of fact, these institutions are the joint
product of non-Aryan darkness and of Aryan light. The
Scythic, and Naga, and so-called aboriginal races, with their
indifference to human suffering, their polyandric households, and
their worship of fear and blood, have left their mark deep in
the Hindu law-codes, in the terrorizing of the Hindu religion,
and in the degradation of woman. English scholarship has
shown that the worst feature of Hinduism, widow-burning, had
no authority in the Veda. When it is equally well understood
that the darker features of Hinduism, as a whole, rest not
upon the Vedic scriptures, but are the result of a human
compromise with non-Aryan barbarism, the task of the Indian
reformer will be half accomplished. It is with a true popular
instinct that the great religious movements of India in our day
reject the authority of mediaeval Hinduism, and appeal back
to the Veda.
[^91]
CHAPTER VIII.
RISE OF HINDUISM {750 TO 152O A.D.).
From these diverse races, pre-Aryan, Aryan, and Scythic, Rise of
the population of India has been made up. The task o^J^j[f^^*
organizing them fell to the Brahmans. That ancient caste,
which had never quitted the scene even during the height
of the Buddhistic supremacy, stepped forward to the front
of the stage upon the decay of the Buddhist faith. The
Chinese pilgrim, about 640 a.d., had found Brahmanism
and Buddhism co-existing throughout India. The conflict of
creeds brought forth a great line of Brahman apostles, from
the 8th to the i6th century a.d., with occasional successors
down to our own day. The disintegration of Buddhism, as
we have seen, occupied many hundred years, perhaps from
300 to 1000 A.D.l
The Hindus take the 8th century as the turning-point in the Kumarila,
struggle. About 750 a.d., arose a holy Brahman of Bengal, ^^ ^^^
Kumarila Bhatta by name, preaching the old Vedic doctrine
of a personal Creator and God. Before this realistic theology,
the impersonal abstractions of the Buddhists succumbed ; and
according to a later legend, the reformer wielded the sword of
the flesh not less trenchantly than the weapons of the spirit.
A Sanskrit writer, Madhava-Acharya, of the 14th century a.d.,
relates how Sudhanwan, a prince in Southern India, 'com-
manded his servants to put to death the old men and the Persecu-
children of the Buddhists, from the bridge of Rama [the ridge g^" j^^jg^^^
of reefs which connects India with Ceylon] to the Snowy
Mountain : let him who slays not, be slain.' 2
^ From the language of the Saddharma Pundarika, translated into
Chinese before the end of the 3rd century a.d,, H. H. Wilson infers
that even at that early date * the career of the Buddhists had not been one
of uninterrupted success, although the opposition had not been such as
to arrest their progress' {Essays, vol. ii. p. 366, ed. 1862). The existence
of Buddhism in India is abundantly attested to lOOO a.d.
^ Quoted by H. H. Wilson, ta supra. See also Lassen's Indischc
Altcrthninskmtdc, vol. iv. p. 708 ; Colebrooke's Essays, p. 190.
192
J^JSE OF HINDUISM.
True value
of the
legend.
Twofold
basis of
Hindu-
ism ;
caste and
religion.
Caste basis
of Hindu-
ism.
The race-
origin of
caste.
Modified
by * occu-
pation '
and ' lo-
cality. '
Com-
plexity
of caste.
It is needless to say that no sovereign existed at that time
in India whose power to persecute extended from the Hima-
layas to Cape Comorin. So far as the legend has any truth,
it refers to one of many local religious reprisals which took
place at the Indian courts during the struggle between the
Buddhists and the Brahmans. Such reprisals recurred in later
days, on a smaller scale, between the rival Hindu sects. The
legend of Kumarila is significant, however, as placing on a re-
ligious basis the series of many-sided evolutions which resulted
in Hinduism. These evolutions were the result of ethnical
processes, more subtle than the scheming of any caste of men.
The Brahmans gave a direction to Hinduism, but it was the
natural development of the Indian races which produced it.
Hinduism is a social organization and a religious con-
federacy. As a social organization, it rests upon caste, with
its roots deep down in the ethnical elements of the Indian
people. As a religious confederacy, it represents the coali-
tion of the old Vedic faith of the Brahmans with Buddhism
on the one hand, and with the ruder rites of the pre-Aryan
and Indo-Scythic races on the other.
The ethnical basis of caste is disclosed in the fourfold division
of the people into the * twice-born' Aryan castes, including
the Brahmans, K^attriyas (Rajputs), and Vaisyas; and the
' once-born ' non-Aryan Siidras. The Census proves that this
classification remains the fundamental one to the present day.
The three 'twice-born' castes still wear the sacred thread, and
claim a joint, although an unequal, inheritance in the holy
books of the Veda. The * once-born ' castes are still denied
the sacred thread, and their initiation into the old religious
literature of the Indo-Aryans has only been effected by the
secular teaching of our Anglo-Indian schools. But while caste
has thus its foundations deep in the distinctions of race, its
superstructure is regulated by another system of division, based
en the occupations of the people. The early classification of
the people may be expressed either ethnically as ' twice-born '
Aryans, and * once-born ' non- Aryans ; or socially, as priests,
warriors, husbandmen, and serfs. On these two principles of
classification, according to race and to employment, still
further modified by geographical position, has been built up
the ethnical and social organization of Indian caste.
From the resulting cross-divisions arises an excessive com-
plexity, which renders any brief exposition of caste superficial.
As a rule, it may be said that the Aryan or ' twice-born '
castes adhere most closely to the ethnical principle of
AXALYSIS OF CASTE. 193
division ; the * once-born ' or distinctly non- Aryan to the
same principle, but profoundly modified by the concurrent
principle of employment ; while the mixed progeny of the two
are classified solely according to their occupation. But even Even the
among the Brahmans, whose pride of race and continuity of ^''^hmans
tradition should render them the firmest ethnical unit among ethnical
the Indian castes, classification by employment and by geo- "^'•
graphical situation plays a very important part ; and the Brah-
mans, so far from being a compact unit, are made up of several
hundred castes, who cannot intermarry, nor eat food cooked
by each other. They follow every employment, from the
calm pandits of Behar in their stainless white robes, and the
haughty priests of Benares, to the potato-growing Brahmans
of Orissa, ' half-naked peasants, struggling along under their
baskets of yams, with a filthy little Brahmanical thread over
their shoulder.' ^
In many parts of India, Brahmans may be found earning The Brah-
their livelihood as porters, shepherds, cultivators, potters, and ™^" ^^^te
fishermen, side by side with others who would rather starve
and see their wives and little ones die of hunger, than
demean themselves to manual labour, or allow food prepared
by a man of inferior caste to pass their lips. Classification by
locality introduces another set of distinctions among the
Brahmans. In Lower Bengal jails, a convict Brahman from
Behar or the North-Western Provinces used to be highly
valued, as the only person who could prepare food for all classes
of Brdhman prisoners. In 1864, the author saw a Brahman
felon try to starve himself to death, and submit to a flogging
rather than eat his food, on account of scruples as to whether
the birthplace of the North-Western Brahman, who had cooked
it, was equal in sanctity to his own native district. The
Brahmans are popularly divided into ten great septs, according
to their locality; five on the north, and five on the south of the
Vindhya range.^ But the minor distinctions are innumer-
able. Thus, the first of the five northern Brahman septs, the
^ See Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. pp. 238 et seq. (ed. 1872), where 25 pages
are devoted to the diversities of the Brahmans in occupation and race.
Also Hindu Tribes and Castes, by the Rev. M. A. Sherring, Introd. xxi.
vol. ii. (4to, Calcutta, 1879).
^ Thus tabulated according to a Sanskrit mnemonic Sloka : —
I. The five Gauras north of the Vindhya range —
(i) The Sdraswatas, so called from the country watered by
the river Saraswatf.
(2) The Kdnyakubjas, so called from the Kanyakubja or •
Kanauj country.
N
194 J^ISE OF HINDUISM.
Saraswatas in the Punjab, consist of 469 classes.^ Sherring
enumerated 1886 separate Brdhmanical tribes.^ Dr. Wilson,
of Bombay, carried his learned work on Caste to the length of
two volumes, aggregating 678 pages, before his death; but he
had not completed his analysis of even a single caste — the
Brahmans.
The lower It will be readily understood, therefore, how numerous are
morrcom- ^^^ sub-divisions, and how complex is the constitution, of the
plex. lower castes. The Rajputs now number 590 separately-
named tribes in different parts of India.^ But a process of
synthesis as well as of analysis has been going on among the
Indian peoples. In many outlying Provinces, we see non-
Aryan chiefs and warlike tribes turn into Aryan Rajputs
before our eyes.^ Well-known legends have been handed
down of large bodies of aliens being incorporated from
time to time even into the Brahman caste.^ But besides
these ' manufactured Brahmans,' and the ethnical syncretisms
which they represent, there has been a steady process of
amalgamation among the Hindus by mixed marriage.^ The
The build- Siidras, says Mr. Sherring, ' display a great intermingling
castes? ° o^ races. Every caste exhibits this confusion. They form
a living and practical testimony to the fact that in former
times the upper and lower classes of native society, by which I
(3) The Gauras proper, so called from Gaur, or the country
of the Lower Ganges.
(4) The Utkalas, of the Province of Utkala or Odra (Orissa).
(5) The Maithilas, of the Province of Mithila (Tirhut).
IT. The five Dravidas south of the Vindhya range —
(i) The Mahdrdshtras, of the country of the Marathi language.
(2) The Andhras or Tailangas, of the country of the Telugu
language.
(3) The Dravidas proper, of the country of the Dravidian or
Tamil language.
(4) The Karndtas^ of the Karnatika, or the country of the
Canarese language.
(5) The Gtii'jaras, of Gurjarashtra, or the country of the
Gujarat! language.
^ Compiled by Pandit Radha Krishna, quoted by Dr. J. Wilson, Indian
Caste, part ii. pp. 126-133.
^ Hindu Jribes and Castes, pp. xxii.-xlvi. vol. ii. (4to, Calcutta, 1879).
'^ See Sherring, Hindu. Tribes and Castes, vol. ii. pp. Iv.-lxv,
* See Sherring, Hindu Tribes and Castes, vol. ii. p. Ixvii.
■'' Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. p. 247 (in Oudh), p. 248 (in Bhagalpur),
p. 254 (in Malabar), etc.
" See two interesting articles from opposite points of view, on the
synthetic aspects of caste, by the Rev. Mr. Sherring, of Benares, and by
Jogcndra Chandra Ghose, in the Calcutta Review, Oct. 1880.
SURVIVALS OF POLYANDRY. 195
mean the Hindu and non-Hindu population of India, formed
alliances with one another on a prodigious scale, and that the
offspring of these alliances were in many instances gathered
together into separate castes and denominated Siidras.'^
The Hindu custom now forbids marriage between (i) per- The slow
sons of the same gotra or kindred, and (2) persons of different ^^^^1^^°^"
castes. But this precise double rule has been arrived at only Hindu
after many intermediate experiments in endogamous and exo- "carriage
gamous tribal life. The transitions are typified by the polyandry
of Draupadi in the Mahabharata, and by many caste customs
relating to marriage, inheritance, and the family tie, which
survive to this day. Such survivals constitute an important
branch of law, in fact, the domestic ' common law ' of India, '-^
and furnish one of the chief difficulties in the way of Anglo-
Indian codification. . Thus, to take a single point, the rules Survivals
regarding marriage exhibit every phase from the compulsory ^^(^^,^55
polyandry of the old Nairs, the permissive polyandry of the
Punjab Jats, and the condonement of adultery with a husband's
brother or kinsman among the Karakat Vellalars of Madura ;
to the law of Levirate among the Ahirs and Nuniyas, the legal
re-marriage of widows among the low-caste Hindus, and the
stringent provisions against such re-marriages among the higher
castes. At this day, the Nairs exhibit several of the stages in
the advance from polyandric to monogamous institutions.
The conflict between polyandry and the more civilised marriage
system of the Hindus is going on before our eyes in Malabar.
Among the Koils, although polyandry is forgotten, the right of
disposing of a girl in marriage still belongs, in certain cases,
to the maternal uncle, — a relic of the polyandric system of
succession through females. This tribe also preserves the form
of marriage by 'capture.'
The Brdhjjianas indicate that the blood of the Hindus Ancient
was, even in the early post-Vedic period, greatly intermingled.^ mingling
The ancient marriage code recognised as lawful, unions of
men of higher caste with females from any of the lower ones,
and their offspring^ had a c^uite different social status from
' Calcutta Revircv^ cxlii. p. 225.
* Among many treatises on this subject, Arthur Steele's Law and Ctistoni
of Hiiidit Castes {\%(i'6) deals with Western India; Nelson's View of Hindu
Law (1877), and Burnell's Dayavibhdga^ etc., may he quoted for the
Madras Presidency ; Beames' admirable edition of Sir Henry Elliot's
Tribes of the North - Western Provinces^ and Sherring's Hitidu Tribes
(besides more strictly legal treatises), for Bengal.
•^ The Taittiriya Brdh7nana of the Krishna Yajur Veda (quoted by Dr.
J. Wilson, Caste, i, pp. 127-132) enumerates 159 castes. *■ Anuloma.
196 RISE OF HINDUISM.
the progeny ^ of illicit concubinage. The laws of Manu
disclose how widely such connections had influenced the
structure of Indian society 2000 years ago ; and the Census
proves that the mixed castes still form the great body of the
Hindu population. In dealing with Indian caste, we must
therefore allow, not only for the ethnical and geographical
elements into which it is resolvable, but also for the synthetic
processes by which it has been built up.
The *oc- The same remark applies to the other principle of classifi-
cupation cation on which caste rests, namely, according to the employ-
caste, ments of the people. On the one hand, there has been a
tendency to erect every separate employment in each separate
Changes Province into a distinct caste. On the other hand, there has
"atio^''"b ^^^^ ^ practice (which European observers are apt to over-
castes, look) of the lower castes changing their occupation, and in
some cases deliberately raising themselves in the social scale.
Thus the Vaisya caste, literally the vis or general body of
the Aryan settlers, were in ancient times the tillers of the
soil. They have abandoned this laborious occupation to the
Siidra and mixed castes, and are now the merchants and
bankers of India. 'Fair in complexion,' writes the most
accurate of recent students of caste,^ 'with rather delicate
features, and a certain refinement depicted on their coun-
tenances, sharp of eye, intelligent of face, and polite of
The Vais- bearing,' the Vaisyas ' must have radically changed since the
yas. (jj^ys when their forefathers delved, sowed, and reaped.' Indeed,
so great is the change, that a heated controversy is going on in
Hindu society as to whether the Bengali baniyds, or merchant-
bankers, are really of Vaisya descent or of a higher origin.
Such a rise in the social scale is usually the unconscious
work of time, but there are also legends of distinct acts of self-
assertion by individual castes. In Southern India, the gold-
Gold- smiths strenuously resisted the rule of the Brdhmans, and for
Madras''^ ages claimed to be the true spiritual guides, styling themselves
dchdryas^ ' religious teachers,' and wearing the sacred thread.
Their pretensions are supposed to have given rise to the
great division of castes in Madras, into the ' Right-hand,' or
the cultivating and trading castes who supported the Brdhmans ;
1 Pratiloma, For an arrangement of 134 Indian castes, according to
their origin, or 'procession' from (l) regular full marriage by members
of the same caste, (2) amdoma^ (3) pratiloma^ (4) Vrdtya-Santati, (5)
adultery, (6) incest, (7) degeneration ; Wilson, Indian Caste, ii. pp. 39-70.
' The Rev. M. A. Sherring (deceased, alas, since the above was written,
after a life of noble devotion and self-sacrifice to the Indian people),
Calcutta Revieiv, October 1880, p. 220.
CASTE AS A TRADE-GUILD. 197
and the 'Left-hand,' chiefly craftsmen who sided with the artisan
opposition to Brahman supremacy. ^
In Bengal, a similar opposition came from the literary class. The
The Dattas, a sept of the Kdyasth or writer - caste, re- ^^ Bengal,
nounced the position assigned to them in the classification
of Hindu society. They claimed to rank next to the Brahmans,
and thus above all the other castes. They failed; but a
native author 2 states that one of their body, within the
memory of men still living, maintained his title, and wore
the sacred thread of the pure 'twice-born.' The Statistical
Survey of India has disclosed many self-assertions of this
sort, although of a more gradual character and on a smaller
scale. Thus, in Eastern Bengal, where land is plentiful, the
Shahas, a section of the Suris or degraded spirit-sellers, have. The
in our own time, advanced themselves first into a respectable
cultivating caste, and then into prosperous traders. Some of
the Teh's or oil-pressers in Dacca District, and certain of the Telis,
Tambulis or /i«- growers in Rangpur, have in like manner ^^^^ ^ ^^'
risen above their hereditary callings, and become bankers and
grain merchants. These examples do not include the general
opening of professions, effected by English education — the
great solvent of caste.
There is therefore a plasticity as well as a rigidity in caste. Plasticity
Its plasticity has enabled caste to adapt itself to widely ^."^V •
1 ^ . -' rigidity in
separated stages of social progress, and to incorporate caste.
the various ethnical elements which make up the Indian
people. Its rigidity has given strength and permanence to
the corporate body thus formed. Hinduism is internally
loosely coherent, but it has great powers of resistance to
external pressure. Each caste is to some extent a trade- Caste, as
guild, a mutual assurance society, and a religious sect. As a o/frade-
trade-union, it insists on the proper training of the youth of guilds,
its craft, regulates the wages of its members, deals with trade-
delinquents, and promotes good fellowship by social gather-
ings. The famous fabrics of mediaeval India, and the chief
local industries in our own day, were developed under the
supervision of caste or trade guilds of this sort. Such guilds
may still be found in many parts of India, but not always
with the same complete development.^
^ This subject is involved in much obscurity. The above sentences
embody the explanation given in Nelson's View of the Hindu Law, as
administered by the High Conrt of Madi-as, p. 140 (Madras, 1877).
* Jogendra Chandra Ghose, Calcutta Kevinv, cxlii. p. 279 (October 1880).
' The Statistical Accounts or Gazetteers of the Bombay Districts devote
a special section to such trade-guilds in every District.
198 RISE OF HINDUISM.
In Ahmadabad District ^ each trade forms a separate
guild. All heads of artisan households are ranged under their
Its proper guild. The objects of the guild are to regulate com-
of^wa^el" petition among the members, and to uphold the interest of
the body in disputes with other craftsmen. To moderate com-
petition, the guild appoints certain days as trade holidays, when
any member who works is punished by a fine. A special
case occurred in 1873 among the Ahmadibad bricklayers.
Men of this class sometimes added 3d. to their daily wages
by working extra time in the early morning. But several
families were thereby thrown out of employment. Accord-
ingly the guild met, and decided that as there was not employ-
ment for all, no man should be allowed to work extra time.
Working The decisions of the guild are enforced by fines. If the
"rack- offender refuses to pay, and the members of the guild all
guild. belong to one caste, the offender is put out of caste. If the
guild contains men of different castes, the guild uses its
influence with other guilds to prevent the recusant member
from getting work. The guild also acts in its corporate
capacity against other crafts. For example, in 1872, the
Ahmadabad cloth - dealers resolved among themselves to
reduce the rates paid to the sizers or tdgtds. The sizers'
guild refused to prepare cloth at the lower rates, and
An Indian remained six weeks on strike. At length a compromise was
'strike. arrived at, and both guilds signed a stamped agreement.
Besides its punitive fines, the guild draws an income from
fees levied on persons beginning to practise its craft. This
custom prevails at Ahmadabad in the cloth and other industries.
But no fee is paid by potters, carpenters, and inferior artisans.
(juild An exception is made, too, in the case of a son succeeding to
funds. j^-g (2i\.htT, when nothing need be paid. In other cases, the
amount varies, in proportion to the importance of the trade,
from £^ to jQs^- '^^^ revenue from these fees and from
punitive fines is expended in feasts to the members of the guild,
in the support of poor craftsmen or their orphans, and in
Guild charity. A favourite device for raising money in Surat is for
charities, ^j^g members of a trade to agree to keep a certain date as a
holiday, and to shut up all their shops except one. The right
to keep open this one shop is let by auction, and the amount
bid is credited to the guild-fund.
Trade- Within the guild, the interests of the common trade often
interests v. supersede the race element of the theoretically common caste.
Thus, in Surat, each class of craftsmen, although including men
1 See the article, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
CASTE DISCIPLINE. 199
of dififerent castes and races, combine to form a guild, with
a council, a head-man, and a common purse for charity and
entertainments. In Ahmadabad, Broach, and many industrial in trade
centres, the trade organization into guilds co-exists with, or '^^^ ^^^ *
dominates, the race-structure of caste. A twofold organization
also appears in the village community. Caste regulates the in the vil-
theoretical position of every family within it ; but the low- ^^^^^J^'
castes often claim the headship in the village government.
In Barasat Sub -district in Bengal, of 5818 enumerated Low-caste
Village Heads, only 15 were Brahmans or Rajputs, 4 were )^'l^^p-
Kayasths, while 3524 belonged to the Siidra or inferior castes,
down to the detested cow-skinners and corpse-bearers; the
residue being Muhammadans, with 13 native Christians. In
Southern India, the Village Head is sometimes of so low a
caste that he cannot sit under the same roof with his colleagues
in the village government. He therefore hands up his staff,
which is set in the place of honour, while he himself squats
on the ground outside. The trade-guild in the cities, and the Caste and
village community throughout the country, act, together with .' "^"^"^^ ,
caste, as mutual assurance societies, and under normal con-
ditions allow none of their members to starve. Caste, and the No * poor-
trading or agricultural guilds concurrent with it, take the place j^jj^^"^
of a poor-law in India.
It is obvious that such an organization must have some Caste
weapons for defending itself against lazy or unworthy members, rewards.
The responsibility which the caste discharges with regard to
feeding its poor, would otherwise be liable to abuses. As a
matter of fact, the caste or guild exercises a surveillance over
each of its members, from the close of childhood until death.
If a man behaves well, he will rise to an honoured place in
his caste ; and the desire for such local distinctions exercises
an important influence in the life of a Hindu. But the
caste has its punishments as well as its rewards. Those Caste pun-
punishments consist of fine and excommunication. The fine ^^'^"^'^^^^•^•
usually takes the form of a compulsory feast to the male
members of the caste. This is the ordinary means of purifica-
tion, or of making amends for breaches of the caste code.
Excommunication inflicts three penalties : First, an interdict Excommu-
against eating with the fellow- members of the caste. Second, nication.
an interdict against marriage within the caste. This practically
amounts to debarring the delinquent and his family from
respectable marriages of any sort. Third, cutting off the
delinquent from the general community, by forbidding him
the use of the village barber and washerman, and of the
200 RISE OF HINDUISM.
priestly adviser. Except in very serious cases, excommunica-
tion is withdrawn upon the submission of the offender, and
his payment of a fine. Anglo-Indian law does not enforce
caste-decrees. But caste punishments exercise an efficacious
restraint upon unworthy members of the community, precisely
as caste rewards supply a powerful motive of action to good
ones. A member who cannot be controlled by this mixed
discipline of punishment and reward is eventually expelled ;
and, as a rule, an * out-caste ' is really a bad man. Imprison-
ment in jail carries with it that penalty ; but may be condoned
after release, by heavy expiations.
Recapitu- Such is a brief survey of the nature and operation of caste.
lauon of gyj. |.j^g cross-divisions on which the institution rests ; its con-
cast6.
flicting principles of classification according to race, employ-
ment, and locality ; the influence of Islam in Northern India ;
of the ' right-handed ' and ' left-handed ' branches in the
South ;i and the modifications everywhere effected by social
or sectarian movements, render a short account of caste full
of difficulties.
The'religi- Hinduism is, however, not only a social organization resting
of Hindu- ^^P^^ ^^^te ; it is also a religious federation based upon wor-
ism. ship. As the various race elements of the Indian people
have been welded into caste, so the simple old beliefs of the
Veda, the mild doctrines of Buddha, and the fierce rites of
the non-Aryan tribes have been thrown into the melting-pot,
and poured out thence as a mixture of alloy and dross to be
worked up into the Hindu gods. In the religious as in the
social structure, the Brahmans supplied the directing brain-
Its stages power. But both processes resulted from laws of human
evolution, deeper than the workings of any individual will ;
and in both, the product has been, not an artificial manufac-
ture, but a natural development. Hinduism merely forms one
link in the golden chain of Indian religions. We have seen
that the career of Buddha was but a combination of the ascetic
and the heroic Aryan life as recorded in the Indian epics.
Indeed, the discipline of the Buddhists organized so faithfully
the prescribed stages of a Brdhman's existence, that it is
difficult to decide whether the Sarmanai of Megasthenes were
Buddhist clergy or Brahman recluses. If accurate scholarshij)
cannot accept Buddhism as simply the Sankhya philosophy
turned into a national religion, it admits that Buddhism is a
natural development from Brdhmanism.. An early set of
' See Crole's Statistical Account of CJiinghfut District^ pp. 2)1, 34 (1879).
of evolu
tion.
BUDDHIST ELEMENTS IN HINDUISM. 201
intermediate links is found in the darsaiias^ or philosophical
systems, between the Vedic period and the establishment of
Buddhism as a national religion under Asoka (1400? to 250
B.C.). A later set is preserved in the compromises effected
during the final struggle between Buddhism and Brahmanism,
ending in the re-assertion of the latter in its new form as the
religion of the Hindus (700 to 1000 a.d.).
Buddhism not only breathed into the new birth its noble Buddhist
spirit of charity, but bequeathed to Hinduism many of its i"flj^nct;s
institutions unimpaired, together with its scheme of religious duism.
life, and the material fabric of its worship. At this day, the
viahdjan or bankers' guild, in Surat, devotes part of the fees
that it levies on bills of exchange to animal hospitals ; true Beast
surviv^als of Asoka's second edict, which provided a system °^P'^^ ^•
of medical aid for beasts, 250 years before Christ. The
cenobitic life, and the division of the people into laity
and clergy, have passed almost unchanged from Buddhism
into the present Hindu sects, such as the Vaishnavs or
Vishnuites.
The Hindu monasteries in our own day vie with the Buddhist Monas-
convents in the reign of Siladitya ; and Pun' is, in many respects, *^"^^-
a modern unlettered Nalanda. The religious houses of the
Orissa delta, with their revenue of ;^5 0,000 a year,^ are but
Hindu developments of the Buddhist cells and rock-monas-
teries, whose remains still honeycomb the adjacent hills.
If we examine the religious life of the Vishnuite commu-
nities, we find their rules are Buddhistic, with Brahmanical
reasons attached. Thus the moral code of the Kabir-panthis The reli-
consists of five rules : ^ First, life, whether of man or beast, g'o"s life,
must not be violated ; because it is the gift of God. Second,
humanity is the cardinal virtue ; and the shedding of blood,
whether of man or beast, a heinous crime. Third, truth is the
great principle of conduct; because all the ills of life and
ignorance of God are due to original falsehood (mdyd).
Fourth, retirement from the world is desirable ; because the
desires of the world are hostile to tranquillity of soul, and to
the undisturbed meditation on God. Fifth, obedience to the
spiritual guide is incumbent on all. This last rule is common
to every sect of the Hindus. But the Kabir-panthis direct
the pupil to examine well his teacher's life and doctrine before
^ Report by the Committee of native gentlemen appointed to inquire
into the Orissa ma//is, dated 25th March 1869, par. 15.
' H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus, vol. i. p. 94 (ed. 1862).
202
J^ISE OF HINDUISM,
he resigns himself to his control. If we did not know that
Buddhism was itself an outgrowth from primitive Brahmanism,
we might hold this code to be simple Buddhism, with the
addition of a personal God. But knowing, as we do, that
Brdhmanism and Buddhism were themselves closely con-
nected, and that they combined to form Hinduism; it is
impossible to discriminate how far Hinduism was made up by
direct transmission from Buddhism or from Brdhmanism.
Buddhist
influences
on later
religions.
Serpent
ornamen-
tation :
In
Hinduism
In
Buddhism;
In Chris-
tian art.
Coalition
of Buddh-
ism with
earlier
religions :
The influence of Buddhism on the Christianity of the western
world has been referred to at p. 152. Whatever uncertainties
may still obscure that question, the effect of Buddhism upon
the present faiths of Eastern Asia admits of no doubt. The
best elements in the teaching of Buddha have survived in
modern Hinduism ; and Buddhism carried with it essential
doctrines of Brahmanism to China and Japan, together with
certain characteristics of Indian religious art. The snake
ornamentation, which figures so universally in the religion
of India, is said to have been carried by Buddhism alike to
the east and the west. Thus, the canopy or baldachino over
Buddha's head delights in twisted pillars and wavy pat-
terns. These wave-like ornaments are conventionalized into
cloud curves in most of the Chinese and Japanese canopies ;
but some of them still exhibit the original figures thus
symbolized as undulating serpents or Nagas. A serpent
baldachino of this sort may be seen in a monastery at Ningpo.^
It takes the place of the cobra-headed canopy, which in India
shelters the head of Siva, or of Vishnu as he slept upon the
waters at the creation of the world. The twisted columns
which support the baldachino at St. Peter's in Rome, and the
fluted ornamentation so common over Protestant pulpits, are
said to have a serpentine origin, and an eastern source. The
association of Buddha with two other figures, in the Japanese
temples, perhaps represents a recollection of the Brahman
triad. The Brdhmanical idea of trinity, in its Buddhist
development as Buddha, Dharma (the Law), and Sangha (the
Congregation), deeply penetrates the faith. The Sacred Tooth
of Buddha at Ceylon is a reproduction of the phallic linga of
India.
Buddhism readily coalesced with the pre-existing religions
of primitive races. Thus, among the hill tribes of Eastern
Bengal, we see the Khyaungthas, or ' Children of the River,'
' The authority for this statement is an unpublished drawing by Miss
Gordon Cumming.
COALITION OF CREEDS. 203
passing into Buddhists without giving up their aboriginal rites. In India ;
They still offer rice and fruits and flowers to the spirits of hill
and stream ; ^ and the Buddhist priests, although condemning
the custom as unorthodox, do not very violently oppose it. In in Japan.
Japan, a Buddhist saint visited the hill-slope of Hotoke Iwa in
767 A.D. ; declared the local Shinto deity to be only a mani-
festation of Buddha ; and so converted the old idolatrous high-
place into a Buddhist shrine. Buddhism has thus served as Shrines
a link between the ancient faiths of India and the modern y^dmis^
worship of the eastern world. It has given sanctity to the centres faiths.
of common pilgrimage, to which the great faiths of Asia resort.
Thus, the Siva-worshippers ascend the top of Adam's Peak in Adam's
Ceylon, to adore the footprint of their phallic god, the Siva-
pada ; the Buddhists repair to the spot to revere the same
symbol as the footmark of Buddha ; and the Muhammadans
venerate it as a relic of Adam, the Semitic father of
mankind.
Many common shrines of a similar character exist in India. Sakhi
The famous place of pilgrimage at Sakhi Sarvvar crowns the ^^'^^^^'^•
high bank of a hill stream at the foot of the Sulaiman range,
in the midst of desert scenery, well adapted to penitents who
would mortify the flesh. To this remote spot, the Muham-
madans come in honour of a Musalman saint ; the Sikhs to .
venerate a memorial of their theistic founder, Nanak ; and the
Hindus to perform their own ablutions and rites. The mount
near Madras, associated in Catholic legend with the martyrdom
of St. Thomas, was originally a common hill-shrine for Muham-
madans, Christians, and Hindus. Such hill-shrines for joint
worship are usually either rock-fortresses, like Kalinjar in the
North-Western Provinces and Chunar overhanging the Ganges,
or river-islands, like the beautiful islet on the Indus just below
the new railway bridge at Sakkar. The object of common
adoration is frequently a footmark in stone. This the Hindus
venerate as the footprint of Vishnu or Siva {Visknupad or
Sivapad); while the Musalmins revere it as the footprint
of Muhammad (Kadam-rasul). The mingled architecture of
some of these pilgrim-sites attests the various races and creeds
that combined to give them sanctity. Buddhism, which in
some respects was at first a revolt against Brahman supremacy,
has done much to maintain the continuity between the ancient
and the modern religions of India.
Hinduism, however, derived its elements not merely from
^ See Hunter's Statistical Account 0/ Bengal, vol. vi. p. 40, etc.
204 RISE OF HINDUISM.
Non- the two ancient Aryan faiths, the Brahmanical and the Bud-
elements in vas accordingly carried on after the 12th century,
in part by low-caste apostles, who popularized the old Brah- Low-
manical conception of a personal God, by infusing into it the ^"^^^^
Buddhist doctrine of the spiritual equality of man. Many
of the Hindu sects form brotherhoods, on the Buddhist model,
within which the classification by caste gives place to one
based on the various degrees of perfection attained in the
religious life.
Most of the Hindu reformations since the 12th century The
thus preserve what was best in each of the two ancient Hindu
faiths of India — namely, the personal God of the Brahmans, fype|° ^^
and the spiritual equality of the Buddhists. Among the
Hindus, every preacher who would really appeal to the
1 History, etc. of Eastern India, from the Buchanan Mss., vol. i. p. 194.
^ Hunter's Annals of Rural Bengal, p. 194, 5th edition.
208
RISE OF HINDUISM.
popular heart must fulfil two conditions, and conform to a
certain type. He must cut himself off from the world by a
solemn act, like the Great Renunciation of Buddha ; and he
must come forth from his solemn communing with a simple
message. The message need not be original. On the con-
trary, it must consist of a re-assertion, in some form, of the
personality of God and the equality of men in His sight.
Thellindu Hinduism boasts a line of religious founders stretching in
torum.^"^" ''^^"^ost unbroken succession from about 700 a.d. to the present
day. The lives of the mediaeval saints and their wondrous
works are recorded in the Bhakta-Mala, literally, ' The Garland
of the Faithful,' compiled by Nabhaji about three centuries
ago.i This difficult Hindi work was popularized by later
versions and commentaries,^ and a vast structure of miracle
and fable has been reared upon it. It is the Golden Tegend
and Acta Sanctorum of Hinduism. The same wonders are
not recorded of each of its apostles, but divine interpositions
abound in the life of all. The greater ones rank as divine
incarnations prophesied of old. Some were born of virgins ;
others overcame lions ; raised the dead ; their hands and feet
when cut off sprouted afresh ; prisons were opened to them ;
the sea received them and returned them to the land unhurt,
while the earth opened and swallowed up their slanderers.
Their lives were marvellous, and the deaths of some a solemn
mystery.
Thus on Kabir's decease, both the Hindus and Musal-
mans claimed the body, the former to burn it, the latter to
bury it, according to their respective rites. While they
wrangled over the corpse, Kabir suddenly stood in the midst,
and, commanding them to look under the shroud, vanished.
This they did. But under the winding-sheet they found only
a heap of beautiful flowers, one-half of which they gave to be
burned by the Hindus in their holy city, while the other half
was buried in pomp by the Musalmans. His name lives in
the memory of the people; and to this day pilgrims from
Upper India beg a spoonful of rice-water from the Kabir
Monastery at Puri, at the extreme southern point of Bengal.
^ H. H. Wilson, writing in the Asiatic Researches (Calcutta, 1828), says
about ' 250 years ago.' — See Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic
Society^ vol. iii. p. 4.
2 The best known are those of Narayan Das, about the time of Shah
Jahan (1627-58); the tlkd of Krishna Das (1713) ; and a later version
'in the more ordinary dialect of Hindustan.' — Wilson's Religions of the
Hindus, vol. i. pp. 9, 10 (ed. 1862).
Miracles
of the
religious
founders.
Kabir's
death.
BRAHMAN SIVAITE SECTS. 209
The first in the line of apostles was Kumarila, a bhatta or Kumdrila
Brahman of Behar. The legend relates that he journeyed ^^^^^f'
*^ ^ 75o(?)a.d.
into Southern India, in the 8th century a.d,, commanding
princes and people to worship one God. He stirred up a
persecution against the Buddhists or Jains in the State of
Rudrapur, — a local persecution which later tradition magni-
fied into a general extermination of the Buddhists from the
Himalayas to Cape Comorin.^ In Hindu theology he figures
as a teacher of the later Mimansa philosophy, which ascribes
the universe to a divine act of creation, and assumes an all-
powerful God as the cause of the existence, continuance, and
dissolution of the world. The doctrine of this personal deity,
' the one existent and universal soul,' * without a second '
{adwaita)^ embodies the philosophical argument against the
Buddhists. Kumarila bequeathed his task to his famous
disciple Sankara Acharya, in whose presence he is said to have
solemnly committed his body to the flames.
With the advent of Sankara Acharya we touch firmer historical Sankara
ground. Born in Malabar, he wandered over India as an itine- ■^^^^'T^,
rant preacher as far north as Kashmir, and died at Kedarnath tury a.d,
in the Himalayas, aged 32. One of his disciples has narrated
his life's work under the title of ' The Victory of Sankara,' 2 a
record of his doctrines and controversial triumphs. Sankara
moulded the later Mimansa or Vedantic philosophy into its final
form, and popularized it as a national religion. It is scarcely
too much to say that, since his short life in the 8th or 9th
century, every new Hindu sect has had to start with a personal
God. He addressed himself to the high-caste philosophers on
the one hand, and to the low-caste multitude on the other.
He left behind, as the twofold result of his life's work, a His two-
compact Brahman sect and a popular religion. foi*^ work.
The Brahman sect are the Smartas, still powerful in Southern His sect of
India. Sankara taught that there was one sole and supreme S"^^^^
God, Brdh?na Para Brahma, distinct alike from any member of
the old Brahman triad, or of the modern Hindu pantheon ; the
1 The local persecution is recorded by Ananda Giri, a disciple of
Sankara about the 8th or 9th century A.D., and the author of the Sa^ikara-
. Vijaya. The magnified version appears in the Sarva Darsaiia Sangraha
of Madhava Acharya, in the 14th century. See, however, the Mackenzie
MSS. in the India Office Library,
2 The Sankara- Vijaya of Ananda Giri, published in the Bibliotheca
Indica^ and critically examined by Kashinath Trimbak Telang in vol. v.
of the Indiayi Antiquary. But, indeed, Sankara is the first great figure in
almost every Hindu hagiology, or book of saints, from the Sarva Darsana
Sangraha of Madhava Acharya downwards.
O
2IO RISE OF HINDUISM.
Ruler of the universe and its inscrutable First Cause, to be wor-
shipped, not by sacrifices, but by meditation, and in spirit and
in truth. The Smdrta Brahmans follow this philosophic side
of his teaching ; and of the religious houses which he founded
some remain to this day, controlled from the parent monastery
His re- perched among the western ranges of Mysore.^ But Sankara
hgion for realized that such a faith is for the few. To those who could
* not rise to so high a conception of the godhead, he allowed
the practice of any rites prescribed by the Veda, or by later
orthodox teachers, to whatsoever form of the godhead they
might be addressed. Tradition fondly narrates that the founders
of almost all the historical sects of Hinduism — Sivaites, Vishnu-
ites, Sauras, Saktas, Ganapatyas, Bhairavas — were his disciples.^
But Siva-worship claims Sankara as its apostle in a special
sense. Siva-worship represents the popular side of his teach-
ing, and the piety of his followers has elevated Sankara into
an incarnation of Siva himself^
Growth of Nothing, however, is altogether new in Hinduism, and it is
^-^^^'hi • J^s^^^l^ss to say that Siva had won his way high up into the
pantheon long before the preaching of Sankara, in the 9th
century a.d. Siva is the Rudra of the Vedas, as developed
by Brdhman philosophy, and adapted by Sankara and others
to popular worship. Rudra, the Storm-God of the Vedic
hymns, had grown during this process into Siva, the Destroyer
and Reproducer, as the third person of the Brahman
triad. The Chinese pilgrims supply evidence of his worship
before the 7th century a.d., while his dread wife had a temple
at the southernmost point of India at the time of the Periplus
(2nd century a.d.), and gave her name to Cape Comorin.*
Siva ranks high in the Mahabhirata, in various passages of
uncertain date ; but does not reach his full development till the
Purdnas, probably after the loth century a.d. His worship in
Bengal is said to have been formulated by Paramata Kdlanala
at Benares;'' but Sankara's teaching gave an impulse to it
^ See Sringiri {The bnperial Gazetteer of India) for a brief account of
the chief-priest of the Smarta sect, which has its head-quarters in this
monastery. Also the Statistical Account of Mysore and Coorg, by Lewis
Rice, vol. ii. p. 413, etc. (Bangalore Government Press, 1876.)
* Wilson's Religion of the Hindus, vol. i. p. 28 (1862).
* This rank is claimed for Sankara by Madhava Acharya in the 14th
century a.d.; indeed, Siva's descent as Sankara is said to have been fore-
told in the Skanda Purdna. Sankara is one of the names of Siva.
< From Kumari or Kanya-kumari, the Virgin Goddess, a name of Durga,
wife of Siva.
* As Visweswara, or Lord of the Universe, under which name Siva is
slill the chief object of worship at Benares.
SIVA- WORSHIP. 211
throughout all India, especially in the south ; and later tradition
makes Paramata himself a disciple of Sankara.
In the hands of Sankara's followers and apostolic sue- its philo-
cessors, Siva-worship became one of the two chief religions sophical
of India. As at once the Destroyer and Reproducer, Siva
represented profound philosophical doctrines, and was early
recognised as being in a special sense the god of the Brahmans.^
To them he was the symbol of death as merely a change of life.
On the other hand, his terrible aspects, preserved in his long list its terrible
of names from the Roarer (Rudra) ^ of the Veda, to the Dread ^0^"^^.
One (Bhima) of the modern Hindu Pantheon, well adapted
him to the religion of fear and propitiation prevalent among
the ruder non-Aryan races. Siva, in his twofold character,
thus became the deity alike of the highest and of the lowest
castes. He is the Maha-deva, or Great God of modern
Hinduism ; and his wife is Devi, pre-eminently the Goddess.
His universal symbol is the linga^ the emblem of repro-
duction ; his sacred beast, the bull, connected with the same
idea ; a trident tops his temples.
His images partake of his double nature. The Brahmanical Twofold
conception is represented by his attitude as a fair-skinned man, slva^^"* ^
seated in profound thought, the symbol of the fertilizing Ganges
above his head, and the bull (emblem alike of procreation and
of Aryan plough-tillage) near at hand. The wilder non-Aryan
aspects of his character are signified by his necklace of skulls,
his collar of twining serpents, his tiger-skin, and his club with
a human head at the end. His five faces and four arms have
also their significance from this double aspect of his character,
Aryan and non-Aryan. His wife, in like manner, appears in her and of
Aryan form as Uma, ' Light,' the type of high-born loveliness ; ^"""g^' ^^^
in her composite character as Durga, a golden-coloured woman,
beautiful but menacing, riding on a tiger ; and in her terrible
non-Aryan aspects, as Kali, a black fury, of a hideous coun-
tenance, dripping with blood, crowned with snakes, and hung
round with skulls.
As an Aryan deity, Siva is Pasu-pati, the Lord of Animals Their two-
and the Protector of Cows ; Sambhu, the Auspicious ; Mrityun- ^^^^ ^^^^ ^'^
jaya, the Vanquisher of Death ; Viswanatha, Monarch of All.
In his non-Aryan attributes, he is Aghora, the Horrible ; Virii-
paksha, of Mis-shapen Eyes ; Ugra, the Fierce ; Kapala-malin,
^ A Sanskrit text declares Siva to be the ddideva, or special god of the
Ikahmans ; Vishnu, of the Kshattriyas ; Brahma, of the Vaisyas ; and
Ganesa, of the Sudras.
^ From the root rud, weep.
212
RISE OF HINDUISM,
Twofold
aspects of
Siva-
worship,
Human
offerings,
1866.
Garlands
of skulls.
Garlanded with Skulls. So also Devi, his female form, as an
Aryan goddess is Uma, the lovely daughter of the mountain
king, Himavat ; ^ Arya, the Revered ; Gauri, the Brilliant
or Gold-coloured; Jagad-gauri, the World's Fair One; Bhavani,
the Source of Existence ; and Jagan-mata, the Mother of the
Universe. Her non-Aryan attributes appear in her names of
Kali or Syama, the Black One ; Chandi, the Fierce ; Bhairavi,
the Terrible ; Rakta-danti, the Bloody-Toothed.
The ritual of Siva-worship preserves, in an even more
striking way, the traces of its double origin. The higher
minds still adore the Godhead by silent contemplation, as pre-
scribed by Sankara, without the aid of external rites. The
ordinary Brahman hangs a wreath of blossoms around the phallic
linga, or places before it offerings of flowers and rice. But the
low-castes pour out the lives of countless victims at the feet
of the terrible Kali, and until lately, in time of pestilence and
famine, tried in their despair to appease the relentless goddess
by human blood. During the dearth of 1866, in a temple to
Kali within 100 miles of Calcutta, a boy was found with his
neck cut, the eyes staring open, and the stiff clotted tongue
thrust out between the teeth. In another temple at Hugh
(a railway station only 25 miles from Calcutta), the head was
left before the idol, decked with flowers.^ Such cases are true
survivals of the regular system of human sacrifices which we
have seen among the non-Aryan tribes.^ They have nothing
to do with the old mystic purusha-medha or man-offering,
whether real or symbolical, of the ancient Aryan faith ;^ but
they form an essential part of the non- Aryan religion of terror,
which demands that the greater the need, the greater shall be
the propitiation.
Such sacrifices are now forbidden, alike by Hindu
custom and English law. H. H. Wilson found evidence that
they were regularly offered by the Kapdlika sect of Sivaite
Hindus eight centuries ago ; and representatives of those
^ Monarch of the Himalayas.
^ The Calcutta. En^/is/imau of 19th May 1866 ; Annals of Rural Bengal,
p. 128, 5th edition.
* As among the Kandhs, ante, chap. iii.
•* See Dr. Haug's Origin of Brdhmanism, p. 5 (Poona, 1863). The
Purusha-sukta of the Rig Veda, x. 90, verses 7-15 ; and the Purusha-medha
of the Satapatha Brdhmana, i. 2, 3, 6, and xiii. 6, i. i ; and of the Aitareya
Brdhmana, ii. 8, with other passages quoted throughout Dr. Muir's Sanskrit
Texts, seem to have an allegorical and mystical significance, rather than
to refer to a real sacrifice. See also Wilson's Essay on Human Sacrifices,
Journal Roy. As. Soc, vol. viii. p. 96 (1852).
SIVAITE RITES AND SECTS. 213
hideous votaries of Siva, ' smeared with ashes from the funeral
pile, and their necks hung round with human skulls,' survive
to this day.i Colonel Keatinge mentions that he has seen
old sacrificial troughs near Jaintiapur, now used only for goats,
which exactly fitted the size of a man. The new troughs
are reduced to the dimensions of the animals at present Animals
offered ; and the greater length of the ancient ones is explained ^^^ human
by a legend of human sacrifices. The Statistical Survey of offerings.
India has brought to light many traditions of such offerings.
The hill tribes between Sylhet and Assam hunt a monkey at
sowing-time, and crucify it on the margin of the village lands,
apparently as a substitute for the Spring man-sacrifice.^ A
human life was sometimes devoted to the preservation of an
artificial lake, or of a river embankment ; a watchman of
aboriginal descent being sacrificed,^ or a virgin princess walled
up in the breach.*
Another Sivaite festival was the Charak-Puja, or Hook-Swing- The /
ing Festival, during which men were suspended from a pole by a S^^, /
hook thrust through the muscles of the back, and then swung
in the air, in honour of Kali. In 1863, the orders of Govern-
ment for abolishing this festival were carried out in a border
District, Birbhiim, lying between the Hindu plains and the
non-Aryan highlands. The low-castes, in reality semi-abori-
gines, and only half-Hinduized, assembled round the poles
and foretold famine from the loss of their old propitiatory
rites. As they thought the Spring ceremonies absolutely
essential before commencing tillage, the British officer suggested
they might swing a man by a rope round his waist instead of
with a hook through his back. This compromise was accepted
by some, but the better-informed cultivators gloomily assured
the officer that the ceremonies would have no good effect on
the crops without the spilling of blood. ^
The thirteen chief sects of Siva - worshippers faithfully The
represent the composite character of their god. Sankara sivahe"
left behind him a succession of teachers, many of whom rose sects.
to the rank of religious founders. The Smdrta Brahmans
still maintain their life of calm monastic piety. The Dandis^
^ H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus^ vol. i. p. 264.
"^ As among the Kandhs, ante, chap. iii.
^ See Sakraypatna, The Iiiiperial Gazetteer of India.
* See Anantasagaram, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
^ It is right to say that very little blood was lost, and the wounds caused
were slight ; indeed, slighter than those sometimes left behind by the
skewers which were fixed through the cheek or tongue of the swinger
during the performance.
214 J^ISE OF HINDUISM.
or ascetics, divide their time between begging and meditation.
Some of them adore, without rites, Siva as the third person
of the Aryan triad. Others practise an apparently non- Aryan
ceremony of initiation by drawing blood from the inner part
of the novice's knee, as an offering to the god in his more
terrible form, Bhairava. The Dandis follow the non-Aryan
custom of burying their dead, or commit the body to some
Gradations sacred Stream. ^ The Yogis include every class of devotee,
worship. ^""^"^ ^^ speechless mystic who, by long suppressions of the
breath, loses the consciousness of existence in an unearthly
union with Siva, to the impostor who sits upon air, and the
juggler who travels with a performing goat. The thirteen
Sivaite sects descend, through various gradations of self-
mortification and abstraction, to the Aghoris^ whose abnegation
extends to eating carrion, or even human corpses, and gashing
their own bodies with knives.
Sivaite Within the last few years a small Aghori community took
corpse- yp their abode in a deserted building on the top of a mount
near Ujjain. To inspire terror and respect, they descended to
the burning ghat, snatched the charred bodies from the funeral
pile, and retreated with them to their hill. The horror-
stricken mourners complained to the local officer of the
Maharajd Sindhia, but did not dare to defend their dead
against the squalid ministers of Siva. In the end, the Maha-
raja's officer, by ensuring a regular supply of food for the
devotees, put a stop to their depredations.
Non- The lowest Sivaite sects follow non-Aryan rather than Aryan
types, types, alike as regards their use of animal food and their bloody
spiritual- worship. These non-Aryan types are, however, spiritualized
ized by the j^to a mystic symbolism by the Sivaite Sdktas, or worshippers
of the creative energy in nature {Sakti). The * right-hand '
adorers " follow the Aryan ritual, with the addition of an
Sakta or offering of blood.^ Their Tantras or religious works take
Tantnk ^he form of a dialogue between Siva and his lovely Aryan
bride,* in which the god teaches her the true forms of prayer
and ceremonial. But the ' left-hand ' worship ^ is an organized
five-fold ritual, of incantation, lust, gluttony, drunkenness, and
blood. The non- Aryan origin of these secret rites is attested
^ Cf. the Santals and the Damodar river, ante^ chap. iii.
2 Dakshinas or Bhdktas. ^ The ball,
* Usually in the form of Uma or Parvatl.
' Vdmis or Vamacharls, whose worship comprises the five-fold Makara,
' which taketh away all sin,' namely — mdnsa (flesh), matsya (fish, the symbol
of ovarian fertility), madya (intoxicating spirits), maithiina (sexual inter-
course), mudid (mystical gesticulations).
SIVA AND VISHNU COMPARED, 215
by the use of meats and drinks forbidden to all respectable
Hindus ; perhaps also by the community of women, possibly an
unconscious survival of the non-Aryan forms of polyandry and
primitive marriage by capture.^ The Kanchuliyas, one of the Secret
lowest of the Sivaite sects, not only enforce a community of o'^S^^s-
women, but take measures to prevent the exercise of indi-
vidual selection, and thus leave the matter entirely to divine
chance. Even their orgies, however, are spiritualized into a
mystic symbolism ; and the Dread Goddess surely punishes
the votary who enters on them merely to gratify his lusts.
Siva-worship thus became a link between the highest and Siva and
the lowest castes of Hindus. Vishnu, the second person comDared
of the Aryan triad, supplied a religion for the intermediate
classes. Siva, as a philosophical conception of the Brahmans,
afforded small scope for legend ; and the atrocities told of
him and his wife in their terrible forms, as adapted to the
non - Aryan masses, were little capable of refined literary
treatment. But Vishnu, the Preserver, furnished a congenial
theme for sacred romance. His religion appealed, not to
the fears, but to the hopes of mankind. Siva-worship com-
bined the Brahmanical doctrine of a personal God with non-
Aryan bloody rites; Vishnu - worship, in its final form as a
popular religion, represents the coalition of the same Brih-
manical doctrine of a personal God, with the Buddhist
principle of the spiritual equality of man.
'Vishnu had always been a very human god, from the time Vishnu
when he makes his appearance in the Veda as a solar myth, ^l^'^> j" '^
the * Unconquerable Preserver ' striding across the universe in god.
three steps. ^ His later incarnations made him the familiar
friend of man. Of these * descents ' ^ on earth, ten or twenty- Vishnu as
two in number, Vishnu-worship, with the unerring instinct of ^ ^^'^'
* Cf. also the festival of the Ritkmini-haran-ekddasi 2X Puri. See Hunter's
Orissa^ vol. i. p. 131.
^ Probably at first connected with the rising, zenith, and setting of the
sun in his daily course.
' Avatdras. The ten chief ones are : (i) the Fish incarnation; (2) the
Tortoise, (3) the Boar, (4) the Man-Lion, (S) the Dwarf, (6) Parasu-rama
or Rama with the Axe, {7) Rama or Rama-chandra, (8) Krishna, (9)
Buddha, and (10) Kalkl, the White Horse, yet to come. The first four
are mythological beasts, perhaps representing the progress of animal life
through the eras of fishes, reptiles, and mammals, developing into half-
formed man. From another aspect, the Fish represents the yoni, or ovarian
fertility ; the Tortoise, the linga ; the Boar, the terrestrial fertilizer ; and
the Man-Lion, the celestial. These four appeared in the Satya Yuga, an
2l6
RISE OF HINDUISM.
His later
develop-
ments.
The
Vishnu
Parana,
cij-c. 1045
A.D.
The
eighteen
Puranas,
a popular religion, chose the two most beautiful and most
human for adoration. As Rama and Krishna, Vishnu attracted
to himself innumerable loving legends. Rdma, his seventh
incarnation, was the hero of the Sanskrit epic, the Ramayana.
In his eighth incarnation, as Krishna, Vishnu becomes the
high-souled prince of the other epic, the Mahabharata ; he
afterwards grew into the central figure of Indian pastoral
poetry; was spiritualized into the supreme god of the Vishnuite
Puranas ; and now flourishes as the most popular deity of the
Hindus.
The worship of Vishnu, in one phase or another, is the
religion of the bulk of the middle classes ; with its roots deep
down in beautiful forms of non-Aiyan nature-worship, and
its top sending forth branches among the most refined
Brahmans and literary sets. It is a religion in all things
graceful. Its gods are heroes or bright friendly beings, who
walk and converse with men. Its legends breathe an almost
Hellenic beauty. The pastoral simplicities and exquisite
ritual of Vishnu belong to a later age than Siva - worship,
with its pandering to the grosser superstitions of the masses.
Whatever may be the philosophical priority of the two creeds,
Vishnuism made its popular conquests at a later period than
Sivaite rites.
In the nth century, the Vishnuite doctrines were gathered
into a religious treatise. The Vishnu Purdna dates from
about 1045 A.D.,^ and probably represents, as indeed its name
implies, * ancient ' traditions which had co-existed with Sivaism
and Buddhism for centuries. It derived its doctrines from
the Vedas, not, however, in a direct channel, but filtered
through the two great epic poems, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. The VisJmu Furd?ia forms one of the eighteen
Puranas or Sanskrit theological works, in which the Brdhman
moulders of Vishnuism and Sivaism embodied their rival systems.
These works especially extol the second and third members
of the Hindu triad, now claiming the pre-eminence for Vishnu
astronomical period anterior to the present world. The fifth or dwarf
incarnation represents early man in theTreta Yuga, or second astronomical
period, also long anterior to the present mundane one. The next three
incarnations represent the Heroic Age ; the ninth or Buddha, the Religious
Age. The tenth stands for the end of all things, according to the Hindu
apocalypse, when Vishnu shall appear on a white horse, a drawn sword,
blazing like a comet, in his hand, for the destruction of the wicked and
the renovation of the world. The Bhdgavata Purdna gives twenty-two
incarnations of Vishnu.
^ Preface to the Vishnu Fitrdna. H. H. Wilson, p. cxii. (ed. 1864).
VISHNU- WORSHIP, 2 1 7
as the sole deity, and now for Siva ; but in their higher flights
rising to a recognition that both are but forms for representing
the one eternal God. Their interminable dialogues are said
to run to 1,600,000 lines.^ But they exhibit only the
Brahmanical aspect of what were destined to become the two
national faiths of India, and they are devoid of any genuine
sympathy for the people.
The Vishnu Funma starts with an intolerance equal to Brahmani-
that of the ancient code of Manu. It still declares the ^^^. ^^^^"
nuism,
priests to have sprung from the mouth, and the low-castes 1045 a.i>.
from the feet, of God.^ Its stately theogony disdains to touch
the legends of the people. It declares, indeed, that there is
One God ; but He is the God of the Brahmans, to whom He
gives the earth as an inheritance, and in His eyes the ruder
Indian races are as naught. This is the general tenor of its
doctrines, although more enlightened, perhaps because later,
I)assages occur. In the Vishnu Purdna, Buddha is still an
arch-heretic, who teaches the masses to despise the Veda, but
whose disciples are eventually crushed by the bright Aryan
gods. It is true that in the concluding book, when treating
of the last Iron Age, to which this world has now come, some
nobler idea of God's dealing with man gleams forth. In that
time of universal dissolution and darkness, the sage consoles
us with the assurance that devotion to Vishnu will suffice for
salvation to all persons and to all castes.^
Vishnuism had to preach a different doctrine before it could Popular
become, as it has for ages been, a religion of the people. ^'^^'^"-
The first of the line of Vishnuite refoimers was Ramanuja, a
Brahman of Southern India. In the middle of the 12th cen- Ramanuja
tury, he led a movement against the Sivaites, proclaiming the "^''^' "^o
unity of God, under the title of Vishnu, the Cause and the
Creator of all things. Prosecuted by the Chola king, who
tried to enforce Sivaite conformity throughout his dominions,
Ramanuja fled to the Jain sovereign of Mysore. This prince
he converted to the Vishnuite faith by expelling an evil spirit
from his daughter. Seven hundred monasteries, of which
four still remain, are said to have marked the spread of his
doctrine before his death. Ramanuja accepted converts from
every class, but it was reserved for his successors to formally
enunciate the brotherhood of man.
At the end of the 13th century a.d., according to some
^ Preface to the Vishnu Ptirdna, p. xxiv. H. H. Wilson (ed. 1864).
^ Vtshnu Purdna, lib. i, cap. vi. p. 89. H. H. Wilson (ed. 1864).
* Fts/inu Purdna, lib. vi. cap. ii. H. H. Wilson, p. cxxxviii.
2i8 J^/SE OF HINDUISM.
authorities, or at the end of the 14th, according to others, the
great reformation, which made Vishnu-worship a national
Rama- religion of India, took place. Ramanand stands fifth in the
i?oo-i apostolic succession from Ramdnuja, and spread his doctrine
A.D. through Northern India. He had his head-quarters in a
monastery at Benares, but wandered from place to place
preaching the One God under the name of Vishnu, and
choosing twelve disciples, not from the priests or nobles, but
His low- among the despised castes. One of them was a leather-
dtsd il dresser, another a barber, and the most distinguished of all
was the reputed son of a weaver. The list shows that every
caste found free entrance into the new creed.
The life of a disciple was no life of ease. He was called
upon to forsake the world in a strictly literal sense, and
to go about preaching or teaching, and living on alms. His
old age found an asylum in some monastery of the brother-
hood. Ramanuja had addressed himself chiefly to the pure
Aryan castes, and wrote in the language of the Br^hmans.
Ramanand appealed to the people, and the literature of his
sect is in the dialects familiar to the masses. The Hindi
vernacular owes its development into a written language,
partly to the folk-songs of the peasantry and the war-ballads of
the Rajput court-bards, but chiefly to the literary requirements
of the new popular faith. Vishnuism has deeply impressed
itself on the modern dialects of Northern India.^
Kahir, Kabir, one of the twelve disciples of Ramdnand, carried his
1 380-1420 doctrines throughout Bengal. As his master had laboured to
gather together all castes of the Hindus into one common
faith, so Kabir, seeing that the Hindus were no longer the
whole inhabitants of India, tried, about the beginning of the
15th century, to build up a religion that should embrace
I lis doc- Hindu and Muhammadan alike. He rejected caste, denounced
trines. image-worship, and condemned the hypocrisy and arrogance
of the Brahmans. According to Kabir, the chief end of man
is to obtain purity of life, and a perfect faith in God. The
writings of his sect acknowledge that the god of the Hindu is
also the god of the Musalmdn. His universal name is The
^ The three best known sets of such religious treatises are — (i) the
voluminous works ascribed to Kabir {circ, 1400 a.d.) and his followers,
preserved at the head-quarters of his sect, the Kabir Chaurd at Benares ;
(2) the Granth^ or scriptures of various Bhagats or Vishnuite religious
founders, especially of Dadu in Rajputana, and of the Sikh Gurus,
beginning with Nanak (1469) ; and (3) the Bhaktamdld, or Roll of the
Bhaktas or apostles, the Golde.n Legend of Vishnuism already referred to.
VISHNUITE REFORMERS; KABIR. 219
Inner, whether He be invoked as the Ali of the Muhammadans, Coalition
or as the Rama of the Hindus. ' To Ah' and to Rama we owe of Vishnu-
ism with
our hfe,' say the scriptures of his sect,^ ' and should show Hke islam,
tenderness to all who live. What avails it to wash your mouth, ^^^^ ^-^^ ■
to count your beads, to bathe in holy streams, to bow in temples,
if, whilst you mutter your prayers or journey on pilgrimage,
deceitfulness is in your heart? The Hindu fasts every
eleventh day ; the Musalman on the Ramazan. Who formed
the remaining months and days, that you should venerate but
one ? If the Creator dwell in tabernacles, whose dwelling is
the universe ? The city of the Hindu god is to the east The One
[Benares], the city of the Musalman god is to the west ^°^^^
[Mecca]; but explore your own heart, for there is the god,
both of the Musalmdns and of the Hindus. Behold but One
in all things. He to whom the world belongs, He is the
father of the worshippers alike of Ali and of Rama. He is
my guide, He is my priest.' ^ Kabir was pre-eminently the
Vishnuite apostle to Bengal; but his followers are also
numerous in the Central Provinces, Gujarat, and the Deccan.
Kabir's teaching marks another great stride in the Vish- Brother-
nuite reformation. His master, Ramanand, had asserted an ^^^^
abstract equality of castes, because he identified the deity with
the worshipper. He had regarded the devotee as but a mani-
festation of the divinity, and no lowness of birth could degrade
the godhead. As Vishnu had taken the form of several of the
inferior animals, such as the Boar and the Fish incarnations,
so might he be born as a man of any caste. Kabir accepted
this doctrine, but he warmed it by an intense humanity. All
the chances and changes of life, the varied lot of man, his
differences in religion, his desires, hopes, fears, loves, are but
the work of Maya, or illusion. To recognise the one Divine
Spirit under these manifold illusions, is to obtain emancipation The Rest
and the Rest of the Soul. That Rest is to be reached, not by of the Soul,
burnt-offerings or sacrifices, but, according to Kabir, by faith Faith.
{bhakt'i), by meditation on the Supreme, by keeping His holy
names, Harf, Ram, Govind, for ever on the lips and in the
heart.
The labours of Kabir may be placed betw^een 1380 and Chaitanya,
1420 A.D. In i486, Chaitanya was born, who spread the ^^^^~^^^^
Vishnuite doctrines, under the worship of Jagannath, through-
out the deltas of Bengal and Orissa. Signs and wonders
1 The Vijak of Bhagodas, one of Kabf r's disciples. The rival claims of
the Hindus and Musalmans to Kabir's body have already been mentioned.
2 Sabda, Ivi. Abridged from H. H. \Yilson's Works, i. 81 (ed. 1864).
2 20 RISE OF HINDUISM.
Chait- attended Chaitanya through life, and during four centuries he
anya's hfe. j^^g ^gen worshipped as an incarnation of Vishnu. Extricat-
ing ourselves from the halo of legend which surrounds and
obscures the apostle, we know little of his private life except
that he was the son of a Brahman settled at Nadiya near
Calcutta ; that in his youth he married the daughter of a
celebrated saint ; that at the age of twenty-four he forsook the
world, and, renouncing the state of a householder, repaired to
Orissa, where he devoted the rest of his days to the propagation
of the faith. He disappeared miraculously in 1527 a.d.
Chait- With regard to Chaitanya's doctrine we have ample evidence,
anyas j^^ j.^^^ ^^ caste was beyond the pale of salvation. The
Musalmans and Hindus shared his labours, and profited by his
preaching. He held that all men are aUke capable of faith,
and that all castes by faith become equally pure. Implicit
belief and incessant devotion were his watchwords. Con-
templation rather than ritual was his pathway to salvation.
Obedience to the religious guide is the great characteristic
of his sect ; but he warned his disciples to respect their
teachers as second fathers, and not as gods. The great end
of his system, as of all Indian forms of worship, is the
•Libera- liberation of the soul. He held that such liberation does
lion 'of j^Qj. jnean the mere annihilation of separate existence. It
consists in nothing more than an entire freedom from the
stains and the frailties of the body. The liberated soul dwells
for ever, either in a blessed region of perfect beauty and sin-
lessness, or it soars into the heaven of Vishnu himself, high
above the myths and mirages of this world, where God
appears no more in his mortal incarnations, or in any other
form, but is known in his supreme essence.^
The Chait- The followers of Chaitanya belong to every caste, but they
anya sect, acknowledge the rule of the descendants of the original
disciples {gosdins). These gosdins now number 23,062 in
Bengal alone. The sect is open alike to the married and the
unmarried. It has its celibates and wandering mendicants.
Its but its religious teachers are generally married men. They
[ll'.?'_°"^ live with their wives and children in clusters of houses around
a temple to Krishna ; and in this way the adoration of
^ Besides the notices of Chaitanya in H. H. Wilson's works, the reader
is referred to a very careful essay by Babu Jogendra Chandra Ghosh,
entitled Chaitanya's Ethics (Calcutta, 1884). Mr. Ghosh bases his works
upon the original writings of Chaitanya and his followers. The present
author is indebted to him for a correction of one year in the date of
Chaitanya's birth, calculated from the Chaitanya Charitdmrita.
houses.
VISHNUITE CENOBITES. 221
Chaitanya has become a sort of family worship throughout
Orissa. The landed gentry worship him with a daily ritual
in household chapels dedicated to his name. After his
death, a sect arose among his followers, who asserted the
spiritual independence of women. ^ In their monastic en-
closures, male and female cenobites live in celibacy ; the
women shaving their heads, with the exception of a single
lock of hair. The two sexes chant the praises of Vishnu and
Chaitanya together, in hymn and solemn dance. One im- The place
portant doctrine of the Vishnuite sects is their recognition of JJ^^^qI^J^j^
the value of women as instructors of the outside female com-
munity. For long, their female devotees were the only teachers
admitted into the zajidnas of good families, in Bengal. Fifty
years ago, they had effected a change for the better in the
state of female education, and the value of such instruction was
assigned as the cause of the sect having spread in Calcutta.^
Since that time, Vishnuite female ascetics of various sorts
have entered the same field. In some instances the bad
crept in along with the good, and an effort made in 1863 to
utilize them in the mechanism of Public Instruction failed.^
The analogy of woman's position in the Vishnuite sects Modem
to that assisfned to her by ancient Buddhism is striking. But ^"^^^^^^
the analogy becomes more complete when the comparison is
made with the extra-mural life of the modern Buddhist nun
on the Punjab frontier. Thus, in Lahul (Lahaul) some of the
nuns have not, as in Tibet, cloisters of their own. They are
attached to monasteries, in which they reside only a few months
of the year ; and which they may permanently quit, either in
order to marry or for other sufficient reasons. In 1868, there
were seventy-one such Buddhist nuns in Lahul, able to read and
write, and very closely resembUng in their life and discipline
the better orders of Vishnuite female devotees in Bengal.
One of them was sufficiently skilled in astronomy to calculate
eclipses.*
The death of Chaitanya marked the beginning of a spiritual Vallablia-
decHne in Vishnu-worship. About 1520, Vallabha-Swami ^^^^^^
preached in Northern India that the liberation of the soul a.d.
did not depend upon the mortification of the body ; and that
1 The Spashtha Dayakas.
2 Wilson's Religion of Hindus, vol. i. p. 17 1 (ed. 1862).
* The official details of this interesting and once promising experiment
at Dacca will be found in Appendix A. to the Report of the Director of
Public Instruction, Bengal, for 1863-64, pp. 83-90 ; for 1864-65, pp.
155-158; and in each subsequent Annual Report to 1869.
* Sherring's Hindu Tribes^ vol. ii. p. 9 (410, Calcutta).
222 RISE OF HINDUISM.
God was to be sought, not in nakedness and hunger and
solitude, but amid the enjoyments of this life. An opulent
sect had, from an early period, attached itself to the worship
of Krishna and his bride Rddha ; a mystic significance being,
of course, assigned to their pastoral loves. Still more popular
among women is the modern adoration of Krishna as the
Bala Gopala, or the Infant Cowherd, — a faith perhaps uncon-
Child- sciously stimulated by the Catholic worship of the Divine
wors lip. Qhji(5_ 'pj^g gg(.|.^ however, deny any connection of their Infant
god with the babe Jesus, and maintain that their worship is a
legitimate and natural development of Vishnuite conceptions.
Another influence of Christianity on Hinduism may possibly be
traced in the growing importance assigned by the Krishna sects
to bhakti^ or faith, as an all-sufficient instrument of salvation.
Krishna- ., Vallabhi-Swami was the apostle of Vishnuism as a religion
wors ip. ^£ pleasure. When he had finished his life's work, he de-
scended into the Ganges \ a brilliant flame arose from the
spot ; and, in the presence of a host of witnesses, his glorified
form ascended to heaven. The special object of his homage
was Vishnu in his pastoral incarnation, in which he took the
form of the divine youth Krishna, and led an arcadian hfe in
the forest. Shady bowers, lovely women, exquisite viands,
and everything that appeals to the sensuousness of a
tropical race, are mingled in his worship. His daily ritual
consists of eight services, in which Krishna's image, as a
beautiful boy, is delicately bathed, anointed with essences,
splendidly attired, and sumptuously fed. The followers of the
first Vishnuite reformers dwelt together in secluded monasteries,
or went about scantily clothed, living upon alms. But the
Vallabhi-Swdmi sect performs its devotions arrayed in costly
apparel, anointed with oil, and perfumed with camphor or
sandal. It seeks its converts, not among weavers, or leather-
dressers, or barbers, but among wealthy bankers and mer-
chants, who look upon life as a thing to be enjoyed, and
upon pilgrimage as a holiday excursion, or an opportunity
for trade.
A religion In a religion of this sort, abuses are inevitable. It was a
ofpleasure. revolt against a system which taught that the soul could
approach its Maker only by the mortification of the body. It
declared that God was present in the cities and marts of men,
not less than in the cave of the ascetic. Faith and love were
its instruments of salvation, and voluptuous contemplation its
approved spiritual state. It delighted to clothe the deity in a
beautiful human form, and mystical amorous poems make a
VISHNUITE SECTS. 223
large part of its canonical literature. One of its most valued
theological treatises is entitled The Ocean of Love, Frem Love
Sdgar ; and although its nobler professors always recognised ^o^"^"^-
its spiritual character, to baser minds it has become simply a
religion of pleasure. The loves of Radha and Krishna, that
woodland pastoral redolent of a wild-flovver aroma as ethereal
as the legend of Psyche and Cupid, are sometimes materialized
into a sanction for licentious rites.
A few of the Vishnuite sects have been particularized in order Numerous
to show the wide area of religious thought which they cover, Vishnuite
and the composite conceptions of which their beliefs are
made up. But any attempt at a complete catalogue of them The
is beyond the scope of this work. H. H. Wilson divided ^^5"^)'
them into twenty principal sects, and the branches or lesser vishnuite
brotherhoods number not less than a hundred. Their series s^^^^-
of religious founders continued until the present century, when
they began to merge into the more purely theistic movements
of our day. Indeed, the higher Vishnuite teachers have always Theistic
been theistic. The Statistical Survey of India has disclosed ^g^ts
many such reformations, from the Kartabhajas ^ of the Districts
around Calcutta, to the Satnamis ^ of the Central Provinces.
Some of these sects are poor local brotherhoods, with a
single religious house ; others have developed into wide-
spread and wealthy bodies ; while one theistic church has
grown into a great nation, the Sikhs, the last military power The Sikhs,
which we had to subdue in India.^ Nanak Shah, the spiritual Nanak
founder of the Sikhs, was nearly contemporary with Kabir, and ^h^^^»
taught doctrines in the Punjab but little differing from those of
the Bengal apostle."* The Vishnuite sects now include almost
the whole population of Lower Bengal, excepting the very
highest and the very lowest castes. In many of their com-
munities, caste is not acknowledged. Such sects form brother- Brother-
hoods which recognise only spiritual distinctions or degrees ; hoods,
and a new social organization is thus provided for the
unfortunate, the widow, or the out-caste. In lately Hinduized
Provinces like Assam, Vishnu-worship has become practically
the religion of the people.
The Car Festival of Jagannath is perhaps the most typical Jagannath
' See Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. i. pp. 73-75 (Twenty-
Four Parganas) ; vol. ii. pp. 53-55 (Nadiva).
"^ See The Imperial Gazetteer of India^ article Cenjral Provin'CES.
^ See The Imperial Gazetteer of India, articles Amritsar and Punjab.
For the theological aspects of the Sikhs, see Wilson's Religion of the
Hindus, vol. i. pp. 267-275 (ed. 1862).
* H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus, vol. i. p. 269.
224
RISE OF HINDUISM.
His Brah-
manical
and
Buddhist
origin.
Car Fesii-
val of
Jagannath,
English
calumnies,
Self-im-
molation
not prac-
tised.
ceremony of the Vishnuite faith. Jagannath, literally 'The
Lord of the World,' represents, with unmistakeable clearness,
that coalition of Brahman and Buddhist doctrines which forms
the basis of Vishnu - worship. In his temple are three rude
images, unconsciously representing the Brahmanical triad.
His Car Festival is probably a once-conscious reproduction
of the Tooth Festival of the Buddhists, although its original
significance has dropped out of sight. The Chinese pilgrim
Fa-Hian gives an account of the yearly procession of Buddha's
Sacred Tooth from its chapel to a shrine some way off,^ and
of its return after a stay there. This was in the 5 th century
A.D. ; but the account applies so exactly to the Car Festival at
the present day, that Fergusson pronounces the latter to be
* merely a copy.' ^
A similar festival is still celebrated with great rejoicing in
Japan. As in the Indian procession of Jagannath, the Japanese
use three cars ; ^ and Buddha sits in his temple, together with
two other figures, like the Jagannath triad of Orissa.^ It is
needless to add, that while Jagannath is historically of Buddhist
or composite origin, he is to his true believers the one supreme
'Lord of the World.'
The calumnies in which some English writers have indulged
with regard to Jagannath, are exposed in Hunter's work on
Orissa. That work carefully examined the whole evidence on
the subject, from 1580, when Abul Fazl wrote, through a long
series of travellers, down to the police reports of 1870.* It
came to the conclusion which H. H. Wilson had arrived at
from quite different sources,^ that self-immolation was entirely
opposed to the worship of Jagannath, and that the deaths at
the Car Festival were almost always accidental. In a closely-
packed, eager throng of a hundred thousand men and women
at Puri, numbers of them unaccustomed to exposure or hard
labour, and all of them tugging and straining to the utmost at
the car, under a blazing sun, deaths must occasionally occur.
There were also isolated instances of pilgrims throwing
themselves under the wheels in a frenzy of religious excite-
ment. At one time, several unhappy people were killed or
injured every year, but they were almost invariably cases
* From the chapel at Anuradhapura to Mehentele.
* History of Architecture, vol. ii. p. 590 (ed. 1867).
•■' See, among many interesting notices by recent travellers, Miss Bird's
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, vol. i. pp. ill, 115, etc. (ed. 1880).
* Hunter's Orissa, vol. i., particularly pp. 306-308; also pp. 132-136.
* Namely, the descriptions of the Car Festival or Rath-Jdtra in the
work of Krishna Das.
LIBELS OF JAGANNATH. 225
of accidental trampling. At an early period, indeed, the priests
at Pur/, probably by permitting a midnight sacrifice once a year
within their precincts to the wife ^ of Siva, had fallen under
suspicion of bloody rites. ^ But such rites arose from the
ambition of the priests to make Puri the sacred city of all wor-
ships and all sects. The yearly midnight offerings to the Dread
Goddess within Jagannath's sacred precincts represent the
efforts made from time to time towards a coalition of the Sivaite
and Vishnuite worship, like the chakra or sacred disc of Vishnu
which surmounts the pre-historic temple to Kali at Tamluk.^
Such compromises had nothing to do with the worship of the His
true Jagannath. A drop of blood even accidentally spilt in bloodless
his presence pollutes the officiating priests, the people, and the
consecrated food. The few suicides that occurred at the Car
Festival were for the most part those of diseased and miser-
able objects, who took this means to put themselves out of
pain."* The official returns now place the facts beyond doubt
Nothing could be more opposed to Vishnu-worship than self-im-
molation. Any death within the temple of Jagannath renders
the place unclean. The ritual suddenly stops, and the polluted
offerings are hurried away from the sight of the offended god.
According to Chaitanya, the Orissa apostle of Jagannath, Evidence
the destruction of the least of God's creatures is a sin ^^^out
against the Creator. Self-slaughter he would have regarded
with abhorrence. The copious literature of his sect fre-
quently describes the Car Festival, but makes no mention of
self-sacrifice, and contains not a single passage which could
be twisted into a sanction for it.^ Abul Fazl, the minister
of Akbar, who conducted the survey of India for the Mughal
Emperor, is silent about self-immolation to Jagannath,
although, from the context, it is almost certain that had he
heard of the practice he would have mentioned it. In 1870,
the present author compiled an index to all accounts by
travellers and others of self-immolation at the Car Festival, against
from the 14th century downwards.^ It proved that such ^f^'.
* Bimala, the * Stainless One.'
* See statement from the Haft-iklim (1485-1527 a.d.) in Hunter's
Orissa., vol. i. p. 306.
3 See The Imperial Gazetteer, article Tamluk.
* See authorities quoted in Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. p. 134 ; Stirling's
account, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 324 ; Calcutta Review, vol. x. p.
235 ; Report of Statistic cd Cojumissioner to the Government 0/ Bengal, 1868,
part ii. p. 8 ; Puri Police Reports ; Lieut. Laurie's Orissa, 1850.
* H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus, vol. i. p. 155 (ed. 1862).
^ Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. pp. 305-308.
P
226 RISE OF HINDUISM.
suicides did at rare intervals occur, although they were opposed
to the spirit of the worship.
Libels on An Indian procession means a vast multitude of excitable
jaganna . ^j^jj^gg j-gady for any extravagance. Among Indian proces-
sions, that of Jagannath to his country-house stands first;
and the frenzied affrays of the Muharram might as fairly
be assigned to the deliberate policy of the British Govern-
ment, as the occasional suicides at the Car Festival may be
charged against the god. The travellers who tell the most
sensational stories are the ones whose narratives prove that
they went entirely by hearsay, or who could not them-
selves have seen the Car Festival at Puri. The number of
deaths, whether voluntary or accidental, as registered by the
dispassionate candour of English officials, has always been
insignificant, indeed far fewer than those incident to the party
processions of the Musalmans; and under improved police
His gentle arrangements, they have practically ceased. So far from en-
octrines. couraging religious suicides, the gentle doctrines of Jagannath
tended to check the once common custom of widow-burning.
Even before the Government put a stop to sati in 1829, our
officials observed its comparative infrequency at Puri. Widow-
burning was discountenanced by the Vishnuite reformers, and
is stigmatized by a celebrated disciple as ' the fruitless union
of beauty with a corpse.'
The religi- The worship of Siva and Vishnu operates as a religious
of Hindu- ^o^^d among the Hindus, in the same way as caste supplies
ism. the basis of their social organization. Theoretically, the
Hindu religion starts from the Veda, and acknowledges its
divine authority. But, practically, we have seen that Hindu-
ism takes its origin from many sources. Vishnu-worship and
Sivaite rites represent the two most popular combinations of
The these various elements. The highly-cultivated Brahman is a
*^^'^^" pure theist; the less cultivated worships the divinity under
(ievaid. ' * some chosen form, ishta-devatd. The conventional Brdhman,
especially in the south, takes as his ' chosen deity,' Siva in his
deep philosophical significance, with the phallic iitiga as his
emblem. The middle classes and the mercantile community
adore some incarnation of Vishnu. The low-castes propitiate
Siva the Destroyer, or rather one of his female manifestations,
such as the dread Kalf.
Practical But every Hindu of education allows that his special object
faith of the ^f homage is merely his ishta-devatd. or own chosen form
Hindus , ®. , , , ,^ • T^ TT J •
under which to adore the Deity, Param-eswara. He admits
FATE OF THE HINDU TRIAD. 227
that there is ample scope for adoring God under other Its toler-
manifestations, or in other shapes. Unless a new sect takes '^"'^^^
the initiative, by rejecting caste or questioning the autho-
rity of the Veda, the Hindu is slow to dispute the orthodoxy
of the movement. Even the founder of the Brahma Samaj,
or modern theistic church of Bengal, lived and died a Hindu.^
The Indian vernacular press cordially acknowledges the merits
of distinguished Christian teachers, like Dr. Duff of Calcutta,
or Dr. Wilson of Bombay. At first, indeed, our missionaries,
in their outburst of proselytizing zeal, spoke disrespectfully
of Hinduism, and stirred up some natural resentment. But
as they more fully realized the problems involved in con-
version, they moderated their tone, and now live on friendly
terms with the Brahmans and religious natives.
An orthodox Hindu paper, which had been filling its Hindu
columns with a vigorous polemic entitled * Christianity ^""^^^-^ ^^
Destroyed,' no sooner heard of the death of the late Mr. tianity.
Sherring, than it published a eulogium on that devoted mis-
sionary. It dwelt on ' his learning, affability, solidity, piety,
benevolence, and business capacity.' The editor, while a
stout defender of his hereditary faith, regretted that ' so little
of Mr. Sherring's teaching had fallen to his lot.' ^ The Hindus
are among the most tolerant religionists in the world.
Of the three members of the Hindu Triad, the first person, Modern
Brahma, has now but a few scattered handfuls of followers ; ^^j^^^^J "^^^^
the second person, Vishnu, supplies a worship for the middle Triad.
classes ; around the third person, Siva, in his twofold aspects,
has grown up that mixture of philosophical symbolism with
propitiatory rites professed by the highest and by the lowest
castes. But the educated Hindu willingly recognises that,
beyond and above his chosen Deity of the Triad, or his
favourite incarnation, or his village fetish, or his household
sdlagrdm, dwells the Param-eswara, the One First Cause, The One
whom the eye has not seen, and whom the mind cannot ^^°^'
. . Param-
conceive, but who may be worshipped in any one of the forms e^wara.
in which he manifests his power to men.
^ The best short account of this deeply interesting movement, and of
its first leader Rammohan Roy, will be found under the title of Indian
Theistic /Reformers, by Professor Monier Williams, in the Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Jan. i88i, vol. xiii. See also his Modern India
(Triibner, 1879) ; and Miss Collet's BraJimo Year Book (Williams &
Norgate, annually).
* The Kavl-bachan Sudha, quoted in the Chronicle of the London Mis-,
sionary Society for November 18S0, p. 792.
228
J^ISE OF HINDUISM.
Recapitu
lation.
The foregoing chapters indicate how, out of the early Aryan
and non- Aryan races of India, as modified by Greek and
Scythic invasions, the Hindu population and the Hindu
religion were built up. We shall next consider three series of
influences which, within historic times, have been brought to
bear, by nations from the West, upon the composite people
thus formed. The first set of these influences is represented by
the early Christian Church of India, a Church which had its
origin in a period long anterior to the mediaeval Hinduism
of the 9th century, and which is numerously represented by
(2) Islam, the Syrian Christians of Malabar in our own day. The second
foreign influence brought to bear upon India from the West
consisted of the Muhammadan invasions, which eventually
created the Mughal Empire. The third influence is repre-
sented by the European settlements, which culminated in the
British Rule.
Three
Western
influences
(I) Chris
tianity,
3) British
Rule.
[ 229 ]
CHAPTER IX.
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA {circa lOO TO 1 88 1 A.D.),
Christianity now forms the faith of over two millions ofCli"stian-
the Indian population. Coeval with Buddhism during the J^ith^^^^
last nine centuries of its Indian history, the teaching of Buddhism
Christ has, after the lapse of another nine hundred years, ^l^^
more than twelve times more followers than the teaching of
Buddha upon the Indian continent. Adding Burma, where
the doctrines of Gautama still remain the creed of the people,
there are over two millions of Christians to under three and a
half millions of Buddhists ; or to four millions of Buddhists
and Jains. Christianity, while a very old religion in India,
is also one of the most active at the present day. The
Census of iSSi disclosed that the Christians in British and
Feudatory India had increased by more than one-fifth since
1872; and this increase, while partly the result of more
perfect enumeration, represents to a large extent a real growth.
The origin of Christianity in India is obscure. Early Origin
tradition, accepted popularly by Catholics, and more doubtfully °j^^j^ ""'^
by Protestants, connects it with St. Thomas the Apostle, India,
who is said to have preached in Southern India, on the
Malabar and Coromandel coasts ; to have founded several The
churches ; and finally, to have been martyred at the Little ^^^^JJ^^jJ"
Mount, near Madras, in 68 a.d. The Catholic tradition
narrates further, that a persecution arose not long after, in
which all the priests perished ; that many years later, the
Patriarch of Babylon, while still in communion with Rome,
heard of the desolate state of the Indian Church, and sent
forth bishops who revived its faith ; that about 486 a.d.,
Nestorianism spread from Babylon into Malabar.
To orthodoxy this tradition has a twofold value. It assigns Value
an apostolic origin to the Christianity of India; and it explains ^^^^\-
away the fact that Indian Christianity, when it emerges into
history, formed a branch of the unorthodox Nestorian Church.
Modern criticism has questioned the evidence for the evangel-
istic labours of the Doubting Apostle in Southern India. It
230
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Syrian
Christians
of India.
Their
numbers
and
antiquity.
The three
Legends
of St.
Thomas.
has brought to light the careers of two later missionaries, both
bearing the name of Thomas, to whosn, at widely separated
dates, the honour of converting Southern India is assigned.
Gibbon dismisses the question of their respective claims in a
convenient triplet : — ' The Indian missionary St. Thomas, an
Apostle, a Manichsean, or an Armenian merchant.' ^
This method of treatment scarcely satisfies the present
century ; and the Statistical Survey of India has thrown fresh
light on the Syrian Christians of the Southern Peninsula. At
this day they number 304,410,2 or more than double the number
of Native Protestants in India in 186 1. Indeed, until within the
past ten years, the remnants of the ancient Syrian Church had
still a larger native following in India than all the Protestant
sects put together.^ It would be unsuitable to dismiss so
ancient and so numerous a body without some attempt to
trace their history. That history forms the longest continuous
narrative of any religious sect in India except the Jains.
The Syrian Church of Malabar had its origin in the
period when Buddhism was still triumphant ; it witnessed the
birth of the Hinduism which superseded the doctrine and
national polity of Buddha ; it saw the arrival of the Muham-
madans who ousted the Hindu dynasties ; it suffered cruelly
from the Roman inquisitors of the Portuguese ; but it has
survived its persecutors, and has formed a subject of interest
to Anglican inquirers during the past eighty years.*
The three legends of St. Thomas, the missionary of Southern
India, may be summarized as follows. According to the
Chaldaean Breviary and certain Fathers of the Catholic Church,
^ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (quarto edition, 1788), vol. iv.
P- 599> footnote 122.
'-^ Census of India, i88r, vol. ii. pp. 20, 21. The Census of^cers return
the whole as 'Syrians,' without discriminating between Jacoliites and
Syrian Catholics. A statement kindly supplied to the author by the Vicar-
Apostolic of Verapoli returns the Syrian Catholics within his jurisdiction
at over 200,000, and the Jacobites at about 100,000. The latter are
chiefly under the jurisdiction of the Roman vicars-apostolic of Verapoli
and Quilon, but are still distinguished as 'Catholics of the Syrian rite.'
^ See Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical
Tables, 1881, drawn up under the authority of the Calcutta Missionary
Conference. This valuable compilation returns 138,731 Native Protestant
Christians in 1861, and 224,258 in 1871, in India, exclusive of Burma.
* From the time of Claudius Buchanan and Bishop Heber downwards.
See Asiatic Researches, vol. vii., 'Account of St. Thome Christians on the
coast of Malabar,' by Mr. Wrede ; Buchanan's Christian Researches in
Asia, 4th ed. (181 1), pp. 106, 145; Heber's Journal, vol. ii.; Bishop
Middleton's Life of Le Bas, chapters ix.-xii. (1831); Hough's IJist. of
Christianity in India, 5 vols. (1839-60).
THREE LEGENDS OF ST. THOMAS, 231
St. Thomas the Apostle converted many countries of Asia, and 52 to 68
found a martyr's death in India. The meagre tradition of the ^'
early Church was expanded by the Catholic writers of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. The abstract by Vincenzo
Maria makes the Apostle commence his work in Mesopotamia, First
and includes Bactria, Central Asia, China, ' the States of the gf xlionias
Great Mogul,' Siam, Germany, Brazil, and Ethiopia, in the the
circle of his missionary labours. The apostolic traveller then :^P°^^^^ ,
sailed east agam to India, converting the island of Socotra on
the way, and after preaching in Malabar, ended his labours
on the Coromandel coast. ^ The final development of the
tradition fills in the details of his death. It would appear that
on the 2ist December 68 a.d., at Mailapur, a suburb of
Madras, the Brahmans stirred up a tumult against the Apostle,
who, after being stoned by the crowd, was finally thrust through
with a spear upon the spot now known as St. Thomas' Mount.
The second legend assigns the conversion of India to Second
Thomas the Manichaean, or disciple of Manes, towards the JJ',^^^"'^*,*
end of the third century. Another legend ascribes the honour the Mani-
to an Armenian merchant, Thomas Cana, in the eighth century. chsean(277
The story relates that Mar Thomas, the Armenian, settled in ^'
Malabar for purposes of trade, married two Indian ladies, and Third
grew into power with the native princes. He found that such ^S^"^^ *
Christians as existed before his time had been driven by the Ar-
persecution from the coast into the hill-country. Mar Thomas menian
secured for them the privilege of worshipping according to ^^ oa.d. )
their faith, led them back to the fertile coast of Malabar, and
became their archbishop. On his death, his memory received
the gradual and spontaneous honours of canonization by the
Christian communities for whom he had laboured, and his
name became identified with that of the Apostle.
Whatever may be the claims of the Armenian Thomas as the The three
re-builder of the Church in Southern India, he was certainly Legends
' . ■' examined ;
not Its founder. Apart from the evidence of Patristic litera-
ture, there is abundant local proof that Christianity flourished
in Southern India long before the eighth century. In the sixth the third ;
century, while Buddhism was still at the height of its power,
Kalydn, on the Bombay coast, was the seat of a Christian bishop
from Persia.2
* The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian. Colonel Yule's second
edition, vol. ii. p. 343, note 4 {1875).
- Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency^ vol. xiii. part i., Thana District,
pp. 66, 200, etc. It is not necessary to dispute whether the seat of this
bishopric was the modern Kalyan or Quilon (Coilam), as the coast from
Bombay southwards to Quilon bore indefinitely the name of Caliana.
- 232 CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
the second The claims of Thomas the Manichaean have the European
legend ; support of the Church historians, La Croze/ Tillemont, and
others. The local testimony of a cross dug up near Madras
in 1547, bearing an inscription in the Pehlvi tongue, has
also been urged in his favour. The inscription is probably of
the seventh or eighth century a.d., and, although somewhat
variously deciphered, bears witness to the sufferings of
Christ.2
and the For the claims of St. Thomas the Apostle, a longer and more
ancient series of authorities are cited. The apocryphal history
of St. Thomas, by Abdias, dating perhaps from the end of the
first century, narrates that a certain Indian king, Gondaphorus,
sent a merchant called Abban to Jesus, to seek a skilful
architect to build him a palace. The story continues that the
Lord sold Thomas to him as a slave expert in that art.^ The
Apostle converted King Gondaphorus, and then journeyed on
to another country of India, under King Meodeus, where he
^ Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, 2 vols. i2mo (The Hague, 1758).
* Professor Haug reads it thus : * Whoever believes in the Messiah, and
in God above, and also in the Holy Ghost, is in the grace of Him who
bore the pain of the cross.' Dr. Burnell deciphers it more diffidently: —
* In punishment [?] by the cross [was] the suffering of this [one] : [He] who
is the true Christ and God above, and Guide for ever pure.' Yule's Marco
Folo^ 2nd ed., p. 345, vol. ii. ; also p. 339, where the cross is figured.
^ This legend forms the theme of the Hyinnus in Festo Sancti Thomae
Apostoli, ad Vesperum, in the Mozarabic Breviary, edited by Cardinal
Lorenzana in 1775- Its twenty-one verses are given as an appendix in Dr.
Rennet's Madras monograph. Three stanzas will here suffice : —
* Nuncius venit de Indis
Quaerere artificem :
Architectum construere
Regium palatium :
In foro deambulabat
Cunctorum venalium.
Habeo servum fidelem,
Locutus est Dominus,
Ut exquiris talem, aptum
Esse hunc artificem :
Abbanes videns, et gaudens,
Suscepit Apostolum.'
The hymn assigns the death of the Apostle to the priest oi a sun temple
which had been overthrown by St. Thomas : —
* Tunc sacerdos idolorum
Furibundus astitit,
Gladio transverberavit
Sanctum Christi martyrem.
Glorioso passionis
Laurcatum sanguine.'
THE 'INDIA' OF THE FATHERS. 233
was slain by lances.^ The existence of a King Gondaphorus
has been estabHshed by coins, which would place him in the
last century B.C., or within the first half of the first century of
our era.2 But, apart from difficulties of chronology, it is
clear that the Gondaphorus of the coins was an Indo-Scythic
monarch, reigning in regions which had no connection with
Malabar. His coins are still found in numbers in Afghanistan
and the Punjab, especially from Peshawar to Ludhiana. He
was essentially a Punjab potentate.
The mention of St. Thomas the Apostle in connection with Wide
India by the Fathers, and in the Offices of the Church, does T'/jf^"^"^^
not bring him nearer to Malabar, or to the supposed site of his
martyrdom at Madras. For the term 'India,' at the period
to which these authorities belong, referred to the countries
beyond Persia, including Afghanistan and the basins of the
Upper Oxus, Indus, and Ganges, rather than to the southern
half of the peninsula. In the early accounts of the labours of in the
St. Thomas, the vague term India is almost always associated ^^^l^^''^*
with Persia, Media, or Bactria.^ Nor does the appellation of
St. Thomas as the Apostle of India in the Commemorations
of the Church, help to identify him with the St. Thomas who
preached on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. For not
only does the indeterminate character of the word still adhere
to their use of ' India,' but the area assigned to the Apostle's
labours is so wide as to deprive them of value for the purpose
of local identification. Thus, the Chaldsean Breviary of the
Malabar Church itself states that ' by St. Thomas were the
^ Colonel Yule's Marco Folo, second edition, vol. ii. p. 243. Dr. Kennet,
in an interesting monograph entitled St. Thomas, the Apostle of India,
p. 19 (Madras, 1^82), says: — 'The history of Abdias was published for
the first time by Wolfgang Lazius, under the title of Abdice Babylonia:,
Episcopi et Apostolorum Discipuli, de Historia ccrtaminis Apostolici, libri
decern ; Julio Africano Inierprete. Basilise, 1532.'
^ For the various dates, see Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, second edition,
vol. ii. p. 343. Colonel Yule's Cathay deals with the Chinese and Central
Asian aspects of the legend of St. Thomas (2 vols. 1866).
3 Thus the Paschal Chronicle of Bishop Dorotheus (born a.d. 254) says :
* The Apostle Thomas, after having preached the gospel to the Parthians,
Medes, Persians, Germanians [an agricultural people of Persia mentioned
by Herodotus, i. 125], Bactrians, and Magi, suffered martyrdom at Cala-
mina, a town of India.' Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus («;ra 220 A. D.),
assigns to St. Thomas, Parthia, Media, Persia, Hercania, the Bactri, the
Mardi, and, while ascribing the conversion of India to St. Bartholomew,
mentions Calamina, a city of India, as the place of St. Thomas' martyr-
dom. The Metropolitan Johannes, who attended the Council of Nicaea in
325, subscribed as Bishop of 'India Maxima and Persia.' Dr. Kennel's
monograph (Madras, 1882); Hough, i. pp. 30 to 116.
234
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
and
Church
Offices.
First
j:;limpse at
Indian
Christians,
circa 190
A.D.
The
Roman
fleet from
Jew
settle-
ments
in ancient
Malabar.
Chinese and the Ethiopians converted to the Truth,' while one
of its anthems proclaims : ' The Hindus, the Chinese, the
Persians, and all the people of the Isles of the Sea, they who
dwell in Syria and Armenia, in Javan and Roumania, call
Thomas to remembrance, and adore Thy Name, O Thou our
Redeemer ! '
Candid inquiry must therefore decline to accept the con-
nection of St. Thomas wdth the * India ' of the early Church
as proof of the Apostle's identity with Thomas, the missionary
to Malabar. Nevertheless, there is evidence to indicate that
Christianity had reached Malabar before the end of the second
century a.d., and nearly a hundred years previous to the sup-
posed labours of Thomas the Manichaean {circa 277 a.d.). In
the 2nd century a Roman merchant fleet of one hundred sail
steered regularly from Myos Hormus on the Red Sea, to
Arabia, Ceylon, and Malabar. It found an ancient Jewish
colony, the remnants of which still remain to this day as the
Beni-Israels,i upon the Bombay coast. Whether these Jews
emigrated to India at the time of the Dispersion, or at a later
period, their settlements probably date from before the second
century of our era.
The Red Sea fleet from Myos Hormus, which traded with
this Jewish settlement in India, must in all likelihood have
brought with it Jewish merchants and others acquainted with
the new religion of Christ which, starting from Palestine, had
penetrated throughout the Roman world. Pajt of the fleet,
moreover, touched at Aden and the Persian Gulf, themselves
early seats of Christianity. Indeed, after the direct sea-course
to Malabar by the trade winds was known, the main navigation
to India for some time hugged the Asiatic coast. Christian
merchants from that coast, both of Jewish and other race,
would in the natural course of trade have reached Malabar
within the second century a.d.^ The Buddhist polity then
supreme in Southern India was favourable to the reception of
a faith whose moral characteristics were humanity and self-
sacrifice. Earlier Jewish settlers had already familiarized the
native mind with the existence of an ancient and imposing
^ For their present numbers and condition, see the Bombay Gazetteer^ by
Mr. J. M. Campbell, LL.D., of the Bombay Civil Service, vol. xi. pp. 85
and 421 ; vol. xiii. p. 273.
- The Roman trade with the southern coast of India probably dates
from, or before, the Apostolic period. Of 522 silver denarii found near
Coimbatore in 1842, no fewer than 135 were coins of Augustus, and 378 of
Tiberius. Another find near Calicut about 1850 contained an a«;v//j of
Augustus, with several hundred coins, none later than the Emperor Nero.
INDIAN CHRISTIANS, 190 a. d. 235
religion in Palestine. When that religion was presented in its
new and more attractive form of Christianity, no miraculous
intervention was probably required to commend it to the
tolerant Buddhist princes of Southern India.
About 190 A.D., rumours, apparently brought back by the ^^^alabar
Red Sea fleet, of a Christian community on the Malabar coast, ^^^^ ^^ '
fired the zeal of Pantaenus of Alexandria. Pantaenus, in his a.d.
earlier years a Stoic philosopher, was then head of the cele- Pantaenus.
brated school which formed one of the glories of his city. He
started for India ; and although it has been questioned whether
he reached India Proper, the evidence seems in favour of his
having done so. He ' found his own arrival anticipated by
some who were acquainted with the Gospel of Matthew; to
whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached ; and
had left them the same Gospel in the Hebrew, which also was
preserved until this time.'^ His mission may be placed at
the end of the 2nd century. Early in the 3rd century, St. Hippoly-
Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus {circ. 220 a.d.), also assigns the 220 ad!
conversion of India to the Apostle Bartholomew. To Thomas
he ascribes Persia and the countries of Central Asia, although
he mentions Calamina, a city of India, as the place where
Thomas suffered death.
Indeed, the evidence of the early Christian writers, so far
as it goes, tends to connect St Thomas with the India of the
ancient world, — that is to say, with Persia and Afghanistan, —
and St. Bartholomew with the Christian settlements on the
Malabar coast. Cosmos Indicopleustes writes of a Christian Cosmos
Church in Ceylon, and on the CaUian or Malabar seaboard ^"^^^o*
^ ' pleustes,
{circ. 547 A.D.). But he makes no mention of its foundation drc. 547
by St. Thomas, which, as an Alexandrian monk, he would have '^•^•
been almost sure to do had he heard any local tradition of
the circumstance. He states that the Malabar Bishop was
consecrated in Persia ; from which we may infer that the
Christians of Southern India had already been brought within
the Nestorian fold. There is but slight evidence for fixing
upon the Malabar coast as the seat of the orthodox Bishop
Frumentius, sent forth by Athanasius to India and the East,
^irc. 355 A.D.
The truth is, that the Christians of Southern India belonged Nestorian
from their first clear emergence into history to the Syrian ^^^^ '"
rite. If, as seems probable, Christianity was first brought to
Malabar by the merchant fleet from the Persian Gulf, or the
* Dr. Kennet, quoting Eusebius, in his monc^aph on St. Thomas^ the
Apostle of India^ p. 9 (Madras, 1882).
236
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
years.
Asiatic coast of the Arabian Sea, the Malabar Christians would
follow the Asiatic forms of faith. When, therefore, in the 5th
century, Nestorianism, driven forth from Europe and Africa,
conquered the allegiance of Asia, the Church of Southern
India would naturally accept the Nestorian doctrine.
It should be remembered that during the thousand years when
Christianity flourished in Asia, from the 5th to the 15th century,
it was the Christianity of Nestorius. The Jacobite sect dwelt
^A^^ ^X, in the midst of the Nestorians ; and for nearly a thousand
IJuddhism Y^ars, the Christianity of these types, together with Buddhism,
for 1000 formed the two intelligent religions of Central Asia. Plow far
Buddhism and Christianity mutually influenced each other's
doctrine and ritual still remains a complex problem. But
Christianity in western Central Asia appears to have ofl"ered a
longer resistance than Buddhism to the advancing avalanche
of Islam ; and in the countries to the west of Tibet it survived
its Buddhist rival. * Under the reign of the Caliphs,' says
Gibbon, ' the Nestorian Church was diffused from China to
Jerusalem and Cyprus \ and their numbers, with those of the
Jacobites, were computed to surpass the Greek and Latin
communions.'^
The marvellous history of the Christian Tartar potentate,
Prester John, king, warrior, and priest, is a mediaeval legend
based on the ascendancy of Christianity in some of the
Central Asian States.^ The travellers in Tartary and China,
from the 12th to the 15 th century, bear witness to the
extensive survival, and once flourishing condition, of the
Nestorian Church, and justify Pierre Bergeron's description
of it as '^pandue par toute I'Asie.'^ The term CathoHcof-,
which the Nestorians applied to their Patriach, and the
Jacobites to their Metropolitan, survives in the languages of
Central India. The mediaeval travellers preserve it in various
forms;* and the British Embassy to Yarkand, in 1873, still
^ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, p. 598, vol. iv. (quarto ed.
1788). Gibbon quotes his authorities for this statement in a footnote.
The whole subject of early Christianity in Central Asia and China has
been discussed with exhaustive learning in Colonel Yule's Cathay, and thi
Way Thither. Hakluyt Society, 2 vols. 1866.
2 * Voyage de Rubruquis en Tartarie,' chap, xix., in the quarto volume
of Voyages en Asie, published at the Hague in 1735. Guillaume de Rubru-
quis was an ambassador of Louis ix., sent to Tartary and China in 1253
A.D. Colonel Yule also gives the story of Prester John in Marco Polo,
vol. i. pp. 229-233 (ed. 1875).
3 'Traite des Tartares,' par Pierre Bergeron, chap. iii. in the Hague
quarto of Voyages en Asie, above quoted (1735).
* Jdthallk,Jatolic,Jatclic; originally Gdthalik.
Its wide
diffusion.
ST. THOMAS OF MADRAS, 237
came upon a story of ' a poor and aged Jdtlik^ or Christian
priest.' ^
Whether the Christians on the coast of Malabar were a direct ' Thomas ^
offshoot of the Nestorian Church of Asia, or the result of an ^^ ^tll^.
earlier seedling dropped by St. Thomas or St. Bartholomew
on their apostolic travels, it is certain that from their first
appearance in local history, the Malabar Christians obeyed
bishops from Persia of the Nestorian rite.^ By the 7th cen-
tury, the Persian Church had adopted the name of Thomas
Christians, and this title would in time be extended to all its
branches, including that of Malabar. The early legend of the and of
Manichaean Thomas in the 3rd century, and the later labours
of the Armenian Thomas, the rebuilder of the Malabar Church,
in the 8th, had endeared that name to the Christians of
Southern India. In their isolation and ignorance, they con-
founded the three names, and concentrated their legends of
the three Thomases in the person of the Apostle.^ Before the
14th century, they had completed the process by believing that
St. Thomas was Christ.
The fitness of things soon required that the life and death Legend
of the Apostle should be localized by the Southern Indian 2f, ^^'
Church. Patristic literature clearly declares that St. Thomas localized ;
had suffered martyrdom at Calamina, probably in some country
east of Persia, or in Northern India itself. The tradition of
the Church is equally distinct, that in 394 a.d. the remains of
the Apostle were transferred to Edessa in Mesopotamia.^ The
attempt to localize the death of St. Thomas on the south- in spite of
western coast of India started, therefore, under disadvantages, difficulties,
A suitable site was, however, found at the Mount near Madras,
one of the many hill shrines of ancient India which have
formed a joint resort of religious persons of diverse faiths, —
Buddhist, Muhammadan, and Hindu {ante^ p. 203).
Marco Polo, the first European traveller who has left an 13th cen-
account of the place, gives the legend in its undeveloped form ofYhe^""
legend.
* Dr. Bellew's ' History of Kashgar,' in the Official Report of Sir
Douglas Forsyth's Mission, p. 127. (Quarto, Foreign Office Press, Cal-
cutta, 1875.)
2 Mr. Campbell's Bombay Gazetteer, Thana District, chap. iii. (Bombay,
1882.)
' The Jacobites, or followers of Jacobus Baradaeus, prefer in the same
way to deduce their name and pedigree from the Apostle James. Gibbon,
iv. 603, footnote (ed. 1788).
^ For the authorities, see Dr. Rennet's Madras monograph, St. Thomas,
the Apostle of India (1882) ; and Colonel Yule's critical note, Marco Polo,
vol. ii. p. 342 (2nd edition, 1875).
238
CHRISTIANITY IN INDLi.
Mixed
worship
fit the
shrine.
The
legend as
developed
by the
Portu-
guese,
Relics at
Goa.
Final form
of the
legend.
in the 13th century. The Apostle had, it seems, been acci-
dentally killed outside his hermitage by a fowler, who, ' not
seeing the saint, let fly an arrow at one of the peacocks. And
this arrow struck the holy man in the right side, so that he
died of the wound, sweetly addressing himself to his Creator.' 1
Miracles were wrought at the place, and conflicting creeds
claimed the hermit as their own. ' Both Christians and
Saracens, however, greatly frequent the pilgrimage,' says Marco
Polo truthfully, although evidently a little puzzled.^ * For the
Saracens also do hold the Saint in great reverence, and say
that he was one of their own Saracens, and a great prophet.'
Not only the Muhammadans and Christians, but also the
Hindus seem to have felt the religious attractions of the spot.
About thirty years after Marco Polo, the Church itself was,
according to Odoric, filled with idols. ^ Two centuries later,
Joseph of Cranganore, the Malabar Christian, still testifies to
the joint worship of the Christian and the heathen at St.
Thomas' Mount. The Syrian bishops sent to India in 1504
heard ' that the Church had begun to be occupied by some
Christian people. But Barbosa, a few years later, found it half
in ruins, and in charge of a Muhammadany«>^/>, who kept a
lamp burning.' *
Brighter days, however, now dawned for the Madras legend.
Portuguese zeal, in its first fervours of Indian evangelization,
felt keenly the want of a sustaining local hagiology. Saint
Catherine had, indeed, visibly delivered Goa into their hands ;
and a parish church, afterwards the cathedral, was dedicated
to her in 15 12. Ten years later, the viceroy Duarte Menezes
became ambitious of enriching his capital with the bones of an
apostle. A mission from Goa despatched to the Coromandel
coast in 1522, proved itself ignorant of, or superior to, the
well-established legend off the translation of the Saint's remains
to Edessa in 394 a.d., and found his sacred relics at the
ancient hill shrine near Madras, side by side with those of a
king whom he had converted to the faith. They were brought
with pomp to Goa, the Portuguese capital of India, and there
they lie in the Church of St. Thomas to this day.^
The finding of the Pehlvi cross, mentioned on a previous
page, at St. Thomas' Mount in 1547, gave a fresh colouring to
1 Colonel Yule's Marco Polo (2nd edition, 1875), vol. ii. p. 340.
* Idem, ii. pp. 337-338- ' Idem, ii. p. 344. * Ibid.
» Ibid. Colonel Yule's Cathay (2 vols. 1866) should also be referred to
by students of the legend of St. Thomas, and his alleged labours in Asia
and India.
KING ALFREDS EMBASSY, 239
the legend. So far as its inscription goes, it points to a Persian,
and probably to a Manichsean origin. But at the period when
it was dug up, no one in Madras could decipher its Pehlvi
characters. A Brahman impostor, knowing that there was a
local demand for martyrs, accordingly came forward with a
fictitious interpretation. The simple story of Thomas' acci-
dental death from a stray arrow, had before this grown into a
cruel martyrdom by stoning and a lance-thrust, with each spot
in the tragedy fixed at the Greater and Lesser Mount near
Madras. The Brahman pretended to supply a confirmation
of the legend from the inscription on the cross — a confirma-
tion which continued to be accepted until Dr. Burnell and
Professor Haug published their decipherments in our own
day. * In the i6th and 17th century,' says Colonel Yule,
* Roman Catholic ecclesiastical story-tellers seem to have
striven in rivalry who should most recklessly expand the travels
of the Apostle.'
The lying interpretation of the Brahman, and the visible King
relics in the church at Goa, seem to have influenced the ^ , ^
' Embassy,
popular imagination more powerfully than the clear tradition of
the early Church regarding the translation of the Apostle's relics
to Edessa. Our own King Alfred has been pressed into the
service of St. Thomas of Madras. ' This year,' 883 a.d., says
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ' Sighelm and Athelstane carried
to Rome the alms which the king had vowed to send thither,
and also to India to St. Thomas and to St. Bartholomew.' ^
Gibbon suspects ' that the English ambassadors collected
their cargo and legend in Egypt.' ^ There is certainly no
evidence to show that they ever visited the Coromandel coast, but to
and much to indicate that the ' India ' of Alfred was the India T^l^^
of the early Church, and far north-west of the Madras exploits
of the Apostle. The legend of St. Thomas' Mount has in our
own century been illustrated by the eloquence and learning
of bishops and divines of the Anglo-Indian Church. ' But,'
concludes Colonel Yule, ' I see that the authorities now
ruling the Catholics at Madras are strong in disparagement
of the special sanctity of the localities, and of the whole story
connecting St. Thomas with Mailapur,' the alleged scene of his
martyrdom.^ »
* Hough, i. p. 104 (1839); Dr. Rennet's Madras monograpli, St. Thomas^
the Apostle of India, pp. 6, 7 (1882).
- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iv. p. 599, footnote 123
(ed. 1788) ; Hough, vol. i. pp. 105-107.
2 Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, ii. p. 344 (ed. 1875),
240
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Troubles
of the
Ancient
Indian
Church.
The St.
Thomas
Christians
a military
caste ;
As a matter of history, the life of the Nestorian Church in
India has been a troubled one. A letter from the Patriarch
Jesajabus to Simeon, Metropolitan of Persia, shows that before
660 A.D., the Christians along the Indian coast were destitute
of a regular ministry. ^ In the 8th century, the Armenian
friar Thomas found the Malabar Christians driven back into
the recesses of the mountains. In the 14th century. Friar
Jordanus declared them to be Christians only in name,
without baptism. They even confounded St. Thomas with
Christ.2 A mixed worship, Christian, Muhammadan, and
Hindu, went on at the old high place or joint hill shrine near
Madras. In some centuries, the Church in Southern India
developed, like the Sikhs in the Punjab, into a military sove-
reignty. In others, it dwindled away ; its remnants lingering
in the mountains and woods, or adopting heathen rites. The
family names of a forest tribe ^ in Kanara, now Hindus, bear
witness to a time when they were Christians ; and there were
probably many similar reversions to paganism.
The downfall of the Nestorian Church in India was due,
however, neither to such reversions to paganism nor to any
persecutions of native princes; but to the pressure of the
Portuguese Inquisition, and the proselytizing energy of Rome.
Before the arrival of Vasco da Gama in 1498, the St. Thomas
Christians had established their position as a powerful military
caste in Malabar. The Portuguese found them firmly organized
under their spiritual leaders, bishops, archdeacons, and priests,
who acted as their representatives in dealing with the Indian
princes. For long they had Christian kings, and at a later period
chiefs, of their own.'* In virtue of an ancient charter ascribed
to Cherumal Perumal, Suzerain of Southern India in the ninth
century a.d., the Malabar Christians enjoyed all the rights of
nobility.^ They even claimed precedence of the Nairs, who
formed the heathen aristocracy. The St. Thomas Christians
^ Assemani Bibliotheca, quoted by Bishop Caldwell, Comparative
Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, p. 27, footnote (ed. 1875).
Jesajabus died 660 a.d.
^ Jordanus, quoted in Mr. J. M. Campbell's Bombay Gazetteer^ vol. xiii.
part i. p. 2CO (ed. 1882).
' The Marathi Sidis. For an interesting account of them, see Mr. J. M.
Campbell's Bombay Gazetteer, Kanara District, vol. xv. part i. p. 397
(ed. 1883).
* Histoire dii Christianisme des Indes, par M. V. La Croze, vol. i. p. 72,
ii. p. 133, etc. (2 vols. i2mo, The Hague, 1758).
• Idem, i. p. 67. For details, see The Syrian Church of Malabar, by
Edavalikel Philipos, p. 23, and footnote (Oxford, 1869). Local legend
vainly places Cherumal Perumal and his grant as far back as 345 a.d.
SYNOD OF DIAMPER. 241
and the Nairs were, in fact, the most important military castes
on the south-west coast ^ They supplied the bodyguard of the Powerful
local kings \ and the Christian caste was the first to learn the ^"^ [^*
use of gunpowder and fire-arms. They thus became the
matchlockmen of the Indian troops of Southern India, usually
placed in the van, or around the person of the prince.
The Portuguese, by a happy chance, landed on the very Portu-
Province of India in which Christianity was most firmly estab- S^^^^
lished, and in which Christians had for long formed a recog- their con-
nised and respected caste. The proselytizing energy of the new- version to
comers could not, however, rest satisfied with their good fortune.
That energy was vigorously directed both against the natives
and the ancient Christian communities. Indeed, the Nestorian
heresy of the St. Thomas Christians seemed to the fervour of the
friars to be a direct call from heaven for interference by the
orthodox Church. The Portuguese established the Inquisition,
as we shall presently see, at Goa in 1560. After various Portu-
guese attempts, strongly resisted by the St. Thomas Christians,
the latter were incorporated into the Catholic Church, by the
labours of Alexis de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, in 1599.
The Synod held by him at Udayampura (or Diamper), near
Cochin, in that year denounced Nestorius and his heresies, and
put an end to the existence of the Indian Nestorian Church.
No document could be more exhaustively complete than Synod of
the Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper, in its pro- icq^^^'^'
visions for bringing the Malabar Christians within the Roman
fold.2 The sacred books of the St. Thomas congregations, their
missals, their consecrated oil and church ornaments, were
publicly burned ; and their religious nationality as a separate
caste was abolished. But when the firm hand of Archbishop
Menezes was withdrawn, his parchment conversions began to
lose their force. Notwithstanding the watchfulness of the
Goa Inquisition over the new converts, the Decrees of the
Synod of Diamper fell into neglect,^ and the Malabar Christians
chafed under a fine of Jesuit prelates from 1601 to 1653.
In 1653 they renounced their allegiance to their Jesuit
* For the military aspects of the Christian caste of St. Thomas, see
La Croze (^/. cit\ ii. pp. 128, 129, 130, 140, 155, etc. The History of
the Church of Malabar and Synod of Diamper, by the learned Michael
Geddes, Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Sarum (London, 1694), an
earlier and independent work, bears out this view.
2 The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper [i.e. Udayampura)
occupy 346 pages of the Chancellor of Sarum's History of the Church of
Malabar, pp. 97-443 (ed. 1 694).
■^ La Croze, ii. p. 193.
242 CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Reversions bishop. A Carmelite mission was despatched from Rome in
version"' "^^5^ ^^ restore order. The vigorous measures of its head,
1653-1663. Joseph of St. Mary, brought back a section of the old Christian
communities; and Joseph, having reported his success at
Rome, returned to India as their bishop in 1661. He found
the Protestant Dutch pressing the Portuguese hard on the
Malabar coast, 1 661-1663. But the old military caste of
Malabar Christians rendered no assistance to their Catholic
superiors, and remained tranquil spectators of the struggle,
till the capture of Cochin by the Dutch brought about the
ruin of the Portuguese power in 1663.
Malabar The Malabar Christians, thus delivered from the temporal
fi-e^ed^b^"^ power of the Portuguese, re-asserted their spiritual independ-
the Dutch, ence. The Portuguese had compelled the native princes to
1663 ; persecute the old Christian communities ; and by confiscations,
imprisonments, and various forms of pressure, to drive the
Indian Nestorians into reconciliation with Rome.^ Such a
persecution of a long recognised caste, especially of a valued
military caste, was as foreign to the tolerant spirit of Hinduism,
as it was repugnant to the pohcy of the Indian princes, and it
has left a deep impression on the traditions of the south-western
coast. The native Jacobite historian of the Church of Malabar
rises to the righteous wrath of an old Scottish covenanter in
recounting the bribing of the poorer chiefs by the Portuguese,
and the killings, persecutions, and separations of the married
clergy from their wives. The new Dutch masters of the southern
coast, after a short antagonism to the Carmelite prelate and
the native bishop whom he left behind, lapsed into indifference.
They allowed the Roman missionaries free scope, but put an
end to the exercise of the temporal power in support of the
Catholic bishop. 2
The chief spiritual weapon of conversion, a weapon
dexterously used by the Portuguese Viceroys, had been the
interruption of the supply of Nestorian bishops from Persia.
receive a This they effected by watching the ports along the west
Jacobite coast of India, and preventing the entrance of any Nestorian
1665. ' prelate. The Syrian Church in India had therefore to struggle
on under its archdeacon, with grave doubts disturbing the
mind of its clergy and laity as to whether the archidiaconal
consecration was sufficient for the ordination of its priests.
The overthrow of the Portuguese on the seaboard put an end
to this long episcopal blockade. In 1665, the Patriarch of
' La Croze, vol. ii. pp. 169, 176, 183, 189, 192, 198, 203, etc.
^ La Croze, vol. ii. pp. 204, 205.
MALABAR CHRISTIANS SINCE 1665. 243
Antioch sent a bishop, Mar Gregory, to the orphaned Syrian
Church of India. But the new bishop belonged to the
Jacobite instead of the Nestorian branch of the Asiatic Church.
Indian Nestorianism may therefore be said to have received
its death-blow from the Synod of Diamper in 1599.
Since the arrival of Mar Gregory in 1665, the old Syrian Malabar
Church of India has remained divided into two sects. The Christians
since
Fazheia kiUtakdr, or Old Church, owed its foundation to Arch- 1665 ;
bishop Menezes and the Synod of Diamper in 1599, and its
reconciliation, after revolt, to the Carmelite bishop, Joseph of
St. Mary, in 1656. It retains in its services the Syrian language (i) Syrian
and in part the Syrian ritual. But it acknowledges the 2^5^^^^^!'
supremacy of the Pope, and his vicars-apostolic. Its members
are now known as Catholics of the Syrian Rite, to distinguish
them from the converts made direct from heathenism to the
Latin Church by the Roman missionaries. The other section
of the Syrian Christians of Malabar is called the Ptitten ktittakdr, ,
• (2^ Taco-
or New Church. It adheres to the Jacobite tenets introduced b^es
by its first Jacobite bishop, Mar Gregory, in 1665. 100,000?
The present Jacobites of Malabar condemn equally the Tenets of
errors of Arius, Nestorius, and the bishops of Rome.^ '^^^y M labar
hold that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist become the Jacobites.
Real Body and Blood of Christ, and give communion in both
kinds mixed together. They pray for. the dead, practise con-
fession, make the sign of the cross, and observe fasts. But
they reject the use of images ; honour the Mother of Jesus
and the Saints only as holy persons and friends of God ; allow
the consecration of a married layman or deacon to the office
of priest ; and deny the existence of purgatory. In their
Creed they follow the Council of Nicaea (325 a.d.). They
believe in the Trinity; assert the One Nature and the One
Person of Christ, and declare the procession of the Holy Ghost
to be from the Father, instead of from the Father and the Son.^
The Syrian Catholics and Syrian Jacobites of Malabar main- Nesto-
tain their differences with a high degree of religious vitality at rianism
the present day. Their congregations keep themselves distinct Malabar"
from the Catholics of the Latin Rite converted direct from
heathenism, and from the Protestant sects. No Nestorian
Church is now known to exist in Malabar.^ The Syrian
^ T}ie Syrian Christians of Malabar^ being a Catechism of their doctrine
and ritual, by Edavalikel Philipos, Chorepiscopus and Cathanar {i.e.
priest) of flie Great Church of Cottayam in Travancore, pp. 3, 4, 8
(Parker, 1869).
2 The above summary is condensed from the Catechism of Edavalike
Philipos, op. cit. pp. 9-i3> I7. '9- ^ Idem, p. 29.
244
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA,
Portu-
guese mis-
sionaries,
1500 A.D.,
identified
with Portu-
guese
aggres-
sions.
Native re-
prisals or
' persecu-
tions.'
Slow
progress.
Xavier and
the Jesuits,
1542.
Christians were returned in 1871 at about one-third of a
million ; but the Census officers omitted to distinguish between
Catholic Syrian and Jacobites. The Catholic Archbishop
and Vicar -Apostolic of Verapoli, to whose kind assistance
this chapter is indebted in many ways, estimates the Syrian
Catholics at 200,000, and the Jacobites at 100,000. The totals
for all Southern India cannot, however, be ascertained until
the next Census of 1891.
Roman friars had visited India since the 13th century. The
first regularly equipped Catholic mission, composed of Fran-
ciscan brethren, arrived from Portugal in 1500. Their attacks
on the native religions seemed part of the Portuguese policy of
aggression on the Native States. The pious Portuguese monks
were popularly identified with the brutal Portuguese soldiery,
whose cruelties have left so deep a stain on early European
enterprise in India. The military attempts of the Portuguese,
and their ill-treatment of the native princes and the native
population, provoked unmerited hatred against the disinterested,
if sometimes ill-judged, zeal of the Portuguese missionaries.
Native reprisals, which certain writers have dignified by the
name of persecutions, occasionally took place in return for
Portuguese atrocities. But the punishments suffered by the
friars were usually inflicted for disobedience to the native civil
power, or for public attacks on native objects of veneration ;
such attacks as are provided for by the clauses in the Anglo-
Indian Penal Code, which deal with w^ords or signs calculated
to wound the religious feelings of others. Attacks of this kind
lead to tumults among an excitable population, and to serious
breaches of the peace, often attended with bloodshed. The
native princes, alarmed at the combined Portuguese assault on
their territory and their religion, could not be expected to
decide in such cases with the cold neutrality of an Anglo-Indian
magistrate. Father Pedro de Covilham was killed in 1500.
For some time, indeed, missionary work was almost con-
fined to the Portuguese settlements, although King Emmanuel
(1498-15 21) and his son John in. (1521-57) had much at
heart the conversion of the Indians. The first bishop in India
was Duarte Nunez, a Dominican (15 14-17); and John de
Albuquerque, a Franciscan, was the first bishop of Goa (1539-
53). With St. Francis Xavier, who arrived in 1542, began the
labours of the Society of Jesus in the East, and the progress of
Christianity became more rapid.
St. Francis' name is associated with the Malabar coast,
and with the maritime tracts of Madura and Southern Madras.
EARL V JESUIT MISSIONS. 245
He completed the conversion of the Paravars in Tinnevelli St. Francis
District.! His relics repose in a silver shrine at Goa.^ Xavier.
Punnaikayal, in Tinnevelli, was the scene, in 1549, of the
death of Father Antonio Criminale, the protomartyr of the
Society of Jesus ; and in the following year, several other
lives were lost in preaching the gospel. Goa became an
Archbishopric in 1577. In 1596 to 1599, the Archbishop of
Goa, Alexis de Menezes, an Augustinian, succeeded in recon- Alexis de
ciling the Indian Nestorians to Rome ; and at the Synod of ^"^^^^•
Diamper (Udayampura, near Cochin) in 1599, the affairs of the
Indian Christians were settled. The use of the Syrian rite was Syrian rite
retained after it had been purged of its Nestorianism. The ^^J^r?-^ '
later history of the Syrian Christians in Malabar has already tained,
been traced. '599-
The Jesuit mission to the Madras coast dates from 1606, The
and is associated with the names of Robert de Nobili (its ^^^^}^^
I esuits.
founder, who died 1656), John de Britto (killed in Madura
1693), Beschi the great scholar (who died about 1746), and
other illustrious Jesuits, chiefly Portuguese.^ They laboured
in Madura, Trichinopoli, Tanjore, Tinnevelli, Salem, etc. The
mission of the Karnatic, also a Jesuit mission, was French in
its origin, and due in some measure to Louis xiv. in 1700.
Its centre was at Pondicherri.
The early Jesuit missions are particularly interesting. Their Good
priests and monks became perfect Indians in all secular ^y the ^'^^
matters, dress, food, etc., and had equal success among all Jesuits,
castes, high and low. In the south of the peninsula they
brought, as we have seen, the old Christian settlements of the
Syrian rite into temporary communion with Rome, and con-
verted large sections of the native population throughout
extensive districts. The Society of Jesus had also numerous
although less important missions in the north of India.
During the 17th and i8th centuries, religious troubles and
difficulties arose in Western India through the action of
the missionaries in regard to caste observances. Schisms
troubled the Church. The Portuguese king claimed, as against
the Pope, to appouit the Archbishop of Goa ; and the Dutch
adventurers for a time persecuted the Catholics along the
coast.
But in the i6tli century it seemed as if Christianity was
destined to be established by Jesuit preachers throughout
» See article Tinne/elli District, The Imperial Gazetteer 0/ India.
2 See article Goa, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
' See articles Madura and Tinnevelli, idem.
246
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Letters
^x\xzx\^ % La Mission du Madure.
The author takes this opportunity of acknowledging his obligations to the
authorities of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, for the loan of Pere Bertrand's
works, and for much kind assistance in his inquiries.
* Condensed from Pere Bertrand, Missions, vol. i. p. i.
' For example, Memoires Historiques, vol. i. pp. 353 ei seq. Indeed, this
volume is largely devoted to the polemics of the question. Also Za Mission
dti Madure, vol. ii. pp. 140 et seq. ; vol. iv, pp. 404 to 496 ; and in many
other places of Pere Bertrand's work.
252
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Letters
from
Malabar,
17th and
1 8th cen-
turies.
Political
events.
Miracles.
Martyr-
doms.
Malabar church as laid before the sovereign Pontiff in 1725,
which shows a systematic demarcation between the high and
low castes even during divine service. Whatever may have
been lost of the primitive Christian equality by this system, it
had the merit of being adpated to native habits of thought,
and it was perhaps unavoidable in an Indian church which
endeavoured to base itself upon an indigenous priesthood. ^
The adoption of native terms by the Jesuit Fathers, such diSgtcru,
teacher; x^/yw/, hermit, etc., also led to embittered discussions.
The letters disclose, however, other and more agreeable
aspects of the early missions to India. A few of them complain
of the dangers and discomforts of missionary life in a tropical
climate and among a suspicious people.^ But, as a rule, they
are full of keen observation and triumphant faith. Some of
them are regularly divided into two parts ; the first being
devoted to the secular history of the period, or ' Evenements
politiques ; ' the second to the current affairs and progress ot
the mission. Others are of a topographical and statistical
character. Many of them record signs and wonders vouch-
safed on behalf of their labours. A pagan woman, for ex-
ample, who had been possessed of a devil from birth, is
delivered from her tormentor by baptism, and enters into a
state of joy and peace. Another native lady, who had deter-
mined to burn herself on her husband's funeral pile, and had
resisted the counter entreaties of her family and the Village
Head, miraculously renounced her intention when sprinkled
with ashes consecrated by the priest. Throughout, the letters
breathe a desire for martyrdom, and a spiritual exultation in
sufferings endured for the cause.
One very touching epistle is written by de Brltto from
his prison the day before his execution. * I await death,' he
writes to the Father Superior, * and I await it with impatience.
It has always been the object of my prayers. It forms to-day
the most precious reward of my labours and my sufferings.' ^
Another letter relates the punishment of Father de Saa, several
of whose teeth were knocked out by blows, so that he almost
died under the pain (a.d. 1700). His tormentor was, however,
miraculously punished and converted to the faith.'* The more
^ The plan of the church is given at p. 434 of Pere Bertrand's Mission
du Maduri^ vol. iv. ed. 1854. The merits of the question are so fully
discussed in that volume that it is unnecessary to reopen the question here.
'- For example, Lettre du Phe Balthazar ^ dated Tanjore, 1653, op. cit.
vol. iii. pp. I et seq.
•♦ La Mission du MadtirJ^ vol. iii. p. 447. Letter dated 3rd February
1693. * Vol. iv. pp. 63-68.
JESUIT INDIAN LITER A TURE, 253
striking events take place in Malabar and Cochin. But in other
parts of India, also, there were triumphs and sufferings. * Even
here,' writes Pere Petit from Pondicherri, * we are not altogether
without some hope of martyrdom, the crown of apostleship.' ^
It is natural that such writers should regard as martyrs, their
brethren who fell victims to popular tumults stirred up by their
own preaching. Penalties for sectarian affrays, or for insults
to the native religions, such as would now be punished by the
Indian Penal Code, figure as * persecutions.' The Salvationists
have of late suffered several 'persecutions' of this sort from
Anglo-Indian magistrates.
Nor are the literary labours of the Fathers without a fitting Literary
record. Bishop Caldwell lately expressed his regret that the the Jesuits,
biography of Father Beschi, the Tamil scholar and poet,
should yet be unwritten. ^ But the defect is supplied, not only
in an elaborate notice of Beschi's life and works, but also
by Beschi's own letters to the General of the Order.^ Several
epistles of de Nobili are of scarcely less interest in the annals
of Indian Christianity.
The arguments of the Catholic . missionaries were enforced The Portu-
by the weapons of the secular power. In 1560, the Portuguese SJfsldon'
estabhshed the Inquisition at Goa, under the Dominican i56o-i8i'2.
Order. At first the establishment was of a modest and tenta-
tive character ; the functionaries numbering only five, and the
whole salaries amounting in 1565 to ^71 a year.* But by
degrees it extended its operations, until in 1800 the functionaries
numbered 47. The Goa Inquisition has formed the subject
of much exaggerated rumour, and the narrative of one of its
prisoners startled and shocked Europe during the seventeenth
century.^ Dr. Claudius Buchanan recalled public attention to
the subject by his vividly coloured letters at the beginning of
the nineteenth century.^ The calmer narrative of Da Fonseca,
derived from the archives of Goa, proves that the reality was
sufficiently terrible. No continuous statistics exist of the
1 Vol. iv. p. 158.
■^ A Political and General History of the District of Tintievelliy by
Bishop Caldwell (iMadras Government Press, 1881), p. 239.
^ Pere Bertrand, vol. iv. pp. 342-375.
* O Chronista de Tisstiary^ vol. iv. p. 51. Quoted in Fonseca's Goa^
p. 217 (Bombay, 1878).
^ Relation de V Inquisition de Goa, by the Physician Dellon, who was
confined in one of its cells in 1674. Pyrard, Fryer, and other travellers
have also left notices of the Goa Inquisition.
*• See his Letters and Journal dated 1808, pp. 150- 1 76 of Christian
Researches in Asia, 4th ed. (1811).
254 CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
punishments inflicted. But the records repeatedly speak of
the necessity for additional cells, and in 1674 they numbered
Number of |-^yQ hundred. Seventy-one aiitos dafe^ or general jail deliveries,
' are mentioned between 1600 and 1773. The total number of
persons condemned on these occasions is unknown. But at
a few of the autos it is said that ' 4046 persons were sentenced
to various kinds of punishment, of whom 3034 were males
and 1012 females.'^ These punishments included 105 men
and 16 women condemned to the flames, of whom 57 were
burned alive and 64 in efiigy.
Christians \i \^ ^qI; necessary to inquire how far such examples of
ample of religious punishment in Portuguese territory were responsible
religious for the persecution of the Catholic missionaries in Cochin and
don^'^"' Malabar. Nor, in passing judgment on the Hindu princes,
should we forget the perpetual military aggressions and
occasional cold-blooded massacres by the Portuguese on the
southern and western coasts. Christian missions in Northern
India had scarcely anything to fear from the native powers.
Indeed, under Akbar, and almost throughout the entire period
of the Mughal Emperors until the accession of Aurungzeb,
Christianity seems to have been regarded with an enlightened
interest, and certainly without disfavour, by the Delhi court.
More than one of the Mughal queens and princes are said to
have been Christians ; and the faith was represented both by
Imperial grants and in the Imperial seraglio. Many of the
great Hindu Feudatories also displayed a courteous indiffer-
ence to the Christian missionaries, and a liberal recognition
of their scientific and secular attainments,
^"q"'^^*'"'^ The Inquisition at Goa was temporarily suspended in 1774,
i8i2. ^^^ re-established in 1779. It was abolished in 1812, and the
ancient palace in which it had been held was pulled down in
1820. The debris were finally removed in 1859 on the occasion
of the exposition of the body of St. Francis Xavier.-
The In 1759, Portugal broke up the Society of Jesus, seized
pressed'"^' its property, and imprisoned its members. France did the
1759-73- same in 1764; and to prevent greater evils, Clement xiv. in
1773 was forced to suppress the Society altogether. The
French Revolution followed. These events deprived the Indian
^ Da Fonseca's Goa, p. 220. The original authorities quoted are
O Chronista de Tissuary, Historia dos Priticipaes ados e ProcedimC'ntos da
Inquisi(uo em Portugal^ Lisboa, 1845, p. 38 ; and F. N. Xavier in the
Gabint'te LitterariOy vol. iii. pp. 89 and 280 ; Narrafuo da /wjuisi^ao dc
Goa, pp. l^T^et seq. {Nova Goa, 1866).
"^ A popular account of its history will be found in Mr. E. Rehatsck's
'Holy Inquisition at Goa,' Calcutta Rcvinv, No. 145, April 1881.
CA THOLIC ORGANIZATION IN INDIA. 255
Jesuit missions alike of priests and of funds, and for a long
time they languished, served in the south only by a few priests
from Goa and Pondicherri. That dismal period, however, pre-
sents some illustrious names ; among them two well-known writers,
the Abbe Dubois of Mysore, and the Carmelite Fra Paolino
de San Bartholomeo (in India 1774-90). In the absence of
priests to sustain the courage of the Christians, every occa-
sional or local persecution told. Tipii, about 1784, forcibly
circumcised 30,000 Catholics of Kanara, and deported them
to the country above the Ghats. Many native Christians
lived and died without ever seeing a priest ; they baptized
their own children, taught them the prayers, and kept up
daily worship in their churches.
Better da>'s, however, dawned. In 1814, the Society of The
Tesus was re - established ; under Gresfory xvi., its missions Jesuits
;' . ^ & 7 J re-estab-
began a new life, and have since made great progress. Their Hshed,
prosperity is, however, hampered by the action taken in Europe ^^H*
against the religious orders. The claims of Portugal to appoint
the Archbishop of Goa, and through him to regulate clerical
patronage, as opposed to the right of the Pope, have occasioned
schisms in the past, and still give rise to discord.
The Roman Catholics throughout all India, British, Feuda- Number of
tory, and Foreign, number altogether 1,356,037 souls, as ?"^T^" ^
returned in the table to be presently given from the Madras in India.
Catholic Directory for 1885. The Census Report of 1881,
adding the latest figures for Portuguese and French India,
gives a total of 1,248,801.
The Roman Catholic missions are maintained by many of Organiza-
the European nations, and are nearly equally divided between tionofthe
the secular and regular clergy. Almost every mission contains Catholic
a mixture of races among its priests ; even Holland, Scot- missions,
land, and Germany being ably represented. Although all are
directed by Europeans, seven - eighths of the priests are
natives. It is also worthy of remark that, in the list of bishops
during the last 300 years, the names of several natives are
found, some of them Brahmans. The Roman Catholic mis-
sions are presided over by sixteen bishops (vicars and prefects
apostolic), the delegates of the Pope, who governs the missions
himself, without the intervention of the Camera. Side by
side with these papal vicars-apostolic, who are also bishops,
the Archbishop of Goa (appointed by the King of Portugal) Arch-
has an independent jurisdiction over a certain number of bishop of
Catholics outside his diocese, who are scattered over India,
but chiefly in the south. The prefect-apostolic of Pondicherri
K
.256 CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
presides over the Catholics in several British Districts and
throughout the southern French possessions. In Pondicherri
he has technically jurisdiction only over ' those who wear hats.'
His sepa- The independent jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Goa, and
diction"^' the dissensions to which it gave rise, have been referred to.
Ttisiatroit- ^^ ^^^ ^^^ Origin in the J21S patronatus granted by Pope
atits i6co. Clement viii. to King Philip. By the Pontifical Bull, the
Portuguese king was charged with the support of the Catholic
churches in India, and in return was invested with the
patronage of their clergy. On the ruin of the Portuguese
power in India by the Dutch, it was held that the sovereign
was no longer in a position to fulfil his part of the agreement.
The Indian clergy became a growing charge upon Rome.
Curtailed, In 1 6 73, therefore, Clement x. abrogated the jurisdiction of
73- the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa beyond the limits of the
Portuguese settlements. In 1674, two Briefs declared that
the Portuguese bishops had no authority over the vicars and
missionaries - apostolic sent from Rome to India. These
orders only produced a long ecclesiastical dispute. Accord-
ingly, in 1837, Gregory XVI. published his Bull, Mulfa prceclare,
dividing the whole of India into vicariates -apostolic, and
forbade the Goanese prelates to interfere in their manage-
ment.
Concordat The Portuguese Archbishop of Goa disregarded this decree,
^^ ^^57- and the Indo-Lusitanum schisuia continued until 1861. In
1857, a concordat was agreed to by the Pope and the King
of Portugal, by which such churches as were then under the
apostolic vicars should remain under the same, while those
which then acknowledged the Goanese jurisdiction should
Settlement continue under the Archbishop of Goa. In 1861, joint com-
of 1861. i-nissioners were sent out from Rome and Portugal to put this
arrangement into execution. In the end, the Pope granted for
some time, ^ ad tempus^^ to the Archbishop of Goa an extra-
ordinary jurisdiction over certain churches, served by Goanese
priests, but beyond the Portuguese dominions. Such churches
are still to be found in Malabar, Madura, Ceylon, Madras,
Bombay, and apparently in the lower delta of Bengal. It is
intended that this independent jurisdiction of the Portuguese
Archbishop of Goa shall in time lapse to the vicars-apostolic
appointed from Rome. But meanwhile it continues to this day,
and still gives rise to occasional disputes.^
' The foregoing two paragraphs on the extraordinary jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of Goa are condensed from MS. materials supplied to the
author by the papal Vicar-Apostolic of Verapoli.
INDIAN CATHOLIC STATISTICS. 257
As the ecclesiastical and civil divisions of India do not Distribu-
correspond, it is difficult to compare missionary with official ^^^J^^^
statistics. The Catholics in French territory numbered, Catholics,
according to the Madras Catholic Directory for 1885, 33,226,
and in Portuguese territory in 1881, 252,477. This leaves
ij070)334 Catholics for British India and the Native States,
according to the Madras Directory for 1885, or 963,058
according to the Census Report of 1881. Catholics are most
numerous in the Native States of Travancore and Cochin
(comprised in the vicariates of Verapoli and Quilon). The
archdiocese of Goa, with 660 priests, nearly all natives, for a
very small territory containing over 250,000 Catholics, is a
witness to the sternly proselytizing system of the Portuguese.
Verapoli, the smallest in area of the Roman vicariates, The
contains the largest number of priests and Catholics. These y^''^Poh
° ^ vicariate
are chiefly the descendants of the Nestorians converted to (Travan-
Rome in the i6th century, and were divided by the Census core),
of 1 88 1 into two classes — of the Syrian rite, 141,386, and of
the Latin rite, 80,600. They were directed by 14 European
Carmelite priests, and by 375 native priests, 39 of the Latin
rite, and 336 of the Syrian rite.
The Census of 1881 returned the Syrian Christians alto- Syrian and
gether apart from the Roman Catholics, but did not distin- (^at^QiJc
guish between Jacobites and Catholics of the Syrian rite. Out Christians,
of a total of 304,410 Syrians in all India, 301,442 are returned
by the Census Report as within the Native States of Travan-
core and Cochin (the vicariates of Verapoli and Quilon). The
Census Report returned the total number of Roman Catholics
in Travancore and Cochin at 274,734; while the returns officially
accepted by the heads of the Catholic Church give the number
in the Madras Catholic Directory at 378,096. From private
inquiries since made, it appears that the discrepancy arises
from the fact that the number of Catholics was underrated at
the time of the Census. About 100,000 Roman Catholics of
the Syrian rite, belonging to the jurisdiction of the vicars-
apostolic of Verapoli and Quilon, seem to have been included
among the Syrian Jacobites.
The Pondicherri and Madura vicariates represent parts of
the famous Jesuit missions of Madura and of the Karndtic.
In Bombay city, and along the fertile maritime strip or Konkan
between the Western Ghdts and the sea, the Roman Catholics
form an important section of the native population.
The following table shows the Roman Catholfc population
for all India, as returned by the authorities of the Church.
R
258
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Roman Catholic Population of British India and
Native States.
{According to the ^Madras Catholic Directory'' for 1885.)
Vicariate-Apostolic of Madras, . . . . _ .
,, ,, Haidarabad (Nizam's Dominions),
,, ,, Vizagapatam, .....
Mysore,
,, ,, Coimbatore, .....
,, ,, Madura, ......
,, ,, Quilon (South Travancore),
,, ,, Verapoli (North Travancoreand Cochin),
,, ,, Mangalore, .....
„ „ Pondicherri (within British Territory),
„ „ Bombay,
Agra,
n Patna,
Punjab,
,, ,, "Western Bengal, ....
Prefecture- Apostolic of Central Bengal, ....
Vicariate-Apostolic of Eastern Bengal, ....
,, ,, Southern Burma, ....
,, ,, Eastern Burma, ....
Total in British India and Native States,
Number.
56,548
9, ICO
13,287
27,429
24,027
176,169
97,496
280,600
76,000
174; 44 I
51,025
8,400
10,000
5,900
18,000
1,678
16,000
17,580
6,654
[,070,334
Roman Catholic Population of Portuguese
Settlements in India.
{According to the Census of February 17M, 1881.)
Goa,
Daman,
Diu,
Total in Portuguese Settlements in India,
250,645
1,497
335
252,477
Roman Catholic Population of French
Setixements in India.
{According to the ^Madras Catholic Directory 'for 1885.)
Pondicherri,
Karikal, .
Chandamagar,
Yanaon, .
Mahe,
Total in French Settlements in India, .
Grand Total in British, Native, and Foreign India, .
18,889
12,787
300
450
800
1
33,226
1,356,037
INDIAN CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 259
The Roman Catholics in India steadily increase ; and as in Catholic
former times, the increase is chiefly in the south, especially in P'^og'^^^^-
the missions of Pondicherri and Madura. The number of
Catholics in British and French India and the Native States,
but exclusive of the Portuguese Possessions, rose from 732,887
in 1851, to 934,400 in 1871, and to 1,103,560 in 1881. The Pondi-
Pondicherri mission lately performed over 50,000 adult baptisms Mbs^on
in three years. In the Madura vicariate, the increase is princi-
pally in Tinnevelli and Ramnad. The converts are chiefly
agriculturists, but are by no means confined to the low castes.
The principal Catholic colleges in India are those of the Catholic
Society of Jesus, at Calcutta, Bombay, and Negapatam. ^° ^^^^'
Another Jesuit college has lately been opened at Mangalore
in South Kanara, a District in which there are over 3000
Catholic Brahmans. England, being a Protestant country,
supplies few priests, and hence Catholic missions have much
difficulty in maintaining colleges where English is the vehicle
of higher education. The statistics of the Catholic schools
are incomplete, owing to want of information about certain
parts of the Goa jurisdiction. But the number of Catholic and
schools actually returned in 1880, including Goa, was 1514,^^*^^'
with 51,610 pupils. In British India- and the Native States,
the children in Catholic schools increased from 28,249 in 187 1,
to 44,699 in 1881.
The Roman Catholics work in India with slender pecuniary
resources. They derive their main support from two great
Catholic organizations, the Association for the Propagation of
the Faith, and the Society of the Holy Childhood. The
former contributes ;^2 4,464 5'early to Indian missions, and the
latter ;^i 2,300, making a total of ;£^36,764. This is exclusive
of the expenditure within the Archbishopric of Goa ; but it
represents the European contributions to the whole Vicariates
under the Pope. In 1880 they maintained a staff of 16 bishops
and in8 priests, teaching 1236 schools, with 40,907 pupils,
and giving religious instruction to 1,002,379 native Christians.
The Roman Catholic priests deny themselves the comforts
considered necessaries for Europeans in India. In many Dis-
tricts they live the frugal and abstemious life of the natives,
and their influence reaches deep into the social life of the
communities among whom they dwell.
The first Protestant missionaries in India were Lutherans, First Pro-
Zieoienbals: and Plutschau, who in 170^ be^ran work under the ^^^^^."^
^ , ,-. r ^ 1 1 T • , , missions,
patronage of the Kmg of Denmark at the Danish settlement 1705.
26o
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA,
Transla-
tion of the
Bible,
1725.
of Tranquebar. Ziegenbalg and many of the early Lutheran
missionaries were men of great ability; and, besides their
translations of the Scriptures, some of their writings still hold
a high place in missionary literature. Ziegenbalg began the
translation of the Bible into Tamil, and his successor Schultze
completed it in 1725. This was the first Protestant transla-
tion of the Scriptures in India. Schultze also translated the
whole Bible into Hindustani. Ziegenbalg died in 17 19, leaving
355 converts. In spite of the patronage of the Kings of Den-
mark and England, and the liberal assistance of friends in
Europe, the Lutheran mission made at first but slow progress,
and was much hindered and opposed by the local Danish
authorities. Gradually it extended itself into Madras, Cudda-
lore, and Tanjore ; schools were set up, and conversion and
education went hand in hand.
In 1750, arrived the pious Schw^artz, whose name is bound
up with the history of Tanjore and adjacent Districts until his
death in 1798. He was the founder of the famous Tinne-
Next to the Lutherans come the Baptists of
Serampur, with the honoured names of Carey, Marshman,
and Ward. In the i8th century, the English East India
Company did not discourage the labours of Protestant mis-
sionaries. It had allowed Kiernander, originally sent out by
the Danes, to establish himself at Calcutta in 1758. But
subsequently, it put every obstacle in the way of missionaries,
and deported them back to England on their landing. Carey
arrived in 1793. In 1799, to avoid the opposition of the English
East India Company, he established himself with four other
missionaries at Serampur (15 miles from Calcutta), at that time,
like Tranquebar, a Danish possession. Then began that won-
derful literary activity which has rendered illustrious the group
31 transla- of 'Serampur missionaries.' In ten years, the Bible was trans-
tionsofthe j^ted, and printed, in whole or part, in 31 languages; and by
1 81 6, the missionaries had about 700 converts. The London
Missionary Society (established 1795) entered the field in 1798,
and its missions have gradually grown into importance.
The opposition of the East India Company continued till
1 813, when it was removed by the new Charter. The same
document provided for the establishment of the bishopric of
Calcutta, and three archdeaconries, one for each Presidency.
Up to this period the Established Church of England had
attempted no direct missionary work, although some of the East
India Company's chaplains had been men of zeal, like the
- See article Tinneveli.i, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
Schwartz
in Tan-
jore,
1750-98.
Serampur velli missions.^
mission
aries.
Kier-
nander in
Calcutta,
1758.
Carey,
1793.
Official
opposi-
tion with-
drawn,
1813.
ENGLISH AND SCOTCH MISSIONS, 261
ardent Henry ^lartyn (1806-11). The first Bishop of Calcutta Bishopric
(Middleton) arrived in 18 14. From this time the Church of°^^^^^^"
England has constantly kept up a missionary connection with 1814!
India, chiefly by means of its two great societies — the Church
Missionary Society, which sent out its first representative in 18 14;
and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which did
so in 1826. Their most successful stations are in Southern India,
where they have gathered in the seed so^vn by the Lutheran
missions. The second Bishop of Calcutta was the well-known
Heber (1823-26). In 1835, under a new Charter of the East Indian
India Company, the see of Madras was established, and in ^^^^•
1837, that of Bombay. In 1877, owing to the extension of
mission work in Tinnevelli, two missionaries were appointed
bishops, as assistants to the Bishop of Madras ; the dioceses of
Lahore and Rangoon also were separated from Calcutta, and
bishops appointed. The missionary bishopric of Travancore
and Cochin was established in 1879. It has no connec-
tion with Government, nor have the assistant bishops in
Madras.
The first missionary of the Church of Scotland was Dr. Presby-
Alexander Duff (1830-63), to whom the use of English as terian mis-
the vehicle of higher education in India is largely due. Mis- 183(>-63.
sionaries of numerous other Protestant societies (European other
and American) have since entered India, and established missions,
numbers of churches and schools. They have furnished
memorable names to the roll of Indian educators, such as
Judson (Baptist) in Burma, 1813-50, and John Wilson (Pres-
byterian) of Bombay, 1843-75.
The progress of the several Protestant missions in India statistics
may be thus stated: — In 1830 there were 9 societies at®^^'"^'
work, and about 27,000 native Protestants in all India, missions.
Ceylon, and Burma. By 1870 there were no less than 35
societies at work; and in 1871 there were 318,363 converts
(including Ceylon, etc., as above). In 1852 there were
459 Protestant missionaries, and in 1872 there were 606.
Between 1856 and 1878, the converts made by the Baptist Progress,
Societies of England and America, in India, Ceylon, and ^^\ ^"
Burma, increased from about 30,000 to between 80,000
and 90,000. Those of the Basle missions of Germany
multiplied from 1060 to upwards of 6000; those of the
Wesleyan Methodist missions of England and America, from
7500 to 12,000; those of the American Board, from 3302 to
262 CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Protestant' about i2,ooo; those of the Presbyterian missions of Scotland,
^s°6'^^?'8 E"gl^"^j Ireland, and America, connected with lo societies,
'from 821 to 10,000; those of th'e missions of the London
Missionary Society, from 20,077 to 48,000; and those of the
Church Missionary Society and of the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel, from 61,442 to upwards of 164,000.^
Great The increased activity of the Protestant missionary bodies
increase of in India, during the past third of a century, may be seen from
Protest- the table ^ on the following page. Between 1851 and 1881, the
ants, 1851- number of mission stations has increased nearly threefold;
while the number of Native Protestant Christians has multiplied
by more than fivefold, the number of communicants by nearly
tenfold, and the number of churches or congregations by
sixteenfold. This is partly due to the extended employment
of native agency in the work. The native ordained pastors
have been increased from 21 in 1 851 to 575 in 1 881, and the
native lay preachers from 493 to 2856. The Protestant Church
Extended in India has greatly gained in strength by making a freer use of,
use of a^nd reposing a more generous confidence in, its native agents,
agency. Its responsible representatives report the increase of Native
Christians in India, Burma, and Ceylon,^ from 1851 to i86t,
at 53 per cent. ; from 1861 to 1871, at 61 percent. ; and from
1871 to i88t, at 86 per cent.
School The activity of the Protestant missions has not, however,
work of bgen confined to the propagation of their faith. Their services
Protestant , . , • n • , • • r 1 1 •
missions, to education, and especially m the mstruction of the people m
the vernacular languages, will hereafter be referred to. But
the vast extension of these services during late years is less
generally recognised. The number of pupils in Protestant
mission schools and colleges has risen from 64,043 in 1851 to
Its rapid 196,360 in 1 88 1, or more than threefold. The standard of
develop- instruction has risen at an equal pace, and the mission
1851-81. institutions successfully compete with the Government colleges
at the examinations of the Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay
Female Universities. Female education has always formed a subject
education.
* The Rev. M. A. Sherring, in the Chronicle of the London Missionary
Society^ August 1879.
2 Compiled from The Statistical Tables for 1881, issued under instruc-
tions of the Calcutta Missionary Conference (Thacker, Spink, & Co.,
Calcutta, 1882). It should be remembered that the statistical organization
was more perfect in 1881 than in 1851. To Mr. VV. Rees Philipps this
chapter is indebted for many materials and figures regarding Indian
Christian missions in their earlier years.
' The table given on next page deals only with India and Burma, and
excludes Ceylon. Op. cit. pp. x. and xiii.
INDIAN PROTESTANT STA TISTICS. 263
of peculiar care among the missionary bodies. The number
of girls' day schools belonging to Protestant missions in India
alone has risen from 285 in 1851 to 1120 in 1881. This is
exclusive of girls' boarding schools and zandna work. The
total number of female pupils, under Protestant mission
teaching in India alone, exclusive of Burma, has multiplied
from 11,193 ill 1^51 to 57,893 in 1881.
The great success of the missionaries of late years in their Extended
school work, as in their preaching, is due to the extended native
use of native agency. Complete statistics are available on agency,
this point only for 1871 and 1881. The number of ' Foreign '^
and Eurasian male teachers belonging to Protestant missions
in India and Burma, has decreased from 146 in 187 1 to
1 01 in 1881 ; while the native Christian teachers have been
doubled, from 1978 in 185 1 to 3675 in 1881. In 1881, there
were also 2468 non-Christian native teachers employed ; making
a total of 6143 native teachers in missionary employ in 1881,
against loi 'Foreign' and Eurasian teachers. The native female
teachers, Christian and non-Christian, have increased from
863 in India and Burma in 1871, to 1996 in 1881. The
following table may now be left to speak for itself : —
Summary of Protestant Missions in India
AND Burma.
Number
Number
Number
Number
in
in
in
in
1851.
1861.
1871.
1881.
Stations, ....
222
337
448
601
Foreign (2 and Eurasian or-
dained agents,
339
501
517
622
Native ordained agents,
21
143
302
575
Foreign and Eurasian lay
preachers,
...
...
...
n
Native lay preachers,
493
1,677
2,344
2,856
Churches or congregations,
267
643
2,631
4,180
Native Christians,
91,092
198,097
286,987
492,882
Communicants,
14,661
43.415
73,330
138,254
Male pupils in schools,
52,850^
64,828
100,750
138,477
Female pupils in schools, .
11,193^
17,035
27.627
57,893
Total male and female
pupils, ....
64,043<^
81,863
128,377
196,360:1
a Including British, European, American, and all others, not natives of
India.
b The pupils for 185 1 were in India only ; no returns being available for
Burma for that year.
c The return of total pupils is exclusive of 65,728 boys and girls attending
.Sunday schools. The returns for 185 1 and 1861 are as a whole less com-
plete than those for 1871 and 1881.
Including British, European, American, and all non-Indian teachers.
264
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
General
Statistics
of Chris-
tian popu-
lation in
India.
European
and
Native.
The foregoing pages have briefly traced the history of
Christianity in India, and disclose the recent progress made
by its main branches, Catholic and Protestant, among the
natives. It remains to exhibit the Christian population as a
whole, including both Europeans and Indians. In comparing
the results, it must be borne in mind that the figures have
been derived from various sources, and that the areas of
enumeration in some cases overlap each other. Thus, the
jurisdictions of the Catholic vicars-apostolic supply a basis for
calculation which differs from the territorial areas adopted
by the Census of British India. Every effort has been
made to allow for such causes of error, and to render the
following tables a true presentment of the Christian popula-
tion of India, British, Feudatory, and Foreign. It will be
observed that the total number of Christians has increased
during the nine years from 1872 to 1881 by 365,251. In
British India alone the increase has been 270,807, or 30*2 per
cent. The total number of Christians was 2,148,228 in 1881,
as against 1,782,977 in 1872.
Total Christian Population in India in 1872 and
IN 1881.
Denomi-
national
Statistics,
1881.
The Census of 1881 returned the Christian population in
British and Native India, according to sect. This return is
useful as affording a test of the figures given in the foregoing
pages from the Roman Catholic and Protestant missions. It
will be observed that the two sets of figures practically agree,
allowing for differences in the areas of the enumeration. In
the total for all India these sources of discrepancy disappear ;
but it must be remembered that that total includes both
Europeans and natives.
CHRISTIAN SECTS, 1881.
265
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266
CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
Eccle-
siastical
establish-
ment.
The Government of India maintains an ecclesiastical estab-
lishment for its European soldiers and officials. It devotes
on an average ;£"66o,ooo a year to their medical require-
ments, and ;^i 60,000 to their spiritual wants.^ The two
following tables show the ecclesiastical staff, and the number
of soldiers and Government servants who attend their minis-
trations. In making up the second table, it has not been
found practicable to bring the statistics of attendance beyond
the date of the last Parliamentary return of 1880. During the
year 1879, to which the attendance columns in the second
table refer, a large European force was absent in the field, and
the church attendance of European troops was decreased by
about 13,000 officers and men.
Indian Ecclesiastical Staff, 1884.
Bishops.
Arch-
deacons.
c
'haplains.
Registrars.
No.
Pay.
No.
Pay.*
No.
Pay
(sen.).
Pay
(jun.).
No.
Pay.
£
£
£
£
£
Church of England —
Calcutta,
4598
1
1280
)
1(2
480
Lahore,
960
I
960
[92
960
600
Rangoon,
960
I
960
)
I
"60
Madras,
2560
I
1280
39
960
600
I
256
Bombay,
2560
I
1280
26
960
600
I
180
Church of Scotland-
Bengal,
i3
1351
4
960
600
Madras,
...
xb
1 140
3
960
600
Bombay,
...
lb
1 140
3
990
600
Roman Catholic
Priests-
Bengal,
2
600c
42
36od
240
Madras,
I
600c
15
36od
240
Bombay,
Total, .
I
600c
...
18
360''
240
...
9
... 1 8
242
... 1 4
a The registrar of the Calcutta Diocese is also registrar of the Lahore Diocese.
If These are the senior Presbyterian Chaplains in the three Presidencies.
c This is an allowance for furnishing ecclesiastical returns for transmission to
England, paid to certain Roman Catholic Bishops in official communication
with the British Government The number of Catholic Bishops is sixteen for
all India.
d There is also an intermediate class on ;^3oo per annum. In addition to
their rates of pay, Roman Catholic priests receive horse allowance at ^^36 per
annum.
In the following table, it should be borne in mind that
the salaries and number of chaplains refer to 1884, while
the attendance is that of 1879, when a large force was in
the field. The attendance in ordinary years is estimated
^ The average cost of the ecclesiastical establishment during the ten years
ending 1883 was;^i60j657.
ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT. 267
at over 50,000. This would raise the total Church attendance
of British troops and Government servants (exclusive of women
and" children) to about 55,000.
Indian Ecclesiastical Ministrations.
.
§1
^
IN
nts
!
t
Salaries and Allowance
(1884).
ce's
Is
go-g
umber of other Governm
Servants (excluding Wi
and Children) ordinarily
tending Church (1879).
Dtal of Government Scrva
attending Church (1879)
^
^
^
H
Church of England,
^124,175
167
23,842
3191
27.033
Church of Scotland,
10.445
13
2,782
479
3,261
Church of Rome, .
31.251 '
79
10,586
621
11,207
Total, ....
;^i65,87i !
259
37.210
4291
41.501
[ 268
CHAPTER X.
EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS (7 1 1 TO 1526 A.D.).
While Buddhism was giving place to Hinduism throughout
India, and Christianity under Nestorian bishops was spread-
ing along the coast of Malabar, a new faith had arisen in
EarlyArab Arabia. Muhammad, born in 570 a.d., created a conquering
tiont to religion, and died in 632. Within a hundred years after
Bombay his death, his followers had invaded the countries of Asia as
7n^A d"^^" ^^^ ^^ ^^^ Hindu Kush. Here their progress was stayed,
and Islam had to consolidate itself, during three more cen-
turies, before it grew strong enough to grasp the rich prize of
India. But, almost from the first, the Arabs had fixed eager
eyes upon that wealthy country. Fifteen years after the death
of the prophet, Usman sent a sea-expedition to Thana and
Broach on the Bombay coast (647 ? a.d.). Other raids towards
Sind took place in 662 and 664, with no results.
Muham- In 711, however, the youthful Kasim advanced into Sind, to
senium claim damages for an Arab ship which had been seized at an
in Sind, Indian port. After a brilliant campaign, he settled himself in the
711-S28? Indus valley; but the advance of the Musalmans depended
on the personal daring of their leader, and was arrested by
his death in 714 a.d. The despairing valour of the Hindus
struck the invaders with wonder. One Rajput garrison pre-
ferred extermination to submission. They raised a huge
funeral pile, upon which the women and children first threw
themselves. The men then bathed, took a solemn farewell
of each other, and, throwing open the gates, rushed upon the
Their ex- besiegers and perished to a man. In 750, the Rdjputs are
828 a"d ^^^^ ^° ^^^^ expelled the Muhammadan governor, but it was
not till 828 A.D. that the Hindus regained Sind.
India on The armies of Islam had carried the crescent from the
the eve Hindu Kush westwards, through Asia, Africa, and Southern
Muham- Europe, to distant Spain and Gaul, before they obtained a foot-
madan hold in the Punjab. This long delay was due, not only to
^ooo"a!i) ^^^^ daring of individual tribes, such as the Sind Rdjputs just
HINDU RESISTANCE, 269
mentioned, but to the military organization of the Hindu
kingdoms. To the north of the Vindhyas, three separate
groups of princes governed the great river - valleys. The
Rajputs ruled in the north-west, throughout the Indus plains, Hindu
and along the upper waters of the Jumna. The ancient _!.^(f)ofthe
Middle Land of Sanskrit times (Madhya-desha) was divided north ;
among powerful kingdoms, with their suzerain at Kanauj.
The lower Gangetic valley, from Behar downwards, was still
in part governed by Pal or Buddhist dynasties, whose names
are found from Benares to jungle-buried hamlets deep in the
Bengal delta. ^ The Vindhya ranges stretched their wall of
forest and mountain between the northern and southern halves
of India. Their eastern and central regions were peopled by (2) of the
tierce hill tribes. At their western extremity, towards the ^°" *
Bombay coast, lay the Hindu kingdom of Malwa, with its
brilliant literary traditions of Vikramiditya, and a vast feudal
array of fighting men. India to the south of the Vindhyas was
occupied by a num.ber of warlike princes, chiefly of non- Aryan
descent, but loosely grouped under three great over-lords,
represented by the Chera, Chola, and Pandya dynasties.-
Each of these groups of kingdoms, alike in the north and Hindu
in the south, had a certain power of coherence to oppose to a P®?'^"^ °^
foreign invader; while the large number of the groups and
units rendered conquest a very tedious process. For even when
the over-lord or central authority was vanquished, the separate
groups and units had to be defeated in detail, and each State
supplied a nucleus for subsequent revolt. We have seen how
the brilliant attempt in 711, to found a lasting Muhammadan
dynasty in Sind, failed. Three centuries later, the utmost
efforts of two great Musalman invaders from the north-west only
succeeded in annexing a small portion of the frontier Punjab
Province, between 977 and 11 76 a.d. The Hindu power in Slow pro-
Southern India was not completely broken till the battle of SJ^?^ "*
Talikot in 1565 ; and within a hundred years, in 1650, the great madans in
Hindu revival had commenced which, under the form of the India.
Maratha confederacy, was destined to break up the Mughal
1 For example, at Sabhar, on the northern bank of the Buri'ganga, once
the capital of the Bhuiya or Buddhist Pal Raja Harischandra. In 1839,
the only trace that remained of his traditional residence was a brick mound,
covered with jungle. See Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal^ vol.
V. pp. 72, 73, 118. In Lower Bengal, the Buddhist Pals had given place
to the Brahmanized Sens of Nadiya before the Muhammadans reached that
Province for the first time in 1199.
^ See The Imperial Gazetteer of India, articles Chera, Chola, and
Pandya.
270
EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS.
Their
success
short-
lived.
Muham-
madan
conquests
only par-
tial.
and tem-
porary.
Hindus
reconquer
India from
the Musal-
mans,
1707-61.
Empire in India. That Empire, even in the north of India,
had only been consolidated by Akbar's policy of incorporating
Hindu chiefs and statesmen into his government (15 56-1 605).
Up to Akbar's time, and even during the earlier years of his
reign, a series of Rajput wars had challenged the Muham-
madan supremacy. In less than two centuries after his death,
the successor of Akbar was a puppet in the hands of the Hindu
Marathas at Delhi.
The popular notion that India fell an easy prey to the
Musalmans is opposed to the historical facts. Muhammadan
rule in India consists of a series of invasions and partial
conquests, during eleven centuries, from Usman's raid, circ. 647,
to Ahmad Shah's tempest of invasion in 1761 a.d. They
represent in Indian history the overflow of the nomad tribes of
Central Asia, towards the south-east ; as the Huns, Turks, and
various Tartar tribes disclose in early European annals the
westward movements from the same great breeding-ground of
nations. At no time was Islam triumphant throughout the
whole of India. Hindu dynasties always ruled over large
areas. At the height of the Muhammadan power, the Hindu
princes paid tribute, and sent agents to the Imperial Court. But
even this modified supremacy of Delhi lasted for little* over a
century (1578-1707). Before the end of that brief period,
the Hindus had begun the work of reconquest. The native
chivalry of Rajputana was closing in upon Delhi from the
south; the religious confederation of the Sikhs was growing
into a military power on the north-west. The Marathas had
combined the fighting powers of the low-castes with the states-
manship of the Brahmans, and were subjecting the Muham-
madan kingdoms throughout all India to tribute. So far as
can now be estimated, the advance of the English power at the
beginning of the present century alone saved the Mughal
Empire from passing to the Hindus.
This chapter will necessarily confine its survey to the
essential stages in the spread of the Musalmdn conquest,
and will pass lightly over the intermediate princes or minor
dynasties who flit across the scene.^ The annexed summary
presents a view of the whole : —
1 The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone's Histoiy of India is still the
standard popular work on the Muhammadan period. Professor Cowell's
edition (Murray, 1866) incorporated some of the new materials accumu-
lated since Mr. Elphinstone wrote. But much of the original work is a
reproduction of Firishla, and requires to he re-written from Sir Henry
Elliot's Persian Historians and the results of the Archccological and
MUHAMMADAN DYNASTIES.
271
Summary of Muhammadan
OF India (
I. House of Ghazni (Turki)..
1001-1186. Mahmiid of Ghazni
to Sultan Khusru. Pp. 272-75.
II. House OF Ghor (Afghan?).
ftS6-i2o6. Muhammad Ghori
(Shahab-ud-din). Pp. 275-78.
III. Slave Kings (chiefly Tiirki).
1206-1290. Kutab-ud-din to Bal-
ban and Kaikubad. Pp. 278-80.
IV. House of Khilji (Turki ?).
1290-1320. Jalal-ud-din to Nasir-
ud-din Kiiusru. Pp. 280-83.
.V. House of Tughlak (Punjab
Turks), 1 320-1414. Pp. 283-86.
1320. Ghiyas - ud - din Tughlak.
P. 283.
1324. Muhammad Tughlak. Pp.
283-85.
135 1. Firuz Tughlak. P. 285.
1414. End of the dynasty. P. 286.
[Irruption of the Mughals under
Timiir (Tamerlane) in 1398-
99, leavino^behind him a fifteen
years' anarchy under the last
of the line of Tughlak, until
the accession of the Sayyids
in 1414. P. 285.]
VI. The Sayyids.
141 4- 1 450. Curtailed power of
Delhi. P. 2Z6 passim.
VII. The Lodis (Afghans).
1450-1526. Feeble reigns; inde-
pendent States. P. 286.
VIII. House OF TiMUR (Mughal),
1526-1857.
1 526-1 530. Babar. P. 290.
i530-i556.Humayun. Pp. 290-91.
Conquerors and Dynasties
1 001-1857).
[Sher Shah, the Afghan gover-
nor of Bengal, drives Huma-
yun out of India in 1540,
and his Afghan dynasty rules
till 1555. P. 291.]
1556- 1605. Akbar the Great.
Pp. 291-300.
i6o5-i627jahangir. Pp. 300-302.
1628-1658. Shah Jahan, deposed.
Pp. 302-305.
1658-1707. Aurangzeb or Alam-
gir I. Pp. 306-312.
1707-1712. Bahadur Shah, or
Shah Alam i. P. 312.
1712. Jahandar Shah. P. 312.
i7i3-i7i8.Farrukhsiyyar. P.312.
1719-1748. Muhammad Shah
(after two boy Emperors). Pp.
312-313.
[Irruption of Nadir Shah the
Persian, I73S-I739- Pp-
313-15.]
1 748-1754. Death of Muhammad
Shah ; and accession of Ahmad
Shah, deposed 1754. P. 313.
1754-1759. Alamgir ii. P. 313.
[Six invasions of India by
Ahmad Shah Durani, the
Afghan, 1748-1761. Pp.
313-150
1759-1806. Shah Alam II., titular
Emperor. P. 313.
1806-1834. Akbar II., titular Em-
peror. P. 313.
1834-1857. Muhammad Bahadur
Shah, titular Emperor ; the
seventeenth and last Mughal
Emperor ; died a State prisoner
at Rangoon in 1862. P. 313.
Statistical Surveys. The present chapter has chiefly used, besides
Elphinstone, the following works for the Muhammadan period : — (i) Sir
Henry Elliot's History of India as told by its oivn Historians, i.e. the
Arab and Persian travellers and writers, edited by Professor Dowson,
8 vols. 1867-77 (Triibner) ; (2) Mr. Edward Thomas' Chronicles of
the Pathdn Kings of Delhi, especially for reigns from 1193 to 1554, for
which period he gives the initial dates of the Hijra years (Triibner, 1871) ;
(3) Mr. Edward Thomas' Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire, with
his manuscript marginal notes ; (4) Lieut. -Colonel Brigg's Translation of
Muhammad Kasim Firishta's History of the Rise of the Muhammadan
272
EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS,
First
Turkf
Subukti-
gin, 977
]Mahmud
of Ghazni,
1001-1030.
His seven-
teen inva-
sions,
1001-1026.
The first collision between Hinduism and Islam on the
Punjab frontier was the act of the Hindus. In 977, Jaipal,
the Hindu chief of Lahore, annoyed by Afghan raids, led his
troops up the passes against the Muhammadan kingdom of
Ghazni, in Afghanistan. Subuktigin, the Ghaznivide prince,
after severe fighting, took advantage of a hurricane to cutoff
the Hindu retreat through the pass. He allowed them, how-
ever, to return to India on the surrender of fifty elephants,
and the promise of one million dirhams (about ;^2 5,ooo).i
Tradition relates how Jaipal, having regained his capital, was
counselled by the Brahman, standing at his right hand, not to
disgrace himself by paying ransom to a barbarian ; while his
nobles and warrior chiefs, standing at his left, implored him to
keep faith. In the end, Subuktigin swept down the passes to
enforce his ransom, defeated Jaipal, and left an Afghan officer
with 10,000 horse to garrison Peshawar. Subuktigin was soon
afterwards called away to fight in Central Asia, and his Indian
raid left behind it only this outpost.^ But henceforth, the
Afghans held both ends of the passes.
In 997, Subuktigin died, and was succeeded by his son,
Mahmiid of Ghazni, aged sixteen. This valiant monarch
reigned for thirty-three years,^ and extended the limits of his
father's little Afghan kingdom from Persia on the west, to deep
into the Punjab on the east. Having spent four years in con-
solidating his power to the west of the Khaibar Pass, he led
forth in looi a.d. the first of his seventeen* invasions of India.
Power in India ; (5) Reports of the Archaeological Survey of Western
India, and materials supplied by the Statistical Survey of the various
Provinces of India ; (6) Professor Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari (Calcutta,
1873), together with Gladwin's older translation (2 vols. 1800). When the
dates or figures in this chapter differ from Elphinstone's, thej^are derived
from the original Persian authorities, a» adopted by Sir Henry Elliot and
Mr. Thomas.
^ The Tdrikh Yaminl, written circ. 1020, by Al 'Utbf, a secretary of
Sultan Mahmud, is the contemporary authority for this invasion. It is
translated in Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. ii. pp. 18-24. The
materials for the invasions of Subuktigin are Firishta, i. pp. II-25 (ed.
1829) ; and Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. ii. iii. iv. and vi.
2 His chronicler, Al 'Utbi, never once mentions Delhi or Lahore.
3 The Tahakdt-i-Ndsiri (Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. ii.
p. 270) .speaks of the ' 36th year of his reign.' But the dates 997 to 1030
seem authoritative. The original materials for the invasions of Mahmud
are Firishta, i. pp. 37-82 ; and Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians^
vols. i. ii. iii. and iv.
* This number, and subsequent details, are taken from the authorities
translated in Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. ii. iii. iv.; and
critically examined in the Appendix to his second volume, pp. 434-478 (1869).
MAHMUD OF GIIAZNL 273
Of these, thirteen were directed to the subjugation of the
Punjab; one was an unsuccessful incursion into Kashmir; the
remaining three were short but furious raids against more
distant cities — Kanauj, Gwalior, and Somnath.
Jaipal, the Hindu frontier chief of Lahore, was again
defeated. According to Hindu custom, a twice-conquered
pfmce was deemed unworthy to reign; and Jaipal, mount-
ing a funeral pile, solemnly made over his kingdom to his Patriotic
son, and burned himself in his regal robes. Another local ^^^'^tion
chief, rather than yield himself to the victor, fell upon his Hindus,
own sword. In the sixth expedition (1008 a.d.), the Hindu ^°°^ ^-^
ladies melted their ornaments, while the poorer women spun
cotton, to support their husbands in the war. In one great
battle, the fate of the invaders hung in the balance. Mahmud,
alarmed by a coalition of the Indian kings as far as Oudh
and Malwa, entrenched himself near Peshawar. A sortie
which he made was driven back, and the wild Ghakkar
tribe ^ burst into the camp and slaughtered nearly 4000
Musalmans.
But each expedition ended by further strengthening the Mahmiid's^
Muhammadan foothold in India. Mahmud carried away P'^^gress m ^
enormous booty from the Hindu temples, such as Thaneswar 1001-1024^'^
and Nagarkot, and his sixteenth and most famous expedition ' •'
was directed against the temple of Somnath in Gujarat (1024
A.D.). After bloody repulses, he stormed the town ; and the
Hindu garrison, leaving 5000 dead, put out in boats to sea.
The famous idol of Somnath was merely one of the twelve
lingas or phallic emblems erected in various parts of India.
But Mahmud having taken the name of the ' Idol-Smasher,' Expedition
the modern Persian historians gradually converted the plunder *° ?°"^",
of Somnath into a legend of his pious zeal. Forgetting the
contemporary accounts of the idol as a rude stump of stone,
Firishta tells how Mahmud, on entering the temple, was offered
^ Firishta says, '30,000 Ghakkars with their heads and feet bare.'
Colonel Brigg's Firishta, vol. i. p. 47 (ed. 1829). Elphinstone gives the
number of Mahmud's expeditions somewhat differently from the number
and order adopted in the above text from the Persian authorities, translated
by Sir Henry Elliot. Thus Elphinstone gives the expedition of 1008 a.d.
as the fourth (p. 328), while Sir Henry Elliot gives it as the sixth
{Persian Historians, vol. i. p. 444). In the same way, Elphinstone gives the
Somnath expedition as the twelfth (p. 334, ed. 1866), while Sir Henry
Elliot gives it as the sixteenth (vol. ii. p. 468). These instances must
suffice to indicate the differences between Elphinstone and the later
materials derived from Sir Henry Elliot and Mr. Edward Thomas. In
subsequent pages, the more accurate materials will be used without pausing
to point out such differences.
S
274 EARL V MUHAMMADAN R ULERS.
an enormous ransom by the priests if he would spare the .
Fiction of image.^ But Mahmud cried out that he would rather be
the jewel-
liellied remembered as the breaker than the seller of idols, and clove
gotl- the god open with his mace. Forthwith a vast treasure of
jewels poured forth from its vitals, which explained the
liberal offers of the priests, and rewarded the disinterested
piety of the monarch. The growth of this myth can be clearly
traced,^ but it is still repeated by uncritical historians. The
linga or solid stone fetish of Somnath, had no stomach, and
could contain no jewels.
Tlie Mahmud carried off the temple gates, with fragments of the
wood phallic emblem, to Ghazni,^ and on the way nearly perished
gates. with his army in the Indus desert. But the famous ' Sandal-
wood gates of Somnath,' brought back as a trophy from Ghazni
by our troops in 1842, and paraded through Northern India,
were as clumsy a forgery as the story of the jewel-bellied idol
itself. Mahmud died at Ghazni in 1030 a.d.
Results of As the result of seventeen invasions of India, and twenty-
. a mud s ^^^ years' fighting, Mahmud had reduced the western districts
invasions, -^ o c
1030 A.D. of the Punjab to the control of Ghazni, and left the remem-
brance of his raids as far as Kanauj on the east, and Gujarat
in the south. He never set up as a resident sovereign in
India. His expeditions beyond the Punjab were the adven-
tures of a religious knight-errant, with the plunder of a temple-
city, or the demolition of an idol, as their object, rather than
serious efforts at conquest. But as his father had left Pesha-
p^^^. , war as an outpost garrison, so Mahmud left the Punjab as an
conquered, outlying Province of Ghazni.
Mahmiid's The Muhammadan chroniclers tell many stories, not only of
thrift^ ^"*^ Mahmiid's valour and piety, but also of his thrift. One day a
poor woman complained that her son had been killed by robbers
in a distant desert of Irak. Mahmiid said he was very sorry,
but that it was difficult to prevent such accidents so far from
the capital. The old woman rebuked him with these words,
* Col)nel Brigg's Firishta, vol. i. pp. 72, T^ (ed. 1829).
'^ Sir H. Elliot's History of India from the Persian Historians, vol. ii. p.
270, from the Tabakdt-i-Ndsiri ; also Appendix, vol. ii. p. 476 ; vol. iv.
pp. 182, 183, from the Habihn-s-Siyar of Khondamir. But see, even in
1832, II. II. Wilson in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xvii. pp. 194 et seq.
A foundation for Firishta's invention is, however, to be found in the con-
temporary account of Al Biruni (970-1029 a.d.), who .says that the top of
ihe linga was garnished with gems of gold.
^ Of the four fragments, he deposited one in the Jama Masjid at Ghazrf,
another at the entrance of his palace, and the third he sent to Mecca, and
the fourth to Medina. Tabakdt-i-Nasiri.
HOUSE OF GHOR, 1152-1186. 275
* Keep therefore no more territory than you can rightly govern.'
The Sultan forthwith rewarded her, and sent troops to guard
all caravans passing that way. Mahmiid was an enlightened
patron of poets, and his liberality drew the great Ferdousi to Ferdousi.
his court. The Sultan listened with delight to his Shdh-ndmah^
or Book of Kings, and promised him a dirhatn^ meaning a
golden one, for each verse on its completion. After thirty
years of labour, the poet claimed his reward. But the Sultan
finding that the poem had run to 60,000 verses, offered him
60,000 silver dirhams^ instead of dirhams of gold. Ferdousi
retired in disgust from the court, and wrote a bitter satire
which records to this day the base birth of the monarch.
Mahmiid forgave the satire, but remembered the great epic,
and, repenting of his meanness, sent 100,000 golden dirhams
to the poet. The bounty came too late. For as the royal
messengers bearing the bags of gold entered one gate of
Ferdousi's city, the poet's corpse was being borne out by
another.
During a century and a half, the Punjab remained under House of
Mahmiid's successors, as a Province of Ghazni. But in 11 £52, *^"°^'
' ^ . ^ ^ 1152-110D.
the Afghans of Ghor ^ overthrew the Ghaznivide dynasty ; and
Khusrii, the last of Mahmiid's line, fled to Lahore, the capital
of his outlying Indian territory. In 1186, this also was Obtains
wrested from him ; ^ and the Ghorian prince Shahab-ud-din, p ^ . ,
better known as Muhammad of Ghor, began the conquest of 1 186.
India on his own account. But each of the Hindu princi-
palities fought hard, and some of them still survive seven
centuries after the torrent of Afghan invasion swept over their
heads.
On his first expedition towards Delhi, in 1191, Muhammad Muham-
of Ghor was utterly defeated by the Hindus at Thaneswar, gj^^f/
badly wounded, and barely escaped with his life. His scattered invasions,
hosts were chased for 40 miles. But he gathered together JJ.^^J^^^*
the wreck at Lahore, and, aided by new hordes from Central defeat,
Asia, again marched into Hindustan in 1193. Family quarrels "Qi-
among the Rajputs prevented a united effort against him.
^ Ghor, one of the oldest seats of the Afghan race, is now a ruined
town of \Vestern Afghanistan, 120 miles south-east of Herat. The feud
between Ghor and Ghazni was of long standing and great bitterness.
Mahmud of Ghazni had subdued Ghor in loio a.d. ; but about 105 1
the Ghorian chief captured Ghazni, and dragged its chief inhabitants to
Ghor, where he cut their throats, and used their blood for making mortar
for the fortifications. After various reprisals, Ghor finally triumphed over
Ghazni in 1152.
2 Tabakdt-i- Ndsiri. Sir H. Elliot's Persian Historians^ vol. ii. p. 281.
^■j6
EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS.
Dissen-
sions
among the
Hindu
princes.
Court
pageant at
Kanauj,
1 2th cen-
tuiy A.D.
A stvay-
amvara, or
maiden's
choice.
Distribu-
tion of
Rajputs,
circ. ii8-
The cities of Delhi and Kanauj stand forth as the centres of
rival Hindu monarchies, each of which claimed the first place
in Northern India. A Chauhan prince, ruling over Delhi and
Ajmere, bore the proud name of Prithwi Raja or Suzerain.
The Rahtor king of Kanauj, whose capital can still be traced
across eight square miles of broken bricks and rubbish,^ cele-
brated a feast, in the spirit of the ancient Horse-sacrifice,^
to proclaim himself the Over-lord.
At such a feast, all menial offices had to be filled by royal
vassals ; and the Delhi monarch was summoned as a gate-
keeper, along with the other princes of Hindustan. During
the ceremony, the daughter of the King of Kanauj was nomin-
ally to make her sivayainvara, or ' own choice ' of a husband,
a pageant survival of the reality in the Sanskrit epics. The
Delhi Raja loved the maiden, but he could not brook to stand
at another man's gate. As he did not arrive, the Kanauj
king set up a mocking image of him at the door. When
the princess entered the hall to make her choice, she looked
calmly round the circle of kings, then stepping proudly past
them to the door, threw her bridal garland over the neck
of the ill-shapen image. Forthwith, says the story, the
Delhi monarch rushed in, sprang with the princess on his
horse, and galloped off towards his northern capital. The
outraged father led out his army against the runaways,
and, having called in the Afghans to attack Delhi on the
other side, brought about the ruin of both the Hindu
kingdoms.
The tale serves to record the dissensions among the Rajput
princes, which prevented a united resistance to Muhammad of
Ghor. He found Delhi occupied by the Tomdra clan, Ajmere
by the Chauhans, and Kanauj by the Rahtors. These Rajput
States formed the natural breakwaters against invaders from
the north-west. But their feuds are said to have left the King
of Delhi and Ajmere, then united under one Chauhan Over-
lord, only 64 out of his 108 warrior chiefs. In 1193, the
Afghans again swept down on the Punjab. Prithwi Raja of
Delhi and Ajmere ^ was defeated and slain. His heroic
princess burned herself on his funeral pile. Muhammad of
Ghor, having occupied Delhi, pressed on to Ajmere ; and in
^ See article Kanauj, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
* Asu>a-medha, described in a previous chapter.
> Descended from the eponymous Rdja Aja of Ajmere, circ. 145 A.D. ;
and on the mother's side, from Anang Pal Tuar, Kaja of Delhi, who
adopted him ; thus uniting Delhi to Ajmere. See article Ajmere-Mer-
WARA, in I he Imperial Gazetteer of India,
MUHAMMADAN CONQUEST OF BENGAL. 2^7
1 1 94, overthrew the rival Hindu monarch of Kanauj, whose
body was identified on the field of battle by his false teeth.
The brave Rahtor Rajputs of Kanauj, with other of the Rajput
Rajput clans in Northern India, quitted their homes in large |"Jg^^uons
bodies rather than submit to the stranger. They migrated putana.
to the regions bordering on the eastern desert of the Indus,
and there founded the military kingdoms which bear their
race-name, Rajputana, to this day.
History takes her narrative of these events from the matter-
of-fact statements of the Persian annalists.^ But the Hindu
court-bard of Prithwi Raja left behind a patriotic version
of the fall of his race. His ballad-chronicle, known as the
Pnthzvirdj Rdsau of Chdnd, is one of the earliest poems in
Hindi. It depicts the Musalman invaders as beaten in all the
battles except the last fatal one. Their leader is taken prisoner
by the Hindus, and released for a heavy ransom. But the
quarrels of the chiefs ruined the Hindu cause.
Setting aside these patriotic songs, Benares and Gwalior mark
the south-western limits of Muhammad of Ghor's own advance.
But his general, Bakhtiyar Khilji, conquered Behar in 1199,2 Muham-
and Lower Bengal down to the delta in 1203. On the ^^pj^q^g^j. ^f
approach of the Musalmans, the Brahmans advised Lakshman Bengal,
Sen, the King of Bengal, to remove his residence from Nadiya ^^°^'
to some more distant city. But the prince, an old man
of eighty, could not make up his mind until the Afghan
general had seized his capital, and burst into the palace one
day while his majesty was at dinner. The monarch slipped
out by a back door without having time to put on his shoes,
and fled to Puri in Orissa, where he spent his remaining
days in the service of Jagannath.^
Meanwhile the Sultan, Muhammad Ghori, divided his time
between campaigns in Afghanistan and Indian invasions ;
and he had little time to consolidate his Indian conquests.
Even in the Punjab, the tribes were defeated rather than sub-
dued In 1203, the Ghakkars issued from their mountains,
^ Firishta (i. 161-187), the Tabakdt-i-Ndsiri of Minhaju-s-Siraj, and
others ; translated in Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. ii. v.
and vi.
"^History of Bengal from the first Muhammadan Invasion to 1 757, by
Major Charles Stewart, p. 25 (Calcutta, 1847). The nearly contemporary
authority is the Tabakdt-i-Ndsiri {l22T-/^l) ; Sir H. YAWoi's Persian His-
torians, vol. ii. pp. 307-309.
^ Stewart, p. 27. The Tabakdt-i-Ndsiri merely says 'he went towards
Sanknat ' {sic) (Jagannath ?) ; Sir H. Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. ii.
P- 309-
278
EARL V MUHAMMADAN RULERS.
Muham-
mad of
Ghor's
work in
India,
1191-1206.
Northern
India sub-
dued.
Kutab-ud-
din,
1206-10;
first
' Slave
King.'
took Lahore,^ and devastated the whole Province'^ In 1206,
a party of the same clan swam the Indus, on the bank of
which the Afghan camp was pitched, and stabbed the Sultan
to death while asleep in his tent.^
Muhammad of Ghor was no religious knight-errant like
Mahmiid of Ghazni, but a practical conqueror. The objects
of his distant expeditions were not temples, but Provinces.
Subuktigin had left Peshawar as an outpost of Ghazni (977
A.D.) ; and Mahmiid had reduced the western Punjab to an
outlying Province of the same kingdom (1030 a.d.). That
was the net result of the Tiirki invasions of India. But
Muhammad of Ghor left the whole north of India, from the
delta of the Indus to the delta of the Ganges, under Muham-
madan generals, who on his death set up for themselves.
His Indian Viceroy, Kutab - ud - dm, proclaimed him-
self sovereign of India at Delhi, and founded a line which
lasted from 1206 to 1290. Kutab claimed the control over
all the Muhammadan leaders and soldiers of fortune in
India from Sind to Lower Bengal. His name is preserved
at his capital by the Kutab Mosque, with its graceful
colonnade of richly - sculptured Hindu pillars, and by the
Kutab Mindr^^ which raises its tapering shaft, encrusted with
chapters from the Kuran, high above the ruins of old Delhi.
Kutab-ud-din had started life as a Tiirki slave, and several of
his successors rose by valour or intrigue from the same low
condition to the throne. His dynasty is accordingly known
as that of the Slave Kings. Under them India became for
the first time the seat of resident Muhammadan sovereigns.
Kutab-ud-din died in 1210.^
The Slave The Slave Dynasty found itself face to face with the three
i2c^So' P^^^^s which have beset the Muhammadan rule in India from
the outset, and beneath which that rule eventually succumbed.
First, rebellions by its own servants, Musalman generals,
or viceroys of Provinces ; second, revolts of the Hindus ;
^ Firishta, vol. i. pp. 182-184.
2 As far south as the country near Multan, Tdjti-l-Ma-dsir ; Sir II.
Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. ii. pp. 233-235 ; Tdrikh-i-Alfi, v. 163.
The Muhammadan historians naturally minimize this episode.
' Sir H. Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. ii. pp. 235, 297, 393. Brigg's
Firishta, vol. i. pp. 185, 186.
* 77!^ I7}iperial Gazetteer of Indian, article DELHI CiTY.
* The original materials for Kutab-ud-dfn Aibak's reign are to be found
in Firihta, vol. i. pp. 189-202 (ed. 1829); and the Persian Historians,
translated by Sir Henry Elliot, vols. ii. iii. iv. and v.
THE SLAVE DYNASTY. 279
third, fresh invasions, chiefly by Mughals, from Central
Asia.
Altamsh, the third and greatest Sultan of the Slave line Its difficul-
(12 1 1-36 A.D.), had to reduce the Muhammadan Governors of ^'^^•
Lower Bengal and Sind, both of whom had set up as inde-
pendent rulers ; and he narrowly escaped destruction by a
Mughal invasion. The Mughals under Changiz Khan swept
through the Indian passes in pursuit of an Afghan prince; but
their progress was stayed by the Indus, and Delhi remained un-
touched. Before the death of Altamsh (1236 a.d.), the Hindus Altamsh,
had ceased for a time to struggle openly; and the Muhammadan 121 1-36.
Viceroys of Delhi ruled all India on the north of the Vindhya
range, including the Punjab, the North-Western Provinces,
Oudh, Behar, Lower Bengal, Ajmere, Gwalior, Malwa, and
Sind. The Khalif of Baghdad acknowledged India as a
separate Muhammadan kingdom during the reign of Altamsh,
and struck coins in recognition of the new Empire of Delhi
(1229 A.D.).i Altamsh died in 1236.
His daughter Raziya was the only lady who ever occupied The
the Muhammadan throne of Delhi (1236-39 a.d,). Learned ^mpress
in the Kuran, industrious in public business, firm and energetic 12-6-^.
in every crisis, she bears in history the masculine name of
the Sultan Raziya. But the favour which she showed to the
master of the horse, an Abyssinian slave, offended her Afghan
generals ; and after a troubled reign of three and a half years,
she was deposed and put to death. -
Mughal irruptions and Hindu revolts soon began to under- Mughal
mine the Slave dynasty. The Mughals jy# said to have burst irruptions
through Tibet into North - Eastern Bengal in 1245;^ and ^^
during the next forty-four years, repeatedly swept down the
Afghan passes into the Punjab (1244-88). The wild Indian
tribes, such as the Ghakkars^ and the hillmen of Mewat,
ravaged the Muhammadan lowlands almost up to the capital.
^ Chronicles of the Pathdn Kings of Delhi, by Edward Thomas, p. 46
(Milne, 1871). Original materials for Shams-ud-din Altamsh: Firishta,
vol. i. pp. 205-212 (1829); Sir Henry P^lliot's Persiayi Historians^ vols,
ii. iii. iv.
* Thomas' Chronicles of the Pathdn Kings, pp. 104- 108 ; Firishta, vol. i.
pp. 217-222 ; Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. ii. and iii.
^ This invasion of Bengal is discredited by the latest and most critical
historian, Mr. Edward Thomas, in his Pathdn Kings of Delhi, p. 121,
note (ed. 1871). On the other side, see Firishta, vol, i. p, 231, but cf.
Col. Brigg's footnote ; and the Tabakdt-i-Ndsiri in Sir H. Elliot's Persian
Historians, vol. ii, pp. 264, 344 ; ' In March 1245, the infidels of Changiz
Khan came to the gates of Lakhnauti ' (Gaur),
•* Fur an account of the Ghakkars, z'ide ante, p. 186, chap, vii
28o EARL Y MUHAMMADAN R ULERS.
Rajput Rajput revolts foreshadowed that inextinguishable vitality of
revolts. ^}^g Hindu military races, which was to harass, from first to
last, the Mughal Empire, and to outlive it. Under the Slave
kings, even the north of India was only half subdued to the
Muhammadan sway. The Hindus rose again and again in
Malwa, Rdjputana, Bundelkhand, along the Ganges, and in the/
Jumna valley, marching to the river bank opposite Delhi itself.'
Rilban, The last monarch but one of the Slave line, Balban ( 1 265-87
A.D.), had not only to fight the Mughals, the wild non-Aryan
tribes, and the Rajput clans; he was also compelled to
massacre his own viceroys. Having in his youth entered
into a compact for mutual support and advancement with
forty of his Tiirki fellow-slaves in the palace, he had, when
he came to the throne, to break the powerful confederacy
thus formed. Some of his provincial governors he publicly
scourged ; others were beaten to death in his presence ;
and a general, who failed to reduce the rebel Muhammadan
His Viceroy of Bengal, was hanged. Balban himself moved down
to the ^^ ^^ delta, and crushed the Bengal revolt with a m.erciless
Hindus, skill. His severity against Hindu rebels knew no bounds.
He nearly exterminated the Jadiin Rajputs of Mewat, to the
south of Delhi, putting 100,000 persons to the sword. He
then cut down the forests which formed their retreats, and
opened up the country to tillage. The miseries caused by the
Mughal hordes in Central Asia, drove a crowd of princes and
Mis fifteen poets to seek shelter at the Indian court. Balban boasted that
sioners^"' no fewer than fifteen once independent sovereigns had fed on
his bounty, and he called the streets of Delhi by the names of
their late kingdoms, such as Baghdad, Kharizm, and Ghor.
He died in 1287 a.d.^ His successor was poisoned, and the
Slave dynasty ended in 1290.^
I louse of In that year Jalal-ud-din, a ruler of Khilji, succeeded to
1290-^20, ^^ Delhi throne, and founded a line which lasted for thirty
years (1290-1320 a.d.). The Khiljf dynasty extended the
Muhammadan power into Southern India. Ald-ud-di'n, the
nephew and successor of the founder, when Governor of
Karra,* near Allahdbdd, pierced through the Vindhya ranges
^ Thomas* Pathdn A'itii^s, 131.
2 Materials for tlie reign of Balban (Ghiyas-uddi'n Balban) : Sir Henry
Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. iii. pp. 38, 97, 546, 593 (1871) ; Firishta,
vol. i. pp. 247-272 (1829).
' Mr. E. Thomas' Pathdn Kins^s, pp. 138-142.
* Forty miles north-west of Allahabad, once the capital of an important
fief, now a ruined town. .See The Ifiifcrial Gazetteer of India, article Kak k a.
KHILJI DYNASTY, 1290-1320. 281
with his cavalry, and plundered the Buddhist temple city of
Bhi'lsa, 300 miles off. After trying his powers against the Ala-ud-
rebellious Hindu princes of Bundelkhand and Malwd, he gJJJJtj^grn
conceived the idea of a grand raid into the Deccan. With raids,
a band of 8000 horse, he rode into the heart of Southern ^294-
India. On the way he gave himself out as flying from his
uncle's court, to seek service with the Hindu King of Rajama-
hendri. The generous Rajput princes abstained from attacking
a refugee in his flight, and Ala-ud-din surprised the great city of
Deogiri, the modern Daulatabad, at that time the capital of the
Hindu kingdom of Maharashtra. Having suddenly galloped
into its streets, he announced himself as only the advance
guard of the whole imperial army, levied an immense booty,
and carried it back 700 miles to the seat of his Governorship
on the banks of the Ganges. He then lured the Sultan
Jalal-ud-di'n, his uncle, to Karra, in order to divide the spoil ;
and murdered the old man in the act of clasping his hand
(1295 A.D.).i
Ala-ud-din scattered his spoils in gifts or charity, and pro- Reign of
claimed himself Sultan (i 295-1 31 5 a.d.).^ The twenty years ^11^^20--
of his reign founded the Muhammadan sway in Southern 1315.
India. He reconquered Gujarat from the Hindus in i297;Ala-ud-
captured Rintimbur,^ after a difficult siege, from the J^^P^J* con VTt of
Rajputs in 1300; took the fort of Chittor, and partially sub- N. India,
jected the Sesodia Rajputs (1303) ; and having thus reduced ^295-1303.
the Hindus on the north of the Vindhyas, prepared for the
conquest of the Deccan. But before starting on this great
expedition, he had to meet five Mughal inroads from the north.
In 1295 ^^ defeated a Mughal invasion under the walls of his
capital, Delhi; in 1304-5 he encountered four others, sending
all prisoners to Delhi, where the chiefs were trampled by
elephants, and the common soldiery slaughtered in cold blood.
He crushed with equal severity several rebellions which took
place among his own family during the same period ; first
putting out the eyes of his insurgent nephews, and then
beheading them (i 299-1 300).
Having thus arranged his affairs in Northern India, he under- His con-
took the conquest of the South. In 1303 he had sent his ^^^^^^^°^^
eunuch slave, Malik Kafur, with an army through Bengal, to India,
attack Warangal, the capital of the Hindu kingdom of Teling- i303-i5-
* Thomas' Pathdii Kings^ p. 144.
- Materials for the reign of Ala-ud-din Khilji : Sir Henry Elliot's
Persian Historians J vol. iii. (1871); Firishta, vol. i. pp. 321-382 (1829).
^ See article Rintimbur, The Imperial Gazetteer of Jndia.
282 EARL Y MUHAMMADAN R ULERS.
ana. In 1306, Kafur marched victoriously through Malwa
and Khandesh into the Maratha country, where he captured
Deogiri, and persuaded the Hindu king Ram Deo to return
with him to do homage at Delhi. While the Sultan Ala-ud-din
His gene- was conquering the Rajputs in Marwar, his slave general,
Kafiir Kafur, made expeditions through the Karnatic and Maha-
rashtra, as far south as Adam's Bridge, at the extremity of
India, where he built a mosque.
Extent of The Muhammadan Sultan of India was no longer merely an
the Mu- Afghan king of Delhi. Three great waves of invasion from
power in Central Asia had created a large Muhammadan population in
India, Northern India. First came the Tiirkis, represented by the
^ ' house of Ghazni ; then the Afghans (commonly so called),
represented by the house of Ghor ; finally the Mughals, having
failed in their repeated attempts to conquer the Punjab, took
service in great numbers with the Sultans of Delhi. Under
the Slave Kings the Mughal mercenaries had become so power-
Muham- ful as to require to be massacred (1286). About 1292, three
population ^^ousand Mughals, having been converted from their old Tartar
in India, rites to Muhammadan ism, received a suburb of Delhi, still
1 286-131 1, called Mughalpur, for their residence. Other immigrations of
Mughal mercenaries followed. After various plots, Ala-ud-din
slaughtered 15,000 of the settlers, and sold their families as
slaves (131 1 A.D.).
Mughal The unlimited supply of soldiers which Ala-ud-din could
arfer"^' ^^^^ ^^^^ upon from the Tiirki, Afghin, and Mughal races
1286-1311. in Northern India and the countries beyond, enabled him
to send armies farther south than any of his predecessors.
But in his later years, the Hindus revolted in Gujarat ; the
Rdjputs reconquered Chittor; and many of the Muham-
Hindu madan garrisons were driven out of the Deccan. On the
revolts. capture of Chittor in 1303, the garrison had preferred death to
submission. The peasantry still chant an early Hindi ballad,
telling how the queen and thirteen thousand women threw
themselves on a funeral pile, while the men rushed upon the
swords of the besiegers. A remnant cut their way to the
Aravalli Hills ; and the Rajput independence, although in
abeyance during Ala-ud-din's reign, was never crushed. Having
imprisoned his sons, and given himself up to paroxysms of rage
and intemperance, Ald-ud-din died in 13 15, helped to the
grave, it is said, by poison given by his favourite general,
A renegade K^^"^-
Hindu During the four remaining years of the house of Khiljf, the
n^l^o*^' ^^^'•^^^^ power passed to Khusrii Khdn, a low-caste renegade
TUGHLAK DYNASTY, 1320-1414. 283
Hindu, who imitated the military successes and vices of his Khusru.
patron, MaHk Kafur, and then personally superintended his
murder. 1 Khusru now became all in all to the debauched
Emperor Mubarik ; slew him, and seized the throne. While
outwardly professing Islam, Khusru desecrated the Kuran by
using it as a seat, and degraded the pulpits of the mosques
into pedestals for Hindu idols. In 1320 he was slain, and
the Khilji dynasty disappeared.-
The leader of the rebellion was Ghiyas-ud-di'n Tughlak,
who had started life as a Tiirki slave, and risen to the frontier
Governorship of the Punjab. He founded the Tughlak House of
dynasty, which lingered on for ninety-four years (1320-1414), j "20 mm
although submerged for a time by the invasion of Timiir
(Tamerlane) in 1398. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak (1320-24 a.d.)
removed the capital from Delhi to a spot about four miles
farther east, and called it Tughlakabad.
His son and successor, Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51), Muham-
was an accomplished scholar, a skilful captain, and a severely ^1^1 1.
abstinent man.^ But his ferocity of temper, perhaps inherited 1324-51.'
from the tribes of the steppes, rendered him merciless as a judge
and careless of human suffering. The least opposition drove him
into outbursts of insane fury. He wasted the treasures accumu- Muham-
lated by Ala-ud-din in buying off the Mughal hordes, who aeain J"^^, , , ,
J • 1 iT^-i >xi 1, ?• Tughlak s
and agam swept down on the Punjab. On the other hand, m mad ex-
fits of ambition, he raised an army for the invasion of Persia, peditions,
and sent out an expedition of 100,00a men against China. '-^^^ 5i.
The first force broke up for want of pay, and plundered his own
dominions ; the second perished almost to a man in the Hima-
layan passes. He planned great conquests into Southern
India, and dragged the whole inhabitants of Delhi, 800 miles His
off, to Deogiri, to which he gave the name of Daulatabad. cruelties.
Twice he allowed the miserable suppliants to return to Delhi ;
twice he compelled them on pain of death to quit it. One
of these forced migrations took place amid the horrors of a
famine ; the citizens perished by thousands, and in the end
the king had to give up the attempt. Having drained his
treasury, he issued a forced currency of copper coins, by His forced
which he tried to make the king's brass equal to other men's currency.
1 Thomas' Pathdn Kings, pp. 178, 179. - Idem, pp. 184, 185.
' Materials for his reign : Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. i.
iii. V. vi. vii. ; Firishta, vol. i. pp. 408-443 (ed. 1 829) ; Elphinstone's
narrative of this reign is an admirable specimen of his spirited style of
work, pp. 403-410 (ed. 1866).
284
EARL V MUHAMMADAN RULERS,
Revolt of
the Pro-
vinces,
He flays
his
nephew.
His reign
one long
revolt.
Muham-
mad
Tughlak's
revenue
exactions,
1325-51-
His 'man-
hunt.'
silver.^ During the same century, the Mughal conqueror of
China, Kublai Khan, had expanded the use of paper notes,
early devised by the Chinese ; and Kai Khatii had introduced
a bad imitation of it into Persia. Tughlak's forced currency
quickly brought its own ruin. Foreign merchants refused the
worthless brass tokens, trade came to a stand, and the king
had to take payment of his taxes in his own depreciated
coinage.
Meanwhile the Provinces began to throw off the Delhi yoke.
Muhammad Tughlak had succeeded in 1324 to the greatest
Empire which had, up to that time, acknowledged a Muham-
madan Sultan in India. But his bigoted zeal for Islam forbade
him to trust either Hindu princes or Hindu officers ; and he
thus found himself compelled to fill every high post with
foreign Muhammadan adventurers, who had no interest in
the stability of his rule. The annals of the period present a
long series of outbreaks, one part of the Empire renouncing
its allegiance as soon as another had been brought back to
subjection. His own nephew rebelled in Mdlwa, and being
caught, was flayed alive (1338). The Punjab governor revolted
(1339)5 was crushed, and put to death. The Musalman Vice-
roys of Lower Bengal and of the Coromandel coast set up
for themselves (about 1340), and could not be subdued.
The Hindu kingdoms of Karnata and Telingana recovered
their independence (1344), and expelled the Musalman
garrisons. The Muhammadan governors in the Deccan also
revolted, while the troops in Gujarat rose in mutiny. Mu-
hammad Tughlak rushed with an army to the south to take
vengeance on the traitors, but hardly had he put down their
rising than he was called away by insurrections in Gujarat,
Malwa, and Sind. He died in 135 1, while chasing rebels in
the lower valley of the Indus.
Muhammad Tughlak was the first Musalmdn ruler of India
who can be said to have had a revenue system. He increased
the land-tax between the Ganges and the Jumna ; in some
Districts ten-fold, in others twenty-fold. The husbandmen fled
before his tax-gatherers, leaving their villages to lapse into
jungle, and formed themselves into robber clans. He cruelly
punished all who trespassed on his game preserves ; and he
invented a kind of man-hunt without precedent in the annals
of human wickedness. He surrounded a large tract with his
army, *and then gave orders that the circle should close
' Thomas' Pathdn Kings^ p. 243. See his valuable monograph entitled
' Muhammad Bin Tughlak's Forced Currency,' op. cit. pp. 239-261.
: TIMUR'S INVASION, 1398. 285
towards the centre, and that all within it (mostly inoffensive
peasants) should be slaughtered like wild beasts. This sort of
hunt was more than once repeated ; and on a subsequent
occasion, there was a general massacre of the inhabitants of
the great city of Kanauj. These horrors led in due time to
famine ; and the miseries of the country exceeded all powers
of description.' ^
His son, Firuz Tughlak (1351-88), ruled mercifully, but Firuz Shah
had to recognise the independence of the Muhammadan j-Jlvlgg'
kingdoms of Bengal and the Deccan, and suffered much from
bodily infirmities and court intrigues.^ He undertook many
public works, such as dams across rivers for irrigation, tanks,
caravan-sarais, mosques, colleges, hospitals, and bridges. But
his greatest achievement was the old Jumna Canal. This Hiscanals.
work drew its waters from the Jumna, near a point where it
leaves the mountains, and connected that river with the
Ghaggar and the Sutlej by irrigation channels.^ Part of it has
been reconstructed by the British Government, and spreads a
margin of fertility on either side to this day. But the dynasty
of Tughlak soon sunk amid Muhammadan mutinies and
Hindu revolts ; and under Mahmiid, its last real king, Mahmiid
Northern India fell an easy prey to the great Mughal invasion l^ghlak.
. of 1398.
I In that year, Timiir (Tamerlane) swept through the Afghan Timur's
* passes at the head of the united hordes of Tartary. He (Tamer-
defeated the Tughlak King, Mahmiid, under tiie walls of invasion,
Delhi, and entered the capital. During five days, a massacre ^398-
raged ; * some streets were rendered impassable by heaps of
dead,'* while Timiir calmly looked on and held a feast in
honour of his victory. On the last day of 1398 he resumed
his march, with a 'sincere and humble tribute of grateful
praise ' to God, in Firuz's marble mosque on the banks of the
Jumna. He crossed the Ganges, and proceeded as far as
Hardwar, after another great massacre at Meerut. Then,
skirting the foot of the Himalayas, he retired through their
north-western passes into Central Asia (1399).
Timiir left no traces of his power in India, save ruined Ruin of
cities. On his departure, Mahmiid Tughlak crept back from 1^^ Tugh-
laks, 1399.
1 Elphinstone's History of India, pp. 405, 406 (ed. 1866).
- Materials for his reign : Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians^ vols. i.
iii. iv. vi. viii. ; Firishta, vol. i. pp. 444-465 (ed. 1829).
^ Thomas' Pathdn Kijtgs, p. 294. See article JUMNA Canal,
Western, The Imperial Gazetteer 0/ India.
* Firishta, vol. i. p. 493. His whole account of Timur's invasion is very
vivid, vol. i. pp. 485-497 (ed. 1829).
286 EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS.
his retreat in Gujardt, and nominally ruled till 141 2. The
Tughlak line ended in 14 14.
The It was succeeded by the Sayyid dynasty, who ruled from
LiM-to ^4^4 ^^^^ ^45°* '^^^ Afghan house of Lodi followed, from 1450
to 1526. But some of these Sultans reigned over only a few
miles round Delhi ; and during the whole period, the Hindu
princes and the local Muhammadan kings were practically inde-
pendent throughout the greater part of India. The house of
TheLodis, Lodi was crushed beneath the Mughal invasion of Babarin 1526.
1450- 1 526.
Hindu Babar founded the Mughal Empire of India, whose last
kingdoms representative died a British State prisoner at Rangoon in
Deccan. 1862. Before entering on the story of that great Empire, we
must survey for a moment the kingdoms, Hindu and Muham-
madan, on the south of the Vindhya range. The three ancient
Chera, kingdoms, Chera, Chola, and Pandya occupied, as we have
Pandv'a^" seen,^ the Dra vidian country peopled by Tamil-speaking races.
Pandya, the largest of them, had its capital at Madura, and
traces its foundation to the 4th century B.C. The Chola
kingdom had its head-quarters successively at Combaconum
and Tanjore. Talkad, in Mysore, now buried by the sands
of the Kaveri, was the capital of the Chera kingdom. The
1 1 6th king of the Pandya dynasty was overthrown by the
Muhammadan general Malik Kafur, circ. 1304. But the Musal-
mdns failed to establish their power in the extreme south,
and a series of Hindu dynasties ruled from Madura over the
old Pandya kingdom until the i8th century. No European
kingdom can boast a continuous succession such as that of
Madura, traced back by the piety of genealogists to the 4th
century B.C. The Chera kingdom enumerates fifty kings, and
the Chola sixty-six, besides minor dynasties.
Kingdom But authentic history in Southern India begins with the
of Vijaya- j^in(ju kingdom of Vijayanagar or Narsinha, which flourished
II 18-1565, from 1 1 18 to 1565 A.D. The capital can still be traced within
the Madras District of Bellary, on the right bank of the
Tungabhadra river, — vast ruins of temples, fortifications, tanks,
and bridges, now inhabited by hyaenas and snakes. For at least
three centuries, Vijayanagar dominated the southern part of
the Indian peninsula. Its Rajis waged war and made peace
on equal terms with the Muhammadan Sultans of the Deccan.
Those Sultdns derived their origin from the conquest of
* At the beginning of this chapter ; and articles Chera, Chola,
Pandya, in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
BAHMANI KINGS, 1347-1525. 287
Ala-ud-din {post 1303 a.d.). After a period of confused fighting, Muham-
the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan emerged as the represen- "^^^^"^
tative of Muhammadan rule in Southern India. Its founder, in the
Zafar Khan, an Afghan general during the reign of Muhammad Deccan,
Tughlak (1325-51), defeated the Delhi troops, and set up as ^^^^'
Musalman sovereign of the Deccan. Having in early youth
been the slave of a Brahman who had treated him kindly and
foretold his future greatness, he took the title of Bahmanf,i
and transmitted it to his successors.
The rise of the Bahmani dynasty is usually assigned to The
the year 1347, and it lasted for 178 years, until 1525.2 jts j^^l^^^^J^^'
successive capitals were Gulbargah, Warangal, and Bidar, all in 1347-1525.
the Haidarabad territory ; and it loosely corresponded with the
Nizam's Dominions of the present day. At the height of
their power, the Bahmani kings claimed sovereignty over half
the Deccan, from the Tungabhadra river in the south to Orissa
in the north, and from Masulipatam on the east to Goa on the
west. Their direct government was, however, much more
confined. In their early struggle against the Delhi throne, they
derived support from the Hindu southern kingdoms of Vijaya-
nagar and Warangal. But during the greater part of its career,
the Bahmani dynasty represented the cause of Islam against
Hinduism on the south of the Vindhyas. Its alliances and
its wars alike led to a mingling of the Musalman and Hindu
populations.
For example, the King of Malwa invaded the Bahmani Composite
dominions with a mixed force of 12,000 Afghans and Rajputs. i^T7?i'-2i;
The Hindu Raja of Vijayanagar recruited his armies from
Afghan mercenaries, whom he paid by assignments of land,
and for whom he built a mosque. The Muhammadan Bahmani
troops, on the other hand, were often led by converted Hindus.
The Bahmani army was itself made up of two hostile Mingling
sects of Musalmans. One sect consisted of Shids, chiefly and^?usa^
Persians, Tiirks or Tartars from Central Asia ; the other, of mans,
native-born Musalmans of Southern India, together with Abys-
sinian mercenaries, both of whom professed the Sunni faith.
The rivalry between these Musalman sects frequently imperilled
the Bahmani throne. The dynasty reached its highest power Fall of
under the Bahmani Ald-ud-din 11. about 1437, and was broken J^^™J^"^
up by its discordant elements between 1489 and 1525. 1489- 1525.
1 His royal name in full was Sultan (or Shah) Ala-ud-din Gango Bahmani.
* These extreme dates are taken from Thomas' Pathdn Kings, pp.
340, 341. Materials for the Bahmani dynasty : Sir Henry Elliot's Persian
Hjltvj-iaus, vols. iv. vii. viii. ; Firishla, vol. ii. pp. 283-558 (ed. 1829).
288
EARLY MUHAMMADAN RULERS.
Five Mu-
hammadan
States
of the
Deccan,
1 489- 1 688.
Fall of
Hindu
kingdom
of Vijaya-
nasrar.
Battle of
Talikot,
1565.
Independ-
ent Nayaks
and Pale-
gars of
Southern
India.
Out of its fragments, five independent Muhammadan king-
doms in the Deccan were formed. These were — (i) The Adil
Shahi dynasty, with its capital at Bijapur, founded in 1489 by
a son of Amurath 11., Sultan of the Ottomans ; annexed by the
Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1686-88. (2) The Kutab Shahi
dynasty, with its capital at Golconda, founded in 1512 by a
Turkoman adventurer ; also annexed by Aurangzeb in 1687-88.
(3) The Nizam Shahi dynasty, with its capital at Ahmadnagar,
founded in 1490 by a Brahman renegade from the Vijayanagar
Court ; subverted by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1636.
(4) The Imad Shahi dynasty of Berar, with its capital at
Ellichpur, founded in 1484 also by a Hindu from Vijayanagar ;
annexed to the Ahmadnagar kingdom (No. 3) in 1572. (5)
The Barid Shahi dynasty, with its capital at Bidar, founded
1492-1498 by a Tiirki or Georgian slave. The Barid Shahi
territories were small and undefined ; independent till after
1609. Bidar fort was finally taken by Aurangzeb in 1657.
Space precludes any attempt to trace the history of these local
Muhammadan dynasties of Southern India. They preserved
their independence until the firm establishment of the Mughal
Empire in the north, under Akbar's successors. For a time
they had to struggle against the great Hindu kingdom of
Vijayanagar. In 1565 they combined against that power, and,
aided by a rebellion within Vijayanagar itself, they overthrew
it at Talikot in 1565.
The battle of Talikot marks the final downfall of Vijaya-
nagar as a centralized Hindu kingdom. But its local
Hindu chiefs or Nayaks seized upon their respective fiefs,
and the Muhammadan kings of the "south were only able
to annex a part of its dominions. From the Ndyaks are
descended the well-known Palegars of the Madras Presidency,
and the present Maharaja of Mysore. One of the blood-
royal of Vijayanagar fled to Chandragiri, and founded a line
which exercised a prerogative of its former sovereignty by
granting the site of Madras to the English in 1639. Another
scion, claiming the same high descent, lingers to the present
day near the ruins of Vijayanagar, and is known as the Rdji
of Anagundi, a feudatory of the Nizdm of Haidarabad. The
independence of the local Hindu chiefs in Southern India,
throughout the Muhammadan period, is illustrated by the
Manjarabad family, which maintained its authority from 1397
to 1799.^
Lower Bengal threw off the authority of Delhi in 1340. Its
* See article Manjarabad, The Imperial Cazciteer of India.
INDEPENDENT BENGAL KINGS. 289
Mnhammadan governor, Fakir-ud-din, set up as sovereign, with Indepen-
his capital at Gaur, and stamped coin in his own name. A i^"^ P^
succession of twenty independent kings ruled Bengal until 1538, 1340-1576;
when it was temporarily annexed to the Mughal Empire by
Humayiin. It was finally incorporated with that Empire by
Akbar in 1576. The great province of Gujarat in Western India Of Guja
had in like manner grown into an independent Muhammadan '^^ll}}^^'~
kingdom, which lasted for two centuries, from 1391 till con-
quered by Akbar in 1573. Malwa, which had also set up as
an independent State under its Muhammadan governors, was
annexed by the King of Gujarat in 1531. Even Jaunpur, Of Jaun-
including the territory of Benares, in the very centre of the P^""'^ 391-
Gangetic valley, maintained its independence as a separate
Musalman State for nearly a hundred years from 1394 to 1478,
under the disturbed rule of the Sayyids and of the first Lodi at
Delhi.
[ 290 1
CHAPTER XL
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE (1526 TO 1761 A.D.).
State of When, therefore, Babar invaded India in 1526, he found it
ic26^ ^" divided among a number of local Muhammadan kings and
Hindu princes. An Afghan Sultan of the house of Lodi,
with his capital at Agra, ruled over what little was left of the
Early life historical kingdom of Delhi. Babar, literally the Lion, born
of Babar, -^^ jaS2, was the sixth in descent from Timiir the Tartar. At
1402-1520.
the early age of twelve, he succeeded his father in the petty
kingdom of Ferghana on the Jaxartes (1494); and after
romantic adventures, conquered Samarkand, the capital of
Tamerlane's line in 1497. Overpowered by rebellion, and
driven out of the Valley of the Oxus, he seized the kingdom of
Kabul in 1504. During twenty-two years he grew in strength
Invades o^i the Afghan side of the Indian passes, till in 1526 he burst
India, through them into the Punjab, and defeated the Delhi sovereign
Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat. This was the first of the three great
Battles of battles which decided the fate of India on that same plain, viz.
Tanipat. -j^ 1526, 1556, and 1761. Having entered Delhi, he received
the allegiance of the Muhammadans, but was speedily attacked
Conquers by the Rajputs of Chittor. In 1527, Bdbar defeated them at
Northern Fatehpur Sikri near Agra, after a battle memorable for its perils
,'^26^-30. ^"^ ^o^ Babar's vow, in his extremity, never again to touch
wine. He rapidly extended his power as far as Miiltdn and
Behar. He died at Agra in 1530, leaving an Empire which
stretched from the river Amu in Central Asia to the borders
of the Gangetic delta in Lower Bengal.
Ilumayun, His son, HuMAYUN, succeeded him in India, but had to
ic^o-S*^' make over Kabul and the Western Punjab to his rival brother
Kdmraa^ Humdyiin was thus left to govern a new conquest,
A.D. * Reign of Uumayun : —
1530. Accession to the throne. Capture of Lahore and occupation of the
Punjab by his rival brother Kamran. Final defeat of the Lodis under
Mahmud Lodf, and acquisition of Jaunpur by Humayun.
1532. Humayun's campaigns in Malwa and Gujatat.
\Footuote contimtcd on ncxf fa^e.
HUM A YUN AND AKBAR. 291
and at the same time was deprived of the base from which his
father had drawn his supplies. The Mughal hordes who had
accompanied Babar were more hateful to the long-settled
Indian Afghans than the Hindus themselves. After ten years
of fighting, Humayiin was driven out of India by the Bengali Humayun
Afghans under Sher Shah, the Governor of Bengal. While fly- ^^^^^^^
ing through the desert of Sind, as an exile to Persia, his famous Shah.
son Akbar was born to him in the petty fort of Umarkot (1542).
Sher Shah set up as Emperor, but was killed while storming Afghan
the rock-fortress at Kalinjar (1545). His son succeeded to ^",p^^ °^
his power. But under his grandson, the third of the Afghan 1540-56.
house, the Provinces revolted, including Malwa, the Punjab,
and Bengal. Humdyun returned to India, and with Akbar, then
only in his thirteenth year, defeated the Indo-Afghan army
after a desperate battle at Pam'pat (1556). India now passed
finally from the Afghans to the Mughals. Sher Shah's line dis- Humayun
appears : and Humayun, having recovered his Kabul dominions, {"^^^J"^
reigned again for a few months at Delhi, but died in 1556.
Akbar the Great, the real founder of the Mughal Empire Akbar the
as it existed for two centuries, succeeded his father at the age of Great,
fourteen.^ Born in 1542, his reign lasted for almost fifty years, "'*
from 1556 to 1605, and was therefore contemporary with that
of our own Queen Elizabeth (i 558-1 603). His father, Huma-
yiin, left but a small kingdom in India, scarcely extending
beyond the districts around Agra and Delhi. At the time of
Humayun's death, Akbar was absent in the Punjab under the
guardianship of Bairam Khan, fighting the revolted Afghans.
Bairam, a Tiirkoman by birth, had been the support of the
exiled Humayun, and held the real command of the army
which restored him to his throne at Panipat in 1556. He now
1539. Humayiin defeated by Sher Shah, the Afghan ruler of Bengal, at
Chapar Ghat, near Baxar, the Mughal army being utterly routed.
Retreats to Agra.
1540. Humayun finally defeated by Sher Shah near Kanauj, and escapes
to Persia as an exile. Sher Shah ascends the Delhi throne.
1556. Humayun's return to India, and defeat of the Afghans at Panipat by
his young son Akbar. Remounts the throne, but dies in a few
months, and is succeeded by Akbar.
For dates see Thomas' Pathdn Kings, pp. 379, 380. Materials for Huma-
yun's reign : Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. iv. v. vi. ; Firishta,
vol. ii. pp. 154-180 (1829) ; Elphinstone, pp. 441-472 (1866).
1 Materials for reign of Akbar : the Ain-i-Akbari, of Abul Fazl (old
translation by Francis Gladwin, 2 vols., i8co ; best edition by Professor
Blochmann (Calcutta, 1873), left unfinished at his death) ; Sir Henry
Elliot's Persian Historians, vols. i. v. and vi. ; Firishta, vol. ii. pp. 1812-82 ;
Elphinstone, 495-547 (1866).
292
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
Bairam
Rej^ent,
1556-60.
Akbar
reigns for
himself,
1560.
Akbar 's
work in
India.
became the Regent for the youthful Akbar, under the honoured
title of Khan Baba, equivalent to ' the King's Father.' Brave
and skilful as a general, but harsh and overbearing, he raised
many enemies; and Akbar, having endured four years of
thraldom, took advantage of a hunting - party to throw off his
minister's yoke (1560). The fallen Regent, after a struggle
between his loyalty and his resentment, revolted, was defeated,
but pardoned. Akbar granted him a liberal pension ; and
Bairam was in the act of starting on a pilgrimage to Mecca,
when he fell beneath the knife of an Afghan assassin, whose
father he had slain in battle.
The chief events in the reign of Akbar are summarized
below. ^ India was seething with discordant elements. The
earlier invasions by Turks, Afghans, and Mughals had left a
powerful Muhammadan population in India under their own
chiefs. Akbar reduced these Musalmdn States to Provinces
of the Delhi Empire. Many of the Hindu kings and Rajput
nations had also regained their independence ; Akbar brought
them into political dependence to his authority. This double
task he effected partly by force of arms, but in part also by
1 Reign of Akbar, i 556-1605 :—
1542. Born at Umarkot in Sind.
1555-56. Regains the Delhi throne for his father by the great victory over
the Afghans at Panipat (Bairam Khan in actual command). Succeeds
his father after a few months in 1556, under regency of Bairam Khan.
1560. Akbar assumes the direct management of the kingdom. Revolt of
Bairam, who is defeated and pardoned.
1566. Invasion of the Punjab by Akbar's rival brother Hakim, who is
defeated.
1561-68. Akbar subjugates the Rajput kingdoms to the Mughal Empire.
1572-73. Akbar's campaign in Gujarat, and its re-annexation to the Empire.
1576. Akbar's re-conquest of Bengal ; its final annexation to the Mughal
Empire.
1581-93. Insurrection in Gujarat. The Province finally subjugated in
1593 to the Mughal Empire.
1586. Akbar's conquest of Kashmir : its final revolt quelled in 1592.
1592. Akbar's conquest and annexation of Sind to the Mughal Empire.
1594. His subjugation of Kandahar, and consolidation of the Mughal Empire
over all India north of the Vindhyas as far as Kabul and Kandahar.
1595. Unsuccessful expedition of Akbar's army to the Deccan against
Ahmadnagar under his son Prince Murad.
1599. Second expedition against Ahmadnagar by Akbar in person. Cap-
tures the town, but fails to establish Mughal rule.
1601. Annexation of Khandesh, and return of Akbar to Northern India.
1605. Akbar's death at Agra.
N.B. — Such phrases as 'Akbar's conquest' or * Akbar's campaign'
mean the conquest or campaign by Akbar's armies, and do not necessarily
imply his personal presence.
AKBAR'S HINDU POLICY. 293
alliances. He enlisted the Rajput princes by marriage and Concilia-
by a sympathetic policy in the support of his throne. He V?" f "^
then employed them in high posts, and played off his Hindu
generals and Hindu ministers against the Mughal party in
Upper India, and against the Afghan faction in Bengal.
On his accession in 1556, he found the Indian Empire
confined to the Punjab, and the districts around Agra and
Delhi. He quickly extended it at the expense of his nearest Akbar
neighbours, namely, the Rajputs. Jaipur was reduced to a extends
fief of the Empire ; and Akbar cemented his conquest by Empire,
marrying the daughter of its Hindu prince. Jodhpur was in
like manner overcome ; and Akbar married his heir, Sali'm,
who afterwards reigned under the title of Jahangir, to the
grand-daughter of the Raja. The Rajputs of Chittor were
overpowered after a long struggle, but disdained to mingle their Reduction
high-caste Kshattriyan blood even with that of an Emperor. -5 '^^R"'''
They found shelter among the mountains and in the deserts
of the Indus, whence they afterwards emerged to recover
most of their old dominions, and to found their capital of
Udaipur, which they retain to this day. They still boast that
alone, among the great Rajput clans, .they never gave a
daughter in marriage to a Mughal Emperor.
Akbar pursued his policy of conciliation towards all the Hindu
States. He also took care to provide a career for the lesser Employ-
Hindu nobility. He appointed his Hindu brother-in-law, the ^y^\ °?
son of the Jaipur Raja, to be Governor of the Punjab. Rajd
Man Singh, also a Hindu relative, did good war-service for Akbar Man
from Kabul to Orissa. He ruled as Akbar's Governor of^"^S"-
Bengal from 1589 to 1604; and again for a short time under
Jahangir in 1605-06. Akbar's great finance minister. Raja Todar
Todar Mall, was likewise a Hindu, and carried out the first ^^^^^•
land settlement and survey of India. Out of 415 mansabddrs,
or commanders of horse, 51 were Hindus. Akbar abolished
\.hQjaziah, or tax on non-Musalmans, and placed all his sub-
jects upon a political equality. He had the Sanskrit sacred
books and epic poems translated into Persian, and showed a
keen interest in the literature and religion of his Hindu sub-
jects. He respected their laws, but he put down their in- Reform of
human rites. He forbade trial by ordeal, animal sacrifices, ^mdu
and child -marriages before the age of puberty. He legalized
the re-marriage of Hindu widows, but he failed to abolish
widow-burning on the husband's funeral pile, although he took
steps to ensure that the act should be a voluntary one.
Akbar thus incorporated his Hindu subjects into the
294 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
Indian effective machinery of his Empire. With their aid he reduced
madan"* ^^^ independent Muhammadan kings of Northern India. He
States subjugated the Musahnan potentates from the Punjab to
Akb^^^ ^y Behar. After a struggle, he wrested Bengal from its Afghan
princes of the house of Sher Shah, who had ruled it from
1539 to 1576. From the latter date, Bengal remained during
two centuries a Province of the Mughal Empire, under
governors appointed from Delhi (15 76-1 765). In 1765 it
passed by an imperial grant to the British. Orissa, on the
Bengal seaboard, submitted to Akbar's armies under his Hindu
general, Todar Mall, in 1574.
On the opposite coast of India, Gujarat was reconquered from
its Muhammadan king in 157 2-73, although not finally subjugated
until 1593. Malwa had been reduced in 1570-72. Kashmir
was conquered in 1586, and its last revolt quelled in 1592. Sind
was also annexed in 1591-92; and by the recovery of Kandahar
in 1594, Akbar had extended the Mughal Empire from the
heart of Afghanistan across all India north of the Vindhyas to
Orissa and Sind. The magnificent circumference of Mughal
conquest in Northern India and Afghanistan was thus complete.
Capital Akbar also removed the seat of the Mughal government
fro^^elhi ^^^"^ Delhi to Agra, and founded Fatehpur Sikri to be the future
to Agra, capital of the Empire. From this latter project he was, how-
ever, dissuaded, by the superior position of Agra on the great
water-way of the Jumna. In 1566 he built the Agra fort, whose
red sandstone battlements majestically overhang the river to
this day.
Akbar's His efforts to establish the Mughal Empire in Southern India
Southern ^^^^ ^^^^ successful. Those efforts began in 1586, but during
India. the first twelve years were frustrated by the valour and states-
manship of Chand Bibi, the queen - regent of Ahmadnagar.
This celebrated lady skilfully united the Abyssinian and the
Persian factions ^ in the Deccan, and strengthened herself by
an alliance with Bijdpur and other Muhammadan States of
the south. In 1599, Akbar led his armies in person against
the princess; but, notwithstanding her assassination by her
mutinous troops, Ahmadnagar was not reduced till the reign
Only of Shdh Jahan, in 1637. Akbar subjugated Khandesh ; and
Klidndesh ^^^ ^^*^ somewhat precarious annexation, his conquests in
the Deccan ceased. He returned to Northern India, perhaps
feeling that the conquest of the south was beyond the strength
of his young Empire. His last years were rendered miserable
by the intrigues of his family, and by the misconduct of his
* Professing the hostile Sunni and Shiah creeds.
AKBAKS NE W RELIGION. 295
beloved son, Prince Salim, afterwards Jahangir. In 1605 he His death.
died, and was buried in the noble mausoleum at Sikandra,
whose mingled architecture of Buddhist design and Arabesque
tracery bear witness to the composite faith of the founder of
the Mughal Empire. In 1873, the British Viceroy, Lord
Northbrook, presented a cloth of honour to cover the plain
marble slab beneath which Akbar lies.
Akbar's conciliation of the Hindus, and his interest in their
literature and religion, made him many enemies among the
pious Musalmans. His favourite wife was a Rajput princess ;
another of his wives is said to have been a Christian ; and he
ordered his son Prince Murad, when a child, to take lessons in
Christianity. On Fridays (the Sabbath of Islam) he loved to Akbar's
collect professors of many relierions around him. He listened rehgious
T3rinciDlcs.
impartially to the arguments of the Brahman and the Musalman,
the Parsi, the ancient fire-worshipper, the Jew, the Jesuit, and the
sceptic philosopher. The history of his life, the Akbar-ndmah,
records such a conference, in which the Christian priest Redif
disputed with a body of Muhammadan viiiUds before an assembly
of the doctors of all religions, and is given the best of the argu-
ment. Starting from the broad ground of general toleration,
Akbar was gradually led on by the stimulant of cosmopolitan
discussion to question the truth of his inherited beliefs.
The counsels of his friend Abul Fazl,^ coinciding with that
sense of superhuman omnipotence which is bred of despotic
power, led him at last to promulgate a new State religion, — ' the His new-
Divine Faith,' based upon natural theology, and comprising ^^^ '
the best practices of all known creeds. Of this eclectic creed
Akbar himself was the prophet, or rather the head of the Church.
Every morning he worshipped in public^ the sun, as the repre-
sentative of the divine soul which animates the universe,
while he was himself worshipped by the ignorant multitude. Divine
It is doubtful how far he encouraged this popular adoration, TjJJ^ar'^^ ^^
but he certainly allowed his disciples to prostrate themselves
before him in private. The stricter Muhammadans accused
him, therefore, of accepting a homage permitted only to God.-
1 Abul Fazl is accused, by the unanimous voice of the Muhammadan
historians, of leading away Akbar's religious sympathies from Islam. See
the valuable biography of Shaikh Abtil Fazl-i-\4ildmi, prefixed to Eloch-
mann's Ain-i-Akliari, p. xxix., etc.
* Akbar's perversion from Islam has formed the subject of much learned
censure by Mulla 'Abdul Kadir Badauni and other Musalman writers.
The question is exhaustively dealt with by Blochmann in a * Note ' of 46
pages : Ain-i-Akhari, pp. 167-213. See also Sir Henr)' Elliot's Persian
HistoriauSy vol. v. pp. 477 el scq.
296 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
Akbar's Akbar not only subdued all India to the north of the
tlwf of The ^^"<^^y^ Mountains, he also organized it into an Empire.
Empire. He partitioned it into Provinces, over each of which he placed
a Governor, or Viceroy, with full civil and military control.
This control was divided into three departments — the military,
Army the judicial, including the police, and the revenue. With a
view to preventing mutinies of the troops, or assertions of
independence by their leaders, he reorganized the army on
a new basis. He substituted, as far as possible, money
payments to the soldiers, for the old system of grants of land
{j'dgirs) to the generals. Where this change could not be
carried out, he brought the holders of the old military fiefs
under the control of the central authority at Delhi. He further
checked the independence of his provincial generals by a sort
of feudal organization, in which the Hindu tributary princes
took their place side by side with the Mughal nobles.
Akbar's The judicial administration was presided over by a lord justice
jusdce °^ {Mir-i-adl) at the capital, aided by Kdzis or law-officers in
the principal towns. The police in the cities were under a
superintendent or kotivdl, who was also a magistrate. In
country districts where police existed at all, they were left
to the management of the landholders or revenue officers.
But throughout rural India, no regular police force can be said
to have existed for the protection of person and property until
and police, after the establishment of British rule. The Hindu village
had its hereditary watchman, who in many parts of the
country was taken from the predatory castes, and as often
leagued with the robbers as opposed them. The landholders
and revenue-officers had each their own set of myrmidons
who plundered the peasantry in their names.
Akbar's Akbar's revenue system was based on the ancient Hindu
revenue customs, and survives to this day. He first executed a survey
to measure the land. His officers then found out the
produce of each acre of land, and settled the Government
share, amounting to one-third of the gross produce. Finally,
they fixed the rates at which this share of the crop might be
commuted into a money payment. These processes, known
as the land settlement, were at first repeated every year.
But to save the peasant from the extortions and vexations
incident to an annual inquiry, Akbar's land settlement was
afterwards made for ten years. His officers strictly enforced
the payment of a third of the whole produce, and Akbar's
land revenue from Northern India exceeded what the British
take at the present day.
AKBAR'S Z^A^Z>-r^X^'^^:=^==^^=^297
From his fifteen Provinces, including Kabul beyond the
Afchan frontier, and Khandesh in Southern India, Akbar Akbar's
11
demanded 14 millions sterling per annum ; or excluding Kabul, ^g^g^yg^
Khandesh, and Sind, 1 24 millions. The British land-tax from
a much larger area of Northern India was only iif millions
in 1883.1 Allowing for the difference in area and in the
purchasing power of silver, Akbar's tax was about three times
the amount which the British take. Two later returns show
the land revenue of Akbar at 16J and 17 J millions sterling. His total
The Provinces had also to support a local militia {bttmi =
bhumi) in contradistinction to the regular royal army, at a cost *
of at least 10 millions sterling. Excluding both Kabul and
Khandesh, Akbar's demand from the soil of Northern India
exceeded 22 millions sterling per annum, under the two items
of land revenue and militia cess. There were also a number
of miscellaneous taxes. Akbar's total revenue is estimated at
42 millions. 2
^Namely, Bengal, ;^3, 816,796; Assam, ^"385, 504; North - Western
I'rovinces and Oudb, ;^5, 700,816; and Punjab, ;i^i,889,8o7 : total,
£il,'J()2,g2i.—Admimsh'aiiott Reports (1882-83).
2 Provinces of the Delhi Empire under Akbar, circ. 1580.
Land-tax in Rupees.
I. Allahabad, .
5,310,677
2. Agra,
13,656,257
3. Oudh,
5,043,954
4. Ajmere,
7,153,449
5. Gujarat,
10,924,122
6. Behar,
5,547,985
7. Bengal,
14,961,482
8. Delhi,
15,040,388
9. Lahore,
13,986,460
10. Mill tan.
9,600,764
II. Malwa,
6,017,376
12. Berar,
17,376,117
13. Khandesh, .
7,563,237
14. Ahmadnagar (only nominally a
Province,
yielded no
revenue),
...
15. Tatta(Sind),
.
1,656,284
Total, . 133,838,552
16. Kabul (omitting payments in kind), . 8,071,024
Grand Total, . 141,909,576
The land revenue was returned at 16^ millions- sterling in 1594, and
;/"i 7,450,000 at Akbar's death in 1605. The aggregate taxation of Akbar
was 32 millions sterling ; with 10 millions for militia cess {Inimi) ; total,
42 millions sterling. See Thomas' Reirmie Resources of the Mughal Empire,
pp. 5-21 and p. 54 (Triibner, 1871). These and the following conversions
298 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
The large Since the first edition of this work was written, the author
Mughal ^^^ carefully reconsidered the evidence for the large revenue
taxation, totals Under the Mughal Emperors. The principal authority
on the subject is Mr. Edward Thomas, F.R.S., who has summed
up the results of a lifetime devoted to Indian numismatics, in
his Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire fro7n a.d. 1593
to A.D. 1707.1 No one can study that work without acknow-
ledging the laborious and accurate research which Mr. Thomas
Are they to has devoted to the points involved. His results were accepted
be rehed without reserve in the first edition of The Imperial Gazetteer
of India. Since the publication of this work, however, the
author has received several communications from Mr. H. G.
Keene, questioning the soundness of Mr. Thomas' conclusions.
Those conclusions point to a comparatively heavier taxation |
under the Mughal Emperors than under British rule ; and ^
have been made the basis of contrasts flattering to the British
administration. The author felt it, therefore, incumbent on him
to submit Mr. Keene's views to the scrutiny of the two most
eminent numismatists now living, namely General Cunningham
and Mr. Edward Thomas himself.
Mr. Thomas, after examining the counter-statements, ad-
General heres to his former conclusions. General Cunningham is
Cunning- inclined to think that the great totals of revenue recorded by
Muhammadan writers, could not have been actually enforced
from India at the different periods to which they refer. He
thinks that individual items may be reduced by a technical
scrutiny. 2 But that scrutiny only affects certain of the entries.
He rests his general conclusion on wider grounds, and believes
that the revenues recorded by the Muhammadan writers re-
present rather the official demand than the amounts actually
realized. The following pages will reproduce Mr. Edward
Thomas' conclusions, as revised by himself for the first edition
of this work. But they are reproduced subject to the con-
siderations stated in the present paragraph.
are made at the nominal rate of 10 rupees to the pound sterling. But
the actual rate was then about 8 or 9 rupees to the £. The real revenues
of the Mughal Emperors represented, therefore, a considerably larger sum
in sterling than the amounts stated in the text and footnotes. The pur-
chasing power of silver, expressed in the staple food-grains of India, was
two or three times greater than now.
' This monograph was written as a supplement to Mr. Thomas' ChronkUs
of the Pathdn Kings of Delhi. (TrUbner & Co., 1 871.)
* See General Cunningham's Letter, dated 5th July 1883, printed in
the paper 'On some Copper Coins of Akbar,' in the Joiirtial of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. liv. Part I., 1885.
ham's
view
GROWTH OF MUGHAL REVENUES.
299
It may be here convenient to exhibit the revenues of the Mughal
Mughal Empire in India, as compiled by Mr. Edward Thomas ""^^'^""l^^
from Muhammadan authorities and European travellers, during a.d.
the century from its practical foundation by Akbar to its final
expansion under Aurangzeb in 1697, and thence to its fall in
1761 : —
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300 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
RajaTodar Akbar's Hindu minister, Raja Todar Mall, conducted the
^ '• revenue settlement, and his name is still a household word
Abul Fazl. among the husbandmen of Bengal. Abul Fazl, the man of
letters and Finance Minister of Akbar, compiled a Statistical
Survey of the Empire, together with many vivid pictures of his
master's court and daily life, in the AUi-i-Akban — a work of
])erennial interest, and one which has proved of great value in
carrying out the Statistical Survey of India at the present day.i
Abul Fazl was killed in 1602, at the instigation of Prince
Salim, the heir to the throne.
Salim, the favourite son of Akbar, succeeded his father in
Jahangir, 1605, ^^<^ ruled until 1627 under the title of Jahangir, or
160--27'' Conqueror of the World. The chief events of his reign are
summarized below. ^ His reign of twenty-two years w^as spent
in reducing the rebellions of his sons, in exalting the influence
^ The old translation is by Gladwin (1800) ; the best is by the late Mr.
Blochmann, Principal of the Calcutta Madrasah^ or Muhammadan college,
whose early death was one of the greatest losses which Persian scholarship
has sustained in this century.
2 Reign of Jahangir, 1605-27 : —
1605. Accession of Jahangir.
1606. Flight, rebellion, and imi!>ri.sonment of his eldest son, Khusru.
1 610. Malik Ambar recovers Ahmadnagar from the Mughals, and re-asserts
independence of the Deccan dynasty, with its new capital at Aurang-
abad.
1611. Jahangir's marriage with Nur Jahan.
1 61 2. Jahangir again defeated by Malik Ambar in an attempt to recover
Ahmadnagar.
1613-14. Defeat of the Udaipur Raja by Jahangir's son Shah Jahan.
Unsuccessful revolt in Kabul against Jahangir.
1615. Embassy of Sir T. Roe to' the Court of Jahangir.
1616-17. Temporary re-conquest of Ahmadnagar by Jahangir's son Shah
Jahan.
1 62 1. Renewed 'disturbances in the Deccan; ending in treaty with Shah
Jahan. Capture of Kandahar from Jahangir'^ troops by the Persians.
1623-25. Rebellion against Jahangir by his son Shah Jahan, who, after
defeating the Governor of Bengal at Rajmahal, seized that Province
and Behar, but was himself overthrown by Mahabat Khan, his father's
general, and sought refuge in the Deccan, where he unites with his old
opponent Malik Ambar.
1626. The successful general Mahabat Khan seizes the person of Jahangir.
Intrigues of the Empress Nur Jahan.
1627. Jahangir recovers his liberty, and sends Mahabat Khan against
Shah Jahan in the Deccan. Mahabat joins the rebel prince against
the Emperor Jahangir.
1627. Death of Jahangir.
Materials for Jahangir's reign : Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians,
vols. v. vi. and vii. ; Elphinstone, pp. 550-603.
JAHANGIR, 1605-1627. 301
of his wife, and in drunken self-indulgence. In spite of long
wars in the Deccan, he added little to his father's territories.
India south of the Vindhyas still continued apart from the
northern Empire of Delhi. Malik Ambar, the Abyssinian
minister of Ahmadnagar, maintained, in spite of reverses, the
independence of that kingdom. At the end of Jahangir's Rebellion
reign, his rebel son, Prince Shah Jahan, was a refugee in the «' lesson.
Deccan, in alliance with Malik Ambar against the Mughal
troops. The Rajputs also began to re-assert their indepen-
dence. In 1614, Prince Shah Jahan on behalf of the Emperor
defeated the Udaipur Raja. But the conquest was only
partial and for a time. Meanwhile, the Rajputs formed an Revolt
important contingent of the imperial armies, and 5000 of^^,^^^
their cavalry aided Shan Jahan to put down a revolt in Kabul.
The Afghan Province of Kandahar was wrested from Jahangir
by the Persians in 1621. The land-tax of the Mughal Empire
remained at 17J millions under Jahangir, but his total revenues
were estimated at 50 millions sterling.^
The principal figure in Jahangir's reign is his Empress, Nur The Em-
Jahan,2 the Light of the World. Born in great poverty, but F^^f^^"'^
of a noble Persian family, her beauty won the love of Jahangir
while they were both in their first youth, during the reign of
Akbar. The old Emperor tried to put her out of his son's
way, by marrying her to a brave soldier, who obtained high
employment in Bengal. Jahangir on his accession to the
throne commanded her divorce. Her husband refused, and
was killed. His wife, being brought into the imperial palace,
lived for some time in chaste seclusion as his widow, but in
the end emerged as Niir Jahan, the Light of the World. She
surrounded herself with her relatives, and at first influenced
Jahangir for his good. But the jealousy of the imperial
princes and of the Mughal generals against her party led to
intrigue and rebellion. In 1626, her successful general,
Mahabat Khan, found himself compelled, in self-defence, to
turn against her. He seized the Emperor, whom he kept,
together with Niir Jahan, in captivity for six months. Jahangir
died in the following year, 1627, in the midst of a rebeUion
against him by his son Shah Jahan and his greatest general,
Mahabat Khan.
Jahangir's personal character is vividly portrayed by Sir Jahangir's
Thomas Roe, the first British Ambassador to India (1615). "P^'^so"^^
\ J/ character.
^ Mr. Edward Thomas' Kevcmie Resources of the Mughal Ejnpire^
pp. 21-26 and p. 54.
- Otherwise linown as Nur Mahal, the Light of the Palace.
302 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
Agra continued to be the central seat of the government,
but the imperial army on the march formed in itself a splendid
capital. Jahangir thought that Akbar had too openly severed
himself from the Muhammadan faith. The new Emperor con-
formed more strictly to outward observances, but lacked the
His inward religious feeling of his father. While he forbade the
feast-'^" use of wine to his subjects, he spent his own nights in drunken
revelry. He talked religion over his cups until he reached
a certain stage of intoxication, when he ' fell to weeping, and
to various passions, which kept them to midnight.' In public
he maintained a strict appearance of virtue, and never allowed
any person whose breath smelled of wine to enter his presence.
A courtier who had shared his midnight revels, and indiscreetly
referred to them next morning, was gravely examined as to
who were the companions of his debauch, and one of them
was bastinadoed so that he died.
Jahangir's During the day-time, when sober, Jahangir tried to work
justice. -wisely for his Empire. A chain hung down from the
citadel to the ground, and communicated with a cluster of
golden bells in his own chamber, so that every suitor might
apprise the Emperor of his demand for justice without the
intervention of the courtiers. Many European adventurers
repaired to his court, and Jahangir patronized alike their arts
' and their religion. In his earlier years he had accepted the
eclectic faith of his father. It is said that on his accession he
had even permitted the divine honours paid to Akbar to be
continued to himself. His first wife was a Hindu princess ;
^\^ . figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary adorned his rosary ;
rehgion. ° , ^ , . , , . ^/ . . . • , , . /,,
and two of his nephews embraced Christianity with his full
approval.^
Shah Shah Jahan hurried north from the Deccan in 1627, and
i'lnDeror proclaimed himself Emperor at Agra in January 1628.'^ He
.mperor,
[628-58.
^ Elphinstone's Jlist, p. 560 (ed. 1866), on the authority of Roe,
Hawkins, Terry, Coryat.
* Materials for Shah Jahan's reign : Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Bis-l
torians^ vols. vi. vii. and viii. ; Elphinstone, pp. 574-603.
Reign of Shah Jahan, 1628-58 :—
1627. Imprisonment of Nur Jahan on the death of Jahangir, by Asaf Khau^
on behalf of Shah Jahan.
1628. Shah Jahan returns from the Deccan and ascends the thronej
(January). lie murders his brother and kinsmen.
1628-30. Afghan uprisings against Shah Jahan in Northern India and in
the Deccan.
[Footnote continued on next page.
SHAH JAHAN, 1628-1658. 303
put down for ever the court faction of the Empress Niir Jahan,
by confining her to private life upon a liberal allowance ; and
by murdering his brother Shahriyar, with all members of the
house of Akbar who might prove rivals to the throne. He was,
however, just to his people, blameless in his private habits, a
good financier, and as economical as a magnificent court,
splendid public works, and distant military expeditions could
permit.
Under Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire was finally shorn of Shah
its Afghan Province of Kandahar ; but it extended its con- J^^^^
quests in the Deccan, and raised the magnificent buildings in Kandahar,
Northern India which now form its most splendid memorials, finally in
After a temporary occupation of Balkh, and the actual re-con- "'
quest of Kandahar by the Delhi troops in 1637, Shah Jahan
lost much of his Afghan territories, and the Province of
Kandahar was severed from the Mughal Empire by the
Persians in 1653. On the other hand, in the Deccan, the
kingdom of Ahmadnagar (to which Ellichpur had been united
in 1572) was at last annexed to the Mughal Empire in 1636.
Bi'dar fort was taken in 1657, while the remaining two of the Conquests
five Muhammadan kingdoms of Southern India,i namely '^ \^
Bijapur and Golconda, were forced to pay tribute, although
not finally reduced until the succeeding reign of Aurangzeb.
But the Marathas now appear on the scene, and commenced,
1629-35. Shah Jahan's wars in the Deccan with Ahmadnagar and Bijapur ;
unsuccessful siege of Bijapur.
1634. Shahji Bhonsla, grandfather of Sivaji, the founder of the Maratha
power, attempts to restore the independent King of Ahmadnagar, but
fails, and in 1636 makes peace with the Emperor Shah Jahan.
1636. Bijapur and Golconda agree to pay tribute to Shah Jahan. Final
submission of Ahmadnagar to the Mughal Empire.
1637. Re-conquest of Kandahar by Shah Jahan from the Persians.
1645. Invasion and temporary conquest of Balkh by Shah Jahan. Balkh
was abandoned two years later.
1647-53. Kandahar again taken by the Persians, and three unsuccessful
attempts made by the Emperor's sons Aurangzeb and Dara to recap-
ture it. Kandahar finally lost to the Mughal Empire, 1653.
1655-56. Renewal of the war in the Deccan under Prince Aurangzeb.
His attack on Haidarabad, and temporary submission of the Golconda
king to the Mughal Empire.
1656. Renewed campaign of Shah Jahan's armies against Bijapur.
1657-58. Dispute as to the succession between the Emperor's sons.
Aurangzeb defeats Dara ; imprisons Murad, his other brother ; deposes
his father by confining him in his palace, and openly assumes the
government. Shah Jahan dies, practically a State prisoner in the
lort of Agra, in 1 666.
1 Vide ante, end of chap. x. .
304 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1 526-1 761.
unsuccessfully at Ahmadnagar in 1637, that series of persistent
Hindu attacks which were destined in the next century to break
down the Mughal Empire.
Aurangzeb and his brothers carried on the wars in Southern
India and in Afghanistan for their father, Shah Jahan.
^^^,^ , Save for one or two expeditions, the Emperor lived a mag-
iuiidin.- 1 . 1 1 ,. TT- , Hindus.
Hindu general Jaswant Smgh. A local sect of Hindus was
forced into rebellion in 1676 ; and m 1677, the Rajput States The Raj-
combined against him. The Emperor waged a protracted war P"^^ revolt,
1 Aurangzeb's Letters form a popular Persian book in India to this day.
His counsels to his sons are edifying and most pathetic ; and the whole
work is written in a deeply religious tone, which could scarcely have been
assumed.
3IO THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
and can-
not be
subdued.
Aurang-
zeb's
revenues.
The land
revenue,
30 to 38
millions.
Maximum
Mughal
land-tax.
against them ; at one time devastating Rajputana, at another
time saving himself and his army from extermination only by a
stroke of genius and rare presence of mind. In 1679, ^is son,
Prince Akbar, rebelled and joined the Rajputs with his division
of the Mughal army. From that year, the permanent alienation
of the Rajputs from the Mughal Empire dates ; and the
Hindu chivalry, which had been a source of strength to Akbar
the Great, became an element of ruin to Aurangzeb and his
successors. The Emperor sacked and slaughtered throughout
the Rajput States of Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur. The
Rajputs retaliated by ravaging the Muhammad an Provinces
of Malwa, defacing the mosques, insulting the ministers
of Islam, and burning the Kuran. In 1681, the Emperor
patched up a peace in order to allow him to lead the Grand
Army into the Deccan, from which he was destined never to
return.
All Northern India except Assam, and the greater part of
Southern India, paid revenue to Aurangzeb. His Indian
Provinces covered nearly as large an area as the British
Empire at the present day, although their dependence on
the central Government was less direct. From these Pro-
vinces his net land-revenue demand is returned at 30 to 38
millions sterling; a sum which represented at least three
times the purchasing power of the land revenue of British
India at the present day. But it is doubtful whether the
enormous demand of 38 millions was fully reahzed during
any series of years, even at the height of Aurangzeb's power
before he left Delhi for his long southern wars. It was
estimated at only 30 millions in the last year of his reign,
after his absence of a quarter of a century in the Deccan.
Fiscal oppressions led to evasions and revolts, while some or
other of the Provinces were always in open war against the
Emperor.
The following statements exhibit the Mughal Empire in its final
development, just before it began to break up. The standard
return of Aurangzeb's land revenue was net ;£34,5o5,89o ;
and this remained the nominal demand in the accounts of
the central exchequer during the next half-century, notwith-
standing that the Empire had fallen to pieces. When the
Afghdn invader, Ahmad Shdh Duranf, entered Delhi in 1761,
the treasury officers presented him with a statement showing
the land revenue of the Empire at ;£"34, 506,640. The highest
land revenue of Aurangzeb, after his annexations in Southern
India, and before his final reverses, was 38 J millions sterling ;
PROVINCES UNDER AURANGZEB,
311
of which close on 38 milhons were from Indian Provinces. ^
The total revenue of x^urangzeb was estimated in 1695 at 80
millions, and in 1697 at 77-i- millions sterling.- The gross
taxation levied from British India, deducting the opium excise,
which is paid by the Chinese consumer, averaged 35 J millions
sterhng during the ten years ending 1879; ^"^ 4^1 ™llions
from 1879 ^^o 1883. The table on a previous page, showing the
growth of the revenues of the Mughal Empire from Akbar to
Aurangzeb, may be contrasted with the taxation of British
India, as given in chapter xv.
1 Provinces of the Delhi Empire under Aurangzeb.
Highest
total re-
venue, 80
millions,
1695.
Land Revenue of
Aurangzeb
Land Revenue of
Aurangzeb
IN 1697 (according to Manucci).
in 1707 (according to Ramusio).
Rupees.
Rupees.
I. Delhi,.
12,550,000
^'
Delhi, .
. 30,548,753
/^Agra, .
. 22,203,550
2.
Agra, .
. 28,669,003
(3. Lahore,
23,305,000
3-
Ajmere,
16,308,634
4. Ajmere,
21,900,002
4-
Allahabad, .
11,413,581
5. Gujarat,
23,395.000
5.
Punjab,
• 20,653,302
6. Mahva,
9,906,250
6.
Oudh, .
. 8,058, 195
7. Behar,
12,150,000
7.
Multan,
5,361,073
8. Miiltan,
5,025,000
8.
Gujarat,
15,196,228
9. Tatta (Sind),
6,002,000
9.
Behar,
10,179,025
10. Bakar,
2,400,000
10.
Sind, .
2,295,420
II. Orissa,
5,707,500
II.
Daulatabad,
25,873,627
12. Allahabad, .
7,738,000
12.
Mahva,
10,097,541
13. Deccan,
16,204,750
^3-
Berar, .
15,350,625
14. Berar, .
15,807,500
14.
Khandesh, .
11,215,750
15. Khandesh, .
11,105,000
15-
Bidar, .
9,324,359
16. Baglana,
6,885,000
16.
Bengal,
13,115,906
17. Nande (Nandair)
7,200,000
17-
Orissa,
3,570,500
18. Bengal,
40,000,000
18.
Haidarabad,
27,834,000
19. Ujjain,
20,000,000
19.
Bijapur,
26,957,625
20. Rajmahal, .
10,050,000
21. Bijapur,
50,000,000
Total,
292,023,147
22. Golconda, .
50,000,000
20.
Kashmir,
5,747,734
21.
Kabul,
4,025,983
Total,
379,534,552
23. Kashmir,
3,505,000
Grand Total, .
301,796,864
24. Kabul,
3,207,250
or
;^30,i79,686
Grand Total,
386,246,802
or ;^38,624,68o
The above lists are taken from Mr. Edward Thomas' Revenue Resources
of the Mughal Empire, pp. 46 and 50. The whole subject is admirably
discussed in his chapter entitled 'Aurangzeb's Revenues,' pp. 33 et seq.
The four returns of the land revenue for his reign are, nett, 24 millions
i" 1655 ; 34i millions in later official documents ; 38I millions in 1697 ;
30 millions in 1 707.
- Mr. Edward Thomas' Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire, p. 54,
etc. (1871).
312 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
Character Aurangzeb tried to live the life of a model Muhammadan
zeb "'^^"^" Emperor. Magnificent in bis public appearances, simple in
his private habits, diligent in business, exact in his religious
observances, an elegant letter - writer, and ever ready with
choice passages alike from the poets and the Kuran, his life
would have been a blameless one, if he had had no father
to depose, no brethren to murder, and no Hindu subjects to
oppress. But his bigotry made an enemy of every one who
did not share his own faith ; and the slaughter of his kindred
compelled him to entrust his government to strangers.
The Hindus never forgave him ; and the Sikhs, the Rajputs,
and the Marathds, immediately after his reign, began to close
in upon the Empire. His Muhammadan generals and viceroys,
as a rule, served him well during his vigorous life. But at his
death they usurped his children's inheritance. The succeed-
ing Emperors were puppets in the hands of the too powerful
soldiers or statesmen who raised them to the throne, controlled
them while on it, and killed them v/hen it suited their purposes
Decline to do SO. The subsequent history of the Empire is a mere
^^I u 1 record of ruin. The chief events in its decline and fall are
Mughal
lunpire. summarized below.^
^ The Deciune ani> Fall of the Mughal Empire,
From death of Aurangzel) to that of Muhammad Bahadur Shah, 1 707-1862.
1707. Succession contest between Muazzim and Alam, two sons of
Aurangzeb ; victory of the former, and his accession under the title
of Bahadur Shah ; controlled by the General Zul-fikar Khan. Revolt
of Prince Kambaksh ; his defeat and death.
1 7 10. Expedition against the Sikhs.
1712. Death of Bahadur Shah, and accession of his eldest son, Jahandar
Shah, after a struggle for the succession ; an incapable monarch, who
only ruled through his ivazir, Zul-fikar Khan. Revolt of his nephew,
Farukhsiyyar ; defeat of the Imperial army, and execution of the
Emperor and his prime minister.
1713. Accession of Farukhsiyyar, under the auspices and control of
Husain AH, Governor of Behar, and Abdulla, Governor of Allahabad.
17 16. Invasion by the Sikhs ; their defeat, and cruel persecution.
1 7 19. Deposition and murder of Farukhsiyyar by the Sayyid chiefs
Husain AH and Abdulla. They nominate in succession three boy
Emperors, the first two of whom died within a few months after
their accession. The third, Muhammad Shah, commenced his reign
in Septemljer 17 19.
1720. Murder of Husain AH, and overthrow of the Sayyid * king-makers.'
1720-48. The Governor of the Deccan, or NizAm-ul-Mulkh, establishes his
independence, and severs the Haidarabad Provinces from the Mughal
Empire.
1732-43. The Governor of Oudh, who was also Wazlr pf the Empire,
becomes practically independent of Delhi.
[J'ootnoic continued on next pa^e.
FALL OF TILE MUGLLAL EM PL RE, 313
For a time, !Mughal Emperors still ruled India from Delhi.
But of the six immediate successors of Aurangzeb, two were The six
under the control of an unscrupulous general, Zul-fikar Khan,i ]^jj,"g^^^^
while the four others were the creatures of a couple of Sayyid
adventurers who well earned their title of the 'king-makers.'
From the year 1720, the breaking up of the Empire took a
more open form. The Nizam-ul-Mulkh, or Governor of the
1735-51. General decline of the Empire ; revolts within, and invasion of
Nadir Shah from Persia (1739). The Marathas obtain Malwa (1743),
f«jllovved by the cession of Southern Orissa and tribute from Bengal
(1751). First invasion of India by Ahmad Shah Durani, who had
obtained the throne of Kandahar (1747) ; his defeat in Sirhind
(1748).
1748. Death of Muhammad Shah.
1748-50. Accession of Ahmad Shah, his son ; disturbances by the Rohilla
Afghans in Oudh, and defeat of the Imperial troops.
1751. The Rohilla insurrection crushed with the aid of the Marathas.
1751-52. Second invasion of India by Ahmad Shah Durani, and cession
of the Punjab to him.
1754. Deposition of the Emperor, and accession of Alamgir ii.
1756. Third invasion of India by Ahmad Shah Durani, and sack of
Delhi.
1759-61. Fourth invasion of India by Ahmad Shah Durani, and murder
of the Emperor Alamgir 11. by his ivazir, Ghazi-ud-din. The Maratha
conquests in Northern India. The Marathas complete their organiza-
tion for the conquest of Hindustan ; capture of Delhi.
1 761-1805. The third battle of Panipat, between the Afghans under
Ahmad Shah and the Marathas ; defeat of the latter. From this
time the Mughal Empire ceased to exist, except in name. The
victory of Baxar, gained by Major Munro, breaks the Mughal power
in Bengal. The Diwani, or administration, of Bengal, Behar, and
Orissa is granted by the Emperor to the British in 1765. The nominal
Emperor on the death of Alamgir ii. was Shah Alam li., an exile,
who resided till 1771 in Allahabad, a pensioner of the British. In
1771 he threw in his fortunes with the Marathas, who restored him
to a fragment of his hereditary dominions. The Emperor was blinded
and imprisoned by rebels. He was afterwards rescued by the Marathas,
but was virtually a prisoner in their hands till 1803, when the Maratha
power was overthrown by Lord Lake. Shah Alam died in 1806, and
was succeeded by his son,
1806-1837. Akbar II., who succeeded only to the nominal dignity, and
lived till 1837 ; when he was followed by
1837-62. Muhammad Bahadur Shah, the seventeenth Mughal Emperor,
and last of the race of Timiir. For his complicity in the Mutiny of
1857 he was deposed and banished for life to Rangoon, where he
died, a British State prisoner, in 1862. Two of his sons and grand-
son were shot by Hodson in 1857, to prevent a rescue, and for their
participation in the murder of English women r.nd children at Delhi.
' Sir Henry Elliot's Persian Historians, vol. vii. pp. 348-558 (Triibner,
1877).
314 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1761.
Indepen-
dence
of the
Deccan,
1720-48;
of Oudh,
1732-43-
Hindu
risings.
Oppres-
sion of
the Sikhs,
1710-16.
Rajput
indepen-
dence.
1715.
The
Maratha
chauth,
1751.
Deccan/ established his independence, and severed the largest
part of Southern India from the Delhi rule (1720-48). The
Governor of Oudh,^ originally a Persian merchant, who had
risen to the post of Wazir or Prime Minister of the Empire,
established his own dynasty in the Provinces which had been
committed to his care (1732-43).
The Hindu subjects of the Empire were at the same time
establishing their independence. The Sikh sect in the Punjab,
driven by oppression into revolt, had been mercilessly crushed
in 1 7 10-16. The indelible memory of the cruelties then
inflicted by the Mughal troops nerved the Sikh nation with
that hatred to Delhi which served the British cause so well in
1857. In 1 7 16, the Sikh leader, Banda, was carried about
by the insulting Mughals in an iron cag^, tricked out in the
mockery of imperial robes, with scarlet turban and cloth
of gold. His son's heart was torn out before his eyes,
and thrown in his face. He himself was then pulled to
pieces with red-hot pincers, and the Sikhs were exterminated
like mad dogs (17 16). The Hindu princes of Rajputana were
more fortunate. Ajit Singh of Jodhpur asserted his independ-
ence, and Rajputana practically severed its connection with
the Mughal Empire in 17 15. The Marathas having enforced
their claim to black-mail {chauth) throughout Southern India,
burst through the Vindhyas upon the north, obtained the cession
of Malwa (1743) and Orissa (1751), with an Imperial grant for
tribute from Bengal (1751). But the great Hindu mihtary
revival represented by the Maratha power demands a separate
section for itself, and will be narrated in the next chapter.
Invasions
from the
north-
west,
1739-61.
Nadir
Shah,
1739.
While the Muhammadan governors and Hindu subjects of
the Empire were thus asserting their independence, two new
sets of external enemies appeared. The first of these con-
sisted of invasions from the north-west. In 1739, Nadir Shah,
the Persian, swept down with his destroying host, and, after a
massacre in the streets of Delhi and a fifty-eight days' sack,
went off with a booty estimated at 32 millions sterling.^ Six
times the Afghans burst through the passes under Ahmad Shah
Duranf, plundering, slaughtering, and then scornfully retiring to
their homes with the plunder of the Empire. In 1738, Kdbul,
the last Afghan Province of the Mughals, had been severed
from Delhi ; and in 1 752, Ahmad Shdh the Afghan obtained the
' Chin Khilich Khan or Azaf Shah, a Turkoman Sunni.
2 Saadat AH Khan, a Persian Shiah.
* Mill's History of British India, vol. ii. p. 456 (Wilson's edition, 1840).
INVASIONS FROM THE NORTH. 315
cession of the Punjab. The cruelties inflicted upon Delhi and Ahmad
Northern India during these six invasions form an appalling ^]l^\\
tale of bloodshed and wanton cruelty. The miserable capital ^f^^j^^j^
opened her gates, and was fain to receive the Afghans as invasions,
guests. Yet on one occasion it suffered for six weeks every ^ 747-6 1.
enormity which a barbarian army can inflict upon a prostrate
foe. Meanwhile the Afghan cavalry were scouring the country,
slaying, burning, and mutilating in the meanest hamlet as in
the greatest town. They took especial delight in sacking the
holy places of the Hindus, and murdering the defenceless
votaries at the shrines.
A horde of 25,000 Afghan horsemen swooped down upon Misery
the sacred city of Muttra during a festival, while it was Sf ^^^
J rovinces
thronged with peaceful Hindu pilgrims engaged in their devo- 1747-61. '
tions. ' They burned the houses,' says the Tyrolese Jesuit
Tieffenthaler, who was in India at that time, ' together with
their inmates, slaughtering others with the sword and the
lance ; hauling off into captivity maidens and youths, men and
women. In the temples they slaughtered cows,' the sacred
animal of the Hindus, ' and smeared the images and pavement
with the blood.' The border-land between Afghanistan and Afghan
India lay silent and waste ; indeed, districts far within the ^^'^^c^^^^'^-
frontier, which had once been densely inhabited, and which
are now again thickly peopled, were swept bare of inhabitants.
Another set of invaders came from the sea. In the wars invaders
between the French and Endish in Southern India, the last ^""^"^ ^^^
. sea
vestiges of the Delhi authority in the Madras Presidency dis-
appeared (1748-61). The victory of Baxar, gained by Major
Munro in 1764, broke the Mughal power in Northern India,
and drove the Emperor himself to seek shelter in our camp.
Bengal, Behar, and Orissa were handed over to the English
by an imperial grant in 1765. We technically obtained these Fall of the
fertile Provinces as the nominee of the Emperor ; but the third *^'^P^''^-
battle of Panipat had four years previously reduced the throne
of Delhi to a shadow. The third battle of Panipat was fought Battle of
in 1 76 1, between the Afghan invader Ahmad Shah and the ^f^'P^^'
Maratha powers, on the memorable plain on which Babar in
1526, and Akbar in 1556, had twice won the sovereignty of
India.
'I'hat sovereignty was now, after little more than two centuries
of Mughal rule, lost for ever by their degenerate descendants.
The Afghans defeated the Marathas at Panipat in 1761 ; and
during the anarchy which followed, the British patiently built
up a new power out of the wreck of the Mughal Empire.
3i6 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1526-1 761.
Mughal pensioners and imperial puppets reigned still at Delhi
over a numerous seraglio under such lofty titles as Akbar 11. or
Alamgir (Aurangzeb) 11. But their power was confined to the
palace, while Marathas, Sikhs, and Englishmen struggled for
Last of the the sovereignty of India. The last nominal Emperor emerged
1862^^^' for a moment as a rebel during the Mutiny of 1857, and died
a State prisoner in Rangoon in 1862.
[317]
CHAPTER XII.
THE MARATHA POWER (1634 TO 1818 A.D.).
The British won India, not from the Mughals, but from the British
Hindus. Before we appeared as conquerors, the Mughal ^^^ ^^^"'
Empire had broken up. Our conclusive wars were neither with the
the Delhi King, nor with his revolted governors, but with the ^^"g!^^^^'
two Hindu confederacies, the Marathas and the Sikhs. Our the
last Maratha war dates as late as 1818, and the Sikh Confedera- Hindus,
tion was not finally overcome until 1849.
About the year 1634, a Maratha soldier of fortune, Shahji Rise of the
B HON SLA by name, began to play a conspicuous part in ^^^'■^^^^^•
Southern India. ^ He fought on the side of the two independent S^^ H
Muhammadan States, Ahmadnagar and Bijapur, against the 1634.
Mughals ; and left a band of followers, together with a military
fief, to his son Sivaji, born in 1627.- Sivaji formed a national Sivaji.
party out of the Hindu tribes of Southern India, as opposed
alike to the imperial armies from the north, and to the
independent Muhammadan kingdoms of the Deccan. There
were thus, from 1650 onwards, three powers in the Deccan :
^ The original authorities for the Maratha history are — (i) James Grant
DufiPs History of the Maydlhds, 3 vols. (Bombay reprint, 1863) ; (2) Edward
Scott Waring's History of the Marathas (quarto, 1810) ; (3) Major WilHam
Thome's Mtiiioir of the War in India conducted by General Lord Lake
(quarto, 1818) ; (4) Sidney J- Owen's Selections from the Despatches of the
Marijnis of Wellesley (1877) ; (5) his Selections from the Indian Despatches
of the Ditke of Wellington (1880); and (6) Henry T. Prinsep's Narrative
of Political and Military Transactions of British India under the Marquis
of Hastings (quarto, 1820). The very brief notice of the Marathas which
the scope of the present work allows, precludes an exhaustive use of these
storehouses. But it should be mentioned that the later history of the
Marathas (since .1819) has yet to be written. The leading incidents of that
history are described in separate articles in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
To save space, this chapter confines itself, as far as practicable, to referring
in footnotes to those articles. Ample materials will be found in the
Gazetteers of the Bombay Districts and Central Provinces.
^ Grant Duffs History of the Marathas, vol. i. p. 90 (ed. 1863).
3i8 THE MARATHA POWER, 1634-1818.
Three first, the ever-invading troops of the Delhi Empire ; second,
fhe^^^^ ^" ^^ forces of the two remaining independent Muhammadan
Deccan, States of Southern India, namely, Ahmadnagar and Bijapur ;
1650. third, the military organization of the local Hindu tribes, which
ultimately grew into the Maratha confederacy.
vStrengthof During the eighty years' war of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb,
orthirT^^^ with a view to the conquest of Southern India (1627-1707),
party. the third or Hindu party fought from time to time on either
side, and obtained a constantly-increasing importance. The
Mughal armies from the north, and the independent Muham-
madan kingdoms of the south, gradually exterminated each
other. Being foreigners, they had to recruit their exhausted
forces chiefly from outside. The Hindu confederacy drew its
inexhaustible native levies from the wide tract known as
Maharashtra, stretching from the Berars in Central India to
Courted hy near the south of the Bombay Presidency. The Mardthas.
the other ^^^^ therefore courted alike by the Imperial generals and by
the independent Muhammadan sovereigns of the Deccan.
With true Hindu statecraft, their leader, Sivaji, from time to
time aided the independent Musalman kingdoms of the
Deccan against the Mughal avalanche from the north. Those
kingdoms, with the help of the Marathas, long proved a match
for the imperial troops. But no sooner were the Delhi armies
driven back, than the Marathas proceeded to despoil the
independent Musalman kingdoms. On the other hand, the
Delhi generals, when allied with the Marathas, could com-
pletely overpower the independent Muhammadan States.
Sivaji, Sivaji saw the strength of his position, and, by a course
dt'^d 168^' ^^ treachery, assassination, and hard fighting, won for th5
Marathas the practical supremacy in Southern India. ^ As a
basis for his operations, he perched himself safe in a number
His hill of impregnable hill forts in the Bombay Presidency. His
forts. troops consisted of Hindu spearmen, mounted on hardy
His army ponies. They were the peasant proprietors of Southern India,
men*^'^'^'^" ^^^ could be dispersed or called together on a moment's
notice, at the proper seasons of the agricultural year. Sivajf
had therefore the command of an unlimited body of troops,
without the expense of a standing army. With these he
swooped down upon his enemies, exacted tribute, or forced
Ilistactics. them to come to terms. He then paid off his soldiery by a
part of the plunder ; and while they returned to the sowing or
' The career of Sivaji is traced in Grant Duffs History of the Mardthds,
vol, i. pp. 90-220. The Bombay reprint of Grant Duff's History^ in three
volumes, 1863, is invariably referred to in this chapter.
SIVA/I AND SA MB HA/I. 319
reaping of their fields, he retreated with the lion's share to his
hill forts. In 1 659 he lured the Bijapur general into an ambush,
stabbed him at a friendly conference, and exterminated his
army. In 1662-64, Sivaji raided as far as the extreme north
of the Bombay Presidency, and sacked the Imperial city of
Surat. In 1664 he assumed the title of king (Raja), with the Coins
royal prerogative of coining money in his own name.^ money.
The year 1665 found Sivaji helping the Mughal armies
against the independent IVIusalman State of Bijapur. In
1666 he was induced to visit Delhi. Being coldly received Visits
by the Emperor Aurangzeb, and placed under restraint, he J555''
escaped to the south, and raised the standard of revolt- In
1674, Sivaji enthroned himself with great pomp at Raigarh, Enthrones
weighing himself in a balance against gold, and distributing ^^^^^ '
the precious counterpoise among his Brahmans.^ After sending
forth his hosts as far as the Karnatik in 1676, he died in 1680. Di^>
The Emperor Aurangzeb would have done wisely to have left ^^^ '^^
the independent Musalman Kings of the Deccan alone, until zeb's mis-
he had crushed the rising Maratha power. Indeed, a great ^^^?"
statesman would have buried the old quarrel between the 1688- 1707.
Muhammadans of the north and south, and united the whole
forces of Islam against the Hindu confederacy which was
rapidly organizing itself in the Deccan. But the fixed resolve
of Aurangzeb's life was to annex to Delhi the Muhammadan
kingdoms of Southern India. By the time he had carried
out this scheme, he had wasted his armies, and left the
Mughal Empire ready to break into pieces at the first touch
of the Marathas.
Sambhaji succeeded his father, Sivaji, in 1680, and reigned Sambhaji,
till 1689.* His life was entirely spent in wars with the Portu- 1680-89.
guese and Mughals. In 1689, Aurangzeb captured him. The
Emperor burnt out his eyes with a red-hot iron, cut out the
tongue which had blasphemed the Prophet, and struck off his
head.
His son, Sahu, then six years of age, was also captured and Sahu,
kept a prisoner till the death of Aurangzeb. In 1707 he was i7o7-
restored, on acknowledging allegiance to Delhi. But his long
captivity among the Mughals left him only half a Maratha.^
^ Grant Duff's History of the MardtMs, vol. i. p. 146.
* Idem, vol. i. chap. v. adfinem. ' Idem, vol. i. pp. 191-193.
« For the career of Sambhaji, see Grant Duft*'s History of the Mardthds,
vol. i. pp. 220-261.
' The career of Sahu is traced in Grant Duffs History of the Mardthds,
vol. i. pp. 297-306.
320 THE MARATHA POWER, 1634-1818.
Rise of the
Peshwas.
Satara and
Kolhapur ;
the last of
Sivaji's
line.
Progress
of the
Peshwas,
1718.
Second
Peshwa
conquers
the
Deccan,
1721-40.
Third ^
Peshwa,
1740-61.
Conquests
in the
Deccan.
Expe-
ditions
beyond it :
'I'o Bengal,
1742-51.;
He wasted his life in his seraglio, and resigned the rule of his
territories to his Brahman minister Balaji Vishwanath, with
the title of Peshwa.^ This office became hereditary, and the
power of the Peshwa superseded that of the Maratha kings.
The family of Sivaji only retained the little principalities of
Satara and Kolhapur. Satdra lapsed, for want of a direct heir,
to the British in 1848. Kolhapur has survived through their
clemency, and was ruled, under their control, by the last
adopted representative of Sivaji's line ^ until 1883. On his
death, in December 1883, another Maratha youth of high
family was placed by the British Government, in virtue of the
adoption saJiad, on the State cushion of Kolhapur.
Meanwhile the Peshwas were building up at Poona the
great Maratha confederacy. In 17 18, Balaji, the first Peshwa,
marched an army to Delhi in support of the Sayyid 'king-
makers.'-^ In 1720^ he extorted an Imperial grant of the
chautJi or ' one-fourth ' of the revenues of the Deccan. The
Marathas were also confirmed in the sovereignty of the
countries round Poona and Satara. The second Peshwa,
Baji Rao (1721-40), converted the tribute of the Deccan
granted to his father into a practical sovereignty. In fifteen
years he wrested the Province of Malwa from the Empire
(1736), together with the country on the north-west of the
Vindhyas, from the Narbada to the Chambal.^ In 1739^ he
captured Bassein from the Portuguese.
The third Peshwa, Balaji Baji Rao, succeeded in 1740, and
carried the Maratha terror into the heart of the Mughal
Empire.^ The Deccan became merely a starting-point for
a vast series of their expeditions to the north and the east.
VV^ithin the Deccian itself he augmented his sovereignty, at the
expense of the Nizam, after two wars. The great centres of the
Maratha power were now fixed at Poona in Bombay and Nagpur
in the Berars. In 1741-42, a general of the Berar branch
of the Mardthas known as the Bhonslas, swept down upon
Bengal ; but, after plundering to the suburbs of the Muham-
madan capital Murshidabad, he was driven back through Orissa
by the Viceroy Ali Vardi Khan. The * Mardtha Ditch,' or
^ For Balaji's career, see Grant Duff's Hist, of the Mardthds^ vol. i. pp.
307-339.
- See articles Kolhapl'r and Satara, Imperial Gazetteer of India,
' Vide ante, p. 313.
* Grant Duff's History of the MardthAs, vol. i. pp. 324, 325.
•' Grant Duff's History of -the Mardthds, vol. i. pp. 393-395.
" For Bajf Rao's career, see op. cit. vol. i. pp. 344-410.
^ His career is sketched in ':
history. For the three essential stages in that history are — (i)
first, the long struggle for India by the races of Asia ; second, ?'^'^'lSg\e
a shorter struggle for India by European nations ; third, the ^y the
consolidation of India under British rule. From the great Asiatic
contest of five thousand years, England emerged the victor. ^^^^^ '
We have seen how the tidal waves of Asiatic populations — European
pre-Aryan, Aryan, Scythic, Afghan, and Mughal — swept across nations ;
India from the north. The next chapter (xiv.) will exhibit the (3). Con-
briefer, but not less eventful, efforts of the European maritime ^^ india"
powers to enter India from the sea. The conquest of India under
by the British, and an account of the administration which ^"^^^^
they have established throughout its widely separated Provinces,
will conclude this volume.
The inroads under Alexander the Great and his successors Greek
had proved momentary episodes, — episodes, moreover, of an inroads
Asiatic rather than of a European type. The Greek and *
^ _ . , , ^ ,. "^/ , , , and semi-
Graeco-Bactrian hosts entered India from the north; they Asiatic in
effected no settlements beyond the frontier Province ; and the ^yp^-
permanent element in their forces consisted of Asiatic rather
than of European troops. The civilisation and organization of
India, from a prehistoric period many thousand years before
Christ down to the 15th century a.d., had been essentially the
work of Asiatic races. Since the end of that century, when the
Portuguese landed on the Malabar coast, the course of Indian
history has been profoundly influenced by European nations.
Before entering on this new period, therefore, it is desir- Asiatic
able to obtain a clear idea of India, as moulded by the civilisation
• 1 i- 1 /- 1 » • • , , , 1 of India,
survival of the fittest among the Asiatic peoples who had
struggled for the Indian supremacy during so many thousand
years. The social constitution of the Indian races on the
326 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
twofold basis of religion and caste, has been fully explained.
Their later political organization under the iVfghans, Mughals,
and Marathas, has been more briefly summarized. It
As found remains, however, to exhibit the geographical distribution of
Kuropean ^^ Indian races, and the local landmarks, literatures, and Ian-
Powers, guages, which the Europeans found on their arrival in India.
India in Before the beginning of the Christian era. Northern India
centiuv ^^^ partitioned out among civilised communities in which the
A.D. Aryan element prevailed, while the southern peninsula was
covered with forests, and dotted with the settlements of non-
Aryan peoples. The Northern Aryans had a highly developed
literary language, Sanskrit. They spoke less artificial cognate
dialects, called Prakrits, which (equally with the- Sanskrit)
had grown out of the primitive Indo-Germanic tongue. The
non-Aryans of Southern India at that period kne.w nothing
of the philosophy or sciences which flourished jn the north.
They had not even a grammatical settlement of the principles
of their own language ; and they used vernaculars so uncouth
as to earn for them, from the civilised Aryans, the name of
Mlechchhas, meaning the people of imperfect utterance or
broken speech.^
India in When the European nations arrived in India during the
c^n/?^ 1 6th and 17th centuries, all this had changed. The stately
A.D. Sanskrit of the Northern Aryans had sunk into a dead
language, still used as a literary vehicle by the learned, but
already pressed hard by a popular literature in the speech
of the people. The Prakrits, or ancient - spoken dialects,
had given place to the modern vernaculars of Northern
India. In Southern India a still greater change had taken
place. The obscure non-Aryan races had there developed
a political organization and a copious literature, written
in vernaculars of their own, — vernaculars which, while richly
endowed for literary uses, remained non- Aryan in all essentials
of structure and type.
The Dra- Leaving aside, for the moment, the changes among the
lans. Aryans in the north, let us briefly examine this survival of
prehistoric non-Aryan life in the southern peninsula. The
non-Aryan races of the south were spoken of by Sanskrit
authors under the general name of Dravidas, and their
' For the ideas connoted by this word, and its later application to the
Huns and Musalmans, see the Honourable K. T. Telang's Essay on the
uMudrdrdk/iasay pp. 4-7, 12, etc., and footnotes. Bombay.
THE DRA VIDIAN ROUTE. 327
languages under the vague term Paisdchi, The latter term
covered, however, a wider linguistic area, from the speech of the
Bhotas of Tibet to that of the Pandyas or Tamil-speaking
tribes of Southern India.
Modern philology, rejecting any generic term, proves that
the scattered non- Aryan languages of India belong to separate
stocks. Some of the isolated tribes>. who still survive in their
hill and forest retreats around Bengal,, entered from the north-
east, and brought with them dialects akin to the Chinese. The
great body of Dravidian speech in the south seems, however,
to have had its origin, equally with the Aryan languages, to
the north-west of the Himalayas. It >vould appear that long The
before the Ar)'an invasions, a people speaking a very primi- Dravidian
tive Central Asian language, had entered by the Sind passes.
These were the Dravidas or Dravidians of later times. Other
non -Aryan races from the north pushed them onwards to
the present Dravidian country in the south of the peninsula.
But the Dravidians had left more than, one colony on their
line of march. The Brahuis of the Sind frontier, the Gonds
and Kus of the Central Provinces, the- Uraons of Chutia
Nagpur, with a tribal offshoot in the Rajmahal hills overlooking
the Gangetic valley,^ remain to this day as landmarks along
the Dravidian route through India.
The Dravidian language contains words apparently belonging The
to a phase of human speech, anterior to the separation of the P^'^^idian
. ^ , language.
Indo-Germanic from the Scythian stocks.^ It presents affinities
to the present Ugrian of Siberia, and to the present Finnish of
Northern Europe ; while its analogies to the ancient Behistun
tablets of Media have been worked out by the great Dravidian
scholar of our times.^ Those tablets recorded the life of
Darius Hystaspes in the old Persian, together with a rendering
in the speech of the Scythians of the Medo-Persian Empire.
They date from the 5th century B.C., and they indicate a its place
common starting - place of the Turanian family of Ian- i" philo-
guages whose fragments have been scattered to the shores of °^^*
1 Introduction to the Malta Language, p. iv. (Agra, 1884), by the Rev.
Ernest Droese ; to whom the author is indebted for valuable local details
which he hopes to incorporate hereafter in a larger work.
* Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, by Bishop
Caldwell, p. 46, ed. 1875. Unfortunately, the paging of that edition
repeats itself, running as far as p. 154 in the introduction, and commencing
again (in a slightly different type) at p. i of the Grammar itself. Except
when otherwise mentioned, the pages cited in this book refer to the first
or introductory series of Bishop Caldwell's numerals.
^ Idem, pp. 68-72, and 106.
328
THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
The
Dravidians
in Sanskrit
literature.
Pre -Aryan
Dravidian
civilisa-
tion.
Dravidian
arts.
the Baltic, the Steppes of Northern Siberia, and the Malabar
coast. This family belongs to the primseval agglutinative
phase of human speech, as opposed to the inflectional stage
which the later Aryan migrations into India represent. The
Dravidians found refuge, after their long wanderings, in the
sea-girt extremity of the Indian peninsula. In its isolation this
Turanian speech has there preserved its primitive type, and
forms one of the most ancient relics of the prehistoric world.
The extrusion of the Dravidians from Northern India had
taken place before the arrival of the Aryan-speaking races.
The Dravidians are to be distinguished from the later non-
Aryan immigrants, whom the Vedic tribes found in possession
of the valleys of the Indus and Ganges. These later non-
Aryans were in their turn subjugated or pushed out by the
Aryan newcomers ; and they accordingly appear in the Vedic
hymns as the ' enemies ' (Dasyus) and ' serfs ' (Siidras) of the
Indo-Aryan settlers. The Dravidian non- Aryans of the south,
on the other hand, appear from the first in the Sanskrit as
friendly forest folk, the monkey armies who helped the Aryan
hero Rama on his march through Southern India against the
demon king of Ceylon.
The Tamil language still preserves evidence of a Dravidian
civilisation before the southern advance of the Aryans which
the Ramayana represents. * They had " kings," ' writes Bishop
Caldwellji 'who dwelt in "strong houses," and ruled over small
*' districts of country." They had "minstrels" who recited
" songs " at " festivals," and they seem to have had alphabetical
" characters " written with a stylus on palmyra leaves. A bundle
of those leaves was called a " book." They acknowledged the
existence of God, whom they styled K6 or King. They
erected to his honour a "temple," which they called K6-il,
God's house. Marriage existed among them. They were
acquainted with the ordinary metals, with the exception of tin,
lead, and zinc ; with all the planets ordinarily known to the
ancients, excepting Mercury and Saturn. They had numerals
up to a hundred, some of them up to a thousand. They had
"medicines;" "hamlets "and "towns," but no cities; "canoes,"
"boats" and even "ships" (small decked coasting vessels).
'They were well versed in "agriculture," and delighted
in " war." They were armed with " bows " and " arrows," with
"spears" and "swords." All the ordinary or necessary arts of
life, including "spinning," "weaving," and "dyeing," existed
^ Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Lavgua^s^ condensed from
pp. 117, 118.
CIVILISERS OF DRA VIDIANS. 3 2 9
among them. They excelled in "pottery," as their places ot
sepulture show. They were ignorant, not only of every branch
of "philosophy," but even of "grammar." Their undeveloped
intellectual condition is especially apparent in words relating
to the operations of the mind. To express "the will" they
would have been obliged to describe it as " that which in the
inner part says, I am going to do so and so."'
While the Dravidians appear in Sanskrit literature as Legend of
friends or allies, the Aryans were not their conquerors, ^S^stya.
but their ' instructors ' or ' fathers.' The first Brahman
settlers in the south came as hermits or sages, who
diffused around them a halo of higher civilisation. The
earliest of such Brahman colonies among the Dravidians, led
by the holy Agastya, has long faded into the realms of
mythology. ' The Vindhya Mountains,' it is said, * prostrated
themselves before Agastya,' still fondly remembered as the
Tamir-muni, pre-eminently the Sage to the Tamil race. He
introduced philosophy at the court of the first Pandyan king,
wrote many treatises for his royal disciple, and now lives for
ever in the heavens as Canopus, the brightest star in the
Southern Indian hemisphere. He is worshipped as Agastes-
wara, the Lord Agastya, near Cape Comorin. But the orthodox
still believe him to be alive, although invisible to sinful
mortals, hidden away in the conical mountain called Agastya's
Hill, from which the sacred river of Tinnevelli springs.
This legend serves to indicate the influence of Sanskrit civilisa- Brdhmanic
tion and learning among the Dravidian race. That influence JJjf "1^"^^
was essentially a friendly one. The Brahmans became the Dra-
' fathers ' of the less advanced race ; and although they vidians,
classified the non-Aryan multitude as Siidras, yet this term
did not connote in Southern India the ideas of debasement
and servitude which it affixed to the non-Aryan races in the
north. The Buddhist missionaries were probably the first
Aryan instructors of the Dravidian kings and peoples, and
their labours must have begun before the commencement of
the Christian era.
Bishop Caldwell takes the Aryan emigration under Vijaya,
from Magadha in Bengal to Ceylon, circa B.C. 550, as the start-
ing-point of Aryan civilisation in Southern India. Dr. Burnell, Com-
however, believes that Aryan civilisation had not penetrated "^ence-
deeply among the Dravidians until the advent of Kumarila, J]Jat
the Brahman reformer from Behar in the 8th century a.d.^ influence.
' Dr. Buinell's article in the Indian Antiquary for October 1872.
nacular
literatures.
330 THE INDIAN VERNACUIARS.
Brahman hermits had doubtless taught the Dravidian peoples,
and Brdhman sages had adorned Dravidian courts long before
this latter date. But it was from the great religious revival
of the 8th century, that the continuous and widespread influence
of Brahman civilisation in Southern India took its rise.
Dravidian The Brahman apostles of the Sivaite and Vishnuite faith,
speech^ ^^^^ ^^ <^^ ^^ <^^ j2th century A.D.,^ composed their
religious treatises in Sanskrit. The intellectual awakening,
produced by their teaching, also gave the first impulse to the
use of the vernacular languages of India for literary purposes.
The Dravidians gratefully acknowledge that they owe the
settlement of the grammatical principles of their speech to
Sanskrit sages, among whom the legendary Agastya holds the
into ver- highest rank. But the development of that speech into a
vernacular literature was chiefly the work of the Dravidians
themselves. Indeed,, the first outburst of their vernacular lite-
rature sprang from the resistance of their previous Buddhistic
faith to the Brahmanical religious revival.
The Dra- Before the arrival of the European nations in the i6th and
viclian J ^j.]^ centuries, four Dravidian dialects had developed literatures.
The Tamil, the Telugu, the Kanarese, and the Malayalam
are now literary languages of established reputation. But
space compels us to concentrate our attention* on the oldest
and most influential of the vernacular literatures of Southern
The India, — the Tamil. This language, in its structure and its
Tamil. vocabulary, forms the best representative of cultivated Dravidian
speech. It has not feared to incorporate such philosophical, re-
ligious, and abstract terms as it required from the Sanskrit. But
its borrowings in this respect are the mere luxuries or delicacies
of the language^ and they have left unaffected its robust
native fabric. * Tamil,' writes Bishop CaldweH, * cam' readily
dispense with the greater part or the whole of its Sanskrit, and
by dispensing with it, rises to a purer and more refined style.' '^
He maintains that the Ten Commandments can be translated
into classical Tamil with the addition of a single Sanskrit word.
That word is ' image.'
First culti- According to native tradition, Tamil was first cultivated
TaniiJ.^^ by the sage Agastya. Many works, besides a grammar and
treatises on philosophy and science, are ascribed to him.
His name served indeed as a centre around which Tamil
compositions of widely separated periods, including some of
recent date, gather. The oldest Tamil grammar now extant,
» Vide ante, pp. 209 and 217. ^ Comparative Grammar, pp. 50, 51.
EARLIEST TAMIL POETS. 331
the Tol-Kappiyam, is assigned to one of his disciples. But
the rise of a continuous Tamil Hterature belongs to a later
period. The Sivaite and Vishnuite revival of the Brahman
apostles in Southern India, from the 8th century onwards,
stirred up a counter movement on the part of the Jains. Jj'" ^>'^J^
Before that period, the Buddhism of the Dravidian kingdoms literaiure.
had modelled itself on the Jain type. We shall see hereafter
that early Buddhism in Northern India adopted the Prakrit
or vernacular speech for its religious treatises. On the same
analogy. Buddhism in Southern India, as the religion of the
people, defended itself against the Erahmanical revival of the
8th century by works in the popular dialects. The Dravidian
Buddhists or Jains created a cycle of Tamil literature, anti- gth to i3ih
Brahmanical in tone, stretching from the 9th to the 13th century
A.D.
century.
Its first great composition, the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, not later Its great
than the loth century a.d., is said to have been the work of ^^"^^
■^ ' . poet, 900
a poet sprung from the Panah or low^est caste. It enforces the a.d. (?)
old Sankya philosophy in 1330 distiehs or poetical aphorisms,
dealing with the three chief desires of the human heart ;
Nvealth, pleasure, and virtue. To the sister of its author, a
Pariah poetess, are ascribed many compositions of the highest
moral excellence, and of undying popularity in Southern
India. The Jain period of Tamil Hterature includes works
on ethics and language ; among them the Divakaram, literally
the * Day-making ' Dictionary. The period culminated in the
Chintamani, a romantic epic of 15,000 lines by an unknown The Jain
Jain author. Indeed, it is worthy of remark that several of the ^'P'*^-
best Indian authors, whether Sanskrit or vernacular, have left
no indication of their names. As it was the chief desire of
an Indian sage to merge his individual existence in the Uni-
versal Existence ; so it appears to have been the wish of many
Indian men of letters of the highest type to lose their literary
individuality in the school or cycle of literature to which they
belonged.
Contemporaneous with the Jain cycle of Tamil literature, The Tamil*
the great adaptation of the Ramayana was composed by ^^"^^-
Kambar for the Dravidian races. This work is a Tamil para-
phrase or imitation, rather than a translation of the ancient
Sanskrit epic. A stanza prefixed to the work states that it
was finished in the year corresponding to 886 a.d. But this
stanza may itself be a later addition ; and Bishop Caldwell,
after a careful examination of the whole evidence, places the
work after 11 00.
332 THE INDIAN VERNACUIARS.
Tamil Between that period and the i6th century, two encyclopaedic
Sivaite collections of Tamil hymns in praise of Siva were gradually
logies. formed. They breathe a deeply religious spirit, and the
earlier collection {post 1200 a.d.) still holds its place in the
affections of the Tamil-speaking people. The later collection
was the work of a Sivaite devotee and his disciples, who
devoted themselves to uprooting Jainism {circ. 1500 a.d.).
During the same centuries, the Vishnuite apostles were equally
Tamil prolific in Tamil religious song. Their Great Book of the Four
hvmno"^^ Thousand Psalms constitutes a huge hymnology dating from
logy. the 1 2th century onwards. After a period of literary inactivity,
the Tamil genius again blossomed forth in the i6th and
lyth centuries with a poet-king as the leader of the literary
revival.
The Sittar In the 17th century arose an anti-Brahmanical Tamil litera-
^oTs^ ture known as the Sittar school. The Sittars or sages were a
Tamil sect who, while retaining Siva as the name of the One
God, rejected everything in Siva-worship inconsistent with
Their pure pure theism. They were quietists in religion, and alchemists
theism. -j^ science. They professed to base their creed upon the true
original teaching of the Rishis, and indeed assumed to
themselves the names of these ancient inspired teachers of
mankind. They thus obtained for their poems, although
written in a modern colloquial style, the sanction of a
venerable antiquity. Some scholars believe that they detect
Christian influences in works of the Sittar school. But
it must be remembered that the doctrines and even the
phraseology of ancient Indian theism and of Indian Buddhism
approach closely to the subsequent teaching and, in some
instances, to the very language of Christ.^
* The following specimens of the Sittar school of Tamil poetry arc
taken from Bishop Caldwell's Comparative Grammar, p. 148. The first
is a version of a poem of Siva-vakya, given by Mr. R. C. Caldwell, the
Bishop's son, in the Indian Antiquary for 1872. He unconsciously ap-
proximates the verses to Christian ideas, for example, by the title, * The
Shepherd of the Worlds,' which Bishop Caldwell states may have meant
to the poet only ' King of the Gods.'
The Shepherd of the Worlds.
How many various flowers
Did I, in bygone hours,
Cull for the gods, and in their honour strew ;
In vain how many a prayer
I breathed into the air,
And made, with many forms, obeisance due.
MODERN TAMIL WRITERS. 333
The Tamil writers of the i8th and 19th centuries are Modem
classified as modern. The honours of this period are divided Taniil
writers.
between a pious Sivaite and the Italian Jesuit, Beschi. This
missionary of genius and learning not only wrote Tamil prose Beschi.
of the highest excellence, but he composed a great religious
epic in classical Tamil, which has won for him a conspicuous
rank among Dravidian poets. His work, the Tembavani,
gives a Tamil adaptation of the narrative and even of the
geography of the Bible, suited to the Hindu taste of the
1 8th century.
Since the introduction of printing, the Tamil press has Recent
been prolific. A catalogue of Tamil printed books, issued in t^^*^^^^^-
Madras up to 1865, enumerated 1409 works. In the single
year 1882, no fewer than 558 works were printed in the
vernaculars in Madras, the great proportion of them being in
Tamil.
While the non- Aryans of Southern India had thus evolved
Beating my breast, aloud
How oft I called the crowd
To drag the village car ; how oft I stray'd,
In manhood's prime, to lave
Sunwards the flowing wave,
And, circling Saiva fanes, my homage paid.
But they, the tmly wise,
Who know and realize
"Where dwells the Shepherd of the Worlds, will ne'er
To any visible shrine,
As if it were divine.
Deign to raise hands of worship or of prayer.
The Unity of God and of Truth.
God is one, and the Veda is one ;
The disinterested, true Guru is one, and his initiatory rite one ;
W^hen this is obtained his heaven is one ;
There is but one birth of men upon the earth.
And only one way for all men to walk in :
But as for those who hold four Vedas and six shastras,
And different customs for different people,
And believe in a plurality of gods,
Down they will go to the fire of hell !
God is Love.
The ignorant think that God and love are different.
None knows that God and love are the same.
Did all men know that God and love are the same.
They would dwell together in peace, considering love as God.
334
THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
Aryan
languages
of North-
ern India :
Sanskrit.
Was San-
skrit ever
a vernacu-
lar?
a copious literature and cultivated spoken dialects out of
their isolated fragments of prehistoric speech, a more stately
linguistic development was going on in the Aryan north.
The achievements of Sanskrit as a literary vehicle in the
various departments of poetry, philosophy, and science, have
been described in chapter iv. at such length as the scope
of this work permits. But Sanskrit was only the most
famous of several Aryan dialects in the north. One of its
eminent modern teachers defines it as ' that dialect which,
regulated and established by the labours of the native
grammarians, has led for the last 2000 years or more an
artificial life, like that of the Latin during most of the same
period in Europe.' ^ The Aryan vernaculars of modern India
are the descendants not of Sanskrit, but of the spoken languages
of the Aryan immigrants into the 'north. The Brahmanical
theory is that these ancient spoken dialects, or Prakrits, were
corruptions of the purer Sanskrit. European philology has
disproved this view, and the question has arisen whether
Sanskrit was ever a spoken language at all.
Dr. John
Muir's
affirmative
answer.
Professor
Kenfey's
view ;
affirma-
live.
This question has a deep significance in the history of the
Indian vernaculars, and it is necessary to present, with the
utmost brevity, the views of the leading authorities on the
subject. Dr. John Muir, that clariim et venerabile nomen in
Anglo-Indian scholarship, devotes many pages to ' reasons for
supposing that the Sanskrit was originally a spoken language.' ^
He traces the Sanskrit of the philosophical period to the earlier
forms in the Vedic hymns, and concludes ' that the old
spoken language of India and the Sanskrit of the Vedas were
at one time identical.' ^
Professor Benfey gives the results of his long study of the ques-
tion in even greater detail. He believes that Sanskrit-speaking
migrations from beyond the Himalayas continued to follo\v
one another into India down to perhaps the 9th century b.c.
That Sanskrit became the prevailing Indian vernacular dialect
throughout Hindustan, and as far as the southern borders of
the Maratha country. That it began to die out as a spoken
language from the 9th century B.C., and had become extinct
as a vernacular in the 6th century B.C. ; its place being taken
by derivative dialects or Prdkrits. But that it still lingered in
the schools of the Brahmans ; and that, about the 3rd century
* Professor Whitney's Sanskiil Grammar^ p. ix. Leipzig, 1879.
" Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. ii. pp. 144-160, ed. 1874.
" Idemy p. 160, and Dr. Muir's long footnote, No. 181.
SANSKRIT AND PRAKRITS. 335
B.C., it was brought back into public life as a sacred language
with a view to refuting the Buddhistic teachers who wrote in
the vernacular or Prakrit dialects. Professor Benfey also
holds that about the 5th century a.d. Sanskrit had diffused
itself over the whole of India as a literary language. We
know that a subsequent revival of Sanskrit for the Puranic or
orthodox treatises of the Brahmans, as opposed to the new
doctrines of the reformers who used the vernacular, actually
took place about the loth century a.d.
Lassen inclines to the same general view. He thinks that, Lassen's
in the time of Asoka, the main body of Aryans of Northern ^''^^^'*
India spoke local dialects ; while Sanskrit still remained the
speech of Brahmans, and of dignitaries of State.
Sanskrit scholars of not less eminence have come to the Sanskrit
conclusion that Sanskrit was not at any time a vernacular ^^^'f ^
■' spoken
tongue. Professor Weber assigns it to the learned alone. He language,
thinks that the Prakrits, or Aryan vernaculars of Northern Weber's
India, were derived directly from the more ancient Vedic view,
dialects; while Sanskrit was 'the sum of the Vedic dialects
constructed by the labour and zeal of grammarians, and
polished by the skill of learned men.' Professor Aufrecht Aufrechi's
agrees ' in believing that Sanskrit proper {i.e. the language ^^^^v-
of the epic poems, the law books, nay, even that of the
Brahmanas) was never actually spoken, except in schools or by
the learned.'
The question has been finally decided, however, not by Evidence
Sanskrit scholars in Europe, but by students of the modern from
Aryan vernaculars in India. During the past fourteen years, a Indian
bright light has been brought to bear upon the language and speech,
literature of ancient India, by an examination of the actual
speech of the people at the present day.
Two learned Indian civilians, Mr. Salmon Growse and Mr.
John Beames, led the way from not always coacurrent points
of view. In 1872, Mr. Beames' Comparative Gnatmnar of the
Modern Aryan Languages of India ^ opened up a new field of
human knowledge, and began to effect for the Aryan dialects
of the North, what Bishop Caldwell's great work accomplished The new
for non-Aryan speech in Southern India. Dr. Ernest Trumpp's study of
Grammar of the Sindhi Language followed, and would probably naculars,
have modified some of Mr. Beames' views. Another learned 1872- 1885.
German oflficer of the Indian Government, Professor Rudolf
' Three volumes, Triibner «S: Co. The first volume was published in
1872 ; the last in 1879.
336 THE INDIAN VERNACUIARS.
Hoernle, further specialized the research by his Comparative
Grammar of the Gaudia?i Lafiguages (1880), with particular
reference to the Hindi. The same scholar and Mr. George
Grierson, of the Civil Service, have, during the present year
(i 885), jointly brought out the first part of a Comparative Diction-
ary of the Bihari language, which will enable every European
inquirer to study the structure and framework of a modern
Aryan vernacular for himself. These and other cognate works
have accumulated a mass of new evidence, which settles the
relationship of the present Aryan vernaculars to the languages
of ancient India.
Results They prove that those vernaculars do not descend directly
disclosed fj-Qj^ Sanskrit. They indicate the existence of an Aryan speech
liy the ver- . .
naculars. older than Sanskrit, older, perhaps, than the Vedic hymns ;
from which the Sanskrit, the Prakrits or ancient spoken dialects
of India, and the modern vernaculars were alike derived.
Passing beyond the Vedic period, they show that ancient Aryan
speech diverged into two channels. The one channel poured its
stream into the ocean of Sanskrit, a language * at once archaic
Diver- and artificial,' elaborated by the Brahmanical schools.^ The
gence of other channel branched out into the Prakrits or ancient spoken
and Pra- vernaculars. The artificial Sanskrit {Sajnskrita, i.e. the per-
^rit. fected language) attained its complete development in the
grammar of Pinini {circ. 350 B.c.).^ The Prakrits {i.e. naturally
evolved dialects) found their earliest extant exposition in the
Panini and grammar of Vararuchi, about the ist century b.c.^ But the
Varanichi. 4000 algebraic aphorisms of Panini mark the climax of the
labours of probably a long antecedent series of Sanskrit
elaborators, while Vararuchi stands at the head of a long series
of subsequent Prakrit grammarians.
The The spread of the Aryans from Northern India is best
Prakrits marked by the southern advance of their languages. The
south. three great routes of Prakrit speech to the southward were —
down the Indus valley on the west ; along the Ganges valley
to the east; and through certain historical passes of the
* Hoernle and Grierson's Comparative Dictionary of the Bihdrl Language,
pp. 33 and 34. Secretariat Press, Calcutta, 1885. It should be remem-
bered that Indian grammarians, when speaking of the Vedic language
technically, do not call it Sanskrit, but Chhandas. They restrict the
technical application of Sanskrit to the scholastic language of the Brah-
mans, elaborated on the lines of the earlier Vedic.
2 Vide ante, pp. ICX) et seq.
3 Hoernle's Comparative Grammar of the Caudian Languages, p. xviii.
et seq.y ed. 1880.
ROUTES OF PRAKRIT SPEECH. 337
Vindhyas in the centre. Between 500 B.C. and 500 a.d., the Their
western or Apabhramsa dialects of Prakrit had spread across Q*J-^j^^^Jj!ff^
the Indus basin, and down the Bombay coast. During the
same period dialects of Eastern or Magadhi Prakrit had
occupied the valleys of the Jumna and the Ganges. Aryan
tribes, speaking the Maharashtri and Sauraseni Prakrits, had
poured through the Vindhyan passes, one of their great lines
of march being that followed by the Jabalpur Railway at the
present day. The Maharashtri dialect reached as far south as
Goa on the western coast. The peninsula, to the south and
east of the Maharashtri linguistic frontier, was inhabited by
the Dravidian or Paisachi-speaking races.
By degrees the main Prakrits, or spoken Aryan dialects, Classifica-
differentiated themselves into local vernaculars, each occupying p*^"u j^^,
a more contracted area. A series of maps has been compiled
showing the stages of this process between 500 B.C. and 1800
A.D.1 Various classifications have been framed, both of the
modern vernaculars and of the ancient Prakrits. Vararuchi, Vara-
the earliest Prakrit grammarian extant, enumerates four classes ^^g^g ^^^
in the ist century b.c, — Maharashtri, now Marathi;^ Saura-
seni, now the Braj of the North-Western Provinces ; Magadhi,
now Bihari ; and Paisachi, loosely applied to outlying non-
Aryan dialects from Nepal to Cape Comorin.
Apart from the last-named Paisachi, the literary Prakrits The two
really divide themselves between two great linguistic areas. ^^/^ ,
Sauraseni, with the so-called Maharashtri, occupied the
upper part of the North-Western Provinces, and sent forth
offshoots through the Vindhya passes as far south as Goa.
Magadhi spread itself across the middle valley of the
Ganges, with its brightest literary centre in Behar. These
were the two parents of the most highly developed of the
Aryan vernaculars of modern India. The Apabhramsa, or
* broken' dialects of the Indus region, may for the moment
be left out of sight.
The Prakrits, or spoken Aryan dialects of ancient India, Prakrits
received their first literary impulse from Buddhism. As the ^^'^^^^r^J^
Brahmans elaborated Sanskrit into the written vehicle for their ists,
* Prefixed to Hoemle and Grierson's Comparative Dictionary of the
Bihari Language. See also the Language Map appended to Hoernle's
Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages.
2 Mr. Beames thinks that there is as much of the Magadhi and Saura-
seni type in the modern Marathi as there is of the Maharashtri Prakrit,
Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages^ vol. i. p. 34, ed.
1872. He holds that Marathi reproduces the name rather than the sub-
stance of Maharashtri.
Y
338
THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
orthodox religion, so the teachers of the new faith appealed to
the people by works in the popular tongues. The Buddhist
for their missionaries to Ceylon, circ. 307 B.C., carried with them
np ures , ^^ spoken Prakrit of the Gangetic kingdom of Magadha.
This dialect of Northern Indian became Pali, literally the
series or catena of holy scripture in Ceylon. While the early
Buddhists thus raised the Eastern or Magadhi Prakrit of
and by the Behar to a sacred language, the Jains made use of the Mahar-
Jams. ashtri Prakrit of Western India for their religious treatises.
In this way, the two most characteristic of the spoken Aryan
dialects of ancient India obtained a literary fixity, during the
centuries shortly before and after the commencement of our
era.
The Prakrits also remained the speech of the people, and
underwent those processes of development, decay, and re-
generation to which all spoken languages are subject. On
the one hand, therefore, we have the literary Magadhi and
Mahdrashtri Prakrits of the beginning of the Christian era, the
former embalmed in the Buddhist scriptures of Ceylon, the
latter in the Jain sacred books of Western India. On the
other hand, we have the spoken representatives of these two
ancient Prakrits in the modern vernaculars of Behar and of
the Maratha country.^
The
Prakrits
also
remained
spoken
languages.
Evolution
of modern
vernacu-
lars from
Prakrits.
Obscure
interval,
Apo-iooo
A.D.
The evolution of the modern vernaculars from the ancient
Prakrits is involved in deep obscurity. The curtain falls on
the era of Prakrit speech within a few hundred years after the
birth of Christ, and does not again draw up until the loth
century. When it rises, Prdkrit dialects have receded from
the stage, and their place has been taken by the modern
vernaculars. During the dark interval, linguistic changes had
taken place in the old Prakrits not less important than those
which transformed Latin into Italian and Anglo-Saxon into
English. Those changes are now being elucidated by the
series of comparative grammars and dictionaries, mentioned
on pp. 335-36. It is only practicable here to state the most
important of the results.
The old Prdkrits were synthetical in structure. The
1 This statement leaves untouched the question how far Marathf is the
direct representative of Maharashtrf, or how far it is derived from the
Sauraseni Prakrit. As already mentioned, both the Sauraseni and Mahar-
ashtri poured through the Vindhya passes into South-Western India, and
combined to form the second of the two main Prakrits referred to in
the classification on a previous page.
PRAKRITS AND VERNACULARS. 339
modern Aryan vernaculars of India are essentially analytical, '^he
During the eight centuries while the curtain hangs down p^r^kriis^
before the stage, the synthetic inflections of the Prakrits
had worn out. The terminals of their nouns and verbs
had given place to post-positions, and to the disjointed
modern particles to indicate time, place, or relation. The
function performed in the European languages by prepositions
for the nouns are discharged, as a rule, by post-positions in
the modern Indian vernaculars. The process was spontaneous, become
and it represents the natural course of the human mind, vernacu-^
* The flower of synthesis,' to use the words at once eloquent lars.
and accurate of Mr. Beames, 'budded and opened; and
when full-blown began, like all other flowers, to fade. Its
petals, that is its inflections, dropped off one by one ; and in
due course the fruit of analytical structure sprung up beneath
it, and grew and ripened in its stead.' ^
As regards their vocabularies, the Aryan vernaculars of Three
modern India are made up of three elements. One class of fn^^^na-
their words is named Tatsama, ' the same as ' the corresponding culars ;
words in Sanskrit. A second class is termed Tadbhava, ' similar Sanskrit
in nature or origin ' to the corresponding words in Sanskrit, p ,, .
The third class is called Desaja, or ' country-born.' This tadbhavas.
classification is an ancient one of the Indian grammarians, and Non-
it is so far artificial that it refers the modern vernaculars to Aryan
Sanskrit standards ; while we know that the modern vernaculars ^■^^'^*
were derived not from the Sanskrit, but from the Prakrits. It
suffices, however, for practical purposes.
The great body of modern Indian speech belongs to the Their
second or Tadbhava class of words, and may be taken loosely ^"^^^"^
to represent its inheritance from the old spoken dialects or work ;
Prakrits. But the vernaculars have enriched themselves for
literary purposes by many terms imported directly from the
Sanskrit ; to represent religious, philosophical, or abstract ideas, and Sans-
These are the Tatsamas, ' the same as ' in Sanskrit. The dif- ^"^ enrich-
ferent vernaculars borrow such ' identical ' words from Sanskrit
in widely varying proportions. The strongest of the vernaculars,
such as Hindi and Mardthi, trust most to their own Tadbhava
or Prakrit element; while the more artificial of them, like
the Bengali and Uriya, are most largely indebted to direct
importations of Sanskrit words.
The third element in modern vernacular speech is the
Desaja, or * country-born.' This represents the non-Aryan and
^ Mr. Beames' Comparative Grammar of the Modei'ii Aryan Languages
0/ Ituiia, vol. i. p. 45 (ed. 1872).
340 THE INDIAN VERNACUIARS.
Non- Other words not derived either from the Sanskrit or the Prakrits.
Aryan p^^ Q^e time it was supposed, indeed, that the modern verna-
the ver- culars of India were simply made up of the Sanskrit of the
naculars ; Aryan settlers, modified by, and amalgamated with, the speech
of the ruder non-Aryan races whom they subdued. Modern
philology renders this theory no longer tenable. It has proved
that Sanskrit played a comparatively unimportant function in
the formation of those vernaculars. It also tends to show that
less im- the non-Aryan element is less influential than was supposed.
portant Both in structure and in vocabulary the modern vernaculars
formerly of India are the descendants neither of the written Sanskrit,
supposed, i^or of the aboriginal tongues, but of the Prakrits or spoken
dialects of the ancient Aryans.
Proportion In regard to grammatical structure, this position is now
Aryan ' ^^"^^7 established. But the proportion of aboriginal or non-
words ; Aryan words in the modern Indian vernaculars still remains
undetermined. The non-Aryan scholars, with Brian Hodgson
and Bishop Caldwell at their head, assign a considerable
influence to the non- Aryan element in the modern vernaculars.^
Dr. Ernest Trumpp believes that nearly three-fourths of the
in Sindhi, Sindhi words commencing with a cerebral are taken from some
non-Aryan or Scythic language, which he would prefer to call
Tatar. He thinks, indeed, that there is very strong proof to
show that the cerebral letters themselves were borrowed, by
the Prdkrits and modern Indian vernaculars, from some idiom
inGangetic anterior to the introduction of the Aryan languages into India.
larT^^^ Bishop Caldwell states that the non-Aryan element, even in
the Northern Indian languages, has been estimated at one-
inMarathf. tenth of the whole, and in the Marathi at one-fifth. ^
The real Such generalizations are not accepted by the most eminent
stm^^'^^^^" students of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars. Mr. Beames strongly
unknown, expresses his view that the speech of the conquering Aryans
completely overmastered that of the aboriginal tribes. The
early grammarians were wont to regard as Desaja, or non-
Aryan, all words for which they could not discover a Tatsama
^ See Mr. Brian Houghton Hodgson's Aborighies of Indian Calcutta,
1849; and pp. I -152 of vol. ii. of his Miscellaneous Essays (Triibner,
1880). Also the Rev. Dr. Stevenson's paper in the yoiirnal ol the Asiatic
Society of Bombay,
2 Bishop Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of the D?-aviciian Languages,
introd. p. 57 (ed. 1875). Lassen held that the aboriginal tribes not only
introduced ' peculiar varieties into the Prakrit dialects,' but also 'occa-
sioned very great corruptions of sound and form in the Indo-Aryan lan-
guages ' {Indische Alterthumskunde, ii. 1 149). But the more recent inves-
tigations of Beames, Ha'rnle, and Grierson render these dicta doubtful.
1
THE NON-AR YAN ELEMENT. 341
or Tadbhava origin. But the more delicate processes of
modern philology have reduced the number of this class, and
tend still further to diminish it. The truth is, that until a
complete examination is made with the new lights, both of
the vocabulary and of the structure of the Indian vernaculars,
no final conclusion can be arrived at.
Dr. Hoernle thus sums up the existing knowledge in regard Present
to the group of Indian vernaculars on which he is the highest ^^ ^jj^^"^
authority : ' That there are non-Aryan elements in the Bihari, question.
I have no doubt. Considering that the Aryans immigrated
into India, and absorbed large masses of the indigenous
population into their ranks, it would be a wonder if no portion
of the aboriginal languages had become incorporated into the
Aryan speech. But what the several constituents of that
aboriginal portion are, and what proportion they bear to the
Aryan element in the vernacular language, it is impossible at
present to form any scientific opinion. And what is more, —
it is impossible to say whether the assumed aboriginal portion
of the Aryan speech was Dravidian, or some other language,
such as Kolarian or Tibeto-Burman.' ^
1 Letter from Dr. Rudolf Hoernle to the author, dated 28th May 1885.
Dr. Hoernle continues — 'Attempts have been made now and then {e.g. in
The Indian Antiquary) to show that some particular selected words of the
North Indian languages are really Dravidian. But these, even supposing
they had been successful, would not enable any one to pronounce an
opinion on the general question of the proportion of non-Aryan words in
the Gaudian languages. As a matter of fact, some of these attempts,
notably those referring to the genitive and dative post-positions {kd, ke, ki,
etc.), have been conspicuous failures. It is now, I think, generally
admitted that these post-positions are thoroughly Aryan. The truth is, that
the way in which the question of the non- Aryan element in the vernaculars
should be approached has been hitherto almost entirely misconceived. A
little consideration must convince any one that whatever aboriginal ele-
ments there may be in the vernaculars, they must have been incorporated
into them before the present vernacular times, that is, in the period when
Sanskrit and Prakrit flourished. The question therefore properly stands
thus — What are the aboriginal elements in Sanskrit and Prakrit? The
vernaculars arose from Prakrit (and in a certain sense from Sanskrit)
according to certain phonetic laws peculiar to the Arjan languages.
Hence it is next to useless to try to refer Bihari (or any Aryan) verna-
cular words direct to the Dravidian. They must in the first place be
referred back (by the well-known Aryan phonetic laws) to their earlier
forms in Prakrit and Sanskrit. Only when this is done, the question can
properly be asked whether they are Aryan or non-Aryan. And in order to
decide this question, it will, among other points, have to be considered
whether they possess correlates in the other Aryan languages [e.g. of
Europe). But there is every probability that there is a considerable
number of words in Sanskrit and Prakrit which are not Aryan, but only
342 THE INDIAN VERNACUIARS.
Fourfold At present, therefore, we cannot advance further than the
compo- fQ^j. following conclusions : — First, that in grammatical struc-
the verna- ture and in their vocabularies, the modern analytical ver-
culars : naculars of India represent the old synthetic Prakrits ; after a
(i) Prakrit process of development, decay, and regeneration, which has
element. ^QQ^^^ going on, as the result of definite linguistic laws, during
(2) Abori- the past fifteen hundred years. Second, that the modern
element vernaculars contain a non-Aryan element, derived from the
so-called aborigines of India ; but that this element has very
slightly affected their grammatical structure, and that the
proportion which it holds in their vocabularies is yet undeter-
(3) Sans- mined. Third, that the modern vernaculars have enriched
vrit bor- themselves, for literary and philosophical purposes, by direct
(4) Persian and conscious borrowings from the Sanskrit. Fourth, that
terms. they have also imported many terms connected with the
administration, the land revenue, judicial business, and official
life, from the Persian court language of the Afghan and
Mughal dynasties.
The seven The Aryan vernaculars of modern India may be distributed
Aryan according to their geographical areas into seven main lan-
culars. guages.
(i) Sindhi. Towards the north-western frontier, Sindhi is spoken by
the descendants of the shepherd tribes and the settlements
who were left behind by the main stream of the prehistoric
Aryan immigrants. The Sindhi language abounds in words of
non-Aryan origin ; it contains very few Tatsamas, i.e. Sanskrit
words in their original shape ; and it is almost destitute of an
(2) Pun- original literature. The Punjabi language is spoken in the
jabi. valleys of the Indus and its tributaries. Like the Sindhi, it
contains few Tatsamas, i.e. words borrowed directly from the
Sanskrit.
(3) Guja- Gujardthi occupies the area immediately to the south of
rathi. Punjabi; while Hindi is conterminous with the Punjabi on
(4) Hindi, ^j^g g^g^^ These two languages rank next to Punjabi in
respect to the paucity of words borrowed directly from the
Sanskrit. They are chiefly composed of Tadbhava, i.e. words
(5) Mara- representing the Prakrits or old spoken dialects. Mardthi
^^^' is spoken in the Districts to the south and east of the Guja-
Aryanized. The question, however, has never been systematically or
satisfactorily investigated. Some attempts have latterly been made in this
direction by showing that not a few Sanskrit words are, in reality, Prakrit
words Sanskritized. The next step will be to show that some Prakrit
words are non- Aryan words Prakritized (i.r. Aryanized).'
THE MODERN VERNACULARS. 343
rathi frontier ; Bengali succeeds to Hindi in the east of Bengal (6)r5engali.
and the Gangetic delta ; while Uriya occupies the Mahanadi (7) Uriyd.
delta and the coast of the Bay of Bengal from near the mouth
of the Hiigli to the northern Districts of Madras. These
three last-named vernaculars, Marathi, Bengali, and Uriya, are
most largely mdebted to modern and artificial importations
direct from the Sanskrit.
With the exception of Sindhi, the modern vernaculars of Vernacular
India have each a Hterature of their own. Some of them, "teraiure.
indeed, possess a very rich and copious literature. This subject
still awaits careful study. The lamented Garcin de Tassy has Garcin de
shown how interesting, and how rich in results, that study may Tassy.
be rendered. His history of Hindi literature,^ and his yearly
review of works published in the Indian vernaculars, form a
unique monument to the memory of a scholar who worked
under the disadvantage of never having resided in India.
But the unexhausted literary stores of the Indian vernaculars
can only be appreciated by personal inquiry among the natives
themselves. The barest summary of the written and unwritten
works in the modern Indian vernaculars is altogether beyond
the scope of the present work. It can merely indicate the
wealth of unprinted, and in many cases unwritten, works
handed down from generation to generation, arranged in
geographical areas. The chapter will then conclude by -
selecting for description a few authors from three of the most
advanced of the vernaculars — namely Hindi, Marathi, and
Bengali. It will not touch on the Persian or Musalman
literature of the Delhi Empire.
As regards the isolated vernacular of Orissa, the present Vernacular
writer has elsewhere given an analytical catalogue of 107 Uriya ^'"^^^^
authors, with a brief description of 47 Uriya manuscripts of in Uriya ;
undetermined authorship.^ Several of the Uriya poets and
theologians were prolific authors, and have left behind them
a number of distinct compositions. Thus, Dina Krishna Das
{circ. 1550 A.D.) was so popular a writer as to earn for
himself the title of 'The Son of God Jagannath.' His
separate works number fifteen, and embrace a wide range
of subjects, from 'the Waves of Sentiment,' an account of
the youthful sports of Krishna, to severe medical treatises.
Another Orissa poet of the i6th century composed 23 works,
^ Histoire de la Litter at tire Hmdoiiie et Hindoustanie^ par M. Garcin
de Tassy, 3 vols, large octavo, 2nd ed., Paris, 1870-71.
* Hunter's Orissa, vol. ii. App. ix. ed. 1872.
344 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
on religious and metaphysical subjects, such as 'A Walk round
the Sacred Enclosures of the Puri Temple,' and ' The Sea of
the Nectar of Faith/ The greatest of the Uriya poets, Upen-
dra Bhanj, a Raja of Gumsar, belongs to nearly the same
period. He left behind him 42 collections of poems and
treatises, some of them of great length.
Messrs. Hoernle and Grierson have lately exhibited the
local Hterature of Behar, and its sub-divisions, with admirable
learning and distinctness. ^ It must suffice here to refer the
in Bihari. Student to their lists of works in Bihari and the modern dialects
of the Gaudian group.
Rajputana ^^ idea of the wealth of poetry current in Rajputana may
be gathered from the following statement. The figures are
taken from a manuscript note forwarded to the author by the
Rev. John Traill, Presbyterian missionary at Jaipur. Besides
the ordinary Hindi works, such as translations from the Sanskrit,
the Rajputs have a vast store of religious poetry and traditional
song, still living in the mouths of the people. The works of
only a single sect can be specified in detail.
Dadu. Dadu, a religious reformer, born at Ahmadabad in 1544,
left behind him a Bani, or body of sacred poetry, extending
to twenty thousand lines. His life, by Jai Gopal, runs to
three thousand lines. Fifty-two disciples spread his doctrine
throughout Rajputana and Ajmere, each of them leaving
a large collection of religious verse. The literary fertility of
Sacred the sect may be inferred from the works of nine of the
poetry of a (disciples. The poems and hymnology of Gharib Das are
sintrle sect. . , ,. ^ . , . . ,
said to amount to 32,000 Imes; Jaisa is stated to have
composed 124,000 lines; Prayag Das, 48,000 lines; Rajab-ji,
72,000 lines; Bakhna-ji, 20,000 lines; Bdba Banwari Das,
12,000 lines; Shankar Das, 4400 lines; Siindar Das, 120,000
lines ; and Madhu Das, 68,000 Hnes.
Dadu These figures are stated on the authority of Mr. Traill,
hymno- ^nd they are subject to the qualification that no European
° " ' scholar has yet collected the writings of the sect. They are
given as reported by the natives among whom the poems
are still current. It is to be regretted that so little has yet
been done to edit the stores of vernacular literature in the
Feudatory States of India. A noble task lies before the more
enlightened of the native princes ; and in this task they would
receive the willing assistance of Enghsh scholars now in
India.
^ Comparative Dictionary of the Bihari Language, pp. 38-42 (quarto ;
Calcutta, 1885).
THE MODERN VERNACULARS. 345
A very brief notice of the most distinguished authors in Selected
Hindi, Marathi, and Bengah' must conclude this chapter. For ^^'U^Jg^^'"''
practical purposes, those three vernaculars represent the highest
modern development of the modern Indian mind. This is,
of course, exclusive of the Dra vidian literature in the south of
India, which has already been dealt with at the beginning of
the chapter. The monastic literature of Burma is almost
entirely a reproduction of the ancient Buddhist writings, and
does not come within the scope of this work.
Hindi ranks, perhaps, highest among the Indian vernaculars Hindi
in strength and dignity. At the head of Hindi authors is ^"^^^^'^ *•
Chand Bardai. Chand was a native of Lahore, but lived at Chand
the court of Prithwi Raja, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi, ^^th^^en-
at the close of the twelfth century.^ His poems are a col-turyA.D.
lection of ballads in which he recites, in his old age, the gallant
deeds of the royal master whom he had served, and whose sad
fate he had survived. They disclose the ancient Prakrit in
the very act of passing into the modern vernacular. In gram-
matical structure they still retain many relics of the synthetic or
inflectional type ; although the analytical forms of the modern
vernaculars are beginning to crowd out these remnants of the
earlier phase of the Indian speech. Chand's ballads have
been printed, but they also survive in the mouths of the people.
They are still sung by wandering bards throughout North-
western India and Rajputana, to near the mouths of the
Indus, and to the frontier of Baluchistan.
The vernacular literatures derived their chief impulse, how- Later
ever, not from court minstrelsy, but from religious movements. Hindi
_ - . ^' . . .. . . authors.
Each new sect seems to have been irresistibly prompted to
embody its doctrines in verse. Kabir, the Indian Luther of 15th cen-
the fifteenth century, may be said to have created the sacred ^"^T a.d.
literature of Hindi.^ His Ramainis and Sabdas form an
immense body of religious poetry and doctrine. In the
following century, Siir Das of Mathura, Nabhaji and i6tb cen-
Keshava Das of Bijapur, wrote respectively the Siirsagar, the '^'^'
Bhaktamdld, and the Ramchandrika. A brief notice of the
Bhaktamala has already been given at page 208. In the 17th cen-
seventeenth century, Bihari Ldl, of the ancient city of Amber ^^'"y-
near Jaipur, composed his famous Satsai ; and Bundel-
khand produced its prince of poets, Lai Kavi, the author
of the Chhatra Prakas. All these were natives of western
^ For Prithwi Raja, vide ante, chap, x, p. 276.
- For Kabir's work as a religious reformer, vide ante, pp. 208, 218.
346 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
Hindustan, except Kabir, who belonged to the Benares
district.
i8ih cen- xhe last troubled years of the Mughal dynasty in the
^* eighteenth century brought about a silence in Hindi literature.
That silence was effectually broken by the introduction of the
19th cen- printing press in the nineteenth century. It has been suc-
tury. ceeded by a great outburst of Hindi activity in prose and verse.
Every decade now produces hundreds of Hindi publications,
to some extent reproductions or translations of ancient authors,
but also to a large extent original work.
Marathi The Marathas are scarcely more celebrated as a military
literature. ^^^^^ ^g ^ literary race. Their language is highly developed,
and possesses structural complications attractive to the Indian
Nam student. The first Mar^thi poet of fame was Nam Deva,
cenlury^^^ about the end of the thirteenth century. Like his contem-
A.D. porary, Dnyanoba the author of the celebrated Dnyaneshwari,
Dnyanoba, he was deeply impressed with the spiritual aspects of life.
tury Afi)." I^^eed, almost all the Marathi writers are religious poets.
About the year 157 1, Sridhar compiled his huge Marathi
adaptation or paraphrase of the Sanskrit Puranas.
Tukaram, Marathi poetry reached its highest flight in the Abhangas
turyA^D. °^ spiritual poems of Tukaram or Tukoba {circ. 1609).
This famous ascetic started life as a petty shopkeeper; but
failing in retail trade, he devoted himself to religion and
literature. The object of his adoration was Vithoba, a corrup-
tion of Bishtu or Vishnu. Tukardm was the popular poet in
Western India of the reformed Vishnuite faith which Chaitanya
had taught in Bengal. He inveighed with peculiar unction
and beauty against the riches of the world, which in his earlier
years he had himself failed to secure.
Mayur About 1 720, Mayiir Pandit or Moropanth poured forth his
iSth^cen- ^^pious song in strains which some regard as even more
tury A.D. elevated than the poems of Tukaram.
Besides its accumulations of religious verse, Mardthi possesses
a prose literature, among which the chief compositions are the
Bakhars or Annals of the Kings. It is also rich in love songs,
and farcical poetry of a broad style of wit.
Bengalf Bengali is, in some respects, the most modern of the Indian
iteratuie; vernaculars. As a spoken language, it begins on the north,
where Hindi ends on the south ; that is to say, in the Gangetic
valley below Behar. From Rijmahal on the north to the
Bay of Bengal, and from Assam on the east to Orissa on the
SOME MARATHI POETS. 347
west, Bengali forms the speech of about 50 millions of people its geo-
in the valleys and deltas of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges. fJe^ -^^^
The language exhibits clearly marked dialectical modifications
in the north, the east, and the west, of this great area. But
for literary purposes, Bengali may be regarded as a linguistic
entity. Indeed, literary Bengali of the modern type is, to
some extent, an artificial creation. Much more than the and
Hindi, it has enriched itself by means of words directly im- }-g^f^^^|.'^
ported from the Sanskrit. Such words not only supply the
philosophical, religious, and abstract terms of Bengali Htera-
ture, but they enter largely into the every-day language of
the people. This is to some extent due to the circumstance
that the Bengalis have very rapidly adopted western ideas.
With the introduction of such ideas arose the necessity for new
terms; and for these terms, Bengali writers naturally turned
towards the Sanskrit.
The process has not been confined, however, to philosophic Sanskritiz
works. Even in poetry, the best Bengali writers of the present J? ^ ten-
day affect a more classical style than that of their predecessors Bengali.
from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. In 17 lines
of Bengali verse taken from a contemporary periodical, the
Banga-dai'shana^ there are only six or seven words which are
not Sanskrit importations. ' If we progress in this direction a
century longer,' writes a native author, ' the Bengali language
will be distinguishable from the Sanskrit only by the case
terminations and mood and tense terminations.' ^ The frame-
work of the colloquial language still continues to be derived
from the Prakrit, although Sanskrit terms are diffusing them-
selves even among the spoken language of the educated
classes.
Bengali literature commences with the vernacular poets of Three
the fourteenth century. During its first two hundred years, ^encafi^^
Bengali song was devoted to the praises of Krishna, and the literature ;
loves of the young god. In the sixteenth century two great (i) 14th to
revolutions, religious and political, took place in Bengal. J^*^ ^^^"
In the political world, the independent Afghan dynasty
of Bengal succumbed to the advancing Mughal power; and
1 The Literature of Bengal, by Arcy Dae, p. 43, Calcutta, 1877. This
interesting volume is based on the more elaborate Bengali work of Pandit
Ramgati Nyaratna. A complete treatment of the subject is still a desider-
atum, which it is hoped that Bengali research will before long supply.
Mr, Dae, whose volume has been freely used in the following pages, would
confer a benefit both on his countrymen and on European students of the
Indian vernaculars, by undertaking the task.
348
THE INDIAN VERNACULARS,
(2) i6th to
i8th cen-
tury.
^3) 19th
century.
Bidyapati
Thakur,
14th cen-
tury.
Chandi
Das, 15 th
century.
Verses by
Didyapati.
Bengal was finally incorporated as a Province of the Delhi
Empire.
In religion, a reformation of the Sivaite religion was
effected under Brahman impulses, and Krishna - worship
receded from its literary pre-eminence. During the next two
hundred and fifty years Bengali poetry found its chief theme in
the praises of Kali or Chandi, the queen of Siva, who is alike
the god of Destruction and of Reproduction. Early in the
nineteenth century, European influences began to impress them-
selves on Bengali thought. Bengali literature accordingly
entered upon a third period, the period through which it is
still passing, and which corresponds to the imported Western
civilisation of India in the nineteenth century.
Putting aside Jayadeva of Birbhiim, the Sanskrit singer in
the twelfth century, Bengali poetry commences with Bidyapati
Thdkur, a Brahman of Tirhiit. Bidyapati adorned the court
of King Sivasinha of Tirhiit in the fourteenth century ; and a
deed of gift, still existing, proves that he had made his fame
before 1400 a.d. Although popularly claimed as the Chaucer
of Bengal, he wrote in w^hat must now be regarded as a Bihari
rather than a Bengali dialect ; and recited in learned verse the
loves of Rddha and Krishna. About the same period Chandi
Das, a Birbhiim Brdhman, took up the sacred strain in the
Bengali tongue. Originally a devotee of the goddess Chandi,
queen of Siva, he was miraculously converted to the worship
of Krishna, whose praises he celebrated in a less learned, but
more forcible colloquial style. To these two poets and their
followers, Krishna was a lover rather than a deity; and his
mistress RMhd, more of a pastoral beauty than a goddess.
But their poetry constantly realizes that beneath the human
amours of the divine pair, lies a deep spiritual significance.
This didactic side of their poetry may be illustrated by three
verses of Bidyapati to Krishna under his title of Midhava,
'The Honeyed One.'
A Hymn to Krishna.
O ! Madhava ! our final stay,
The Saviour of the world Thou art,
In mercy look upon the weak,
To Thee I turn with trustful heart.
Half of my life in sleep has past ;
In illness — boyhood — years have gone,
In pleasure's vortex long I roamed,
Alas I forgetting Thee, the One.
SOME BENGALI POETS. 349
Unnumbered beings live and die,
They rise from Thee and sink in Thee,
(Thou uncreate and without end !)
Like ripples melting in the sea.'^
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the great religious Religious
reformer Chaitanya ^ gave a more serious turn to the poetry of JJJ°^f " ^p
Bengal. He preached the worship of Vishnu, and the doctrine the i6th
of saving faith in that deity. Krishna was the pastoral incar- century,
nation of the god ; but the Vishnuism taught by Chaitanya The
spiritualized the human element in the amours which the ^ish'iuite
earlier poets had somewhat warmly sung. Chaitanya declared
the spiritual equality of mankind, and combated the cruel
distinctions of caste. His doctrine amounted to a protest
against the Hinduism of his day, although it has been skilfully
incorporated by the later Hinduism of our own. The oppo-
sition, excited by Chaitanya's Vishnuite reformation, took the
form of a revival of the worship of Siva and his queen.
There were thus, in the sixteenth century^ two great religious The
movements going on in Bengal ; the one in favour of Vishnu, i^eyi^^.^j
the second person of the Hindu triad ; and the other in favour
of Siva, the third person of that trinity. The more serious
aspect which Chaitanya gave to Vishnuism did not lend itself
to popular song so easily as the human loves of Krishna,
celebrated by the earlier Vishnuite poets. On the other hand,
the counter revival of Sivaism accepted as its objects of adora- Bengali
tion, some form or other of the Goddess of Destruction and ^^^'^^^^"
, poetry.
Reproduction under her various names ^ of Uma, Parvati,
Durga, Kali, or Chandi. These names suggested alike the
terrors and the mercies of the Queen of Siva, and appealed in
a special manner to a people dwelling amid the stupendous
catastrophes of nature in a deltaic Province like Bengal.
The result was an outburst of Bengali song, which took as Kirtibas
its theme the praises of Chandi, the wife of Siva. Kirtibas ^j^^^'^^,^^^^
Ojhd, a Brahman of Nadiya District in the sixteenth century,
marks the transition stage. Kirtibas drew his inspiration from The transi-
the Sanskrit epics, and his great work is the Bengali version of ^^^"P^^'^'
the Rdffidyana. His translation is still recited by Ghattaks or
bards at a thousand religious and festive gatherings every year
throughout Bengal. Its modern versions have received much
1 Slightly altered from the rendering of Mr. Dae's Literature of Bengal,
p. 60 (Bose & Co., Calcutta, 1877).
^ Vide ante, pp. 219-21.
^ For the different names of the wife of Siva, and the aspects of the
goddess which these names connote, vide ante ^ pp. 211, 212.
350 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS,
re-touching from later poets of the classical or Sanskritizing
school; but an old copy of 1693 proves that Kirtibas wrote
in a strong colloquial style, with a ring and rhythm of peculiar
His Ben- beauty. The Rdmdyana recites the achievements of the heroic
gall Ram- incarnation of Vishnu, and Kirtibas Ojha may therefore be
claimed as a Vishnuite poet. But in reality his work marks
the Sanskrit revival which gave the impulse to the Sivaite
or Chandi poets of the next two and a half centuries.
Sivaite and These Sivaite poets kept possession of BengaH literature during
poets, \6th ^^ ^5° years which elapsed before the commencement of the
to i8th third or present period. First among them was Makunda
century. -^^^^^^ Chakravarti, a Brahman of Bardwan District, and a con-
Makunda temporary of Kirtibas Ojha in the i6th century. He was
Ram. driven from his home by the oppressions of Muhammadan
officers, and his verses give a lifehke picture of the Muham-
madan land settlement of Lower Bengal. All classes, he says,
were crushed with an equal tyranny ; fallow lands were entered
as arable, and by a false measurement, three-fourths of a
bighd were taxed as a full Mghd. In the collection of the
revenue, the oppressions were not less than in the assessment.
The treasury officers deducted more than one rupee in seven for
short weight and exchange. The husbandmen fled from their
lands, and threw their cattle and goods into the markets, 'so that
a rupee worth of things sold for ten annas.' Makunda Ram's
family shared the common ruin ; but the young poet, after a
wandering life, found shelter as tutor in the family of Ban-
kurd Deb, a powerful landholder of Birbhiim and Midnapur
Districts. He was honoured with the title of Kabi Kankan, or
the Jewel of Bards, and wrote two great poems besides minor
songs.
The story His most popular work is the story of Kdlketu, the hunter,
f*^^^^^^"' Kdlketu, a son of Indra, King of Heaven, is born upon earth
kunda as a poor hunter. In his celestial existence he had a devoted
Ram. w'xit^ and she, too, is born in this world, and becomes his
faithful companion throughout their allotted earthly career.
Their mortal births had been brought about by the goddess
Chandi, queen of Siva, in order that she might have a city
founded and dedicated to herself. The poor hunter and his
wife, Fullord, after years of hardship, are guided to a buried
treasure by their kind patroness, Chandi. With this, the
hunter builds a city, and dedicates it to the goddess. But
misled by a wicked adviser, he goes to war with the King of
Kalinga on the south, is defeated, and cast into prison. In
due time Chandi rescues her foolish but faithful servant. At
SOME BENGALI POETS. 351
last the hunter and his true wife die and ascend to heaven.
He hves again as the son of Indra, while Fullora again becomes
his celestial spouse.
The other poem of Makunda Ram narrates the adventures The Sn'-
of a spice merchant, Dhanapati, and his son, Srimanta Sada- gadd^jir of
gar. A celestial nymph, Khullond, is sent down to live on Makunda
earth as penance for a venial offence. She grows into a ^^^*
beautiful girl, and is wedded by the rich merchant, Dhanapati,
who has, however, already a first wife. Before the marriage
can be consummated, the king of the country sends off the
merchant to Eastern Bengal to procure a golden cage for a
favourite bird. The bride is left with his elder wife in
the family home upon the banks of the Adjai, a river
which separates Birbhiim and Bardwan Districts in South-
AVestern Bengal. A wicked handmaid excites the jealousy of
the elder wife, and the girl-bride is condemned to menial
offices, and sent forth as a goat-herd to the fields. The kind
goddess Chandi, however, converts the elder lady to a better
frame of mind ; the girl-bride is received back ; and on the
return of her husband becomes his favourite wife. In due
time she bears him a son, Srfmanta Sadagar, the hero of the
subsequent story.
The king next sends the merchant for spices to Ceylon, and Voyage
his voyage down the great rivers of Bengal and across the sea ^^ ^fj^ ,
is vividly described. From the towns mentioned on his route, Adi Ganga
it appears that in those days the water-way from Bardwan to Ceylon,
-r^.. ,, .,1 . ,-r^ /--r^ , loth cen-
Distnct and the neighbourmg country, to the Bay of Bengal, tury.
lay by the Hiigli as far down as Calcutta, and then struck
south-eastward by what is now the dead river of the Adi-
Gangd.^ The poor merchant is imprisoned by the King of
Ceylon, and there languishes until he is sought out by his
brave son, Srimanta Sadagar, from whom the poem takes its
name. Srimanta is also seized, and led out to execution by
the cruel king. But the kind goddess Chandi delivers both
father and son, and the beautiful Khullond receives back with
joy her lost treasures from the sea.
In the 1 7th century, the second of the two great Sanskrit Kasi Ram
epics, the Mahdbhdrata^ was translated by Kasi Rdm Das. ^^^' ^7th
This poet also belonged to Bardwdn District. His version
still holds its place in the affections of the people, and
is chanted by professional bards throughout all Bengal. The Bengali
more tender episodes are rendered with feeling and grace ; ana^"^'
' See article Hugli River in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
352 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
but the fiery quarrels and heroic spirit of the Sanskrit original
lose much in the Bengali translation.
Bengali The 1 8th century produced two great Bengali poets. In
thriSth ^7^°' -^^"^ Prasad Sen, of the Vaidya caste, was born in
century-. Nadiyd District. Sent at an early age as clerk to a Calcutta
Ram office, he scribbled verses when he should have been casting
Prasad ^p accounts, and was reported for punishment by the chief
clerk. The head of the business read the rhymes, dismissed
the poet, but assigned to him a pension of Rs. 30 a month.
With this he retired to his native village, and wrote poetry
for the rest of his life. Ram Prasad was a devout Tantrik
or worshipper of the wife of Siva, and his poems consist
chiefly of appeals to the goddess under her various names of
Kali, Sakti, etc. His songs, however, are more often com-
plaints of her cruelty than thanksgivings for her mercies.^
The Court The little Hindu court of Nadiya then formed the centre of
8th^^'^^' learning and literature in Bengal, and the Raja endowed Ram
tury. Prasad with 33 acres of rent-free land. The grateful poet in
return dedicated to the prince his Kabtranjan, or version of
the tale of Bidyd Simdar. The fame of this version has,
however, been eclipsed by the rendering of the same story by
a rival poet Bharat Chandra. Two other well-known works, the
Kali Kirtan and the Krishna Kirtan^ in honour respectively
of Kali and Krishna, with many minor poems, have also come
down from the pen of Ram Prasad.
Bharat The Other great Bengal poet of the i8th century was Bharat
Chandra Chandra Rai, who died 1760. The son of a petty Rdjd, he
was driven from his home by the oppressions of the Rajd of
Bardwan, and after many adventures and imprisonment, ob-
tained the protection of the chief native officer of the French
Settlement at Chandarnagar. The generosity of the Rdja of
Nadiya 2 afterwards raised him to comfort, and he devoted
his life to three principal poems. His version of the Bidyd
Sundar is a passionate love poem, and remains the accepted
rendering of that tale to the present day. The goddess
Kdli interposes at the end to save the life of the frail heroine.
His other two principal poems, the Annadd Mafigal and the
Mdnsinha^ form continuations of the same work ; and, like it,
are devoted to the glorification of the queen of Siva under her
various names.
With the printing press, and the Anglo-Indian School, arose
' Titit'^ Literature of Bengal, p. 147. (Calcutta, 1877.)
' Mr. Dae says, inadvertently, the Rajd of Bardwan. .
RECENT BENGALI LITER A TURE. 353
a generation of Bengalis whose chief ambition is to live by the Recent
pen. The majority find their career in official, mercantile, or j^^^JJ^^^^^.^
professional employment. But a large residue become writers 19th cen-'
of books ; and Bengal is at present passing through a grand tury.
literary climacteric. Nearly 1300 works per annum are pub-
lished in the vernacular languages of Lower Bengal alone.
It is an invidious task to attempt to single out the most
distinguished authors of our own day. Amid such a climax of
literary activity, much inferior work is produced. But it is not
too much to say that in poetry, philosophy, science, the novel
and the drama, Bengali literature has, in this century, produced
masterpieces without rivals in its previous history. In two
departments it has struck out entirely new lines. Bengali
prose practically dates from Ram Mohan Rai ; and Bengali
journalism is essentially the creation of the third quarter of the
present century. ^
As Bengali poetry owed its rise in the 14th century, and its Bengali
fresh impulse in the i6th, to outbursts of religious song; so century^
Bengali prose is the offspring of the religious movement
headed by the Rdja Ram Mohan Rai in the 19th. This great
theistic reformer felt that his doctrines and arguments required
a more serious vehicle than verse. When he died in 1833, he
at once received the position of the father of Bengali prose, —
a position which he still enjoys in the grateful memories of his
countrymen."^ Of scarcely less importance, however, in the
creation of a good prose style, were two rival authors born in
1820. Akkhai Kumar Datta enforced the theistic doctrines
of the Brahma Samaj with indefatigable ability in his religious
journal, the Tatwahodhini Patrikd. Reprints of his articles
still rank as text-books of standard Bengali prose. Iswar
Chandra Vidyasagar, also born in 1820, devoted himself to
social reform upon orthodox Hindu lines. The enforced
celibacy of widows, and the abuses of polygamy, have formed
the subject of his Hfe-long attacks.
An older worker, Iswar Chandra Gupta, born 1809, took the
lead in the modern popular poetry of Bengal. His fame has
^ From no list of 19th century Bengali authors should the following
names be omitted : — Ram Mohan Rai, Akkhai Kumar Datta, Iswar
Chandra Vidyasagar, Iswar Chandra Gupta, Madhu Sudan Datta, Hem
Chandra Banarji, Bankim Chandra Chattarji, Dino Bandhu Mitra, and
Nabin Chandra Sen.
^ Raja Ram Mohan Rai (Rammohun Roy) is also well known for his
English works, of which it is pleasant to record that a collected reprint is
now appearing under the editorship of Babu Gogendra Chandra Ghose,
M.A. (Calcutta, ,1885).
Z
354 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
Modern been eclipsed, however, by Madhu Sudan Datta, born 1828,
Bengali ^.j^^ ^^^ ranks higher in the estimation of his countrymen than
19th cen- any Bengah' poet of this or any previous age. Madhu Sudan's
^"'^y* epic, the Meghndd Badh Kdbya, is reckoned by Bengali critics
as second only to the masterpieces of Valmiki, Kalidasa,
Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare. This generous appreciation
is characteristic of the catholic spirit of Hinduism. For
Madhu Madhu Sudan Datta became a Christian, lectured as pro-
Sudan fessor in a Christian college, went to England, and returned to
1828-1875. Bengal only to die, after a too brief career, in 1875. His epic
relates the death of Meghnad or Indrajit, greatest of the sons
of Ravana, and takes its materials from the well-known episode
in the Rdmdyana. Among Bengali poets still living. Hem
Chandra Banarji occupies perhaps the highest place of honour.
The In the Bengali drama, Dina Bandhu Mitra, born 1829, died
Drami' ^^73' ^^^ ^^^ ^^^' "^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ greatest work, the Nil
Darpan or Mirror of Indigo, startled the community by its
picture of the abuses of indigo planting a quarter of a
century ago. It was translated into English by the well-known
missionary and philanthropist, the Rev. James Long; and
formed the ground of an action for hbel, ending in the fine
and imprisonment of the latter gentleman. In prose fiction,
Bunkim Chandra Chattarji, born 1838, ranks first. The Bengali
novel is essentially a creation of the last half century, and the
Dwgesh Nandini of this author has never been surpassed.
But many new novelists, dramatists, and poets are now estab-
lishing their reputation in Bengal ; and the force of the literary
impulse given by the State School and the printing press seems
still unabated. It is much to be regretted that so little of that
intellectual activity has flowed into the channels of biography
and critical history.
The mean- This chapter has dealt at some length with the vernacular
ingofthis i^grature of India, because a right understanding of that litera-
cnapter. . r 1 1 > • 1
ture is necessary for the comprehension of the chapters which
follow. It concludes the part of the present book which treats
of the struggle for India by the Asiatic races. In the next
chapter the European nations come upon the scene. How
they strove among themselves for the mastery will be briefly
narrated. The conquest of India by any one of them formed
a problem whose magnitude not one of them appreciated.
The Portuguese spent the military resources of their country,
and the religious enthusiasm of their Church, in the vain
RECENT BENGALI FICTION 355
attempt to establish an Indian dominion by the Inquisition and Assaults
the Sword. This chapter has shown the strength and the indigenous
extent of the indigenous civilisation which they thus ignorantly civilisation
and unsuccessfully strove to overthrow. ° ^ ^^'
The Indian races had themselves confronted the problems
for which the Portuguese attempted to supply solutions from
without. One religious movement after another had swept
across India ; one philosophical school after another had pre-
sented its explanation of human existence and its hypothesis
of a future life. A popular literature had sprung up in every
Province. The Portuguese attempt to uproot these native
growths, and to forcibly plant in their place an exotic civilisa-
tion and an exotic creed, was foredoomed to failure. From
any such attempt the Dutch and the French wisely abstained.
One secret of the success of the British power has been its English
non-interference with the customs and the religions of the "o^'^"^^"^-
people.
[ 356 ]
[498.
CHAPTER XIV.
EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS (1498 TO i8tH CENTURY A.D.).
The Portu- The Muhammadan invaders of India had entered from the
fndK "^ north-west. Her Christian conquerors approached by sea from
Vasco da the south. From the time of Alexander to that of Vasco da
?^^oS^' Gama, Europe held little direct intercourse with the East. An
occasional traveller brought back stories of powerful kingdoms
and of untold wealth ; but the passage by sea was scarcely
dreamed of, and by land, wide deserts and warlike tribes lay
between. Commerce, indeed, struggled overland and via the
Red Sea ; being carried on chiefly by the Italian cities on the
Mediterranean, which traded to the ports of the Levant. ^ But to
the Europeans of the 15th century, India was an unknown land,
which powerfully attracted the imagination of spirits stimulated
^ The following is a list of the most noteworthy early travellers to the
East, from the 9th century to the establishment of the Portuguese as a
conquering power in India in the l6th. The Arab geographers -will
be found in Sir Henry Elliot's first volumes of the Indian Historians.
The standard European authority is T/ie Book of Ser Marco Polo the
Venetian, edited by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., 2 vols., second edition,
1875. The author's best thanks are due to Colonel Yule for the assistance
he has kindly afforded both here and in those articles of The Iviperial
Gazetteer of India, which came within the scope of Colonel Yule's re-
searches. The authorities for the more ancient travellers and Indian
geographers are, as already stated, M'Crindle's Megasthenes and Arrian,
his Ktesias, and his Navigation of the Erythrccan Sea, which originally
appeared in the Indian Antiquary, and were republished by Messrs.
Triibner. The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the
Indian Ocean, by Dr. William Vincent, Dean of Westminster (2 vols,
quarto, 1807), may still be perused with interest, although Dr. Vincent's
materials have been supplemented by fuller and more accurate knowledge.
883 A.D. King Alfred sends Sighelm of Sherburn to the shrine of Saint
Thomas in ' India.' The site of the shrine is doubtful, see chap. ix.
851-916. Sulaiman and Abu Zaid, whose travels furnished the Relations
of Reinaud.
912-30. The geographer Mas'udi.
1159-73. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela ; visited Persian Gulf, reported on
India. ,
1260-71. The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of
Marco Polo ; make their first trading venture through Central Asia.
FIRST PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. 357
by the renaissance, and ardent for discovery. The materials
for this period have been collected by Sir George Birdwood
in his admirable official Report on the Old Records of the India
Office (1879), to which the following paragraphs are largely
indebted. The history of the various European settlements
will be found in greater detail, under their respective articles,
in The l7)iperial Gazetteer of India.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed westwards under the Portuguese
Spanish flag to seek India beyond the Atlantic, bearing with ^°y^S^'^-
him a letter to the great Khan of Tartary. He found America
instead. An expedition under Vasco da Gama started from
Lisbon five years later, in the opposite, or south-eastern, direc-
tion. It doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and cast anchor off
the city of Calicut on the 20th May 1498, after a protracted
voyage of nearly eleven months. An earlier Portuguese
emissary, Covilham, had reached Calicut overland about 1487.
1 27 1. They started on their second journey, accompanied by Marco Polo ;
and about 1275, arrived at the Court of Kublai Khan in Shangtu,
whence Marco Polo was entrusted with several missions to Cochin
China, Khanbulig (Pekin). and the Indian Seas.
1292. Friar John of Monte Corvino, afterwards Archbishop of Pekin ;
spent thirteen months in India on his way to China,
1304-78. Ibn Batuta, an Arab of Tangiers ; after many years in the
East, attached himself to the Court of Muhammad Tughlak at Delhi,
1334-42, whence he was despatched on an Embassy to China.
1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone, a Minorite friar; travelled in the East
and through India by way of Persia, Bombay, and Surat (where he
collected the bones of four missionaries martyred in 1321), to Malabar,
the Coromandel coast, and thence to China and Tibet.
1328. Friar Jordanus of Severac, Bishop of Quilon.
1338-49. John de Marignolli, a Franciscan friar ; on his return from a
mission to China, visited Quilon in 1347, and made a pilgrimage to
the shrine of St. Thomas in India in 1349.
1327-72. Sir John Mandeville ; wrote his travels in India (supposed to be
the first printed English book, London, 1499) ; but beyond the
Levant his travels are invented or borrowed.
1419-40. Nicolo Conti, a noble Venetian ; travelled throughout Southern
India and along the Bombay coast.
1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak ; during an embassy to India, visited Calicut,
Mangalore, and Vijayanagar, where he was entertained in state by the
Hindu sovereign of that kingdom.
1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian ; travelled from the Volga,
through Central Asia and Persia, to Gujarat, Cambay, and Chaul,
whence he proceeded inland to Bidar and Golconda.
1494-99. Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a Genoese ; visited the port of
Malabar and the Coromandel coast as a merchant adventurer, and
after proceeding to Ceylon and Pegu, sailed for Cambay.
1503-08. Travels of Ludovico di Varthema. In the Hakluyt Series.
358 EARL V EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
State of
India on
arrival of
Portu-
guese.
Raja of
Calicut's
letter,
1498.
From the first, Da Gama encountered hostility from the Moors,
or rather Arabs, who monopolized the sea-borne trade ; but he
seems to have found favour with the Zamorin or Hindu Raja of
Malabar. An Afghan of the Lodi dynasty was then on the
throne of Delhi, and another Afghan king was ruling over Bengal.
Ahmadabdd formed the seat of a Muhammadan dynasty in
Gujarat. The five independent Muhammadan kingdoms of
Ahmednagar, Bijapur, Elichpur, Golconda, and Bidar had
partitioned out the Deccan. But the Hindu Rajd of Vijayanagar
still ruled as paramount in the south, and was perhaps the most
powerful monarch to be found at that time in India, not
excepting the Lodi dynasty at Delhi.
After staying nearly six months on the Malabar coast, Da
Gama returned to Europe, bearing with him the following
letter from the Zamorin to the King of Portugal : — ' Vasco da
Gama, a nobleman of your household, has visited my kingdom
and has given me great pleasure. In my kingdom there is
abundance of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious
stones. What I seek from thy country is gold, silver, coral,
and scarlet.' The safe arrival of Da Gama at Lisbon was cele-
brated with national rejoicings as enthusiastic as those which
had greeted the return of Columbus. If the West Indies
belonged to Spain by priority of discovery, Portugal might
claim the East Indies by the same right. The Portuguese
mind became intoxicated by dreams of a mighty oriental empire.
The early Portuguese navigators were not traders or private
adventurers, but admirals with a royal commission to conquer
territory and to promote the spread of Christianity. A second
expedition, consisting of thirteen ships and twelve hundred
soldiers, under the command of Cabral, was despatched in
1500. 'The sum of his instructions was to begin with preach-
ing, and if that failed, to proceed to the sharp determination of
the sword.' On his outward voyage, Cabral was driven by
stress of weather to the coast of Brazil. Ultimately he reached
Calicut, and established factories both there and at Cochin, in
spite of active hostilities from the natives.
Portuguese In 1502, the King of Portugal obtained from Pope Alex-
supremacy ander vi. a bull constituting him ' Lord of the Navigation,
seas, 1500- Conquests, and Trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India.'
In that year Vasco da Gama sailed again to the East, with a
fleet numbering twenty vessels. He formed an alliance with
the Rijas of Cochin and Cananore against the Zamorin of
Calicut, and bombarded the latter in his palace. In 1503, the
great Alfonso d'Albuquerque sailed to the East in command of
Portuguese
expedi-
tion, 1500.
1600.
1
ALBUQUERQUE VICEROY. 359
one of three expeditions from Portugal. In 1505, a large fleet
of twenty-two sail and fifteen thousand men was sent under
Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Governor and
Viceroy of India.
In 1509, Albuquerque succeeded as Governor, and widely Albu-
extended the area of Portuguese influence. Having failed in [l^j^gs^^Qa
an attack upon Calicut, he in 15 10 seized Goa, which has 15 10.
since remained the capital of Portuguese India. Then, sailing
round Ceylon, he captured Malacca, the key to the navigation
of the Indian archipelago, and opened a trade with Siam and
the Spice Islands. Lastly, he sailed back westwards, and after
penetrating into the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, returned
to Goa only to die in 15 15. In 1524, Vasco da Gama came
out to the East for the third time, and he too died a^ Cochin,
in 1527. For exactly a century, from 1500 to 1600, the
Portuguese enjoyed a monopoly of Oriental trade.^ ' From
Japan and the Spice Islands to the Red Sea and the Cape of
Good Hope, they were the sole masters and dispensers of the
treasures of the East ; while their possessions along the Atlantic
coast of Africa and in Brazil completed their maritime empire.'^
But the Portuguese had neither the political strength Cruelties
nor the personal character necessary to maintain such an '^^ Poi'tu-
. iruese in.
Empire. Their national temper had been formed in their India.
contest with the Moors at home. They were not traders, "but
knights-errant and crusaders, who looked on every pagarr as
an enemy of Portugal and of Christ Only those who have
read the contemporary narratives of their conquests, can realize
the superstition and the cruelty with which their history in
the Indies is stained.
Albuquerque alone endeavoured to conciliate the goodwill Albu-
of the natives, and to live in friendship with the Hindu q"erque's
princes, who were naturally better pleased to have the Portu- condHa-
guese, as governed by him, for their neighbours and allies, tion.
than the Muhammadans whom he had expelled or subdued.
The justice and magnanimity of his rule did as much to
extend and confirm the power of the Portuguese in the East,
as his courage and the success of his military achievements.
* For a full account of the Portuguese in India, and the curious phases
of society which they developed, see article Goa, The Imperial Gazetteer
of India. Also for local notices, see articles Daman, Diu, Bassein,
Calicut.
* This and the following paragraphs are condensed from Sir George
Birdwood's official Report on the Miscellaneous Old Records iti the India
Office, dated ist November 1878 (foHo, 1879).
3 6o EARL Y EUR OPE AN SE TTLEMENTS.
In such veneration was his memory held, that the Hindus of
Goa, and even the Muhammadans, were wont to repair to his
tomb, and there utter their complaints, as if in the presence of
his shade, and call upon God to deliver them from the tyranny
of his successors.
Later 'The cruelties of Soarez, Sequeyra, Menezes, Da Gama,
iceroys, ^^^ succeeding viceroys, drove the natives to desperation,
and encouraged the princes of Western India in 1567 to form
a league against the Portuguese, in which they were joined by
their the King of Achin.' But the undisciplined Indian troops were
ravery. enable to stand against the veteran soldiers of Portugal ; 200
of whom, at Malacca, routed 15,000 natives with artillery.
When, in 1578, Malacca was again besieged by the King of
Achin, the small Portuguese garrison destroyed 10,000 of his
men, and all his cannon and junks. Twice again, in 161 5
and for the last time in 1628, Malacca was besieged, and on
each occasion the Achinese were repulsed with equal bravery.
But the increased military forces sent out to resist these
attacks proved an insupportable drain on the revenues and
population of Portugal.
Spanish In 1580, the Portuguese crown was united with that of
yiscT"^^^' Sp^^"> under Philip 11. This proved the ruin of the maritime
and commercial supremacy of Portugal in the East. Tiie in-
terests of Portugal in Asia were henceforth subordinated to the
European interests of Spain. In 1 640, Portugal again became
a separate kingdom. But in the meanwhile the Dutch and
English had appeared in the Eastern Seas ; and before their
indomitable competition, the Portguese empire of the Indies
withered away as rapidly as it had sprung up. The period of
the highest development of Portuguese commerce was probably
from 1590 to 1 6 10 on the eve of the subversion of their com-
mercial power by the Dutch, and when their political admini-
stration in India was at its lowest depth of degradation. At
this period a single fleet of Portuguese merchantmen sailing
from Goa to Cambay or Surat would number as many as 150
or 250 carracks. Now, only one Portuguese ship sails from
Lisbon to Goa in the year.^
The Dutch besieged Goa in 1603, and again in 1639. Both
attacks were unsuccessful on land ; but the Portuguese were
Downfall gradually driven oflfthe sea. In 1683, the Mardthds plundered
cue^rin ^^ ^^^ ^^'^^ °^ ^^^' '^^^^ further history of the Portuguese in
India, India is a miserable chronicle of pride, poverty, and sounding
39 739' 1 Reproduced, without verification, from Sir George Birdvvood's Report,
p. 70.
DUTCH INDIA COMPANIES. 361
titles. The native princes pressed upon them from the land.
On the sea they gave way to more vigorous European nations.
The only remaining Portuguese possessions in India are Goa, Portuguese
Daman, and Diu,all on the west coast, with a total area of 2365 jnTs^i!''"''
square miles, and a total population of 475,172 in 1881.^ The
general Census of 1871 also returned 426 Portuguese in British
India, not including those of mixed descent. About 30,000 of
the latter are found in Bombay (' Portuguese' half-castes), and
20,000 in Bengal, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Dacca and
Chittagong. The latter are known as Firinghis ; and, excepting Mixed de-
that they retain the Roman Catholic faith and European sur- scendants.
names, they are scarcely to be distinguished either by colour,
language, or habits of life from the natives among whom they live.
The Dutch were the first European nation who broke through The Dutch
the Portuguese monopoly. During the i6th century, Bruges, "l^"^^^'
Antwerp, and Amsterdam became successively the great em-
poriums w^hence Indian produce, imported by the Portuguese,
was distributed to Germany, and even to England. At first
the Dutch, following in the track of the English, attempted to
find their way to India by sailing round the northern coast of
Europe and Asia. William Barents is honourably known as
the leader of three of these arctic expeditions, in the last of
which he perished.
/ The first Dutchman to double the Cape of Good Hope Dutch
was Cornelius Houtman, who reached Sumatra and Bantam ^ ^^
in 1596. Forthwith private companies for trade with the panics.
East were formed in many parts of the United Provinces;
but in 1602 they were all amalgamated by the States-General
into 'The Dutch East India Company.' Within fifty years
the Dutch had established factories on the continent of
* This number, 475,172, is the 'actual ' population of all the Portuguese
Settlements in India, as shown in the General Statement No. i of the ^
Census of Portuguese India, taken on the 17th February 1881. The same
table shows the 'nominal' population at 481,467. Both these returns
differ somewhat from the totals obtained from the detailed tables showing
the males and females, age, and civil condition of the people. Thus, the
total obtained for Goa is 4^4,449 from the detailed statements, while the
General Statement No. i of the Portuguese Settlements shows an ' actual '
population for Goa of 413,698 and a 'nominal' population of 420,868.
Similar differences on a smaller scale may be detected in the general and
detailed statements of the Settlement of Daman. In both cases, the
separate articles in The Imperial Gazetteer of India follow the detailed
tables of male and female, age, and civil condition ; while in general
statements of population for Portuguese India, the general totals issued
under the authority of the Portuguese Government are accepted.
362 EARL V E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Their
progress,
1619.
Dutch
India, in Geylon, in Sumatra, in the Persian Gulf, and in the
Red Sea, besides having obtained exclusive possession of the
Moluccas. In 161 9 they laid the foundation of the city of
Batavia in Java, as the seat of the supreme government of
the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, which had previously
been at Amboyna. At about the same time the Dutch dis-
covered the coast of Australia; while in North America they
founded the city of New Amsterdam or Manhattan, now New
York.
' During the 17th century the Dutch were the foremost mari-
hi^al'tem^" time power in the world. Their memorable massacre of the
seas, 1 600-i English at Amboyna, in 1623, forced the British Company to'
1700. retire from the Eastern Archipelago to the continent of India,
and thus led to the foundation of ourlndian Empire. The
long naval wars and bloody battles between the English and
the Dutch within the narrow seas were not terminated until
William of Orange united the two countries in 1689. In the
Eastern Archipelago the Dutch ruled without a rival, and ex-
pelled the Portuguese from almost all their territorial possessions.
In 1635 they occupied Formosa; in 1640 they took Malacca,
a blow from which the Portuguese never recovered ; in 1647
they were trading at Sadras, on the Palar river; in 1651 they
founded a colony at the Cape of Good Hope, as a half-way
station to the East; in 1652 they built their first Indian factory
at Palakollu, on the Madras coast; in 1658 they captured
Jaffnapatam, the last stronghold of the Portuguese in Ceylon.
Between 1661 and 1664 the Dutch wrested from the Portu-
guese all their earlier settlements on the pepper-bearing coast
of Malabar; and in 1669 they expelled the Portuguese from
St. Thome and Macassar.
The fall of the Dutch colonial empire resulted from its
short-sighted commercial policy. It was deliberately based
upon a monopoly of the trade in spices, and remained from
first to last destitute of sound economical principles. Like the
Phoenicians of old, the Dutch stopped short of no acts of
cruelty towards their rivals in commerce ; but, unlike the
Phoenicians, they failed to introduce their civilisation among
the natives with whom they came in contact. The knell of
Dutch supremacy was sounded by Clive, when in 1759 he
attacked the Dutch at Chinsurah both by land and water, and
forced them to an ignominious capitulation. In the great
*759-i "'French wars from 1793 to 181 1, England wrested from
Holland every one of her colonies ; although Java was restored
in 1816, and Sumatra exchanged for Malacca in 1824.
Their
brilliant
progress,
1635-69.
Their
short-
sighted
policy.
Stripped
of their
Indian
posses-
sions.
EARLY ENGLISH EXPLORERS. 363
At present, the Dutch flag flies nowhere on the mainland of Dutch
India. But quaint houses, Dutch tiles and carvings, at Chinsurah, indk.'"
Negapatam, Jaffnapatam, and at petty ports on the Coromandel
and Malabar coast, with the formal canals in some of these
old Settlements, remind the traveller of scenes in the Nether-
lands. The passage between Ceylon and the mainland still
bears the name of the Dutch governor, Palk. In the Census
of 1872, only 70 Dutchmen were enumerated throughout all
British India, and 79 in 1881.^
The earliest English attempts to reach India were made by Early
the North-west passage. In 1496, Henry vii. granted letters ^^^^^,
patent to John Cabot and his three sons (one of whom lurers,
was the famous Sebastian) to fit out two ships for the ex- 1496-1596.
ploration of this route. They failed, but discovered the island
of Newfoundland, and sailed along the coast of America
from Labrador to Virginia. In 1553, the ill-fated Sir Hugh The
Willoughby attempted to force a passage along the north' of ^or^^^-^^'^st
Europe and Asia, the successful accomplishment of which 1553-1616.
has been reserved for a Swedish savant of our own day.
Sir Hugh perished miserably; but his second in command,
Chancellor, reached a harbour on the White Sea, now
Archangel. Thence he penetrated by land to the court of
the Grand Duke of Moscow, and laid the foundation of ' the
Russia Company for carrying on the overland trade between
India, Persia, Bokhara, and Moscow.'
Many English attempts w^ere made to find a North-west Later
passage to the East Indies, from 1576 to 1616. They have ''^"^"^P^^'
left on our modern maps the imperishable names of Frobisher,
Davis, Hudson, and Baffin. Meanwhile, in 1577, Sir Francis
Drake had circumnavigated the globe, and on his way home
had touched at Ternate, one of the Moluccas, the king of
which island agreed to supply the English nation with all the
cloves which it produced.
The first modern Englishman known to have visited the Stephens,
Indian Peninsula was Thomas Stephens, in 1579. William of }^"^?^^ ^"S;
Malmesbury states, indeed, that in 883 Sighelmus of Sherborne, India,
sent by King Alfred to Rome with presents to the Pope, pro- i579-
ceeded thence to * India,' to the tomb of St. Thomas, and
brought back jewels and spices. But, as already pointed
out, it by no means follows that the ' India ' of William of
1 For local notices of the Dutch in India, see articles Sadras, Pala-
KOLLU, Chinsurah, Negapatam, Palk's Passage, etc., in their
respective volumes of The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
364 EARL V E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Fitch,
Newberry,
Leedes,
1583.
English
East India
Com-
panies.
First
charter,
31st De-
cember
1600.
Malmesbury meant the Indian peninsula. Stephens (1579)
was educated at New College, Oxford, and became rector of
the Jesuit College in Salsette. His letters to his father are said
to have roused great enthusiasm in England to trade directly
with India.
In 1583, three English merchants, Ralph Fitch, James New-
berry, and Leedes, went out to India overland as mercantile
adventurers. The jealous Portuguese threw them into prison
at Ormuz, and again at Goa. At length Newberry settled
down as a shopkeeper at Goa; Leedes entered the service
of the Great Mughal ; and Fitch, after a lengthened pere-
grination in Ceylon, Bengal, Pegu, Siam, Malacca, and other
parts of the East Indies, returned to England.^
The defeat of the * Invincible Armada' in 1588, at which
time the crowns of Spain and Portugal were in union, gave a
fresh stimulus to maritime enterprise in England ; and the
successful voyage of Cornelius Houtman in 1596 showed the
way round the Cape of Good Hope, into waters hitherto
monopolized by the Portuguese.
The following paragraph on the early history of the English
East India Companies is condensed, with Httle change, from
Sir George Birdwood's official report.^ In 1599, the Dutch,
who had now firmly established their trade in the East, raised
the price of pepper against us from 3s. per lb. to 6s. and 8s.
The merchants of London held a meeting on the 22nd
September at Founders' Hall, with the Lord Mayor in the
chair, and agreed to form an association for the purposes of
trading directly with India. Queen Elizabeth also sent Sir
John Mildenhall by Constantinople to the Great Mughal to
apply for privileges for an English Company. On the 31st
December 1600,^ the English East India Company was in-
corporated by royal charter under the title of ' The Governor
and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East
Indies.' The original Company had only 125 shareholders,
and a capital of ^70,000, which was raised to ;£"4oo,ooo in
16 1 2-13, when voyages were first undertaken on the joint-
stock account.
Courten's Association, known as *The Assada Merchants,'
from a factory subsequently founded by it in Madagascar, was
^ Condensed from Report on Old Records in the India Office^ pp. 75~77-
* Condensed from Report on Old Records in the India Office^ pp. 77 ^^ •'"'V-
" Auber gives the date as the 30th December, Analysis of the Constitution
of the East India Company ^ by Peter Auber, Assistant-Secretary to the
Honourable Court of Directors, p. ix. (London, 1826).
FIRST ENGLISH VOYAGES 365
established in 1635, but, after a period of internecine rivalry, Later
was united with the London Company in 1650. In 1654-55, ponies,
the ' Company of Merchant Adventurers ' obtained a charter 1635,
from Cromwell to trade with India, but united with the 1655,
original Company two years later. A more formidable rival
subsequently appeared in the English Company, or 'General
Society trading to the East Indies,' which was incorporated
under powerful patronage in 1698, with a capital of 2 millions 1698,
sterling. According to Evelyn, in his Diary for March 5,
1698, 'the old East India Company lost their business against
the new Company by 10 votes in Parliament; so many of their
friends being absent, going to see a tiger baited by dogs.'
However, a compromise was effected through the arbitration
of Lord Godolphin^ in 1708; by which the amalgamation of 1708.
the ' London ' and the * English ' Companies was finally carried Amalga-
out in 1709, under the style of 'The United Company of ^JJJ^^
Merchants of England trading to the East Indies.' About 1709.
the same time, the Company advanced loans to the English
Government aggregating ;£3, 200,000 at 5 per cent, interest, in
return for the exclusive privilege to trade to all places between
the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan.^
The early voyages of the Company from 1600 to 161 2 are English
distinguished as the ' separate voyages,' twelve in number. Voyage?,
The subscribers individually_bore the expenses of each voyage,
and reaped the whole profits. With the exception of the
fourth, all these separate voyages were highly prosperous, the
profits hardly ever falling below 100 per cent. After 161 2,
the voyages were conducted on the joint-stock account.
The English were promptly opposed by the Portuguese. First
But James Lancaster, even in the first voyage (160 1-2), English
established commercial relations with the King of Achin and 1601^06.
at Priaman in the island of Sumatra; as well as with the
Malaccas, and at Bantam in Java, where he settled a ' House
of Trade' in 1603. In 1604 the Company undertook their
second voyage, commanded by Sir Henry Middleton, who
extended their trade to Banda and Amboyna. The success
of these voyages attracted a number of private merchants to
the business; and in 1606, James i. granted a licence to Sir
Edward Michelborne and others to trade ' to Cathay, China,
Japan, Corea, and Cambaya.' But Michelborne, on arriving
' Under the award of Lord Godolphin, by the Act of the 6th of Queen
Anne, in 1708, cap. 17. Auber's Analysis^ p. xi.
- Mill, Hist. Brit. Ind., vol. i. p. 151 (ed. 1840). Auber gives a detailed
statement of these loans, from 1708 to 1793 5 Analysis, p. xi. etc.
366 EARL V E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
in the East, instead of exploring new sources of commerce
like the East India Company, followed the pernicious example
of the Portuguese, and plundered the native traders among
the islands of the Indian Archipelago. He in this way
secured a considerable booty, but brought disgrace on the
British name, and seriously hindered the Company's business
at Bantam.
Voyage?, j^^ j^^g Captain D. Middleton, in command of the
1608-11.
fifth voyage, was prevented by the Dutch from trading at
Banda, but succeeded in obtaining a cargo at Pulo Way. In
this year also. Captain Hawkins proceeded from Surat, as
envoy from James i. and the East India Company, to the
court of the Great Mughal. He was graciously received by the
Emperor (Jahangir), and remained three years at Agra. In
1609, Captain Sharpay obtained the grant of free trade at Aden,
and a cargo of pepper at Priaman in Sumatra. In 1609, also,
the Company constructed the dockyard at Deptford, which was
the beginning, observes Sir William Monson, '■ of the increase
of great ships in England.' In 161 1, Sir Henry Middleton,
in command of the sixth voyage, arrived before Cambay.
He resolutely fought the Portuguese, who tried to beat him
off, and obtained important concessions from the Native
Powers. In 1610-11, also. Captain Hippon, commanding
the seventh voyage, established agencies at Masulipatam, and
in Siam, at Patania or Patany on the Malay Peninsula,
and at PettipoUee. We obtained leave to trade at Surat in
1612.
Swally In 1 61 5, the Company's fleet, under Captain Best, was
i6i^J' attacked off Swally, the port of Surat, at the mouth of the
river Tdpti, by an overwhelming force of Portuguese.^ But the
assailants were utterly defeated in four engagements, to the
astonishment of the rjatives, who had hitherto considered them
invincible. The first-fruit of this decisive victory was the
pre-eminence of our factory at Surat, with subordinate agencies
at Gogra, Ahmaddbad, and Cambay. Trade was also opened
with the Persian Gulf. In 16 14, an agency was established
at Ajmere by Mr. Edwards of the Surat factory. The
chief seat of the Company's government in Western India
remained at Surat until 1684-87, when it was transferred to
Bombay.^
• For this date and account of the engagement, see Bombay Gazetteer^
Surat and Broach, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78(Boml)ay Government Press, 1877).
'^ Orders issued, 1684 ; transfer commenced, 1686 ; actually carried out,
1687. Bombay GarMtecVy vol. ii. p. 98.
DUTCH OPPRESS ENGLISH, 36>
In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was sent by James i. as am- Sir
bassador to the court of Jahangir, and succeeded in placing ^06^1615.
the Company's trade in the Mughal dominions on a more
favourable footing. In 1618, the English established a factory
at Mocha ; but the Dutch compelled them to resign all pre-
tensions to the Spice Islands. In that year also, the Company
failed in its attempt to open a trade with Dabhol, Baticola, and
Calicut, through a want of sincerity on the part of the Zamorin
or Calicut Rajd. In 1619 we were permitted to establish a
factory and build a fort at Jask, in the Persian Gulf.
In 1619, the 'Treaty of Defence' with the Dutch, to Treaty
prevent disputes between the English and Dutch companies, ^'^^
was ratified. When it was proclaimed in the East, the Dutch i^j^^ '
and English fleets, dressed out in all their flags, and with
yards manned, saluted each other. But the treaty ended in
the smoke of that stately salutation, and the perpetual strife
between the Dutch and English Companies went on as bitterly
as ever. Up to this time, the English Company did not
possess any territory in sovereign right in the * Indies,' except-
ing in the island of Lantore or Great Banda. The island was
governed by a commercial agent of the Company, who had
under him thirty Europeans as clerks and warehousemen.
This little band, with two hundred and fifty armed Malays,
constituted the only force by which it was protected. In the
islands of Banda and Pulo Roon and Rosengyn, the English
Company had factories, at each of which were ten agents.
At Macassar and Achin they possessed agencies ; the
whole being subordinate to a head factory at Bantam in
Java.
In 1620, the Dutch, notwithstanding the Treaty of Defence, English
concluded the previous year, expelled the English from Pulo ^y Dutch,
Roon and Lantore; and in 162 1 from Bantam in Java. The 1620.
fugitive factors tried to establish themselves, first at Pulicat, and
afterwards at Masulipatam on the Coromandel coast, but were
effectually opposed by the Dutch. In 1620, the Portuguese
also attacked the English fleet under Captain Shillinge, but
were defeated with great loss. From this time the estimation
in which the Portuguese were held by the natives declined,
while that of the English rose. In 1620, too, the English
Company established agencies at Agra and Patna. In 1622
they joined with the Persians, attacked and took Ormuz from
the Portuguese, and obtained from Shah Abbas a grant in per-
petuity of the customs of Gombroon. This was the first time
that the English took the offensive against the Portuguese.
368 EARL V E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Masuli- In the same year, 1622, our Company succeeded in re-estab-
fory"i622" Wishing their factory at Masulipatam.
The mas-
sacre of
Amboyna,
1623.
The massacre of Amboyna. which made so deep an im-
pression on the English mind, marked the climax of the
Dutch hatred to us in the eastern seas. After long and bitter
recriminations, the Dutch seized our Captain Towerson at
Amboyna, with 9 Englishmen, 9 Japanese, and i Portuguese
sailor, on the 17th February 1623. They tortured the prisoners
at their trial, and found them guilty of a conspiracy to surprise
the garrison. The victims were executed in the heat of passion,
and their torture and judicial murder led to an outburst of
indignation in England. Ultimately, commissioners were ap-
pointed to adjust the claims of the two nations ; and the Dutch
had to pay a sum of £z^^S ^^ satisfaction to the heirs of
those who had suffered. But from that time the Dutch
remained masters of Lantore and the neighbouring islands.
—-They monopolized the whole trade of the Indian Archipelago,
until the great naval wars which commenced in 1793. In
English 1624, the English, unable to oppose the Dutch, withdrew nearly
driven out all their factories from the Archipelago, the Malay Peninsula,
Siam, and Java. Some of the factors and agents retired to
the island of Lagundy, in the Strait of Sunda, but were
forced by its unhealthiness to abandon it.
Driven out of the Eastern Archipelago by the Dutch,
and thus almost cut off from the lucrative spice trade,
the. English betook themselves in earnest to founding settle-
ments on the Indian seaboard. In 1625-26, the English
established a factory at Armagaon on the Coromandel coast,
subordinate to Masulipatam.^ But in 1628, Masulipatam
was, in consequence of the oppressions of the native governors,
for a time abandoned in favour of Armagaon, which now
mounted 12 guns, and had 23 factors and agents. In
1629, our factory at Bantam in Java was re-established
as an agency subordinate to Surat ; and in 1630, Armagdon, ,
reinforced by 20 soldiers, was also placed under the presidency
of Surat. In 1632, the English factory was re-established at
Masulipatam, under a grant, the * Golden Firman,' from the
King of Golconda. In 1634, hy Sl farjndn dated February 2,
the Company obtained from the Great Mughal liberty to
trade in Bengal. But their ships were to resort only to Pippli
' These brief chronological abstracts follow, with a few omissions,
additions and corrections of dates, Sir George Birdwood's official Report
on the Old Records in the India Office (folio), p. 83. For notices of the
Indian towns mentioned, see the articles in The Imperial Gazetteer of India,
of Archi-
pelago,
1624.
English
retire to
India,
1625.
Their
early
factories,
1625-53.
Trade to
Bengal,
1634.
ENGLISH FACTORIES,
in Orissa, now left far inland by the sea. The Portuguese were
in the same year expelled for a time from Bengal.
In 1634-35, the English factory at Bantam in Java was Bantam
again raised to an independent presidency, and an agency ^J^^^\
was established at Tatta, or 'Scindy.' In 1637, Courten's 1635. '
Association (chartered 1635) settled agencies at Goa, Baticola,
Karwar, Achi'n, and Rajapur. Its ships had the year before
plundered some native vessels at Surat and Diu. This act
disgraced the Company with the Mughal authorities (who
could not comprehend the distinction between the Company
and the Association), and depressed the English trade with
Surat, while that of the Dutch proportionately increased.
In 1638, Armagaon was abandoned as unsuited for commerce ; Madras
and in 1639, Fort St. George or Madraspatnam (Chennapat- j^^"^^^''
nam) ^ was founded by Francis Day, and the factors at Armagaon
were removed to it. It was made subordinate to Bantam in
Java, until raised in 1653 to the rank of a Presidency. In
1640, the Company established an agency at Bussorah, and
a factory at Karwar. Trade having much extended, the
Company's yard at Deptford was found too small for their
ships, and they purchased some copyhold ground at Blackwall,
which at that time was a waste marsh, without an inhabitant.
Here they opened another dockyard, in which was built the
Royal George^ of 1200 tons, the largest ship up to that time
constructed in England.
Our factory at Hiigli in Bengal was established in 1640, and Hilgli,
at Balasor in 1642. In 1645, in consequence of professional '^°"
services rendered by Mr. Gabriel Boughton, surgeon of 'The
Hopeivell, to the Emperor Shah Jahan, additional privileges
were granted to the Company ; and in 1646, the Governor of
Bengal, who had also been medically attended by Boughton,
made concessions which placed the factories at Balasor and
Hiigli on a more favourable footing. In 1647, Courten's
Association established its colony at Assada, in Madagascar. Mada-
In 1652, Cromwell declared war against the Dutch on account S^^';^'''
of their accumulated injuries against the Enghsh Company.
In 1653, the English factory at Lucknow was withdrawn.
No record has been found of its establishment. In 1658, the
Company established a factory at Kasimbazdr (spelt * Castle
Bazaar' in the records), and the English establishments in
^ Bishop Caldwell derives Madras from the Telugu maduru, the sur-
rounding wall of a fort. Its native name is obtained from Chennappa,
the father-in-law of the Nayakkur or Chief of Chinglepat. Conifarative
Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, p. lo (ed. 1875).
2 A
3 70 EARL Y E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Bombay
ceded,
i66i.
Our fac-
tories,
1685.
Bantam.
Madras.
Bombay.
Persian
Gulf.
Bengal.
Bengal
separated
from
Madras,
1681.
Bombay a
Presi-
dency,
1687.
'Governor
General.*
Bengal were made subordinate to Fort St. George or Madras,
instead of to Bantam.
In 1 66 1, Bombay was ceded to the British crown as part of
the dower of Catharine of Braganza, but was not delivered up
until 1665. King Charles 11. transferred it to the East India
CjDmpany, for an annual payment of ;£"io, in 1668. The seat
of the Western Presidency was removed to it from Surat in
1684-87. The Company's establishments in the East Indies
then consisted in 1685 of the Presidency of Bantam in Java,
with its dependencies of Jambi, Macassar, and minor agencies
in the Indian Archipelago ; Fort St. George and its dependent
factories on the Coromandel coast and Bengal ; Surat, with
its affiliated dependency of Bombay ; and factories at Broach,
Ahmadabad, and other places in Western India; also at
Gombroon (Bandar Abbas) and Bussorah in the Persian Gulf
and Euphrates valley. In 1661, the factory at Biliapatam was
founded. In 1663, the English factories established at Patna,
Balasor, and Kasimbazar were ordered to be discontinued, and
purchases to be made only at Hiigli. In 1664, Surat was
pillaged by the Maratha Sivaji, but Sir George Oxenden
bravely defended the English factory ; and the Mughal Em-
peror, in admiration of his conduct, granted the Company an
exemption from customs for one year.
In 1 68 1, Bengal was separated from Madras, and Mr.
Hodges appointed 'agent and governor' of the Company's
affairs 'in the Bay of Bengal, and of the factories subordi-
nate to it, at Kasimbdzar, Patna, Balasor, Maldah, and Dacca.
A corporal of approved fidelity, with 20 soldiers, to be a guard
to the agent's person at the factory of Hiigli, and to act
against interlopers.' In 1684, Sir John Child was made
' Captain - General and Admiral of India ; ' and Sir John
Wyborne, ' Vice- Admiral and Deputy Governor of Bombay.'
In 1687, the seat of the Presidency was finally transferred from
Surat to Bombay. In 1686, Kasimbazar, in common with the
other English factories in Bengal, had been condemned to con-
fiscation by the Nawdb Shaistd Khan. The Hiigli factory was
much oppressed, and the Company's business throughout India
suffered from the wars of the Mughals and Mardthds.
Sir John Child was appointed ' Governor-General,' ^ with full
power in India to make war or peace ; and was ordered to
' Sir George Birdwood's Report on the Old Records of the India Office, p.
85, quotes this title from the Mss. It is therefore, nominally, a century
older than is usually supposed ; but Hastings was the first real Governor-
General, 1774.
ENGLISH AND OTHER COMPANIES, 371
proceed to inspect the Company's possessions in Madras and
Bengal, and arrange for their safety. On the 20th of Decern- Calcutta
ber 1 686, the Company's Agent and Council were forced by 1535^/ '
the exactions of the Muhammadan Governor to quit their
factory at Hiigli. They retired down the river to Sutanati
(Calcutta). Tegnapatam (Fort St. David) was founded in this
year (1686), and definitively established in 1691-92.
In 1687-88, the Company's servants, broken in spirit by the English
oppressions of the native Viceroy, determiried to abandon their [o^q^j^
factories in Bengal. In 1688, Captain Heath oi \}c\q Resolution^ Bengal,
in command of the Company's forces, embarked all its servants 16S7-88.
and goods, sailed down the Hiigli, and anchored off Balasor
on the Orissa coast. They were, however, soon invited to
return by the Emperor, who granted them the site of the
present city of Calcutta for a fortified factory. In 1689, our
factories at Vizagapatam and Masulipatam on the Madras
coast were seized by the Muhammadans, , and the factors
were massacred. —
But in this same year, the Company determined to consoli- The Com-
date their position in India on the basis of territorial sovereignty, bar^sTn"
to enable them to resist the oppression of the Mughals and territorial
Marathas. With that view, they passed the resolution, which ^^^y'
was destined to turn their clerks and factors throughout India
into conquerors and proconsuls : 'The increase of our revenue
is the subject of our care, as much as our trade ; 'tis that must
maintain our force when twenty accidents may interrupt our
trade ; 'tis that must make us a nation in India. Without that
we are but a great number of interlopers, united by His
Majesty's royal charter, fit only to trade where nobody of power
thinks it their interest to prevent us. And upon this account
it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general advices that
we have seen, write ten paragraphs concerning their govern-
ment, their civil and military policy, warfare, and the increase
of their revenue, for one paragraph they write concerning
trade.' The subsequent history of the English East India
Company and its settlements will be narrated in the next
chapter.
The Portuguese at no time attempted to found a Company, Other
but kept their eastern trade as a royal enterprise and monopoly, t^^^^
The first incorporated Company was the English, established Com-
in 1600, which was quickly followed by the .Dutch in 1602. panies.'
The Dutch conquests, however, were made in the name of the Dutch ;
State, and ranked as national colonies, not as semi-commercial
372 EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
French
French
posses-
possessions. Next came the French, whose first East India
Company was founded in 1604; the second, in 161 1; the
third, in 1615 ; the fourth (RicheHeu's), in 1642; the fifth
(Colbert's), in 1644. The sixth was formed by the union of
the French East and West India, Senegal, and China Com-
panies under the name of ' The Company of the Indies,' in
1 7 19. The exclusive privileges of this Company were, by
the French king's decree, suspended in 1769; and the Com-
pany was finally abolished by the National Assembly in 1796.
Dupleix, the governor of the French factories and posses-
sions on the Madras coast, first conceived the idea of founding
an Indian Empire upon the ruins of the Mughal dynasty ; and
for a time the French nation successfully contended with the
English for the suprema^cy in the East. The French settle-
ments in India are still five in number, with an area of 203
square miles, and a population of 273,611 souls. The brilliant
history of our great national rivals is summarized under the
article French Possessions in The Ltnperial Gazetteer of Ind ia ^
vol. iv. (2nd edition).
Danish :
Scotch
Spanish ;
The first Danish East India Company was formed in 16 12, and
the second in 1670. The settlements of Tranquebar and
Serampur were both founded in 16 16, and acquired by the
English by purchase from Denmark in 1845. Other Danish
settlements on the mainland of India were Porto Novo ; with
Eddova and Holcheri on the Malabar coast. The Company
started by the Scotch in 1695 ^^^^y ^^ regarded as having
been still - born. The ' Royal Company of the Philippine
Islands,' incorporated by the King of Spain in 1733, had little
to do with India proper.
German, Of more importance was * The Ostend Company,' incor-
ComDanv P^^^^^^ t)y the Emperor of Austria in 1722;^ its factors and
agents being chiefly persons who had served in the Dutch and
English Companies. This enterprise forms the subject of
Carlyle's 'Third Shadow Hunt' of the Emperor Karl vi.-
*The Kaiser's Imperial Ostend East India Company, which
convulsed the diplomatic mind for seven years to come, and
Described made Europe lurch from side to side in a terrific manner,
by Carlyle. pj-Qved a mere paper Company ; never sent ships, only pro-
duced Diplomacies, and " had the'tionour to be."' Carlyle's
^ The deed of institution is dated 17th December 1722.
* History of Friedj'ich . II. of Prussia^ called Frederick the Great, by
Thomas Carlyle, vol. i. pp. 555-557 (3rd ed. 1859).
GERMAN E. L COMPANIES, 373
])icturesque paragraphs do not disclose the facts. The Ostend
Company formed the one great attempt of the German Empire,
then with Austria at its head, to secure a share of the India
trade. It not only sent ships, but it founded two settle-
ments in India which threatened the commerce of the older
European Companies. One of its settlements was at Coblom Its Indian
or Covelong, between the English Madras and the Dutch ^^"^^"
Sadras, on the south-eastern coast. The other was at Banki-
pur, or ' Banky-bazaar,' on the Hiigli River, between the
English Calcutta and the Dutch Chinsura. Each of these
German settlements was regarded with hatred by the English Threaten-
and Dutch ; and with a more intense fear by the less successful ingatutude
French, whose adjacent settlements at Pondicherri on the ostend
Madras coast, and at Chandarnagar/ on the Hugh', were also Company.
threatened by the Ostend Company.
So far from the German association being 'a mere paper
Company ' nevA" sending ships, as Carlyle supposes, its forma-
tion was the result of a series of successful experimental voyages.
In 17 1 7, Prince Eugene ordered two vessels to sail for India,
under the protection of his own passports. The profits of Its experi-
the expedition led to others in succeeding years, and each "''^"^^^
^ . voyages,
voyage proved so fortunate, that the Austrian Emperor found 1717-22.
it necessary to protect and consolidate the property of the
adventurers by a charter in 1722. This deed granted to the
Ostend Company more favourable terms than any of the other
European Companies enjoyed. Its capital was one million Their great
sterling, and so great were the profits during its first years ^"ccess.
that its shares brought in 15 per cent. The French, Dutch,
and English Companies loudly complained of its factories,
built at their very doors, both on the Hiigli River and on the
Madras coast. These complaints were warmly taken up by
their respective Governments in Europe.
For the object which the Emperor Karl vi. had in view Political
was political not less than commercial. Prince Eugene had objects of
urged that an India Company might be made to form the Company.
nucleus of^ German fleet, with a first-class naval station at
Ostend on the North Sea, and another at Fiume or Trieste on
the Adriatic Such a fleet would complete the greatness of
Germany by sea as by land ; and would render her indepen-
dent of the Maritime Powers, especially of England and
Holland. The Empire \reuld at length put its ports on the
Baltic and the Adriatic to a proper use, and would thence-
forth exert a commanding maritime influence in Europe.
The existing Maritime Powers objected to this ; and the
374 EARL V E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Ostend
Company
opposed
by the
Maritime
Powers ;
and sacri-
ficed to the
Pragmatic
Sanction,
1727.
Ostend
settle-
ment
destroyed,
and disap-
peared
from the
map.
Ostend
Company
bankrupt,
1784;
and extin-
guished,
1793-
Prussian
Com-
IJanies.
Ostend Company became the shuttlecock of European
diplomacy for the next five years. The Dutch and English
felt themselves particularly aggrieved. They pleaded the
treaties of Westphalia and Utrecht. After long and loud alter-
cations, the Emperor sacrificed the Ostend Company in 1727
to gain the acceptance of a project nearer his heart — the Prag-
matic Sanction for the devolution of his Imperial heritage.
To save his honour, the sacrifice at first took the form of a
suspension of the Company's charter for seven years. But
the Company was doomed by the Maritime Powers. Its
shareholders did not, however, despair. They made attempts
to transfer their European centre of trade to Hamburg,
Trieste, Tuscany, and even Sweden.
Meanwhile the other European Companies in Bengal had
taken the law into their own hands. They stirred up the
Muhammadan Government against the new-comers. In
1733) the Muhammadan military governor of Hiigli picked a
quarrel, in the name of the Delhi Emperor, with the little
German settlement at Bankipur, which lay about eight miles
below Hiigli town on the opposite side of the river. The
Muhammadan troops besieged Bankipur ; and the garrison,
reduced to fourteen persons, after a despairing resistance
against overwhelming numbers, abandoned the place, and set
sail for Europe. The Ostend agent lost his right arm by a
cannon ball during the attack ; and the Ostend Company,
together with the German interests which it represented, be-
came thenceforward merely a name in Bengal. Its chief
settlement, Bankipur or * Banky-bazaar,' has long disappeared
from the maps ; and the author could only trace its existence
from a chart of the last century, aided by the records of that
period, and by personal inquiry on the spot.^ The Ostend Com-
pany, however, still prolonged its existence in Europe. After
a miserable struggle, it became bankrupt in 1784; and was
finally extinguished by the arrangements made at the renewal
of the EngUsh East India Company's charter in 1793.
What the Emperor of Austria had failed to effect, Frederick
the Great, King of Prussia, resolved to accomplish. Having
got possession of East Friesland in 1 744, he tried to convert
^ There is an interesting series of Mss. labelled The Osteitders in the
India Office. See also the Abbe Raynal's History of the Settlements and
Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies^ Book v. (]:)p.
176-182, vol. ii. of the 177^ edition) ; and the article Bankipur on the
HiigH in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
GERMAN E. L COMPANIES. 375
its capital, Embden, into a great northern port. Among other Asiatic
measures, he gave his royal patronage to the Asiatic Trading q^^^^
Company, started ist September 1750, and founded the pany of
Bengalische Handelsgesellschaft on the 24th January 1753.^ ^750*^^"'
The first of these Companies had a capital of ;^i 70,625 ; ^j^^^jg^^
but six ships sent successively to China only defrayed their Bengal-
own expenses, and yielded a profit of 10 per cent, in seven ^^^^^^j^j^
yeai's. The Bengal Company of Embden proved still more gesell-
unfortunate ; its existence was summed up in two expeditions schaft,
which did not pay, and a long and costly lawsuit.^ ^'^•^"
The failure of Frederick the Great's efforts to secure for Their
Prussia a share in the India trade, resulted to some extent ^^^"'^^•
from the jealousy of the rival European Companies in India.
The Dutch, French, and English pilots refused to show the Dutch and
way up the dangerous Hiigli river to the Embden ships, ' or ^^f^Jf^y
any other not belonging to powers already established in of the
India.'3 It is due to the European Companies to state that in Embden
, - . ., , , . Com-
thus refusmg pilots to the new-comers, they were carrymg out panics.
the orders of the Native Government of Bengal to which they
were then strictly subject. ' If the Germans come here,' the The
Nawab had written to the English merchants on a rumour of Nawab's
orders
the first Embden expedition reaching India, ' it will be very against the
bad for all the Europeans, but for you worst of all, and you Prussians.
will afterwards repent it ; and I shall be obliged to stop all
your trade and business. . . . Therefore take care that these
German ships do not come.' •* ' God forbid that they should
come,' was the pious response of the President of the English
Council ; ' but should this be the case, I am in hopes they
will be either sunk, broke, or destroyed.'
They came nevertheless, and some years later the English English
Court of Directors complain that their Bengal servants are agents
' ^ privately
anxious to trade privately with the Embden Company. ' If trade
any of the Prussian ships,' wrote the Court, ' want the usual ^^ith
e ^ . . , . 1 , Prussian
assistance of water, provisions, or real necessaries, they are to company.
be supplied according to the customs of nations in amity one
with the other. But you are on no pretence whatsoever to
* These dates are taken from Carlyle's Frederick the Great^ vol. iv. pp.
367, 368 (ed. 1864). Carlyle's account of the Embden Companies is un-
fortunately of slight historical value.
2 The commercial details of these Companies are given by the Abbe
Raynal, op. cit. ii. pp. 201, 202.
3 Despatch from the Calcutta Council to the Court of Directors, dated
6th September 1754, para. ii.
* Letter from the Nawab of Murshidabad : bengal Consultations of 19th
August 1 75 1.
376 EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
have any dealings with them, or give the least assistance in
their mercantile affairs.' ^ The truth is that the German Com-
pany had effected an entrance into Bengal, and found the
French, English, and Dutch merchants quite willing to trade
with it on their private account. But the German invest-
Frederick ments were made without experience, and the Embden Com-
the"com- P^^^ ^^^ before long sacrificed by the Prussian king to the
pany. exigencies of his European diplomacy.
Swedish
Company,
1731-
The last nation of Europe to engage in maritime trade with
India was Sweden. When the Ostend Company was sus-
pended, a number of its servants were thrown out of em-
ployment. Mr. Henry Koning, of Stockholm, took advantage
of their knowledge of the East, and obtained a charter for
the 'Swedish Company,' dated 13th June 1731. This Com-
pany was reorganized in 1806, but did little ; and after many
troubles, disappeared from India.
Causes of
failure :
of the
Portu-
guese ;
of the
I3utch
of the
French.
Causes of
failure of
the Ger-
mans.
Such is a summary of the efforts by European nations to
obtain a share in the India trade. The Portuguese failed,
because they attempted a task altogether beyond their strength ;
the conquest and the conversion of India. Their memorials
are the epic of the Lusiad, the death-roll of the Inquisition,
an indigent half-caste population, and three decayed patches
of territory on the Bombay coast. The Dutch failed on the
Indian continent, because their trade was based on a monopoly
which it was impossible to maintain, except by great and
costly armaments. Their monopoly, however, still flourishes
in their isolated island dominion of Java. The French failed,
in spite of the brilliancy of their arms and the genius of their
generals, from want of steady support at home. 1 heir ablest
Indian servants fell victims to a corrupt Court and a careless
people. Their surviving settlements disclose that talent for
careful administration which, but for French monarchs and
their ministers and their mistresses, might have been dis-
played throughout a wide Indian Empire.
The German Companies, whether Austrian or Prussian,
were sacrificed to the diplomatic necessities of their royal
patrons in Europe ; and to the dependence of the German
States in the wars of the last century upon the Maritime
Powers. But the German people has never abandoned the
struggle. The share in the Indian trade which Prussian King
1 Letter from the Court oi- Directors to the Calcutta Council, March 25,
1756, para. 71.
EUROPEAN TRADERS, 1872-81. 377
and Austrian Kaiser failed to grasp in the i8th century, has
been gradually acquired by German merchants in our own day.
An important part of the commerce of Calcutta and Bombay Revival of
is now conducted by German firms ; German mercantile agents [^J^^^
are to be . found in the rice districts, the jute districts, the india.
cotton districts ; and persons of German nationality have rapidly
increased in the Indian Census returns.
England emerged the prize-winner from the long contest of Causes of
the European nations for India. Her success was partly the success in
good gift of fortune, but chiefly the result of four elements in India,
the national character. There was — first, a marvellous patience ^
and self-restraint in refusing to enter on territorial conquests
or projects of Indian aggrandizement, until she had gathered
strength enough to succeed. Second, an indomitable per-
sistence in those projects once they were entered on ; and a
total incapacity, on the part of her servants in India, of
being stopped by defeat. Third, an admirable mutual con-
fidence of the Company's servants in each other in times of
trouble. Fourth, and chief of all, the resolute support of the
English nation at home. England has never doubted that
she must retrieve, at whatever strain to herself, every disaster
which may befall EngHshmen in India ; and she has never
sacrificed the work of her Indian servants to the exigencies of
her diplomacy, in Europe. She was the only European power Fixed
which unconsciously but absolutely carried out these two policy of
principles of policy. The result of that policy, pursued during in India.
two and a half centuries, is the British India of to-day.
The extent to which the chief continental nations of Europe European
now resort to British India, may be inferred from the following traders in
figures. These figures are exclusive of Europeans in French iSSi.'
and Portuguese territor}-, and in the Native States. Germans
numbered 655 in 1872, and 11 70 in 1881 ; French, 631 in
1872, and 1013 in 1881 ; Portuguese, 426 in 1872, and 147
in 1881; Italians, 282 in 1872, and 788 in 1881 ; Greeks,
127 in 1872, and 195 in i88i ; Swedes, 73 in 1872, and 337
in 1 881 ; Russians, 45 in 1872, and 204 in 1881 ; Dutch,
70 in 1872, and 79 in 1881 ; Norwegians, 58 in 1872, and
358 in i88t ; Danes, 45 in 1872, and 126 in 1881 ; Spaniards,
32 in 1872, and 87 in 1881 ; Belgians, 20 in 1872, and 180
in 1881 ; Swiss, 19 in 1872, and 87 in 1881 ; Turks, 18 in
1872, and 355 in 1881; Austrians, 53 in 1872, and 296 in
1881.
[378]
CHAPTER XV.
HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE (1757 TO 1885 A.D.).
Our first The political history of the British in India begins in the i8th
territorial century with the French wars in the Karnatik. Fort St. George,
Madras, ' the nucleus of Madras, founded by Francis Day in 1639, was
1639- our earliest possession. The French settlement of Pondicherri,
about 100 miles lower down the Coromandel coast, was estab-
lished in 1674; and for many years the EngHsh and French
traded side by side without rivalry or territorial ambition. The
English paid a rent of 1200 pagodas (;£"5oo) to the deputies
of the Mughal Empire when Aurangzeb annexed the south, and
on two occasions bought off a besieging army by a heavy bribe.
Southern After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the whole of
India after Southern India became practically independent of Delhi. In
the Deccan Proper, the Nizam-ul-Mulk founded a hereditary
dynasty, with Haidarabad for its capital, which exercised a
nominal authority over the entire south. The Karnatik, or the
lowland tract between the centra) plateau and the eastern sea,
was ruled by a deputy of the Nizam, known as the Nawab
Local of Arcot. Farther south, Trichinopoli was the capital of a
rulers. Hindu Raja; Tanj ore formed another Hindu kingdom under
a degenerate descendant of Sivaji. Inland, Mysore was
gradually growing into a third Hindu State ; while everywhere
local chieftains, called pdlegdrs or naiks^ were in semi-inde-
pendent possession of citadels or hill-forts. These represented
the fief-holders of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar ;
and many of them had maintained a practical independence
since its fall in 1565.
Such was the condition of affairs in Southern India when
war broke out between the English and the French in Europe
French in 1744. Dupleix was at that time Governor of Pondicherri,
HshP"tf* ^"^ Clive was a young writer at Madras. An English fleet
Karnatik. first appeared on the Coromandel coast, but Dupleix, by a
judicious present, induced the Nawdb of Arcot to interpose
and prevent hostilities. In 1746, a French squadron arrived,
FRENCH WARS IN KARNATIK. 379
under the command of La Bourdonnais. Madras surrendered First
almost without a blow ; and the only settlement left to the ^^^^^
English was Fort St. David, a few miles south of Pondicherri, 1746-48.
where Clive and a few other fugitives sought shelter. The We lose
Nawab, faithful to his impartial policy, marched with 10,000 ^Ia^i''^^»
men to drive the French out of Madras, but was defeated.
In 1748, an English fleet arrived under Admiral Boscawen,
and attempted the siege of Pondicherri, while a land force
co-operated under Major Lawrence, whose name afterwards
became associated with that of Clive. The French repulsed
all attacks ; but the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the same
year, restored Madras to the English.^
The first war with the French was merely an incident in the Second
greater contest in Europe. The second war had its origin in F"^^"^"
Indian politics, while England and France were at peace. 1750-61.
The easy success of the French arms had inspired Dupleix Dupleix.
with the ambition of founding a French empire in India,
under the shadow of the Muhammadan powers. Disputed suc-
cessions at Haidarabad and at Arcot supplied his opportunity.
On both thrones Dupleix placed his nominees, and posed as
the arbiter of the entire south. The English of Madras,
under the instinct of self-preservation, had supported another
candidate to the throne of Arcot, in opposition to the nominee
of Dupleix. Our candidate was Muhammad Ali, after-
wards known in history as Wala-jah. The war which ensued
between the French and English in Southern India has been
exhaustively described by Orme. The one incident that Clive's
stands out conspicuously is the capture and subsequent ^^^[^ °^
defence of Arcot by Clive in 1751. This heroic feat, even 1751.'
more than the battle of Plassey, spread the fame of English
valour throughout India. Shortly afterwards, Clive returned
to England in ill-health, but the war continued fitfully for
many years. On the whole, English influence predominated in
the Karnatik or Madras coast, and their candidate, Muhammad
All, maintained his position at Arcot. But, inland, the French
were supreme in the Deccan, and they wxre able to seize the
maritime tract called * the Northern Circars.'
The final struggle did not take place until 1760. In that Wande-
year Colonel (afterwards Sir Eyre) Coote won the decisive j^^^'
1 The authorities for the French and English wars in Southern India
are— (i) Orme's Indostan, 2 vols., Madras reprint, 1861 ; (2) Mill's
Ilistofj 0/ British India (ed. 1840) ; and (3) for the French views of those
transactions, Colonel Malleson's admirable History of the French in India
(London, 1868), and Final Struggles of the French in India (London, 1878).
38o HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.
victory of Wandewash over the French General, Lally, and
proceeded to invest Pondicherri, which was starved into
Gingi sur- capitulation in January 1761. A iQ^\s months later the hill-
ff* n r) p rprl
5th April fortress of Ginjee (Gingi) also surrendered.^ In the words
1 761. of Orme : 'That day terminated the long hostilities between
the two rival European powers in Coromandel, and left not a
single ensign of the French nation avowed by the authority
of its Government in any part of India.' ^
The Meanwhile, the narrative of British conquest shifts with
fnTSal ^^^^^ ^° Bengal. The first English settlement near the Gangetic
1634-96. estuary was Pippli in Orissa, at which the East India Com-
pany was permitted to trade in 1634, five years before the
foundation of Madras. The river on which Pippli stood has
since silted up, and the very site of the English settlement is
now a matter of conjecture. In 1640, a factory was opened at
Hiigli; in 1642, at Balasor; and in 1681, Bengal was erected
into a separate presidency, though still subordinate to Madras.
The name of Calcutta is not heard of in the Company's records
till 1686, when Job Charnock, the English chief, was forced to
quit Hiigli by the deputy of Aurangzeb, and settled lower down
the river on the opposite bank. There he acquired a grant of
the three petty villages of Sutanati, Gobindpur, and Kalighdt
(Calcutta), and founded the original Fort William in 1696.
Native At the time of Aurangzeb's death, in 1707, the Navvab or
Bengal^ Governor of Bengal was Murshid Kulf Khan, known also in
1707-56. European history as Jafar Khan. By birth a Brahman, and
brought up as a slave in Persia, he united the administrative
ability of a Hindu with the fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto
the capital of Bengal had been at Dacca, on the eastern
frontier of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the
Portuguese and of the Arakanese or Maghs could be most
easily checked. Murshid Kuli Khin transferred his residence
to Murshidibdd, in the immediate neighbourhood of Kisim-
bazar, which was then the chief emporium of the Gangetic trade.
The English, the French, and the Dutch had each factories at
Kasimbazdr, as well as at Dacca, Patnd, and Maldah. But
* A full account of Gingi is given, sub zxrbo, in The Imperial Gazetteer
of India. In like manner, the local history of each Presidency, Province,
or town is treated in the separate article upon it, and can therefore only be
very briefly summarized here. Thus, with regard to Calcutta, the reader
is referred to article Calcutta in The Imperial Gazetteer 0/ India.
* Orme's History of Military Transactions in Indostan (1803), Madras
reprint, vol. ii. p. 733 (1861).
BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA. 381
Calcutta was the head-quarters of the English, Chandamagar European
of the French, and Chinsurah of the Dutch. These three settle- ^^^^"
ments were situated not far from one another upon reaches of 17^0.
the Hugh', where the river was navigable for sea-going ships.
Calcutta is about 80 miles from the sea; Chandarnagar, 24
miles by river above Calcutta ; and Chinsurah, 2 miles above
Chandarnagar. Hiigli town, to which reference has so often
been made, is almost conterminous with Chinsurah, but lies
one mile above it.
Murshid Kuli Khan ruled over Bengal prosperously for
twenty-one years, and left his power to a son-in-law and a grand-
son. The hereditary succession was broken in 1 740 by Ali Vardi Alf Vanli
Khan, a usurper, but the last of the great Nawabs of Bengal. i-.^'r5
In his days the Maratha horsemen began to ravage the
country*, and the inhabitants of Calcutta obtained permission
in 1742 to erect an earthwork, known to the present day
as the Maratha ditch. Ali Vardi Khan died in 1756, and was
succeeded by his grandson, Siraj-ud-Daula (Surajah Dowlah), S-'raj-ud-
a youth of only eighteen years, whose ungovernable temper ^^"1^'
led to a rupture with the English within two months after
his accession.
In pursuit of one of his own family who had escaped
from his vengeance, he marched upon Calcutta with a large
army. Many of the English fled down the river in their ships.
The remainder surrendered after a brave resistance, and
were thrust for the night into the ' Black Hole ' or military jail ' Black
of Fort William, a room about 1 8 feet square, with only two Ca^cutta*^
small windows barred with iron. It was our ordinary garrison 1756.
prison in those times of cruel military discipline. But although
the Nawab does not seem to have been aware of the conse-
quences, it meant death to a crowd of 146 English men and
women in the stifling heats of June. When the door of the
prison was opened next morning, only 23 persons out of 146
remained alive. ^
The news of this disaster fortunately found Clive back again Clive and
at Madras, where also was a squadron of the King's ships ^^^^^°"-
under Admiral Watson. Clive and Watson promptly sailed to
^ The contemporar}' record of that terrible night is Hohvell's Narrative.
The original materials have been carefully examined, and much misre-
presentation has been cleared away by Dr. H. E. Busteed, in the Calcutta
Englishman, several dates, 18S0. The site of the * Black Hole ' has been
lately identified, at the entrance to the lane behind the General Po.^t-
Office ; and the spot has been paved with fine stone {1884).
382
HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.
Calcutta
recovered,
1757-
IJattle of
l^Iassey,
1757.
How the
victory
was
gained.
Its small
results at
first.
the mouth of the Ganges with all the troops they could get
together. Calcutta was recovered with little fighting, and the
Nawab consented to a peace which restored to the Company
all their privileges, and gave them ample compensation for
their losses. It is possible that matters might have ended
thus, if a fresh cause of hostilities had not suddenly arisen.
War had just been declared between the English and French
in Europe; and Clive, following the traditions of warfare in
the Karnatik, captured the French settlement of Chandarnagar.
The Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula, enraged by this breach of the peace
within his dominions, took the side of the French. But Clive,
acting upon the policy which he had learned from Dupleix, pro-
vided himself with a rival candidate (Mir Jafar) to the throne.
Undaunted, he marched out to the grove of Plassey, about 70
miles north of Calcutta, at the head of 1000 Europeans and
2000 sepoys, with 8 pieces of artillery. *The Bengal Viceroy's
army numbered 35,000 foot and 15,000 horse, with 50 cannon.
Clive is said to have fought in spite of his Council of
War. The truth is, he could scarcely avoid a battle. The
Nawab attacked with his whole artillery, at 6 a.m. ; but Clive
kept his men well under shelter, ' lodged in a large grove,
surrounded with good mud banks.' At noon the enemy drew
off into their entrenched camp for dinner. Clive only hoped
to make a * successful attack at night.' Meanwhile, the enemy
being probably undressed over their cooking-pots, he sprang
upon one of their advanced posts, which had given him
trouble, and stormed ' an angle of their camp.' Several of the
Nawab's chief officers fell. The Nawib himself, dismayed by
the unexpected confusion, fled on a camel ; his troops dis-
persed in a panic, and CUve found he had won a great victory.
Mfr Jafar's cavalry, which had hovered undecided during the
battle, and had been repeatedly fired on by Clive, * to make
them keep their distance,' now joined our camp ; and the road
to Murshidabdd lay open.^
The battle of Plassey was fought on June 23, 1757, an
anniversary afterwards remembered when the Mutiny of 1857
was at its height. History has agreed to adopt this date as the
beginning of the British Empire in the East. But the imme-.
diate results of the victory were comparatively small, and
several years passed in hard fighting before even the Bengalis
would admit the superiority of the British arms. For the
^ These numbers and the account of the battle are taken by the author
from Clive's MS. Despatch to the Secret Committee, dated 26th July 1757.
The quotations are Clives own words.
RESULTS OF PLASSEY, 1757. 3S3
moment, however, all opposition was at an end. Clive, again
following in the steps of Dupleix, placed Mir Jafar upon the Mir Jafar,
A'iceregal throne at Murshidabad, being careful to obtain a ^^57-
patent of investiture from the Mughal court.
Enormous sums were exacted from Mir Jafar as the price of Pecuniary
his elevation. The Company claimed 10 milHon rupees as com- compensa-
/- • , , -r^ ,• , • 1 A • tionstothe
pensation for its losses. For the English, native, and Armenian English.
inhabitants of Calcutta were demanded, respectively, 5 million,
2 million, and i million rupees ; for the naval squadron and the
army, 2\ million rupees apiece. The members of the Council
received the following amounts : — Mr. Drake, the Governor,
and Colonel Clive, as second member of the Select Com-
mittee, 280,000 rupees each. Colonel Clive also received
200,000 rupees as Commander-in-Chief, and 1,600,000 rupees
* as a private donation ; ' Mr, Becker, Mr. Watts, and Major
Kilpatrick, 240,000 rupees each, besides 'private donations,'
amounting in the case of Mr. Watts to 800,000 rupees. The
gratifications of a personal character, including the donation
to the troops and the fleet, aggregated ;£^i5238,575 ; ^ while
the whole claim amounted to ^^2,697,750. The English stil^
cherished extravagant ideas of Indian wealth. But no funds \
existed to satisfy their inordinate demands, and they had to be
contented with one-half the stipulated sums. Even of this
reduced amount, one-third had to be taken in jewels and
plate, there being neither coin nor bullion left.
At the same time, the Nawab made a grant to the Com- Grant of
pany of the zaminddA or landholder's rights over an extensive J^'^^J^"
tract of country round Calcutta, " now known as the District ganas,
of the Twenty-four Parganas. The area of this tract was 882 1757-
square miles. In 1757 the Company obtained only the
zaminddri rights — z>., the rights to collect the cultivators^
rents, with the revenue jurisdiction over them. The superior
lordship, or right to receive th^ land-tax, remained with the
Nawab. But in 1759 this also was granted by the Delhi
Emperor, the nominal Suzerain of the Nawab, in favour of
Clive, who thus became the landlord of his own masters,
the Company. Clive was enrolled among the highest nobilit);^
of the Mughal Empire, with the rank of commander of 6000
foot and 5000 horse, and a large allotment of land near
Calcutta, in 1759.
This military fief, or Clive's jdgir, as it was called, subse- Clive's
quently became a matter of inquiry in England. Lord Clive's ^j'^^!^'
1 For a full statement of the personal donations, see Mill's History of
British India, vol. iii. pp. 367, 368 (Wilson's ed. 1840).
;84
HISTOR V OF BRITISH R ULE,
claims to the property as feudal Suzerain over the Company
were contested in 1764. On the 23rd June 1765, when he
returned to Bengal, a new deed was issued, confirming the
unconditional y4?^'^ to Lord Clive for ten years, with reversion
afterwards to the Company in perpetuity. This deed, having
received the Emperor's sanction on the 12th August 1765, gave
absolute validity to the original Jdgix grant in favour of Lord
Clive. It transferred, in reversion, to the Company the
Twenty-four Parganas as a perpetual property based upon 2ijdgir
grant. The sum of Rs. 222,958, the amount at which the land
was assessed when first made over to the Company in 1757,
was paid to Lord Clive from 1765 until his death in 1774,
when the whole proprietary right reverted to the Company. ^
Clive, first In 1758, Clive was appointed by the Court of Directors the
of Benf^al ^^^t Governor of all the Company's settlements in Bengal.-
1758;" '
' For a full account of the different grants, and the powers granted by
them, see Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. i. (Twenty-Four
Parganas), pp. 19, 20.
2 Governors and Governors-General of India under the East
India Company, i 758-1858.
1758.
I^ord Clive, Governor.
1805.
Sir George Barlow {pro ton. ).
1760.
Mr. Z. Hoi well {protein.).
1807.
Earl of Minto.
1760.
Mr. Vansittart.
1813.
Earl of Moira, Marquis of
1765.
Lord Clive (second time).
Hastings.
1767.
Harry Verelst.
1823.
John Adam {pro tern.).
1769.
John Cartier.
1823.
Lord Amherst.
1772.
Warren Hastings (first Gover-
1 1828.
Mr. Butterworth Bayley {pro
nor-General, 1774).
tern.).
1785.
Sir John Macpherson {pro
1828.
Lord William Cavendish
tern.).
Bentinck.
1786.
Marquis of Cornwallis.
1835.
Sir Chas. Metcalfe, afterwards
1793-
Sir John Shore (Lord Teign-
Lord Metcalfe {pro tern.).
mouth).
1836.
Earl of Auckland.
1798.
Sir Alured Clarke {pro tern.).
1842.
Earl of Ellenborough.
1798.
Lord Mornington (Marquis
1844.
Viscount Hardinge.
Wellesley).
1848.
Earl (afterwards Marquis) of
1805.
Marquis of Cornwallis (second
Dalhousie.
time).
1856.
Earl Canning.
Viceroys of India undi
:r the
Crown, 1858-85.
1858.
Earl Canning.
1869.
Earl of Mayo.
1862.
Earl of Elgin.
1872.
Sir John Strachey {pro tent.).
1863.
Sir R. Napier, afterwards Lord
1872.
Lord Napier of Merchistoun
Napier of Magdala ( pro tern. ).
{pro tern.).
1863.
Sir William Denison {pro
1872.
Earl of Northbrook.
tern.).
1876.
Earl of Lytton.
1864.
Sir John Lawrence (Lord
1880.
Marquis of Ripon.
Lawrence).
1884.
Lord Dufferin.
ENGLISH MISRULE IN BENGAL. 385
Two powers threatened hostilities. On the west, the Shahzada
or Imperial prince, known afterwards as the Emperor Shah
Alara, with a mixed array, of Afghans and Marathas, and
supported by the ^awab Wazir of Oudh, was advancing his
own claims to the Province was affirmed to be part of a
^^Sl- general plot by the British Government to destroy the religion
ahke of the Hindu and of the Muhammadan Sepoy. As a
matter of fact, cow's tallow had been culpably and ignorantly
used. Steps were taken to prevent the defiling cartridges from
reaching the hands and mouths of the native army. But no
assurances could quiet the minds of the Sepoys. Fires
occurred nightly in the native lines ; officers were insulted by
their men ; confidence was gone, and scarcely the form of dis-
cipline remained.
The events which followed form contemporary annals. Kny
narrative of them beyond the barest summary would involve
the criticism of measures on which history has not yet pro-
nounced her calm verdict, and would lead to personal praise
or blame of still living men.^ Each episode of the Mutiny is
treated in The Imperial Gazetteer of India^ under the town
or District where it occurred. But it may not be out of
place to mention here, that the outbreak of the storm found
The array the native regiments denuded of many of their best officers,
drained of -pj^^ administration of the great Empire, to which Dalhousie
put the corner-stone, required a larger staff than the civil
service could supply. The practice of selecting the ablest
military men for civil posts, which had long existed, received a
sudden and vast development. Oudh, the Punjab, the Central
Provinces, British Burma, were administered to a large extent
1 The Mutiny of 1857 has already a copious literature. Sir John Kayo's
History oj the Sepoy War (3 vols.), with its able and eloquent continuation
by Colonel Malleson, C.S. I.,as The History of the Indian Mutiny [t^sqA^.),
forms the standard work.
THE SEPOY MUTINY, 1857. 419
by picked officers from the Company's regiments. Some
skilful commanders remained ; but the native army had never-
theless been drained of many of its brightest intellects and
firmest wills at the very crisis of its fate.
On the afternoon of Sunday, loth May 1857, the Sepoys at Outbreak
Meerut (Merath) broke into open mutiny.^ They burst into^J^|^5
the jail, and rushed in a wild torrent through the cantonments, May 1857.
cutting down a few Europeans whom they met. They then
streamed off to the neighbouring city of Delhi, to stir up the
native garrison and the criminal population of that great city,
and to place themselves under the authority of the discrowned
Mughal Emperor. Meerut was the largest military station in At Meerut.
Northern India, with a strong European garrison of foot, horse,
and guns, sufficient to overwhelm the mutineers before ever
they reached Delhi. But as the Sepoys acted in irrational
haste, so the British officers, in but too many cases, acted with
equally irrational indecision. The news of the outbreak was
telegraphed to Delhi, and nothing more was done that night.
At the moment when one strong will might have saved India,
no soldier in authority at Meerut seemed able to think or act.
The next morning the Muhammadans of Delhi rose, and all that At Delhi,
the Europeans there could do was to blow up the magazine.
A rallying centre and a traditional name were thus given
to the revolt, which forthwith spread like wild-fire through the
North-Western Provinces and Oudh down into Lower Bengal.
The same narrative must suffice for all the outbreaks, although
each episode has its own story of sadness and devotion. The
Sepoys rose on their officers, usually without warning, sometimes Spread
after protestations of fidelity. The Europeans, or persons of jj^tinv
Christian faith, were frequently massacred ; occasionally, also, summer
the women and children. The jail was broken open, the treasury °^ ^^57-
plundered, and the mutineers marched off to some centre of
revolt, to join in what had now become a national war.
In the Punjab the Sepoys were anticipated by measures of
repression and disarmament, carried out by Sir John Lawrence
and his lieutenants, among whom Edwardes and Nicholson
stand conspicuous. The Sikh population never wavered. Loyalty of
Crowds of willing recruits came down from the Afghan hills. ^^^ Sikhs.
And thus the Punjab, instead of being itself a source of
danger, was able to furnish a portion of its own garrison for
the siege of Delhi. In Lower Bengal many of the Sepoys
mutinied, and then dispersed in different directions. The
native armies of Madras and Bombay remained true to their
^ See article Meerut, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
420
HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.
Cawnpur.
Nana
Sahib.
Our ill-
chosen
position.
Massacre
of Cawn-
pur.
Luck now.
Sir Henry
Lawrence.
colours. In Central India, the contingents of some of the
great chiefs sooner or later joined the rebels, but the Muham-
madan State of Haidarabad was kept loyal by the authority of
its able minister, the late Sir Salar Jang.
The main interest of the Sepoy War gathers round the three
cities of Cawnpur, Lucknow, and Delhi. Cawnpur contained
one of the great native garrisons of India. At Bithur, not far
off, was the palace of Dundhu Panth, the heir of the last
Peshwa {a7ite, pp. 324, 402), who had inherited his savings, but
had failed to procure a continuance of his pension ; and whose
more familiar name of Nana Sahib will ever be handed down
to infamy. At first the Nana was profuse in his professions
of loyalty ; but when the Sepoys at Cawnpur mutinied on the
6th June, he put himself at their head, and was proclaimed
Peshwa of the Marathas.
The Europeans at Cawnpur, numbering more women and
children than fighting men, shut themselves up in an ill-chosen
hasty entrenchment, where they heroically bore a siege for:
nineteen days under the sun of a tropical June. Every one
had courage and endurance to suffer or to die ; but the
directing mind was again absent. On the 27th June, trusting
to a safe-conduct from the Nana as far as Allahabdd, they
surrendered, and, to the number of 450, embarked in boats
on the Ganges. Forthwith a murderous fire was opened
upon them from the river bank. Only a single boat escaped,
and but four men, who swam across to the protection of a
friendly Raja, ultimately survived to tell the tale. The rest
of the men were massacred on the spot. The women and
children, numbering 125, were reserved for the same fate on the
15th July, when the avenging army of Havelock was at hand.^
Sir Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of Oudh, had
foreseen the storm. He fortified and provisioned the Residency
at Lucknow, and thither he retired with all the European
inhabitants and a weak British regiment on 2nd July. Two
days later, he was mortally wounded by a shell. Whatever
opinion may be formed of Sir Henry Lawrence's capacity as
a soldier in his one unfortunate engagement, he clearly per-
ceived the main strategic and political points in the struggle.
Lawrence had deliberately chosen his position ; and the little
garrison held out under unparalleled hardships and against
enormous odds, until relieved by Havelock and Outram on
25th September. But the relieving force was itself invested
by fresh swarms of rebels ; and it was not until November that
* See article Cawnpur, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
SUPPRESSION OF THE MUTINY. 421
Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) cut his way into
Lucknow, and effected the final deliverance of the garrison ^
(i6th November 1857). Our troops then withdrew to more
urgent work, and did not finally re-occupy Lucknow till March
1858.
The siege of Delhi began on 8th June, one month after Siege of
the original outbreak at Meerut. Siege in the proper sense Delhi,
of the word it was not ; for the British army, encamped on sept.
the historic 'ridge,' at no time exceeded 8000 men, while the 1857.
rebels within the walls were more than 30,000 strong. In the
middle of August, Nicholson arrived with a reinforcement from Nicholson,
the Punjab; but his own inspiring presence was even more
valuable than the reinforcement he brought. On 14th Sep-
tember the assault was delivered, and after six days' desperate
fighting in the streets, Delhi was again won. Nicholson fell at
the head of the storming party. Hodson, the intrepid leader
of a corps of irregular horse, hunted down next day the old
Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah, and his sons. The Emperor
was afterwards sent a State prisoner to Rangoon, where he
lived till 1862. As the mob pressed in on the guard around
the Emperor's sons, near Delhi, Hodson found it necessary to
shoot down the princes (who had been captured uncondition-
ally) with his own hand.^
After the fall of Delhi and the final relief of Lucknow, the Oudh
war loses its dramatic interest, although fighting went on in reduced
various parts of the country for eighteen months longer. The
population of Oudh and Rohilkhand, stimulated by the
presence of the Begam of Oudh, the Nawab of Bareilly, and
Nana Sahib himself, had joined the mutinous Sepoys en masse.
In this quarter of India alone, it was the revolt of a people
rather than the mutiny of an army that had to be quelled.
Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) conducted the by Lord
campaign in Oudh, which lasted through two cold seasons.^ ^^y^^-
Valuable assistance was lent by Sir Jang Bahadur of Nepal,
at the head of his gallant Gurkhas. Town after town was
occupied, fort after fort was stormed, until the last gun had
been re-captured, and the last fugitive had been chased across
the frontier by January 1859.
In the meanwhile, Sir Hugh Rose (afterwards Lord Strath- Sir Hugh
nairn), with another army from Bombay, was conducting an ^^^^ '"
equally brilliant campaign in Central India. His most formid- India.
^ See article LucKNOW, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
2 See article Delhi City, The Itriperial Gazetteer of India.
3 See article Bareilly, I he Imperial Gazetteer of India.
42 2 HISTOR V OF BRITISH R ULE,
able antagonists were the disinherited Rani or Princess of
Jhansi, and Tantia Topi, whose military talent had previously
inspired Nana Sahib with all the capacity for resistance whicfi
he ever displayed. The Princess died fighting bravely at the
head of her troops in June 1858.^ Tantia Topi, after doubling
backwards and forwards through Central India, was at last
betrayed and run down in April 1859.
Renewals The Company's charter had been granted from time to time
ComDanv's ^^■'' P^^^^^^^ of twenty years, and each renewal had formed an
Charter, opportunity for a national inquest into the management of
1813-15. India. The Parliamentary Inquiry of 181 3 abolished the
Company's monopoly of Indian trade, and compelled it to
direct its energies in India to the good government of the
people. The Charter Act of 1833 did away with its remaining
Chinese trade, and opened up administrative offices in India
to the natives, irrespective of caste, creed, or race. The Act
Its of 1853 abolished the patronage by which the Company filled
curtaUed^ "P '^^ superior or covenanted branch of its civil service. It
laid down the principle that the administration of India was
too national a concern to be left to the chances of benevolent
nepotism ; and that England's representatives in India must be
chosen openly, and without favour, from the youth of England.
Downfall The Mutiny sealed the fate of the East India Company,
of the ^fj-gj- a ]ifg Qf more than two and a half centuries. The
1858. ' original Company received its charter of incorporation from
Elizabeth in 1600. Its political powers, and the constitution
of the Indian Government, were derived from the Regulating
Its history Act of 1773, passed by the Ministry of Lord North. By that
^P."°" statute the Governor of Bengal was raised to the rank of
m 1 zed
1773.J858. Governor-General; and, in conjunction with his Council of
four other members, he was entrusted with the duty of
superintending and controlling the Governments of Madras
and Bombay, so far as regarded questions of peace and war :
a Supreme Court of Judicature was appointed at Calcutta, to
which the judges were appointed by the Crown : and a power
of making rules, ordinances, and regulations was conferred
upon the Governor-General and his Council. Next came the
Act of India Bill of Pitt (1784), which founded the Board of Control,
^7^4- strengthened the supremacy of Bengal over the other Presi-
dencies, and first authorized the historical phrase, * Governor-
General-in-Council.'
The new Charter Act which abolished the Company's
* See article Jhansi, The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
\
END OF THE E. I. COMPANY. 423
Chinese trade in 1833, introduced successive reforms into the
constitution of the Indian Government. It added to the Act of
Council a Law-member who need not be chosen from among ^^•^^*
the Company's servants, and was entitled to be present only
at meetings for making Laws and Regulations. It accorded
the authority of Acts of Parliament to the Laws and Regula-
tions so made, subject to the disallowance of the Court of
Directors. It appointed a Law Commission ; and it gave the
Governor-General-in-Council a control over the other Presi-
dencies, in all points relating to the civil or military admini-
stration. The Charter of the Company was renewed for the
last time in 1853, not for a definite period of years, but only Act of
for so long as Parliament should see fit. On this occasion ^^^*
the number of Directors was reduced, and, as above stated,
their patronage as regards appointments to the covenanted
civil service was taken away, to make room for the principle
of open competition.
The Act for the better government of India (1858), which India
finally transferred the entire administration from the Company transferred
to the Crown, was not passed without an eloquent protest from Crown,
the Directors, nor without acrimonious party discussion in i^S^.
Parliament. It enacts that India shall be governed by, and
in the name of, the Queen of England through one of her
principal Secretaries of State, assisted by a Council of fifteen
members. The Governor -General received the new title of ' The
Viceroy. The European troops of the Company, numbering Viceroy,
about 24,000 officers and men, were amalgamated with the
royal service, and the Indian navy was abolished. By the
Indian Councils Act (1861), the Governor-General's Council,
and also the Councils at Madras and Bombay, were aug-
mented by the addition of non-official members, either natives
or Europeans, for legislative purposes only. By another Act
also passed in 1861, High Courts of Judicature were constituted
out of the old Supreme Courts at the Presidency towns.
It fell to the lot of Lord Canning both to suppress the India
Mutiny, and to introduce the peaceful revolution which followed. ^^^^"^ the
It suffices to say that he preserved his equanimity unruffled in 1858-62.
the darkest hours of peril, and that the strict impartiality of
his conduct incurred alternate praise and blame from partisans
of both sides. The epithet then scornfully levelled at him of
' Clemency ' Canning, is now remembered only to his honour. Queen's
On ist November 1858, at a grand darbdr held at Allahabad, Pi'oclama-
he published the Royal Proclamation, which announced that Nov. 1858.
424 HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.
the Queen had assumed the government of India. This
document, which is, in the truest and noblest sense, the
Magna Charta of the Indian people, proclaimed in eloquent
words a policy of justice and religious toleration ; and granted
an amnesty to all except those who had directly taken part
in the murder of British subjects. Peace was proclaimed
throughout India on the 8th July 1859. In the following cold
weather, Lord Canning made a viceregal progress through the
northern Provinces, to receive the homage of loyal princes and
chiefs, and to guarantee to them the right of adoption.
Cost of the The suppression of the Mutiny increased the debt of India
Mutiny. ^y about 40 millions sterling, and the military changes which
ensued augmented the annual expenditure by about 10 millions.
To grapple with this deficit, a distinguished political economist
and parliamentary financier, Mr. James Wilson, was sent out
Financial from England as financial member of Council. He re-
reforms, organized the customs system, imposed an income-tax and a
licence duty, and created a State paper currency. He died in
the midst of his splendid task ; but his name still lives as that
Legal of the first and greatest finance minister of India. The Penal
reforms. Code, originally drawn up by Macaulay in 1837, passed into
law in i860; together with Codes of Civil and Criminal Pro-
cedure in i86i.^
Lord Canning left India in March 1862, and died before
Lord he had been a month in England. His successor, Lord
^^^Si"» Elgin, only lived till November 1863. He expired at the
Himalayan station of Dharmsald, and there he lies buried.
Lord He was succeeded by Sir John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence,
i&4-69^^' ^^^ saviour of the Punjab. The chief incidents of Lord
Lawrence's rule were the Bhutan war, followed by the annexa-
tion of the Bhutan Dwdrs in 1864, and the terrible Orissa
famine of 1866.
In a later famine in Bundelkhand and Upper Hindustan in
1868-69, Lord Lawrence laid down the principle, for the first
time in Indian history, that the officers of the Government
would be held personally responsible for taking every possible
Events of means to avert death by starvation. An inquiry was conducted
lus Vice- jj^jQ jj^g status of the peasantry of Oudh, and an Act was
royalty. .... * . , . , .
passed with a view to securing them in their customary rights.
After a period of fratricidal war among the sons of Dost
Muhammad, the Afghdn territories were concentrated in the
* On the subject of Anglo-Indian Codification, Vide anU^ chap. iv.
LORD MAVaS REFORMS. 425
hands of Sher AH, and the latter was acknowledged as Amir
by Lord Lawrence. A commercial crisis took place in 1866,
which seriously threatened the young tea industry in Bengal,
and caused widespread ruin in Bombay. Sir John Lawrence
retired in January 1869, after having passed through every
grade of Indian service, from an assistant magistracy to the
viceroyalty. On his return to England, he was raised to the
peerage. He died in 1879, and lies in Westminster Abbey.
Lord Mayo succeeded Lord Lawrence in 1869, and urged Lord
on the material progress of India. The Ambala darbdr, ^^^^^^
at which Sher All was recognised as Amir of Afghanistan, Ambala
although in one sense the completion of what Lord Lawrence darbavy
had begun, owed its success to Lord Mayo. The visit of
His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869-70
gave great pleasure to the natives of India, and introduced a
tone of personal loyalty into our relations with the feudatory
princes.
Lord Mayo reformed several of the great branches of Lord
the administration, created an Agricultural Department, and ^^i^^^ ^
introduced the system of Provincial Finance. The impulse to pj-o^j,., j^jj
local self-government given by the last measure has done finance.
much, and will do more, to develop and husband the revenues
of India; to quicken the sense of responsibility among the
English administrators ; and to awaken political life among the
people. Lord Mayo also laid the foundation for the reform
of the Salt Duties. He thus enabled his successors to abolish Customs-
the old pernicious customs-lines which walled off Province ^\"^f. , ,
c -r.- -1 1-11 11 -r,--iTj- abolished,
from Province, and strangled the trade between British India
and the Feudatory States. He developed the material
resources of the country by an immense extension of roads,
railways, and canals, thus carrying out the beneficent system of
Public Works which Lord Dalhousie had inaugurated. Lord
Mayo's splendid vigour defied alike the climate and the vast
tasks which he imposed on himself. He anxiously and labori-
ously studied with his own eyes the wants of the farthest
Provinces of the Empire. But his life of noble usefulness was Lord
cut short by the hand of an assassin, in the convict settlement j^^[^'^
of the Andaman Islands, in 1872. 1872.'
His successor was Lord Northbrook, whose ability found Lord
pre-eminent scope in the department of finance.^ During his brook
^ It would be unsuitable for an officer of the Government to attempt ^°/2-7"'
anything beyond the barest summary of events in India since the death of
42 6 HISTOR V OF BRITISH R ULE.
viceroyalty, a famine which threatened Lower Bengal in 1874
was successfully obviated by a vast organization of State
relief; the Mar^tha Gdekwdr of Baroda was dethroned in
1875 for misgovernment and disloyalty, but his dominions
were continued to a child selected from the family ; and the
Prince of Prince of Wales made a tour through the country in the cold
^^^|J.^^^jg weather of 1875-76. The presence of His Royal Highness
1876. evoked a passionate burst of loyalty never before known in the
annals of British India. The feudatory chiefs and ruling houses
of India felt for the first time that they were incorporated into
the Empire of an ancient and a splendid dynasty.
Lord Lord Lytton followed Lord Northbrook in 1 876. On January
^H^fi^s' ^' ^^77' Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India at a
The * ^^^^^^ o* unparalleled magnificence, held in the old Delhi can-
' Empress tonment behind the historic ' ridge ' — the ' ridge ' from which in
of India.' jg^y ^j^g British had reconquered the revolted Mughal capital.
But while the princes and high officials -of the country were flock-
ing to this gorgeous scene, the shadow of famine was darkening
over Southern India. Both the monsoons of 1876 had failed to
bring their due supply of rain, and the season of 1877 was little
Famine of better. This long-continued drought stretched from the Deccan
1877-78. |.Q (3ape Comorin, and subsequently invaded Northern India,
causing a famine more widespread than any similar calamity
since 1770. Despite vast importations of grain by sea and
rail, despite the most strenuous exertions of the Government,
which incurred a total expenditure on this account of 11
millions sterling, the loss of Hfe from actual starvation and its
attendant train of diseases was lamentable. The deaths from
want of food, and from the diseases incident to a famine-
stricken population, were estimated at 5 J millions.
Afghan In the autumn of 1878, the affairs of Afghanistan again
'^8^8-8 forced themselves into notice. Sher Ali, the Amir, who had
been hospitably entertained by Lord Mayo, was found to be
favouring Russian intrigues. A British embassy was refused
admittance to the country, while a Russian mission was
received with honour. This led to a declaration of war.
British armies advanced by three routes — the Khaibar
(Khyber), the Kuram, and the Boldn; and without much
opposition occupied the inner entrances of the passes. Sher
Lord Mayo in 1872. The four Viceroys who have ruled during the past four-
teen years, are, happily, still living ; their policy forms the subject of keen
contemporary criticism ; and the administrators, soldiers, and diplomatists
who gave effect to that policy still hold possession of the scene.
LORD LYTTON: LORD RIFON. 427
All fled to Afghan Turkistan, and there died. A treaty was
entered into with his son, Yakub Khdn, at Gandamak, by
which the British frontier was advanced to the crests or
farther sides of the passes, and a British officer was admitted
to reside at Kabul. Within a few months the British Resident,
Sir Louis Cavagnari, was treacherously attacked and mas-
sacred together with his escort, and a second war became
necessary. Yakub Khan abdicated, and was deported to
India.
At this crisis of affairs, a general election in England re-
sulted in a defeat of the Conservative Ministry. Lord Lytton
resigned simultaneously with the Home Government, and the
Marquis of Ripon was nominated as his successor in April Marquis of
1880. In that year, a British brigade received a defeat 1880-81.
between Kandahar and the Helmand river from the Herat
troops of Ayiib Khdn; a defeat promptly and completely
retrieved by the brilliant march of General Sir Frederick
Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar, and by the total rout of
Ayiib Khan's army on ist September 1880. Abdurrahman
Khan, the eldest male representative of the stock of Dost
Muhammad, was recognised by us as Amir. The British forces Afghan
retired from Kabul, leaving him, as our friend, in possession ig8jJ^L
of the capital. The withdrawal of our troops from Kandahar
was also effected. Soon afterwards Ayiib Khan advanced
with an army from Herat, defeated the Amir Abdurrahman's
troops, and captured Kandahar. His success was short-lived.
The Amir Abdurrahman marched south with his forces from
Kabul, completely routed Ayiib Khan, re-occupied Kandahar,
and still reigns as undisputed Amir of Afghdnistdn (1886).
In 1884, a Boundary Commission was appointed with the
consent of the Amir to settle, in conjunction with Russian
Commissioners, the north-western frontier of Afghanistan.
The Native State of Mysore, which had been administered Mysore,
• • • 1881
by the British on behalf of the Hindu ruhng family since 1831,
was replaced under its hereditary dynasty on the 25th March
1881.
During the remaining years of Lord Ripon's administration Lord
(1881-84) peace was maintained in India. The Viceroy took R^pons
advantage of this lull to carry out certain important reforms in adminis-
the internal government of the country. The years 1882-84 tration,
will be memorable for these great measures. By the repeal of
the Vernacular Press Act, he set free the native journals from
the last restraints on the free discussion of pubHc questions.
428
HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.
Local
Govern-
ment Acts.
Amend-
ment of
Criminal
Procedure.
Depart-
ment of
Agri-
culture,
1881-84.
Revenue
reforms.
His scheme of local self-government developed the municipal
institutions which had been growing up since India passed to
the Crown. By a series of enactments, larger powers of local
self-government were given to rural and urban boards, and the
elective principle received a wider application. Where rural
boards did not exist, he endeavoured to utilize the local materials
available for their formation \ and from this point of view he
may be said to have extended the principle of local self-
government from the towns to the country. Where rural
boards already existed he increased their powers ; and as far
as possible sought to give them a representative basis.
An attempt to extend the jurisdiction of the rural criminal
courts over European British subjects, independently of the
race or nationality of the presiding judge, excited strong public
feeling, and ended in a compromise. The principle was asserted
in regard to native officers belonging to the Superior Civil
Service who had attained to a certain standing, namely District
Magistrates and Sessions Judges. At the same time the
European community received a further extension of trial
by jury, which enables European British subjects to claim a
jury, if they see fit to do so, in nearly all cases before the
District criminal tribunals.
One of the earliest acts of Lord Ripon's viceroyalty was the
re-establishment of the Department of Revenue and Agriculture
in accordance with the recommendation of the Famine Com-
mission. This department had been originally instituted by
Lord Mayo ; but some years after his death, its functions had
been distributed between the Finance and Home Departments.
It was now reconstituted substantially on its former basis, as a
distinct secretariat of the Government of India. It at once took
up the recommendations of the Famine Commission ; both
those bearing on famine relief, and those dealing with organic
reforms in the administration of the land revenue. Agri-
cultural improvements, exhibitions of Indian produce, whether
in India or in Europe, and works elucidating the raw produce
of the country, received its special attention. Its reforms in
the administration of the land revenue were largely directed to
prevent re-settlements in temporarily settled districts from
bearing too heavily on the cultivators. Such re-settlements
are in future, except in special cases, to avoid re-measurement
and vexatious inquisitions, and are to leave to the landlord or
husbandman the entire profits accruing from improvements
carried out by himself.
Henceforth, an enhancement of the land revenue is to be
LORD RIPON'S REFORMS. 429
made mainly on the grounds (i) of a rise in prices, (2) of an
increase in the cultivated area, and (3) of improvements which
have been made at the expense of the Government. The
Agricultural Department superintends a variety of important
operations bearing on the development of the country and
the welfare of the people ; including surveys, emigration, the
meteorological bureau, the extension of veterinary science, and
the statistics of internal trade.
Lord Ripon also appointed an Education Commission with Education
a view to the spread of popular instruction on a broader basis. ^°""'^^^^'
This Commission, after hearing evidence and collecting data 1883.
throughout the Presidencies and Provinces of India, reported
in 1883. The result of its labours w^as a Resolution of the
Governor-General in Council, which, while encouraging all
grades of education, provided specially for the advance of
primary instruction at a more equal pace with higher education.
The Recommendations of the Commission, and the Govern-
ment Resolution based upon them, gave encouragement to the
indigenous schools which in some Provinces had not previously
received a sufficient recognition from the State Department of
Public Instruction.
The Commission's Recommendations strongly affirmed the
principle of self-help in the extension of high schools and
colleges, and laid particular stress on the duty of assisting
primary education from Provincial and Municipal funds. They
endeavoured to provide for certain sections of the people,
particularly the Muhammadans, who for various causes had
found themselves unable to avail themselves fully of the State
system of public instruction, or in regard to whom that
system had proved defective. The general effect of the Com-
mission's labours, and of the Government Resolution based
thereon, is to give a more liberal recognition to private effort
of every kind, and to schools and colleges conducted on the
system of grants-in-aid.
In 1882, Lord Ripon 's Finance Minister, Sir Evelyn Alxjlition
Baring, took off the import duties on cotton goods ; and ^^ customs
with them, almost the whole import customs, saving a few 1882. '
exceptions such as those on arms, liquors, etc., were abolished.
In 1884, a Committee of the House of Commons took evidence
on railway extension in India, and embodied their recom-
mendations in a Parliamentary Report. The condition of the
agricultural population in Bengal occupied the close attention
of Lord Ripon throughout his whole viceroyalty. After keen Bengal
discussions, prolonged during many years, he left a Tenancy ijfn.^"*^^
430 HISTOR Y OF BRITISH R ULE,
Bill, regulating the j^lations of landlord and tenant in Bengal,
almost ready to be passed by his successor.
Earl of The Marquis of Ripon retired from the viceroyalty at the
1884/ ' ^^^ ^^ 1884, and was succeeded by the Earl of Dufferin. In
the spring of 1885, L6rd Dufferin passed the Bengal Tenancy
Bill through its final stage in the Legislature; and held a
Darbar at Rawal Pindi for the reception of the Amir of Afghan-
istan. The result of the meeting was to strengthen the British
relations with that ruler'
Burmese During the summef of the same year, 1885, the hostile
188=;'^^' attitude of the king of Independent Burma forced itself upon
the attention of the British Government. After repeated but
fruitless remonstrances, 'a British expedition was despatched
from Bengal and Madras- to Rangoon. It advanced up the
Irawadi valley (November-December 1885), and occupied
Mandalay, the capital of Independent Burma. King Thebau,
who had inaugurated his reign by a family massacre, and had
steadily refused to redress the wrongs of certain British sub-
jects whom he had injured, remained defiant. He vainly
sought aid against the English from foreign powers. In the
end he surrendered, almost without a blow, was dethroned,
and deported for safe custody to British India. The authority
of the Viceroy of India was substituted for that of King
Thebau throughout Upper Burma by Proclamation on the 1st
January 1886. In February 1886, Lord Dufferin proceeded
in person to Burma, to settle the administration of the new
British Province. As all pacific proposals were rejected, a
military force under General Prendergast moved up the Irawadi
in a flotilla of steamers. .The opposition encountered was
insignificant On November 28 the capital of Mandalay was
occupied without fighting; King Thebau surrendered, and
was sent as a prisoner to Rangoon.
[431 ]
CHAPTER XVI.
BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
The Act of 1858, which transferred India from the Company Control of
to the Crown, also laid down the scheme of its srovernment. J?^'f ^^,
° England.
Under the Company, the Governor-General was an autocrat, Under the
responsible only to the distant Court of Directors. The Company.
Court of Directors had been answerable to the shareholders,
or Court of I'roprietors, on the one hand ; and, through the
Board of Control, to the Sovereign and to Parliament on the
other. The Act of 1858 did away with these intermediary Under the
bodies between the Governor-General and the British Ministry. Crown.
For the Court of Directors, the Court of Proprietors, and the
Board of Control, it substituted a Secretary of State, aided by
a Council appointed by the Crown.
The Secretary of State for India is a Cabinet Minister, who The Secre-
comes into and goes out of office with the other members of ^^^
the Ministry. His Council was originally appointed for life. His
Its members are now appointed for ten years only ;^ but may Councilm
be re-appointed for another five years for special reasons. The
Secretary of State rules in all ordinary matters through the
majority of his Council. But in affairs of urgency, and in
questions which belong to the Secret Department, including
political correspondence, he is not required to consult his
Council. The Viceroy or Governor-General is appointed by office of
the Crown, and resides in India. His ordinary term of^'^iceroy.
office is five years.
The supreme authority in India is vested by a series of Acts Admini-
of Parliament ^ in the Viceroy or Governor-General-in-Council, jif in^jf^
subject to the control of the Secretary of State in England.
P>ery executive order and every legislative statute runs 'Governor-
in the name of the ' Governor-General-in-Council :^ but in General-in-
Council.'
1 Under 32 and 33 Vict. c. 97.
2 The chief of these Acts are 13 Geo. III. c. 63 ; 33 Geo. in. c. 52 :
3 and 4 Will. iv. c. 85; 21 and 22 Vict. c. 106; and 24 and 25 Vict,
c. 67.
^ A style first authorized by 33 Geo. in. c. 52, sec. 39.
432 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
certain cases/ a power is reserved to the Viceroy to act
independently. The Governor-General's Council is of a two-
fold character.
Executive First, the ordinary or Executive Council,^ usually composed
of about six official members besides the Viceroy, which may
be compared with the cabinet of a constitutional country. It
meets regularly at short intervals, usually once a week,
discusses and decides upon questions of foreign policy and
domestic administration, and prepares measures for the Legis-
lative Council. Its members divide among themselves the
chief departments of State, such as those of Foreign Affairs,
Finance, War, Public Works, etc. The Viceroy combines in
his own person the duties of constitutional Sovereign with
those of Prime Minister;^ and has usually charge of the
Foreign Department. As a rule, the Viceroy is himself the
initiating Member of Council for Foreign and Feudatory
Affairs.
Second,* the Legislative Council, which is made up of
the same members as the preceding, with the addition of
the Governor of the Province in which it may be held;
certain officials selected by the Governor-General from Bengal,
Madras, Bombay, or other Provinces ; and nominated mem-
bers, representative of the non-official Native and European
communities. The official additional members thus appointed
Legislative to the Legislative Council must not exceed in number the non-
Council. officials, and the total of the additional members must not
exceed twelve. The meetings of the Legislative Council are
held when and as required, usually once a week. They are
open to the public; and a further guarantee for publicity is
ensured by the proviso that draft Bills must be published a
1 * Cases of high importance, and essentially affecting the public interest
and welfare' (33 Geo. in. c. 52, sec. 47) ; ' when any measure is proposed
vk'hereby the safety, tranquillity, or interests of the British possessions in
India may, in the judgment of the Governor-General, be essentially affected '
(3 and 4 Will. iv. c. 85, sec. 49) ; ' cases of emergency ' {24 and 25 Vict.
c. 67, sec. 23).
'^ This is the lineal descendant of the original Council organized under
the charters of the Company, first constituted by I'arliamentary sanction in
1773 (13 <^eo. III. c. 63, sec. 7).
^ The mechanism and working of the Governor-General's Council, and of
the Secretariats, and chief Departments of the Indian Administration, are
described in Hunter's Life of the Earl of Mayo ^ vol. i. pp. 189-202 (2nd ed.)
* Originally identical with the Executive Council, upon which legislative
powers were conferred by 13 Geo. in. c. 63, sec. 36. The distinction
between the two Councils was first recognised in the appointment of ' the
fourth member ' (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 85, sec. 40).
LEG I SLA TLOX AND JUSTLCE. 433
certain number of times in the Gazette. As a matter of
practice, these draft Bills have usually been first subjected to
the criticism of the several Provincial governments. Provincial
Legislative Councils have also been appointed for the Presi-
dencies of Madras and Bombay, and for the Lieutenant-
Governorship of Bengal. The members of these local Legis-
lative Councils are appointed, in the case of Madras and
Bombay, by the Governors of those Provinces ; and in Bengal,
by the Lieutenant-Governor, subject to the approval of the
Governor-General. The Acts of these Provincial Legislative
Councils, which can deal only with provincial matters, are
subject to sanction by the Governor-General.
The Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, and the Lieutenant- High
Governorships of Bengal and of the North- Western Provinces, jugtice
have each a High Court,^ supreme both in civil and criminal
business, but with an ultimate appeal to the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council in England. Of the minor Provinces,
the Punjab has a Chief Court, with three judges; the
Central Provinces and Oudh have each a Judicial Com-
missioner, who sits alone. British Burma has a Judicial
Commissioner and a Recorder. In this Province, the Judicial
Commissioner has jurisdiction over the territory outside
Rangoon (save that in cases of European British subjects the
Recorder has the powers of a High Court). The Recorder
has jurisdiction in the town of Rangoon, and in all criminal
cases in any part of Burma where the accused are European
British subjects. The Judicial Commissioner and the Recorder
of Rangoon sit together as a ' Special Court ' for certain pur-
poses. Appeals from the Recorder of Rangoon in civil suits
where the subject-matter ranges from Rs. 3000 to Rs. 10,000,
lie to the High Court at Calcutta. The latter Court also
decides references from the ' Special Court ' of Rangoon when
the members are equally divided in opinion. For Assam, the
High Court at Calcutta is the highest judicial authority, except
in the three Hill Districts, namely, the Garo Hills, the Khasi
and Jaintia Hills, and the Naga Hills. In these Districts,
the Chief Commissioner of Assam is judge without appeal
in civil and criminal matters. Special rules apply to the
Dwars bordering on Bhutan.
The law administered in the Indian Courts consists mainly The law
of — (i) the enactments of the Indian Legislative Councils ^^^"^^^'^
(Imperial and Provincial), as above described, and of the bodies
^ Constituted out of the Supreme Courtsandthe Sudder (Sadr) Courts
in 1861 (24 and 25 Vict. c. 104).
2 E
434 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Provincial
Admini-
stration.
Madras.
Bombay.
Bengal.
Minor
Provinces.
which preceded them; (2) statutes of the British Parliament
which apply to India ; (3) the Hindu and Muhammadan laws
of inheritance, and their domestic law, in causes affecting
Hindus and Muhammadans ; (4) the Customary Law affecting
particular castes and races. Much has been done towards
consolidating special sections of the Indian law ; ^ and in
the Indian Penal Code, together with the Codes of Civil and
Criminal Procedure, we have memorable examples of such
eiforts.
But although the Governor-General-in-Council is theoretically
supreme over every part of India alike,- his actual authority is
not everywhere exercised in the same direct manner. For
ordinary purposes of administration, British India is partitioned
into Provinces, each with a government of its own ; and certain
of the Native States are attached to those Provinces with which
they are most nearly connected geographically. These Pro-
vinces, again, enjoy various degrees of independence. The two
Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, including Sind, retain
many marks of their original equality with Bengal. They each
have an army and a civil service of their own. They are each
administered by a Governor appointed direct from England.
They have each an Executive and a Legislative Council, whose
functions are analogous to those of the Councils of the Governor-
General, although subject to his control.^ They thus possess
a domestic legislature ; aftd in administrative matters, also, the
interference of the Governor-General-in-Council is sparingly
exercised.
Of the other Provinces, Bengal, or rather Lower Bengal,
occupies a peculiar position. Like the North-Western Pro-
vinces and the Punjab, it is administered by a single official
with the style of Lieutenant-Governor, who is controlled by no
Executive Council ; but, unlike those two Provinces, Bengal has
a Legislative Council, so far preserving a sign of its early pre-
eminence. The other Northern Provinces, Assam, Oudh, and
the Central Provinces, whether ruled by a Lieutenant-Governor
or a Chief Commissioner, may be regarded from a historical
point of view as fragments of the original Bengal Presidency,^
which, as thus defined, would be co-extensive with all British
India not included under Madras or Bombay. Garrisons on
the Madras or Bombay establishment may be posted in out-
' Ante, chap. iv. p. 117.
^ 3 and 4 Will. iv. c. 85, sees. 39 and 65.
3 24 and 25 Vict. c. 67, sec. 42.
* See article Bengal Presidency, TJtc Imperial GaMker of India.
TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS. 435
lying tracts of the old Bengal territories, but civil officers of the
IMadras and Bombay Services are excluded. The Lieutenant-
Governors and most of the Chief Commissioners are chosen
from the Covenanted Civil Service. In executive matters they
are the practical rulers, but, excepting the Lieutenant-Governor
of Bengal, they have no legislative authority.
To complete the total area of territory under British admini- Minor
stration, it is necessary to mention, besides Bengal, the North- sf^^jJong
Western Provinces, the Punjab, Oudh, and Assam, certain
quasi-YxovmQ.^% under the immediate control of the Viceroy.
These are — British Burma, part of which was annexed in
1826 and part in 1852; the Central Provinces, lapsed in
1853; Assam, annexed in 1826; Ajmere, transferred from
Rajputana; Berar, or the Districts assigned by the Nizam of
Haidarabad, for the support of the Haidarabad Contingent ;
and the little territory of Coorg, in the extreme south. 1 The
State of Mysore was under British administration from 1 831 to
1 88 1, when it was restored to its native Raja, on his attaining
his majority.
Another difference of administration, although now of less ' The
importance than in former times, derives its name from the Regula-
old Regulations, or laws and judicial rules of practice which
preceded the present system of Acts of the Legislature. From
these Regulations certain tracts of country have been from
time to time exempted — tracts which, owing to their backward
state of civilisation or other causes, seemed to require excep-
tional treatment. In non-Regulation territory, broadly speak- Non-
ing, a larger measure of discretion is allowed to the officials, Regulation
both in the collection of revenue and in the administration
of civil justice ; strict rules of procedure yield to the local
exigencies ; and the judicial and executive departments are to
a great extent combined in the same hands.
A wider field is also permitted for the selection of the
administrative body, which is not entirely confined to the
Covenanted Civil Service, but includes military officers on the
staff and also uncovenanted civilians. The title of the highest
executive official in a District of a Regulation Province is that
of Collector-Magistrate. In a non-Regulation District, the 'Deputy
corresponding officer is styled the Deputy Commissioner ; and ^°"^^''.'
the supreme authority in a non-Regulation Province (with the
exception of the Punjab) is called, not a Lieutenant-Governor,
but a Chief Commissioner. The Central Provinces, Assam,
1 For the constitution of each of these Provinces, see their articles in
The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
sioners.
436 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
and British Burma are examples of non-Regulation Provinces ;
but non-Regulation Districts are to be found also in Bengal
and the North-Western Provinces. Their existence is always
disclosed by the term ' Deputy Commissioner' as the title of
the chief executive officer of the District.
The 'Dis- Alike in Regulation and in non-Regulation territory, the unit
terdto^Ll °^ administration is the District — a word of very definite
unit. meaning in official phraseology. The District officer, whether
known as Collector-Magistrate or as Deputy Commissioner,
is the responsible head of his jurisdiction. Upon his energy
and personal character depends ultimately the efficiency of
our Indian Government. His own special duties are so
numerous and so various as to bewilder the outsider; and
the work of his subordinates, European and native, largely
depends upon the stimulus of his personal example. His
The position has been compared to that of the French prefet ;
District but such a comparison is unjust in many ways to the Indian
'Collector- District officer. He is not a mere subordinate of a central
Magis- bureau, who takes his colour from his chief, and represents the
*^^^^' political parties or the permanent officialism of the capital.
The Indian Collector is a strongly individualized worker in
every department of rural well-being, with a large measure of
local independence and of individual initiative.
Duties As the name of Collector - Magistrate implies, his main
'^Cdfector- functions are two-fold. He is a fiscal officer, charged with the
Magis- collection of the revenue from the land and other sources ; he
^''''^^^- also is a revenue and criminal judge, both of first instance and
in appeal. But his title by no means exhausts his multifarious
duties. He does in his smaller local sphere all that the Home
Secretary superintends in England, and a great deal more ; for
he is the representative of a paternal and not of a constitu-
tional government. Police, jails, education, municipalities,
roads, sanitation, dispensaries, the local taxation, and the
imperial revenues of his District, are to him matters of daily
concern. He is expected to make himself acquainted with
every phase of the social life of the natives, and 'with each
natural aspect of the country. He should be a lawyer, an
accountant, a surveyor, and a ready writer of State papers.
He ought also to possess no mean knowledge of agriculture,
political economy, and engineering.
Number of The total number of Districts in British India is about 235.
JJrhTsh^^ '" They vary greatly in size and number of inhabitants. I'he
India. average area is 3840 square miles, ranging from 14,115 square
THE SECRETARIAT, 437
miles in Sind (Karachi), 12,045 square miles in Bengal (Lohar-
daga), and 11,885 square miles in the Central Provinces
(Raipur) ; down to 937 square miles in the North- Western
Provinces (Tarai), 957 square miles in Madras (Nilgiris), and
989 square miles in Oudh (Lucknow). The average population
is 800,723 souls, similarly ranging from 3,051,916 in Bengal
(Maimansingh), 2,617,120 in the North - Western Provinces Their
(Gorakhpur), and 2,365,035 in Madras (Malabar) ; down to ^^H]^^
91,034 in Madras (Nilgiris), 144,070 in the North - Western
Provinces (Dehra), and to 231,341 in the Central Provinces
(Nimar). Districts from their extreme smallness, or other
circumstances which render them quite exceptional, — such as
the little hill District of Simla, the backward and only partially
inhabited tract of Northern Arakan, the Calcutta-Suburban Dis-
trict of Howrah, — are not included in the above. The Madras
Districts are, on an average, the most extensive in area, and
the most populous. In every other Province but Madras, the
Districts are grouped into larger areas, known as Divisions,
each under the charge of a Commissioner. But these Divisions
are not properly units of administration, as the Districts are.
They are aggregates of units, formed only for convenience of
supervision, so that an intermediate authority may exercise the
universal watchfulness which would be impossible for a distant
Lieutenant-Governor.
The Districts are again partitioned out into lesser tracts, Sub-
called Sub-divisions in Bengal, taluks in Madras and in I^isincts.
Bombay, and tahsils in Northern India generally. These Sub-
Districts are the primary units of fiscal administration. The
thdnd^ or police circle, is the unit of police administration over
the whole of British India.
The preceding sketch of Indian administration would be The Secre-
incomplete without a reference to the Secretariat, or central ^^"^^ *
bureau of each Province, which controls and gives unity to
the whole. From the Secretariat are issued the orders that
regulate or modify the details of administration ; into the
Secretariat come the multifarious reports from the local officers,
to be there digested for future reference. But although the
Secretaries may enjoy the social Hfe of the Presidency capitals,
with higher salaries and better prospects of promotion, the
efficiency of our rule rests ultimately upon the shoulders of
the District officers, who bear the burden and heat of the day, of the
with fewer opportunities of winning fame or reward. The ^o^^*"''"
Secretariat of the Supreme Government of India consists of India ;
438 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
of the
local
govern-
ment.
seven branches, each of which deals with a special department
of the administration. The officers who preside over them
are named respectively, the Foreign Secretary, the Home
Secretary, the Secretary in the Department of Revenue and
Agriculture, the Financial Secretary, the Military Secretary,
the Public Works Secretary, and the Secretary in the Legis-
lative Department. In the Presidencies, Lieutenant-Governor-
ships, and Chief-Commissionerships, the Provincial Secretariat
is formed on the same model, but the Secretaries are only
from one to three or four in number.
Land-Tax,
Land
Settle-
ment.
Ancient
land
system
of India.
The Land-Tax. — The land furnishes the chief source of
Indian revenue, and the collection of the land-tax forms the
main work of Indian administration. No technical term is
more familiar to Anglo-Indians, and none more obscure to the
English public, than that of ' land setdement.' Nor has any
subject given rise to more voluminous controversy. It will
here suffice to explain the general principles upon which the
system is based, and to indicate the chief differences in their
application to the several Provinces. That the State should
appropriate to itself a share of the produce of the soil, is a
maxim of finance which has been recognised throughout the
East from time immemorial. The germs of rival systems in
India can be traced in the survival of military and other
service tenures, and in the poll-tax of Assam and Burma.
The early development of the Indian land system was due
to two conditions, — a comparatively high state of agriculture,
and an organized plan of administration, — both of which were
supplied by the primitive Hindu village community. During
the lapse of generations, despite domestic anarchy and foreign
conquest, the Hindu village preserved its customs, written on
the imperishable tablets of tradition. In the ancient Hindu
village community, the land was held, not by private owners,
but by occupiers under the village corporation : the revenue
was due, not from individuals, but from the village commimity
represented by its head-man. The harvest of the hamlet was
dealt with as a common fund ; and before the general distri-
bution, the head-man was bound to set aside the share of the
king. No other system of taxation could be theoretically more
just, or in practice less obnoxious, to a primitive people. This
ancient land system may still be found in parts of India, both
under British and native rule ; and it prevailed almost universally
before the Muhammadan conquest.
The Musalmins brought with them the avarice of conquerors.
THE LAND-SYSTEM. 439
and a stringent system of revenue collection. Under the Musalmdn
Mughal Empire, as organized by Akbar the Great, the share land-tax.
of the State was fixed at one-third of the gross produce of
the soil; and an army of tax-collectors intervened between
the cultivator and the supreme government. The vocabulary
of our own land system is borrowed from the Mughal
administration. The zaviifiddr himself is a creation of the The
Muhammadans, unknown to the early Hindu system. He ^^"li'^dar.
was originally a mere tax-collector, or farmer of the land
revenue, who agreed to pay a lump sum from the tract of
country assigned to him. But the Hindu chief or local mag- His two-
nate was often accepted by the Mughals as the zaumiddr^ or ^^^^ origin,
revenue contractor, for the lands under his control. In this
way, the Indian zamtnddrs as a body are of mixed origin, and
represent in some cases not merely an official status, but heredi-
tary rights. If the Hindu village system may be praised for its
justice, the Mughal farming system had at least the merit of
efficiency. Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, as we have seen,^ ex-
tracted a larger land revenue than we obtain at the present day.
When the responsibility of governing the country was first The Com-
undertaken by the East India Company, an attempt was made pany's
to understand the social system upon which the payment of
land revenue was based. Elaborate orders were issued to this
end in 1769; but the Company's servants were too engrossed
with conquest, with the * annual investment,' and with their
private trade, to find time for minute inquiries into the rights of
the peasantry. The zami?iddr was conspicuous and useful ; The^
the village community and the cultivating rdyat did not force ^^^l" '^^
themselves into notice. The zaminddr seemed a solvent landlord.
person, capable of keeping a contract ; and his official position
as tax-collector was confused with the proprietary rights of an
English landlord. In Bengal, the zaffiinddr, under the Per-
manent Settlement of 1793, was raised to the status of
proprietor, holding at a quit-rent payable to the State, fixed in
perpetuity. In Madras, under the rdyatwdri system of holding
direct from the State, and in most other parts of India, the
actual cultivator has been raised to the same status, subject also
to a quit-rent, fixed at intervals of thirty years. The aim of Growth of
the British authorities has everywhere been to establish private ^l^^}^
property in the soil, consistently with the punctual payment of
the revenue.
The annual Government demand, like the succession duty in
^ This subject has been fully discussed in the chapter on the Mughal
Empire. Vide ante, pp. 29S, 299, 305, 311, etc.
44 o BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Landed England, is the first liability on the land. When that is satisfied,
mlmS ^^ registered landholder in Bengal has powers of sale or
mortgage scarcely more restricted than those of an English
tenant in fee-simple. At the same time, the possible hardships,
as regards the cultivator, of this absolute right of property
vested in the owner have been anticipated by the recognition
of occupancy rights or fixity of peasant-tenures, under carefully
ascertained conditions.
Individual Legal titles have everywhere taken the place of unwritten
proprietary customs. Land, which was merely a source of livelihood to the
rights. , ' ^
cultivator and of revenue to the State, has become a valuable
property to the owner. The fixing of the revenue demand
has conferred upon the landholder a credit which he never
before possessed, and created for him a source of future profit
arising out of the unearned increment. This credit he may
use improvidently ; and he sometimes does so with disastrous
results. But none the less has the land system of India been
raised from a lower to a higher stage of civihsation ; that is to
say, from holdings in common to holdings in severalty, and
from the corporate possession of the village community to
individual proprietary rights.
Rates of With regard to the money rates of the assessment, the
land-tax. Famine Commissioners in 1880 reported the average rate
throughout India at about 2s. per cultivated acre, ranging from
4d. to 4s. 6d., according to the quality of the land. In the
North - Western Provinces the rates of assessment average
Rs. I. II. 4. per cultivated acre. In the Punjab, with the
same system of Land Settlement, but with an inferior soil, they
average just under one rupee. These latter figures are taken
from the Census Report of 188 1. Taking the nominal conver-
sion of the rupee at 2s., the average rate in the North- Western
Provinces would be 3s. 5d., and in the Punjab a fraction under
2s., per acre. The rupee, however, is now (1885) worth, at the
current rate of exchange, only is. 6d., and not 2s. The actual
sterling land-tax would therefore be about 2S. yd. in the North-
western Provinces, and is. 6d. in the Punjab, per acre.
CJovern- The actual share of the crop, represented by these rates, is
ment share ^ ^gj-y difficult problem. The Mughal assessment was fixed
crop. at one-third of the produce. Under many native rulers, this
rate was increased to one-half, and under some to three-fifths.
For example, the author found that in Pdrikud the Rdja's
officers used to take Jjths of the crop on the threshing-floor,
leaving only two-fifths to the cultivator.^
^ See Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. p. 34 (ed. 1872).
THE 'LAND SETTLEMENT: 441
The English revenue officers adhere to the old theory of a
third of the produce, but they make so many deductions in
favour of the peasant, as to reduce the Government share in
practice to about one-seventeenth. This question will be dis-
cussed in some detail in dealing with the general comparison
of English and Mughal taxation. It must here suffice to say
that the Famine Commissioners, the only body who have had
the whole evidence before them, estimate the land-tax through-
out British India ' at from 3 per cent, to 7 per cent, of the gross
out-turn.' The old native basis of division, although retained
in name in some Provinces, has disappeared in practice.
Instead of the ruling power taking from 33 to 60 per cent.,
the average land-tax of the British Government throughout
India is, according to the Famine Commissioners, only 5J per |
cent, of the produce of the fields.
The means by which the land revenue is assessed is known The Land
as Settlement, and the assessor is styled a Settlement Officer. ^^"^^-
• • • meat.
\n Lower Bengal, the assessment existmg m 1793 was
declared to be fixed in perpetuity ; but throughout the greater
part of India the process is ever going on. The details vary
in the different Provinces ; but, broadly speaking, a Settlement
may be described as the ascertainment of the agricultural
capacity of the land. Prior to the Settlement is the work of Village
Survey, which determines the area of every village, and, ^"^vey.
as a rule, of every field. Then comes the Settlement Officer,
whose duty it is to estimate the character of the soil, the
kind of crop, the opportunities for irrigation, the present means
of communication, their probable development, and all other
circumstances which tend to affect the value of the land and its Process
produce. With these facts before him, he proceeds to assess °' Settle-
the Government demand upon the land, according to certain
general principles, which may vary in the several Provinces.
The final result is a Settlement Report, which records, as in
a Domesday Book, the whole agricultural statistics concerning
the District.
Lower Bengal, and a few adjoining Districts of the North- The Per-
Western Provinces and of Madras, enjoy a Permanent Settle- Set"fJJ^ ^t
ment, i.e. the land revenue has been fixed in perpetuity. When of Bengal.
the Company obtained the diwdni or financial administration
of Bengal in 1765, the theory of a Settlement, as described
above, was unknown. The existing Muhammadan system was Our first
adopted in its entirety. Engagements, sometimes yearly, some- ^"^o^'o^'^'
times for a term of years, were entered into with the zamiJiddrs
^^'BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Permanent
Settle-
ment, 1793.
Proprie-
tors created
by law.
Fixed
land-tax
of Lower
Bengal,
1793-
Rights of
the culti-
vators.
to pay a lump sum for the area over which they exercised con-
trol. If the offer of the zaiiiinddr was not deemed satisfactory,
another contractor was substituted in his place. But no steps
were taken, and perhaps no steps were then possible, to
ascertain in detail the amount which the country could afford
to pay. For more than twenty years this practice of temporary
engagements continued, and received the sanction of AVarren
Hastings, the first Governor - General of India, Hastings'
great rival, Francis, was among those who urged the superior
advantages of a permanent assessment. At last, in 1789,
a slightly more accurate investigation into the agricultural
resources of Bengal was carried out ; and the Settlement based
upon the imperfect data yielded by this inquiry was declared
perpetual by Lord Cornwallis in 1793.^
The zaminddrs were thus raised to the status of landlords,
with rights of transfer and inheritance, subject only to the
payment in perpetuity of a rent-charge. In default of due pay-
ment, their lands were to be sold to the highest bidder. The
assessment of Lower Bengal was fixed at sikkd Rs. 26,800,989,
equivalent to Rs. 28,587,722, then about equal to three
millions sterling. By the year 1871-72, the total land-tax
realized from the same area had increased to over 3I millions
sterling, chiefly owing to the inclusion of estates which had
escaped the original assessment on various pretexts. In
1883-84, the land revenue of Bengal was returned at 3 J
millions sterling, apart from the road and local cesses based
on the land-tax. If these are added, the total exceeds 4
millions sterling, popularly lumped together as Mand revenue.'
While the claim of Government against the zaminddrs
was thus fixed for ever, the law intended that the rights of
the zaminddrs over their own tenants should equitably be
restricted. But no detailed record of tenant-right was inserted
in the Settlement papers ; and as a matter of fact, the culti-
vators lost rather than gained in security of tenure. The rights
of the landlord, as against the State, were defined by the
Regulations of 1793 ; and the rights of the tenants, as against
the landlord, were formerly ' reserved ' by those Regulations,
but were not defined. The landlord could therefore go into
Court with a precise legal status; the cultivator could only
shelter himself under vague customary rights. As the pressure
of population on the soil increased, and land in Bengal became
^ The personal aspects of this measure, and the parts played by the
Court of Directors, the Governor-General (Lord Cornwallis), and his chief
Indian adviser (John Shore), are briefly narrated, antc^ p. 393.
LAND-SYSTEM IN LOWER BE.
a subject of competition among the cultivators, the tenant
found himself unprovided with any legal provisions to enable
him to resist rack-rents. He could only plead ancient but
undefined custom : the landlord could urge a proprietary right,
based on express sections of the law. The result was a
gradual decadence of peasant-right during the sixty-five years
following the Permanent Settlement of 1793.
The zaminddr was the revenue-paying unit recognised by
the Permanent Settlement. But in a large number of cases
the zaminddr has in effect parted with all his interest in the
land, by means of the creation of perpetual leases or patnis.
These leases are usually granted in consideration of a lump Inter-
sum paid down and an annual rent. The tatniddr may in "^^^i^te
. , - . . - , , , tenure-
turn create an mdennite series of sub-tenures, such as dar- holders.
patnis, se-pat7iis, etc., beneath his own tenure; and between
himself and the actual cultivator.
It has been mentioned that the Permanent Settlement of 1793
was not preceded by any systematic survey. But in the course
of the past thirty years, Lower Bengal has been subjected to
a professional survey, which determined the boundaries of Imperfect
every village, and issued maps on the scale of four inches to p ""^'^^'j ^^
the mile. This survey, however, has only a topographical
value. Few statistical inquiries were made, and no record
obtained of rights in the soil. Even the village landmarks
then set up have been suffered to fall into decay. It was not
until 1869 that a Statistical Survey of Bengal was, after several Statistical
costly failures dating as far back as 1769 and 1807, organized Survey,
on an efficient basis. The work was conducted to a successful
issue during the ten following years (1869 to 1879); and the
results of the survey were published in twenty-two volumes,
containing a systematic account of each of the sixty Districts
of Bengal and Assam, with their 74 millions of people.
By two stringent Regulations in 1799 and 18 12, the tenant Cultivators
was placed at the mercy of a rack-renting landlord. If he oppressed,
failed to pay his rent, however excessive, his property was
rendered liable to distraint, and his person to imprisonment.
At the same time, the operation of the revenue sale law had
introduced a new race of zauiinddrs^ who were bound to their
tenants by no traditions of hereditary sympathy, but whose
sole object was to make a profit out of their newly-purchased
property. The rack-rented peasantry found little protection
in our courts until 1859, when an Act was passed which con- Land Law
siderably restricted the landlord's powers of enhancement in of 1S59.
certain specified cases.
444 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Land
reform of
1859.
Subse-
quent rise
in rent.
Rent Com-
mission,
1879.
Its pro-
])osals,
1880.
Three
years'
tenants.
The Land Law of 1859 divided die cultivators into four
classes : — First, those who had held their holdings at the same
rates since 1793. It ordained that the rents of such tenants
should not be raised at all. Second, those who had held their
land at the same rent for twenty years. It ordained that such
tenants should be presumed by law to have held since 1793,
unless the contrary was proved. Third, those who had held
for twelve years. To such tenants it gave a right of occupancy,
under which their rents could be raised only for certain
specified reasons by a suit at law. Fourth, those who had
held for less than twelve years. These were left by Act x.
of 1859 to make what bargain they could with the landlords.
Further experience, since 1859, has shown that even these
provisions are inadequate to avert the wholesale enhancement
of rents in Bengal, and especially in Behar. In 1879,
the Government issued a Commission to inquire into the
questions involved. The Commissioners of 1879 desired to
confirm all the rights given to the peasant by the Land Code
of 1859, and proposed to augment them. They recommended
that the first class of cultivators, who have held their land at
the same rates since 1793, should never have their rent raised.
That the second class, or those who have thus held for twenty
years, should still be presumed to have held since 1793. That
the third class of cultivators, who have held for twelve years,
should have their privileges increased. The occupancy rights
of this class would, by the recommendations of the Com-
mission, be consolidated into a valuable peasant-tenure, trans-
ferable by sale, gift, or inheritance. The Commissioners also
proposed that any increase in the value of the land or of the
crop, not arising from the agency of either the landlord or
the * occupancy tenant,' shall henceforth be divided equally
between them. This provision is a very important one in a
country like Bengal, where new railways, new roads, and the
increase of the people and of trade constantly tend to raise the
price of the agricultural staples. What political economists
call the * unearned increment,' would, if this proposal were
adopted, be halved between the proprietor and the cultivator
with occupancy rights.
But the great changes proposed by the Rent Commissioners
of 1879 referred to the fourth or lowest class of husbandmen,
who have held for less than twelve years, and whom the Land
Code of 1859 admitted to no rights whatever. The Com-
missioners proposed to accord a quasi-occupancy right to all
tenants who had hejd for three years. If the landlord
LAND SYSTEM IN ORISSA : ASSAM. 445
demanded an increased rent from such tenant, and the tenant
preferred to leave rather than submit to the enhancement, then
the landlord would have to pay to him — first, a substantial Compensa-
compensation for disturbance, and second, a substantial com- dSuirb-
pensation for improvements. ance.
The proposals of the Commissioners were partially, but only
partially, embodied in the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885.
Finally, after a long and acrimonious discussion, a Rent Rent Law-
Law for Bengal, substantially based upon the Report of the °^ '^^^"
Commission of 1879, was passed in the present year (1885).
The Permanent Settlement was confined to the three Pro-
vinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, according to their bound-
aries at that time. Orissa proper, which was conquered from Orissa
the Marathas in 1803, is subject to a temporary Settlement, of ^^"^^'
which the current term of thirty years will not expire until 1803-38.
1897. The assessment is identical with that fixed in 1838,
which was based upon a careful field-measurement and upon
an investigation into the rights of every landholder and under-
tenant. The Settlement, however, was made with the land-
holder, and not with the tenant; and in practice the rights
of the cultivators are on the same footing as in Bengal.
In Assam Proper, or the Brahmaputra valley, the settle- Assam
ment is simple and effective. The cultivated area is artificially nfent!
divided into mauzds or blocks, over each of which is placed yearly,
a native official or viauzdddr. Every year the mauzdddr
ascertains the area actually under cultivation, and then assesses
the fields, according to their character, at a prescribed rate.
The prevailing system throughout the Madras Presidency
is the rdyatwdri^ which takes the cultivator or peasant pro- Rdyatwdri
prietor as its rent-paying unit, as the Bengal system takes the fn MadrTsI
zaminddr. This system cannot be called indigenous to the
country, any more than the zaminddn is to Bengal. When
the British declared themselves heir to the Nawab of the
Karnatik at the beginning of the present century, they had no
adequate experience of revenue management. The authorities
in England favoured the zaviinddri system already at work
in Bengal, — a system which appeared best calculated to secure
punctual payment. The Madras Government was accordingly Its history,
instructed to enter into permanent engagements with zarninddrs;
and where no zaminddrs could be found, to create substitutes
out of enterprising contractors. The attempt resulted in utter
failure, except in tracts where the zam'mddrs happened to be ZamhuUri
the representatives of ancient lines or powerful chiefs. Several ^^^^^
such chiefs exist in the extreme south and in the north of the
446 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Presidency. Their estates have been guaranteed to them on
payment of a peshkash or permanent tribute, and are saved by
the custom of primogeniture from the usual fate of sub-division.
Sir Throughout the rest of Madras, the influence of Sir Thomas
Munro, Munro led to the adoption of the rdyatwdri system, which will
1820. always be associated with his name.
Madras According to this system, an assessment is made with
asses?-^ °^ the cultivator for the land actually taken for cultivation,
ment : Neither zaminddr nor village community intervenes between
the cultivator and the State. The early rdyatwdri settlements
in Madras were based upon insufficient experience. They
were preceded by no survey, and they had to adopt the crude
estimates of native officials. Since 1858, a department of
Revenue Survey has been organized, and the assessment
carried out de novo.
Nothing can be more complete in theory than a Madras
first, rdyatwdri settlement. First, the area of the entire District,
ment"'^^" whether cultivated or uncultivated, and of each field within the
second, District, is accurately measured. The next step is to calculate
estimate of |-j^g estimated produce of each field, having regard to every
third, ' kind of both natural and artificial advantage. Lastly, an
fixing the e(]uitable rate is fixed upon every field. The elaborate nature
of these inquiries and calculations may be inferred from the
fact that as many as 35 different rates are sometimes struck
for a single District, ranging from as low as 6d. to as high as
^'^^''^y £3^^ 4S- per acre. The rates thus ascertained by the revenue
settlement survey are fixed for a term of thirty years.
But during that period the aggregate rent-roll of a District
is liable to be affected by several considerations. New land
may be taken up for cultivation, or old land may be
abandoned; and occasional remissions may be permitted
under no fewer than eighteen specified heads. Such
Madras matters are decided by the Collector at the jai7idba7idi^
y^^'^J /■ ^^ inquest held every year for ascertaining the amount of
revenue to be paid by each rdyat for the current season. This
annual inquiry has sometimes been mistaken for a yearly
re-assessment of the rdyaVs holding. It is not, however, a
change in the rates for the land which he already holds, but
an inquiry into and record of the changes in his holding, or
of any new land he may wish to take up.
Permanent Certain of the Madras Districts on the seaboard adjoining
irTMadras' Bengal were granted on a Permanent Settlement to zatninddrs,
hereditary native chiefs or revenue - farmers. The land
thus permanently settled forms one-eighth of the area of
THE LAND-SYSTEM IN MADRAS, 447
Madras. Throughout the other seven-eighths, the rdyatwdri
settlement has raised the cultivator into a peasant proprietor.
This person was formerly the actual tiller of the soil. But
as population increased under British rule, the value of the
land rose, and the peasant proprietor has in many cases
been able to sub-let his holding to poorer cultivators, and The
to live, in whole or part, off the rent. The Government cultivator
has during the same period decreased rather than increased into a
its average land-tax per acre throughout the Madras Presi- proprietor,
dency. For as the people multiplied, they were forced back
upon inferior soils, and the average Government demand per
acre has been proportionately diminished. But the very
same process of falling back on the inferior soils has, accord-
ing to economical principles, created the possibility of levying
a rent from the superior soils. This rent is enjoyed by the
former cultivators, many of whom are thus growing into petty
landholders, living upon the rent of fields which their fathers
tilled with their own hands.
An idea of the increase of population in Madras, and of the Extension
extension of cultivation, may be obtained from the following \^ ^JiJ^ra^
figures: — In 1853, the general population was estimated 1853-81.
at 22 millions; in 1878, at 31I millions, showing an increase
of 43 per cent., or nearly one-half; and in 1881 (after the
great famine of 1876-78), at a little over 31 millions. The
cultivated land, held by husbandmen direct from the State,
had, between 1853 and 1878, increased from 12 to 20 millions
of acres, or 66 per cent., exactly two-thirds. The area of Exceeds
tillage had, therefore, not only kept pace with the increase ^^^ g^^^^^^^
of population, but had extended at a ratio of 50 per cent, population,
more rapidly. This resulted partly from the fact that the
inferior lands, now reclaimed, could not support so large
an average of people as the superior lands, which were already
in cultivation at the commencement of the period. The
Government recognised this, and has accordingly increased
its rental only from 3 millions to 3i millions sterling ; being
only 26 per cent., or one-fourth, while the area of cultivation
has increased by 66 per cent. The Government, in fact, has
reduced its average rental over the total area of cultivation
from 5s. an acre in 1853 to 3s. lod. an acre in 1878, or over
23 per cent., say one-fourth. According to the ordinary
theory of rent, rates should have risen enormously during
that period; and they have risen enormously wherever the
land is held by private proprietors.
As regards the Madras Presidency, the facts may be recapitu-
44S BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
During the 25 years ending 1878, the area of
Reduction l^ted thus,
land-tax. cultivation had increased J)y 66 per cent, or two-thirds ; the
population by 43 per cent, or nearly one-half; and the
Government rental by only 26 per cent, or one-fourth; while
the average rates of land-tax per cultivated acre had been
actually reduced by about one-fourth, from 5s. an acre in 1853
to 3s. lod. an acre in 1878, and to 3s. 8d. an acre in 1883.
Instead of taking advantage of the increase of population to
enhance the rental, the Madras Government has realized the
fact that the increase in numbers means a harder struggle for
life, and has reduced instead of enhancing, according to the
economic laws of rent, the average rates throughout its domains.
Bombay has also a land system of its own, which requires
to be distinguished from the rdyatwdri of Madras, although
resembling it in principle. In the early days of our
rule, no regular method existed throughout the Bombay
Presidency; and at the present time there are tracts where
something of the old confusion survives. The modern
'survey tenure,' as it is called, dates from 1838, when it was
first introduced into one of the taluks oi Poona District: it
has since been gradually extended over the greater part of the
Presidency. As its name implies, the Settlement is preceded
by survey. Each field is measured, and an assessment placed
upon it according to the quality of the soil and the crop.
This assessment holds good for a term of thirty years. The
ordinary rates vary in different Districts from 4s. 6d. an acre
in the rich black-soil lands of Gujarat, to lod. an acre in the
hills of the Konkan.
The primary characteristic of the Bombay system is its
simplicity. The Government fixes a minimum area as the
revenue assessment unit, below which it refuses to recognise
sub-divisions. This minimum area, technically called a * field,'
varies from 20 acres upwards, in different Bombay Districts.
The 'field' is therefore the unit, and its actual occupier is
the only person recognised by the revenue law. He knows
exactly what he will have to pay, and the State knows what
it will receive, during the currency of the term. The assess-
ment is, in fact, a quit-rent liable to be modified at intervals
of thirty years. The Bombay system is also characterized by
its fairness to the tenant He possesses *a transferable and
jjeritable property, continuable without question at the expira-
tion of a settlement lease, on his consenting to the revised
rate.' To borrow a metaphor from English law, his position
has been raised from that of a villein to that of a copyholder.
Land
system of
Bombay.
The
* survey
tenure ' of
Bombay.
Its rates.
Its sim
pliciiy.
THE LAND-SYSTEM IN BO MB A K 449
In place of the bare permission to occupy the soil, he has Its advan-
received a right of property in it. the^prcT-
Some of the Bombay peasants have proved unequal to vident.
the responsibilities of property which they had not won by ^}^ ^^^^^'
their own exertions. In rich districts, the men who were to the im-
recorded as the actual occupiers are able to let their land provident,
to poorer cultivators, and so live off the toil of others upon
fields which they themselves had formerly to till. But these
]:)roprietary rights give the peasant a power of borrowing which
he did not possess before. In certain parts, especially in
the dry Districts of the high-lying Deccan, the husbandmen
have got hopelessly into debt to the village bankers. The
peasant was often improvident, the seasons were sometimes
unfortunate, the money-lender was always severe.
Amid the tumults of native rule, the usurers lent com- Debts of
paratively small sums. If the peasant failed to pay, they p^^sam'^^'^
could not evict him or sell his holding; because, among other
reasons, there was more land than there were people to till it.
The native Government, moreover, could not afford to lose a
tenant. Accordingly the bankrupt peasant went on, year after
year, paying as much interest as the money-lender could
squeeze out of him ; until the next Maratha invasion or
Muhammadan rebellion swept away the whole generation of
usurers, and so cleared off the account Under our rule there
is no chance of such relief for insolvent debtors; and our
rigid enforcement of contracts, together with the increase of
the population, has armed the creditor with powers formerly
unknown. For the peasant's holding under the British
Government has become a valuable property, and he can be
readily sold out, as there are always plenty of husbandmen
anxious to buy in. The result is two-fold. In the first place,
the village banker lends larger sums, for the security is in-
creased ; and in the second place, he can push the peasantry to
extremities by eviction, a legal process which was economically
mpossible, and politically impermissible, under native rule.
In Bengal, the cry of the peasant is for protection against Bombay
the landlord. In South-western India, it is for protection ^cts^^iSro
against the money-lender. After a careful inquiry, the Govern- and 1881.
ment determined to respond to that cry. It has practically
said to the village bankers : ' A state of things has grown up
under British rule which enables you to push the cultivators, by
means of our Courts, to extremities unknown under the native
dynasties, and repugnant to the customs of India. Hence-
forth, in considering the security on which you lend money,
2 F
450 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
please to know that the peasant cannot be imprisoned or sold
out of his farm to satisfy your claims ; and we shall free him
from the lifelong burden of those claims by a mild bankruptcy
law.' Such is the gist of the Southern India Agriculturists'
Relief Acts of 1879 and i88r.
Its pro- This Act of 1879 provides, in the first place, for small
the h"us— rural debtors of £^ and under. If the Court is satisfied that
bandman ; such a debtor is really unable to pay the whole sum, it may
direct the payment of such portion as it considers that he can
pay, and grant him a discharge for the balance. The Act
gives powers to the Court to go behind the letter of the bond,
to cut down interest, and to fix the total sum which may seem
to the judge to be equitably due.
As a rural To debtors for amounts exceeding ^5, it gives the full pro-
Insolvency tection of an Insolvency Act. No agriculturist shall henceforth
be arrested or imprisoned in execution of a decree for money.
In addition to the old provisions against the sale of the neces-
sary implements of his trade, no agriculturist's immoveable
property shall be attached or sold in execution of any decree,
unless it has been specifically mortgaged for the debt to
which such decree relates. But even when it has been
specifically mortgaged, the Court may order the debtor's
holding to be cultivated, for a period not exceeding seven
years, on behalf of the creditor, after allowing a sufficient
portion of it for the support of the debtor and his family.
At the end of the seven years, the debtor is discharged.
Rural If the debtor himself applies for relief under the Insolvency
Insolvency clauses, the procedure is as follows : — His moveable property,
' less the implements of his trade, are liable to sale for his
debts. His immoveable property, or farm, is divided into
two parts, one of which is set aside as 'required for the
support of the insolvent and members of his family dependent
on him,' while the remainder is to be managed on behalf of
his creditors. But * nothing in this section shall authorize the
Court to take into possession any houses or other buildings
belonging to, and occupied by, an agriculturist' Village
* Concilia- arbitrators or ' conciliators ' are appointed by the same Act, and
tors.* every creditor must first try to settle his claims before them. If
the effort at arbitration fails, the 'conciliator' shall give the
applicant a certificate to that effect. No such suit shall be
entertained by any Civil Court, unless the plaintiff produces
a certificate from the local 'conciliator' that arbitration has
been attempted and failed. The Act of 1879 has been
somewhat modified by the amending Act of 1881.
LAND-SYSTEM: N.-W. P, : PUNJAB: OUDH. 451
The North-Western Provinces and the Punjab have practically Land
one land system. In those parts of India, the village community ^^\v^p°o.
has preserved its integrity more completely than elsewhere, vinces and
Government therefore recognises the village, and not the Punjab.
zaminddr's estate or the rdyafs field, as the unit of land
administration. The village community takes various forms. Corporate
Sometimes it holds all the village lands in joint-ownership ; the ° ^"^^*
share of each co-owner being represented by a fractional part
of the gross rental. Sometimes part of the lands is held in
common and part in severalty ; while sometimes no common
lands remain, although a joint responsibility for the Govern-
ment revenue still subsists.
The Settlement in the North-Western Provinces and the L^nd
Punjab is more comprehensive than in Madras or Bombay. In jif ^orth-
addition to measurement and agricultural appraisement, it in- Western
eludes the duty of drawing up an exhaustive record of all rights ^j[^^^"^^^
and sub-tenures existing in every village. The proprietors are Punjab,
alone responsible for the revenue ; but while the State limits
its claims against them, it defines the rights of all other parties
interested in the soil. The term of settlement in the North-
Western Provinces and in the Punjab is thirty years. The
principle of assessment is that the Government revenue shall
be equal to one-half of the rent, leaving the other half as the
share of the landlord, who is liable for due payment, and has
the trouble of collecting it from the cultivators. The average
rate of assessment is 3s. 5d. per acre in the North-Western
Provinces, and 2s. in the Punjab. This is at the nominal con-
version of 10 rupees to the pound sterling. At the actual
value of the rupee (1885), the rates would be 2s. yd. in the
North-Western Provinces, and is. 6d. in the Punjab, per acre.
Oudh, the Indian Province most recently acquired, has a Land
peculiar land system, arising out of its local history. The ^^Jfj[" ^^
Oudh tdlukddrs resemble English landlords more closely even ^, t'luk-
than do the zaininddrs of Bengal. In origin, they were not ddrs.
revenue-farmers but territorial magnates, whose influence was
derived from feudal authority, military command, or hereditary
sway. Their present status dates from the pacification after
the Mutiny of 1857. The great tdlukddrs wqxq then invited to
become responsible each for a gross sum for the estates which
they were found to hold prior to our annexation of Oudh.
The exceptional position of the tdlukddrs was recognised by
conferring upon them, not only the privilege of succession by
primogeniture, but also the power of bequest by will — a land-
right unknown alike to Hindu and Muhammadan law. Land
45 2 BRITISH ADMINISTRA TION OF INDIA.
Land
system of
Central
not comprised in tdhikddri estates was settled in the ordinary
way with its proprietors or zajninddrs for a term of thirty
years. The whole of Oudh has since been accurately
surveyed.
The Central Provinces contain many varieties of land
tenure, from the feudatory chiefs, who pay a light tribute, to
Provinces, the village communities, who are assessed after survey.
Population is sparse and agriculture backward, so that the
incidence of land revenue is everywhere low. The survey was
conducted generally on the Punjab system, adopting the ' estate '
as the unit of assessment. But in the Central Provinces the
British* Government gave proprietary rights to the former
revenue-farmers, or fiscal managers of villages, under native
rule. It thus created a body of landholders between itself and
the cultivators. Of the rental paid by the husbandmen, the
Government ordinarily takes one-half as land-tax, and allows
one-half to the proprietary body. The current settlement, for
a term of thirty years, will expire in 1897.
The gross land revenue realized from territory under British
administration in India, amounted to ;^2 1,876,067 in 1882-83.
During the ten years ending 1882-83, it averaged ^2 1,283,764,
which is raised to about 22| millions by- the inclusion of
certain local rates and cesses levied on land. This latter
figure shows an average of a fraction less than lod. per culti-
vated acre. The average annual cost of collecting the land
revenue during the ten years ending 1882-83 was ;^2,945,i5i,
or close on three millions sterling. The highest average rate of
assessment estimated per head, is in Bombay, namely, 3s. lojd.
per head of population ; the lowest, is. 2 Jd. per head, in Bengal
and Assam.' The net land revenue realized from British India,
deducting charges of collection, during the ten years ending
March 1883, averaged 18^ millions sterling. In 1882-83, the
land revenue of British India was 21 J millions ^/w^, and i8f
millions net}
Land
revenue
of British
India.
Salt
admini-
stration.
Sources
of salt.
The Salt Duty. — Salt ranks next to land revenue among
the items of actual taxation in India ; opium being excluded,
as paid by the Chinese consumer. Broadly speaking, the salt
consumed in India is derived from four sources — (i) importa-
tion by sea, chiefly from the mines of Cheshire ; (2) solar
evaporation in shallow tanks along the seaboard ; (3) gather-
ings from the Salt Lakes in Rijputdna ; (4) quarrying in the
Salt Hills of the Northern Punjab. Until recently, the tax
* Parliamentary Return.
THE SALT DUTY. 453
levied upon salt varied very much in different parts of the
country ; and a numerous preventive staff was stationed along
a continuous barrier hedge, which almost cut the peninsula
into two fiscal sections.
The reforms of Sir J. Strachey in 1878, by which the Prqualiza-
higher rates were reduced while the lower rates were raised, g^^^^ju^y^
and their subsequent equalization over the whole country,
have effectually abolished this engine of oppression. Com-
munication is now free; and it has been found that prices
are lowered by thus bringing the consumer nearer to his
market, even though the rate of taxation be increased. In the
Punjab and Rajputana, salt administration has become, as
in Lower Bengal, a simple matter of weighing quantities and
levying a uniform tax. In Bombay, also, the manufacture is Systems
now conducted with a minimum of expense at large central ^^ ?^^""'
depots in Gujarat (Guzerat), under a thorough system of excise
supervision. i\long the eastern coast, however, from Orissa
to Cape Comorin, the process of evaporating sea-water is
carried on as a private industry, although under official super-
vision and on Government account.
The process of manufacture in Madras is exceedingly simple, Process
and at the same time free from temptations to smuggling. The facmj""'
season lasts from about January to July, in which latter month
the downpour of rain usually puts a stop to operations. A
site is selected in the neighbourhood of one of the back-
waters or inlets which abound along the coast. Before
commencing, the proprietor of the salt-pan must each year
obtain the consent of the Collector of the District, and must
engage to supply a certain quantity of salt The first step is
to form a series of pans or reservoirs of var}'ing degrees of
shallowness by banking up the earth, with interconnecting
channels. Into the outer and deepest of these pans, the sea-
water is baled by means of a lever and bucket-lift, and there
allowed to stand for some days until it has by evaporation
acquired the consistency of brine. The brine is then passed
through the channels into the remainder of the series of
gradually shallowing pans. At last it becomes crystallized
salt, and is scraped off for conveyance to the wholesale depot.
It is estimated that, in a favourable season, this process may be
repeated de novo from twelve to fifteen times, according as the
weather permits. But a single shower of rain will spoil the
whole operation at any stage.
Like the poppy cultivation in Bengal, the manufacture of
salt in Madras is a monopoly, which can be defended ^y the
454 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Working
of the
monopoly
in Madras.
Cost of
salt in
Madras.
Duty cf
salt.
Equaliza-
tion of
duty.
circumstances of the case. No one is compelled to manufac-
ture, and rights of property in a salt-pan are strictly respected ;
while the State endeavours, by means of a careful staff of
supervisors, to obtain the maximum of profit with a minimum
of interference. The system as at present carried on has been
gradually developed from the experience of nearly a century.
The manufacturers belong to the same class as the ordinary
cultivators ; and, as a rule, their condition is somewhat more
prosperous, for they possess a hereditary privilege carrying with
it commercial profits. They do not work upon a system of
advances, as is the case with so many other Indian industries ;
but they are paid at a certain rate when they bring their salt to
the Government depot. I'his rate of payment, known as kudiva-
ram, is at present fixed at an average of i dnnd ^'Z pies (or
about 2jd.) per maund oi 82f lbs.; the other expenses of the
Salt Department for supervision, etc., raise the total cost to
3 dnnds 5*6 pies (or about 5jd.) per 77taund. The price
charged to the consumer by the Madras Government, up to
March 1882, was Rs. 2. 8. (or about 5s.) per viaimd^ the
balance being net profit.
The equal rate of salt duty which now prevails throughout
all continental India is Rs. 2 per maund, or 5s. 5d. ia cwt. In
British Burma, only 3 dnnds per ijiaund, or 6d. a cwt., are
charged for local consumption, and a transit duty of i per cent.
ad valorem for salt sent across the frontier. In the salt
tracts on the west of the Indus, excluding the Kalabagh
mines, a special rate of 8 dnnds per local maund of 103 lbs. is
charged. The total salt revenue of British India in 1882-83
was returned at ;£^6,i77,78i, the average for ten years being
;£6,62 7,i94.
Excise
admini-
stration.
Central
distillery
system.
Excise Duties in India are not a mere tax levied through
the private manufacturer and retailer, but (like salt) a species
of Government monopoly. The only excisable articles are
intoxicants and drugs ; and the object of the State is to check
consumption, not less than to raise revenue. The details vary
in the different Provinces, but the general plan of administra-
tion is the same. The right to manufacture, and the right to
retail, are both monopolies of Government, let out to private
individuals upon strict conditions. Distillation of country spirits
is permitted under two systems — either to the highest bidder
under official supervision ; or only upon certain spots set apart
for the purpose. The latter is known as the sadr or central
distillery system. The right of sale is also farmed out to the
EXCISE ON LIQUORS AND DRUGS 455
highest bidder, subject to regulations fixing the quantity of Rice-l>eer.
liquor that may be sold at one time. The brewing of beer
fiom rice and other grains, a process universal among the hill
tribes and other aboriginal races, is practically untaxed and
unrestrained. The numerous European breweries at the hill
statons pay a tax at the rate of 6d. a gallon. A large business
in brewing is now done at Simla, Marri (Murree), Kasauli,
Masairi, Nairn' Tal, Solan, and in the Nilgiris. An attempt
is beng made to establish breweries on the plains.
Extise duties are also levied upon the sale of a number of
intoxicating or stimulant drugs, of which the most important
are Ofium and gdnjd or bhang. Opium is issued for local Opium,
consunption in India from the Government manufactories at
Patna md Benares, and sold through private retailers at a
monopdy price. This drug is chiefly consumed in Assam,
Burma, md the Punjab. Gdnjd is an intoxicating preparation GdnjA.
made frcm the flowers and leaves of Indian hemp {Cannabis
sativa, vir. indica). The cultivation of hemp for this purpose
is chiefl) confined to a limited area in Rajshahi District,
Bengal, aid to the inner valleys of the Himalayas, whence the
drug is inported under the name of charas. Its use is a fre- Charas.
quent caise, not only of crime, but also of insanity. Govern-
ment attenpts to check consumption — first, by fixing the retail
duty at tie highest rate that will not encourage smuggling;
and seconi, by continually raising that rate as experience
allows. Srictly speaking, gdnjd consists of the flowering
and fruiting heads of the female plant ; bhdng or siddhi, of the
dried leave and small stalks, with a few fruits ; while charas
is the resii itself, collected in various ways as it naturally
exudes.
No duty is at present levied upon tobacco in any part Tobacco,
of British [ndia. The plant is universally grown by the
cultivators or their own smoking, and, like everything else,
was subjectto taxation under native rule ; but the impossibility
of accurate excise supervision has caused the British Govern-
ment to atandon this impost. The total excise revenue of
British Inda in 1882-83 was returned at ;£^3,6o9,56i, the
average forten years being ;^2, 7 74,073.
The Mtnicipalities at present existing in India are a Municipal
creation o the Legislature : indeed, a recent branch of our ''^flni'"i-
, ... L., ... , , stration.
system of idmmistration. Their origm is to be traced, not to
the native panchdyat^ but to the necessity for relieving the
District c^cer from some of the details of his work. The
456 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
The old paiichdyat or elective Council of Five is one of the institutions
'Council^ most deeply rooted in the Hindu mind. By it the village
community was ruled, the head-man being only its executi\e
official, not the legislator or judge. By it caste disputes were
settled ; by it traders and merchants were organized into
powerful guilds, to the rules of which even European outsifiers
have had to submit. By a development of Xho. panchdyat^ the
Sikh army of the khdlsd was despotically governed, whei the
centralized system of Ranjit Singh fell to pieces at his deith.
The village organization was impaired or broken up ander
Muni-_ Mughal rule. Municipal institutions have gradually devtloped
succeed k. ^^ place of the old Hindu mechanism of rural pvern-
ment, which had thus worn out or disappeared. Police,
roads, and sanitation are the three main objects for vhich a
modern Indian municipality is constituted. In rura tracts,
these departments are managed (in different Provirces) by
the Collector, or by one of his subordinate staff, or bja Local
Fund Board. Within municipal limits, they are delegited to a
Committee, who, until lately, derived their practical authority
from the Collector's sanction, implied or expressed. Except
in the larger towns, the municipalities can scarcely be said
as yet to exhibit the attributes of popular representaion or of
vigorous corporate life. But the Local Governnent Acts,
passed during Lord Ripon's Viceroyalty {ante^ p. i.28), have
given a new impulse to the rural and municipal bards. As
education advances, they will doubtless be further developed.
Municipal In 1876-77, excluding the three Presidency capitals, there
i87?-8?' ^^'^^^ altogether 894 muncipalities in British India, with
12,381,059 inhabitants, or just 7 per cent, of the ;otal popu-
lation. Out of an aggregate number of 7519 nembers of
municipal committees, concerning whom informatpn is avail-
able, 1794 were Europeans and 5725 natives j t$3 were ex-
officio^ 4512 were nominated by Government, and 1144 elected,
the last class being almost confined to the North-Vestern and
Central Provinces. The financial statistics of tiese muni-
cipalities are given in a later section of this chapter
In 1882-83, the municipalities in British Iniia, exclu-
sive of the three Presidency cities, numbered 783, ;ivith
12,923,494 inhabitants. The passing of the local Self-
Government Acts (1882-84) has extended the elective principle,
in a larger or smaller measure, all over India. Phe three
great municipalities in the Presidency towns of j Calcutta,
Madras, and Bombay administered a population in B77 of i J
million. Their governing bodies aggregated 176 minbers, of
INDIAN FINANCE, 457
whom 122 were natives. Eighty of the members were elected
by the ratepayers. In 1882-83, the municipalities of Calcutta,
Bombay, and Madras governed a population of i§ million ;
the members of the three municipal bodies numbered 171, of
whom 93 were elected.^
Finance. — It is difficult to present a view of Indian Imperial
finance, which shall be at once concise and intelligible. The
subject is full of controversies, and obscured by different
' Note on Indian Staiistics.
It may here be convenient to explain the considerations which have
led to the selection of the years for which statistics are given in this and
the following chapters. The Indian returns are rendered with great
promptitude by the Government of India, in India itself. But these
returns deal with a dozen Provinces and Administrations, covering an area
equal to Europe less Russia. A considerable interval necessarily elapses
between the local issue of the returns by the Indian Government and their
final compilation and revision for Parliamentary purposes. During this
revision, the totals are frequently altered owing to inter-provincial adjust-
ments and other operations of account. The final presentment to
Parliament is, however, the only authoritative English source of Indian
statistics. It has therefore been adopted, so far as possible, in the pre-
sent work. The latest return, in its final shape, as presented to both
Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, which has reached the
author before the sheets went to press in the summer of 1885, is the Blue
Book entitled the Statistical Abstract relating to British India from
' ^73-74 ^0 1882-83. This admirable compilation of Mr. Charles Prinsep,
Statistical Reporter in the India Office, has therefore been accepted as
fixing the period to which information should be brought down in the
present work — namely, the 31st March 1883.
But the present author has also been guided in his selection of dates by
other considerations — (i) The only two Census enumerations of the Indian
population as a whole were taken respectively in 1872 and in 1881.
These years are, therefore, the two great landmarks in Indian statistics.
(2) The first edition of the present work took the year 1877, or in some
cases 1878, as the latest period for which the final presentment of Indian
statistics was available when it was written. The author has felt that it
may be convenient to enable the reader to compare the progress during the
quinquennial interval (1878 to 1883). He has therefore, in most cases,
given the two sets of figures for 1877-78 and 1882-83. (3) In some
departments it has been found practicable to bring down the final figures
to 1884, and even to March 1885. This has only been done when it
seemed to the author that the later statistics were required to exhibit really
salient facts. In conclusion, the author begs it ^vill be believed that in
each case careful consideration has been devoted to the selection of the
years for which the statistics are given. The individual considerations in
different departments are too numerous to specify. It should always be
remembered that the final presentment to Parliament of Indian statistics
and accounts, available to the author when the sheets went to the press,
refers to the decade ending 1882-83.
458 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
presentments of the same sets of accounts. In the first place,
the aggregate revenue and expenditure are officially returned
according to a system which, although necessary for Indian
purposes, is apt to mislead the English critic. The Indian
Government is not a mere tax-collecting agency, charged
with the single duty of protecting person and property. Its
Its ob- system of administration is based upon the view that the
British power is a paternal despotism, which owns, in a
certain sense, the entire soil of the country, and whose duty
it is to perform the various functions of a wealthy and an
The^'biisi- enlightened proprietor. It collects its own rents. It provides,
the Indian ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ capital, facilities for irrigation, means of com-
Govern- munication, public buildings, schools, and hospitals. It also
'"^"^" takes on itself the businesses of a railway owner, and of a
manufacturer on a grand scale, in the case of opium and salt.
These departments swell the totals on both sides of the
balance-sheet with large items, neither of the nature of taxation
nor of administrative expenditure.
Changes In the second place, the methods of keeping the Indian
of account P^^Hc accounts have been subjected to frequent changes during
recent years, to such an extent as to. vitiate all comparative
statements for long periods of time. The commercial tradi-
tions, inherited from the days of the Company, regulated the
Indian accounts until about the year i860. From that date
efforts have been made to bring the methods of Indian account-
ing into conformity with the English system of public accounts.
It results that the same entries represent different facts at
different periods. Thus, under the Company, the items usually
represented the net sums ; they now represent the gross sums.
At one period, the gross receipts are shown, with a per contra
for the charges of collection or for refunds. At another time,
important classes of charges have been transferred from the
Imperial to the Provincial Budgets, to be brought back again
after an interval of a few years to the Imperial Budget, and again
transferred to Local Finance. Capital expenditure on public
works, at one period charged to current revenue, is at another
period excluded, as being * extraordinary ' or ' reproductive.'
The result- The entire net income of the railways, whether the property of
scuHties ^^^ State or of guaranteed companies, has now been entered as
Imperial revenue, and the interest to shareholders as Imperial
expenditure. The Indian accounts represent, therefore, not
only the Indian taxation and the cost of administration. They
represent the trade expenses and profits of the Government as
a great railway owner, canal maker, opium manufacturer, salt
ACTUAL TAXATION OF INDIA. 459
monopolist, and pioneer of new industries. They also repre-
sent these profits and expenses under diverse systems of
account at different periods.
The following pages will first endeavour to exhibit the actual
taxation of British India, as compared with that of the Mughal
Empire. They will then show the gross revenue and expendi-
ture of British India, whether of the nature of taxation or
otherwise, and analyze its principal items.
The Actual Taxation paid by the people of British India Gross
during the ten years ending 1879, averaged 35 J millions. ^^'^g^\?"jj
The subjoined tables show the gross items, exclusive of India,
the opium duty which is paid by the Chinese consumer,
tributes from foreign or feudatory States, forest receipts, and
the Mint. The actual taxation arranges itself under seven
branches, as given in Statement I. on the next page, from 1869
to 1879.
This table was compiled from a special Parliamentary
Return, and shows the net taxes, after deducting drawbacks
and items not of the nature of actual taxation. Statement II.
shows the revenue from the same items during the four follow-
ing years, 1880-83, but without deductions or drawbacks. The
average of these four years is 4o| millions, without deductions
or drawbacks, against 35J millions, after deductions and
drawbacks, during the ten years ending 1879.
The net taxation of British India, that is to say, the sums Net and
realized, less the cost of collection, averaged ^2 millions ^ S^^^^.
... T r, -r^ r • taxation
durmg the ten years endmg 1879. Returns of net taxation, of British
however, depend much upon the method on which they are India.
prepared. But the final accounts as presented to Parliament
enable us to arrive accurately at the gross taxation paid by the
Indian people, which, as above shown, was 35 J millions during
the ten years ending 1879, or a rate of 3s. 8d. per head.
This rate contrasts alike with that now paid by the taxpayer English
in England, and with that formerly paid in India under the ^"^.
^, , , ^ . _, .„. ^ . 1 • ^ -r. • • Indian
Mughal Empire. The 34 millions of people m Great Britain taxation,
and Ireland pay 68 millions of Imperial taxation,^ besides
heavy local and municipal burdens. The revenues of the
[^Sentence continued on page 462.
1 Compiled from the Parliamentary Return, 8th July 1880, pp. 4, 5.
* Customs, 20 millions ; Inland revenue, 48 millions : total taxation, 68
millions. The gross revenue of the United Kingdom in 1880 was
;{;"8i, 265,055, besides ;[^29,247,595 of local taxation; total, ;({^ 110,512,650.
46o BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
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46 2 BRITISH A DMINISTRA TION OF INDIA.
Indian
taxation
under the
Mughals,
much
heavier
than now.
Mughal
poll-tax.
Summary.
Taxation
of Japan.
Sentence continued from page 459.]
Mughal Empire, derived from a much smaller population
than that of British India, varied, as we have seen,^ from
42 millions net under Akbar in 1593 to 80 millions under
Aurangzeb in 1695. The trustworthiness of these returns has
been discussed in a previous chapter ; and they must be taken
subject to the qualifications therein indicated.
If we examine the items in the Mughal accounts, we
find the explanation of their enormous totals. The land-tax
then, as now, formed about one-half of the whole revenue.
The net land revenue demand of the Mughal Empire averaged
25 millions sterling from 1593 to 1761 ; or 32 millions during
the last century of that Empire, from 1655 to 1761. The
annual net land revenue raised from the much larger area of
British India, during the ten years ending 1879, has been 18
millions sterling (gross, 21 millions). But besides the land
revenue there were under our predecessors not less than forty
imposts of a personal character. These included taxes upon
religious assemblies, upon trees, upon marriage, upon the
peasant's hearth, and upon his cattle. How severe some of
them were, may be judged from the poll-tax. For the
purposes of this tax, the non-Muhammadan population was
divided into three classes, paying respectively ^^4, ^2, and
;£i annually to the Exchequer for each adult male. The
lowest of these rates, if now levied from each non-Musalman
male adult, would alone yield an amount exceeding our whole
actual taxation. Yet, under the Mughals, the poll-tax was
only one of forty burdens.
We may briefly sum up the results. Under the Mughal
Empire, 1593 to 1761, the existing returns of the Imperial
demand averaged about 60 millions sterling a year. During
the ten years ending 1879, the Imperial taxation of British
India, with its far larger population, averaged 35 millions,
and for the four years ending 1882-83, 4°! niillions, without
allowing for refunds and drawbacks. Under the Mughal
Empire, the land-tax between 1655 and 1761 averaged 32
millions. Under the British Empire, the net land-tax has,
during the ten years ending 1879, averaged 18 millions, and
i8j millions during the four years ending 1882-83.
Not only is the taxation of British India much less than
that raised by the Mughal Emperors, but it compares
favourably with the taxation of other Asiatic countries in our
own days. The only other Empire in Asia which pretends to
' AfUe, chap. xi. p. 299, etc. ; table of Mughal Revenues (1593 to 1761).
ENGLISH AND MUGHAL LAND-TAX. 463
a civilised government is Japan. The author has no special
acquaintance with the Japanese revenues ; but German statists
show that over 11 milUons sterling are there raised from a
population of 34 million people, or deducting certain items, a
taxation of about 6s. a head. In India, where we try to
govern on a higher standard of efficiency, the rate of actual
gross taxation averaged 3s. 8d. a head for the ten years ending
1879, ^^^ 4S- id. per head for the four years ending 1882-83.
If, instead of dealing with the Imperial revenues as a whole, Taxation
we concentrate our survey on any one Province, we find these Sf ^ .
^ •' ' . Province
facts brought out m a still stronger light. To take a single under the
instance. After a patient scrutiny of the records, it was found ^lughals,
that, allowing for the change in the value of money, the ancient
revenue of Orissa represented eight times the quantity of the
staple food which our own revenue now represents. ^ The native
revenue of Orissa supported a magnificent court with a crowded
seraglio, swarms of priests, a large army, and a costly public
worship. Under our rule, Orissa does little more than defray and under
the local cost of protecting person and property, and of its g^kish
irrigation works. In Orissa, the Raja's share of the crops
amounted, with dues, to 60 per cent, and the mildest Native
Governments demanded 33 per cent. The Famine Commis-
sioners estimate the land-tax throughout British India ^ ' at The land-
tax
from 3 per cent, to 7 per cent, of the gross out-turn.' Ample
deductions are allowed for the cost of cultivation, the risks of
the season, the maintenance of the husbandman and his
family. Of the balance, Government nominally takes one-
third or a half ; but how small a proportion this bears to the
crop may be seen from the returns collected by the Famine
Commissioners.
Their figures deal with 176 out of the 199 millions of Rates per
people in British India. These 176 millions cultivate 188 ^'^^^^
millions of acres, grow 331 millions sterling worth of
produce, and now pay 18J millions of land revenue. While,
therefore, they raise over ;£"i, 15s. worth of produce per acre,
they pay to Government under 2s. of land-tax per acre.
Instead of thus paying 5^ per cent, as they do now, they would
under the Mughal rule have been called upon to pay from -iiZ
to 50 per cent, of the crop. The two systems, indeed, proceed
^ The evidence on which these statements are based, was published in
Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. pp. 323-329 (Smith, Elder, & Co., 1872).
^ Report of the Indian Famine Cotnmission, part ii. p. 90, as presented
to Parliament, 1880.
464 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION CF INDIA.
Increase of
popula-
tion.
Taxation
in Native
States.
upon entirely different principles. The Native Governments,
write the Famine Commissioners, often taxed the land ' to the
extent of taking from the occupier the whole of the'surplus after
defraying the expenses of cultivation.' ^ The British Govern-
ment objects to thus 'sweeping off the whole margin of profit.'
What becomes of the surplus which our Government declines
to take ? It goes to feed an enormously increased population.
The tax-gatherer now leaves so large a margin to the husband-
man, that the Province of Bengal, for example, feeds three
times as many mouths as it did in 1780, and has a vast surplus
of produce, over and above its own wants, for exportation.
*In the majority of Native Governments,' writes the highest
living authority on the question,^ ' the revenue officer takes
all he can get ; and would take treble the revenue we should
assess, if he were strong enough to exact it. In ill-managed
States, the cultivators are relentlessly squeezed : the differ-
ence between the native system and ours being, mainly, that
the cultivator in a Native State is seldom or never sold up,
and that he is usually treated much as a good bullock is
treated, i.e. he is left with enough to feed and clothe him and
his family, so that they may continue to work.' John Stuart
Mill studied the condition of the Indian people more deeply
than any other political economist, and he took an indulgent
view of native institutions. His verdict upon the Mughal
Government is that, ' except during the occasional accident of
a humane and vigorous local administrator, the exactions had
no practical limit but the inability of the peasant to pay more.'
Incidence ^p^g Famine Commission, after careful inquiries, state ^ that
in IJritish throughout British India the landed classes pay revenue at the
India. rate of 5s. 6d. per head, including the land-tax for their farms,
or IS. gd. without it. The trading classes pay 3s. 3d. per head ;
the artisans, 2s. — equal to four days' wages in the year ; and
the agricultural labourers, is. 8d. The whole taxation, includ-
ing the Government rent for the land, averaged, as we have
seen, 3s. 8d. per head during the ten years ending 1879.
^ Report of the Indian Famine Commission^ part ii. p. 90, as presented
to Parliament, 1880.
2 Report by Mr. (now Sir) Alfred Lyall, C.B., formerly Governor-
General's Agent in Rajputana, afterwards Foreign Secretary to the (iovern-
ment of India, now Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces
and Oudh ; quoted in the Despatch of the Governor-General in Council to
the Secretary of State, 8th June 1880. 'Condition of India,' Bhie Book,
PI'- 36, 37.
' Kepo)-t of the Famine Commission, part ii. p. 93 (folio, iSSo).
INCIDENCE OF TAXATION. 465
But the Famine Commissioners declare that ^any native of
India who does not trade or own land, and who chooses to
drink no spirituous liquor, and to use no English cloth or iron,
need pay in taxation only about yd. a year on account of the
salt he consumes. On a family of three persons, the charge
amounts to is. 9d., or about four days' wages of a labouring
man and his wife.'^
Gross Revenues. — But it should always be borne in mind Gross
that the actual taxation of the Indian people is one thing, and shee^oT
the gross revenues of India are another. As explained in a British
previous paragraph of this chapter, the revenues include many ^"^^^"
items not of the nature of taxation. The following table, com-
piled from the Parlia7iie?itary Abstract for 1882-83 (the latest
received by the author before sending these sheets to the
press), exhibits the gross imperial revenue and expenditure of
India for that year, according to the system of accounts
adopted at the time. For tlie reasons already given, it is
practically impossible to analyse these gross totals in such a
way as to show the actual amount raised by taxation, and the
actual amount returned in protection to person and property.
The actual taxation has therefore been dealt with in the two
separate statements already given. It is equally impossible to
compare the gross totals with those for previous years, owing
to changes that have been made from time to time in the
system of entering the accounts. The only profitable plan is
to take some of the items, and explain their real meaning.
The list of items shows how large a portion of the gross Analysis
revenue is not of the nature of taxation proper. Public works, °^ I"^^^^'^
, . , . , . revenues
includmg railways and irrigation and navigation canals, in 1883.
alone yielded in 1882-83 upwards of 12 millions sterling,
or over 17 per cent, of the total. Adding the items of post-
office and telegraphs, which also represent payment for work
done or services supplied, the proportion would rise to over
19I per cent. Then the sum of 9 J millions gross, or nearly
7 J millions net, derived from opium, being an additional 13^
l)er cent, of the gross revenue, is not a charge upon the native Not of the
taxpayer, but a contribution to the Indian exchequer by the "^^""^5 °^
Chinese consumer of the drug. Add to these the tributes
from Feudatory States, produce of the forests, etc., and upwards
\Sente7ice continued on page 467.
' Report of the Famine Commission, part ii. p. 93 (folio, 1880).
2 G
466 BRITISH ADMINISTRA TION OF INDIA.
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INDIAN RE VENUES ANAL YZED, 467
Sentence continued frofn page 465.]
of one-third of the total gross revenue is accounted for. The Revenue
whole revenue of British India of the nature of actual taxation, taxation
including Land Revenue, Excise, Assessed Taxes, Provincial
Rates, Customs, Salt, and Stamps, amounted in 1878 to 34!
millions, or 3s. 7fd. per head. In 1882-83, the gross actual
taxation of British India was upwards of 39^ millions, or
within a fraction of 4s. per head, the average for the four years
ending 1882-83 being a fraction over 4s. id, per head, without
allowing for deductions or drawbacks.
The land revenue, amounting to over 2 if millions in Nature of
1882-83, forms by far the largest item. Whether it should be ^^^ ^^^^'
properly regarded as a tax, or only as rent, is a problem for
political economists to settle ; but in any case, it is paid without
question, as an immemorial right of the State. It yielded in
1882-83, 31 per cent, or nearly one-third, of the gross revenue.
Of the other items of taxation, excise and stamps are
practically creations of British rule. The excise is a tax upon Excise,
intoxicating liquors and deleterious drugs, levied both on the
manufacture and on the sale, according to different systems in
different Provinces. Like the corresponding duty in England,
it is voluntarily incurred, and presses hardest upon the lowest
classes. But unlike the English excise, it can hardly be called
an elastic source of revenue, for the rate is intentionally kept so
high as to discourage consumption. No duty whatever is levied
upon tobacco. Stamps, as in England, form a complex Stamps,
item. The greater part is derived from fees on litigation, and
only a comparatively trifling amount from stamps proper on
deeds of transfer, etc.
Customs are divided into import and export duties, both Customs.
of which have been so greatly lightened in recent years,
that their permanent maintenance may be considered doubt-
ful. Duties on exports have been altogether abolished,
with the single exception of that on rice, which brings
in from ;£5oo,ooo to over ;^8oo,ooo per annum. The
average for the ten years ending 1882-83 was ;^6 15^349,
but there has been a steady increase since 1878. This export
duty is levied at the rate of 3 dnnds a maundy or about 6d. per
cwt, being equivalent to an ad valorem rate of about 10 per
cent. The i\ million sterling received from customs are
practically made up of nearly half a million sterling levied on
imported liquors, and about three-quarters of a million sterling
levied on exported rice. The receipts from all other import
Tax.
468 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
customs in 1882-83 were under ;^ 13,000, and those from all
other exports were just over ;^3ooo; total, under ;£" 16,000,
from all imports and exports, excepting imported liquors and
exported rice.
Cotton The import duty on cotton goods was finally abolished
Duties. -j^ March 1882, having been reduced in 1878, and again in
1879. Imported cotton manufactures had previously formed
the most important item of the customs revenue. From
1874 to 1882 the duty on cotton goods varied from nearly a
million in 1878 to over half a million in 1881-82, the average
being about three - quarters of a million sterling during the
nine years preceding the total abolition of the duty.
The Salt The salt tax, which yields about 6J millions a year, is a
problem of greater difficulty. It is an impost upon an article of
prime necessity, and it falls with greatest severity upon the
lowest classes. On the other hand, it may be urged that it is
familiar to the people, is levied in a manner which arouses
no discontent ; and is the only means available of spreading
taxation proper over the community. The reforms of 1878
and 1882, referred to on a previous page, have equalized the
incidence of the salt tax over the entire country, with the
incidental resoalt of abolishing arbitrary and vexatious customs
lines. As stated on a previous page, the rate is now a uniform
one of Rs. 2 per maundy or 5s. 5d. per cwt., throughout British
India, except in Burma where the rate is 3 dn?ids per maund,
and in the trans-Indus tracts of the Punjab, where a special
rate is levied df 8 dnnds per local maund of 103 lbs.
Indian Gross EXPENDITURE. — Putting aside the cost of collection
Expendi- r^^^ ^^y^\\ administration, which explain themselves, the most
1882. important charges are the Army, Interest on Debt, Famine
Relief, Loss by Exchange, and Public Works, to which may be
added the complex item of Payments in England. Military
Army ex- expenditure has averaged about 18 millions during the ten
penditure. years ending 1882-83, and in 1882-83 ^^'^s 17J millions. Of
the 17^ millions, about 13^ represent payments in India, and
4 millions payments in England. In 1877-78, the total of the
Public Indian Public Debt (exclusive of capital invested on railways
^ebt. and other productive public works) was returned at over 134^
millions sterling, being just 13s. 6jd. per head of the population.
In 1882-83 it was returned at over 159 J millions, or i6s. per
head of the population. Part of this was of the nature of
obligations or deposits not bearing interest. The charge for
INDIAN EXPENDITURE ANALYZED. 469
interest was 5 millions in 1877-7S; and 4J millions sterling
in 1882-83. This low charge for interest is due, in part, to
the proportion of debt which does not bear interest. The
above 'Public Debt' is independent of 126 J millions sterling
invested in railways and productive works in 1877-78: which
had increased to over 134 millions thus invested in 1882-83.
In 184.0, the public debt amounted to only 30 millions, itsgrowth.
and gradually rose to 52 millions in 1857. Then came the
Mutiny, which added upwards of 40 millions of debt in four years.
The rate of increase was again gradual, but slow, till about
1874, when famine relief conspired with public works to cause
a rapid augmentation, which has continued to the present time.
The most significant feature in this augmentation is the large
proportion of debt contracted in England.
No charge has recently pressed harder upon the Indian ex- Famine
chequer than that of Famine Relief. Apart from loss by reduced Relief,
revenue, the two famines of 1874 and 1877-78 have caused a
direct expenditure on charitable and relief works amounting
in the aggregate to just over 14 millions. From 1878-79 to
1882-83 the expenditure on 'Famine Relief is returned at 3^
millions (of which the greater portion was expended on Public
Works, in the nature of insurance against famine, and not on
actual relief); making a total of nearly 17I millions during the
ten years 1874 to 1883 inclusive. This amounts to an annual
charge of if million sterling for 'Famine Relief.'
Loss by exchange is an item which has lately figured largely Loss by
in the accounts, and is due to the circumstance that large exchange,
payments in gold require to be made in England by means of
the depreciated rupee. In 1869-70, the loss by exchange was
more than balanced by an entry of gain by exchange on the
other side of the ledger. In 1876-77, the loss amounted to a
little over two millions, and in 1882-83 to over three millions
sterling.
The expenditure on Public Works is provided from three Public
sources — (i) the capital of private companies, with a Govern- Works ex-
/ ! , r 1 • c ■^ J penditure.
ment guarantee; (2) loans for the construction of railways and
canals ; (3) current revenue applied towards such works as are
not directly remunerative. In 1877-78, the capital raised for
guaranteed railways amounted to 97^ millions sterling, and
the capital invested on State railways and other productive
public works to 29 millions sterling: total, 126^ millions
sterling on railways and productive works. In 1882-83, the
capital of the guaranteed railways was reduced to 69I millions Railways.
sterling ; the capital invested on State railways and other pro-
470 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
ductive public works amounted to 64 J millions : total on
railways and productive public works, 134I- millions sterling in
1882-83. During the interval, 35 millions sterling of capital
had been transferred from the guaranteed to the State railway
account, owing to the purchase of the East India line by the
Government.
Local Independent of imperial finance, and likewise independent
finance. q^ certain sums annually transferred from the Imperial
exchequer to be expended by the provincial governments,
there is another Indian budget for local revenue and expendi-
ture. This consists of an income derived mainly from cesses
upon land, and expended to a great extent upon minor public
works. In 1877-78, local revenue and expenditure were
each returned at about 3 J millions, and in 1882-83 at about
4 rniUions.
Municipal Yet a third budget is that belonging to the municipalities,
nance. r^y^^ three Presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay
had in 1876-77 a total municipal income of ;^668,4oo, of
which ;£^5 19,322 was derived from taxation, being at the rate
of 7s. per head of population. In addition, there were 894
minor municipalities, with a total population of 12,381,059.
Their aggregate income was ;^i, 246,974, of which ;£979,o88
was derived from taxation, being at the rate of is. 7d. per
head. In 1882-83, the total municipal revenue of the three
capital towns was ;£^ 1,07 3, 7 15, and of the 783 minor munici-
palities, ;£'i,623,522 ; grand total, ;£"2,697,237. It should be
remembered that these figures refer to the period before the
development of municipal institutions under Lord Ripon's legis-
lation bore fruit. In the Presidency towns, rates upon houses,
etc., are the chief source of income ; but in the District munici-
palities, excepting in Bengal and Madras, octroi duties are
more relied upon. The chief items of municipal expenditure
are conservancy, roads, and police.
Constiiu- The Indian Army. — The constitution of the Indian army
tion of the jg leased upon the historical division of British India into the
army. *
three Presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. There
are still three "Indian armies, each composed of both European
and Native troops, and each with its own Commander-in-Chief
and separate staff, although the Commander-in-Chief in Bengal
exercises supreme authority over the other two. There may
also be said to be a fourth army, the Punjab Frontier Force,
which, until 1885, was under the orders of the Lieutenant-
Governor of the Province.
THE INDIAN ARMY. 471
The Bengal army garrisons Bengal Proper and Assam, the The three
North- Western Provinces and Oudh, a portion of Central Presidency
' ^ . armies.
India and Rajputana, and the Punjab. In 1877-78 its total
strength was 104,216 officers and men, of whom 63,933 ^^'^^e
native troops. In 1882-S3, the Bengal army numbered Bengal.
105,270 officers and men, of whom 66,081 were native
troops. In the Bengal native army, the distinguishing feature
is the presence of 6 batteries of artiller)% and an exceptionally
large proportion of cavalry, both of which arms are massed
in the Punjab.
The Madras army extends beyond the limits of that The
Presidency into Mysore, the Nizam's Dominions, the Central Madras
Provinces, also to Burma across the Bay of Bengal,
and to the Andaman convict settlements. In 1877-78,
its total strength was 47,026 officers and men, of whom
34,293 were native troops. In 1882-83, the Madras
army numbered 46,309 of all ranks, of whom 34,283
were natives. In the Madras native army, the distinguish-
ing features are the large proportion of sappers and miners,
the small proportion of cavalry, and the entire absence of
artillery.
The Bombay army occupies Bombay Proper and Sind, The
the Native States of Central India, and the outlying station Bombay
of Aden in the Red Sea. In 1877-78, its total strength was
3S»355 officers and men, of whom 26,645 ^^'^^^ native troops.
In 1882-83, the Bombay army numbered 38,897 officers and
men, of whom 27,041 were natives.
The total established strength of the European and Native Total
army in British India in 1877-78 (exclusive of native artificers strength ;
and followers) consisted of 189,597 officers and men, of
whom 64,276 were Europeans, and 124,871 were native
troops. The four chief arms of the service were thus com-
posed: — (i) Artillery, 12,239 European and 901 native;
(2) cavalry, 4347 European and 18,346 native; (3) engineers,
357 European (all officers) and 3239 native; (4) infantry,
45,962 European and 102,183 native. In 1882-83, the 1883.
total European and Native army in British India consisted of
190,476 officers and men, of whom 63,071 were Europeans,
and 127,405 were native troops. The artillery consisted
of 11,329 Europeans and 1861 natives; the cavalry of
431 1 Europeans and 18,375 natives, besides a bodyguard
of 202 troopers ; engineers, 284 Europeans (all officers) and
3251 natives; and infantry, 45,766 Europeans and 103,716
natives.
472 BRITISH ADMINISTRA TION OF INDIA.
Police. Police. — Excluding the village watch, still maintained as a
subsidiary police in many parts of the country, the regular
police of all kinds in British India in 1882 consisted of a
total strength of 145,421 officers and men, being an average
of I policeman to about 6 square miles of area, or to about
1369 of the population. The total cost of maintenance was
;£2.378,i43, of which ;^2,2oi,437 was payable from imperial
or provincial revenues. The former figure gives an average
cost of about ;^2, 15s. per square mile of area, and threepence
per head of population. The average pay of each constable
was Rs. 7 a month, or ;^8, 8s. a year.
Jails. In 1882-83, the total number of places of confinement in
British India, including central and District jails and lock-ups,
/ was 452; the total number of prisoners admitted during the
year, or remaining over from the previous year, was 391,319;
the daily average was 97,218. The places of transportation for
all British India are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where
there are two penal establishments, containing, in 1882, a daily
average of 11,454 convicts.
Fduca- "^rS- Public Instruction in India is directly organized by the
tion. .' State, and is assisted by grants-in-aid, under carelul inspection.
But at no period of its history has India been without some
system of popular education, independent of State organization
or aid. The origin of the Deva-Nagari alphabet is lost in
In ancient antiquity, though it is generally admitted not to be of indigenous
" '^' invention. Inscriptions on stone and copper, the palm-leaf
records of the temples, and in later days the widespread
manufacture of paper, indicate not only the general know-
ledge, but also the common use, of the art of -writing.
From the earliest times the Brahman caste preserved, first
by oral tradition, then in manuscript, a literature unrivalled in
its antiquity and for the intellectual subtlety of its contents.
The Muhammadan invaders introduced the profession of the
historian, and attained a high degree of historical excellence,
compared with European writers of the same mediaeval period.
Throughout every change of dynasty, vernacular instruction has
been given, at least to the children of respectable classes, in
Village each large village. On the one hand, the iols or seminaries
schools. for teaching Sanskrit philosophy at Benares and Nadiya recall
Sanskrit the schools of Athens and Alexandria ; on the other, the
^°^^' importance attached to instruction in accounts reminds one of
the picture which Horace has left of a Roman education.
MISSIONARY AND STATE SCHOOIS. 473
Even at the present day, a knowledge of reading and writing,
taught by the Buddhist monks, is as widely diffused throughout
Burma as in many countries of Europe. Our own efforts to
stimulate education have been most successful, when based
upon the existing indigenous institutions.
During the early days of the East India Company's rule, the Our first
promotion of education was not recognised as a duty of ^^°^^^ .^*^^
Government. Even in England, at that time, education was
entirely left to private, and mainly to clerical, enterprise. A
State system of instruction for the whole people is an idea of
the latter half of the present century. But the enlightened
mind of Warren Hastings anticipated this idea by founding the
Calcutta Madrasa for Muhammadan teaching (1781), and by Calcutta
extending his patronage alike to Y{\\-\dM pandits and European ^^^ ^^^^
students. Lord Wellesley's schemes of imperial dominion led Colleges,
to the establishment of the college of Fort William for English
officials. Of the Calcutta seminaries, the Sanskrit College was
founded in 1824, when Lord Amherst was Governor-General;
the Medical College, by Lord WiUiam Bentinck in 1835 ; the
Hiigli Madrasa, by a wealthy native gentleman in 1836. The
Sanskrit College at Benares had been established in 1 791, the
Agra College in 1823.
^leanwhile, the Christian missionaries made the field of Mission
vernacular education their own. Discouraged by the autho- Schools,
rities, and under the Company liable to deportation, they
not only devoted themselves with courage to their special
work of evangelization, but they were also the first Europeans
to study the vernacular dialects spoken by the people. Nearly
two centuries ago, the Jesuits at Madura, in the extreme south,
had so mastered Tamil as to leave works in that language
which are still acknowledged as classical by native authors.
About 1 810, the Baptist mission at Serampur, above Calcutta,
raised Bengali to the rank of a literary prose dialect. The interest
of the missionaries in education, which has never ceased to
the present day, although now comparatively overshadowed by
Government activity, had two distinct aspects. They studied
the vernacular, in order to preach to the people, and to translate
the Bible ; they also taught English, as the channel of Western
knowledge.
After long and acrimonious controversy between the advo- State
cates of English and of vernacular teaching, the present system ejuJ^don
was based, in 1854, upon a comprehensive despatch sent out
by Sir C. Wood (afterwards Lord Halifax). In the midst of Indian uni-
the tumult of the Mutiny, the three Indian Universities ^'^'^s^^^^s*
474 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Education
Commis-
sion of
Educa-
tional
statistics,
1878-83.
were founded at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay in 1857.^
Schools for teaching English were by degrees established in
every District ; grants-in-aid were extended to the lower ver-
nacular institutions, and to girls' schools. A Department of
Public Instruction was organized in every Province, under a
Director, with a staff of Inspectors. In some respects this
scheme may have been in advance of the time ; but it supplied
a definite outline, which has gradually been filled up. A net-
work of schools was extended over the country, graduated
from the indigenous village institutions up to the highest
colleges. All received some measure of pecuniary support,
granted under the guarantee of regular inspection ; while
a series of scholarships at once stimulated efficiency, and
opened a path to the university for the children of the poor.
In 1882-83, an Education Commission, appointed by Lord
Ripon's Government, endeavoured to complete the scheme
inaugurated in 1854 by the Despatch of Lord Halifax. It care-
fully examined the condition of education in each Province, indi-
cated defects, and laid down principles for further development.
The results of its labours have been to place public instruction
on a broader and more popular basis, to encourage private
enterprise in teaching, to give a more adequate recognition
to the indigenous schools, and to provide that the education
of the people shall advance at a more equal pace along with
the instruction of the higher classes. Female education and
the instruction of certain backward classes of the community,
such as the Muhammadans, received special attention. The
general effect of the Commission's recommendations is to
develop the Department of Public Instruction into a system
of truly national education for India, conducted and supervised
in an increasing degree by the people themselves.
In 1877-78, the total number of educational institutions of all
sorts in British India was 66,202, attended by an aggregate of
1,877,942 pupils, showing an average of one school to every
14 square miles, and one pupil to every 100 of the popula-
tion. In 1882-83, the total number of inspected schools of
all classes in British India had risen to 109,216, with an
aggregate of 2,790,773 scholars, showing an average of one
school to every 8 square miles of area, and one pupil to every
71 of the population. Male pupils numbered 2,628,402,
showing one boy at school to every 38 of the male population ;
and female pupils, 162,371, or one girl at school to every 610
> By Act II. of 1857 for Calcutta ; by Act XXII. of 1857 for Bombay ;
and by Act xxvii. of 1857 for Madras.
THE INDIAN UNIVERSITIES. 475
females. These figures, however, only include State inspected
or aided schools and pupils. The Census Report of 1881
returned 2,879,571 boys and 155,268 girls as under instruc-
tion throughout British India, besides 7,646,712 males and
277,207 females able to read and write, but not under instruc-
tion. The figures are evidently below the truth, and it will be
remarked that the Census returns the total number of girls
attending school at 5000 less than those returned as attending
the State-inspected schools alone.
In 1877-78, the total expenditure upon education from all Educa-
sources was ^^i, 61 2,775, of which ;£"782,24o was contributed fj^ance
by the provincial governments, ^£'258,5 14 was derived from 1878-83.
local rates, and ;!^3 2,008 from municipal grants. These items
may be said to represent State aid ; while endowments yielded
;!^37,2i8, subscriptions ;£^io5,853, and fees and fines ;£^277,o39.
The degree in which education has been popularized, and private
effort has been stimulated, may be estimated from the fact that
in Bengal the voluntary payments now greatly exceed the
Government grants. In 1882-83, the total educational ex-
penditure throughout British India amounted to ;£^2, 105,653,
of which ^578,629 was contributed by the provincial govern-
ments, ;£^347,376 was derived from local rates, ;£63,832 from
municipal grants, ;;^93,924 from subscriptions, ;£^49,695 from
Native States, ;£58,675 from endowments, ;£^5 16,925 from fees
and fines, and the remainder from other sources.
The three Universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay The Indian
were incorporated in 1857, on the model of the University of V'^^^^"^^'"
London. They are merely examining bodies, with the privi-
lege of conferring degrees in arts, law, medicine, and civil
engineering. Their constitution is composed of a Chancellor Their con-
Vice-Chancellor, and Senate. The governing body, or Syndi- stitution.
cate, consists of the Vice-Chancellor and certain members of
the Senate. A fourth University, on a similar plan, but including
the teaching element, and following more oriental lines, has been
founded at Lahore for the Punjab. The Universities control the
whole course of higher education in India by means of their
examinations. The entrance examination formatriculationisopen
to all ; but when that is passed, candidates for higher stages
must enrol themselves in one or other of the affiliated colleges.
In the ten years ending 1877-78, 9686 candidates success- University
fully passed the entrance examination at Calcutta, 6381 at ^^^^jf^^oo
Madras, and 2610 at Bombay; total, 18,610. For the ten
years ending 1882-83, out of 23,226 candidates at Calcutta,
10,200 successfully passed the entrance examination ; at
476 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
Colleges.
Boys'
schools J
upper
schools ;
Madras, out of 28,575 candidates, 9715 passed; and at
Bombay, out of 11,871 candidates, 3557 passed. Total passed
entrance examination in the ten years ending 1882-83, 23,472.
Many fall off at this stage, and very few proceed to the higher
degrees. During the same ten years ending 1882-83, i°36
graduated B.A. and only 281 M.A. at Calcutta; 896 B.x\.
and 22 M.A. at Madras; 456 B.A. and 34 M.A. at Bombay :
total of B.A.'s and M.A.'s in the ten years, 2725. Calcutta
possesses the great majority of graduates in law and medicine,
while Bombay is similarly distinguished in engineering. In
1877-78, the total expenditure on the Universities was
;£"22,o93 ; and in 1882-83, ;£2 1,790.
The colleges or institutions for higher instruction may be
divided into two classes, — those which teach the arts course
of the Universities, and those devoted to special branches of
knowledge. According to another principle, they are classified
into those entirely supported by Government, and those which
only receive grants-in-aid. The latter class comprises the
missionary colleges. In 1877-78, the total number of colleges,
including medical and engineering colleges and Muhammadan
madrasasj was 82, attended by 8894 students. Of these, as
many as 35 colleges, with 3848 students, were in Lower Bengal ;
and 21 colleges, with 1448 students, in Madras. In the same
year, the total expenditure on the colleges was ;£"i86,i62, or
at the rate of ;^2i per student. In 1882-83, the total number
of colleges, including medicine and engineering colleges and
Muhammadan madi'asas^ was 96, attended by 8707 students.
Of these, 34 colleges with 3754 students were in Bengal, 32
colleges with 2329 students were in Madras, and 9 colleges
with 1203 students were in Bombay. In the same year, the
total expenditure on colleges in British India was ;;^i 7 3, 2 13,
or a fraction under ;^2o per student.
The boys* schools include many varieties, which may be
sub-divided either according to the character of the instruc-
tion given, or according to the proportion of Government aid
which they receive. The higher schools are those in which
English is not only taught, but is also used as the medium of
instruction. They educate up to the standard of the entrance
examination at the Universities, and generally train those
candidates who seek employment in the upper grades of
Government service. One of these schools, known as the
zild or Dis"trict school, is established at the head-quarters
station of every District ; and many others receive grants-in-
aid. The total number of high schools in 1882-83 was 530,
INCREASE OF PRIMARY SCHOOIS. 477
of which 492 were for males and 38 for females, the attendance
in the year comprising 68,434 males and 11 65 females.
The middle schools, as their name implies, are inter- middle
mediate between the higher and the primary schools. Gene- ~ '
rally speaking, they are placed in the smaller towns or larger
villages ; and they provide that measure of instruction which
is recognised to be useful by the middle classes themselves.
Some of them teach English ; others only the vernacular.
This class includes the tahsili schools, established at the head-
quarters of every tahsil or Sub-division in the North-Western
Provinces. In 1882-83, the middle schools numbered 3796,
with an attendance of 170,642 pupils. In 1877-78, the total
expenditure on both higher and middle schools was ^{^478, 250,
and in 1882-83, ;£^49Ij262.
The lower or primary schools complete the series. They are primary
dotted over the whole country, and teach only the vernacular. ^^ °^ ^'
Their extension is the best test of the success of our educational
system.
No uniformity prevails in the primary school-system through- Increase of
out the several Provinces. In Bengal, up to the last fifteen ^choolTin
years, primary instruction was neglected ; but since the reforms Bengal;
inaugurated by Sir G. Campbell in 1872, by which the benefit
of the grant-in-aid rules was extended to the /f a f/tsd Ids or road-
side schools, this reproach has been removed. In 1871-72,
the number of primary schools under inspection in Lower
Bengal was only 2451, attended by 64,779 pupils. By 1877-78,
the number of schools had risen to 16,042, and the number
of pupils to 360,322, being an increase of about six-fold in six
years. By March 1883, when Sir G. Campbell's reforms had
received their full development: the primary schools in Bengal
had increased to 63,897, and the pupils to 1,118,623, being
an increase of over seventeen-fold in the eleven years ending
1882-83. In 1877-78, the expenditure on primary schools
in Bengal from all sources was ;^7 8,000 ; towards which
Government contributed only ;£"27,ooo, thus showing how
State aid stimulates private outlay in primary education. The
total expenditure in 1882-83 was returned at ;^3 18,680. This
increase, however, is more apparent than real, and results from
a large number of schools previously private being brought
under the inspection of the Education Department, and
included in its financial statements.
The North-Western Provinces owe their system of primary in North-
instruction to their great Lieutenant-Governor Mr. Thomason, ^^'^^l^''"
° ' rrovinces ;
whose constructive talent can be traced m every branch of the
478 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
administration. In addition to the tahsili or middle schools
aheady referred to, a scheme was drawn up for establishing
halkabandi or primary schools in every central village (whence
their name), to which the children from the surrounding
hamlets might resort. The system in the North - Western
Provinces has been developed by means of the educational
cess added to the land revenue. Sir William Muir, during his
long service in the North- Western Provinces, ending in the
Lieutenant-Governorship, did much for both the primary and
the higher education of the people,
in In Bombay, the primary schools are mainly supported out of
Bombay ; Iq^^i funds raised by a cess added to the land revenue,
in Burma ; In British Burma, on the other hand, primary education is
still left to a great extent in the hands of the Buddhist monks,
who receive little or no aid from Government. These
monastic schools are only open to boys; but there are also
lay teachers who admit girls to mixed classes. The local
administration shows a wise disposition to avail itself of the
indigenous monastic system. Government has comparatively
few schools of its own in Burma, the deficiency being supplied
by several missionary bodies, who obtain State aid.
in Madras. In some localities of the Madras Presidency, also, the
missionaries possess a practical monopoly of primary education
at the present day.
Primary In 1 87 7-78, the amount of money expended upon lower and
education primary schools in British India was ^406,135, or just one-
fourth of the total educational budget. In 1882-83, the total
expenditure on lower and primary schools throughout British
India was ;^9ii,i2i, or a little less than one-half (;^2, 105,653)
of the total educational expenditure of the year. Under the
recommendations of the Education Commission of 1882-83, the
importance assigned to primary instruction, and the proportion
of the public educational funds devoted to it, will constantly
tend to increase.
Girls' Of late years something has been done, although not much,
schools. to extend the advantages of education to girls. In this, as in
other educational matters, the missionaries have been the
pioneers of progress. In a few exceptional places, such as
Tinnevelli in Madras, the Khasi Hills of Assam, and among
the Karen tribes of Burma, female education has made real
progress ; for in these localities the missionaries have sufficient
influence to overcome the prejudices of the people. But
elsewhere, even in the large towns and among the English-
speaking classes, all attempts to give a modern education to
FEMALE EDUCATION. 479
women are regarded with scarcely disguised aversion, and have
obtained but slight success. Efforts were at one time made by
the Bengal Government to utilize the female members of the
Vishnuite sects in female education, but without permanent
success. Throughout the North - Western Provinces and
Oudh, with their numerous and wealthy cities, and a total
female population of over 21 millions, only 8999 girls attended
school in 1877-78, and 9602 in 1882-83. In Lower Bengal,
the corresponding number was less than 12,000 in 1877-78,
but had increased to 57,361 in 1882-83. Madras, British
Burma, and in a less degree, Bombay and the Punjab, are
the only Provinces that contribute to the following statistics in
any tolerable proportion : — Total girls' schools throughout
British India in 1877-78, 2002 ; number of pupils, 66,615 •
mixed schools for boys and girls, 2955 ; pupils, 90,915 : total
amount expended on girls' schools,;^ 78, 729, of which ^^2 7,000
was devoted to the 12,000 girls of Bengal. The total number
of girls' schools in 1882-83 in British India was 3487, at-
tended by 162,317 pupils. This branch of instruction will
now, it is hoped, receive a further development from the recom-
mendations of the Education Commission.
In 1877-78, the normal, technical, and industrial schools Normal
numbered 155, with a total of 6864 students; the total ex- ^pg^^j^l
penditure was ;£"54,26o, or an average of under JP^Z per schools,
student. In 1882-83, the number of these special institutions
was 213, attended by 8078 students. Total expenditure in
1882-83, ;£98,57i, or an average of over ;£i2 per head.
Schoolmistresses, as well as schoolmasters, are trained; and
here also the missionaries have shown themselves active in
anticipating a work which Government subsequently took up.
Of schools of art, the oldest is that founded by Dr. Schools of
A. Hunter at Madras in 1850, and taken in charge by the '^^^•
Education Department in 1856. This institution, and the Art
Schools at Calcutta and Bombay, founded on its model, have
been successful in developing the industrial capacities of the
students, and in training workmen for public employment. Their
effect on native art is more doubtful, and in some cases they
have tended to supersede native designs by hybrid European
patterns. Museums have been established at the Provincial
capitals and in other large towns.
Schools for Europeans have also attracted the attention of Schools
Government. Foremost among special schools are the asylums ^^^ Euro-
in the hills for the orphans of British soldiers {e.g. Utakamand
and Sanawar), founded in memory of Sir Henry Lawrence.
48o BRITISH ADMINISTRA TION OF INDIA,
Vernacu- Closely connected with the subject of education is the
steady growth of the vernacular press, which is ever active in
issuing both newspapers and books. The missionaries were
the first to cast type in the vernacular languages, and to
Firstnews- employ native compositors. The earliest vernacular newspaper
paper. ^^^ issued in Bengali by the Baptist Mission at Serampur, in
1818. For many years the vernacular press preserved the
marks of its origin, being limited almost exclusively to theo-
The theo- logical controversy. The missionaries were encountered with
oenod ^^^^^ ^^"^"^ weapons by the Theistic sect of the Brahma Samaj,
and also by the orthodox Hindus. So late as 1850, most of
the vernacular newspapers were still religious or sectarian
The politi- rather than political. But during the last twenty-five years,
cal period. ^^ vernacular press has gradually risen into a powerful engine
of poHtical discussion.
Statistics The number of newspapers published in the several ver-
journaHsm. i^^culars is estimated at 250 to 300, and their aggregate sale
at over 250,000 copies.^ But the circulation proper, that
is, the actual number of readers, is very much larger. In
Bengal, the vernacular press suffers from the competition of
English newspapers, some of which are entirely owned and
written by natives. In the North-Western Provinces and Punjab,
from Lucknow to Lahore, about 100 newspapers are printed
in Hindustani or Urdu, the vernacular of the Muhammadans
throughout India. Many of them are conducted with con-
siderable ability and enterprise, and may fairly be described
as representative of native opinion in the large towns. The
Bombay journals are about equally divided between Marathi
and Gujarati. Those in the Marathi language are charac-
terized by the traditional independence of the race of Sivaji ;
the Gujarati newspapers are the organs of the Parsis, and of
the trading community generally. The vernacular newspapers
of Madras, printed in Tamil and Telugu, are politically unim-
portant, being still for the most part devoted to religion.
As regards books, or rather registered publications, in the
vernacular languages. Lower Bengal takes the lead ; the Punjab,
Bombay, the North-Western Provinces, and Madras follow in
order. In a previous chapter, the exact number of works
published in the native languages of India in the various
^ The above estimate must be regarded as the result of intelligent inquiry,
and not as an actual enumeration. Steps are now (1885) being taken to
procure accurate returns of the vernacular press. But the ephemeral
existence of many native newspapers, and other features of vernacular
journalism, render the undertaking not free from difficulty.
Books.
INDIAN PUBLICATIONS, 1878-83. 481
departments of literature, has been stated.^ The following
figures refer to the years 1878 and 1882-83, ^^^ comprise
the whole registered publications, both in the native lan-
guages and in English. There is probably a considerable
number of minor works which escape registration.
Total of registered publications in 1878, 4913. Of these, 576 Book
were in English or European languages, 3148 in vernacular ^^j?^}f^'^'
dialects of India, 516 in the classical languages of India, and
673 were bi-lingual, or in more than one language. No fewer
than 2495 of them were original works, 2078 were republica-
tions, and 340 were translations. Religion engrossed 1502 of
the total; poetry and the drama, 779; fiction, 182; natural
science, 249 ; besides 43 works on philosophy or moral
science. Language or grammar was the subject of 612 ; and
law of no fewer than 249 separate works. History had only
96 books devoted to it ; biography, 22 ; politics, 7 ; and travels
or voyages, 2. These latter numbers, contrasted with the
1502 books on religion, indicate the working of the Indian
mind.
In 1882-83, the registered publications numbered 6198, of Book
which 655 were in English or European languages, 4208 in j^gglf^
vernacular dialects of India, 626 in the classical languages of
India, and 709 bi-lingual or in more than one language. Of
the total number of published works in 1882-83, 1160 were
returned as educational, and 5038 as non-educational w^orks.
Original works numbered 3146; re-publications, 2547; and
translations, 505. Publications relating to rehgion numbered
1641 ; poetry and the drama, 1089 ; fiction, 238 ; natural
and mathematical science, 281 ; philosophy and moral science,
160; history, 143; languages, 784; law, 338; and medicine,
235. Politics were represented in 1882-83 t>y only 1 1 publica-
tions, travels and voyages by only 4, w^hile works classed as
miscellaneous numbered 1 231.
* Ante, chap. iv.
statistics.
2 H
[482 ]
CHAPTER XVII.
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Agncul- The cultivation of the soil forms the occupation of the
Indian people in a sense which it is difficult to realize
in England. As the land-tax forms the mainstay of the
imperial revenue, so the rdyat or cultivator constitutes the
unit of the social system. The village community contains
many members besides the cultivator, but they all exist for
his benefit, and all are maintained from the produce of the
village fields. Even in considerable towns, the traders and
handicraftsmen frequently possess plots of land of their own,
on which they raise sufficient grain to supply their families
The work with food. According to the returns of the general Census of
the^\X?le ^872, the adult males directly engaged in agriculture amount
people. to nearly 35 millions, or 56*2 per cent, of the total. To
these must be added almost all the day-labourers, who
number 7 J million males, or 12*3 per cent. ; thus raising
the total of persons directly supported by cultivation to 68-5
per cent. ; being more than two-thirds of the whole adult
males. The Census of 1881 returned a total of 51,274,586
males as engaged in agriculture throughout British and Feuda-
tory India. Adding to these 7^ million of adult day-labourers,
there is a total of upwards of 58^^ million persons directly
supported by cultivation, or 72 per cent, of the whole male
* population engaged in some specified occupation.^ The
number of persons indirectly connected with agriculture is
also very great. The Famine Commissioners estimate that
90 per cent, of the rural population live more or less by the
tillage of the soil. India is, therefore, almost exclusively a
country of peasant farmers.
* For reasons fully explained in the Note on Indian Statis/ks in the
last chapter, the years ordinarily selected for population statements are the
Census years 1872 and 1881 ; and for other details, 1877-78 and 1882-83.
The last year for which the final Parliamentary presentment of Indian
returns had been received by the author when theSe sheets went to press
in the summer of 1885, ended on 31st March 1883.
SYSTEMS OF INDIAN TILLAGE, 483
The increase in the population has, however, developed a Landless
large landless class. The cultivated area no longer suffices to ^^^^•
allow a plot of land for each peasant ; and multitudes now
find themselves ousted from the soil. They earn a poor
livelihood as day-labourers ; and according to the Census of
1881, comprise 7,248,491, or one-eighth of the entire adult
male population. There is still enough land in India for the
whole people, but the Indian peasant clings to his native
District, however overcrowded. Migration or emigration has
hitherto worked on too small a scale to afford a solution of
the difficulty.
xA.griculture is carried on in the different Provinces with an Various
infinite variety of detail. Everywhere the same perpetual systems
assiduity is found, but the inherited experience of generations culture,
has taught the cultivators to adapt their simple methods to
dififering circumstances. The deltaic swamps of Bengal and
Burma, the dry uplands of the Karnatik, the black-soil plains
of the Deccan, the strong clays of the Punjab, the desert sand
of Sind or Rajputana, require their separate modes of cultiva-
tion. In each case the Indian peasant has learned, with-
out scientific instruction, to grow the crops best suited to
the soil. His light plough, which he may be seen carrying
a-field on his shoulders, makes but superficial scratches ; but
what the furrows lack in depth, they gain by repetition, and in
the end pulverize every particle of mould. Where irrigation Irrigation.
is necessary, native ingenuity has devised the means ; although
in this as in other matters connected with agriculture, a wide
field remains for further development and improvement. The
inundation channels in Sind, the wells in the Punjab and the
Deccan, the tanks in the Karnatik, the terraces cut on every
hillside, water at the present day a far larger area than is com-
manded by Government canals. Manure is copiously applied Manure,
to the more valuable crops, whenever manure is available ; its
use being limited only by poverty and not by ignorance.
The scientific rotation of crops is not adopted as a prin- Rotation
ciple of cultivation. But in practice it is well known that a °^ '^'^ops-
succession of exhausting crops cannot be taken in consecutive
seasons from the same field, and the advantage of fallows is
widely recognised. A mutation of crops takes the place of
their rotation.
The petite culture of Indian husbandmen is in many respects
well adapted to the soil, the climate, and the social conditions
of the people. The periodicity of the seasons usually allows
of two, and in some places of three, harvests in the year. For
484 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
inexhaustible fertility, and for retentiveness of moisture in a
dry season, no soil in the world can surpass the regar or ' black
cotton-soir of the Deccan. In the broad river basins, the
floods annually deposit a fresh top - dressing of silt, thus
superseding the necessity of manures. The burning sun and
the heavy rains of the tropics combine, as in a natural forcing-
house, to extract the utmost from the soil. A subsequent
section will deal with possible improvements in Indian agricul-
ture — improvements now necessary in order to support the
increasing population. As the means of communication
improve and blunt the edge of local scarcity, India is pro-
bably destined to compete with America as the granary of
Great Britain.
Rice. The name of rice has from time immemorial been closely
associated with Indian agriculture. The rice-eating population
is estimated at 67 millions, or over one-third of the whole.^
If, however, we except the deltas of the great rivers, and the
long strip of land fringing the coast, rice may be called a rare
crop throughout the remainder of the peninsula. But where
rice is grown, it is in an almost exclusive sense the staple
crop.
Statistics I^ British Burma, out of a total cultivated area of 2,833,520
of rice acres, in 1877-78, as many as 2,554,853 acres, or 90 per
in different ^^^it., were under rice. In 1882-83, the cultivated area in
Provinces. British Burma had risen to 3,746,279 acres, of which 3,380,996
acres, or 90 per cent, were under rice. Independent Burma,
on the other hand, grows no rice, but imports largely from
British territory. For Bengal, unfortunately, no general
statistics are available. But taking Rangpur as a typical
District, it was there found that i\ million acres, out of a
classified total of a little more than if million acres, or 88
per cent., were devoted to rice. Similar proportions hold good
for the Province of Orissa, the deltas of the Godavari, Kistna,
and Kaveri (Cauvery), and the lowlands of Travancore,
Malabar, Kdnara, and the Konkan. Throughout the interior
of the country, except in Assam, which is agriculturally a
continuation of the Bengal delta, the cultivation of rice
occupies but a subordinate place. In the North - Western
Provinces and Oudh, rice is grown in damp localities, or with
the help of irrigation, and forms a favourite food for the upper
classes ; but the local supply requires to be supplemented by
importation from Bengal. In Madras generally, the area under
lice in 1883 amounted to about 43 per cent, of the whole food-
^ Kepo it of the Indian Famine Commission, part ii. 81 (1880).
THE VARIOUS RICE CROPS. 485
grain area. In Bombay proper, the corresponding proportion
is only 14 per cent., and in the outlying Province of Sind,
17 per cent. In the Central Provinces, the proportion
rises as high as 55 per cent, but in the Punjab it falls to
3 per cent. In scarcely any of the Native States, which
cover the centre of the peninsula, is rice grown to a large
extent
Rice is in fact a local crop, which can only be cultivated Methods of
profitably under exceptional circumstances, although under nation : ^'
those circumstances it returns a larger pecuniary yield than
any other food-grain in India. According to the Madras system in Madras ;
of classification, rice is a ' wet crop,' i.e. it demands steady
irrigation. In a few favoured tracts, the requisite irrigation is
supplied by local rainfall, but more commonly by the periodi-
cal overflow of the rivers, either directly or indirectly through
artificial channels. It has been estimated that rice requires
36 to 40 inches of water in order to reach its full develop-
ment But more important than the total amount of water, is
the period over which that amount is distributed. While the
seedlings are in an early stage of growth, 2 inches of water
are ample ; but when the stem is strong, high floods are almost
unable to drown it In some Districts of Bengal, a long-
stemmed variety of rice is grown, which will keep its head
above 1 2 feet of water.
Throughout Bengal, there are two main harvests of rice in in Bengal ;
the year — (i) the dus or early crop, sown on comparatively
high lands, during the spring showers, and reaped between
July and September; (2) the dman or winter crop, sown in
low-lying lands, from June to August, usually transplanted,
and reaped from November to January. The latter crop com-
prises the finer varieties, but the former is chiefly retained by
the cultivators for their own food supply. Besides these two
great rice harvests of the Bengal year, there are several
intermediate ones in different localities. The returns from
Rangpur District specify no fewer than 295 distinct varieties
ofrice.^ The average out-turn per acre in Bengal has been
estimated at 15 maunds^ or 1200 lbs., of cleaned rice. In
1877-78, when famine was raging in Southern India, the
exports of rice from Calcutta (much of it to Madras) amounted
to nearly 17 million cwts.
In British Burma, there is but a single harvest in the in Burma
year, corresponding to the dman of Bengal. The grain
^ See Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. vii. pp. 234-237
(1876).
486
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Hill culti-
vation.
Area under
rice.
Wheat.
Statistics
of wheat
cultiva-
tion.
Out-turn
of wheat.
is reddish in colour, and of a coarse quality ; but the average
out-turn is much higher than in Bengal, reaching in some
places an average of 2000 and 2500 lbs. per acre. In 1877-78,
the Burmese export of rice exceeded 13 million cwts. ; and in
1882-83 it exceeded 21 J million cwts., of an estimated aggre-
gate value of over 5J millions sterling.
Besides being practically the sole crop grown in the deltaic
swamps, rice is also cultivated on all the hills of India, from
Coorg to the Himalayas. The hill tribes practise one of
two methods of cultivation. They either cut the mountain
slopes into terraces, to which sufficient water is conveyed
by an ingenious system of petty canals; or they trust to
the abundant rainfall, and scatter their seeds on clearings
formed by burning patches of the jungle. In both cases,
rice is the staple crop, wherever the moisture permits. It
figures largely in the nomadic system of hill cultivation.
The tables on the next page show the comparative area under
rice and the two great other classes of food-grains for all India.
But the figures must be taken as only approximate estimates.
Recent exports of wheat to Europe have drawn attention
to the important place which this crop occupies in Indian
agriculture. It is grown to some extent in almost every Dis-
trict. But, broadly speaking, it may be said that wheat does
not thrive where rice does ; nor, indeed, anywhere south of
the Deccan. The great wheat-growing tracts of India are in
the north. The North- Western Provinces in 1883 had 97 per
cent, of the food-grain area under wheat, barley, and millets ;
and about 57 per cent, under wheat alone. In the Punjab,
the proportion of wheat and barley is 61 per cent. Wheat is
also largely grown in Behar, and to a less extent in the western
Districts of Bengal. In the Central Provinces, wheat covers
a large proportion of the food-grain area, being the chief cereal
in the Districts of Hoshangabad, Narsinghpur, and Sagar.
In Bombay, the corresponding proportion was only 15 per
cent., and in Sind, 12 per cent. The wheat returns vary
from year to year, but disclose a tendency upwards. Their
significance may be learned from the fact, that in Great
Britain the area under wheat is only 3 million acres, or less
than one-half the amount in a single Indian Province, the
Punjab. It has been estimated that the total area under wheat
in India is equal to the total area under the same crop in the
United States.
Nor is the out-turn contemptible, averaging about 13 bushels
{Sentence continued on page 488.
THE INDIAN FOOD STAPLES.
487
Ratio of Area under the three Principal Classes
OF Indian Food-Grains.
I.
[878.
Ratio of Area under principal
^
Food-Grains.
Total
Popu-
Province.
Population
(British
lation
eating
Wheat or ,,.,, , „.
Barley. ^'"^ts. R.ce.
India).
Rice.
Percent. Percent. Percent.
Millions.
Millions.
Punjab,
54 41 S
18^
I
North-Western Provinces,
57 34 9
44
4
Bengal and Assam, .
No figures available.
74
46
Central Provinces, .
27
39
34
9f
3
Berar, ....
17
82
I
4
a
^ Bombay
7
8.^
10
2
! Madras
a I 67
33
31
10
, Mysore, . . . .
a \ 84 16
4
I
II.
1883.
Ratio of Area under principal
Food-Grains.
Total
Popu-
Province.
Population
(British
lation
eating
Wheat or
Barley.
Millets.
Rice.
India).
Rice.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Millions.
MUlions
Punjab, ....
61
36
3
18^
I
North-Western Provinces,
97
« 3
44,
4
Bengal, ....
No figures available.
69i
43
Assam, ....
«
a
50
%
3
Central Provinces, .
45
a
55
3
Berar, ....
97
a
3
2^
a
Bombay, ....
15
71
14
16^
2
Madras, ....
a
57
43
3^
10
Mysore, ....
\ 4
a
96
4
I
a Where a column is left blank, the separate figures are not available.
N.B. — It will be observed that in the second table, where separate figures
are not available, the ratio is that which one principal class bears to the
other, and not to the total food-grain area of the District. The figures for
the second table are derived from the Local Administration Reports for
1883-84, except in the case of Berar and Mysore, for which the figures are
for 1881-82 (Mysore) and 1882-83 (Berar). They are not, in all cases,
strictly comparable with the figures in the first table, which were taken
from the Famine Commissioners' Report.
488
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Wheat
cultiva-
tion.
Sentence continued from page 486.]
per acre in the Punjab, as compared with an average of 15^
bushels for the whole of France. The quaHty, also, of the
grain is high enough to satisfy the demands of English millers.
The price of Indian wheat in Mark Lane varies considerably
from year to year ; the best qualities averaging somewhat
lower than Australian or Californian produce. The abolition,
in 1873, of ^^he old Indian export duty on wheat, laid the
foundation of the Indo-European wheat -trade, which, since
this wise measure, has attained to large dimensions. The
low prices of wheat in England in 1884 gave a check to the
trade — a check which is believed to be temporary.
According to the system of classification in Upper India,
wheat ranks as a rabi crop, being reaped at the close of the cold
weather in April and May. Wherever possible, it is irrigated ;
and the extension of canals through the Doab has largely
contributed to the substitution of wheat for inferior cereals.
Millets.
Chief
varieties.
Statistics
of millet
cultiva-
tion ;
in Madras
Taking India as a whole, it may be broadly affirmed that
the staple food -grain is neither rice nor wheat, but millet.
Excluding special rice tracts, varieties of millet are grown
more extensively than any other crop, from Madras in the
south, at least as far as Rajput^na in the north. The two
most common kinds are great millet (Sorghum vulgare), known
as jodr or jaivdA in the languages derived from the Sanskrit,
2i%jonna in Telugu, and as cholam in Tamil ; and spiked millet
(Pennisetum typhoideum), called bdjra in the north and kambit
in the south. In Mysore and the neighbouring Districts, ragi
(Eleusine corocana), called ndchatii in Bombay, takes the first
place. According to the Madras system of classification, these
millets all rank as ' dry crops,' being watered only by the local
rainfall, and sown under either monsoon ; farther north, they
are classed with the kharif ox autumn harvest, as opposed to
wheat
The following statistics show the importance of millet culti-
vation throughout Southern and Central India. In Madras,
in 1875-76, t-//^/«;« covered 4,610,000 acres; ragi^ 1,636,000
acres; varagu or auricalu (Paspalum miliaceum), 1,054,000
acres; kambu, 2,909,000 acres; saviai or millet proper (Pani-
cum frumentaceum), 1,185,000, — making a total of 11,384,000
acres under 'dry crops,' being 52 per cent, of the cultivated
area. The proportion was 67 per cent, of the food-grain area
in 1879. I^ 1882-83, the area under millets and inferior
cereal crops was returned at 10,942,384 acres. In the upland
MILLETS; PULSES; OIL-SEEDS, 489
region of Mysore, the proportion under 'dry crops,' chiefly >n ^^ysore ;
ragi^ rises to 77 per cent, of the cultivated area, or 84 per
cent, of the food-grain area. The total under all millets, jodr^
and bdjra in Bombay and Sind may be taken at about 83 per
cent. ; in the Central Provinces, 39 per cent. ; in the Punjab,
41 per cent. ; and in the North- Western Provinces, 34 per cent, and other
of the total food-grain area. It should be remembered that i^rovinces.
these figures vary from year to year.
Indian corn is cultivated to a limited extent in all parts of Minor
the country ; barley, in the upper valley of the Ganges, through-
out the Punjab, and in the Himalayan valleys ; oats, only as
an experimental crop by Europeans. Jodr and ragi^ but not
bdjra^ are valuable as fodder for cattle.
Pulses of many sorts form important staples. In Madras, Pulses ;
the area under pulses in 1875 was 2,057,000 acres, or 9 per i" ^^75;
cent. ; in Bombay, about 830,000 acres ; in the Punjab,
4,000,000 acres, or 21 per cent. The area under pulses in
1882-83 was returned as under: — In Madras, 1,955,946 acres, and 1883.
or 8 percent, of the cultivated area; in Bombay, 1,776,773
acres, or over 8 per cent. ; in the Punjab, 3,664,952 acres, or
15 J per cent, of the cultivated area. The principal varieties
of pulses grown, with many native names, but generically
known to Europeans as gram and ddl^ are — Cicer arietinum,
Phaseolus Mungo and P. radiatus, Dolichos biflorus, D.
sinensis and D. Lablab, Cajanus indicus, Ervum Lens, Lathyrus
sativus, and Pisum sativum.
Oil-seeds also form an important crop in all parts of the Oil-seeds ;
country ; oil being universally required, according to native
custom, for application to the person, for food, and for lamps.
In recent years, the cultivation of oil-seeds has received an
extraordinary stimulus owing to their demand in Europe, espe-
cially in France. But as they can be grown after rice, etc as
a second crop, this increase has hardly tended to diminish
the production of food-grains. The four chief varieties grown
are mustard or rape-seed, linseed, til or gingelly (Sesamum),
and castor-oil. Bengal and the North-Western Provinces are
at present the chief sources of supply for the foreign demand,
but gingelly is largely exported from Madras, and, to a less
extent, from Burma. Area in 1875 under oil-seeds — In in 1875 ;
Madras, about 1,200,000 acres, or nearly 6 per cent, of the
cultivated area; in Bombay, 628,000 acres; in the Central
Provinces, 1,358,571 acres, or nearly 9 per cent.; in the
Punjab, 780,000 acres, or 4 per cent. Area under oil-seeds
in 1882-83— In Madras, 1,063,988 acres, or 47 per cent, and 1883.
490 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
of the total cultivation ; in Bombay, 1,336,385 acres, or
6*1 per cent.; in the Central Provinces, 1,600,225 acres, or
ii'3 per cent.; and in the Punjab, 1,039,633 acres, or 4*4
per cent, of the area under cultivation. In the year 1877-78,
the total export of oil-seeds from India amounted to 12,187,020
cwts., valued at ^7,360,284; in 1878-79, to 7,211,790 cwts.,
valued at ;^4,682,5i2; and in 1882-83, to 13,147,982 cwts.,
valued at ^7,205,924.
Vege- Vegetables are everywhere cultivated in garden plots for
^^' household use, and also on a larger scale in the neighbourhood
of great towns. Among favourite native vegetables, the follow-
ing may be mentioned : — The egg-plant, called brinjdl or baigan
(Solanum melongena), potatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, radishes,
onions, garlic, turnips, yams, and a great variety of cucur-
bitaceous plants, including Cucumis sativus, Cucurbita maxima,
Lagenaria vulgaris, Trichosanthes dioica, and Benicasa cerifera.
Of these, potatoes, cabbages, and turnips are of recent intro-
duction. Almost all English vegetables can be raised by a
careful gardener. Potatoes thrive best on the higher elevations,
such as the Khdsi Hills, the Nilgiris, the Mysore uplands, and
the slopes of the Himalayas ; but they are also grown on the
plains and even in deltaic Districts. They were first introduced
into the Khdsi Hills in 1830. They now constitute the prin-
cipal crop in these and other highland tracts. The annual
export from the Khasi Hills to Bengal and the Calcutta market
is estimated at considerably over 7000 tons, valued at ;^5o,ooo.
Fruits. Among the cultivated fruits are the following : — Mango
(Mangifera indica), plantain (Musa paradisiaca), pine-apple
(Ananassa sativa), pomegranate (Punica Granatum), guava
(Psydium Guyava), tamarind (Tamarindus indica), jack
(Artocarpus integrifolia), custard-apple (Anona squamosa),
papaw (Carica Papaya), shaddock (Citrus decumana), and
several varieties of fig, melon, orange, lime, and citron.
The mangoes of Bombay, of Miiltan, and of Maldah in
Bengal, and the oranges of the Khdsf Hills enjoy a high
reputation ; while the guavas of Madras and other Provinces
make an excellent preserve.
Spices. Among spices, for the preparation of curry and other hot
dishes, turmeric and chillies hold the first place, and are
very widely cultivated. Next in importance come ginger,
coriander, aniseed, black cummin, and fenugreek. The pepper
vine is confined to the Malabar coast, from Kdnara to Travan-
core. Cardamoms are a valuable crop in the same locality,
and also in the Nepdlese Himalayas. The pdn creeper (Piper
SPICES; PALMS; SUGAR. 491
Eetle), which furnishes the * betel-leaf/ is grown by a special
caste in most parts of the country. Its cultivation requires
constant care, but is highly remunerative. The areca palm,
which yields the ' betel-nut,' is chiefly grown in certain favoured
localities, such as the deltaic Districts of Bengal, the Konkan
of Bombay, and the highlands of Southern India.
Besides 'betel -nut' (Areca Catechu), the palms of India Palms,
include the cocoa-nut (Cocos nucifera), the bastard date
(Phoenix sylvestris), the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis), and
the true date (Phoenix dactylifera). The cocoa-nut, which
loves a sandy soil and a moist climate, is found in greatest
perfection along the strip of coast-line which fringes the south-
west of the peninsula, where it ranks next to rice as the staple
product. The bastard date, grown largely in the country round
Calcutta, and in the north-east of the Madras Presidency,
supplies both the jaggery sugar of commerce, and intoxicating
liquor for local consumption. Spirit is also distilled from the
palmyra palm in many Districts, especially in the Bombay
Presidency and in the south of Madras. The true date is
almost confined to Sind.
Sugar is manufactured both from the sugar-cane and from Sugar,
the bastard date-palm. The best cane is grown in the North-
western Provinces, on irrigated land. It is an expensive crop,
requiring much attention, and not yielding a return within the
year. The profits are proportionately large. In Bengal, the
manufacture from the cane has declined during the present
century; but in Jessor District, the making of date-sugar is
a thriving and popular industry. ^ The preparation of sugar is
almost everywhere in the hands of natives; the exceptions
being a few large concerns, such as the Aska factory in the
Madras District of Ganjdm, the Cossipur factory in the suburbs
of Calcutta, the Rosa factory at Shahjahanpur, and the Ashta-
gram factory in Mysore. These factories use sugar-cane
instead of the date juice, and have received honourable notice
at exhibitions in Europe.
Cotton holds a most important place among Indian agricul- Cotton,
tural products. From the earliest times, cotton has been
grown in sufficient quantities to meet the local demand ; and
in the last century there was some sfight export from the
country, which was carefully fostered by the East India
Company. But the present importance of the crop dates The
from the crisis in Lancashire caused by the American War. ^^^"g''^"2
1 A full account of the manufacture will be found in Hunter's Statistical
Account of Bengal, vol. ii. pp. 280-298.
492
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Cotton
Districts.
Prior to i860, the exports of raw cotton from India used to
average less than 3 millions sterling a j'ear ; but after that year
they rose by leaps, until in 1866 they reached the enormous
total of 37 millions. Then came the crash, caused by the
restoration of peace in the United Sates ; and the exports
steadily fell to just under 8 millions in 1879. Since then
the trade has recovered, and the total value of raw cotton
exports in 1882-83 amounted to 16 millions sterling. The
fact is that Indian cotton has a short staple, and is inferior to
American cotton for spinning the finer qualities of yarn. But
while the cotton famine was at its height, the cultivators were
intelligent enough to make the most of their opportunity.
The area under cotton increased enormously, and the growers
managed to retain in their own hands a fair share of the profit.
The principal cotton-growing tracts are — the plains of Gujardt
and Kathiawar, whence Indian cotton has received in the
Liverpool market the historic names of Sural and Dholera ;
the highlands of the Deccan ; and the deep valleys of the
Central Provinces and Berar. The best native varieties are
found in the Central Provinces and Berar, passing under the
trade names of Hinganghat and Amraoti. These varieties
have been successfully introduced into the Bombay District of
Khandesh. Experiments with seed from New Orleans have
been conducted for several years past on the Government
farms in many parts of India. But it cannot be said that they
have resulted in success except in the Bombay District of
Dhdrwdr, where exotic cotton has now generally supplanted
the indigenous staple.
In 1875-76, the area under cotton in the Bombay Presidency,
including Sind and the Native States, amounted to 4,516,587
acres, with a yield of 2,142,835 cwts. Of this total, 583,854
acres, or 13 per cent., were sown with exotic cotton, including
seed procured from the Central Provinces and also from New
Orleans, with a yield of 248,767 cwts. The average yield
was about 53 lbs. per acre, the highest being in Sind and
(jujarat (Guzer^t), and the lowest in the Southern Mardtha
country. In 1875-76, the total exports were 3,887,808 cwts.,
from the Bombay Presidency, including the produce of the
Central Provinces and the Berars, valued at ;^io,673,76i.
In 1882-83, the total area under cotton in the Bombay Presi-
and 1883. (lency, including Sind and the Native States, was 5,698,862
acres, yielding 3,141,421 cwts. of cleaned cotton. Of this
area 796,608 acres were sown with exotic cotton, yielding an
out-turn of 420,494 cwts. The exports of raw cotton from
Cotton .
area in
Bombay ;
in 1876;
INDIAN COTTON STATISTICS. 493
Bombay and Sind in 1882-83, including the produce of the
Central Provinces and Berar, were 4,996,739 cwts., valued at
;2^i3, 1 34,693, besides cotton twist and yarn and manufactured
piece-goods to the value of ;^2, 183,205.
In 1877-78, the area under cotton in the Central Provinces Cotton
was 837,083 acres, or under 6 per cent, of the total culti- j^^^^^^^jj.^"
vated area, chiefly in the Districts of Nagpur, Wardha, and Provinces ;
Raipur. The average yield was about 59 lbs. per acre. '^78.
The exports from the Central Provinces to Bombay, including
re-exports from Berar, were about 300,000 cwts.. valued at
;£"672,ooo. In 1877-78, the area under cotton in Berar In Berar.
was 2,078,273 acres, or 32 per cent, of the total cultivated
area, chiefly in the two Districts of Akola and Amraoti. The
average yield was as high as 67 lbs. of cleaned cotton per
acre. The total export was valued at ;£^2, 354,946, almost
entirely railway-borne. In 1882-83, the area under cotton in 18S3.
the Central Provinces had decreased to 612,687 acres, or
4 per cent, of the then cultivated area. In the same year,
the area under cotton in Berar was 2,139,188 acres, or 32
per cent, of the cultivated area.
In Madras, the average area under cotton is about In Madras;
1,500,000 acres, chiefly in the upland Districts of Bellary
and Karnul, and the low plains of Kistna and Tinnevelli.
The total exports in 1876-77 were 460,000 cwts., valued
at about i million sterling. In 1882-83, cotton was grown
on 1,456,423 acres in Madras. In the same year, the total
value of the cotton exports from Madras, raw and manufac-
tured, was ;£'i, 898, 351. In Lower Bengal the cultivation of in Bengal ;
cotton seems on the decline. The local demand has to be met
by imports from the North-Western Provinces and the bordering
hill tracts, where a short-stapled variety of cotton is extensively
cultivated. The total area under cotton in Lower Bengal
is estimated at only 162,000 acres, yielding 138,000 cwts. of
cleaned cotton. Of this, 31,000 acres are in Saran, 28,000 in
the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and 20,000 in Cuttack. Throughout JJ ^Ijf p^.^
the North-Western Provinces, and also in the Punjab, suflicient vinces and
cotton is grown to meet the wants of the village weavers. Punjab.
The total export of raw cotton from Indian ports in 1878-79 Total
was 2,966,569 cwts., valued at ;£'7, 914,091, besides cotton cotton
twist and yarn to the value of ^937^698, and cotton manu- ^^^^^ ^*
factures valued at ;^i, 644,125. By 1882-83 the exports of 1878 and
raw cotton from all Indian ports had increased to 6,170,173 ^^^3-
cwts., valued at ^16,055,758 ; besides cotton twist and yarn
to the value of ^1,874,464, and cotton manufactures valued
494
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Cotton-
cleaning.
1877;
and 1883.
Jute.
The jute
area of
Bengal.
The jute
plant.
Prepara-
tion of
fibre.
at ;^2,093,i46. Total value of cotton exports in 1882-83,
raw and manufactured, ;^2o,o2 3,368.
The cotton-mills of Bombay will be treated of in the next
chapter under ' Manufactures.' But apart from weaving and
spinning, the cotton trade has given birth to other industries,
for cleaning the fibre and pressing it into bales for carriage.
In 1876-77, there were altogether 2506 steam gins for
cleaning cotton in the Bombay Presidency, besides 22 in
the Native States. In addition, there were 130 full-presses
worked by steam power, and 183 half-presses worked by
manual labour. In 1882-83, there were altogether 2787 steam
gins for cleaning cotton in the Bombay Presidency, 96 steam
cotton presses, and 141 cotton presses worked by manual labour.
The total amount of capital invested in the cotton industry
in the Bombay Presidency is estimated at about ;^9oo,ooo.
Cotton gins and presses are also numerous at the chief marts
in the North-Western and Central Provinces, and Berar.
Jute ranks next to cotton as a fibre crop. The extension
of its cultivation has been equally rapid, but it is more limited
in area, being practically confined to Northern and Eastern
Bengal. In this tract, which extends from Purniah to Goal-
para, for the most part north of the Ganges and along both
banks of the Brahmaputra, jute is grown on almost every
variety of soil. The chief characteristic of the cultivation is
that it remains entirely under the control of the cultivator.
Practically a peasant proprietor, he increases or diminishes his
cultivation according to the state of the market, and keeps
the profits in his own hands. The demand for jute in Europe
has contributed more than any administrative measure to raise
the standard of comfort throughout Eastern Bengal.
The plant that yields the jute of commerce is called pat
or koshta by the natives, and belongs to the family of mallows
(Corchorus olitorius and C. capsularis). It sometimes attains
a height of 12 feet. The seed is generally sown in April,
the favourite soil being chars^ or alluvial sandbanks thrown
up by the great rivers ; and the plant is ready for cutting in
August. When it first rises above the ground, too much water
will drown it ; but at a later stage, it survives heavy floods.
After being cut, the stalks are tied up in bundles, and thrown
into standing water to steep. When rotted to such a degree
that the outer coat peels off easily, the bundles are taken out
of the water, and the fibre is extracted and carefully washed.
It now appears as a long, soft, and silky thread ; and all that
remains to do is to make it up into bales for export. The
JUTE STATISTICS, 495
final process of pressing is performed in steam-presses at the Mechan-
central river marts, principally at Howrah or in the outskirts *^^"°n^ite
of Calcutta. The trade is to a great extent in the hands of
natives. Bepdns or travelling hucksters go round in boats to
all the little river marts, to which the jute has been brought by
the cultivators. By their agency the produce is conveyed to a
few great centres of trade, such as Sirdjganj and Narainganj,
where it is transferred to wholesale merchants, who ship it to
Calcutta by steamer or large native boats, according to the
urgency of demand.
In 1872-73, when speculation was briskest, it is estimated Jute out-
that about i million acres were under jute, distributed over 16 g"™rts
Districts, which had a total cultivable area of 23 million acres. 1873 ;
The total export from Calcutta in that year was about 7
million cwts., valued at ^4,142,548. In 1878-79, the total 1878;
export of raw jute from India was 6,021,382 cwts., valued at
;£"3,8oo,426, besides jute manufactures to the value of
;^i, 098,434. In 1882-83, the total exports of raw jute from 1883.
Indian ports amounted to 10,348,909 cwts., of the value of
;^5,846,92 6, besides jute manufactures, principally in the
shape of gunny-bags, of the aggregate value of ;^ 1,487,831.
The total number of steam jute mills in Bengal, either private
property or owned by joint-stock companies, in 1882-83 ^^as 18,
affording employment to 41,263 persons.
Jute is an exhausting crop to soils without river-inundation. Aspects to
This fact is well known to the cultivators, who generally Jj^^ J" ^'
allow jute-fields to lie fallow every third or fourth year. A
fear has sometimes been expressed that the profits derived from
jute may have induced the peasantry to neglect their grain
crops. But the apprehension seems to be groundless. For
the most part, jute is grown on flooded lands which would
otherwise often lie untilled. It only covers a very small
portion of the total area, even of the jute Districts, say 4 per
cent. ; and the fertility of the rice-fields of Eastern Bengal is
such that they could support a much denser population than
at present. Jute, in short, is not a rival of rice ; but a sub-
sidiary crop, from which the cultivator makes a certain
additional income in hard cash.
Indigo is one of the oldest, and, until the introduction of tea- Indigo,
planting, ranked as the most important, of the Indian staples
grown by European capital. In Bengal proper, its cultivation its decline
has greatly declined since the first half of this century. ^^ Lower
English indigo planters have forsaken the Districts of Hiigli, ^"^^ *
the Twenty - four Parganas, Dacca, Faridpur, Rangpur, and
496 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Indigo. Pabna, now dotted with the sites of ruined old factories. In
Nadiyd, Jessor, Murshidabad, and Maldah, the industry is
still carried on ; but it has not recovered from the depression
• and actual damage caused by the indigo riots of t86o, and
the emancipation of the peasantry by the Land Act of 1859.
Indigo of a superior quality is manufactured in Midnapur,
along the frontier of the hill tracts.
Its culti- The cultivation on the old scale still flourishes in Behar,
vation in {^(Qx^ which is derived one-half of the total exports from
Calcutta. Complete statistics of area are not available, as
there are many small indigo concerns throughout the country
in native hands. Some years ago, it was estimated that in
Tirhut alone there were 56 principal concerns, with 70 out-
works, producing annually about 20,000 niaunds of. dye ; in
Saran, 30 principal concerns and 25 outworks, producing about
12,000 maiinds ; in Champaran, 7 large concerns, producing
also 12,000 maunds} The Behar Indigo Planters' Associa-
tion, the responsible mouthpiece of the Behar indigo interest,
has at present (1885) 73 factories belonging to the Associa-
tion in the Indigo Districts of Behar. Under these head
factories there are 220 out-factories, most of them in charge
of European assistants. The area under indigo cultivation in
the above concerns is approximately 250,000 acres, giving
employment to 75,900 persons, exclusive of a large staff
(Native and European) for management and supervision. The
estimated outlay, at the rate of a little over ^^3 per acre, is
about ;£"75o,ooo annually spent in the Districts.^ It has been
estimated that the total amount of money annually distributed
by the planters of Behar cannot be less than i million sterling.
in N.-W. Across the border of Bengal, in the North-Western Provinces,
Provinces ; indigo is grown and manufactured to a considerable extent by
native cultivators. In the Punjab, also, indigo is an important
native crop, especially in the Districts of Miiltdn, Muzaffargarh,
in Madras, and Dera Ghazi Khan. In Madras, the total area under
indigo is about 300,000 acres, grown and manufactured entirely
by the natives, chiefly in the north-east of the Presidency,
extending along the coast from Kistna to South Arcot, and
inland to Karntil and Cuddapah.
' The factory wa«;/fl' of indigo weighs 74 lbs. 10 oz.
* The author takes this opportunity of thanking Mr. E. Macnaghlf^n,
Officiating Secretary to the Behar Indigo Planters' Association, for the fore-
going figures, and for other valuable materials, referring to as late a period
as June 1885. They have, as far as possible, been incorporated in passing
these pages through the press.
HISTOR Y OF INDIAN INDIGO, 497
In 1877-78, the total export of indigo from all India was Indigo
120,605 cwts., valued at ;£3»494,334; in 1878-79, 105,051 ^''P°'^^-
cwts,, valued at ;^2, 960,463. In 1882-83, the export of
indigo was 141,041 cwts., of the value of ;^3,9i2,997.
In Bengal, indigo is usually grown on low-lying lands, with System of
sandy soil, and liable to annual inundation ; in Behar, on JJUu^ng.
comparatively high land. A common practice is for the
planter to obtain from the zamitiddr or landlord a lease of the
whole village area for a term of years ; and then to require the
rdyats or cultivators to grow indigo on a certain portion of
their farms every year, under a system of advances. The
seed, of which an excellent kind comes from Cawnpur, is
generally sown about March ; and the crop is ready for gather-
ing by the beginning of July. A second crop is sometimes
obtained in September. AVhen cut, the leaves are taken to the
factory, to be steeped in large vats for about ten hours until
the process of fermentation is completed. The water is then
run off into a second vat, and subjected to a brisk beating,
the effect of which is to separate the particles of dye and cause
them to settle at the bottom. Finally, the sediment is boiled,
strained, and made up into cakes for the Calcutta market.
In recent years, steam has been introduced into the factories
for two purposes : to maintain an equable temperature in the
vats while the preliminary process of fermentation is going on,
and to supersede by machinery the manual labour of beating.
In the middle of the present century, the abuses connected Indigo-
with indigo-planting became a serious problem for the Indian r^^'^'"^ '
Legislature. In some Districts, particularly in Lower Bengal,
in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, indigo-planting was worked
by a system of advances to the cultivators which plunged them
into a state of hopeless hereditary indebtedness to the planters.
The Land Law of 1859 (Act x.), by defining and improving
the legal status of the cultivator throughout Bengal, gave a
death-blow to this system in Districts in which it had been
abused. The results on indigo-planting in several Districts
around Calcutta have been described in a previous paragraph.
The system pursued in Behar had, from an early period, in Behar.
been different. Instead of compelling the cultivator to give
up his best lands to indigo by the pressure of hereditary in-
debtedness, the Behar planters to a large extent obtained lands
of their own on lease, or by purchase, and cultivated at their
own risk, or by hired labour. This system has, however, its own
complications, and for a time gave rise to strained relations
between the planters, the native landholders, and the tenants.
2 I
498
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Behar
Indigo
Planters'
Associa-
tion.
Opium,
in Bengal
and
Malwa.
in Raj-
l^utana.
Bengal
out-turn ;
1872;
and 1883.
In 1877, the Government of Bengal expressed dissatisfac-
tion at the condition of the Indigo Districts of Behar, and
proposed to issue a Commission of Inquiry. A responsible
Association was, however, formed by the planters themselves,
in communication with the Bengal Government, to readjust,
as far as necessary, the relations between the planters, native
landholders, and cultivators. The Association thus formed
has been productive of much good, both by preventing the
occurrence of disputes, and by arbitrating between the parties
when disputes arise. In 1881, the Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal publicly thanked the Association for its ' most cordial
and loyal co-operation in correcting the abuses which he had
occasion to mention in 1877.' The Annual Reports from
the District Officers since that year have been satisfactory.
During 1884, the Secretary to the Association stated that
every dispute referred to the Association had been amicably
adjusted. The relations between capital and labour and land
in overcrowded tracts, almost entirely dependent on the local
crops raised, are, however, always apt to be strained.
The opium of commerce is grown and manufactured in two
special tracts: (i) the valley of the Ganges round Patna and
Benares; and (2) a fertile table-land in Central India, correspond-
ing to the old kingdom of Mdlwa, for the most part still under
the rule of native chiefs, among whom Sindhia and Holkar rank
first. In Mdlwa, the cultivation of poppy is free, and the duty
is levied as the opium passes through the British Presidency of
Bombay ; in Bengal, the cultivation is a Government monopoly.
Opium is also grown for local consumption throughout Raj-
putana, and to a very limited extent in the Punjab and
the Central Provinces. Throughout the rest of India it is
absolutely prohibited. In the Ganges valley, the cultivation
is supervised from two agencies, with their head-quarters at
Patnd and Ghazipur, at which two towns alone the manufacture
is conducted.
In the year 1872, the Bengal area under poppy was
560,000 acres; the number of chests of opium sold was
42,675; the sum realized was ;£6,o67,7oi, giving a net
revenue of ;£^4,2 59,376. The whole of this was exported
from Calcutta to China and the Straits Settlements. In
1882-83, the number of chests of Bengal opium sold was
56,400, the sum realized was ^7,103,925, the net revenue
being ;^4,82i,7i2. The amount of opium exported from
Bombay raises the average exports of opium to about 11 or 12
millions sterling, of which about 7 or 8 millions represents net
profit to Government In 1878-79, 91,200 chests of opium
OPIUM MANUFA CTURE, 499
were exported from India, of the value of ;£i 2,993,985, of Total
which ;^7, 7 00,000 represented the net profit to Government, out-turn.
In 1882-83, 91,798 chests of Bengal and Mahva opium were
exported, of the value of ;;^i 1,481,379, of which ;£"7,2i6,778
represented the net profit to Government.
Under the Bengal system, annual engagements are entered Bengal
into by the cultivators to sow a certain quantity of land with g^^J^^ .
poppy ; and it is a fundamental principle that they may engage
or refuse to engage, as they please. As with most other Indian
industries, a pecuniary advance is made to the cultivator advances.
before he commences operations, to be deducted when he
delivers over the opium at the subordinate agencies. He is
compelled to make over his whole produce, being paid at a fixed
rate, according to quality. The best soil for poppy is high land
which can be easily manured and irrigated. The cultivation
requires much attention throughout From the commencement cultiva-
of the rains in June until October, the ground is prepared by '
repeated ploughing, weeding, and manuring. The seed is sown
in the first fortnight of November, and several waterings are
necessary before the plant reaches maturity in February.
After the plant has flowered, the first process is to remove manufac-
the petals, which are preserved, to be used afterwards as ^^^^'
coverings for the opium-cakes. The juice is then collected
during the month of March, by scarifying the capsules in
the afternoon with an iron instrument, and scraping off the
exudation next morning. The quality of the drug mainly
depends upon the skill with which this operation is performed.
In the beginning of April, the cultivators bring in their opium
to the subordinate agencies, where it is examined and weighed,
and the accounts are settled. The final process of preparing
the drug in balls for the Chinese market is conducted at the
two central agencies at Patna and Ghazipur. This generally
lasts until the end of July, but the balls are not dry enough
to be packed in chests until October.
Tobacco is grown in every District of India for local con- Tobacco
sumption. The soil and climate are favourable ; but the quality
of native cured tobacco is so inferior, as to scarcely find a
market in Europe. The principal tobacco-growing tracts are Chief
Rangpur and Tirhut in Bengal, Kaira in Bombay, the delta of to^^^^^^
the Godavari, and Coimbatore and Madura Districts in Madras.
The two last-mentioned Districts supply the raw material for the
well-known ' Trichinopoli cheroot,' almost the only form of
Indian tobacco that finds favour with Europeans ; the produce
of the Idnkds or alluvial islands in the Godavari is manufactured
into ' Coconadas.' The tobacco of Northern Bengal is largely
500
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Tobacco
trade ;
1877;
and 1883.
Tobacco-
curing.
Uncer-
tainty of
Indian
crop
statistics.
exported to British Burma ; for the Burmese, who are great
smokers, do not grow sufficient for their own needs. The
manufacture of tobacco in Madras, Burma, and Bengal, is now
making progress under European supervision, and promises to
supply an important new staple in the exports of India.
In 1876-77, the total registered imports of tobacco into Cal-
cutta from the inland Districts were 521,700 niaunds^s2X\iQ^ at
;£"2 6i,ooo, of which more than half came from the single District
of Rangpur. Tobacco is also grown for export in the Chitta-
gong Hill Tracts. The tobacco of Tirhut is chiefly exported
towards the west. The total area under tobacco in that District
is estimated at 40,000 acres, the best quality being grown in
pargand Saressa of the Tajpur Sub-division. In 1882-83, the
imports of tobacco from the inland Districts into Calcutta were
650,583 maujids, of an estimated value of ;^54o,6oi.
During the past ten years, a private firm, backed by Govern-
ment support, has been growing tobacco in Northern India,
and manufacturing it for the European market. The scene of
its operations is two abandoned stud-farms, at Ghazipur in the
North-Western Provinces, and at Pusa in Tirhut District,
Bengal. In 1878-79, about 240 acres were cultivated with
tobacco, the total crop being about 160,000 lbs. Five English
or American curers were employed. Some of the produce was
exported to England as 'cured leaf;' but the larger part was
put upon the Indian market in the form of 'manufactured
smoking mixture.' This mixture is in demand at regimental
messes and canteens, and has also found its way to Australia.
The enterprise may now be said to have passed beyond the
stage of experiment. An essential condition of success is
skilled supervision in the delicate process of tobacco-curing.
Tobacco to the value of ;^i28,33o was exported from India
in 1878-79, and to the value of ;^i 17,156 in 1882-83.
Before proceeding to crops of a special character, such as
coffee, tea, and cinchona, it may be well to give a general view
of the area covered by the staples of Indian agriculture. The
table on the opposite page must be taken as approximate only.
It represents, however, the best information available (1882-83).
Its figures show various changes from the estimates in 1875,
incorporated in some of the foregoing paragraphs. But it is
necessary to warn the reader, that Indian agricultural returns
do not always stand the test of statistical analysis. In most
cases the local returns have to be accepted without the possi-
bility of verification ; alike in the preceding pages, and in this
tabular statement. Steps are now being taken to secure a
higher degree of trustworthiness in such returns.
INDIAN CROP STATISTICS.
501
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502
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Coffee
area.
Introduc-
tion into
India.
Coffee. The cultivation of coffee is confined to Southern India,
although attempts have been made to introduce the plant
both into British Burma and into the Bengal District of
Chittagong. The coffee tract may be described as a section
of the landward slope of the Western Ghats, extending from
Kanara in the north to Travancore in the extreme south.
This tract includes almost the whole of Coorg, the Districts of
Kadur and Hassan in Mysore, and the Nilgiri Hills enlarged
by the recent annexation of the Wainad. Within the last
few years, the cultivation has extended to the Shevaroy Hills in
Salem District, and to the Palni Hills in Madura.
Unlike tea, coffee was not introduced into India by European
enterprise; and even to the present day its cultivation is
largely conducted by natives. The Malabar coast has always
enjoyed a direct commerce with Arabia, and yielded many
converts to Islam. One of these converts, Baba Budan, is said
to have gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and to have brought
back with him the coffee berry, which he planted on the hill
range in Mysore still called after his name. According to local
tradition, this introduction of the berry happened about two
centuries ago. The shrubs thus sown lived on, but the cultiva-
tion did not spread until the beginning of the present century.
The State of Mysore and the Baba Budan range also
witnessed the first opening of a coffee-garden by an English
planter about forty-five years ago. The success of this
experiment led to the extension of coffee cultivation into
the neighbouring tract of Manjar^bad, also in Mysore, and
into the Waind^d Sub-division of the Madras District of
Malabar. From 1840 to i860, the enterprise made slow-
progress ; but since the latter date, it has spread with
great rapidity along the whole line of the Western Ghats,
clearing away the primeval forest, and opening a new era of
prosperity to the labouring classes.
The following statistics relate to the years 1878 and
1882. In 1877-78, there were under coffee — in Mysore,
128,438 acres, almost confined to the two Districts of Hassan
and Kadur ; in Madras, 58,988 acres, chiefly in Malabar, the
Nflgiris, and Salem; in Coorg, 45,150 acres: total, 232,576
acres, exclusive of Travancore. In 1881-82, the latest year
for which statistics are available for Mysore, the total area
under coffee cultivation in that State was 159,165 acres; in
Madras (in 1882-83), 61,481 acres; and in Coorg, 48,150 acres.
The average out-turn is estimated at about 5 or 6 cwts. per
Exports, acre of mature plant. The total Indian exports (from Madras)
Its pro-
gress,
1840-60.
Coffee
statistics,
1878-82
area ;
COFFEE CULTIVATION, 503
in 1877-78 were 33,399>352 lbs., valued at ;£"i, 355,643, of Coffee^
which about one-half was consigned to the United Kingdom. igK"^^^*
In 1878-79, the exports amounted to 38,336,000 lbs., valued
at ;£i, 548,481. In 1882-83, the exports amounted to to 1883.
40,768,896 lbs., but the value had slightly decreased to
;£"i,4i9,i3i. The decrease in value was mainly due to a fall
in prices in London, owing to an overstocked market. Nearly
two-thirds of the coffee exports in 1882-83 were to the United
Kingdom, and over one-fourth to France.
Considerable judgment is required to select a suitable site Sites for
for a coffee-garden, for the shrub will only thrive under special wardens •
circumstances, which it is not very easy to anticipate before-
hand. It is essential that the spot should be sheltered from
the full force of the monsoon, and that the rainfall, though
ample, should not be excessive. The most desirable elevation elevation
is between 2500 and 3500 feet above sea-level. The climate
must be warm and damp, conditions which are not conducive
to the health of Europeans. Almost any kind of forest land
will do, but the deeper the upper stratum of decomposed
vegetable matter the better.
The site chosen for a garden is first cleared with the axe, clearing ;
of jungle and undergrowth, but sufficient timber-trees should
be left to furnish shade. In the month of December, the
berries are sown in a nursery, which has previously been
dug, manured, weeded, and watered as carefully as a garden.
Between June and August, the seedlings are planted out in
pits dug in prepared ground at regular intervals ; an operation cultiva-
which demands the utmost carefulness in order that the roots ^^^" *
may not be injured. In the first year, weeding only is
required ; in the second year, the shrubs are ' topped,' to keep
them at an average height of about three feet ; in the third
year they commence to bear, but it is not until the seventh
or eighth year that the planter is rewarded by a full crop.
The season for blossoming is March and April, when the
entire shrub burgeons in a snowy expanse of flower, with a
most delicate fragrance. Gentle showers or heavy mists at
this season contribute greatly to the fecundity of the blossoms.
The crop ripens in October and November. The berries picking ;
are picked by hand, and collected in baskets to be ' pulped ' on pulping ;
the spot. This operation is performed by means of a revolving
iron cylinder, fixed against a breastwork at such an interval that
only the ' beans ' proper pass through, while the husks are
rejected. The beans are then left to ferment for about twenty-
four hours, when their saccharine covering is washed off.
504
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Coffee
peeling.
Tea.
within the
now surpasses
Home ol
the tea-
plant,
Assam.
Discovered
1826.
State ex-
periments,
1834-49.
Private
Com-
panies,
1839-51.
After drying in the sun for six or eight days, they are ready to
be put in bags and despatched from the garden. But before
being shipped, they have yet to be prepared for the home
market. This is done at large coffee-works, to be found at the
western ports and in the interior of Mysore. The berries are
here ' peeled ' in an iron trough by broad iron wheels, worked
by steam power ; and afterwards ' winnowed,' graded, and
sorted for the market.
The cultivation of tea in India commenced
memory of men still living, and the industry
even indigo as a field for European capital. Unlike coffee-
planting, the enterprise owes its origin to the initiation of
Government, and it was slow to attract the attention of the
natives. Early travellers reported that the tea-plant was in-
digenous to the southern valleys of the Himalayas ; but they
were mistaken in the identity of the shrub, which was the
Osyris nepalensis. The real tea (Thea viridis), a plant akin
to the camellia, grows wild in Assam, being commonly found
throughout the hill tracts between the valleys of the Brahma-
putra and the Barak. It there sometimes attains the dimen-
sions of a large tree ; and from this, as well as from other
indications, it has been plausibly inferred that Assam is the
real home of the plant, which was thence introduced at a
prehistoric date into China.
The discovery of the tea-plant growing wild in Assam is
generally attributed to two brothers named Bruce, who brought
back specimens of the plant and the seed, after the conquest
of the Province from the Burmese in 1826. In January 1834,
under the Governor-Generalship of Lord William Bentinck, a
committee was appointed * for the purpose of submitting a
plan for the introduction of tea-culture into India.' In the
following year, plants and seed were brought from China, and
widely distributed throughout the country. Government itself
undertook the formation of experimental plantations in Upper
Assam, and in the sub-Himdlayan Districts of Kumdun and
Garhw^l in the North- Western Provinces. A party of skilled
manufacturers was brought from China, and the leaf which they
prepared was favourably reported upon in the London market.
Forthwith private speculation took up the enterprise.
The Assam Tea Company, still the largest, was formed in
1839, and received from the Government an extensive grant
of land, with the nurseries which had been already laid out. In
Kumdun, retired members of the civil and military services
came forward with equal eagerness. Many fundamental mis-
I
HISTOR Y OF INDIAN TEA-PLANTING. 505
takes as to site, soil, and methods of manufacture were made
in those early days, and bitter disappointment was the chief
result. But while private enterprises languished, Government
steadily persevered. It retained a portion of its Assam
gardens in its own hands until 1849, when the Assam Com-
pany began to emerge from their difficulties. Government
also carried on the business at Kumaun, under the able
management of Dr. Jameson, as late as 1855.
The real progress of tea-planting on a great scale in Rapid
Assam dates from about 185 1, and was greatly assisted by the ^0°^^^*
promulgation of the Waste -Land Rules of 1854. By 1859
there were already 5 1 gardens in existence, owned by private
individuals ; and the enterprise had extended from its original
head-quarters in Lakhimpur and Sibsagar as far down the Brah-
maputra as Kamriip. In 1856 the tea-plant was discovered
wild in the District of Cachar in the Barak valley, and Euro- Cachar.
pean capital was at once directed to that quarter. At about
the same time, tea-planting was introduced into the neighbour-
hood of the Himalayan sanitarium of Darjiling, among the Darjiling.
Sikkim Himalayas.
The success of these undertakings engendered a wild
spirit of speculation in tea companies, both in India and
at home, which reached its climax in 1865. The industry Crisis of
recovered but slowly from the effects of the disastrous crisis, ^^^5-
and did not again reach a stable position until 1869. Since
that date it has rapidly but steadily progressed, and has been
ever opening new fields of enterprise. At the head of the Bay Subse-
of Bengal in Chittagong District, side by side with coffee on ^i^story
the Nilgiri Hills, on the forest-clad slopes of Chutia Nagpur,
amid the low-lying jungle of the Bhutan Dwdrs, and even in
Arakan, the energetic pioneers of tea-planting have established
their industry. Different degrees of success may have rewarded
them, but in few cases have they abandoned the struggle.
The market for Indian tea is practically inexhaustible. There
is no reason to suppose that all the suitable localities have
yet been tried; and we may look forward to the day when
India will not only rival, but supersede, China in her staple
product.
The total exports of tea in 1877-78 from British Indian Statistics
ports amounted to 33I million lbs., valued at a little over 3 "g^"^^^"
millions sterling. During the next five years the exports 187*7-78 lo
had risen to 58 J million lbs. in 1882-83, valued at 3I 1882-83.
millions sterling. The detailed figures for all India, including
exports across the frontier by land, will be presently given.
5o6
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Provincial
.statistics
of tea,
1878.
Assam.
Bengal.
N.-W.
Provinces.
Punjab.
Madras.
Provincial
statistics
of tea,
1882-83.
Assam.
The progress of the tea industry in the various Provinces
may best be illustrated by a review of the statistics of the
production in the two years 1877-78 and 1882-83.
In 1877-88, the total area taken up for tea in Assam,
including both the Brahmaputra and the Barak valleys, was
736,082 acres, of which 538,961 acres were fit for cultivation;
the total number of separate estates was 17 18; the total out-
turn was 23,352,298 lbs., at the average rate of 286 lbs. per
acre under mature plant. In Bengal, the area taken up was
62,642 acres, of which 20,462 acres were under mature plant,
including 18,120 acres in the single District of Darjiling;
the number of gardens was 221; the out-turn was 5,768,654
lbs., at the rate of 282 lbs. per acre under mature plant.
In the North -Western Provinces there were, in 1876, 25
estates in the Districts of Kumaun and Garhwal, with an
out-turn of 578,000 lbs., of which 350,000 lbs. were sold in
India to Central Asian merchants; and in 187 1, 19 estates in
Dehra Diin, with 2024 acres under tea, and an out-turn of
297,828 lbs. In the Punjab there were, in 1878, 10,046
acres under tea, almost entirely confined to Kdngra District,
with an out-turn of 1,113,106 lbs., or in lbs. per acre. In
Madras, the area under tea on the Nilgiris was 3160 acres;
the exports from the Presidency were 183,178 lbs., valued at
In 1882-83, the area actually under cultivation in Assam
was 178,851 acres, of which 156,707 acres were under mature,
and 22,144 acres under immature plant. Besides the area
already occupied with tea, some 600,000 acres have been
taken up for plantation purposes, and immense tracts yet un-
touched are still available. The present (1884) depressed
state of the tea market, due, it is said, to over-production and
attention to quantity rather than to quality, has, however,
for the present checked the further appropriation of land for
tea. The total out-turn from 1017 tea estates in Assam in
1882-83 is returned at 45,472,941 lbs., of which 28,089,805
lbs. were manufactured in the Brahmaputra valley or Assam
proper, and 17,383,136 lbs. in the Surmd valley Districts of
Cachar and Sylhet. Average out-turn, 290 lbs. per acre of
mature plant. The figures given above for 1882-83 show a
larger area under plant, and a very considerable increase
in out-turn, over that of any previous year. Approximate
value of tea exports from Assam into Bengal, ;£2,232,524.
In Bengal the area under tea cultivation in 1882-83 was
48,091 acres, of which 36,079 acres were under mature, and
INDIAN TEA STATISTICS, 1878-83. 507
12,012 acres under immature plant. There were also 46,093 Bengal,
acres taken up for tea, but not actually under plant. The
total number of plantations was 300, with an out-turn of
11,170,564 lbs., being at the rate of 309 lbs. per acre of
mature plant. More than three-fourths of the Bengal tea
come from Darjiling and Jalpaiguri Districts, on the lower
slopes or submontane tracts of the Himalayas. The cultiva-
tion, however, is rapidly extending in other localities, as in
Chittagong, on the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, and in the
elevated plateau of Chutia Nagpur. In the Punjab, out of Punjab.
11,058 acres under tea in 1882-83, no fewer than 10,075 acres
were in Kangra District. The total out-turn in 1882-83 is
not returned, but may be estimated at about a million lbs.
In Madras, 5337 acres were under tea in 1882-83, but the Madras,
out-turn is not .stated, although the exports amounted to
309,548 lbs., valued at ^32,905.
The following figures exhibit the exports of tea in 1878 and Tea
1883. In 1877-78, the total export of tea by sea from British j^jglnd
India amounted to 33,656,715 lbs., valued at ;£"3,o6i,867. In 1883.
1882-83 the amount was 58,233,345 lbs., valued at ;£"3,7 38,842.
With the exception of Madras, which exported 309,548 lbs. of
tea in 1882, valued at ;£^3 2,905, and Chittagong, at which an
export trade in tea has sprung up, the whole exports of
Indian tea are shipped from Calcutta. The bulk of the tea
goes to the United Kingdom, which absorbed 53,415,603 lbs.,
valued at ;£^3, 389,406, from Bengal in 1882-83. The Calcutta
Tea Syndicate, established a few years ago with a view
to opening new markets for Indian tea, has succeeded in
establishing a firm, and it is hoped an increasing trade in tea
with the Australian colonies and the United States. Exports to
Australia, which in 1881-82 amounted to 871,913 lbs., valued
at ^£^63,404, were forced up in 1882-83 to 2,713,268 lbs.,
valued at ;£"i77,i67. Similarly, the exports to the United States
increased from 195,686 lbs., valued at ^^14,675 in 1881-82,
to 671,264 lbs., valued at ;£5o,988 in 1882-83. The effect
of this sudden expansion of trade, however, was to temporarily
overstock the market, and shipments in some cases resulted
in a loss. The trans-frontier export from the Punjab into
Central Asia has steadily decreased of late years ; and in
1882-83, the exports of Indian tea across the Punjab frontier
was only 488,200 lbs., valued at ;^29,924, as against an
export of 1,217,840 lbs., valued at ;^i8i,634, in 1877-78.
Excluding the figures given for Madras, the whole of the Port of
Indian tea is shipped from the port of Calcutta, and shipment.
5o8
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Tea culti-
vation.
Varieties
of the tea-
plant.
Seed.
Sites for
tea-
gardens.
Soil.
Work of
a tea-
garden ;
flushes
almost the whole was, till recently, sent to the United
Kingdom.
The processes of cultivation and manufacture are very similar
throughout the whole of India, with the exception that in Upper
India the leaf is prepared as green tea for the markets of
Central Asia. Three main varieties are recognised — Assam,
China, and hybrid. The first is the indigenous plant, some-
times attaining the dimensions of a tree; yielding a strong
and high-priced tea, but difficult to rear. The China variety,
originally imported from that country, is a short bushy shrub,
yielding a comparatively weak tea and a small out-turn per
acre. The third variety is a true hybrid, formed by crossing the
two other species. It combines the qualities of both in vary-
ing proportions, and is the kind most sought after by planters.
In all cases, the plant is raised from seed, which in size
and appearance resembles the hazel-nut. The seeds are sown
in carefully prepared nurseries in December and January, and
at first require to be kept shaded. About April, the seedlings
are sufficiently grown to be transplanted, an operation which
continues into July.
The site selected for a tea-garden should be well-drained
and comparatively elevated land; as it is essential that
water should not lodge round the roots of the plants. In
Assam, which may be taken as the typical tea district, the most
favourite situation is the slopes of low hills, that everywhere
rise above the marshy valleys. On the summit may be seen
the neat bungalow of the planter, lower down the coolie lines,
while the tea bushes are studded in rows with mathematical
precision all round the sides. The best soil is virgin forest
land, rich in the decomposed vegetable matter of ages. Great
pains are expended to prevent this fertile mould from being
washed away by the violence of the tropical rains. In bringing
new land into condition, the jungle should be cut down in
December, and burned on the spot in February. The ground
is then cleaned by the plough or the hoe, and marked out for
the seedlings by means of stakes planted at regular intervals of
about 4 feet from each other.
For the first two years, the work of the planter is to keep
the young shrubs clear of weeds. Afterwards, it is neces-
sary to prune the luxuriance of the bushes in the cold season
every year. The prunings should be buried round the
roots of the plant for manure. The plants begin to come into
bearing in the third year, and gradually reach their maximum
yield in their tenth year. The produce consist of the * flushes '
I
THE WORK OF A TEA-GARDEA. 509
or successive shoots of young leaves and buds, which first
appear in the beginning of the rainy season. There are
from five to seven full flushes in the season from March to
November. The bushes are picked about every ten days by picking ;
women and children, who are paid by weight on bringing their
baskets to the factory, when the operation of manufacture
forthwith begins.
The leaf is first spread out lightly on trays or mats in 'wither-
order that it may * wither,' i.e. become limp and flaccid. ^"S ;
Under favourable conditions, this result is effected in a single
night; but sometimes the natural process has to be accelerated
by exposure to the sun or by means of artificial heat. The
next operation is known as ' rolling,' performed either by the rolling ;
manual labour of coolies or by machinery. The object of
this is to twist and compress the leaf into balls, and set up
fermentation. The final stage is to arrest fermentation by clr}'ing ;
drying, which may be effected in many ways, usually by the
help of machinery. The entire process of manufacture after
* withering,' does not take more than about four hours and a
half. All that now remains is to sort the tea in sieves, sorting,
according to size and quality, thus distinguishing the various
grades from Flowery Pekoe to Broken Congou, and to pack it
for shipment in the well-known tea chests.
The introduction of the quinine - yielding cinchona into Cinchona.
India is a remarkable example of success rewarding the in- Clements
defatigable exertions of a single man. When Mr. Clements jgeJ)^^^"''
Markham undertook the task of transporting the seedlings from
South America to India in i860, cinchona had never before been
reared artificially. The experiment in arboriculture has not
only been successfully conducted, but it has proved remunerative
from a pecuniary point of view. A cheap febrifuge has been
provided for the fever-stricken population of the Indian plains^
while the surplus bark sold in Europe more than repays interest
upon the capital expended. These results have been produced
from an expenditure of about ;^ioo,ooo.
The head-quarters of cinchona cultivation in Southern Nilgiri
India are on the Nilgiri Hills, where Government owns four Y-^^'
^ . tions.
plantations, from which seeds and plants are annually
distributed to the public in large quantities; and there are
already several private plantations, rivalling the Government
estates in area, and understood to be very valuable pro-
perties. The varieties of cinchona most commonly cultivated Varieties,
are C. officinalis and C. succirubra; but experiments are
Sio AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
being conducted with C. calisaya, C. pubescens, C. lanceolata,
and C. pitayensis. Now that the success of the enterprise is
secure, the Madras Government is curtailing its own opera-
tions. No fresh land is being taken up, but the plantations are
kept free from weeds. The quinologist's department has been
abolished, and the bark is sold in its raw state.
Spread of From the central establishment of the Government on
^* the Nilgiris, cinchona has been introduced into the Palni
Hills in Madura District, into the Wainad, and into the
State of Travancore. The total area under cinchona in Govern-
ment and private plantations in 1882-83 was 2607 acres.
Plantations have also been opened by Government near
in Merkara in Coorg, on the Baba Budan Hills in Mysore, and
\^^V^ in Tsit-taung (Sitang) District in British Burma. Failure has
attended the experiments made at Mahabaleshwar in the
Bombay Presidency, and at Nongklao in the Khasi Hills,
Assam.
in Bengal. But the success of the Government plantation at Darjiling,
in Northern Bengal, rivals that of the original plantation on
the Nilgiris. The area has been gradually extended, and the
bark is manufactured into quinine on the spot by a Govern-
ment quinologist. The species mostly grown is C. succirubra,
which yields a red-coloured bark, rich in its total yield of
alkaloids, but comparatively poor in quinine proper. Efforts
are being made to increase the cultivation of C. calisaya, which
yields the more valuable bark ; but this species is difficult to
propagate.
The febrifuge, as issued by the Bengal Government, is in the
form of a white powder, containing the following alkaloids : —
Cinchona. Quinine, cinchonidine, cinchonine, quinamine, and what is
^ ^^ ^* known as amorphous alkaloid. It has been authoritatively
described as ' a perfectly safe and efficient substitute for
quinine in all cases of ordinary intermittent fever.' It has
been substituted for imported quinine, in the proportion of
three-fourths to one-fourth, at all the Government dispensaries,
by which measure alone an economy of more than ^20,000
a year has been achieved ; and it is now eagerly sought after
by private druggists from every part of the country.
Cinchona The following show the out-turn and financial results of the two
1877-78^* large Government plantations in 1877-78 and in 1882-83 :— Ii^
1877-78, the crop on the Nilgiris gave 138,808 lbs. of bark, of
which 132,951 lbs. were shipped to England, and the rest
supplied to the Madras and Bombay medical departments.
At Darjfling, the crop in 1877-78 amounted to 344,225 lbs.
I
CINCHONA STATISTICS, 1882-83. 511
of bark, which was all handed over to the quinologist, and
yielded 5162 lbs. of the febrifuge.
In 1882-83, the four Government plantations on the Nilgiri Cinchona
Hills comprised a total area of 847 acres, with 765,763 full- ^gg^^g^'
grown plants. The total out-turn of bark (exclusive of stocks
in hand) was 129,713 lbs. The quantity shipped to the home
market was 62,518 lbs., realizing ;£"9768, while 69,327 lbs.
were sold locally by public auction, realizing ;£"to,639, or an
average of 3s. i^d. per lb. The total proceeds from the
Nilgiri plantations in 1882-83, including sale of seeds, plants,
etc, was ;^2o,842 ; expenditure, ;£^8335, leaving a profit of
;£i 2,507. In the Government plantations in Darjiling District,
the area in 1882 was 2294 acres, with 4,711,168 full-grown
plants. The out-turn of the year, 396,980 lbs. of dry bark, was
the heaviest ever yielded. By far the greater proportion was
converted locally into cinchona febrifuge by the Government
quinologist, while about 42,000 lbs. of bark were forwarded to
London at the request of the Secretary of State, to be there
converted into various forms of febrifuge, and returned to
India for trial by the Medical Department. The revenue Profits of
derived from the Darjiling sales to the public, to the medical ^^il?'^°"^»
and other departments, and from sale of seeds, plants, etc.,
amounted to ;£"i5,28o in 1882-83, ^^^ operations of the year
resulting in a direct profit of ;^6628, equal to a dividend of
6h per cent, on the capital outlay. Total profit from the
Nilgiri and Darjiling plantations in 1882-83, £^9y^ZS'
These profits, however, do not represent the whole of the Indirect
gains. In Bengal alone, the cost of an equal quantity ofP'^°^^^*
quinine would have amounted to ;£4o,i32, while the cost of
the febrifuge produced was only ;!^6898, showing a saving of
^33,234. The total saving effected since the opening of the
factories up till the end of the year 1882-83, is stated to be
^£"235, 000, or more than double the cost of the plantations.
Besides the Government cinchona estates, a number of private
plantations have been established, covering an area of about
2500 acres, with about 2§ millions of full-grown plants.
Sericulture in India is a stationary, if not a declining industry, giik.
The large production in China, Japan, and the Mediter-
ranean countries controls the European markets ; and on an
average of years, the imports of raw silk into India exceed
the exports. The East India Company from the first took The Corn-
great pains to foster the production of silk. As early as P^^^'^.„
1767, two years after the grant of the financial administration factories.
of Bengal had been conferred upon the Company, we find
512 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
the Governor, Mr. Verelst, personally urging the zamindajs,
gathered at Murshidabad for the ceremony of the Punyd, ' to
give all possible encouragement to the cultivation of mulberry.'
Italian In 1769, a colony of reelers was brought from Italy to teach
176^^' the system followed in the filatures at Novi. The first silk
prepared after the Italian method reached England in 1772,
and Bengal silk soon became an important article of export.
Similar efforts started at Madras in 1793 were abandoned
after a trial of five years. The silk-worm is said to have been
Tipu s ex- introduced into Mysore by Tipu Sultan, and for many years
periments, continued to prosper. But recently the Mysore worms have
been afflicted by an epidemic ; and despite the enterprise
of an Italian gentleman, who imported fresh breeds from
Japan, the business has dwindled to insignificance.
Bengal Bengal has always been the chief seat of mulberry cultiva-
factories, ^ion. When the trading operations of the Company ceased in
1833, they owned 11 head factories in that Province, each
supplied by numerous filatures, to which the cultivators brought
in their cocoons. The annual export of raw silk from Calcutta
was then about i million lbs. But in those days the weaving
of silk formed a large portion of the business of the factories.
In 1779, Rennel wrote that at Kasimbazar alone about 400,000
lbs. weight of silk was consumed in the local European
factories. In 1802, Lord Valentia describes Jangipur as 'the
greatest silk station of the Company, with 600 furnaces, and
giving employment to 3000 persons.' Under the new Charter
of 1833, the Company's silk trade and its commerce with China
were to cease. But it could not suddenly throw out of employ-
ment the numbers of people employed upon silk production,
and its factories were not entirely disposed of until 1837.
Silk area When the Company abandoned the trade on its own
of Bengal, account, sericulture was taken up by private enterprise, and
still clings to its old head-quarters. At the present time, the
cultivation of the mulberry is mainly confined to the Rdjshahi
and Bardwdn Divisions of Lower Bengal. This branch of agri-
culture, together with the rearing of the silk-worms, is conducted
by the peasantry themselves, who are free to follow or abandon
the business. The destination of the cocoons is twofold.
They may either be sent to small native filatures, where the
silk is roughly wound, and usually consumed in the hand-looms
of the country ; or they may be brought to the great European
factories, which generally use steam machinery, and consign
their produce direct to Europe.
The exports vary considerably from year to year, being
SILK STATISTICS, 1878-83. 513
determined partly by the local yield, and still more by the
prices ruling in Europe. The following are the returns for
1877-78 and 1882-83. In 1877-78, about ij million lbs.
of silk were exported, viz. : — Raw silk, 658,000 lbs. ; chasan. Silk
or the outer covering of the cocoon, 823,000 lbs. ; the aggre- ^^o*?^oo'
gate value was ^^750,439. Jn the same year,, the imports of
raw silk (chiefly received at Bombay and Rangoon) were a
little over 2 million lbs., valued at ;^678,o69. By 1882-83,
the imports of raw and manufactured silk had considerably
exceeded the exports of the Indian production. In that year
the exports of raw silk amounted to only 665,838 lbs., valued
^t ^£596,836, besides silk manufactures valued at ;£"3o6,928.
On the other hand, the imports of foreign silk into British
Indian ports in the same year amounted to 2,386,150 lbs.,
valued at ;^ 1,0 74, 156, besides 9,671,261 yards of manufactured
silk, and 2989 lbs. of silk thread, valued at ;^977,768.
The cultivation of the mulberry is chiefly carried on in the Ben- Mulberry
gal Districts of Rajshahi, Bogra, Maldah,Murshidabad, Birbhum, 1"^ Ben^ar
Bardwan, and Midnapur. No complete statistics are available,
but in Rajshahi alone the area under mulberry is estimated at
80,000 acres. The mulberry grown as food for the silk-worms
is not the fruit-tree with which we are familiar in England,
but a comparatively small shrub. Any fairly good land that does
not grow rice will grow mulberry. But the shrubs must be pre-
served from floods ; and the land generally requires to be arti-
ficially raised in square plots, with broad trenches between, like
a chess-board. The mulberry differs from most Indian crops
in being a perennial, i.e. it will yield its harvest of leaves for
several years in succession, provided that care be taken to
preserve it. It is planted between the months of November
and January. Three growths of silk-worms are usually obtained
in the year — in November, March, and August.
Besides the silk-worm proper (Bombyx mori), fed upon the Jungle
mulberry, several other species of silk-yielding worms abound ^^^^^ >
in the jungles of India, and are utilized, and in some cases
domesticated, by the natives. Throughout Assam, especially,
an inferior silk is produced in this way, which has from time
immemorial furnished the common dress of the people.
These ' wild silks ' are known to commerce under the generic
name of tasar or tusser, but they are really the produce oiitasar).
several distinct varieties of worm, fed on many different trees.
The worm that yields tasar silk in Chutia Nagpur has been in Bengal ;
identified as the caterpillar of Antheroea paphia. When wild,
it feeds indiscriminately upon the sal (Shorea robusta), the
2 K
514 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
haer (Zizyphus jujuba), and other forest trees ; but in a state
of semi-domestication, it is exclusively reared upon the dsan
(Terminalia tomentosa), which grows conveniently in clumps.
The cocoons are sometimes collected in the jungle, but more
frequently bred from an earlier generation of jungle cocoons.
The worms require constant attention while feeding, to protect
them from crows and other birds. They give three crops in
the year — in August, November, and May — of which the
second is by far the most important,
in Central The tasar silk-worm is also found and utilized throughout
Provinces ; ^^ Central Provinces, in the hills of the Bombay Presidency,
and along the southern slopes of the Himalayas. During the
past twenty years, repeated attempts have been made to raise
this industry out of its precarious condition, and to introduce
tasar silk into the European market. That the raw material
abounds is certain ; but the great difficulty is to obtain it in a
state which will be acceptable to European manufacturers.
Native spun tasar thread is only fit for native hand-looms. In
in Assam. Assam, two distinct qualities of silk are made, the erid and mugd.
The former is obtained from the cocoons of Phalcena cynthia ;
and the worm is fed, as the native name implies, upon the
leaves of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis). This variety
may be said to be entirely domesticated, being reared indoors.
Mugd silk is obtained from the cocoons of Saturnia assamungis.
The moth, which is remarkable for its size, is found wild in
the jungle ; but the breed is so far domesticated that cocoons
are brought from ©ne part of the Province to another, and the
siun tree is artificially propagated to supply the worms with food.
Lac. The collection of lac is in a somewhat similar position to
that of tasar silk. The lac insect abounds on certain jungle
trees in every part of the country ; and from time immemorial
it has been collected by the wild tribes, in order to be worked
up into lacquered ware. But European enterprise has not yet
placed the industry upon a stable and an organized basis.
Although lac is to be found everywhere, foreign exporta-
tion is almost entirely confined to Calcutta, which draws its
supplies from the hills of Chutia Ndgpur, and in a less degree
from Assam and Mirzapur in the North-Western Provinces.
Lac is known to commerce both as a gum (shell-lac) and as a
Lac dye. In 1878, the total exports of lac of all kinds were
fsys'S'; '^'^'^ly cwts., valued at ;^362,244. In 1879, the total ex-
' ports were 91,985 cwts., valued at ;£'3oo,o72. In 1882-83,
the exports of lac of all kinds was 138,844 cwts., of the value
of;^699,ii3.
LA C-D YE AND SHELL-LA C. 515
Lac {Idk) is a cellular, resinous incrustation of a deep orange Descrip-
colour, secreted by an insect (Coccus lacca) round the branches ^'°" ° ^^*
of various trees, chiefly kiisiim (Schleichera trijuga), palds
(Butea frondosa), pipal (Ficus religiosa), and baer (Zizyphus
jujuba). The principal component is resin, forming about 60
or 70 per cent., from which is manufactured the shell-lac of Shell-lac.
commerce. Lac-dye is obtained from the small cells of the Lac-dye.
incrustration, and is itself a portion of the body of the female
insect The entire incrustation, while still adhering to the
twig, is called stick-lac. In order to obtain the largest quantity Stick-lac.
of dye, the stick-lac should be gathered before the young come
out, which happens twice in the year — in January and July.
The dye is first extracted by repeated processes of washing
and straining, while the shell-lac is worked up from what
remains in a hot and semi-liquid state.
For all articles in which a fast colour is not required, lac-dye Uses of
can never compete with the cheaper and less permanent J^c-dye.
aniline dyes ; while for more lasting colours, cochineal is
preferred. Lac-dye, however, is said to be superior even to
cochineal in resisting the action of human perspiration ; and
it is probable that in the event of ^the supply of cochineal
falling off, lac-dye might be used in its stead to produce the
regimental scarlet. It has largely replaced cochineal of late
years in dyeing officers' coats ; and a further extension of its use
for similar purposes seems possible. The chief establishment
in India for manufacturing lac was for long near Doranda,
in Lohardaga District, Chutia Nagpur, to which stick-lac is
brought in from all the country round as far as the Central
Provinces. The annual out-turn is about 6000 cwts. of shell-
lac, made from double that quantity of raw material. In
1877-78, this factory had for a time to cease working, owing
to the depressed state of the market in Europe.
The efforts of Government to improve the native methods Model
of agriculture, by the establishment of model farms under ^^^^'
skilled European supervision, have not been generally suc-
cessful In too many cases, the skilled agriculturists from
Europe have been gardeners rather than farmers. In other
cases, believing only in their own maxims of high cultivation
— deep ploughing, subsoil drainage, manuring, and rotation
of crops — they have despised the ancient rules of native
experience, and have not adapted their Western learning to
the circumstances of a tropical countr}\ Nevertheless, many
5i6 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS,
valuable experiments have been made, and much information,
chiefly of a negative character, has been gained.
The small The Government model farms have been abandoned in
auairfed Bengal, in Assam, and in the Punjab. In the N orth-Western
Provinces, the propagation of flowers, fruits, vegetables, and trees
is still prosecuted (1885). In Bombay there are (or were lately)
three model farms ; and in the Central Provinces one, on which
the common crops of the country are raised at a loss. The
Saiddpet (Sydapet) farm, near the city of Madras, is the only
establishment at which experiments have been conducted on
a scale and with a perseverance sufficient to yield results of
Saidapet value. This farm was started by a former Governor, Sir
William Denison, in 1865, and has been for the past thirteen
years under the able management of Mr. Robertson, Agricul-
tural Reporter to the Madras Government. It covered in
1884 an area of 300 acres in a ring fence, of which 139
acres were under crop, and 36 acres under timber, chiefly
casuarina. Important experiments have been made, of which
some produced encouraging results, indicating the general
direction in which improvements may be effected in the agri-
cultural practice of the Presidency. It has been proved that
many of the common ' dry crops ' can be profitably cultivated
for fodder at all seasons of the year. Those most strongly
recommended are yellow cholam (Sorghum vulgare), guinea
grass (Panicum jumentosum), and horse-gram (Dolichus
biflorus). Sugar-cane and rice also yield excellent fodder,
when cut green. Attention has been given to subsoil drainage,
deep ploughing, the fertilizing powers of various manures,
and the proper utilization of irrigation water.
It is right to mention, however, that doubts are entertained
as to whether the results of the experiments at the Madras
Government Farm are equal to the outlay upon them. [Since
these pages went to press, the farming operations at Saiddpet
have been given up, except so far as required for the practical
instruction of agricultural pupils.] A School of Agriculture
has been established at Saidapet, in connection with the
model farm, with subordinate branches in the Districts, so as
to diffuse as widely as possible the agricultural lessons that
have been already learned. At the end of 1882-83, ^^ school
was attended by 69 pupils. In 1882-83, the expenditure
on the farm was returned at ;£"io83, as against receipts
amounting to ;£"559. The expenditure on the School of
Agriculture in the same year was ;£"2484, against receipts
amounting to only £^ZZ'> 8s.
PROBLEM OF IMPROVED TILLAGE. 517
To many it seems doubtful whether such experiments can Is success
be made to yield profitable results. The Hindu Patriot put P^^s^^^^'*
the case in very pithy words : ' The native cultivators have
nothing to learn so far as non-scientific agriculture is
concerned, and the adoption of scientific agriculture is wholly
beyond their means.' If the only alternative lay between a
strictly scientific and an altogether unscientific husbandry, a
candid observer would have to concur in the Hifidu Patriot's
conclusion. But the choice is not thus limited. In England
one little improvement takes place in one district, another
small change for the better in another. Strictly scientific The pro-
farmin^ trebles the produce: a field which produces 7^0 lbs. J^l^^^ of
/- 1 • 1 1 1 -11 ,, , improved
ot wheat without manure can be made to yield 2342 lbs. by husbandry.
manure. But the native of India has neither the capital nor
the knowledge required to attain this result. If, therefore, the
problem before him was to increase his crops threefold, even
his best wishers might despair of his success. But the task
before him is a much less ambitious one ; namely, to gradually
increase by perhaps 10 or 20 per cent, the produce of his
fields, and not by 300 per cent, at a stroke.
Wheat land in the North- Western Provinces, which now Out-turn
gives only 840 lbs. an acre, yielded 1140 lbs. in the time of o^'^'^op^-
Akbar, and would be made to produce 1800 lbs. in East
Norfolk. The average return of food-grains in India shows
about 700 lbs. per acre; in England, wheat averages over
1700 lbs. Mr. Hume, the late Secretary to the Government
of India in its Department of Agriculture, declares, that
* with proper manuring and proper tillage, every acre, broadly
speaking, of land in the country can be made to yield 30, 50,
or 70 per cent, more of every kind of crop than it at present
produces ; and with a fully corresponding increase in the
profits of cultivation.'
The first impediment to better husbandry is the fewness and The three
weakness of the cattle. * Over a great portion of the Empire,' ^™P^^i-
writes the late Secretary to the Agricultural Department in (i) Want
India, ' the mass of the cattle are starved for six weeks every of cattle.
year. The hot winds roar, every green thing has disappeared,
no hot-weather forage is grow^n ; the last year's fodder has
generally been consumed in keeping the well-bullocks on their
legs during the irrigation of the spring crops ; and all the
husbandman can do is just to keep his poor brutes alive on
the chopped leaves of the few trees and shrubs he has access
to, the roots of grass and herbs that he digs out of the edges
of fields, and the like. In good years, he just succeeds ; in
5i8 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
bad years, the weakly ones die of starvation. But then come
the rains. Within the week, as though by magic, the burning
sands are carpeted with rank, hiscious herbage, the cattle will
eat and over-eat; and millions die of one form or other of
cattle disease, springing out of this starvation followed by
sudden repletion with rank, juicy, immature herbage.' Mr.
Hume estimates * the average annual loss of cattle in India
by preventable disease' at lo million beasts, worth 7 J millions
sterling. He complains that, up to the time when he wrote,
no real attempt had been made to bring veterinary knowledge
within reach of the people, or to organize a system of village
plantations which would feed their cattle through the summer.
The Department of Agriculture, as re-established under Lord
Ripon's Government, has endeavoured lo remedy these
omissions, particularly in regard to the diffusion of veterinary
knowledge. The statistics and breeds of agricultural stock will
be given on^ a subsequent page.
(2) Want The second impediment to improved husbandry is the want
manuie. ^^ manure. If there were more stock, there would be more
manure ; and the absence of firewood compels the people to
use up even the droppings of their cattle for fuel. Under
such circumstances,- agriculture ceases to be the manufacture
of food, and becomes a mere spoliation of the soil. Forage
crops, such as lucerne, guinea-grass, and the great stemmed
millets, might furnish a large supply of cattle food per acre.
Government is considering whether their cultivation could
not be promoted by reducing the irrigation rates on green
fodder crops. A system of village plantations would not only
supply firewood, but would yield leaves and an undergrowth
of fodder sufficient to tide the cattle over their six weeks'
struggle for life each summer. In some Districts, Govern-
ment has land of its own which it could thus plant; in
others, it is only a' sleeping partner in the soil. In Switzer-
land, the occupiers of allmends^ or communal lands, are, at
least in some cantons, compelled by law to keep up a certain
number of trees. It seems a fair question whether plantations
ought not in many parts of India to be made an incident of
the land tenure. They would go far to solve the two funda-
mental difficulties of Indian agriculture — the loss of cattle, and
the want of manure. The system of State Forestry at present
pursued will be described in a subsequent section.
Utiliza- Meanwhile, the natives set an increasing value on manure.
tion of Thg great cities are being converted from centres of disease
manure. . ° c r ^ y -r- .• . -v
mto sources of food-supply. For a tmie, caste prejudices
WANT OF MANURE AND WATER, 519
stood in the way of utilizing the night-soil. ' Five years ago,'
writes the Secretary to the Poona Municipality, * agriculturists
would not touch the poudrette when prepared, and could not
be induced to take it away at even a nominal charge. At
present, the out-turn of manure is not enough to keep pace
with the demand, and the peasants buy it up from four to six
months in advance.' At Amritsar, in the Punjab, 30,000
donkey-loads were sold in one year. A great margin still
exists for economy, both in the towns and villages; but the
husbandman is becoming more alive to the utilization of every
source of manure, and his prejudices are gradually giving way
under the stern pressure of facts.
The third impediment to improved agriculture in India is (3) Want
the want of water. Sir J. Caird believes- that if only one-third °^ ^^^^^'
of the cultivated area were irrigated^ India would be secure
against famine. An extension of irrigation would alone suffice
to raise the food-supply annually by mo?e than \\ per cent, in
most years ; and thus more than keep pace with the general
increase of the population. Since India passed to the Crown,
great progress has been made in this direction. Money has
been invested by millions of pounds ; 200 millions of acres are
now under cultivation ; and in the five British Provinces which
require it most, 28 per cent of the cultivated area, or say one-
third, was in 1883 artificially supplied with water. Those
Provinces are the Punjab, the North-West, Oudh, Sind, and
Madras. Looking to what has of late years been done, and
to what yet remains to be done by wells and petty works with
the aid of loans from the State, we may still reckon on a vast
increase of food from irrigation. The pecuniary and statistical
aspects of irrigation will be dealt with hereafter.
Having thus summarized the three impediments to improved
husbandry, it may be profitable to examine in detail the three
subjects immediately connected with them, namely, the Agri-
cultural Stock of India, Forests, and Irrigation.
Throughout the whole of India, excepting in Sind and the Agricul-
tural
stock.
western Districts of the Punjab, horned cattle are the only ^^^^^
beasts used for ploughing. The well-known humped breed
of cattle predominates everywhere, being divided into many
varieties. Owing partly to unfavourable conditions of climate
and soil, partly to the insufficiency of grazing ground, and
partly to the want of selection in breeding, the general con-
dition of the cattle is miserably poor. As cultivation advances,
520
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Want of
fodder.
Famous
breeds.
Buffaloes.
Camels.
Horses.
Govern-
ment
studs.
the area of waste land available for grazing steadily diminishes,
and the prospects of the poor beasts are becoming worse
rather than better. Their only hope lies in the introduction
of fodder crops as a regular stage in the agricultural course.
There are, however, some fine breeds which are carefully
fostered. In Mysore, the amrit mahdl, a breed said to
have been formed by Haidar All for military purposes, is
kept up by the local authorities. In the Madras Districts
of Nellore and Karniil, the indigenous breed has been greatly
improved under the stimulus of cattle shows and prizes,
founded by British officials. In the Central Provinces there
is a high -class breed of trotting bullocks, in great demand
for wheeled carriages. The large and handsome oxen of
Gujarat (Guzerat) in Bombay, and of Hariana in the Punjab,
are excellently adapted for drawing heavy loads in a sandy
soil. The statistics of live stock for various Provinces of
India will be given in the form of a table on p. 523.
The worst cattle are to be found always in deltaic tracts,
but here their place is to a large extent taken by buffaloes.
These last are more hardy than ordinary cattle, their character
being maintained by crossing the cows with wild bulls, and
their milk yields the best ghi, or clarified butter. In British
Burma, the returns show that the total number of buffaloes
is nearly equal to that of cows and bullocks. Along the
valley of the Indus, and in the sandy desert which stretches
into Rajputdna, camels supersede cattle for all agricultural
operations. In the Punjab, the total number of camels was
125,584 in 1883.
The breed of horses has generally deteriorated since the
demand for the native strains, for military purposes, declined
upon the establishment of British supremacy. In Bengal
proper, and in Madras, it may be broadly said that native
breeds do not exist. The chief breeds in Bombay are those
of the Deccan and of Kdthidwdr, in both of which Provinces
Government maintains establishments of stallions. The Pun-
jab, however, is the chief source of remounts for our Native
cavalry; the total number of horses in that Province in 1883
being returned at 76,238, in addition to 33,773 ponies. About
the beginning of the present century, a stud department was
organized by Government to breed horses for the use of the
Bengal army. This system was abolished as extravagant and
inefficient by Lord Mayo in 187 1. Remounts are now obtained
in the open market ; but the Government still maintains a
number of stallions, including horses imported from England,
LIVE-STOCK STATISTICS. 521
or half English bred, and high-class Arabs. Excellent horses
are bred by the Baluchi tribes along the western frontier.
Horse fairs are held yearly in the various Provinces of Horse
India. The principal ones in the Punjab, the part of India ^^"^^*
which furnishes the main supply of the Native cavalry re-
mounts, are at Rawalpindi, Dera Ghdzi Khdn, J hang, Dera
Ismail Khan, and Muzaffargarh. The number of horses
exhibited varies greatly from year to year ; but about 5000
may be expected for sale at these five fairs. Prizes to the
amount of about ;^i5oo are awarded. The average price of
remounts for the Native cavalry has risen of late years from
jQi'j to about jQ22. Horse shows are also held at Shahpur,
Gujrat, Rohtak, and Jalalabad, which are ordinarily well
attended and successful. In recent years, much attention has
been paid in the Punjab to the breeding of mules for military Mules,
purposes ; and the value of these animals has been conspicu-
ously proved in the course of the operations in Afghanistan.
In 1882-83, the Government maintained 152 donkey stallions,
of which 34 were imported from Europe, 74 from Arabia, and
the remainder were of various native breeds. Some of the
mules bred reach the height of 15 hands. The best ponies Ponies,
come from Burma, Manipur (the original home of the game of
polo), and Bhutan.
The catching of wild elephants is now either a Government Elephants,
monopoly, or is conducted under strict Government supervision.
The chief source of supply is the north-east frontier, especi-
ally the range of hills running between the valleys of the
Brahmaputra and the Barak. During the year 1877-78, about Numbers
260 elephants were captured in the Province of Assam, yield- ^g"o^^' .
ing ^£"3600 to Government. Of these, 170 were captured by 1883.
lessees of the privilege, and 90 by the Government khedd
department In 1882-83, the number of elephants caught was
475> yielding a Government revenue of ;!^8573. Elephants
are also captured to a smaller extent in the mountains border-
ing Orissa ; in Mysore and Coorg, among the Western Ghats ;
and in Burma, for the timber trade. They are used by Govern-
ment for transport, and are eagerly bought up by native chiefs
and landowners as objects of display. The wild elephant will
be treated of in the subsequent chapter on Indian zoolog)-.
Sheep and goats are commonly reared in the wilder parts Sheep and
of the country for the sake of their wool. Both their weight S^^^^^-
for the butcher and their yield of wool are exceedingly
low. In Mysore, and at the Saidapet farm, near Madras,
attempts have been made to improve the breed of sheep by
522 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
crossing with merino rams, although without much success,
P'gs. except at Saidapet. Pigs of great size and most repulsive
appearance are everywhere reared, but are eaten only by the
lowest of out-castes.
Statistics The table on the opposite page summarizes the information
Stock.^ collected regarding live stock in those parts of India where
the statistics can be obtained with some approximation to
accuracy. But they must be regarded as intelligent estimates
rather than as verified returns.
Forests. The forests of India are beginning to receive their proper
share of attention, both as a source of natural wealth and as
a department of the administration. Up to about twenty-
Destruc- five years ago, the destruction of forests by timber-cutters, by
tion of charcoal-burners, and above all, by nomadic cultivation, was
allowed to go on everywhere unchecked. The extension of
tillage was considered as the chief care of Government,
and no regard was paid to the improvident waste of jungle
on all sides. But as the pressure of population on the soil
became more dense, and the construction of railways increased
the demand for fuel, the question of forest conservation forced
itself into notice. It was recognised that the inheritance of
future generations was being recklessly sacrificed. The im-
portance of forests, as affecting the general meteorology of a
country, was also being taught by bitter experience in Europe.
On many grounds, therefore, it became necessary to preserve
what remained of the forests in India, and to repair the
mischief of previous neglect, even at considerable expense.
In 1844 and 1847, the subject was actively taken up by the
Growth of Governments of Bombay and Madras. In 1864, Dr. Brandis
the Forea ^^^ appointed Inspector-General of Forests to the Government
ment, of India ; and in the following year the first Forest Act passed
1844-67. the Legislature (No. vii. of 1865). The regular training of
candidates for the Forest Department in the schools of France
and Germany dates from 1867. In the interval which has
since elapsed, sound principles of forest administration have
been laid down and gradually enforced. Indiscriminate timber-
cutting has been prohibited; the burning of the jungle by the
hill tribes has been confined within bounds ; large areas have
been surveyed and demarcated; plantations have been laid
out ; and forest conservation has become a reality in India.
From a botanical point of view, the forests may be divided
[^Sentence continued on page 524.
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AGRICULTURAL STOCK.
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524 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Sefifence coniifiued from p. 522.]
Indian into several distinct classes, determined by varying conditions
trees. ^^ ^^^^j climate, and rainfall. The king of Indian forest trees
is the teak (Tectona grandis), which rivals the British oak as
Teak. material for ship-building. The home of the teak is in the
Bombay Ghdts, Kdnara, Cochin, Travancore, and the Burmese
peninsula, where it flourishes under an excessive rainfall.
Sal. Second to teak is the sal (Shorea robusta), which is indigenous
along the lower slopes of the Himalayas from the Sutlej basin
east to Assam, among the hills of Central India, and in the
Eastern Ghats down to the Godavari river. On the Himd-
layas of North- Western India, the distinguishing timber-tree is
Djodara. the deoddra (Cedrus Deodara) ; while on the North-Eastern
Himalayan frontier its place is occupied by Pinus Kasya and
other trees, such as oak and chestnut, of a temperate zone.
These noble trees supply the most valuable timber, and
form the chief care of the Forest Department. But they are
only the aristocracy of countless species, yielding timber,
South firewood, and other products of value. In the south of the
Indian peninsula, the mountain range of the Western Ghats, from
Travancore northwards into Kanara, is clothed with an in-
exhaustible wealth of still virgin forest. Here there are three
The three separate vegetations, (i) An evergreen belt on the seaward
belts." ^^^^ ^^ ^^ mountains, where grow the stately /z/;z (Calophyllum
inophyllum), valuable as spars for ships, the an j alii or wild
jack (Artocarpus hirsuta), and a variety of ebony (Diospyros
Ebenum). (2) A belt of mixed forest, varying from 10 to 40
miles in width, which yields teak, blackwood (Dalbergia
latifolia), and Lagerstroemia microcarpa, and here and there
continuous avenues of lofty bamboos. (3) A dry belt, extend-
ing over the central plateau, in which the vegetation declines
Sandal- in size and abundance. The precious sandal-wood (Santalum
album), limited almost entirely to Mysore and Kanara, thrives
best on a stony soil, with a light rainfall. In the Bombay
Presidency, the chief forest areas, excluding Kanara, are to be
found in the mountainous extension of the Western Ghats,
known as the Sahyddri range, and in the delta of the Indus in
the outlying Province of Sind.
Sind^ The Sind river-valley forests present many peculiar features.
They are locally reported to have been formed as game
preserves by the Mirs or Musalman rulers, and are divided
into convenient blocks or belds^ fringing the entire course of
the Indus. Being absolute State property, their management
is embarrassed by no difficulties, excepting those caused by
tree.
forests.
INDIAN FOREST AREAS. 525
the uncontrollable floods of the river. They furnish abundant
firewood, but little timber of value, their chief produce being
babul {\c3icia. arabica), bahdn (Populus euphratica), and tamarisk
(Tamarix dioica). In the Punjab, the principal forests of Punjab
deoddra (Cedrus Deodara) lie beyond the British frontier, in °'^^^^^-
the Himalayan valleys of the great rivers ; but many of them
have been leased from the bordering States, in order to secure
a supply of firewood and railway sleepers. On the Punjab
plains, the only woods are those growing on the rdkhs or
upland plateaux which rise between the converging river
basins. The chief trees found here are varieties of Prosopis,
Capparis, and Salvadora ; but the Forest Department is now
laying out more valuable plantations of sissu (Dalbergia Sissoo),
baer (Zizyphus jujuba), and kikar.
The North- Western Provinces present the Himalayan type Forests
of forest in Kumaun and Garhwal, where the characteristic 2; ^-.'^^ •
A rovmccs
trees are the chil (Pinus excelsa) and chir (Pinus longifolia),
with but little deoddra. Farther west occurs a forest-belt of
sdl^ which may be said to form the continuous boundary
between Nepal and British territory. Owing to the facility of
water communication and the neighbourhood of the great cities
of Hindustan, these sal forests have long ago been stripped of
their valuable timber, and are but slowly recovering under the
care of the Forest Department. Oudh and Northern Bengal of Oudh
continue the general features of the North- Western Provinces ; ^^ •'^j
but the hill station of Darjiling is surrounded by a flora of the
temperate zone.
Calcutta has, from its foundation, drawn its supply of fire-
wood from the inexhaustible jungles of the Sundarbans, Sundarban
which have recently been placed under forest conservancy ^°'^^^s-
rules. This tract," extending over 5000 square miles, is a
dismal swamp, half land, half sea or fresh water, overgrown
by an almost impenetrable jungle of timber-trees and under-
wood. The most valued wood is the sunddri (Heretiera
littoralis), which is said to give its name to the tract. Assam
and Chittagong, like the Malabar coast and British Burma,
still possess vast areas of virgin forest, although the more
accessible tracts have been ruthlessly laid waste. Beside sal
and Pinus Kasya, the timber-trees of Assam include nahor or Assam
ndgeswar (Mesua ferrea), stim ( Artocarpus Chaplasha), and j'dml forests.
(Lagerstroemia Flos-Reginae). Ficus elastica, yielding the
caoutchouc of commerce, was formerly common, but now the
supply is chiefly brought from beyond the frontier. Planta-
tions of teak, li'/n (Cedrela Toona), siss7if and Ficus elastica are
526
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
1
Purmese
forests.
Central
India.
Forest
adminis-
tration.
' Reserved'
forests.
* Open '
forests.
' Planta-
tions.'
Forest
finance,
1873-1883.
1873.
[878.
now being formed and guarded by the Forest Department. In
Burma, the importance of teak exceeds that of all the other
timber-trees together. Next comes iron-wood (Xylia dolabri-
formis), and Acacia Catechu, which yields the cutch of com-
merce. Throughout the centre of the peninsula, forests cover
a very extensive area ; but their value is chiefly local, as none
of the rivers are navigable. Towards the east, sal predomi-
nates, and in the west there is some teak ; but fine timber
of either species is comparatively scarce. Rajputana has a
beautiful tree of its own, the Anogeissus pendula, with small
leaves and drooping branches.
From the administrative point of view, the Indian forests
are classified as ' reserved ' or as ' open.' The reserved forests
are those under the immediate control of officers of the Forest
Department. They are managed as the property of the State,
with a single eye to their conservancy and future development
as a source of national wealth. Their limits are demarcated
after survey; nomadic cultivation bythe hill tribes is prohibited;
cattle are excluded from ;grazing ; destructive creepers are cut
down ; and the hewing of timber, if permitted at all, is placed
under stringent regulations. The open forests are less care-
fully guarded ; but in them, also, certain kinds of timber-trees
are preserved. A third class of forest lands consists of planta-
tions, on which large sums of money are spent annually, with
a view to the rearing and development of timber-trees.
It is difficult to present, in a -summary view, the entire
financial aspects of the labours of the Forest Department.
In 1872-73, the total area of reserved forests in India was
estimated at more than 6,000,000 acres; and the area has
probably been doubled since that date. In the same year,
the total forest revenue was ;^47 7,000, as compared with an
expenditure of ^295,000, thus showing a surplus of ;^i 82,000.
By 1877-78, the revenue had increased to ;£"664,io2, of
which ;£ 1 60, 308 was derived from British Burma, and
;;^i26,i63 from Bombay. The forest exports in that year in-
cluded — teak, valued at ;£'4o6,652; lac and lac-dye, ;£"362,oo8;
caoutchouc, ;£^89,38i ; and gums, ;?f 183,685.
By the end of 1882-83, the total forest revenue had further
increased to ;£963,859, of which ;£25o,389 was derived from
British Burma, ;^209,035 from Bombay, ;£" 10 1,340 from the
North-Western Provinces and Oudh, ;^97,765 from the Central
Provinces, ;£'9o,644 from Madras, ;£76,67i from the Punjab,
;^69,396 from Bengal, ;^24,86i from Assam, ;£^28,704 from
Berar, and ;^ 13,802 from Coorg. From each of these Pro-
NOMADIC CULTIVATION. 527
vinces a surplus profit was realized over working expenses. A
small forest revenue is also obtained from tracts in Ajmere
and in Baluchistan, but not sufficient, up to 1883, to cover
the expenses of the Department. Total forest expenditure in
1882-83, ;^577, 726, showing a surplus of ;jr386,i33. Average
forest revenue for ten years ending 1882-83, ;^703,424 per
annum ; average expenditure, ;^467,624 ; average surplus,
^235,800. But the above figures fail to exhibit the true
working of the Forest Department, which is gradually winning
back for India the fee-simple of her forest wealth, when it was
on the point of being squandered beyond the possibility of
redemption.
The practice of nomadic cultivation by the hill tribes may Nomadic
conveniently be described in connection with forest conserva- cultivation,
tion, of which it is the most formidable enemy. In all the
great virgin forests of India, in Arakan, on the north-east Its area,
frontier of Assam and Chittagong, throughout the Central
Provinces, and along the line of the Western Ghats, the
aboriginal tribes raise their crops of rice, cotton, and millets
by a system of nomadic tillage. A similar method has been
found in Madagascar ; and, indeed, from its simplicity and its
appropriateness, it may fairly be regarded the most primitive
form of agriculture followed by the human race. Known as
tmmgya in Burma, jutn on the north-east frontier, dahya in
Central India, kil in the Himalayas, and kumdri in the Western
Ghats, it is practised without material differences by tribes of
the most diverse origin.
The essential features of such husbandry are the burning Its varie-
down of a patch of forest, and sowing the crop with little or no ^^^^*
tillage in the clearing thus formed. The tribes of the Bombay
coast break up the cleared soil with a sort of hoe-pick and
spade, or even with the plough ; in other parts of India, the
soil is merely scratched, or the seed scattered on the surface
without any cultivation. In some cases, a crop is taken off the
same clearing for two or even three years in succession ; but
more usually the tribe moves off every year to a fresh field of
operations. Every variety of implement is used, from the bill-
hook, used alike for hewing the jungle and for turning up the
soil, to the plough. Every degree of permanence in the culti-
vation may be observed, from a one-year's crop to the stage at
which an aboriginal tribe, such as the Kandhs, visibly passes
from nomadic husbandry to regular tillage.
To these nomad cultivators the words rhetorically used
by Tacitus of the primitive Germans are strictly applicable
•528 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Forest- — An^a per aiinos mutant ; et superest ager. The wanton
by fi"e^ destruction wrought by them in the forest is incalculable. In
addition to the timber-trees deliberately burned down to clear
the soil, the fire thus started not unfrequently runs wild
•through the forest, and devastates many square miles.
Wherever timber has any value from the proximity of a
Restraints market, the first care of the Forest Department is to prohibit
^^ ^^* these fires, and to assign heavy penalties for any infringement
of its rules. The success of a year's forest operations is mainly
estimated by the degree in which the reserves have been saved
from the flames.
Merits of But vast tracts of country yet remain in which it would be
tillage ^^ equally useless and impossible to place restraints upon nomad
cultivation. The system yields a larger return for the same
amount of labour than permanent plough-husbandry. A virgin
soil, manured many inches deep with ashes, and watered by
the full burst of a tropical rainfall, returns forty and fifty-fold
of rice, which is the staple grain thus raised. In addition to
rice, Indian corn, millet, oil-seeds, and cotton, are sometimes
grown in the same clearing, the seeds being all thrown into the
ground together, and each crop ripening in succession at its
own season. Except to the eyes of a forest officer, a patch of
nomadic tillage is a very picturesque sight. Men, women, and
children all work together with a will, for the trees must be
felled and burned, and the seed sown, before the monsoon
breaks. Save on the western coast and the Ghats (where the
plough is occasionally used), the implement generally employed
for all purposes is the ddo or hill-knife, which performs the
ofiice alike of axe, hoe, dibbler, and sickle.
Irrigation. jn a tropical country, where the rainfall is capricious in its
incidence and variable in its amount, the proper control of the
water-supply becomes one of the first cares of Government.
Its expenditure on irrigation works may be regarded as an
investment of the landlord's capital, by which alone the estate
can be rendered profitable. Without artificial irrigation,
large tracts of country would lie permanently waste, while
others could only be cultivated in exceptionally favourable
seasons. Irrigation is to the Indian peasant what high cultiva-
Its function tion is to the farmer in England. It augments the produce of
m India, ^^j^ fields in a proportion far larger than the mere interest upon
the capital expended. It may also be regarded as an insurance
against famine. When the monsoon fails for one or, two
seasons in succession, the cultivator of 'dry lands' has no
INDIAN IRRIGA TION AREAS. 5 2 9
hope ; while abundant crops are raised from the fortunate
fields commanded by irrigation works. This contrast was
painfully realized in Southern India during the terrible years
of 1876 to 1878, the limit between famine and plenty being
marked by the boundaries of the irrigated and non-irrigated
areas. It would, however, be an error to conclude that any outlay
will absolutely guarantee the vast interior of the peninsula from
famine. Much, indeed, can be done, and much is being done, during
year by year, to store and distribute the scanty and irregular ^'^*"*'''
water-supply of this inland plateau. But engineering possibilities
are limited, not only by the expense, but by the unalterable laws
of nature. A table-land, with only a moderate rainfall, and
watered by few perennial streams, broken by many hill ranges,
and marked out into no natural drainage basins, can never
be completely protected from the vicissitudes of the Indian
seasons.
Irrigation is everywhere dependent upon the two supreme Irrigation
considerations of water-supply and land-level. The sandy ^"^^^^'
desert, which extends from the hills of Rajputana to the basin
of the Indus, is as hopelessly closed to irrigation, from its
almost entire absence of rainfall, as is the confused system of
hill and valley in Central India, with its unmanageable levels.
Farther west, in the Indus valley, irrigation becomes possible,
and in no part of India has it been conducted with greater
perseverance and success. The entire Province of Sind, and Sind.
several of the lower Districts of the Punjab, are absolutely
dependent upon the floods of the Indus. Sind has been com-
pared to Egypt, and the Indus to the Nile ; but the conditions
of the Indian Province are much the less favourable of the
two. In Sind, the average rainfall is barely 10 inches in the
year ; the soil is a thirsty sand ; worst of all, the river does
not run in confined banks, but wanders at its will over a wide
valley. The rising of the Nile is a beneficent phenomenon,
which can be depended upon with tolerable accuracy, and
which the industry of countless generations has brought under
control for the purposes of cultivation. The inundation of the Theuncon-
Indus is an uncontrollable torrent, which sometimes does as *'"ojl^t)le
much harm as good.
Broadly speaking, no crop can be grown in Sind except under Irrigation
irrigation. The cultivated area of over two million acres may ^"o^^"g'
be regarded as entirely dependent upon artificial water-supply,
although not entirely on State irrigation works. The water is
drawn from the river by two classes of canals — (i) inundation
channels, which only fill when the Indus is in flood ; and
2 L
530 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Irrigation (2) perennial channels, which carry off water by means of dams
m Sind, r^^ ^u seasons of the year. The former are for the most part
the work of ancient rulers of the country, or of the cultivators
themselves ; the latter have been constructed since the British
conquest. In both cases, care has been taken to utilize
abandoned beds of the river. Irrigation in Sind is treated
as an integral department of the land administration. In
in 1877; 1876-77, about 900,000 acres were returned as irrigated from
works for which capital and revenue accounts are kept. The
chief of these are the Ghar, Eastern and Western Nara, Sukkur
(Sakhar), Phuleli, and Pinyari Canals ; the total receipts were
about" ;£"i 90,000, almost entirely credited under the head of
land revenue. In the same year, about 445,000 acres were
irrigated from works for which revenue accounts only are kept,
yielding about ;£^7 5,000 in land revenue. The total area
* usually irrigated' in Sind was returned in 1880 at about
1,800,000 acres, out of a cultivated area of 2,250,000 acres.
1883. The actual area cultivated by means of canal irrigation in
Sind in 1882-83 was 1,673,293 acres, including/^^/r or revenue-
free lands ; the area assessed for Government revenue being
1,508,292 acres. The gross assessed revenue from all sources
amounted to ;£" 294,898, and the maintenance charges to
^£"135, 1 18, leaving a net revenue of ;£^i59,78o. The net
actual receipts from productive irrigation works returned 4*25
per cent, and those from ordinary irrigation works, 12*95 P^^*
cent, on the capital outlay incurred up to the end of the year.
Total capital outlay up to the end of 1882-83, ;£^958,oi2,
of which ;^6 23,267 had been expended on productive works,
and ;£^3345 745 on ordinary irrigation works.
Irrigation In the Bombay Presidency, irrigation is conducted on a com-
in Bombay, paratively small scale, and mainly by private enterprise. Along
the coast of the Konkan, the heavy local rainfall, and the
annual flooding of the numerous small creeks, permit rice to be
grown without artificial aid. In Gujardt (Guzerdt) the supply
is drawn from wells, and in the Deccan from tanks ; but both
of these are liable to fail in years of deficient rainfall. Govern-
ment has now undertaken a few comprehensive schemes of
irrigation in Bombay, conforming to a common type. The
head of a hill valley is dammed up, so as to form an immense
reservoir, and the water is then conducted over the fields
by channels, in some cases of considerable length. In
1877. 1876-77, the total area in Bombay (excluding Sind) irrigated
from Government works was about 180,000 acres, yielding a
revenue of about ;£'42,ooo. In the same year, the expenditure
IRRIGA TION IN THE PUNJAB. 5 3 1
on irrigation (inclusive of Sind) was ;£65,ooo under the head
of extraordinary, and ;^i 70,000 under the head of ordinary;
total, ;^235,ooo. In 1882-83, the area irrigated by Govern- 1883.
ment works in Gujarat and the Deccan amounted to 28,735
acres from productive works, and 138,468 acres from works
not classed as productive. Total Government irrigation,
167,203 acres; yielding a revenue of ;£"77,746, against an
expenditure of ;£"37,i7i, leaving a surplus of ^30,575.
Besides these Government works, irrigation is carried on to
a much larger extent in Bombay by private individuals from
tanks, ponds, and watercourses. Ordinary irrigated area in
Bombay (exclusive of Sind), 550,000 acres, out of a total
cultivated area of 22 J million acres.
In some parts of the Punjab, irrigation is only one degree Irrigation
less necessary than in Sind, but the sources of supply are more ^ ^^^
numerous. In the northern tract, under the Himalayas, and 1879-84.
in the upper valleys of the Five Rivers, water can be obtained
by digging wells from 10 to 30 feet below the surface. In the
south, towards Sind, * inundation channels ' are usual. The
upland tracts which rise between the basins of the main rivers
are now in course of being supplied by the perennial canals of
the Government. According to the returns for 1878-79, out 1879.
of a grand total of 23,523,504 acres under cultivation, 5,340,724
acres were irrigated by private individuals, and 1,808,005
acres by public ' channels ; ' total area under irrigation,
7,148,729 acres, or 30 per cent, of the cultivated area. The
three principal Government works in the Punjab are the
Western Jumna Canal, the Bari Doab Canal, and the Sirhind, The three
the main branch of which, and some of its distributaries, were -^^^.^ ,
opened in November 1882. An account of each of these works Canals,
is given in separate articles in The Imperial Gazetteer of India}
Up to the close of 1877-78, the capital outlay on the three
great Punjab Canals was ;^3,645,i89; the total income in
that year was ;^263,o53, of which ^171,504 was classified as
direct, and ;^9 1,549 as indirect; the total revenue charges on
works in operation were ;£224,3i6, of which ;^i46,4i9 was
for maintenance, and ;^7 7,897 for interest, thus showing a
surplus of ;^38,737. On the Western Jumna Canal, taken
singly, the net profit was ;£"83,ii2 in 1877-78.
By the end of 1883-84, the gross revenue from the Bari Irrigation
Doab and Western Jumna Canal, together with the Indus and ^^ ^^^,
Sutlej Inundation Canals, amounted to ;^428,4i6, and the 1883-84.
^ See articles JUMNA Canal, Eastern and Western, Bari Doab Canal,
Sirhind Canal, in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
532
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
Punjab
Canal
finance,
1884.
Punjab
Canal
statistics,
1884.
Irrigation
in the
N.-W.
Provinces.
Four great
canals of
the Doabs,
1878-83.
1878.
working expenses to ;£i97,032, thus yielding a net revenue
of ;^23 1,384, equal to a return of nearly 5 per cent, on the
capital of the canals opened. This is exclusive of the Muzaffar-
garh Inundation Canal, which has no capital account, but
which in 1882-83 yielded a return of ^^22,035, against working
expenses amounting to ;£"i 5,365, leaving a surplus of revenue
over expenditure of ;^667o. Irrigation from the Sirhind Canal
had only just commenced, but the revenue will increase in pro-
portion to the rate of progress in constructing the distributary
channels. This work, together with the completion of branch-
distributaries, is being pushed on as rapidly as possible.
The capital outlay on the three great Punjab canals, exclusive
of contributions by Native States towards the construction of the
Sirhind Canal, amounted at the close of 1883-84 to ^5,033,284,
the capital expended during the latter year being ^^2 8 2, 5 24.
Area irrigated from Government canals in 1883-84 : — Western
Jumna Canal, 472,426 acres ; Bari Doab Canal, 390,860 acres ;
Sirhind Canal, 5030 acres ; inundation canals, 783,752 acres:
total, 1,652,068 acres. The ordinary irrigated area in the
Punjab, from Government works as well as by private in-
dividuals, may now be taken at about 8 million acres, out of a
total cultivated area of over 23 million acres.
The North-Western Provinces present, in the great dodb^ or
high land between the Ganges and the Jumna, a continuation
of the physical features to be found in the Punjab. The
local rainfall, indeed, is heavier, but before the days of arti-
ficial irrigation almost every drought resulted in a terrible
famine. It is in this tract that the British Government has
been perhaps most successful in averting such calamities. In
Sind, irrigation is an absolute necessity; in Lower Bengal, it
may be regarded almost as a luxury; in the great river
basins of Upper India, it serves the twofold object of averting
famines caused by drought ; of introducing more valuable
crops and higher methods of agriculture.
Concerning private irrigation from wells in the North-
Western Provinces, details are not available. The great
Government works are the Ganges Canal, the Eastern Jumna
Canal, the Agra Canals, and the Lower Ganges Canal. ^ Up to
the close of 1877-78, the total outlay had been ;^5,673,4oi.
The gross income in that year was ;£"438,i36, of which
;^337,842 was derived from water-rates, and ;^ioo,294 from
enhanced land revenue ; the working expenses amounted to
^ A full account of each of these works will be found under article
Ganges Canal, The Imperial Gazetteer^ vol, iii.
I
IRRIGATION; N.-W, PROVINCES; BENGAL. 533
;^i43,984, leaving ^294,152 for surplus profits, or 677 per N.-W.P.
cent, on the total capital expended on works in operation. Canals.
The total area irrigated in the North-Western Provinces was
1,461,428 acres. Of this total, 415,659 acres were under wheat,
and 139,375 under sugar-cane.
The total capital outlay on the four main canals just men- The four
tioned in the North-Western Provinces up to 1882-83, was ^^^Is
;^6,499,74i,ofwhich^i38,677 were expended during 1882-83. 1882-83.
The other canals in the N.-W. Provinces, not classed as pro-
ductive works, included, in 1882-83, the following — namely, the Minor
Diin Canal, the Rohilkhand and Bijnor Canal, the Eundelkhand 5J"\v'p
irrigation works, the Cawnpur branch of the Lower Ganges Canal,
and the Betwa Canal, constructed as a famine insurance work.
Total capital expended on all Government canals in the North-
Western Provinces up to the end of 1882-83, ;£^6,89o,769,
of which ^^232, 341 was spent during the latter year. These
canals may all be considered as practically complete, with the
exception of the Lower Ganges and Agra Canals, in which some
of the distributaries are as yet (1884) unfinished ; and the Betwa
Canal, which was under construction at the end of 1882-83.
The gross revenue of the canals in the N.-W. Provinces, Total
including water-rates, increased land revenue due to the canals, ^^"^^ .
^ ' revenue m
navigation charges in 1882-83, was ;^645,9i8; the charges N.-W.P.,
against revenue amounted to ^^2 15,813, thus leaving a net ^^^3-
revenue of ^£"430,105, or over 6 per cent, on the total capital
outlay, exclusive of the Betwa Canal. Deducting from this
the interest charges for the year, which amounted tO;£"249,6oi,
there remained a clear profit or surplus of ;^i8o,504. The
total area irrigated during 1882-83 was 1,974, 175 acres, of which Irrigated
1,462,023 were supplied by the Ganges and Lower Ganges ^'^^^' ^'
Canals, or their branches. Of the irrigated area, 728,385 acres
were under wheat; 662,693 acres under other food crops;
316,145 acres under indigo; 198,322 acres under sugar-cane,
and 52,493 acres under cotton. Besides the canal irrigation, a
vast area in the North-Western Provinces is supplied with
water from wells, tanks, and miscellaneous works. The total
area ordinarily irrigated in the North-Western Provinces (exclud-
ing Oudh) may be estimated at 7 to 8 million acres.
No irrigation works have yet been introduced into Oudh by Irrigation
Government. A fair local rainfall, the annual overflow of "^ *
the rivers, and an abundance of low-lying swamps, combine
to furnish a water-supply which is ample in all ordinary years.
According to the Settlement returns, out of a total cultivated
area of 8,276,174 acres, 2,957,377 acres, or 36 percent, are
534
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS,
IrrijC^ation
in Bengal
Proper.
Embank-
ments.
The Orissa
Canals.
The Son
Canal.
irrigated by private individuals. But this figure probably
includes low lands watered by natural overflow.
Throughout the greater part of Bengal Proper there is scarcely
any demand for artificial irrigation, but Government has under-
taken to construct works in those exceptional tracts where
experience has shown that drought or famine is to be feared.
In the broad valleys of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra,
and along the deltaic seaboard, flood is a more frequent
calamity than drought ; and embankments here take the place
of canals. The Public Works Department in Lower Bengal
has over 2000 miles of embankments under its charge, upon
which ;£^79,io5 was expended in 1877-78, either as direct
outlay or in advances to landowners. The wide expanse of
Northern Bengal and Behar, stretching from the Himalayas to
the Ganges, is also rarely visited by drought ; although, when
drought does come, the excessive density of the population
brings the danger of famine very near. In Saran District it has
been found necessary to carry out a scheme for utilizing the
discharge of the river Gandak.
The great irrigation works in Lower Bengal are two in
number, and belong to two different types : — (i) In the delta
of Orissa, an extensive system of canals has been constructed
on the pattern of those lower down the Coromandel coast.
They store up the water by means of a weir or anient thrown
across the Mah^nadi river.^ The Orissa works are intended
to avert the danger of both drought and flood, and also to be
useful for navigation. In average seasons, i.e. in five years out
of six, the local rainfall is sufficient for the rice crop, which is
here the sole staple of cultivation ; and therefore it is not to
be expected that these canals will be directly or largely re-
munerative. But, on the other hand, if they save the Province
from a repetition of the disastrous year 1865-66, the money
will not have been expended in vain. A canal, originally
designed as a branch of the Orissa works, runs through
Midnapur District and debouches on the Hiigli.
(2) In South Behar, the flood discharge of the Son has been
intercepted, after the system of engineering followed in the
North-West, so as to irrigate the thirsty strip of land along
the south bank of the Ganges, where distress has often
been severely felt.^ In this case, also, the expenditure
must be regarded rather as an insurance fund against famine
than as reproductive outlay. The works are not yet complete,
* See article Mahanadi, The Imperial Gazetteer.
* See article Son Canals, The Imperial Gazetteer.
IRRIGATION; BENGAL AND
but the experience already gained proves that irrigation is
wanted even in ordinary seasons.
Up to the close of the year 1877-78, the capital expendi- Irrigation
ture on all the State irrigation works in Lower Bengal was ^^2>ii-%\ '
;^4,653,903 ; the gross income for the year was;^49,477 ; the
working expenses were ;£"7o,286,and the estimated interest on 1878.
capital, at 4J per cent., amounted to ^^203, 971, thus showing a
deficit of;^2 24,78o. The area irrigated was about 400,000 acres.
By the end of 1882-83, the total direct capital outlay Irrigation
(excluding interest) on State navigation and irrigation canals ^^^^ g?^''
in Bengal was ;^5,33 1,726 ; the gross income for the year was
;^207,444 (including the Calcutta Canals and Nadiya river works,
for which capital and revenue accounts are not kept), and the
working expenses ;^5 14,898, showing a deficit of ;£"307,454.
Adding to this the amount of interest on capital, which in
1882-83 amounted to ;^2 11,550, calculated at 4 per cent., the
total net deficit for the year amounted to ;/"5 19,004. The four
chief navigation and irrigation canals, however, returned a surplus
(excluding interest) of ;£^i5,527 of revenue over working ex-
penses. The great deficit of current expenditure over current
revenue occurred in the Orissa coast canals, embankments,
drainage works, etc. The area irrigated from Government
canals in the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal is about
450,000 acres. Including private works, about i million acres
out of a total estimated area of 54I million acres under cultiva-
tion, are irrigated in Lower Bengal.
In the Madras Presidency, and generally throughout Southern irrigation
India, facilities for irrigation assume a decisive importance in ^^ Madras
determining the character of agriculture. Crops dependent
on the rainfall are distinguished as 'dry crops,' comprehending
the large class of millets. Rice is grown on 'wet land,'
which means land capable of being irrigated. Except on
the Malabar or western coast, the local rainfall is nowhere
sufficiently ample, or sufficiently steady, to secure an adequate
water-supply. Everywhere else, water has to be brought to the
fields from rivers, from tanks, or from wells. Of the total
cultivated area of Madras, 17 per cent, was returned by the
Famine Commissioners in 1878 as assessed as 'wet land;' or * Dry 'and
5 J miUions of acres out of an estimated cultivated area of 32 *^^^ ^^"^'
millions. But the actual irrigated area from all sources,
including tanks and wells, was returned by the Famine Com-
missioners at about 7 millions of acres.
From time immemorial, the industrious population of the ^^^.^^^
native
Madras Districts has made use of all the means available works.
536
A GRICUL TURE AND PROD UCTS.
deltas,
1878-83
to Store up the rainfall, and direct the river floods over
their fields. The upland areas are studded with tanks, which
sometimes cover square miles of ground; the rivers are
crossed by innumerable anicuts or dams, by which the floods
are diverted into long aqueducts. Most of these works are
now the property of Government, which annually expends
large sums of money in maintenance and repairs, looking
for remuneration only to the augmented land revenue. The
average rate of assessment is 9s. 6d. per acre on irrigated land,
as compared with only 2s. 3d. per acre on unirrigated land.
Works in It is therefore not only the duty, but the manifest advantage,
!i^?f'!i!^^'^^^ of Government to extend the facilities for irrigadon in Madras,
wherever the physical aspect of the country will permit. The
deltas of the Godavari, the Kistna, and the Kaveri (Cauvery),
have within recent years been traversed by a network of canals,
and thus guaranteed against risk of famine. ^ Smaller works
of a similar nature have been carried out in other places ;
while a private company, with a Government guarantee, has
undertaken the more difficult task of utilizing on a grand scale
the waters of the Tungabhadra^ amid the hills and vales of
the interior. The assessed irrigated area in the Presidency, of
5 J million acres, yielded in 1878 a land revenue of 2 millions
sterling. Of this total, 1,680,178 acres, with a revenue of
£T39,TJ^, were irrigated in 1878 by eight great systems, for
which revenue and capital accounts were kept. The minor
works consisted of about 35,000 tanks and irrigation canals,
and about 1140 anicuts or dams across streams. The w^hole
area under irrigation from public and private sources in
Madras was in 1878, as already stated, about 7 million acres,
out of a total cultivated area of 32 miflion acres.
In 1882-83, the Madras irrigation scheme included seven
main systems, classified as productive public works ; namely,
— the Godavari delta system, the Kistna delta system, the
Penner (Ponnaiydr) anient system, the Sangam anient pro-
ject (under construction), the Karniil canal (purchased from
the Madras Irrigation Company in July 1882), the Kaveri
delta system, and Srivaikuntham anient system. An account
of each of these works separately will be found in TAe
Imperial Gazetteer of India. Irrigation and navigation w^orks,
not classified as productive, include those known as the
Chedambaram tank system, the YiXix anicut system, the
Pelandorai anicut system, the Madras water-supply and irriga-
' See article Godavari River, The Imperial Gazetteer,
2 See article Tungabhadra, The Imperial Gazetteer.
1878.
Madras
irrigation
works,
1882-83.
IRRIGATION IN MINOR PROVINCES. 537
tion extension project, and the Buckingham Canal. There are
also a number of minor irrigation and protective works, for
which neither capital nor revenue accounts are kept. The area
irrigated by productive public works in Madras in 1882-83 was
1,757,579 acres; and that by all other Government irrigation
works, 2,615,590 acres; making a total of 4,373,169 acres.
The acquisition of the Karniil Canal during 1882 materially Madras
raised the outlay invested in productive public works, and j5."g^tion
•' ^ ^ ' , rinance,
greatly reduced the returns yielded m former years by this 1883.
class of works in Madras. The total capital outlay, direct
and indirect, incurred on productive public works up to the
end of 1882-83, amounted to ;£^3,99o,552. The gross
revenue, including share of enhanced land revenue, amounted
to ;£"36o,o62 ; the maintenance charges, direct and indirect,
was ^^107,197, leaving a net revenue ot ;^252,865, equal
to 6 '34 per cent, on the total capital outlay up to the end
of the year. If, however, the outlay on the Sangam anient
works (which had not commenced to earn revenue in 1882-83),
and the purchase money for the Karnul canal, be excluded
from the account, the net returns would be 12 per cent, on
the capital outlay, against 13 j per cent, obtained during the
previous year. With regard to irrigation and navigation canals
not classified as productive, the capital outlay, direct and
indirect, incurred up to the end of 1882-83, amounted to
^^988,907. The gross revenue during 1882-83, including
share of land revenue debitable to these works, was ;£r3i,3i9 ;
the expenditure waS;£27,52o, leaving a net revenue of ^£"3799,
equal to 0*38 per cent on the total capital outlay.
In Mysore, tanks, anicuts, and wells dug in the dry beds of Irrigation
rivers afford the means of irrigation. Since the late disastrous ^" Mysore,
famine of 1876-78, comprehensive schemes of throwing
embankments across river valleys have been undertaken by
Government. The whole area under irrigation from public and
private sources in Mysore is | of a million acres, out of a total
cultivated area of 4 to 5 million acres.
In the Central Provinces, irrigation still remains a private in Central
enterprise. According to the Setdement returns, out of a total Provinces,
cultivated area of 13,610,503 acres, 804,378 acres, or 6 per
cent., are irrigated by private individuals. The only Govern-
ment work is a tank in the District of Nimar. In 1882-83,
the area irrigated by private individuals was returned at
770,583 acres, and by Government works, 238 acres from the
Nimar tank, out of a total of 14,165,212 acres of cultivated area.
In British Burma, as in Lower Bengal, embankments take the In Burma.
538
AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCJS.
Statistics
for British
India,
1868 to
1883.
place of canals ; and are classed as ' irrigation works ' in the
reports. Within the last few years, Government has spent
;^3 18,000 in Burma under this heading, to save the low rice-
fields along the Irawadi from destructive inundation.
The foregoing paragraphs have given the Provincial statistics
of irrigation, so far as available. The differences in the local
systems, and the variety of sources from which the outlay on
irrigation works is derived, render a single generalized state-
ment for all India misleading. Apart from private irrigation
works, and certain classes of Government works, the capital
expended by the Government on irrigation is returned at
19 millions sterling during the sixteen years ending 1882-83.
Including if million sterling expended on the Madras Irrigation
Company's works (taken over by Government), the total outlay
would amount to nearly 21 millions sterling during the same
period. This statement, although it altogether fails to disclose
the whole expenditure on Indian irrigation, suffices to show
the magnitude of the operations involved.
The following table shows the extent of cultivation and the
average area irrigated in the Provinces for which the facts
can be obtained. They were specially collected by the Indian
Famine Commission, and pubhshed in its Report of 1880.
But they must be taken as only approximate estimates. They
differ from data obtained from other sources ; as may be seen
by comparing the figures in the table with the later ones given
in the foregoing Provincial paragraphs.
Ordinary Area of Cultivation and of Irrigation in certain
Provinces, as estimated in 1880.
Province.
Area ordinarily
cultivated.
Area ordinarily
irrigated.
Percentage of
irrigation to
cultivation.
Punjab, . .
Norih- Western Provinces and
Oudh, ....
Bengal, ....
Central Provinces,
Berar,
Bombay, ....
Sind,
Madras, ....
Mysore, ....
Total for the Provinces for
which the facts were
ascertained,
Acres.
21,000,000
36,000,000
54,500,000
15,500,000
6,500,000
24,500,000
2,250,000
32,000,000
5,000,000
Aces.
5,500,000
11,500,000
1,000,000
770,000
100,000
450,000
1,800,000
7,300,000
800,000
262
320
1-8
50
15
r8
800
230
i6-o
197,250,000
29,220,000
14-8
IRRIGATION: FAMINES. 539
It will be seen from the preceding table that irrigation is most Distribu-
resorted to in the Provinces with the scantiest or most pre- f^°" °(
carious rainfall. In Sind, tillage depends almost entirely on an over India,
artificial water-supply ; and four-fifths of the cultivated area are Sind.
ascertained to be irrigated. In Northern India, the deficient Northern
rainfall of the Punjab and the high-lying dodbs^ or intermediate I"^^^-
river plains of the North- Western Provinces, also demands a
large measure of irrigation. The irrigated area, accordingly,
amounts to from over one-fourth to one-third of the whole
cultivation. In Madras, it is under one-fourth ; in Mysore, it is Southern
one-sixth ; in the Central Provinces, it is one-twentieth. But ^"^^^*
the dry uplands of Bombay, the Central Provinces, and Berar, Central
where the proportion of irrigated lands sinks to about one- I'^^i^-
sixtieth, undoubtedly require a larger artificial water-supply
than they possess at present. The black soil of these tracts,
however, is very retentive of moisture. To a certain extent it
stores up and husbands the rainfall. It thus lessens the neces-
sity for irrigation. In Bengal, where the irrigated area is only Lower
I '8 per cent, of the cultivated area, the abundant rainfall and Bengal,
the inundations of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Maha-
nadi, and of the river systems connected with these main
arteries, take the place of canals or an artificial water-supply.
Famines. — In any country where the population is dense Famines,
and the means of communication backward, the failure of a
harvest, whether produced by drought, by flood, by blight, by Natural
locusts, or by war, causes intense distress. Whether such calamities,
distress shall develop into famine is merely a matter of degree,
depending upon a combination of circumstances — the com-
parative extent of the failure, the density of the population,
the practicability of imports, the facilities for transport, the
resources of private trade, and the energy of the administration.
Drought, or a failure of the regular rainfall, is the great Causes of
cause of famine. No individual foresight, no compensating scarcity ;
influences, can prevent those recurring periods of continuous
drought with which large Provinces of India are afflicted.
Even an average rainfall in any one year, if irregularly dis-
tributed, or at the wrong seasons, may affect the harvest to a
moderate degree; so also may flood or blight. The total
failure of one monsoon may result in a general scarcity. But and of real
famine proper, or widespread starvation, is usually caused by a f^°^^"^-
succession of seasons of drought. The cultivators of India are
seldom dependent upon a single harvest, or upon the crops of one
year. In the event of a partial failure, they can draw for their
540 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
food-supply either upon their own grain pits or upon the stores
of the village merchants. The first sufferers, and those who
also suffer most in the end, are the class who live by daily
wages. But small is the number that can hold out, either in
capital or credit, against a second year of insufficient rainfall ;
and even the third season sometimes proves adverse. The
great famines in India have been caused by drought, and
usually by drought continued over two or three years.
Water- Jt becomes necessary to inquire into the means of husband-
supp y. jj^g ^^ water-supply. That supply can be derived only from
three sources — (i) Local rainfall; (2) natural inundation;
and (3) artificial irrigation from rivers, canals, tanks, or wells.
Any of these sources may exist separately or together. In
only a few parts of India can the rainfall be entirely trusted,
as both sufficient in its amount and regular in its distribution.
These favoured tracts include the whole strip of coast beneath
the Western Gh^ts, from Bombay to Cape Comorin ; the greater
part of the Provinces of Assam and Burma; together with the
Favoured deltaic districts at the head of the Bay of Bengal. In these
Trovmces. provinces the annual rainfall rarely, if ever, falls below 60 to
100 inches; artificial irrigation and famine are there alike
unknown.
Theirriga- The rest of the Indian peninsula may be described as
oHndia^ liable, more or less, to drought. In Orissa, the scene of the
most intense famine of recent times, the average rainfall
exceeds 60 inches a year ; in Sind, which has been excep-
tionally free from famine under British rule, the average drops
to less than 10 inches. The local rainfall, therefore, is not
the only element to be considered. Broadly speaking, artificial
irrigation has protected, or is now in course of protecting,
certain fortunate regions, such as the eastward deltas of the
Madras rivers and the upper valley of the Ganges. The rest,
and by far the greater portion, of the country is still exposed
to famine. Meteorological science may possibly teach us to
foresee what is coming.^ But it may be doubted whether
administrative efforts can do more than alleviate the calamity
when once famine has declared itself. Lower Bengal and
Oudh are watered by natural inundation as much as by the
local rainfall; Sind derives its supplies mainly from canals filled
by the floods of the Indus ; the Punjab and the North-Western
Provinces are dependent largely upon wells ; the Deccan, with
the entire south, is the land of tanks and reservoirs. But in all
these Provinces, when the rainfall has failed over a series of
^ See the chapter on Indian Meteorology at the end of this volume.
INDIAN FAMINES, 1770-1866. 541
years, the canal supply must likewise fail after no long interval.
Waterworks on a scale adequate to guarantee the whole of
India from drought not only exceed the possibilities of finance j
they are also beyond the reach of engineering skill.
The first great famine of which we have any trustworthy Summary
record is that which devastated the lower valley of the Ganges ^^ ^P^'^n
. lammes,
m 1769-70. One-third of the population of Bengal is credibly 1770-1878.
reported to have perished. The previous season had been
bad ; and, as not uncommonly happens, the break-up of the 1769-70.
drought was accompanied by disastrous floods. Beyond the
importation into Calcutta and Murshidabad of a few thousand
hundredweights of rice from the Districts of Bakarganj and
Chittagong, it does not appear that any public measures for
relief were taken or proposed.^
The next great famine was that which afflicted the Karnatik Famine?; of
from 1780 to 1783, and has been immortalized by the genius ^700-83 ;
of Burke. It arose primarily from the ravages of Haidar All's
army. A public subscription was organized by the Madras
Government, from which sprang the ' Monegar Choultry,' a per-
manent Madras institution for the relief of the native poor. In
1783-84, Hindustan Proper suffered from a prolonged drought,
which stopped short at the frontier of British territory. Warren
Hastings, then Governor-General, advocated the construction
of enormous granaries, to be opened only in times of necessity.
One of these granaries or golds^ stands to the present day in
the city of Patna, but it was never used until the scarcity of
1874. In 1790-92, Madras was again the scene of a two- 1790-92;
years' famine, which is memorable as being the first occasion
on which the starving people were employed by Government
on relief works. Famines again occurred in Southern India
in 1802-04, 1807, 1812, 1824, 1833, 1854, and 1866. A
terrible dearth in 1838 caused great mortality in the North- 1838.
Western Provinces.
But so little was done by the State in these calamities, that Famines
few administrative lessons can be learned from them. In °^ '^^^
1860-61, however, a serious attempt was made to alleviate an
exceptional distress in the North-Western Provinces. About
half a million persons are estimated to have been relieved, at
an expenditure by Government of about three-quarters of a
' A full account of the famine of 1769-70 is given in Hunter's Annals of
Rural Bengal^ pp. 19-55 (5^^ ^^.). The official record of this and the
subsequent famines will be found in the Report of the Indian Famine
Comniission, presented to Parliament 1880, part i. paras. 62-84,
542 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
and of million sterling. Again, in 1865-66, which will ever be known
1866. as the year of the Orissa famine, the Government attempted to
organize relief works and to distribute charitable funds. But
on neither of these occasions can it be said that its efforts
were successful. In Orissa, especially, the admitted loss of
one-fourth of the population proves the danger to which an
isolated Province is exposed. The people of Orissa died
because they had no surplus stocks of grain of their own; and
because importation, on an adequate scale, was physically
impossible by sea or land.
Famine of Passing over the prolonged drought of 1868-70 in the
1873-74- North-Western Provinces and Rajputana, we come to the Behar
scarcity of 1873-74, which first attracted the interest of Eng-
land. Warned by the failure of the rains, and watched and
stimulated by the excited sympathy of the public in England,
the Government carried out a costly but comprehensive scheme
of relief. By the expenditure of 6 J millions sterling, and the
importation of i million tons of rice, all loss of life was pre-
vented. The comparatively small area of distress, and the
facilities of communication by rail and river, allowed of the
accomplishment of this feat, which remains unparalleled in
the annals of Indian famine.
Famine of The famine of 1876-78 is the widest spread and the most
1876-78. prolonged that India has experienced. The drought com-
menced in Mysore by the failure of the monsoon in 1875;
and the fear of distress in the North-Western Provinces did
not pass away until 1879. But it will be known in history
as the great famine of Southern India. Over the entire
Deccan, from Poona to Bangalore, the south-west monsoon
failed to bring its usual rainfall in the summer of 1876. In
Failure of the autumn of the same year, the north-east monsoon proved
rain, 1876. deficient in the south-eastern Districts of the Madras Presi-
dency. The main food crop perished throughout an immense
tract of country; and, as the harvest of 1875 had also been
short, prices rapidly rose to famine rates. In November 1876,
starvation was already at work, and Government adopted
measures to keep the people alive. The next eighteen
months, until the middle of 1878, were devoted to one long
Failure of campaign against famine. The summer monsoon of 1877
ram, 1877. proved a failure ; some relief was brought in October of that
year by the autumn monsoon ; but all anxiety was not removed
until the arrival of a normal rainfall in June 1878.
Meanwhile the drought had reached Northern India, where
it found the stocks of grain already drained to meet the famine
FAMINE OF 1876-78. 543
in the south. Bengal, Assam, and Burma were the only Scarcity in
Provinces which escaped in that disastrous year. The North- ^'o'^.the''n
Western Provinces, the Punjab, Rajputana, and the Central 1877-78.
Provinces suffered from drought throughout the summer of
1877, and, from its consequences, far into the following year.
When once famine gets ahead of relief operations, the flood Famine in
of distress bursts its embankments, and the people simply ^"^ *
perish. Starvation and the long attendant train of famine-
diseases sweep away their hundreds of thousands. In 1876-78,
the importation of grain was left free, and within twelve months
268,000 tons were brought by land, and 166,000 tons by sea,
into the distressed Districts of Southern India.
The total expenditure of Government upon famine relief Famine
in 1876-78 may be estimated at 11 millions sterling, not ^'^P^"^^'
including the indirect loss of revenue, nor the amount debited 1876-78.
against the State of Mysore. For this large sum of money
there is but little to show in the shape of works constructed.
The largest number of persons in receipt of relief at one time
in Madras was 2,591,900 in September 1877; of these only
634,581 were nominally employed on works, while the rest
were gratuitously fed. From cholera alone, the deaths were cholera,
returned at 357,430 for Madras, 58,648 for Mysore, and
57,252 for Bombay. Dr. Cornish, the Sanitary Commis-
sioner of Madras, well illustrated the effects of the famine
by the returns of births and deaths over a series of years.
In 1876, when famine, with its companion cholera, was
already beginning to be felt, the births registered in Madras
numbered 632,113, and the deaths 680,381. In 1877, the Decrease
year of famine, the births fell to 477,447, while the deaths of birth-
rose to 1,556,312. In 1878, the results of the famine showed 1877-78.
themselves by a still further reduction of the births to
348,346, and by the still high number of 810,921 deaths. In
1879 the births recovered to 476,307, still below the average,
and the deaths diminished to 548,158. These figures are
only approximate, but they serve to show how long the results
of famine are to be traced in the vital statistics of a people.
With regard to the deaths, the Famine Commissioners thus Total
report : ' It has been estimated, and in our opinion on sub- ^^^^^^
stantial grounds, that the mortality which occurred in the famine of
Provinces under British administration during the period of 1^76- 78-
famine and drought extending over the years 1877 and 1878
amounted, on a population of 197 millions, to 5 J millions in
excess of the deaths that would have occurred had the seasons
been ordinarily healthy; and the statistical returns have made
544 AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS.
certain what has long been suspected, that starvation and
distress greatly check the fecundity of the population. It is
probable that from this cause the number of births during the
same period has been lessened by 2 millions ; the total
reduction of the population would thus amount to about 7
millions. Assuming the ordinary death-roll, taken at the rate
of 35 per thousand, on 190 millions of people, the abnormal
mortality of the famine period may be regarded as having
increased the total death-rate by about 40 per cent.'
Famine But when estimated over a period of years, the effect of
^^^V^ famine as a check upon the population is small. The Famine
popula- Commissioners calculate that, taking the famines of the past
tion. thirty years, as to which alone an estimate of any value can be
made, the abnormal deaths caused by famine and its diseases
have been less than 2 per thousand of the Indian population per
annum. As a matter of fact, cultivation quickly extended after
the famine of 1877-78, and there were in Bombay and Madras
120,000 more acres under tillage shortly after the long pro-
tracted scarcity than before it.
Famine of The famine of 1876-78 affected, directly, a population of 58 J
sum-~^ million persons, and an area of 257,300 square miles. The
marized. average number daily employed by the State on relief works
was 877,024. The average number of persons daily in receipt
of gratuitous State relief was 446,641, besides private charities.
Land revenue was remitted to close on 2 millions sterling.
The famine lasted from 12 months in the North- Western
Provinces, to 22 months in Madras. Its total cost, includ-
ing both outlay and loss of revenue, is officially returned at
^11,194,320.^ A Commission was appointed to inquire into
the causes of famine in India, and the means of averting or
alleviating those calamities. Its report, presented to both
Houses of Parliament in 1880, is replete with carefully collated
facts regarding the past, and with wise suggestions for the
future.
During the seven years which have elapsed since the great
calamity of 1878, up to the time when these pages went to
the press (June 1885), there has been no scarcity in India
sufficiently intense or widespread to deserve the name of
famine. Almost every season has brought a partial failure of
the rains in one Province or another. But improved means of
communication, and prompt measures for dealing with the
distress, have prevented local scarcity from developing in any
year into general famine.
* Report of the Indian Famine Commission ^ part i. p. 24 (1880).
[545]
CHAPTER XVIII.
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
I The means of communication in India may be classified Internal
; under four headings — (i) railways, (2) roads, (3) rivers, and ^JiJJ^."^
(4) canals.
I The existing system of railway communication in India Indian
dates from the administration of Lord Dalhousie. The first '^ ^^^^*
Indian line of rail was projected in 1843 by Sir Macdonald Their
Stephenson, who was afterwards active in forming the East iSdy^y'i.
Indian Railway Company. But this scheme was blighted by
the financial panic that followed soon afterwards in England,
Bombay, the city which has most benefited by railway enter-
prise, saw the first sod turned in 1850, and the first line of
a few miles opened as far as Thana (Tanna) in 1853. The
elaborate minute, drawn up by Lord Dalhousie in the latter
year, substantially represents the railway map of India at the
present day, although filled in by Lord Mayo's extensions of
1869 and by subsequent lines.
Lord Dalhousie's scheme consisted of well-chosen trunk Lord Dal-
lines, traversing the length and breadth of the peninsula, tru^kUnes
and connecting all the great cities and military cantonments. 1853.
These trunk lines were to be constructed by private companies,
to whom Government should guarantee a minimum of 5 per
cent, interest on their capital expended, and from whom it
should demand in return a certain measure of subordination.
The system thus sketched out was promptly carried into
execution, and by 187 1 Bombay was put into direct railway
communication with the sister Presidencies of Calcutta and
Madras. The task remaining for Lord Mayo in 1870 was the Lord
development of trafliic by means of feeders, which should tap ^^^^^
the districts of production, and thus open up the entire lines, 1870,
country. This task he initiated by the construction of minor
State lines on a narrower gauge, and therefore at a cheaper
rate, than the existing guaranteed railways.
2 M
546
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
Four
classes of
Indian
lines.
* Guaran-
teed ' rail-
ways.
The railways of India are now divided into four classes.
In the first place, there are the railways constructed by
guaranteed companies, for the most part between 1855 ^"^
1875. These guaranteed railways, as a rule, follow the main
lines of natural communication, and satisfy the first necessities
of national Hfe, both commercial and political. In the second
place, there is a system of branch State lines, constructed during
the last fifteen years, and some of them destined to yield fruit
only in the future. The third class comprises railways worked
by private companies under a system of Government conces-
sions. The fourth class are railways within Native States.
The four
systems.
(i) Guar-
anteed
railways.
(2) State
railways.
(3) 'As-
sisted.'
(4) Native
State
railways.
Guaran-
teed lines.
Each of these classes of railways has been constructed on a
different system in regard to the method by which the capital
was raised. The four systems may be briefly, although not
accurately, described as follows. The guaranteed lines were
constructed by companies formed in England, who raised their
capital from their own shareholders under a guaranteed interest
of 5 per cent, from the Government of India. Profits in excess
of 5 per cent, were to be shared between the Government and
the' Company, but the Government reserved the right of buying
up the lines at their market value after certain terms of years.
The construction of guaranteed railways was carried out by
the Company's staff under the supervision of Government.
The State railways were constructed from capital raised by
the Government direct ; and they were executed by engineers
in Government employ. The ' assisted ' railway companies
are a more recent development. They raise their capital under
a guarantee of a low interest from Government, with free
grants of land, or other concessions. The guarantee is usually
for a limited period; but, as presently explained, different
arrangements are made in each case.
The Native State lines are constructed from capital found
by the individual State. The execution and management of
these lines have, as a rule, been conducted by a staff employed
by the Government of India, or by the trunk railway companies
to which they serve as feeders.
The guaranteed lines, including the East Indian, which was
transferred to Government on ist January 1880, the Eastern
Bengal Railway similarly transferred in 1883, and the Sind,
Punjab, and Delhi Railway to be taken over by Government in
January 1886, comprise the following: — (i) The East Indian,
running up the valley of the Ganges from Calcutta (Howrah)
as far as Delhi, with a branch to Jabalpur. (2) The Eastern
CLASSES OF INDIAN RAIL WA YS 547
Bengal Railway, traversing the richest portion of the Gangetic The eight
valley, and connected with the Northern Bengal State Railway. ^^^^^ ^'"^^
(3) The Great Indian Peninsula, which starts from Bombay, teed.
and sends one arm north-east to Jabalpur, with a branch to
Ncigpur, and another south-east to the frontier of Madras.
(4) The Madras line, with its terminus at Madras city, and
two arms running respectively to the Great Indian Peninsula
junction at Raichur and to Beypur on the opposite coast, with
branches to Bangalore and Bellary. (5) The Oudh and
Rohilkhand, with its numerous branches, connecting Lucknow
with Cawnpur, Benares, Aligarh, Moradabad, Bareli, Saharan-
pur, and Hardwar. (6) The Bombay, Baroda, and Central
India, which runs due north from Bombay through the fertile
plain of Gujarat, to Ahmadabad, where it joins the Rajputana-
Malwa State Railway, and ultimately connects with the East
India and Sind, Punjab, and Delhi systems at Delhi and at
Agra. (7) The Sind, Punjab, and Delhi, consisting of three
sections, one in Lower Sind, another from Delhi to Lahore,
and the third from Lahore to Miiltan. (8) The South Indian
(the only guaranteed line on the narrow gauge), in the extreme
south, from Tinnevelli to Madras city, with branches to
Arconum, Erode, Negapatam, Tuticorin, and Pondicherri.
The State lines are too numerous to be individually described. The State
They include the extension from Lahore to Peshawar on the railways,
north-west frontier ; the * missing link,' from Miiltan to Haidar-
abad, thus bringing the Punjab into direct connection with its
natural seaport at Karachi (opened throughout in 1878);
the Rajputana-Malwa State Railway connecting AhmadabM
with Delhi, Agra, and Khandwa ; and the Northern Bengal
State Railway. The last-named line starts from Sara-ghdt
opposite the Damukdiha station of the Eastern Bengal Rail-
way, whence it runs northwards to the foot of the Hima-
layas. A small 2 feet gauge railway is thence carried up
to the sanitarium of Darjiling, now within twenty-four hours'
journey of Calcutta. Among other State lines, the following
may be specified. The Tirhiit State Railway with its various
branches intersects Northern Behar, and is intended to
extend to the Nepal frontier on one side, and to Assam on the
other. The Dacca and Maimansingh Railway will open out
Eastern Bengal ; the Nagpur - Chhatisgarh Railway taps the
great wheat-growing Districts of the Central Provinces. Shorter
State lines or branches from the trunk railways are numerous.
In British Burma, a State line runs up the Irawadi valley from
Rangoon to Prome, with an extension to the frontier station of
548
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION,
Assisted
railways.
The
* assisted
system.
Native
railways.
Allan-myo. A second line up the Sittaung valley to Taung-
ngu, is open for more than half its length, and the remainder is
expected to be opened in 1886.
Of the assisted railway companies, the principal are the
Bengal and North-Western, running from the Sonpur station of
the East Indian Railway to Bahraich in Oudh ; the Bengal
Central line from Calcutta to Khiilnd, bordering on the Sun-
darbans ; the various branches of the Southern Mardtha Railway
in the Deccan, of which 214 miles out of a sanctioned length
of 7 18 J miles were open in March 1885 ; the Rohilkhand and
Kumaun line; the Assam line to the recently-opened coal
measures in Lakhimpur District; the little 2 feet gauge
Darjiling-Himalayan Railway (above mentioned) ; two short
lines from the East Indian Railway to the shrine of Tarakes-
war in Htigli District, and to Deogarh in the Santal Parganas,
which are annually resorted to by large numbers of pilgrims
from all parts of India. Other lines belonging to the assisted
class are projected or have commenced construction. It is
proposed to make on this system the Nagpur-Bengal line,
which will connect the Chhatisgarh wheat plateau with
the Hiigli river, and thus complete an almost straight line of
communication between Calcutta and Bombay. The Bhopal-
Gwalior line will also be made on the assisted system ; together
with other lines belonging to the inner circle of communication
in the interior of India.
The principle adopted in the assisted system is for
Government to guarantee a low rate of interest, or to give a
guarantee for a limited period. The Company has therefore
the keenest inducement to make the railway pay, as its profits,
above the low guaranteed rate, depend on its own exertions,
and on the economical working of the line. The Govern-
ment recoups itself for the money advanced under the low
guarantee before the line has begun to pay, by taking a share
of the profits of the line when they exceed the guaranteed
interest. This is the general principle of the assisted railways
in India. But it is worked out differently in the case of
almost every separate line; especially as regards the rate of
interest guaranteed, and the duration or limits of the
guarantee.
Besides these there are 663 J miles of railway now (1885)
opened in Native States, which have been constructed at the
expense of the chiefs. The principal of these are the Baroda
Railway, and the Bhaunagar-Gondal Railway in Western India,
the Bhopal-Itarsi line in Central India, the Jodhpur line in
RAILWAY STATISTICS, 1878-85. 549
Rajputana, the Nizam's Railway in Haidarabad, the Mysore
Railway in Southern India, and the Rajpura-Patiala line in the
Punjab. The railways passing through the States of Gwalior
and Holkar are not included in this list, as they were con-
structed, not at the cost of the chiefs themselves, but out of
the proceeds of a loan made to the Government by the Maha-
rajas Sindhia and Holkar, and are worked entirely by Govern-
ment in connection with the Rajputana-Malwa Railway.
The two following paragraphs exhibit the railway statistics Railway
of India for the years 1878 and 1885. They indicate the jg^g^^nd
progress which has been made during the seven years, since 1885 ;
the materials for the first edition of this book were compiled.
In 1878, the total mileage open for traffic was 8215 miles, of 1878 ;
which 6044 miles belonged to guaranteed railways, and 2171
miles to State railways; total capital expended, ^115,059,434,
being ;£^95, 430,863 on the former, and ;£"i 9,628,591 on the
latter class; number of passengers conveyed, 38,519,792;
number of tons of goods and minerals, 8,171,617 ; number
of hve stock, 594,249; gross receipts, ;£io,404,753 ; gross
expenses, ;2{^5, 206,938 ; net earnings, ;2£^5,i97,8i5, of which
only ^£^195,787 is credited to the State railways; per-
centage of gross expenses to gross receipts, 50*04, varying
from 34'97 in the case of the East Indian main line to an
average of 78*27 for all the State lines. These figures showed
I mile of railway to every 109 square miles of area in 1878,
as compared with the area of British India, or to 180 square
miles, as compared with the area of the entire peninsula.
The average cost of construction per mile was almost exactly
;^ 1 4, 000. The guaranteed railways, embracing the great
trunk lines throughout India, are on the 'broad gauge' of 5
feet 6 inches ; the State lines follow, as a rule, the narrow or
metre gauge of 3 "281 feet. On 31st March 1879, the total 1879.
length opened was 8545 miles ; and the capital invested, 120
millions sterling.
The total extent of railways open for traffic in India on Railway
the 31st March 1885 was 12,004 niiles, of which 6906 statistics,
miles were in the hands of companies, either guaranteed
or assisted ; 4434 miles were State lines, either Imperial or
Provincial ; and 664 miles belonged to Native States. On
the same date, the extent of railway line under construction
^^'^s 3555 miles, of which 963 miles were in the hands of
companies, 2125 miles were under construction by the State,
and 467 miles by Native States.
The capital outlay on railways and connected steamer services Railway
capital.
550
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
Railway
finance,
1884.
(exclusive of the Rohilkhand-Kumdun and Bareilly - Pilibhit
lines), amounted on 31st December 1884 to ;^i55, 450,366.
Of this sum, ;£"io5,3i9,i44 was expended by guaranteed
companies (inclusive of the cost of the East Indian
Railway, which stands at ;£^35,o65,667) ; ;^42, 924,898 on
State railways (Imperial and Provincial); ;£"3, 423,259 on
assisted companies' lines; and ;£^3j 783,065 on Native State
lines. The gross receipts during the calendar year 1884
amounted to ;£'i6,o66,2 2 5, and the working expenses to
;£'8, 156,157. The net revenue amounted to ;£7, 910,068, or
5*09 per cent, on the total capital expended up to the 31st
December 1884. Of the net revenue, the East Indian Railway,
including the State branches worked by the Company, con-
tributed ;^2, 796,414 ; the guaranteed hnes, ;£"3, 397,183 ; State
lines. Imperial and Provincial, ;^i,6o9,i56 ; and lines in
Native States, ;^ii4,8i2. The total number of passengers
carried was 73,815,119, the receipts amounting to ;£5, 070,754.
The aggregate tonnage of goods and merchandise carried
was 16,663,007 tons, the receipts from goods traffic, etc.,
amounting to ;£^io,565,94i.
Roads.
Old mili-
tary routes.
The
' Grand
Trunk
Road.'
Bombay
inland
route.
As the railway system of India approaches its completion,
the relative importance of the roads naturally diminishes.
From a military point of view, rapid communication by rail
has now superseded the old marching routes as completely as in
any European country. Like Portsmouth in England, Bombay
in India has become the national harbour for the embarkation
and disembarkation of troops. On landing at Bombay, regi-
ments proceed, after a rest, to the healthy station of Deolali
on the plateau of the Deccan, whence they can reach their
ultimate destinations, however remote, by easy railway stages.
The Grand Trunk Road, running up the entire valley of
the Ganges from Calcutta to the north-west frontier, first
planned as a highway of armies in the i6th century by the
Afghan Emperor Sher Sh^h, and brought to completion under
the administration of Lord William Bentinck, is now for the
most part untrodden by troops. The monument, erected
to commemorate the opening of the military road up the Bhor
Ghdt to wheeled traffic from Bombay, remains unvisited by
all but the most curious travellers. Railways have bridged
the widest rivers and the most formidable swamps. They
have scaled, with their aerial zigzags, the barrier range of the
Ghats ; and they have been carried on massive embankments
over the shifting soil of the Gangetic delta.
ROADS AND RIVERS, 551
But although the railway system now occupies the first place,
both for military and commercial purposes, the actual import-
ance of roads has increased rather than diminished. They Extension
do not figure in the imperial balance-sheet, nor do they strike ° ^°^ ^
the popular imagination ; but their construction and repair
constitute one of the most important duties of the District
official. They promote that regularity of local communication
upon which the progress of civilisation so largely depends.
The substitution of the post-cart for the naked runner, and
of wheeled traffic for the pack-bullock, is one of the silent
revolutions effected by British rule.
The more important roads are all carefully metalled, the Road
material almost everywhere employed being kankar or cal- "^^'^^^'
careous limestone. In Lower Bengal and other deltaic tracts,
where no kind of stone exists, bricks are roughly burnt, and
then broken up to supply metal for the roads. The minor
streams are crossed by permanent bridges, with foundations of
stone, and not unfrequently iron girders. The larger rivers Bridges of
have temporary bridges of boats thrown across them during boats,
the dry season, which give place to ferries in time of flood.
Avenues of trees along the roads afford shade, and material for
timber. The main lines are under the charge of the Public
Works Department. The maintenance of the minor roads
has, by a recent administrative reform, been thrown upon
the shoulders of the local authorities, who depend for their
pecuniary resources upon District committees, and are often
compelled to act as their own engineers. Complete statistics
are not available to show the total mileage of roads in British
India, or the total sum expended on their maintenance.
Inland navigation is almost confined to the four great rivers, Rivers,
the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Indus, and the Irawadi.
These flow through broad valleys, and from time immemorial
have been the chief means of conveying the produce of
the interior to the sea. South of the Gangetic basin, there is
not a single Indian river which can be called navigable. Most
of the South Indian streams, although mighty torrents in the
rainy season, dwindle away to mere threads of water and stag-
nant pools during the rest of the year. The Godavari and the The Goda-
Narbada, whose volume of water is ample, are both obstructed ^^" ^^°^ ^'
by rocky rapids, which engineering skill has hitherto been
unable to overcome. A total sum of ij million sterling has
been almost in vain expended upon the former river, with
a view to improving it as a navigable highway. It is doubtful
Ganges.
Brahma
putra.
552 MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
whether water carriage is able to compete, as regards the more
valuable staples, with communication by rail. But for cheap
and bulky staples, or for slow subsidiary traffic, it is difficult to
overrate the economic importance of the Indian rivers.
The After the East Indian Railway was fairly opened, through
steamers ceased to ply upon the Ganges ; and the steam
flotilla on the Indus shrank to insignificance when through
communication by rail became possible between Miiltan and
The Karachi. On the Brahmaputra and its tributary the Bdrak,
and on the Irawadi, steamers still run secure from railway
competition. But it is in the Gangetic delta that river navi-
gation attains its highest development. There the population
may be regarded as half amphibious. Every village can be
reached by water in the rainy season, and every family keeps
its boat. The main channels of the Ganges and Brahma-
putra, and their larger tributaries, are navigable throughout
the year. During the rainy months, road carriage is altogether
Minor superseded. All the minor streams are swollen by the rainfall
streams ^^ ^^ j^jjjg ^^^ ^^ local downpour ; while fleets of boats sail
down with the produce that has accumulated in warehouses
on the river banks.
River The statistics of this subject belong rather to the department
trace. ^^ internal trade,i but it may be mentioned here that the
number of laden boats registered in Bengal in the year
1877-78 was 401,729. These formed but a fraction of the
real total. Boat-racing forms a favourite native sport in the
deltaic and eastern Districts. It is conducted with great
spirit and rivalry by the villagers. In some places, the day
concludes with an illuminated boat procession by torchlight.
The ^ The great majority of the Bengal rivers require no attention
rivers^^ from Government, but the network known as the three Nadiya
rivers is kept open for traffic only by close supervision.
These three rivers, the Bhagirdthf, Jalangi, and Mdtdbhdngd,
are all offshoots of the Ganges, which unite to make up the head-
waters of the Hugh'. 2 In former times, the main volume of
the Ganges was carried to the sea by one or other of these
channels. But they now receive so little water as to be navi-
gable only in the rainy season, and then with difficulty. Since
the beginning of the present century, Government has under-
taken the task of preventing these Hiiglf head-waters from
^ Dealt with in next chapter.
^ See article Hugli River, The Imperial Gazetteer, for an account of
the engineering history of these rivers. It is also given in greater detail in
HviTHtx's Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. ii. pp. 19-32.
NAVIGABLE CANALS. 553
further deterioration. A staff of engineers is constantly em-
ployed to watch the shifting bed, to assist the scouring action
of the current, and to advertise the trading community of the
depth of water from time to time. In the year 1882-83, a total
sum of £,\ 1,667 was expended on this account, while an income
of ^^18,296 was derived from tolls.
The artificial water channels of India may be divided into Navigable
two classes, (i) Those confined to navigation; (2) those canals,
constructed primarily for purposes of irrigation. Of the
former class, the most important examples are to be found in
the south of the peninsula. On both the Malabar and the ^
Coromandel coasts, the strip of low land lying between the
mountains and the sea affords natural facilities for the con-
struction of an inland canal running parallel to the shore.
In Malabar, the salt-water lagoons or lakes, which form so Malabar
prominent a feature in the local geography, merely required to ^^ck-
be supplemented by a few cuttings to supply continuous water
communication from the port of Calicut to Cape Comorin.
On the east coast, the Buckingham Canal, running north from Bucking-
Madras city as far as the delta of the Kistna, has recently hamCanal.
been completed without any great engineering difficulties. In
Bengal there are a few artificial canals, of old date, but of no
great magnitude, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. The
principal of these form the system known as the Calcutta and Calcutta
Eastern Canals, which consist for the most part of natural canals.
channels artificially deepened, in order to afford a safe boat
route through the Sundarbans. Up to the close of the year
1877-78, a capital of ;£36o,332 had been expended by _
Government on the Calcutta Canals; the gross income in
1877-78 was ;^44,i2o; after deducting cost of repairs, etc.,
charged to revenue account, and interest at the rate of 4J per
cent., a net profit was left amounting to ;£"8748. In 1882-83,
the tolls on the Calcutta Canals realized ;£^53,372. The
Hijili Tidal Canal in Midnapur District, which cuts off a
difficult corner of the Hugli river, yielded a net revenue of
;£"3i7i in the same year. In 1882-83, this canal only yielded Hijili
a net profit of ^446, owing to the cost of dredging operations. Canal.
and the consequent closing of the canal for a portion of the
year.
Most of the great irrigation works, both in Northern and
Southern India, have been so constructed as to be available Naviga-
also for navigation. The general features of these works have ^°" °'J
been already described. So far as regards Bengal, navigation canals ;
554 MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
on the Orissa Canals in 1877-78 yielded ;^3384, and in
1882-83, ;£iO)^47^ o^ the Midnapur Canal, j[^\o^(^(^2 in
1877-78, and ;£"io,642 in 1882-83; ^^^ on the Son Canals,
;,f5965 in 1877-78, and ;^39o6 in 1882-83; the aggregate
being considerably larger than was derived from irrigation. In
on Madras Madras, boat tolls in the Godavari delta brought in ;£"4496 in
canals. 1877-78, and ;£62 95 in 1882-83. In the Kistna delta, tolls
realized ;£"i7i8 in 1877-78, and ;£^3956 in 1882-83. The
works of the Madras Irrigation Company on the Tungabhadra
were not made available for navigation until 1879, ^^^ they
were taken over by Government in 1882. Their navigation
receipts in that year amounted to ;£io68.
I
[ 555 ]
CHAPTER XIX.
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
From the earliest days, India has been a trading country. Trade of
The industrial genius of her inhabitants, even more than her ^"^^^•
natural wealth and her extensive seaboard, distinguished her
from other Asiatic lands. In contrast with the Arabian
peninsula on the west, with the Malayan peninsula on Ancient,
the east, or with the equally fertile empire of China, India
has always maintained an active intercourse with Europe.
Philology proves that the precious cargoes of Solomon's
merchant ships came from the ancient coast of Malabar.
The brilliant mediaeval republics of Italy drew no small share
of their wealth from their Indian trade. It was the hope of
participating in this trade that stimulated Columbus to the
discovery of America, and Da Gama to the circumnavigation
of the Cape of Good Hope. Spices, drugs, dyes, and rare MediaevaL
woods ; fabrics of silk and cotton ; jewels, and gold and silver,
— these were the temptations which allured the first adventurers
from Europe.
The East and the West were then separated by a twelve-
month's voyage, full of hardships and perils. A successful
venture made the fortune of all concerned, but trade was a
lottery, and not far removed from piracy. Gradually, as the
native kingdoms fell, and the proud cities of mediaeval India
sank into ruin, the legendary wealth of India was found to
rest upon an unstable basis. It has been reserved for our
own day to discover, by the touchstone of open trade, the real Modem,
source of her natural riches, and to substitute bales of raw
produce for boxes of curiosities. The cotton, grain, oil-seeds,
and jute of India now support a large population in England.
Before entering on the statistics of Indian trade, it is well to The
apprehend the function which commerce has now to perform fJJncfion of
in India. The people have in some Provinces outgrown the trade in
food-producing powers of the soil ; in many others, they are ^"^^^*
pressing heavily upon these powers. Agriculture, almost their
sole industry, no longer suffices for their support. New
556 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
New ^ industries have become a necessity for their well-being.
necessaiT Commerce and manufactures have therefore obtained an
economical importance which they never had before in India ;
for they represent the means of finding employment and food
for the rapidly increasing population. A popular sketch of
the social aspects of Indian trade will therefore be first given,
before arranging in more logical sequence the facts and figures
connected with its recent history and development.
Large A large external trade was an impossibility under the Mughal
t^rTde°"^"^ Emperors. Their capitals of Northern India, Agra and Delhi,
impossible lay more than a thousand miles from the river's mouth. But
under the even the capitals of the seaboard Provinces were chosen for
military purposes, and with small regard to the commercial
capabilities of their situation. Thus, in Lower Bengal, the
Muhammadans under different dynasties fixed in succession
Their on six towns as their capital. Each of these successive capitals
capitals, ^^g Qj^ ^ xwQx bank; but not one of them possessed any
foreign trade, nor indeed could have been approached by an
merely old East Indiaman. They were simply the court and camp
royal ^f ^^ Yivig or the viceroy for the time being. Colonies of
skilful artisans settled round the palaces of the nobles to supply
the luxurious fabrics of oriental life. After the prince and
court had in some new caprice abandoned the city, the artisans
remained, and a little settlement of weavers was often the sole
surviving proof that the decaying town had once been a capital
city. The exquisite muslins of Dacca and the soft silks of
Murshiddbad still bear witness to the days when these two
places were successively the capital of Bengal. The artisans
worked in their own houses. The manufactures of India were
essentially domestic industries, conducted by special castes,
each member of which wove at his own hereditary loom, and
in his own village or homestead.
Growth of One of the earliest results of British rule in India was the
trading growth of great mercantile towns. Our rule derived its origin
under from our commerce ; and from the first, the East India Corn-
British pany's efforts were directed to creating centres for maritime
trade. Other European nations, the Portuguese, the Dutch,
the Danes, and the French, competed with us as merchants and
conquerors in India, and each of them in turn attempted to
found great seaports. The long Indian coast, both on the
east and the west, is dotted with decaying villages which were
once the busy scenes of those nations' early European trade.
Of all their famous capitals in India, not one has now the
THE NEW ERA OF INDIAN TRADE, 557
commercial importance of Cardiff or Greenock, and not one
of them has a harbour which would admit at a low tide a ship
drawing 20 feet
The truth is, that it is far easier to pitch a camp and erect
a palace, which, under the native dynasties, was synonymous
with founding a capital, than it is to create a centre of
trade. Emporia of commerce must grow of themselves, and
cannot be called suddenly into existence by the fiat of the
wisest autocrat. It is in this difficult enterprise, in which the
Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, and the French had
successively failed, that the British in India have succeeded.
We make our appearance in the long list of races who have The
ruled that splendid empire, not as temple-builders like the ^"g/^sh
Hindus, nor as palace and tomb builders like the Musalmans, builders,
nor as fort-builders like the Marathas, nor as church-builders
like the Portuguese ; but in the more commonplace capacity
of town-builders, as a nation that had the talent for selecting
sites on which great commercial cities would grow up, and
who have in this way created a new industrial life for the
Indian people.
Calcutta and Bombay, the two commercial capitals of
India, are the slow products of British rule. Formerly, the
industries of India were essentially domestic manufactures,
each man working at his hereditary occupation, at his own
loom or at his own forge. Under British rule, a new era of A new era
production has arisen in India — an era of production on a 0/ P>^od"c-
great scale, based upon the co-operation of capital and labour,
in place of the small household manufactures of ancient times, based on
To Englishmen, who have from our youth grown up in the ^^'OP^^^-
midst of a keen commercial civilisation, it is not easy to capital,
realize the change thus implied.
The great industrial cities of British India are the type Growth of
of this change. Under native rule, the country had ^"4"^^"^^
reached what political economists of Mill's school called
* the stationary stage ' of civilisation. The husbandmen simply
raised the food - grains necessary to feed them from one
harvest to another. If the food crops failed in any district,
the local population had no capital and no other crops where-
with to buy food from other districts ; so, in the natural and
inevitable course of things, they perished. Now, the peasants
of India supplement their food-supply with more profitable
crops than the mere foodstuffs on which they live. They
also raise an annual surplus of grain for exportation, which is
available for India's own wants in time of need. Accordingly,
558 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
there is a much larger aggregate of capital in the country;
that is to say, a much greater national reserve or staying power.
The so-called * stationary stage ' in India has disappeared, and
the Indian peasant is keenly alive to each new demand which
the market of the world may make upon the industrial capa-
bilities of his country ; as the history of his trade in cotton,
jute, wheat, and oil-seeds proves.
Summary At the beginning of the last century, before the English
exportr^ became the ruling power in India, the country did not pro-
1700- 1 885. duce ;£" 1, 000,000 a year of staples for exportation. During
the first three-quarters of a century of our rule, the exports
slowly rose to about ;^i 0,000,000 in 1834. During the half
century since that date, the old inland duties and other
remaining restrictions on Indian trade have been abolished.
Exports have multiplied by eight-fold. In 1880, India sold to
foreign nations ;^66,ooo,ooo worth, and in 1884-85, upwards
of ;^8o,ooo,ooo worth of strictly Indian produce, which the
Indian husbandman had raised, and for which he was paid.
In 1880, the total foreign trade of India, including both exports
and imports, exceeded ;£"! 22,000,000. In 1884-85, the total
foreign import and export trade of India, excluding treasure
and Government stores, was over ;£i 36,000,000, or including
treasure and Government stores, nearly ^^i 55,000,000.
India's India has more to sell to the world than she requires to
tmde^^ ^^ ^"y ^^^"^ ^^* I^uri"g the five years ending 1879, the staples
which she exported exceeded by an annual average of over
;^24,ooo,ooo the merchandise which she imported.^ During
the next five years ending 31st March 1884, the gross surplus
of exports of merchandise over imports rose to 30 millions
sterling per annum. 2
About one-third of this favourable balance of trade India
receives in hard cash. During the five years ending 1879, she
accumulated silver and gold, exclusive of re-exports, at the
What rate of ^7,000,000 per annum, and during the next five
with the y^^^s ending March 1884 at the rate of ;£■! 1,000,000 per
balance, annum. With another third she pays interest at low rates for
the capital with which she has constructed the material frame-
work of her industrial life, — her railways, irrigation works,
» This calculation deals with the ^ross surplus of exports over imports,
without going into the question of re-exports of foreign goods. The total
'merchandise' exported, during the five years ending 1879, averaged
;^63,ooo,ooo ; the total * merchandise ' imported averaged £i%ooo^qkx>.
VUe post. Table at p. 562, entitled Foreign Trade of India.
* This also is the gross surplus, witl out deductions for re-exports.
K IISITY
SEA-BORNE TRADE OF INDIA. ^"""^
cotton mills, coal mines, indigo factories, tea-gardens, docks,
steam-navigation lines, and debt. For that capital she goes
into the cheapest market in the world, London; and she
remits the interest, not in cash, but in her own staples, which
the borrowed capital has enabled her to bring cheaply to the
seaboard. With the remaining third of her surplus exports, she
pays the home charges of the Government to which she owes
the peace and security that alone have rendered possible her
industrial development.
The Home Charges include not only the salaries of the The
supervising staff in England, and the pensions of the military ' j^o^^e ,
and civil services, who have given their life's work to India,
but the munitions of war, a section of the army, including
the cost of its recruitment and transport, stores for public
works, and the materiel for constructing and working the
railways. That materiel can be bought more cheaply in
England than in India; and India's expenditure on good
government is as essential an item for her industrial develop-
ment, and repays her as high a profit, as the interest which she
pays in England for the capital with which she has constructed
her dockyards and railways. But after paying for all the
Home Charges for the interest of capital raised in England for
Indian railways, and other reproductive works, and for the
materiel required for their construction and maintenance,
India has still a surplus of ^i^i 1,000,000 from her export trade India's
for which she receives payment in silver and gold. yearly
^ ■' ° savings.
The trade of India may be considered under four heads — Divisions
(i) sea-borne trade with foreign countries ; (2) coasting trade ; ^^ Indian
i (3) frontier trade, chiefly across the northern mountains ; (4)
internal traffic within the Hmits of the Empire.
The sea-borne trade most powerfully attracts the imagina- Sea-borne
tion, and we have the most trustworthy statistics regarding it. ^'^^^^•
With an extensive seaboard, India has comparatively few ports.
Calcutta monopolizes the commerce, not only of Lower
Bengal, but of the entire river-systems of the Ganges and the
Brahmaputra. Bombay is the sole outlet for the products of
Western India, Gujarat (Guzerit), the Deccan, and the Central
Provinces ; Karachi (Kurrachee) performs a similar office for
the valley of the Indus ; and Rangoon for that of the Irawadi.
These four ports have been chosen as the termini where the The four
main lines of railway debouch on the sea. In the south of ^^^
India alone is the sea-borne trade distributed along the coast.
56o COMMERCE AND TRADE,
The south-western side has a line of fair-weather ports, from
Goa to Cochin. On the south-east there is not a safe harbour,
nor a navigable river-mouth ; although ships anchor off the
shore at Madras, and in several other roadsteads, generally
near the mouths of the rivers. A Madras harbour has, how-
ever, been under construction during several years ; and, in
spite of destructive cyclones and storm-waves, the work is now
well advanced. Since these sheets went to press, a project has
been put forward for constructing docks at Madras, to cover
25 acres, protected by groins thrown out at right angles from
the beach, and by a breakwater (1885).
Of the total foreign trade of India, Calcutta and Bombay
till recently controlled about 40 per cent. each. Madras
had 6 per cent., Rangoon 4 per cent, and Karachi 2 per cent.,
leaving a balance of only 8 per cent, for all the remaining ports
of the country. In 1884-85, Bombay had 43 '51 per cent, of
the foreign trade; Calcutta, 36*97 per cent.; Madras, 5*43 per
cent; Rangoon, 4*67 per cent; and Karachi, 379 per cent,
Minor leaving only 5J per cent, for the minor ports, of which the
^^"^ ^' principal are — Chittagong, Maulmain, Akyab, Tuticorin, and
The two Coconada. Calcutta and Bombay form the two central
centres. depots for collection and distribution, to a degree without a
parallel in other countries. The growth of their prosperity is
an index of the development of Indian commerce.
Early When the Portuguese, the pioneers of Eastern adventure,
Portu- discovered the over-sea route to India, they were attracted
trade ^^ ^^ Malabar coast, where they found wealthy cities already
1 500- 1600, engaged in active commerce with Persia, Arabia, and the
opposite shore of Africa. From Malabar they brought back
pepper and other spices, and the cotton calicoes which took
their name from Calicut Fixing their head-quarters at Goa,
they advanced northwards to Surat, the ancient port not only
for Gujardt but for all Western Upper India. But with the
Portuguese, the trading instinct was subordinate to the spirit of
proselytism and to the ambition of territorial aggrandizement
Dutch The Dutch superseded them as traders, and organized
monopoly, a colonial system upon the basis of monopoly and forced
labour, which survives in Java to this day. Last of all
English came the English, planting factories at various points along
factories, ^hg Indian coast-line, and content to live under the shadow
1625. •
of the native powers. Wars with the Portuguese, with the
Dutch, and with the French, first taught the English their
own strength; and as the Mughal Empire fell to pieces,
EARL V ANGLO-INDIAN TRADE. 561
they were compelled to become rulers in order to protect
their commercial settlements. Our Indian Empire has grown
out of trade; but, meanwhile, our Indian trade has grown
even faster than our empire.^ - — >
'The Governor and Company of Merchants of London English
trading to the East Indies ' was incorporated by Royal ^'*?^^'
Charter on 31st December 1600, having been directly called
into existence by the grievance of monopoly prices imposed
upon pepper by the Dutch. Its first voyage was undertaken
in 1601 by five ships, whose cargoes consisted of ^28,742 in
bullion and ^6860 in goods ; the latter being chiefly cloth,
lead, tin, cutlery, glass, quicksilver, and Muscovy hides. Their
destination was ' Atcheen in the Far East ' (Sumatra). The
first English factory was established at Bantam in Java, in
1603. The return cargoes, partly captured from the Portuguese,
comprised raw silk, fine calicoes, indigo, cloves, and mace.
The earliest English factories on the mainland of India were
founded at Masulipatam in 16 10, and Surat in 161 2-15. In
1 6 19, ten ships were despatched to the East by the Company,
with ;^62,49o in precious metals and ;^28,5o8 in goods ; the
proceeds, brought back in a single ship, were sold for ^108,887.
The English made no great advance in trade during the 17th
century. By the massacre of Amboyna (1623) the Dutch
drove the English Company out of the Spice Islands, and the
period of its great establishments {aurangs) for weaving had
not yet commenced in India.
Early in the i8th century, our affairs improved. During the Our trade
twenty years ending 1728, the average annual exports from ^^^^'^l^^*^^'
England of the East India Company were ;£442,35o of bullion
and ;^92,288 of goods. The average imports were valued at
;^7 58,042, chiefly consisting of calicoes and other woven goods,
raw silk, diamonds, tea, porcelain, pepper, drugs, and salt-
petre. In 1772, the sales at the India House reached the
total value of 3 millions sterling ; the shipping owned by the
Company was 61,860 tons. From 1760 onwards, the Custom
House returns of trade with the East Indies are given in
Macpherson's History of Commerce. But they are deceptive
for comparative purposes, as they include the trade with China
as well as with India.
In 1834, when the Company's monopoly of trade with China Statistics
as well as with India ceased, the exports from India were valued ^^^ '^34-
at ;^9, 674,000, and the imports at ;^2,5 76,000. Shortly after
^ The history of the early European settlements in India has been already
dealt with in chapter xiv. pp. 356-377.
2 N
562
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Inland
duties
abolished,
1836-48.
that date, trade was freed from many vexatious restrictions.
Inland duties were mostly abolished in Bengal in 1836, in
Bombay in 1838, and in Madras in 1844; the inland sugar
duties in 1836 and the inland cotton duties in 1847. The
navigation laws were repealed in 1848. The effect of these
reforms, and the general progress of Indian commerce, may
be seen in the table below. It exhibits the foreign trade of
the country, in millions sterling, for each of the nine quin-
quennial periods between 1840 and 1884.
Before, however, entering on the items of Indian trade, the
method which has been adopted in dealing with them ought to
be explained. Many of those items may be regarded as agri-
cultural productions, and as manufactures or native industries,
as well as articles of export or internal trade. In such cases
it has been deemed best to deal with them in each of these
aspects, even at the cost of repetition. Thus cotton is treated
of alike in the chapter on agriculture, and in those on trade
and on manufactures. This plan will be most convenient to
those who wish to consult the individual chapters, without the
necessity of reading the whole volume.
Foreign Trade of India for Forty-five Years, classified
according to quinquennial periods, in millions
Sterling.
Periods.
Imports.
Exports.
Cotton
Manufactures.
Total
Merchandise.
Treasure.
Raw
C.)tton.
Total
Merchandise.
Treasure.
1840-44,
3-19
7-69
2-74
2-34
14-62
0-48
1845-49.
375
9-14
3-07
1-68
17-00
1-32
1850-54.
5-15
11 -06
4-79
3-14
20-10
I -00
1855-59.
6-94
15-58
11-27
3-II
25-85
0-92
1860-64,
10 '92
23-97
17-07
15-56
43-17
1-02
1865-69,
1574
31-70
17-62
25-98
57-66
1-80
1870-74,
17-56
33-04
8-56
17-41
57-84
1-59
1875-79.
19-29
38-36
9-81
11-52
63-13
2-8i
1880-84,
22-48
47-95
12-61
14-29
79-97
1-26
Average
)
in millions
\ 11-67
24-27
9-72
10-55
42-15
1-36
sterling.
)
Steadiness The preceding table shows a rapid and steady growth,
"^'^^th which only finds its parallel in the United Kingdom. The
exceptional imports of silver from 1855 to 1859 were required
to pay for the Mutiny; those from 1859 to 1864 represent the
INDIAN TRADE, 1878; 1883. 563
price of the cotton sent to Manchester during the American
war.
Before examining in detail the history of some of the chief
staples of trade, it may be convenient to give in this place, as
an illustration of the steady growth of Indian foreign trade, the Indian
statistics of three years, 1877-78, which was a year of inflation ^^^t ^"
despite the incidence of famine in Southern India ; of 1882-83 ;
and of 1884-85. In 1877-78, the total foreign sea-borne
trade exceeded 126 millions sterling in value. The transactions
on behalf of Government, such as stores, equipments, and
munitions of war, show an import of ;^2,i38,i82, and an
export of ^36,615. The imports of merchandise were
^39,326,003, and of treasure ^t7,355546o; total imports,
^56,681,463. The exports ofmerchandise were ;£65, 185,7 13,
and of treasure ;£^2,i55,i36; total exports, ;^67, 340,849.
These figures exhibit an excess of exports over imports Excess of
amounting to ;£^io,659,386 ; and an excess of treasure im- ^^^^^ ^
ported to the amount of ^^15, 200,324. By far the larger
share of the trade of 1878, amounting to 61 per cent, was con-
ducted with the United Kingdom; next came China, with 13 India's
per cent. ; and then the following countries in order : — France, customers
Straits Settlements, Ceylon, Italy, United States, Mauritius,
Austria, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Australia, Aden, East
Coast of Africa. The total number of vessels that entered and
cleared in 1877-78 was 12,537, with an aggregate of 5,754,379 Indian
tons, or an average of 459 tons each. Of the total tonnage, 76 shipping,
per cent, was British, 7 percent. British Indian, and 15 percent,
foreign ; American, Italian, and French being best represented
in the latter class.
The total value of the Indian foreign seaboard trade in Indian
1882-83, including merchandise, treasure, Government stores, 1^332-8"
etc., exceeded 150 milHons sterling, or 24 millions in excess
of the total value of the trade in 1877-78. The imports of
private merchandise amounted to ;^5o,oo3,o4i, and of
treasure to ;£i3,453>i57 ; total private imports, ;^63, 456,198,
or ^6,774,735 above the imports of 1877-78. The exports
of merchandise amounted to ^83,400,865, and of treasure to
^980,859 ; total exports, ;£84,38i,724, or ;£"! 7,040,875 above
the exports of 1877-78. Excess of exports over imports in
1882-83 (exclusive of Government transactions), ;£"2o,925,526.
The Government transactions, such as stores, equipments,
munitions of war, railway plant, etc, show an import of
;£2,o92,67o, and an export of ;£"i45,458, including ;^6 1,200
of Government treasure.
564 COMMERCE AND TRADE,
SuezCanal Of the private imports, ;^47, 172,542, or 74-3 per cent., came
1882-83. in 1S82 via the Suez Canal, and ;^i6,283,656, or 257 per
cent., by other routes. Of the exports, ^^44,438,288, or 527
per cent., went via the Canal, and ;£^39,943,436, or 47-3 per
cent, by other routes. Of the total import and export private
trade, aggregating ;^i47,837,922, ;^r9i,6io,83o, or 61-9 per
cent, passed through the Suez Canal, and ^56,227,092, or
38-1 per cent., by other routes. The total number of sailing
and steam vessels that entered and cleared British Indian
ports from foreign countries in 1882-83, was 11,715 with an
aggregate burthen of 7,071,884 tons, or an average of 513 tons
each. Of the total shipping, 4257 vessels with a total of
5j366,77o tons were returned as British, 2525 with 361,189
tons as British Indian, 1834 with 1,168,293 tons as foreign,
and 3099 with 175,632 tons as native craft, in 1882-83.
Indian The figures for 1884-85 show a steadily increasing trade.
1884-85 ^"^ ^^^^ y^^'"' ^^ \.o\.dX value of the private sea-borne foreign
export and import trade was returned at over 152 millions,
or 26 miUions over the total sea-borne trade in 1877-78,
and of 2 millions over that of 1882-83. The imports of
private merchandise in 1884-85 amounted to ;^53, 147,9 19,
and of treasure to ;^i 3,878,841 ; total private imports,
;£67, 026,760, or ;£^io,345,297 in excess of the imports of
1877-78, and ;£3,57o,562 in excess of those for 1882-83.
The exports of merchandise amounted to ;/^83, 11 5,443, and
of treasure to ;£'i,885,679 ; total private exports, ;^85,ooi,i22,
or ;^i 7,660,273 over the exports of 1877-78, and of
;£"6i9,398 over those for 1882-83. Excess of exports
over imports in 1884-85, ;^i 7,974,362. The Government
imports in the shape of stores, materials of war, railway plant,
treasure, etc., amounted to ;^2,563,iii, and the exports to
^138,007.
SuezCanal Of the private trade, merchandise and treasure to the
trade, ^ value of ;^5i,6o5,827, or 76*99 per cent of the imports, were,
^~ ^' in 1884, imported via the Suez Canal, while ;^47, 530, 200, or
5 5 '9 per cent of the total exports, were exported by the
same route. Of the total import and export private trade in
1884-85, ;^99, 136,025, or 65-2 per cent, passed through the
Suez Canal, and ;£"52,89i,855, or 34*8 per cent, proceeded by
other routes. The total number of sailing and steam vessels
that entered and cleared British Indian ports with cargoes
from and to foreign countries in 1884-85, was 8222, with an
aggregate burthen of 5,814,904 tons, or an average of 707 tons
each.
PROGRESS OF COTTON TRADE. 565
Statistics are not yet (July 1885) available to exhibit in Distribu-
detail the total value and distribution of the foreign trade of j^jJdian
India in 1884-85. The figures in the following paragraphs and trade;
tables refer to 1882-83, ^^^ latest year for which the final
returns, as printed by command of Parliament, have been
received.
Of the entire trade in 1882-83, ;£8i, 770,117, or 55'3i per ini882-83.
cent., was conducted with the United Kingdom; ;£^i 7,684,973,
or 11-96 per cent., with China; ;^7,757,8i8, or 5*25 per cent.,
with France; ;£"5,409,8o4, or 3*66 per cent., with Italy; and
^5,330,471, or 3'44 per cent, with the Straits Settlements;
and then the following countries in order : — the United States
of America, 2-89 per cent. ; Austria, 2*17 per cent. ; Australia,
2^02 per cent. ; Ceylon, 1-85 per cent. ; Egypt, 1*69 per cent. ;
Belgium, 1*51 per cent.; Persia, i"39 percent.; Cape and
East Coast of Africa, 1*19 per cent.; Arabia, 1*05 per cent.;
Mauritius, I'oo per cent. ; Turkey, 073 per cent. ; and Aden,
0-48 per cent.
As regards imports into India, the first thing to notice is Analysis
the enormous predominance of two items — cotton goods and pf In^^'an
treasure. During the forty-five years ending 1883-84, cotton
goods formed 33 per cent, or exactly one-third of the total,
and treasure an additional 30 per cent Next in order come
metals (copper, which is largely used by native smiths, slightly
exceeding iron) ; Government stores, including munitions of
war, boots, liquor, and clothing for soldiers, and railway plant ;
liquors, entirely for European consuinption ; coal, for the use
of the railways and mills ; railway plant for the guaranteed and
assisted companies ; salt, provisions, machinery and mill-work,
and manufactured silk. It will thus be seen that, with the
exception of Manchester goods, no articles of European manu-
facture are in large demand for native consumption, but only
for the needs of our English administration ; and few raw
materials, except coal, copper, iron, mineral oil, and salt
England's export trade to India thus mainly depends upon History of
piece-goods. In the beginning of the 1 7th century, the cotton-
industry had not been introduced into England. The small trade :
British demand for cotton - goods or calicoes was met
by circuitous importations from India itself, where cotton-
weaving is an immemorial industry. In 1641, ' Manchester Man-
cottons,' in imitation of Indian calicoes and chintzes, were still Chester,
1O4T.
made of wool. Cotton is said to have been first manufactured
\Sentence continued on page 568.
566
COMMERCE AND TRADE,
Foreign Sea-borne Trade of British India for 1882-83.
Imports.
Articles.
Quantities.
Value.
Apparel, ....
^^769. 752
Arms, Ammunition, etc.,
...
79.577
Books, Paper, and Stationery,
625,431
Coal, Coke, etc., . . tons
628,824
1,019,883
Cotton Twist and Yarn, . lbs.
49.392.375
;^3.378.i90
Cotton Piece-Goods and ) -.„_j„
Manufactures, j ^^^^^
... 1,642,798,990
21,431,872
1
Total Cotton Goods,
Drugs and Medicines, .
24,810,062 i
391.673
Dyes,
206,640
Fruits and Vegetables, .
211,435
Glass, and Manufactures of, .
483.743
Gums and Resins,
117,921
Hardware, Cutlery, and Plate,
791,791
Horses, ....
186,815 1
Ivory
212,107
Jewellery and Precious Stones,
307.189
g i Ale, Beer, and Porter, gals.
1.170,554
;^272,323
= < Spirits, . . . . ,,
949,169
674,969
^ / Wines and Liqueurs, . ,,
418,169
387,322
Total Liquors, . . , ,
i-» T^ n^ Q^/-t
1,334,614
2,537,092
/Machinery ai.d Mill Work,
1,342.398
Iron, . . . tons
157.597
^^1,870,494
Steel
10,645
163.415
^ j Brass, . . . cwts.
11,962
64,688
5 V Copper, ...
450.098
1.938.376
a. Spelter, ...
127,383
125,669
'^ Tin, ... ,,
42,718
277,306
Lead, ...
73.583
101,104
iQuicksilver, . . lbs.
354.689
37,100
^Unenumerated,
37.834
Total Metals,
4.615.986
Oils
...
1,050,897
Paints and Colours,
...
234.450
Perfumery
63.336
Porcelain and Earthenware, .
170,002
Provisions
...
1,087,186
Railway Plant and Rolling Stock, i
1.1x6,434 I
Salt, tons
••• 338.065
515.184
Silk (raw) and Thread, . lbs.
2,386,150
;^i,074,i56
Silk Manufactures, . yards
9,671,261
977.768
1
Total Silk, .
2,051,924
Spices lbs.
...
510,854
Sugar, .... cwts.
672,672
1,086,961
Tea lbs.
2.751.085
193.052
Tobacco
...
83,608
Umbrellas, ....
232,829
Wood, and Manufactures of,
99.384
Wool (raw), .... lbs.
2,781,257
;C68,93i
Wool, Manufactures of, yards
6,932,779
984.873
Total Wool & Woollen Goods,
1,053,804
All Other Articles,
...
...
2,946,119
Total Merchandise,
...
;^50.oo3,04i
Treasure,
Total Merchandise and)
Treasure, . )
I ■■■
I
13.453.157
^^63,456, 198
Government Imports,
...
...
2,092,670
Grand Total of>
Imports, . )
;^65.548.868
INDIAN TRADE, 1882-83.
567
Foreign Sea-borne Trade of British India for 1882-83.
Exports.
Articles.
Quantity.
Value.
Coffee, .... cwts.
Coir, and Manufactures off
(excluding Cordage), j "
Cotton (raw),
Cotton Twist and Yarn,
Cotton Manufactures, .
Total Cotton & Cotton Goods,
Drugs and Medicines,
Indigo, .... cwts.
Other Dyes (except Lac),
Total Dyes (except Lac
Rice (including Paddy),
Wheat.
Other Grains,
Total Grain, .
Gums and Resins,
1 lemp, and Manufactures of.
Hides and Skins, . . No.
Horns,
Ivory, and Manufactures of,
Jewellery and Precious Stones,
Jute (raw), .... cwts.
Jute, Manufactures of, | y^S^
Total Jute and Jute Goods,
.).
cwts.
chests
cwts.
lbs.
Lac (dve, shell, e
Oils, '.
Opium,
Saltpetre,
Seeds, .
Silk (raw), .
Silk, Manufactures of,
Total Silk and Silk Goods
Spices. .... lbs.
Sugar, .... cwts.
Tea, lbs.
Tobacco, ....
Wood, and Manufactures of,
Wool (raw), . . . lbs.
Wool, Manufactures of,
Total Wool & Woollen Goods,
All Other Articles,
Total Merchandise,!
Treasure,
Total Merchan(iise and>
Treasure, . . j"
Government Exports,
Grand Total of
Exports,
n
3I,258,2b»
14,193.763
1,165,826
364,008
173.209
6, 170, 173
141,041
46,617,877
282,416
26,539.988
10,348,909
66,737.6511
4.601,247)
138,844
91,798
399.565
13,147,982
665,488
20,947,105
1,428,360
58.233,345
26,380,327
^1,419,131
152, 129
^^16,055.758
1.874.464
2.093. 146
^3.912.997
258,436
^8,476,327
6,088,814
319.571
;^5, 846,926
1,487,831
;^596,838
306, 928
;^I, 002,833
183,348
20,023,368
154.463
4.^71.433
14,884,712
356.931
44,236
4.444,946
181.785
112,469
65.177
7.334.757
699,113
443.764
11,481,379
388,766
7.205,924
903,766
417.: 91
989, OOy
3,738,842
117,156
56.370
1,186,181
2,427,607
j^83 ,400,865
980,859
^84,381, 724
145.458
^84, 527, 182
1 Viz. y^^^^^"^ Produce or Manufacture, ^^80,598, 155
^Foreign Merchandise, . . 2,802,710
^^83,400,865
568
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Cotton
introduced
1676.
Cotton-
goods
imports,
1840-83.
Imports of
treasure.
Proportion
of gold to
silver.
Gold and
silver cir-
culation.
Sentence continued from page 565.]
in England in 1676. To foster the nascent industry, a succes-
sion of statutes were passed prohibiting the wear of imported
cottons ; nor was it until after the inventions of Arkwri^t
and others, and the application of steam as a motive pow^r,
had secured to Manchester the advantage of cheap productio^i,
that these protective measures were entirely removed. In the
present century, Lancashire rapidly improved on her instructors.
During the five years 1840-45, the annual import of cottoa
manufactures into India averaged a little over ;^3, 000,000
sterling. . In each subsequent quinquennial period, there has
been a steady increase, until in 1877-78 the import reached
the total of ;^2o,ooo,ooo sterling, and in 1882-83 nearly
;^2 1,500,000, or an increase of more than seven-fold in forty-
four years.
The importation of treasure is perhaps still more extra-
ordinary, when we bear in mind that it is not consumed in the
using, but remains permanently in the country. During the
same period of forty-four years, the net import of treasure,
deducting export, has reached the enormous aggregate of 358!
millions sterling, or a fraction under £1, 8s. per head of the
256 million inhabitants of British and Feudatory India. By far
the larger portion of this was silver ; but the figures for gold, so
far as they can be ascertained, are by no means inconsiderable.
During the ten years ending 1875, when" the normal value of
silver as expressed in gold was but little disturbed, the total net
imports of treasure into India amounted to just 99 millions.
Of this total, 62J millions were in silver, and 36J millions in
gold, the latter metal forming more than one-third of the
whole. On separating the re-exports from the imports, the
attraction of gold to India appears yet more marked. Of the
total imports of gold, only 7 per cent, was re-exported, while
for silver the corresponding portion was 19 per cent. Roughly
speaking, it may be concluded that India then absorbed
annually about 5 millions of silver, and 3 millions sterling
of gold ; say a total hoard of 7 to 8 millions sterling of the
precious metals each year during the decade ending 1875.
The depreciation of silver which has since taken place has
caused an increase in the import of silver, and a corre-
sponding decrease in the export of gold. The figures since
1876 do not show the normal state of things. But even in
1877-78, when the value of silver in terms of gold touched a
low point, although India drew upon its hoards of gold for
export to the amount of more than i million sterling, she tit the
ACCUMULATION OF TREASURE. 569
same time imported i^ million, showing a net import of half a
million of gold. It has been estimated that the gold circula-
tion of India amounts to 1,620,000 of gold mohars (Rs. 16 to
Rs. 20 each), worth about three millions sterling ; as compared
with ;£" 1 5 8, 000, 000 of silver and ;^2, 960,000 of copper. In
addition, 10 million sovereigns are said to be hoarded in India,
mainly in the Bombay Presidency, where the stamp of St.
George and the Dragon is valued as a religious symbol. As
already stated, the net accumulation of silver and gold in
India, after allowing for re-exports, averaged 7 millions
sterling during the five years ending 1879 ; and rose to an
average of 11 millions sterling during the next quinquennial
period ending 31st March 1884.
Turning to the exports, the changes in relative magnitude Analysis
demand detailed notice. In 1877-78, raw cotton for the first of Indian
exports,
time for many years fell into the second place, being sur-
passed by the aggregate total of food-grains. In 1882-83, raw
cotton had again advanced into the first place among the
exports, exceeding the value of food-grains by upwards of a
million sterling. Oil-seeds show as a formidable competitor to
cotton, jute nearly doubles indigo, hides and tea come close
behind ; while exports of cotton manufactures exceed coffee in
value by upwards of half a million. The imports of sugar, in
value although not in quantity, exceed the exports ; the trade
in raw silk is about equally balanced ; while spices, once the
glory of Eastern trade, were exported in 1877-78, to the value
of only ^^226,515, as compared with imports of spices of twice
that value (;^488,884). In 1882-83, spices were exported
to nearly the same value as the imports, namely, exports
^^417,391, and imports ;£5io,854.
The export of raw cotton has been subject to excessive Export of
variations. At the close of the last century, cotton was sent to raw cotton.
England in small quantities, chiefly the produce of the Central
Provinces, collected at Mirzapur and shipped at Calcutta ; or
the produce of Gujarat (Guzerat) despatched from Surat. In its history
1805, the cotton from Surat was valued at ;^i 08,000. In the 1S05-34.
same year, only 2000 bales of East Indian cotton were im-
ported into Great Britain. But this figure fails to show the
average ; for by 18 10, the corresponding number of bales had
risen to 79,000, to sink again to 2000 in 1813, and to rise to
248,000 in 1 81 8. Bombay did not begin to participate in
this trade until 1825, but has now acquired the practical
monopoly, since the railway diverted to the west the produce of
570 COMMERCE AND TRADE. |
the Central Provinces. In 1834, when the commerce of India
was thrown open, 33,000,000 lbs. of cotton were exported.
Export of Analysing the exports of cotton during the forty-five years
since 1840; since 1840, we find that in the first quinquennial period they
averaged 2J millions sterling in value, and did not rise per-
ceptibly until 1858, when they first touched 4 millions. From
that date increase was steady, even before the American exports
were cut off by the war in 1861. During the American war,
India made the most of her opportunity, although quality did
not keep pace with the enhanced price. The export of raw
cotton reached its highest value at 37!- millions sterling in
1865, and its highest quantity at 803,000,000 lbs. in 1866.
and since Thenceforth the decline has been constant, although
^^^5- somewhat irregular, the lowest figures both of quantity and
value being those of 1878-79, when the exports amounted
to 2,966,569 cwts., valued at ^^7, 914,091. The principal
feature of the trade in 1877-78 was the comparatively small
amount shipped to the United Kingdom, and the even distri-
bution of the rest among continental ports. Indian cotton
has a short staple, which is ill-suited for the finer counts of
yarn spun in the Lancashire mills. In 1877-78, out of
a total of nearly 3|- million cwts., less than i J million cwts.
was consigned to England; of the remainder, France took
611,000 cwts.; Italy, 434,000; Austria, 407,000; China,
209,000; and Germany, 109,000. The export of raw cotton
in 1878-79 amounted in value to ;£7, 914,091, and of twist
and cotton goods, to ;^2,58i,823. In 1882-83, out of a total
export of over 6 million cwts. of raw cotton, 2,865,065 cwts.
were shipped to the United Kingdom, 937,934 cwts. to Italy,
764,550 cwts. to Austria, 585,766 cwts. to France, 333,708
cwts. to Belgium, 114,412 cwts. to Germany, and 364,519 cwts.
to Hong-Kong. In 1882-83, raw cotton was exported to the
value of ;£i6,o55,758 ; cotton twist and yarn, ;^t, 874,464 ;
and cotton manufactures, ;^2,o93,i46. Total cotton exports,
^20,023,368.
Export of Second in importance to cotton as a raw material for British
i"'^ 5 manufacture comes jute. At the time of the London Exhibition
of 1 85 1, jute fibre was almost unknown, while attention was
even then actively drawn to rhea or China grass, which
remains to the present day unmanageable by any cheap process.
From time immemorial, jute has been grown in the swamps of
Eastern Bengal, and has been woven into coarse fabrics for
bags and even clothing. As early as 1795, Dr. Roxburgh
called attention to the commercial value of the plant, which he
HISTOR V OF JUTE EXPORTS. 5 7 1
grew in the Botanical Gardens of Calcutta, and named 'jute,'
after the language of his Orissa gardeners ; the Bengali word
being /757 ^^ value.
The export of raw jute is almost monopolized by Calcutta,
although Chittagong, which is nearer the producing Districts, is
beginning to take a share in the business.
The export of grain, as already noticed, reached in 1878 a Export
higher total than that of cotton, although cotton again has °^ ^?°^^'
taken the first place in exports. The two staple cereals are
572 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Rice. rice and wheat. Rice is exported from British Burma, from
Bengal, and from Madras. The latter Presidency usually
despatches about 2\ million cwts. a year, chiefly to its own
emigrant coolies in Ceylon; but in 1877-78, this trade was
almost entirely checked by the famine. In that year, besides
supplying the necessities of Madras, Bengal was able to send
nearly 6 million cwts. to foreign ports. The Burmese rice is
chiefly exported for distillation or starch ; the Bengal exports
are chiefly intended for food, whether in Ceylon, the Mauritius,
the Straits Settlements, the West Indies, or Europe.
Burmese From the point of view of the English market, rice means
"^^' almost entirely Burmese rice, which is annually exported to
the amount of about 20 miUion cwts., valued at over 5
millions sterling. In the Indian tables, this is all entered as
consigned to the United Kingdom ; although, as a matter of
fact, the rice fleets from Burma only call for orders at
Falmouth, and are there diverted to various continental ports.
Burmese rice is known in the trade as ' five parts cargo rice,'
being but imperfectly husked before shipment, so that it con-
tains about one part in five of paddy or unhusked rice. It has
a thick, coarse grain, and is principally utilized for distillation
or for conversion into starch.
Rice trade In 1877-78, the exports of rice to the United Kingdom
in 1878; amounted to 10,488,198 cwts., being slightly less than the
average, — but about half of this total is known to be re-
exported to foreign countries ; the direct exports to the
Continent were only 68,839 cwts. to Germany, and 20,117 to
France. Siam and Cochin China supply the wants of China,
but India has a practical monopoly of the European market.
In 1878-79, after India had begun to recover from the famine,
although prices continued to rule high, the total export of rice
was 21;^ million tons, valued at 9 milUons sterling (;£8, 9 7 8, 951).
The total foreign exports of rice and paddy from British
1111882-83. India in 1882-83 amounted to 31,258,288 cwts., valued at
;^8,476,327. Of the total quantity, 12,381,486 cwts., valued
at ;£^3,2ii,398, went to the United Kingdom, although, as
explained above, a large proportion is re-exported to other
European countries. The other countries largely consuming
Indian rice were — the Straits Settlements, 4,092,521 cwts.;
Egypt, 2,973,703 cwts.; Ceylon, 2,883,534 cwts.; Malta,
2,732,442 cwts.; Mauritius, 1,227,671 cwts.; Arabia, 832,574
cwts.; South America, 786,557 cwts. ; France, 605,735 cwts.;
Italy, 165,662 cwts.; Germany, 124,447 cwts., etc. Of the
total exports of 31,258,288 cwts., 21,330,587 cwts., or 68*2 per
on
rice.
EXPORTS OF RICE AND WHEAT. 573
cent, were exported from British Burma; 7,855,151 cwts., or
25 "I per cent,, from Bengal; 1,448,540 cwts. from Madras;
552,537 cwts. from Bombay ; and 71,473 cwts. from Sind.
An export duty is levied on rice in India at the rate of Export
3 dnnds per maundy or about 6d. per cwt. A similar duty ^f^J
on wheat was repealed in 1873, and that trade has since
conspicuously advanced.
In 1874-75, the export of wheat was about i million cwts. Export of
Forthwith it increased year by year, until in 1877-78 it ex- ^^'^e^'^-
I ceeded 6 J million cwts., valued at nearly 3 millions sterling.
I In 1878-79, the quantity fell to i milHon cwts., valued at
! ^£"520, 1 38, owing to the general failure of the harvest in the
; producing Districts. But as railways open up the country,
' and the cultivators find a steady market in England, India
may, as already mentioned, some day become a rival to
America and Russia in the wheat trade of the world. The
Punjab is a great and rapidly developing wheat-growing tract
in India ; but up till recently the supplies have chiefly come
from the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, being collected
at Cawnpur, and thence despatched by rail to Calcutta. As
indicated below, Bpmbay has now taken the place of Calcutta
in the exportation of wheat, the opening of the Rajputana-
Malwa Railway having put Bombay in direct communication
with the Punjab wheat tract. In 1877-78, out of the Wheat
total of 6,340,150 cwts., Bengal exported 4,546,062 cwts., ^^g^g .*"
Bombay 1,159,443, and Sind 607,470. The chief countries
of destination were — the United Kingdom, 5,731,349 cwts.;
the Mauritius, 154,888; and France, 116,674.
Since 1877-78, the wheat export trade has rapidly extended,
and in the year 1882-83 it stood at 14,193,763 cwts., valued 1111882-83.
at ;^6,o88,934. Nearly one-half of the total exports, or
6,575,160 cwts., went to the United Kingdom, 3,567,712 cwts.
to France, 1,458,898 cwts. to Belgium, 799,550 cwts. to Egypt,
578,246 cwts. to Holland, 176,063 cwts. to Italy, 494,098
cwts. to Gibraltar, and 163,358 cwts. to Malta. Of the total
wheat, Bombay exported 6,957,752 cwts., or 49-2 per cent.;
Calcutta, 4,439,405 cwts., or 31-4 per cent.; and Karachi,
2,732,275 cwts., or i9'3 per cent., the small balance being sent
from Madras and Rangoon.
It is said that Italy is beginning to utilize the hard, white
Indian wheat for the manufacture of macaroni.
Oil-seeds were freed in 1875 from their former export duty Exports of
of 3 per cent, ad valorem. During the ten previous years, the jgl^^^^l ^"
average annual export was only about 4 miUion cwts. ; but
574
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Oil -seeds
in 1877-78.
in 1882-83.
Exports of
indigo in
1S77-78;
1S82-83 ;
Its
destina-
tion,
1882-83.
Safflover.
Myro-
balams.
the fiscal change, coinciding with an augmented demand in
Europe, has since trebled the Indian export. In 1877-78, the
export of oil-seeds amounted to 12,187,020 cwts., valued at
l\ millions sterling. Of this, Bengal contributed 7,799,220
cwts., and Bombay 3,179,475 cwts. Linseed and rape are
consigned mainly to the United Kingdom, while France takes
almost the entire quantity of /// or gingelly. In 1879, the
export of oil-seeds fell to 7J million cwts., valued at
;^4,682,5T2. In 1882-83, exports of oil-seeds had again
increased to 13,147,982 cwts., valued at ;£'7, 205,924, of which
5,898,383 cwts., valued at ;£3, 397, 840, went from Bombay, and
5,592,896 cwts., valued at ^^2,817,140, from Bengal. The
principal countries of destination were — the United Kingdom,
6,409,134 cwts. ; France, 3,923,964 cwts. ; Belgium, 1,001,164
cwts.; Egypt, 631,388 cwts.; Italy, 445,773 cwts.; United
States, 321,688 cwts.; and Holland, 254,014. Besides oil-
seeds, British India exported in 1882-83, 3,644,632 gallons of
expressed oil, and 201,116 cwts. of oil-cake, of the total value
of ^445.529-
In actual amount, although not in relative importance,
indigo holds its own, notwithstanding the competition of aniline
dyes. The export of 1877-78 amounted to 120,605 cwts.,
valued at ^^3, 494,334. Of this total, Bengal sent 99,402
cwts., and Madras 16,899 cwts. In 1878-79, the export of
indigo amounted to 105,051 cwts., valued at ^^2,960,463. In
1882-83, the exports of indigo amounted to 141,041 cwts., of
the value of ;£^3,9i2,997, of which 99,715 cwts., valued at
;;^3,o23,54o, were sent from Bengal ; and 33,474 cwts., valued at
;£"763,096, from Madras. The most noticeable feature in this
trade is the diminishing proportion sent direct to England,
and the wide distribution of the remainder. In 1882-83, only
60,645 cwts.- were consigned direct to the United Kingdom;
27,285 cwts., or about one-fifth, to the United States; 1/6,076
cwts. to Egypt, thence probably re-shipped to Europe
15,513 cwts. to France; 8394 cwts, to Austria; 6077 cwts. to
Persia; 4033 cwts. to Turkey; and 1607 cwts. to Italy.
Of other dyes, the export of safilower has fallen off,
being only in demand in the United Kingdom, and as a
rouge in China and Japan; the export in 1877-78 was 3698
cwts., valued at ;^i4,88i. In 1882-83, the exports of safflower
amounted to 3008 cwts., value £^^20-^. The export of myro-
balams, on the other hand, was greatly stimulated by the Russo-
Turkish War, which interrupted the supply of valonica and
galls from Asia Minor. The quantity rose from 286,350 cwts.
EXPORTS: LAC: TEA: COFFEE. 575
in 1875-76 to 537,055 cwts. in 1877-78, valued in the latter
year at ;^2 3o,52 6. In 1882-83, the exports of myrobalams
were 471,167 cwts., value ;£" 184,697. Practically the whole
is sent to the United Kingdom. Turmeric exports amounted Turmeric,
to 146,865 cwts. in 1877-78, valued at ;^i 23,766, of which the
United Kingdom took about one-half. In 1882-83, the exports
of turmeric had dropped to 63,570 cwts., valued at ;£^37,207.
Lac-dye, like other kinds of lac, shows a depressed trade, the Lac
exports in 1877-78 having been 9570 cwts., valued at ;j^29,oo9.
In 1882-83, the exports of lac-dye had fallen to 3927 cwts.,
valued at ;£46io, the whole of which was sent to the United
Kingdom and the United States.
No Indian export has made such steady progress as tea, Exports of
which has multiplied more than seven-fold in the space of^^^*
fifteen years. In 1867-68, the amount was only 7,811,429
lbs. ; by 1872-73, it had reached 17,920,439 lbs. ; in 1878-79,
without a single step of retrogression, it had further risen to
34,800,027 lbs., valued at ^^3,170,118; and in 1882-83, to
a total of 58,233,345 lbs., of the value of ;£"3,738,842.
Until recently, Indian tea was practically confined to the
United Kingdom, but markets have recently been opened out
in Australia and the United States. The exports to the
L^nited Kingdom in 1882-83 amounted to 54,108,114 lbs., to
Australia 2,772,461 lbs., and to the United States 676,507 lbs.
Indian tea has now a recognised position in the London Indian and
market, generally averaging about 4d. per lb. higher in China tea.
value than Chinese tea; but it has failed to win acceptance
in most other countries, excepting Australia, Its growing
importance as compared with Chinese tea appears from
the following figures. In 1872, the imports of Indian tea
into England were to those of Chinese tea as i to 9 7 ; in
1874, as I to 7*5 ; in 1876, as i to 5*6 ; and in 1878, as i to 47.
The exports of coffee from India are stationary, if not Coffee,
declining. The highest amount during the past fifteen years was
507,296 cwts. in 1871-72, the lowest amount 298,587 cwts. in
1877-78, valued at ;£i, 338,499. In 1878-79, the export of
coffee was 342,268 cwts., valued at ;^i, 548,481. The export
of cofiee had slightly increased by 1882-83 to 364,008 cwts,,
but showed a decrease in value to ;^ 1,4 19, 131.
Among manufactured goods, cotton and jute deserve notice. Export of
although by far the greater part of the produce of the Indian ^°"°^
mills is consumed locally. The value of Indian cotton-manufac- tures,
tured goods exported in 1877-78 was ;£"i, 142,732; in 1879-80, in 1877-78;
;^i, 644,125; and in 1882-83, ;^2,093, 146. The exports of
576 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Export of twist and yarn, spun in the Bombay mills, increased from
cotton .„. 1, • o 1 •,,• 1. . ^
manufac- 3 bullion lbs. m 1874-75 to 15J million lbs. in 1877-78,
tures, valued at ;^682,o58. The chief places of destination
were — China, 13,762,133 lbs.; Aden, 1,181,120 lbs.;
and Arabia, 393,371 lbs. The export of twist and yarn in
in 1882-83. 1878-79 was valued at ;!^937,698. By 1882-83, the exports
of twist and yarn, nearly all from Bombay, had increased
to 44,859,175 lbs., value ;£■!, 874,464, chiefly to China, Japan,
Java, and Aden. Indian-made piece-goods belong to two
classes. Coloured goods, woven in hand-looms, are annually
exported from Madras to Ceylon and the Straits, to the value
of about ^£"230,000, the quantity being about 8 million yards ;
while in 1877-78, grey goods from the Bombay mills were
sent to Aden, Arabia, Zanzibar, and the Mekran coast,
amounting to over 10 million yards, and valued at ;^i4i,5o9.
By 1882-83, the export of grey goods from Bombay had
increased to 41,799,370 yards; value ;£'466,26o.
Exports of Jute manufactures consist of gunny-bags, gunny cloth, and
factures""" -^^^^ ^^^ twine, almost entirely the produce of the Calcutta
mills. In these, the value of the exports tends to increase
faster than the quantity, having multiplied nearly four-fold in
the five years ending 1882-83. In 1877-78, the total export of
jute manufactures was valued at ;£"77i,i2 7, and in 1879-80 at
Gunny- ;j^i, 098,434. Gunny-bags, for the packing of wheat, rice, and
in I877-78- ^ool, were exported in that year to the number of more than
26J millions, valued at ^729,669. Of this total, ;^298,ooo
(including by far the most valuable bags) was sent to Australia,
;^i 62,000 to the Straits, ;£8o,ooo to the United States,
;^7 7,000 to Egypt, ;^3 2,000 to China, and ;^8 1,000 to other
countries, which comprises a considerable quantity destined
for England. In 1878-79, the export of gunny-bags had
increased to 45 J milHons. Of gunny cloth in pieces, nearly
3 million yards were exported, almost entirely to the United
States ; in 1878-79, these exports had increased to upwards of
4J million yards. Of rope and twine, 4428 cwts. were exported
in 1877-78, valued at ;^5443-
Gunny- By 1882-83, the number of gunny-bags exported had
^882-83. increased to 66,737,654, of a value of ;£"i, 43^5^4, the prin-
cipal countries to which they were sent being Australia,
China, the Straits Settlements, and the United States. Gunny
cloth to the extent of 4,601,247 yards was also exported
in the same year to the value of ;£^55,8o2 ; as were also rope
and twine, 1346 cwts., valued at ;^i872. The total export of
Indian jute manufactures in 1882-83 was valued at ;^i, 487, 831,
or double the ficure C/"77i,i27) for 1877-78.
EXPORTS: JUTE MANUFACTURES. 577
The followina: statistics, beiner taken from Indian returns, do Countnes
, , f . . ^ , . ' , with which
not ni all cases show the real origin of the imports or the j^dia
ultimate destination of the exports, but primarily the countries trades.
with which India has direct dealings. London still retains its
pre-eminence as the first Oriental mart in the world, whither
buyers come from the other countries of Europe to satisfy their
wants. To London Germans come for wool, Frenchmen
for jute, and all nations for rare dyes, spices, and drugs.
The opening of the Suez Canal restored to the maritime
cities of the Mediterranean a share of the Eastern business
which they once monopolized. But, on the other hand, the
advantage of prior possession, the growing use of steamers, and
the certainty of being able to obtain a return freight, all tend to
favour trade with England, carried in English bottoms. As the
result of these conflicting influences, the trade of India with the
United Kingdom, while in actual amount it remains pretty con-
stant, shows a relative decrease as compared with the total trade.
Taking merchandise only, the average value of English
exports and imports during the two years 1867-69 amounted
to slightly more than 58 millions sterling, out of a total
of nearly 86 millions, being 66 per cent. Ten years later, the India's
average value of English trade for 1877-79 was still 5^ ^'^^^J^,^*^
milHons, but the total value had risen to 100 millions, and the
proportion had therefore fallen to 56} per cent. In 1882-83,
the total value of the English private imports and exports of
merchandise had risen to 75! millions ; but the proportion to
the total trade of a little less than 133!^ millions (excluding
Government stores and private and Government treasure) had
fallen to 567 per cent. Next to the United Kingdom comes
China, with an Indian trade of about 15 J millions (imports and
exports), or 1 1 J per cent. Of this, nearly 1 1 J millions represent
opium, the only other articles which China takes from India ^jth
being raw cotton, cotton twist, and gunny-bags. In return,
China sends silver, copper, raw silk and silk goods, sugar and
tea, the balance of trade being adjusted through England. It
is said that Chinese tea is now only consumed in India by
natives, or sent across the frontier into Central Asia. The
annual quantity imported into India is about 2\ million lbs.,
and the price is extremely low.
The trade with the Straits may be regarded as a branch India's
of the Chinese trade. The exports are valued at over 3 J ^ftifti^e
millions sterling, of which more than a half consists of opium. Straits ;
the rest being principally made up by rice and gunny-bags.
The imports are tin, areca-nuts, pepper, and raw silk,
2 o
578 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
valued altogether at less than one-half of the exports. The
with trade with Ceylon is merely a form of coasting trade, large
Cey on ; quantities of rice being shipped in native craft along the Madras
coast to feed the Tamil coolies in that island. The imports
with are hardly a sixth of the exports in value. With Mauritius,
auri lus. ^.^^ -g exchanged for sugar to a large amount.
^^H^^'^ • T. ^^ European countries, France and Italy alone deserve
France; notice beside England. In 1877-78, the Indian exports to
France reached the large total of nearly 6 millions sterling,
consisting chiefly of oil-seeds (rape and gingelly), indigo, cotton,
silk, and coffee. The direct imports in the same year were
valued at only ;;^45 1,000, principally apparel and millinery,
brandy and wines, and silk goods ; but the same articles are
also sent in considerable, although unascertained, quantities
via England. In 1882—83, the exports to France amounted
to ;^7, 207,962, and the direct imports to ;^484,367. The
with Italy, trade with Italy shows a steady increase ; the Indian exports to
Italy having risen from ;^i, 100,000 in 1877-78 to ;£^35383,5o7
in i882-83,and the return imports from ;£"2 5 0,000 to ^£"444, 43 3.
The exports are cotton, silk, oil-seeds (sesamum), and hides ;
the imports — corals, glass beads and false pearls, spirits and
wines, and silk goods.
India's The trade with the United States comes next to that with
wUh^the -^^^^y' aggregating a total for exports and imports of ^£4, 2 77,560.
United The exports are indigo, hides, raw jute and gunny-bags, lac.
States ; saltpetre, and linseed ; the imports are almost confined to
mineral oils. In 1878-79, the import of ice (formerly an im-
portant item in the trade with the United States) fell off greatly,
under competition from local manufacture at Calcutta and
Bombay, and it has now entirely ceased; while the imports
to India of American kerosene oil rose to 3 million gallons in
1878-79, and to the enormous quantity of 20 million gallons
in 1882-83.
with The trade of India with Australia was formerly limited to the
export of rice, gunny-bags, and castor-oil, and the import of
copper and horses. A little coal is sent from Australia, and a
little coffee from India. Hitherto Australia has preferred to drink
Chinese tea; but a considerable development of trade in this and
other Indian products has taken place since the Melbourne and
other Colonial Exhibitions. The total exports to Australia in
1882-83 aggregated ;£'i, 088,918 ; return imports, ;£'476,59i.
The following tables summarize the private foreign trade of
India in 1877-78 and 1882-83 : —
DISTRIB UTION OF INDIAN TRADE. 5 7 9
1
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COMMERCE AND TRADE.
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^
SUEZ CANAL TRADE, 581
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, while it has stimu- Trade md
lated every department of trade into greater activity, has not Cankl.
materially changed its character. The use of the Canal implies
steam power. In 1871-72, the first year for which statistics are
available, the total number of steamers trading with India which
passed through the Canal was 422, with a tonnage of 464,198.
Every subsequent year shows an increase until the great fall
in trade in 1878-79. In 1877-78, the number of steamers
passing through the Canal was 1137, with a burthen of
1,617,839 tons, or 64 per cent, of the total steam tonnage.
Although there was a considerable falling off in the two follow-
ing years, the Canal trade speedily recovered itself; and in
1880-81, 1459 steamers of 2,133,872 tons passed the Canal.
The highest figures hitherto reached were in 1881-82, when
1989 steamers of 2,887,988 tons passed the Canal. In the
following year, 1882-83, the number of Canal steamers was
1645 of 2,585,920 tons.
As might be anticipated, the imports to India, being for
the most part of small bulk and high value, first felt the
advantages of this route. In 1875-76, 85 per cent, of the Growth of
imports from Europe and Egypt (excluding treasure) passed the Canal
through the Canal, but only 29 per cent, of the exports.
The export trade, however, has rapidly increased, showing
that such bulky commodities as cotton, grain, oil-seeds, and
jute now largely participate in the advantages of rapid transport
afforded by the Canal. In 1877-78, the import trade via the
Canal amounted to 74 per cent, of the total imports into
British India, and the Canal exports to 36 per cent, of the total
exports. In 1882-83, while the import trade via the Canal
remained stationary at 74 per cent, the proportion of Canal
exports had increased to 52 per cent. The proportion of both
import and export trade passing through the Suez Canal has
increased from 45 per cent, in 1877-78 to 61 per cent, in
1882-83. The Canal has reduced the length of the voyage
from London to Calcutta by about thirty-six days. The route
round the Cape was more than 11,000 miles, and occupied
nearly three months ; that through the Canal is less than 8000
miles, and takes from 30 to 45 days.
Sir R. Temple, when Finance Minister in 1872, drew up a Sir R.
valuable State Paper, in which he placed in a clear lieht the Temple on
, ^ , . , , '^ . ° thebalance
various means by which the apparent excess of exports over of Indian
imports is liquidated. His conclusions were based on special trade.
materials reaching from 1835 to 187 1. They are therefore
S82
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Indian
commerce
for thirty-
six years.
The
balance ;
how
accounted
for.
Govern-
ment re-
mittances.
Private re
mittances.
Balance
from
Chinese
trade.
summarized here without attempting to extend them to the
period which has since elapsed. The balance of trade during
recent years has already been dealt with at pp. 558-9.
During the thirty-six years between 1835 and 187 1, the
value of merchandise exported from India amounted to
;^i, 01 2,000,000, say one thousand millions sterling; the
value of merchandise imported into India amounted to
^^583,000,000, showing an excess of ;^429,ooo,ooo in the
exports. The value of treasure imported in the same period
was ;^3 1 2,000,000, against ;£3 7,000,000 exported, being a net
import of ;^2 7 5,000,000. Deducting this from the excess of
merchandise exports, a balance of ;^i 5 4,000,000 has to be
accounted for otherwise than in the ordinary operations of
trade. The first item to be considered is freight. Next
come all payments made in England, whether by the Indian
Government or by private persons resident in India. During
the thirty-six years taken, the aggregate amount of payments
in England on Government account (now represented by the
Secretary of State's bills) amounted to ;£" 113,000,000. These
bills are drawn to meet charges due in England under such
heads as civil and military pensions, interest on debt and on
railway capital, military stores, etc. ; and they are bought by
bankers or merchants, who require to meet their own pay-
ments in India. They operate, financially, as if treasure had
been sent to India, and thus reduce the apparent balance of
trade at one stroke from ;^ 154,000,000 to ;£"4 1,000,000.
The remaining item to be considered is the remittances to
England on private account, which it is impossible to ascertain
with any pretension to accuracy. In 1872, this item was
estimated at ;^3, 500,000 a year; but in former years it had
been much less, and it is now probably much more. It
includes such divers matters as the savings of officials, profits
of trade and planting, interest on capital invested, etc. Together
with freightage, it would make up the balance of ;£4 1,000, 000
yet unaccounted for, and thus finally equalize and account for
the balance of India's foreign trade.
The phenomena of the trade between India and China are
to be explained on the same principles. In 1872-73, the total
exports from India to China were valued at ;£"i 2,074,347, to
which opium alone contributed ;£^io,529,673. The total
imports from China were valued at only ;^i,355,i7i, showing
an excess of ;£io,7i9,i76 in exports, for which India receives
no direct return from China. In this case, China pays her
debt to India by the excess of her exports to England, which
INDIAN COASTING TRADE. 583
are there placed to the credit of India. During the twenty
years between 1852 and 187 1, the aggregate balance of trade
in favour of China in her dealings with England amounted to
;^i 1 2,000,000. This amount was available to settle China's
equally unfavourable balance with India, and was in fact paid
by China for Indian opium, as certainly as if the opium had
been sent to China via England. It is evident, therefore, that
]f the Chinese were to greatly increase their imports of English
goods, the exchanges of India might be seriously affected.
The foreign trade of India is practically monopolized by Coasting
five ports, namely, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Rangoon, and ^^^^'
Karachi ; but the entire seaboard along both sides of the pen-
insula is thronged by native craft, which do a large coasting
business. In the Gulfs of Kachchh (Cutch) and Cambay, on
the Malabar coast, and in the southern Districts facing Ceylon,
a large portion of the inhabitants are bom sailors, conspicuous
alike for their daring and for their skill in navigation. In
1873-74, which may be regarded as a normal year, the total
number of vessels engaged in the coasting trade which cleared
and entered was 294,374, with an aggregate of 10,379,862
tons ; the total value of both coasting exports and imports was
^34,890,445. Of the total number of vessels, 280,913, with Statistics
4,843,668 tons, were native craft. Bombay and Madras divided ^^^^^ ^^^
between them nearly all the native craft ; while in Bengal and shipping,
Burma, a large and increasing proportion of the coasting traffic '^^ '
is carried in British steamers.
In 1877-78, the year of famine, the number of ships in- in 1878.
creased to 319,624; the tonnage to 15,732,246 tons; and
the value to ;^67,8i4,446. By far the largest item was grain,
of which a total of 1,137,690 tons, valued at 13 millions
sterhng, w^as thrown into the famine-stricken Districts from the
seaboard. Next in importance came raw cotton and cotton Staples of
goods. The trade in raw cotton in 1877-78 amounted to J^.^^^®^^^
387,438 cwts., valued at ;^957,9oo, much of which was merely 1878.
transhipped from one port to another within the Bombay
Presidency. Cotton twist and yarn in the same year amounted
to 17,425,993 lbs., valued at ;£^965,o38, of which the greater
part was sent from Bombay to Bengal and Madras. The total
value of the exports coastwise of cotton piece-goods was
;£62o,866, including about 24 million yards of grey goods sent
from Bombay to Bengal and to Sind in nearly equal propor-
tions, and about 2 million yards of coloured goods from Madras.
Stimulated by the activity of the grain trade caused by the
584
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Indian
coasting
trade,
1877-78.
Coasting
trade in
1878-79,
and in
1882-83.
In 1878-
79-
famine, the exports of gunny-bags from Calcutta coastwise rose
to a total value of nearly ;^96o,ooo. The trade in areca-
nuts in 1877-78 amounted to nearly 44 million lbs., valued at
over ;^5oo,ooo. Burma consumes most of these, obtaining
its supplies from Bengal ; while Bombay gets considerable
quantities from Madras, from the Konkan and Goa, and from
Bengal. Sugar (refined and unrefined) figures to the large
amount of ;£9oo,ooo in 1877-78, of which the greater part
came from Bengal. The movements of treasure coastwise
showed a total of just 5 millions sterling, being exceptionally
augmented by the conveyance of silver to Burma in payment
for rice supplied to Madras.
The growth and increasing importance of the coasting trade
of India may be illustrated by a comparison of the statistics
for 1878-79, the year after the famine, when trade may be
said to have returned to its normal condition ; with those
for 1882-83, the latest year for which full details are
available.
In 1878-79, a total of 4080 steamers, of 3,614,349 tons,
entered the coast ports with cargoes, while 97,767 sailing
vessels, of 2,151,673 tons, also entered with cargoes, ^otal
number of vessels with cargoes entered, 101,847, of 5,766,022
tons. The number of vessels which cleared with cargoes in
the same year, was 3981 steamers, of 3,412,546 tons, and
84,597 sailing vessels, of 1,940,196 tons. Total number of
vessels cleared with cargoes, 88,578, of 5,352,742 tons. Grand
total of vessels entered and cleared, 190,425, of 11,118,764
tons. The steam coasting trade is almost entirely monopolized
by British or British Indian vessels. Of the 8061 steamers which
entered or cleared Indian ports coastwise in 1878-79, only 46
were foreign, while not a single one was native ; average
tonnage of each steamer, 871 tons. Of the 182,364 sailing
vessels, 177,567 were small native craft, of an average of only
a little over 18 tons each; 2792 were foreign vessels, of an
average burthen of 62 tons ; while 2005 were British or British
Indian sailing ships, of an average of 342 tons. The total
value of the private coasting trade in 1878-79 was — Imports,
merchandise, ;^2i, 978,011, and treasure, ;£^3,777,852 ; total,
;£"25, 755,863. Exports, merchandise, ;£23, 172,328, and
treasure, ;£2,442,657 ; total, ;£^25, 614,985. Total of private
imports and exports, merchandise, ;£"45, 150,339, and treasure,
^^6,220,509; grand total, ;£^5 1,370,848. Government im-
ports in 1878-79 comprised — stores, ;^436,407, and treasure,
;^2,644,48o ; total, ;^3,o8o,887. The exports comprised —
INDIAN COASTING TRADE, 585
stores, ;^3 16,206, and treasure, ;^i, 891, 763; total, ;^2, 207,969. Coasting
Grand total Government imports and exports, ^£"5, 288,556.
The figures of the coasting trade for 1882-83 show that In 1882-
4780 steamers with cargoes, of 5,040,898 tons, and ^3-
103,203 sailing vessels, of 2,070,626 tons, entered Indian
coast ports ; while 4735 steamers, of 4,925,967 tons,
and 93,383 sailing vessels, of 1,931,639 tons, cleared during
the year. Total vessels entered and cleared with cargoes,
9515 steamers, of 9,966,865 tons; 196.587 saiHng vessels,
of 4,002,265 tons; total vessels of all classes, entered
and cleared, 206,101; tonnage, 13,969,130. Of the 9515
coasting steamers which entered or cleared Indian ports in
1882-83, 9439 ^'^re British or British Indian, and 76 foreign,
with a total of 9,966,865 tons, or an average of 1047
tons each. Saihng vessels included — 265 British, with an
average of 692 tons ; British Indian, 3060, average ii8*6
tons; foreign, 2990, average 41 "4 tons; and native craft,
190,271, average 17-5 tons. The total value of the private
coasting trade in 1882-83 was — Imports, merchandise,
£^SAT^9^^Z^^ and treasure, ^4,066,557 ; total, ;^29,486,388.
Exports, merchandise, ;£"24,524,24i, and treasure, ;^3,3i6,i25 ;
total, ;^2 7,840,366. Total value of private imports and exports,
merchandise, ;^49,944,o72, and treasure, ^^7, 382, 682 ; grand
total, ;£"575326,754. This total, however, includes ^5,217,328
of re-imports, and ;^6,o35,678 of re-exports; grand total,
;£"ii, 253,006 representing re-exports and re-imports of the
foreign trade given in the previous section of this chapter.
The Government imports in 1882-83 comprised — stores,
£aS9^9^S^ and treasure, ^1,882,411; total, ;^2,342,396.
The exports comprised — stores, ;£"358,o26, and treasure,
;^2,497,265 ; total, ^£"2, 855, 291. Grand total of Government
imports and exports, by coasting vessels, ;£^5,i97,687.
Comparing the figures for the two years, it will be seen that Com-
the number of vessels engaged in carrying cargoes coastwise P^"son
increased by 15,676, and the tonnage by 2,850,366 tons, between years.
1878-79 and 1882-83. The increase was principally in the
steam traffic. Of the private trade, imports of merchandise in
the same period increased by ^^3, 44 1,8 20, and of treasure by
;£288,705; total, ;£^3, 730,525. Exports of merchandise
increased by ;£^i, 35 1,913, and of treasure by ;^873,468; total,
^^2,225,381. Including both imports and exports, the value
of the merchandise carried coastwise showed an increase of
;£"4,793>733» and of treasure by ;^i,i62,i73; g^and total
increase of private merchandise and treasure, ;£^5}955,9o6.
586 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Adding the value of Government imports and exports, the
total coast-borne trade of India increased from ;£56,659,404
in 1878-79 to ;^62,524,44i in 1882-83, or by ^5>865,037.
Frontier FRONTIER Trade. — Attempts have been made to register the
trade which crosses the long land frontier of India on the north,
stretching from Baluchistan to Independent Burma. The re-
turns obtained for a period of five years ending 1882-83
show an annual trans-frontier landward trade averaging about
9 J millions sterling; the yearly imports averaging about 5
minions, and the exports about 4J millions sterling. Of this,
nearly one-half, or 44 per cent., belongs to Burma, and between
one-fourth and one-third, or upwards of 28 per cent., to the
Punjab and Sind. Details of this import and export trans-
frontier trade for each of the five years will be found in the
tables on subsequent pages. The figures, although perhaps not
absolutely accurate, may be accepted as substantially correct.
Three Three main trade routes pierce the Sulaiman Mountains,
main trade across the western frontier of the Punjab and Sind. These
routes to •'
Afghan- are — (i) the Bolan Pass, w^hich collects the trade both of Kan-
istan. dahar and Khelat, and debouches upon Sind at the important
mart of Shikarpur, whose merchants have direct dealings with
the remote cites of Central Asia -, (2) the Gonial Pass, leading
from Ghazni to Dera Ismail Khan, which is followed by the
half-military, half-trading clan of Povindahs, who bring their
own caravans of camels into the heart of India ; (3) the
Khaibar Pass, from Kabul to Peshawar.
Value of The aggregate value of the annual trade with Afghanistan,
trade^" previous to the late war, was estimated at i million sterling
each way, or a total of 2 millions ; but it has since decreased.
The figures for 1875-76, which, however, are stated to be
incomplete, give the value of the imports from Afghanistan
at ;^9 14,000, consisting chiefly of raw silk, dried fruits and
nuts, inanjit or madder and other dyes, charas (an intoxi-
cating preparation of hemp) and other drugs, wood, and
furs; the total exports in 1875-76 were valued at ^^8 16,000,
chiefly cotton goods both of native and European manu-
facture, Indian tea, indigo, and salt. In 1882-83, the total
imports from Afghdnistdn and the neighbouring hill tribes into
Sind and the Punjab amounted to ;£"5 26,560, and the exports
to ;£863,445 ; total, ;^ 1,390,005.
Trade with The Punjab also conducts a considerable business via Kash-
Central ^1^^ y^\^ Laddkh, Yarkand, and Kashgar, estimated at about i
million sterling altogether. The chief marts on the side of
TRANS-HIMALA YAN TRADE. 587
India are Amritsar and Jalandhar, from which latter place the
route runs northwards past Kangra and Palampur to Leh,
where a British official has been stationed since 1867, in which
year also a fair was established at Palampur to attract the
Yarkandi merchants. Merchandise is usually conveyed across Himalayan
the Himalayan passes on the backs of sheep and yaks ; but ^^^^^ 5
British enterprise has successfully taken mules as far as Leh.
In 1875-76, the total imports from Kashmir were valued at
^484,000, chiefly pashmina or shawl-wool, charas^ raw silk,
gold-dust and silver ingots, and borax ; the exports were valued
at ^342,000, chiefly cotton goods, food-grains, metals, salt,
tea, and indigo. In 1882-83, the imports from Kashmir into
the Punjab amounted to ^£^505, 335, and the exports to
;£"349,477; total, ;£"854,8i2. The whole trans-frontier land-
ward trade of the Punjab in 1882-83 was — imports, ;£98i,i67,
and exports, ;£"i, 083,920 ; grand total, ^£2,065,087.
Farther east, the Independent State of Nepal cuts off direct with
intercourse with Tibet for a total length of nearly 700 miles, ^^P^^-
bordering the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, and Behar.
Little trade is allowed to filter through Nepal, to and from
Tibet (amounting in value in 1882-83 tO;^82,5i9 for both
imports and exports); yet a very large traffic is everywhere
carried on along the frontier between the Nepalis and British
subjects. The Nepal Government levies transit duties im-
partially on all commodities; but it is asserted that their
fiscal tariff" is not intended to be protective, and does not in
fact operate as such. Markets are held at countless villages Frontier
along the boundary, for the exchange of rural produce and inarts.
articles of daily consumption ; and many cart tracks cross the
line from our side, to lose themselves in the Nepal tardi. The
principal trade route is that which starts from Patna, and pro-
ceeds nearly due north through Champaran District to the
capital of Khatmandu ; but even this is not passable through-
out for wheeled traffic. From Khatmandu, two routes branch Nepal
off" over the central range of the Himalayas, which both ^'"^^'^
ultimately come down into the valley of the Tsanpu, or great
river of Tibet.
In 1877-78, the registered trade with Nepdl (which Nepal
is doubtless below the truth) amounted to a total of^'^^/^^
^£"1,687,000, of which more than two-thirds was conducted by
Bengal. The imports from Nepil were valued at ;£ 1,054,000,
the principal items being food-grains and oil-seeds, cattle,
timber, and horns. Other articles of import which do not figure
prominently in the returns are musk, borax, chireta^ madder,
588 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Trade with cardamoms, chauris or yak-tails, ginger, balchar or scented
^ ^^^ ' grass, furs, and hawks. The Indian exports to Nepal in
1877 1877-78 were valued at ;£^633,ooo, chiefly European and native
piece-goods (of cotton, wool, and silk), salt, metals, raw cotton,
sugar, and spices. To these may be added the miscellaneous
articles which may be usually found in a pedlar's pack. In
and 1882. 1882-83, the total imports from Nepdl into the North-Western
Provinces, Oudh, and Bengal amounted to ;£"i,378,i75, and
the exports from British India to ;£85 5,346 ; grand total,
Bhutan. ^2,233,521. The trade with Sikkim and Bhutan is at
present too insignificant to require notice, although it is
possible that our future entry into Tibet may lie through
these States.
North-east A certain amount of traffic is conducted with the hill tribes
trade ^"^ on the north-east frontier, who almost surround the Province
of Assam from Bhutan to Manipur. According to the returns
1877 for 1877-78, the total frontier trade of Assam amounts to
and 1882. about ;£'ioo,ooo a year. In 1882-83 it amounted to ;^i 15,206,
^^83, 318 being imports, and ;£3i, 888 exports. It consists
chiefly of the bartering of rice, cotton cloth, salt, and metals,
for the raw cotton grown by the hill tribes, and for the
caoutchouc, lac, beeswax, and other jungle produce which
they collect.
Trade with The trade with Independent Burma has a special character,
Indepen- ^nd it has for some years past been subject to a fairly accurate
Burma ; System of registration. The main route is by the Irawadi river,
which is navigable by large steamers. The trade on the Sittang
(Tsit-taung) is chiefly confined to the import of timber. Regis-
tration is also attempted at six land stations. The total trade
1877-78. in 1877-78 was valued at ;^3,42 6,000, almost equally divided
Imports, between exports and imports. The principal imports from
Independent Burma into British Burma were timber
(;^2 1 3,000), raw cotton (;^i 63,000), sesamum oil (;j{^i3o,ooo),
manufactured silk (;£"i 07,000), jaggery sugar (;£^98,ooo), cattle
(;^88,ooo) and ponies (;£"2o,ooo), cotton goods woven
from European yarn (;£"46,ooo), earth-oil (;^65,ooo), and
cutch (;^4i,ooo). Many of these articles are liable to
be declared royal monopolies (although these monopolies
were abolished in 1882), and consequently the figures
fluctuate greatly year by year. Other imports of interest,
though of smaller value, are pickled tea (;^i 9,000) and jade
(;^i8,ooo).
Exports ; The exports from British to Independent Burma in 1 8 7 7, were
1877-78. rice (;^435>ooo)> cotton piece-goods (;^207,ooo) and cotton
TRANSrFRONTIER TRADE.
589
twist and yarn (;^i88,ooo), manufactured silk (;£"i 73,000), Trade with
ngd-pi ox salted fish (;z^i 59,000), raw silk (;^84,ooo), woollen Burma,
goods (;2{J"43.ooo), salt (;£^33,ooo), etc. Many of these goods 1877-78.
were formerly the subjects of royal monopoly, or they com-
peted with the products of manufactories started by the king
at Mandalay. Salt is exempted from the ordinary customs
duties at Rangoon, and pays only a transit duty of i per cent,
if declared for Independent Burma.^
Full details of the import and export trade between British Burmese
Burma and Independent Burma and the Shan States for 1882-83.
1882-83 are not available. As regards totals, the imports
amounted to ;^2, 504,135 in value, and the exports to
;£i, 752,299 ; total, ^4,256,434-
The trade between British Burma and Siam was estimated Siam
in 1877-78 at the total value of ;£ 12 6,000, being ;^69,ooo
for imports from Siam, and ;£"57,ooo for exports. In 1882-83,
the trade between British Burma and Siam amounted to —
imports from Siam, ;^4o, 349, and exports, ;^i4i,958; total,
;£i82,3o7.
The following tables exhibit the total trans-frontier land trade
of India (i) with the different border countries and tribes, and
(2) the extent to which it is participated in by the neighbouring
British Provinces : —
Trans-Frontier Landward Trade of India with External
States for the Five Years 1878-79 to 1882-83.
Fkom
Landward Imports into India.
1878-79.
1879-80.
1880-81.
1881-82.
1882-83.
Afghdnistdn and neighbour-
ing tracts and hill tribes, .
Kashmir,
LadAkh
Tibet
Nepdl
Sikkim and Bhutan, . . .
N.E. States beyond the Ben-
gal and Assam Frontier, .
Independent Burma and
Shan States,
Siam,
£
765.849
558,537
17.104
153.969
1,235,238
24.738
36,402
2,072,441
35.717
£
611,418
409,744
17.013
71.349
1.397.487
61,103
47.312
2,222,165
80,047
£ ,
441.536
709,272
17,846
63.393
1,606,929
43.395
53.027
2,126,857
41.325
487,852
495.949
37,248
64,206
1.389.548
35.339
64,949
2,110,346
39.966
£ i
526,560 j
505.335 i
51.284 ;
58.322
1.378,175
33.399
81,078
2.504.13s
40,349
Total Imports, . .
4.899.995
4,917,638
5,103,580
4,725,403
5. 178.637
1 N.B. — Since these pages went to the press, Independent Burma has
been incorporated into the British Empire. The above figures will
therefore soon lose their value.
590 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Trans-Frontier Landward Trade of India — {co7iti7iiied).
Into
Landward Exports from India.
1878-79.
1879-80.
1880-81.
1881-82.
1882-83.
Afghdnistan and neighbour-
ing tracts and hill tribes, .
Kashmir
Ladakh,
Tibet
£
897.715
255.545
8,817
14,861
805,361
17,166
17.935
1,868,092
86,067
1,184,695
282,426
15.729
20,139
859.358
34.576
15.657
1,813,666
66,386
1,312,677
384.934
31.177
18,214
923.724
28,513
27,676
1,848,819
109,730
£
1.239.725
359.193
35,860
21.973
869,720
21,508
21,990
1,613,981
150.415
£
863,445
349.477 I
32,228 j
24,197
855.346
24,973
27,213
1,752,299
141,958
Nepal
Sikkim and Bhutan, . . .
N.E. States beyond the Ben-
gal and Assam Frontier, .
Independent Burma and
Shan tribes,
Siam
Total Exports, . .
Grand Total Imports
and Exports, ....
3.971.559
4,292,632
4.685,464
4.334.365
4,071,136
8.871,554
9,210,270
9,789,044
9,059,768
9,249,773
Trans -Frontier Landward Trade of India for the British
Border Provinces for the Five Years 1878-79 to 1882-83.
Into
Landward Imports into India.
1878-79.
1879-80.
1 880-8 1.
1881-82.
1882-83.
Sind
£^
249,842
1,218,269
439, 154
844,006
40,566
2,108,158
£ ^
251.558
820,591
531.595
961,140
50,542
2,302,212
£
117.475
1.071,329
615.507
1.075.853
55.234
2,223,977
£
130,248
912,813
633,664
827,376
70,990
2,150,312
£
119,722
981,167
617,222
832,724
83.318
2,544,484
Punjab,
N.W. Provinces and Oudh,
Bengal
Assam,
British Burma,
Total Imports, . .
4,899,995
4,917,638
5. 159.375
4,725,403
5.178.637
Fkom
Landward Exports from India.
1878-79.
1879-80.
iE8o-8r.
326,670
1,403,449
339. 146
629,246
28,404
1.958.549
1881-82.
236,910
1,398,995
280,526
629,224
24.314
1,764,396
1882-83.
~ £ "
162,759
1,083,920
279.349
618,963
31.888
1.894.257
Sind. ........
Punjab,
N.W. Provinces and Oudh,
Bengal
Assam
British Burma
Total Exports, . .
Grand Total Imports
and Exports
£
215.235
949.963
203,343
628,587
20,272
1.954.159
£
403.212
1,080,940
296,767
614,146
1,880,052
4,292.632
3.971.559
4.685,464
4.334.365
4. 07 1. 136
8.871.554
9,210,270
9.844.839
9.159.768
9.249.773
INTERNAL TRADE OF INDIA. 591
The internal trade of India greatly exceeds her foreign internal
commerce ; but it is impossible to estimate its amount. On ^''^^5 "^
the one hand, there is the wholesale business, connected with
the foreign commerce, in all its stages — the collection of
agricultural produce from a hundred thousand villages, its
accumulation at a few great central marts, and its despatch to
the seaboard. The sea-imports and manufactured articles are
distributed by the same channels, but in the reverse direction.
On the other hand, there is the interchange of commodities
of native growth and manufacture, sometimes between neigh-
bouring Districts, but also between distant Provinces. With
unimportant exceptions, free trade is the rule throughout the
vast peninsula of India, by land as well as by sea. The
Hindus possess a natural genius for commerce, as is shown
by the daring with which they have penetrated into the heart
of Central Asia, and to the east coast of Africa. Among the
benefits which British rule has conferred upon them, is the
removal of the internal duties and other restraints which
native despotism had imposed upon trading energies.
Broadly speaking, the greater part of the internal trade Internal
remains in the hands of the natives. Europeans control the ^"^^^^ ^"
. native
shippmg busmess, and have a share in the collection of some hands.
of the more valuable staples of export, such as cotton, jute,
oil-seeds, and wheat. But the work of distribution, and the
adaptation of the supply to the demand of the consumer,
naturally fall to those who are best acquainted with native
wants. Even in the Presidency towns, most of the retail shops
are owned by natives.
The Vaisya, or trading caste of Manu, has now scarcely Trading
a separate existence ; but its place is occupied by offshoots wastes :
and well - marked classes. On the western coast the
Parsis, by the boldness and extent of their operations, tread
close upon the heels of the great English houses. In
the interior of the Bombay Presidency, business is mainly
divided between two classes, the Baniyas of Gujarit and the
Marwaris from Rajputana. Each of these profess a peculiar
form of religion, the former being Vishnuites of the Vallabha-
charya sect, the latter Jains. In the Deccan, their place is in
taken by Lingayats from the south, who again follow their ^,^^1^^"^
own form of Hinduism, which is a species of Siva- worship.
Throughout Mysore, and in the north of Madras, Lingayats
are also found, but along the eastern seaboard the predominating
classes of traders are the castes named Chetties and Komatis.
Many of these trading castes still claim Vaisya descent.
592 COMMERCE AND TRADE.
i" In Bengal, however, many of the upper classes of Siidras
India ^"^ have devoted themselves to wholesale trade; although here
also the Jain Marwiris from Rijputana and the North-West
occupy the front rank. Their head-quarters are in Murshiddbdd
District, and Jain Marwaris are found throughout the valley of
the Brahmaputra, as far up as the unexplored frontier of China.
They penetrate everywhere among the wild tribes ; and it is
said that the natives of the Khasi Hills are the only hillmen
who do their own business of buying and selHng. In the
North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the traders are generically
called Baniyas ; and in the Punjab are found the Khatris
(Kshattriyas), who have perhaps the best title of any to regard
themselves as descendants of the original Vaisyas.
Trade According to the general Census of 1872, the total number
1872 ' ^^ persons throughout British India connected with commerce
and trade was 3,224,000, or 5*2 per cent, of the total
and 1881. adult males. In 1881, throughout British and Feudatory
India, 3,232,120 adult males were returned as engaged in
commerce and trade, or 3*87 per cent, of the total male popu-
lation engaged in some specific occupation.
Local The local trade of India is conducted in the permanent
ImJia.^ ^zsaVj of the great towns, at weekly markets in the rural
villages, at annual gatherings held for religious purposes, or by
means of travelling brokers and agents. The cultivator him-
self, who is the chief producer and also the chief customer,
knows little of large cities, and expects the dealer to come
to his own door. Each village has at least one resident trader,
who usually combines in his own person the functions of
The village money-lender, grain merchant, and cloth-seller. The simple
money- system of rural economy is entirely based upon the dealings
of this man, whom it is sometimes the fashion to decry as a
usurer, but who is often the one thrifty person among an
improvident population. If his rate of interest is high, it is
only proportionate to the risks of his business. If he some-
times makes a merciless use of his legal position, the fault
rests rather with the inflexible rules of our courts, which enable
- him to push the cultivators to extremes not allowed under
native rule. Abolish the money-lender, and the general body
of cultivators would have nothing to depend upon but the
harvest of the single year. The money-lender deals chiefly in
grain and in specie.
In those Districts where the staples of export are largely
TRADE VERSUS FAMINE, 593
grown, the cultivators commonly sell their crops to travelling Travelling
brokers, who re-sell to larger dealers, and so on until the
commodities reach the hands of the agents of the great ship-
ping houses. The wholesale trade thus rests ultimately with a
comparatively small number of persons, who have agencies, or
rather corresponding firms, at the central marts.
Buying and selling, in their aspects most characteristic of Religious
India, are to be seen not in the large cities, nor even at the ^^^^'
weekly markets, but at the fairs which are held periodically at
certain spots in most Districts. Religion is always the original
cause of these gatherings or uields^ at some of which nothing
is done beyond bathing in the river, or performing pious
ceremonies. But in the majority of cases, religion merely
supplies the opportunity for secular business. Crowds of
petty traders attend, bringing the medley of articles which can
be packed into a pedlar's wallet ; and the neighbouring villagers
look forward to the occasion, to satisfy alike their curiosity
and their household wants.
The improvement in means of communication, by the con- Increase of
struction of railways and metalled roads, has directly developed J"^^™^^
internal no less than foreign trade. Facilities for rapid
carriage tend to equalize prices not only over large areas of
country, but also over long periods of time. As wheeled carts ^
supersede pack-bullocks, and as railroads supersede carts, the
whole of India will gradually become one country for the
purposes of food supply. It is by this means alone that a
guarantee can be provided against the ravages of famine.
The vicissitudes of a tropical climate will always cause local The chief
failures of the harvest, whether by drought or by flood, which ^mst
science indeed may learn to foresee, but which no practicable famine,
schemes of irrigation or embankment can altogether avert.
But India, as a whole, has never yet been unable in any single
year to yield sufficient food for her population. The real
problem of famine is a problem of distribution.
In former times, the inhabitants of one District might be How trade
perishing of starvation, while plenty reigned in a District ^^^^^"
but 100 miles distant. In 1866, the people of Orissa were
decimated, not so much by drought or by inundation, as by the
impossibility of transport. In 1877, the distress in Madras
was alleviated by the importation of nearly one million tons
of grain, all of which was carried inland by two lines of rail
in twelve months. Supplies were drawn, not only from the '
seaboard of Bengal and Burma, but from the most remote
2 p
594
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
Normal
action of
internal
trade
equalizes
prices ;
introduces
more valu-
able crops.
Provinces. In the year 1877-78, the Central Provinces
exported grain to the amount of more than 300,000 tons,
and the Punjab to the amount of 400,000 tons, all of which
were conveyed south by rail. Trade has never known such a
stimulus as was afforded on this occasion, when the carrying
power proved barely equal to the strain. If the famine had
happened before the opening of the railway, it would have
resulted in a loss of life without parallel even in the annals of
India.
But the utility of local trade is not to be judged of only at
such a crisis. In normal seasons, it tends alike to regulate
prices and to promote a higher standard of comfort. Within
the last twenty-five years, the cultivators have learnt for the
first time the real value of their produce. In the old days,
little was grown beyond grain crops for the year's food. The
slightest failure meant local distress ; while a bumper harvest
so depreciated the value of grain, that part of the crops was
often left unreaped to rot in the fields. In 1780 and 1781, a
suspension of revenue had to be granted to the District of
Sylhet, because the harvest was so bountiful that it would not
pay the cost of carriage to market, and consequently the
farmers had no means of obtaining money. Even so late as
1873, the Collector of Rangpur reported that ' the yield of rice
was considered too good by the rdyats^ as prices were thereby
kept down.' The extended cultivation of staples for export,
such as cotton, jute, and oil-seeds, together with the substitu-
tion of more valuable crops for the inferior grains, is now
modifying the entire system of Indian agriculture. Land is not
being withdrawn from food crops to any appreciable extent,
but the rdyat is everywhere learning to cultivate high-priced
subsidiary crops which will help to pay his rent.
Statistics
of internal
trade.
Central
I'rovinccs.
It is impossible to express in figures the precise extent of
the internal trade of India. But the following statistics will
serve in some measure to show both its recent development
and its actual amount. They are based upon the registration
returns which were collected in certain Provinces. Owing to
changes in the system of registration, it is not safe to institute
general comparison between different years. Inter-provincial
trade statistics are now chiefly confined to railway returns and
the traffic passing through certain registration centres.
In 1863-64, the external trade of the Central Provinces,
both export and import, was estimated to amount to 102,000
tons, valued at ;;^3,909,ooo. By 1868-69, after the opening
INTERNAL TRADE STATISTICS. 595
of the Jabalpur Railway, it had increased to 209,000 tons,
valued at ;^6,795,ooo. In 1877-78, the year of the famine in
Southern India, the corresponding figures were 635,000 tons,
and ;^9,3 73,000, showing an increase in 14 years of more
than six-fold in quantity, and considerably more than two-fold
in value. The comparatively small increase in value is partly
to be attributed to the exclusion of opium, which merely passes
through in transit from Malwa. In 1882-83, the total
external trade of the Central Provinces, imports and exports,
as represented by the railway-borne traffic to stations outside
the Chief-Commissionership, and the registered trade with
adjoining Native States, was returned at over 650,000 tons,
valued at ;£"8,45 1,047. ^
In 1874-75, the total external trade of the Punjab amounted Punjab.
to about 600,000 tons, valued (but probably overvalued) at
about ;^i 6,000,000. By 1877-78 it had increased to nearly
900,000 tons, valued at ^17,500,000. In 1882-83, the ex-
ternal trade of the Punjab trans-frontier, railway borne, and
boat traffic, was returned at nearly three-quarters of a million
tons, of the value of i3f millions. These figures show a
decrease in 1882-83, as compared with 1877-78, of more than
one-sixth both in weight and value. The high figures of
1877-78 are, however, accounted for by the famines in Kash-
mir and South India, in consequence of which there were
abnormally large exports of wheat and other grains from the
Punjab in both directions.
The total trade of Behar in 1877-78 was valued at Behar.
;£ 1 6,000,000. In 1882-83, the registered figures show^ that
the East Indian Railway carried a total merchandise valued
at over ;;^ 19,000,000, to and from the 'Behar block.' But
perhaps the significance of such enormous totals will become
plainer if we take the case of a single mart, Patna, which may
claim to be considered one of the most important centres of
inland traffic in the world. Favourably situated on the Ganges,
near the confluence of the Son (Soane) and the Gogra, where
the principal trade route branches off to Nepal, it has become
a great changing station for the transfer of goods from river to
rail.
In 1876-77, the imports and exports of Patna city (ex- Trade of
eluding the Government monopoly of opium, and probably P^t"^*
omitting a good deal besides) were officially registered to a
value of 7 J millions sterling. Many articles are included
twice over as exported and imported, but the imports alone
amounted to more than 4 millions. Among the principal
596
COMMERCE AND TRADE.
gaon.
items on one side or the other may be mentioned —
European piece-goods, ;£"i,2i7,ooo ; indigo, ;^789,ooo; oil-
seeds, ;£'557,ooo; salt, ;^389,ooo ; sugar, ;^2 74,ooo ; food
grains, ^^258,000; hides, ;^i85,ooo; saltpetre, ^£'156,000.
In 1882-83, the East Indian Railway returns alone show a
total import and export trade for Patna (excluding opium)
amounting to over 5 J millions sterling, nearly 2 J millions
being imports and over 2 j millions exports. As regards the
river and road trade of Patnd city, no recent statistics are
available, as registration has there been abandoned for some
years past.
Growth of Another example of the growth of local trade is exhibited
Dongar- ^^ Dongargaon, as described in the Report on the Trade and
Resources of the Central Provinces., — a model of what such a
report should be. Dongargaon now forms the principal
market for grain on the fertile plateau of Chhatisgarh,
which is perhaps destined to become a regular source of
wheat supply to England. Thirty years ago, it was a petty
hamlet of about 20 houses, buried in wild jungle, and only
distinguished from the neighbouring villages by a weekly
bazar held on Sunday. In 1862, the enterprising agent of
a Ndgpur firm of native merchants settled here, and began
to make purchases of grain. The number of houses has now
risen to about 2000, of which the majority are tiled. Dongar-
gaon had a resident population in 1881 of 5543. In the busy
season, the concourse daily present in the bazar is estimated
at 100,000, with 13,000 carts and 40,000 bullocks and
buffaloes. Buyers come from as far west as Bombay, while
the grain of all the adjoining Districts is brought here for
sale.
A third example of the varying methods of Indian trade
may be found in the annual fair held at Kar^gold. in Purniah.
This fair dates from the beginning of the present century,
although its site has changed from time to time. It lasts for
about ten days in the month of February. During that season
a little town of shops, constructed of bamboos and matting,
rises on the sandy plain that stretches between the village and
the bank of the Ganges. The business is entirely of a retail
character, the local staples of grain, jute, and tobacco being
conspicuously absent. But every article of necessity or luxury
for a native household is to be bought. Cloth of all kinds,
from thick English woollens to fine Dacca muslins ; iron-
mongery and furniture from Monghyr ; boots, shawls, silks,
and brocades from the cities of the North- West ; hand-mills,
A yearly
fair,
Karagola.
A RURAL FAIR. 597
curr}'-stones, and lac ornaments from the hills of Chutia
Nagpur ; knives, yaks' tails, ponies, musk, and other drugs,
brought down by the Nepalis ; miscellaneous ware from
England, such as umbrellas, matches, soap, paper, candles,
buttons, etc., — all find a ready sale. In 1876, the attend-
ance was estimated at 40,000, and in 1881 at 30,000 persons ;
and the fees upon shops levied by the landowner realized
^^150. Such fairs are always protected by a special body of
police, and the European official in charge of the District or
Sub-division is usually present
[ 598 ]
CHAPTER XX.
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Manu-
factures
of India.
Art work.
English
competi-
tion.
The tide
now
turned.
India may be truly described as an agricultural rather than
a manufacturing country, yet it must not be inferred that
she is destitute of the arts of civilised hfe. She has no
swarming hives of industry to compare with the factory
centres of Lancashire ; nor any large mining population.
But in all manufactures requiring manual dexterity and
artistic taste, India may challenge comparison with Europe
in the last century; in many of them, with England at the
present day. The rival kingdoms into which the country
was formerly divided, gave birth to numerous arts of luxury.
When the first European traders reached the coast of India
in the i6th century, they found a civilisation both among
' Moors ' and ' Gentoos ' at least as highly advanced as their
own. In architecture, in fabrics of cotton and silk, in gold-
smith's work and jewellery, the people of India were then
unsurpassed.
But while the East has stood still, as regards manufac-
tures on a great scale, the West has advanced by gigantic
strides without a parallel in the history of human progress.
On the one hand, the downfall of the native courts deprived
the skilled workman of his chief market; while on the
other, the English capitaHst has enlisted in his service forces
of nature against which the village artisans in vain try
to compete. The tide of circumstance has compelled the
Indian weaver to exchange his loom for the plough, and has
crushed many of the minor handicrafts.
Some consolation can be found in the establishment, within
the past few years, of mills fitted out by English capital with
English machinery. A living portion of our own industrial
activity has been transplanted to Indian soil. Manchester is
growing up in miniature at Bombay, and Dundee at Calcutta.
The time may yet come when India shall again clothe her
people with her own cotton ; she already supplies sacks from
her jute for the commerce of the world.
VILLAGE INDUSTRIES. 599
Historically the most interesting, and still the most im- Native
portant in the aggregate, of all Indian industries are the "^ "s^"^^-
simple crafts in every rural hamlet. The weaver, the potter, The'
the blacksmith, the brazier, the oil-presser, are members of a village
community, as well as inheritors of a family occupation. On
the one hand, they have a secure market for their wares ; and
on the other, their employers have a guarantee that their trades
shall be well learned. The stage of civilisation below these
village industries is represented by the hill tribes, where the
weaving of clothes is done by the women of the family. An
advanced stage may be found in those villages or towns which
possess a little colony of weavers or braziers noted for some
speciality. Yet one degree higher is the case of local arts
of luxury, such as ivory-carving or the making of gold lace.
Another form of native industry owes its origin to European
interference. Many a village in Bengal and on the Coromandel Fortified
coast still shows traces of the time when the East Indian Com- ^^^1^^"^
pany and its European rivals gathered large settlements ofments.
weavers round their little forts, and thus formed the only
industrial towns that ever existed in India. But when the
Company gave up its private trade in 1813 and 1834,
such centres of industry rapidly declined ; and the once
celebrated muslins of India have been driven out of the
market by Manchester goods.
Cotton-weaving is a very ancient industry of India. In Cotton-
England it dates back only a couple of centuries. Wool and i^n^in^i^
linen were England's historical staples ; but in India cotton-
weaving was practised before the time of the Mahdbhdrata.
The Greek name for cotton fabrics, sindon^ is etymologically
the same as that of India, or Sind ; while in later days, Cahcut
on the Malabar coast has given us 'calico.' Cotton cloth has
always been the single material of Indian clothing for both
men and women, except in Assam and Burma, where silk is
preferred, perhaps as a survival of an extinct trade with China.
The author of the Periplus^ our earliest authority on the trade ^" ^"^'-
of India, enumerates a great variety of cotton fabrics among industry.
her exports. Marco Polo, the first Christian traveller, dilates
on the ' cotton and buckram ' of Cambay. When European
adventurers found out the way to India, cotton and silk always
formed part of the rich cargoes they brought home.
The English appear to have been specially careful to fix
their earliest settlements amid weaving populations — at Surat,
at Calicut, at Masulipatam, at Hugli. In delicacy of texture,
in purity and fastness of colour, in grace of design, Indian
6oo ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Causes of cottons may still hold their own against the world. But in
its decline, the matter of cheapness, they have been unable to face the
competition of Manchester. Many circumstances conspired
to injure the Indian industry. In the last century, England
excluded Indian cotton fabrics, not by fiscal duties, but by
absolute prohibition. A change of fashion in the West
Indies, on the abolition of slavery, took away the best
customer left to India. Then came cheapness of production
in Lancashire, due to improvements in machinery. Lastly,
the high price of raw cotton during the American War, how-
ever beneficial to the cultivators, fairly broke down the local
weaving trade in the cotton-growing tracts. Above all, the
necessity under w^hich England lies to export something to
India to pay for her multifarious imports, has permanently given
an artificial character of inflation to this branch of business.
Still a Despite all these considerations, hand - loom weaving still
industry, holds its Own with varying success in different parts of the
country. Regarded as a trade, it has become unremunerative.
Little is made for export, and the finer fabrics generally are dying
out. The far-famed muslins of Dacca and of Arni are now well-
nigh lost specialities. But as a village industry, weaving is still
carried on everywhere, though it cannot be said to flourish.
If Manchester piece-goods are cheaper, native piece-goods are
Supplies universally recognised as more durable. Comparative statistics
^ fTndkn ^^^ '^^^ available ; but it may be roughly estimated that
consumpt. about three-fifths of the cotton cloth used is woven in the
country from native thread or from imported twist.
Cotton- In 1870, the Madras Board of Revenue published a valu-
i^^^M 'd^ able report on hand-loom weaving, from which the following
1870; figures are taken. The total number of looms at work in
that Presidency, with its then population of 31 millions, was
returned at 279,220, of which 220,015 "^^"^^ in villages and
59,205 in towns, showing a considerable increase upon the
corresponding number in 1861, when the mohartarfa^ or
assessed tax upon looms, was abolished. The total estimated
consumption of twist in 1870 was 31,422,712 lbs., being at the
rate of 112 lbs. per loom. Of this amount, about one-third
was imported twist, and the remainder country-made. The
total value of the cotton goods woven was returned in 1870
at 3^ millions sterling, or ;^i2, los. per loom; but this was
believed to be much under the truth.
The export of country-made cotton cloth from Madras in the
same year, 1870, was about ;^22o,ooo. By 1882-83, the export
of country-made cloth from Madras had dwindled to ;£'45,i96.
HAND-LOOMS VERSUS STEAM-MILLS 6oi
In the Central Provinces, where hand-loom weaving still Jn Central
flourishes, and where the statistics are more trustworthy than jg^g'. ^^'
in some other parts of India, the number of looms in 1877-78
was returned at 87,588, employing 145,896 weavers, with an
annual out-turn valued at ;^828,ooo. In 1882-83, there were
in the Central Provinces three large cotton mills at work, besides
143,801 looms, giving employment to 164,273 workmen, with
an out-turn valued at ^858,219. In 1878-79, the export of
Indian piece-goods from the Central Provinces was valued at
^162,642. In 1882-^83, it was valued at ^£^147, 773-
As regards Bengal, hand-loom weaving is generally on the in Bengal ;
decline. The average consumption of piece-goods throughout
the Province is estimated at about 5s. per head, and the
returns of registered trade show that European piece-goods are
distributed from Calcutta at the rate of about 2s. 5d. per head.
In Midnapur, Nadiya, and Bardwan, the native weavers still
hold their own, as appears from the large imports of European
twist; but in the eastern Districts, which have to balance
their large exports of jute, rice, and oil-seeds, the imports of
European cloth rise to 2s. 7d. per head.
No part of India has more cnielly felt the English com- in Bom-
petition than Bombay. But in Bombay, the introduction of W-
steam machinery is already beginning to restore the work to
native hands. Twist from the Bombay mills is now generally
used by the hand-loom weavers of the Presidency, and is
largely exported to China. But it is in the finer fabrics
produced for export that the Bombay Districts have suffered
most Taking Surat alone, the export by sea of piece-goods
at the beginning of the century was valued at ^360,000 a
year. By 1845, the value had dropped to ^£"67,000, rising
again to ;;£ 134,000 in 1859 ; but in 1874, it was only ;£6^^2.
It is impossible to enumerate the many special fabrics which Special
are still produced in various parts of the country. First J"dian
among these are the far-famed muslins of Dacca, which can
still be obtained to order, although the quality is far inferior muslins.
to what it was when Dacca was the capital of a luxurious
Muhammadan court. Most of the weavers are Hindus, and
the high development which their industry has reached may
be judged from the fact that they employ no fewer than 126
distinct implements. The finest muslins are woven plain, but
patterns of coloured silk are afterwards embroidered on them
by a separate class of workmen. (For the decay of the Dacca
manufactures, and the transfer of the weaving communities to
agricultural employments, see article Dacca in T/ie Imperial
602
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Madras
muslins.
Bangalore
cloths.
Bombay
fabrics.
Indian
silk-
weavinsr :
in Burma
and
Assam ;
in Bengal.
Classes
of silk
fabrics.
Gazetteer of India.) Fine muslin is woven in small quantities
at Sarail in the adjoining District of Tipperah ; and Santipur,
in Nadiya, still retains its reputation for delicate fabrics. But
with these exceptions, cotton-weaving in Bengal produces only
coarse articles for common use.
In Madras, the fine fabrics maintain their ground better,
although the trade is nowhere flourishing. Among those
deserving mention are the muslins of Arni, the cloth woven by
the Nairs on the Malabar coast, the chintzes of Masulipatam,
the. panjam or *i2o-thread' cloth of Vizagapatam, and the blue
salampw's of Nellore. At Bangalore, the descendants of the
old court weavers still manufacture a peculiar kind of cloth,
printed in red and black with mythological designs. In the
Bombay Presidency, Ahmadabad, Surat, and Broach are the
chief centres of the manufacture of printed sdris^ for which
Gujarat is celebrated ; while Poona, Yeola, Nasik, and Dharwar
produce the fabrics dyed in the thread, which are much worn
by the Maratha races. Silk is often combined with cotton on
the looms, and the more expensive articles are finished off with
a border of silk or gold lace. Chanda and Hoshangabad are
the largest weaving towns in the Central Provinces.
Silk -weaving is also a common industry everywhere, silk
fabrics, or at least an admixture of silk with cotton, being
universally affected as a mark of wealth. Throughout British
Burma, and also in Assam, silk is the common material of
clothing ; usually woven by the women of the household. In
Burma, the bulk of the silk is imported from China, generally
in a raw state ; but in Assam it is obtained from two or three
varieties of worms, which are generally fed on jungle trees, and
may be regarded as semi-domesticated. Bengal is the only
part of India where sericulture, or the rearing of the silkworm
proper on mulberry, can be said to flourish. The greater part
of the silk is wound in European filatures, and exported in the
raw state to Europe. The native supply is either locally con-
sumed, or sent up the Ganges to the great cities of the North-
west. A considerable quantity of raw silk, especially for
Bombay consumption, is imported from China. Tasar silk,
from the cocoons of semi-domesticated worms, does not con-
tribute much to the supply. (^Vide ante., pp. 51 1-5 14.)
As compared with cotton-weaving, the silk fabrics form a
town rather than a village industry. Silk fabrics are of two
kinds — (i) those composed of pure silk, and (2) those with a
cotton warp crossed by a woof of silk. Both kinds are often
embroidered with gold and silver. The mixed fabrics are
SILKS : EMBROIDER V: LEA THER- WORK, 603
known as mashru or sufi^ the latter word meaning 'permitted,'
because the strict ceremonial law will not allow Muhammadans
to wear clothing of pure silk. They are extensively woven in
the Punjab and Sind, at Agra, at Haidarabad in the Deccan,
and at Tanjore and Trichinopoli in Madras. Pure silk fabrics
are either of simple texture, or highly ornamented in the form
of kinkhabs or brocades. The latter are a speciality of Benares, Brocades.
Murshidabad, Ahmadabad, and Trichinopoli. Their gorgeous
hues and texture may be inferred from the following names : —
Shikargahj 'hunting-ground;' chand-tara^ 'moon and stars;'
mazchar^ ' ripples of silver ; ' inurgala^ ' peacock's neck.'
Printed silks are woven at Surat for the wear of Parsi and
Gujarathi women.
Quite recently, mills with steam machinery have been estab- Steam sUk-
lished at Bombay, which weave silk fabrics for the Burmese ^^^°"^^-
market, chiefly liingyis^ tafnains, and patsoes. The silk manu-
factures exported from India consist almost entirely of the
handkerchiefs known as bajidaiinas and corahs^ with a small
proportion of tasar fabrics. The trade, after a temporary
period of depression, appears now to be increasing. ' In
1875-76, silk manufactures to the extent of 2,468,052 yards,
valued at ^238,000, were exported from India. In 1877-78,
the export of manufactured silk had decreased to 1,481,256
yards, valued at ;^i47,ooo. By 1878-79, the value of the
trade had risen to ^£^195, 897 ; by 1880-81, to ;^25o,256 ; and
by 1882-83, to ^306,928.
Embroidery has already been referred to in the two pre- Embroi-
ceding paragraphs. The groundwork may be either silk, "^'7*
cotton, wool, or leather. The ornament is woven in the loom,
or sewn on afterwards with the needle. The well-known choga,
which has recently come into popular use in England for
dressing-gowns, is made of patu or camel's hair, embroidered Camel's
in Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. The still better known ^^^'^•
and more valuable Kashmir shawl, made either in Kashmir Kashmir
itself or at Ludhiana, and a few other towns of the Punjab, is shawls,
composed oi pas/ifnifia^ or the soft wool of the so-called shawl-
goat, which is a native of the Himalayan plateaux. Muslin
is embroidered with silk and gold thread at Dacca, Patna, and
Delhi. Sind and Cutch (Kachchh) have special embroideries of
coloured silk and gold. Leather- work is embroidered in Gujarat Leather-
(Guzerat). In some of the historical capitals of the Deccan, such ^°^^'
as Gulbargah and Aurangabad, velvet {makhmal) is gorgeously Velvet,
embroidered with gold, to make canopies, umbrellas, and
housings for elephants and horses, for use on State occasions.
6o4 ARTS AND MANUFACTURES,
Not only the goldsmith, but also the jeweller lends his aid
A jewelled to Indian embroidery. A chadar, or shawl made by order of a
^ ^^ * late Gaekwar of Baroda, is thus described by Sir G. Birdwood :
' It was composed entirely of inwrought pearls and precious
stones, disposed in an arabesque fashion, and is said to have
cost a kror of rupees (say i million sterling). Although the
richest stones were worked in it, the effect was most har-
monious. When spread out in the sun, it seemed suffused
with an iridescent bloom, as grateful to the eye as were the
exquisite forms of its arabesques.'
Carpets Carpets and rugs may be classified into those made of
rugs, cotton and those made of wool. The former, called satranjis
of cotton ; and daris, are made chiefly in Bengal and Northern India,
and appear to be an indigenous industry. They are usually
white, striped with blue, red, or chocolate, and sometimes
ornamented with squares and diamonds. The woollen or
of wool. pile carpets, known as kalin and kalicha, are those which
have recently attained so much popularity in England, by
reason of the low price at which the out-turn of the jail
manufactories can be placed on the market.
The pile carpet is indigenous to Persia and Turkistan,
where the best are still made. The art came into India with
the Muhammadans. 'The foundation for the carpet is a
warp of strong cotton or hempen threads ; and the peculiarity
Process of of the process consists in dexterously twisting short lengths
manu- ^f coloured wool into each of the threads of the warp, so
that the two ends of the twist of wool stick out in front.
The projecting ends are then clipped to a uniform level,
and the lines of work are compacted together by striking
them with a blunt instrument ' (Birdwood). The historical
Seats of Indian seats of the industry are Kashmir, the Punjab, and
carpet- ^ix\^ • Agra, Mirzapur, Jabalpur, Warangal in the Deccan,
**' Malabar and Masulipatam. Velvet carpets are also made at
Benares and Murshidabdd, and silk pile carpets at Tanjore
and Salem.
Warangal At the London Exhibition of 1851, the finest Indian rugs
^^^^' came from Warangal, the ancient capital of the Andhra dynasty,
about 80 miles east of Haidarabdd. Their characteristic
feature was the exceedingly numerous count of the stitches,
about 12,000 to the square foot. 'They were also perfectly
harmonious in colour, and the only examples in which silk was
used with an entirely satisfactory effect' (Birdwood). The
price was not less than ;£^io per square yard. The common
rugs, produced in enormous quantities from the jails at Lahore,
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 605
Jabalpiir, Mirzapur, Benares, and Bangalore, sell in England
at 7s. 6d. each.
Gold and silver, and jewels, both from their colour and their Gold-
intrinsic value, have always been the favourite material of^"^^*,^^ ,
•' work and
Oriental ornament. Even the hill tribes of Central India and jewellery.
the Himalayas show skill in hammering silver into brooches,
armlets, and necklets. Imitation of knotted grass and of Hill-work,
leaves seems to be the origin of the simplest and most
common form of gold ornament, the early specimens consist-
ing of thick gold wire twisted into bracelets, etc. A second
archaic type of decoration is to be found in the chopped gold
jewellery of Gujarat (Guzerat). This is made of gold lumps,
either solid or hollow, in the form of cubes and octahedrons. Cube
strung together on red silk. Of artistic jeweller's work, the J^^^^^^^y*
best known examples are those from Trichinopoli, Cuttack,
and Kashmir.
Throughout Southern India, the favourite design is that
known as swdint^ in which the ornamentation consists of figures
of Hindu gods in high relief, either beaten out from the sur-
face or fixed on to it by solder or screws. The Trichinopoli Trichino-
work proper, which has been to some extent corrupted to suit P *
English taste, includes also chains of rose gold, and bracelets
of the flexible serpent pattern. The silver filigree work of
Cuttack, identical in character with that of ancient Greece Cuttack.
and of Malta at the present day, is generally done by boys,
whose sensitive fingers and keen sight enable them to put the
fine silver threads together with the necessary rapidity and
accuracy. The goldsmith's work of Kashmir is of the kind Kashmir.
known as * parcel-gilt,' and is further distinguished by the
ruddy colour of the gold used. * Its airy shapes and exquisite
tracery, graven through the gilding to the dead white silver
below, softening the lustre of the gold to a pearly radiance,
give a most charming effect to this refined and graceful work '
(Bird wood). The hammered repousst silver work of Cutch Cutch.
(Kachchh), although now entirely naturalized, is said to be of
Dutch origin. Similar work is done at Lucknow and Dacca.
The goldsmith's art contributes largely to embroidery, as has
already been mentioned. Gold and silver thread is made by
being drawn out under the application of heat. The operation
is performed with such nicety, that i rupee's worth of silver
will make a thread nearly 800 yards long. Before being used
in the loom, this metallic thread is generally twisted with silk.
For the manufacture of cloth of gold {sondri) or cloth of silver
{ritpiri\ the wire is beaten flat, so as to form the warp to a
6o6
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Precious
stones.
Indian
iron- work.
Cutlery.
Chain
armour.
woof of thin silk or cotton. A third kind of metallic orna-
mentation is practised at Jaipur in Rajputana and Haidarabad
in the Deccan, by printing muslins with patterns of gold and
silver leaf
Precious stones are lavishly used by Indian jewellers, who
care less for their purity and commercial value than for the
general effect produced by a blaze of splendour. ' But
nothing can exceed the skill, artistic feeling, and effectiveness
with which gems are used in India both in jewellery proper
and in the jewelled decoration of arms and jade' (Birdvvood).
The general character may be learned from the following descrip-
tion of a hair-comb in the Prince of Wales' collection, made at
Jaipur : * The setting is of emerald and ruby Jaipur enamel on
gold, surmounted by a curved row of large pearls, all on a
level, each tipped with a green glass bead. Below is a row of
small brilliants, set among the elegantly designed green and
red enamelled gold leaves which support the pearls. Then a
row of small pearls, with an enamelled scroll-work set with
brilliants between it and a third row of pearls ; below which
comes a continuous row of minute brilliants forming the lower
edge of the comb, just above the gold prongs.'
The chief duty of the village smith is, of course, to make
the agricultural implements for his fellow-villagers. But in
many towns in India, chiefly the sites of former capitals, iron-
work still attains a high degree of artistic excellence. The
manufacture of arms, whether for offence or defence, must
always be an honourable industry ; and in India it attained a
high pitch of excellence, which is not yet forgotten. The
magnetic iron-ore, found commonly in the form of sand,
yields a charcoal steel which is not surpassed by any in the
world. The blade of the Indian talwdrox sword is sometimes
marvellously watered, and engraved with date and name ;
sometimes sculptured in half-relief with hunting scenes ; some-
times shaped along the edge with teeth or notches like a saw.
Matchlocks and other fire-arms are made at several towns in
the Punjab and Sind, at Monghyr in Bengal, and at Viziand-
garam in Madras.
Chain armour, fine as lacework, and said to be of Persian
derivation, is still manufactured in Kashmir, Rdjputdna, and
Cutch (Kachchh). Ahmadnagar in Bombay is famous for its
spear-heads. Both fire-arms and swords are often damascened
in gold, and covered with precious stones. In fact, the charac-
teristic of Indian arms, as opposed to those of other Oriental
countries, is the elaborate goldwork hammered or cut upon
BRASS-WORK: BELLS: DAMASCENES 607
them, and the unsparing use of gems. Damascening on iron Dama-
and steel, known as ktift, is chiefly practised in Kashmir, and ^^^^
at Gujrat and Sialkot in the Punjab. The process consists
of encrusting gold upon the surface of the harder metal.
Damascening in silver, which is chiefly done upon bronze, is
known as bidari work, from the ruined capital of Bidar in the
Nizdm's Dominions, where it is still chiefly carried on.
The village brazier, like the village smith, manufactures the Brass and
necessary vessels for domestic use. Chief among these vessels ^°PP^^-
is the lotd^ or globular bowl, universally used in ceremonial
ablutions. The form of the lotd^ and even the style of orna- The lotd.
mentation, has been handed down unaltered from the earliest
times. A Iota now in the India Museum, which was disinterred
from a Buddhist cell in Kiilu, and must be at least fifteen
centuries old, represents Prince Siddhartha going on a high
procession. Benares enjoys the first reputation in northern Benares
India for work in brass and copper, producing not only ^^^^^•
vessels for domestic and ceremonial use, but also images and
religious emblems. In the south, Madura and Tanjore have a
similar fame ; and in the west, Ahmadabad, Poona, and Nasik.
At Bombay itself, large quantities of imported copper are
wrought up by native braziers.
The temple bells of India are well known for the depth and
purity of their note. In many localities the braziers have a
speciality, either for a peculiar alloy or for a particular process
of ornamentation. Silver is sometimes mixed with the brass,
and in rarer cases gold. Bidari work, or the damascening of Bidari
silver upon bronze, has already been alluded to. In this case, ^'^^^'
the metal ground is said to be an amalgam of copper, lead,
and tin, made black by dipping in a solution of sal-ammoniac,
saltpetre, salt, and blue vitriol. At Moradabad, in the North-
western Provinces, and at Bhilwara in Udaipur State, Rdj-
putana, tin is soldered upon the brass, and incised through in
floriated patterns, which are marked by filling in the ground
with a black composition of lac. At Purniah in Bengal, a
variety of bidari ware is made of zinc and copper, damascened
with silver, the processes of which are described at length in
Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal?- The brass or rather
bell-metal ware of Murshidabad, known as khdgrai^ has more
than a local reputation, owing to the large admixture of silver.
The demand for enormous quantities of brass-work at the Deteriora-
lowest price for the London market, is rapidly deteriorating {^°^ °^
both the designs and the workmanship of the Benares articles, work.
1 Vol. XV. pp. 355-357.
6o8
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Its imper-
fections.
Sincl
pottery,
The native braziers are almost compelled to degrade their in-
dustry, when they find that the most vulgar patterns, deeply
but hastily carved, command a ready sale; while their old
faithful work can scarcely find an English customer, at the
price necessary for production.
Indian Next to the loom of the weaver, the potter's wheel is the
pottery. characteristic emblem of an ancient civilisation. From time
immemorial, the potter has formed an essential member of
the Hindu village community. Pottery is made in almost
every village, from the small vessels required in cooking to
the large jars for storing grain, and the earthenware floats used
to ferry persons across a swollen stream. But although the
industry is universal, it has in few Provinces risen to the
dignity of a fine art. Perfection has been reached neither
in the substance, as in the porcelain of China, nor in the
ornamentation, as in ancient Greece. The clay in many
places works up well, but the product remains mere earthen-
ware, and rarely receives a high finish.
In Sind and the Southern Punjab the potter's craft has
risen to a high art; and here the industry is said to have
been introduced by the Muhammadans. Sind pottery is of
two kinds, encaustic tiles and vessels for domestic use. In
both classes the colours are the same — turquoise blue, copper
green, dark purple or golden brown, under an exquisitely
transparent glaze. The usual ornament is a conventional
flower pattern, sometimes pricked in from paper, but often
Tiles. painted with much freedom and grace. The tiles, evidently
of the same origin as those of Persia and Turkey, are chiefly
found in the ruined mosques and tombs of the old Musalmjln
dynasties ; but the Sind industry still survives at the little
towns of Saidpur and Bubri; and at Haidarabad, Karachi,
Tatta, and Hala.
Glazed tiles and pottery are also manufactured at Lahore
and Miiltan in the Punjab. Efforts have been made by the
Bombay School of Art to foster this indigenous industry ;
but, as in other cases of European patronage, the Indian
artisan loses his originality when set to copying alien models.
Something, however, has been done in the right direction by
reproducing the old designs from the cave temples of Ajanta
and Karli, in the pottery made at the Bombay School of Art.
The Madura pottery also deserves mention, from the elegance
of its form and the richness of its colour.
Sculpture. '^'^e earliest Indian sculptures are found in the monasteries,
topes, and * rails ' of ancient Buddhism. The best specimens
Punjab
and
Bombay
pottery.
WOOD- CAR VING : INLA YING : IFOR Y. 609
disclose the still fresh impulse derived from Greek or Roman
artists— that impulse which has been historically treated in
previous chapters, pp. 112 and 170-172. With the revival of
Brdhmanism, Indian sculpture degenerated. Modern Hindu
statuary possesses a religious rather than an aesthetic interest.^
But exquisite flat-carving, and perforated arabesque windows
or screens in hard sandstone and marble, are still produced at
Agra and Jaipur.
In the cities of Gujarat (Guzerat), and in other parts of Wood-
India where the houses are built of wood, their fronts are ^^"^^^"S-
ornamented with elaborate carving. The favourite materials
are black-wood (Dalbergia latifolia), sandal- wood, and jack-
wood. The supply of sandal-wood comes from the forests of
the Western Ghats in Kanara and Mysore, but some of the
finest carving in it is done at Surat and Ahmadabad. Examples
of 1 7th century Indian carving indicate that the art received
a powerful impulse from the Dutch along the Bombay coast.
But Indian wood-carving is an art of very great antiquity.
The early stone architecture of the Buddhists is evidently
based, both in regard to structure and ornaments, on pre-
existing wooden forms. Some of the patterns of modern
Indian wood-carving are preserved from that earlier period in
exquisite open carving in marble, or open lattice-work windows
in hard stone. The more durable material has survived, and
now tells its tale. The Burmese are also celebrated for their
luxuriant wood-carving.
Akin to wood-carving, is the inlaying of the articles known Inlaying,
as ' Bombay boxes.' This art is known to be of modern date,
having been introduced from Shiraz in Persia towards the close
of the last century. It consists of binding together in geo-
metrical patterns, strips of tin-wire, sandal- wood, ebony, ivory, ivory-
and stag's horn. At Vizagapatam in Madras, similar articles carving,
are made of ivory and stag's horn, with scroll-work edged in
to suit European taste. At Mainpuri, in the North- Western
Provinces, wooden boxes are inlaid with brass wire. The
chief seats of ivory-carving are Amritsar. Benares, Murshid-
abad, and Travancore, where any article can be obtained
to order in ivory, from a fall-sized palanquin to a lady's
comb. Human figures in clay, dressed to the life, are prin- Clay
cipally made at Krishnagar in Bengal, at Lucknow, and at ^^ures.
Poona.
1 For Indian architecture, painting, and musical instruments, see ante^
chap. iv.
2 Q
6io ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
European The preparation of tea, coffee, and indigo have been already
us nes. (jgscribed in connection with agriculture. It remains to give
some account of those manufactures proper, conducted by
steam machinery, and under European supervision, which
have rapidly sprung up in certain parts of India during the
past few years. These comprise cotton, jute, silk, and wool,
and beer, paper, leather, etc.
Cotton The first mill for the manufacture of cotton yarn and cloth
^' ^' by machinery worked by steam, was opened at Bombay in
1854. The enterprise has since expanded to vast dimensions.
In 1879, the total number of mills throughout India was 58,
with about a million and a half spindles, and twelve thou-
sand looms, giving employment to upwards of 40,000 persons
Their dis- — men, women, and children. Of this total, 30 mills, or
^"^"t'°" more than half, were in the island of Bombay, which now
Indiaf possesses a busy manufacturing quarter with tall chimney-
stalks, recalling the aspect of a Lancashire town; 14 were in
the cotton-growing Districts of Gujarat (Guzerit), also in the
Bombay Presidency ; 6 were in Calcutta and its neighbour-
hood ; 3 at Madras ; 2 at Cawnpur in the North- Western
Provinces ; i at Nagpur in the Central Provinces ; i at Indore,
the capital of Holkar's Dominions ; and i at Haidarabdd, the
residence of the Nizam.
Cotton By 1884, the number of steam cotton mills for which returns
mills, 1884: j^^^ hG.en received by Government had increased to 74, with
ment 1,895,284 spindles, and 16,251 looms, giving employment to a
returns. io\2i\ of 61,836 men, women, and children. Of these, 35 were
in the town and island of Bombay ; 2 1 were in other Districts
of the Bombay Presidency, chiefly Gujarat ; 6 in Bengal, in
the suburbs or vicinity of Calcutta ; 5 in Madras, namely, 4 in
Madras town, and i in Bellary District ; 3 at Cawnpur in the
North-Western Provinces ; 2 in the Central Provinces, namely,
at Nagpur and at Hinghanghat ; and i each at Indore and
Haidardbad in the Deccan.
Cotton Private returns of the cotton industry show a somewhat
mills,i884: different result to that quoted above. A carefully-compiled
returns. Statement gives the figures up to the 30th June 1884 as
follows : — On that date there were, in the town and island of
Bombay itself, 43 cotton mills, namely, 38 in work, and 5
in course of construction, with a total paid-up capital of
;^4.58o,43o; the number of spindles was 1,251,726, and of
looms (in 22 mills), 11,985; giving employment to a daily
average of 36,071 men, women, and children; quantity of
COTTON MILLS, 6ir
cotton consumed (in 36 mills) in twelve months, 1,218,490
cwts. Elsewhere in the Bombay Presidency there were 18
mills, with a total paid-up capital for 17 mills of ;£^943,7o6.
The number of spindles was 289,153, and of looms, in the
only 12 mills which had them, 2314. Number of hands
employed, 9293 ; quantity of cotton consumed, 235,935 cwts.
There were thus, in June 1884, in the Bombay Presi-
dency, 61 mills, either in active operation or in course
of construction, with a total paid-up capital of ;^5,452,i36,
employing 45,364 hands, and consuming 1,454,475 cwts.
of cotton. In the other Provinces of India there were
20 mills, namely, 6 in Bengal, 3 in the North -Western
Provinces, i in the Central Provinces, i at Haidarabad,
and 9 in Madras, of which 4 were under construction
in June 1884. The total paid-up capital of these mills
outside the Bombay Presidency was ^^i, 414,950 ; number
of spindles, 79,176, and of looms, 1426; number of hands
employed daily, 17,472; quantity of cotton consumed during
the year, 371,591 cwts. Throughout India there were thus 81
mills in June 1884, constructed at a cost of ;^6, 867,086; with
1,520,055 spindles, and 15,725 looms, consuming 1,826,016
cwts. of cotton during the previous twelve months, and
affording employment to a daily average of 62,836 men,
women, and children.
The general character of the cotton industry and its progress Nagpur
may be inferred from the following returns supplied by the ^i-i{^^8S2
Empress Spinning and Weaving Mills Company at Nagpur,
which in 1882 had 30,000 spindles and 450 looms at work,
and employed a daily average of 3137 hands. Their con-
sumption of raw cotton up to 1880 averaged 1,707,000 lbs.
a year ; their out-turn has averaged 1,040,000 lbs. of yam
valued at ^45,358, and 627,700 lbs. of cloth valued at
;^3o,66i. In 1882, the consumption of raw cotton at these
mills was 3,796,240 lbs., with an out-turn of 1,804,530 lbs. of
twist, and 1,494,945 lbs. of manufactured cloth, of a total
value of;£'i59,386.
This rapid and widespread development sufficiently proves Sound
that the new industry, though still in its infancy, is being ^^^^ °^
carried on under wholesome conditions, and meets a real facture.
demand. Checks have from time to time occurred at Bombay,
caused partly by competition with European goods recklessly
thrown upon the market regardless of profit, and partly by
that mismanagement to which joint-stock enterprise is peculiarly
exposed. But with the revival of general commerce, the
6l2
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
Cheap
material.
Cheap
labour.
No adul-
leration.
The draw-
l)acks.
Cost of
erection.
High
interest.
Short
staple.
Only
coarse
cjualities
made.
Bombay mills have always again started upon a career of
renewed activity.
Their advantages over the English manufacturer are manifest.
The crop of raw material and the market for the manufactured
article are both at their very doors, thus saving a double freight.
Labour is cheap, abundant, docile, and not liable to strike. A
certain amount of prejudice exists in favour of their products,
partly because of their freedom from adulteration, and partly
from the patriotic pride naturally felt for a native industry.
Lastly, up to March 1882, they had the slight protection of a
moderate customs duty of 5 per cent, ad valorem (imposed
for fiscal purposes solely) upon imported goods. The cotton
import duties were finally abolished, together with the general
import duties upon all but a few excepted articles of mer-
chandise, such as arms and ammunition, liquors, etc., by the
Indian Tariff Act, xi. of 1882.
On the other hand, they labour under not a few countervailing
disadvantages. The cost of erection, including spindles and
fitting up, was said (1877) to be about three times as much in
India as in England. Thus a mill containing 50,000 spindles,
which in Lancashire might be set up for about £,\ per spindle,
or a total of ;£"5o,ooo, would cost at Bombay about ;^i 50,000.
On this capital the initial charge for interest would be only
^2500 a year in England, calculated at 5 per cent, as com-
pared with ;^i 3,500 in India, at the rate of 9 per cent. Again,
the cost of fuel, and all stores which require to be imported
from England, tells greatly against the Bombay mills. Another
important consideration which it is difficult to estimate in all
its bearings, is the quahty of Indian cotton, known as ' short
stapled,' which does not admit of being spun into the finer
kinds of yarn. Consequently the Indian mills can only turn
out the lower * counts ' of yarn, and the coarser fabrics of
piece-goods, leaving English imports of the higher classes
without competition.
Adopting the technical language of the trade, the great
bulk of the yarn spun in Indian mills consists of numbers
6, 10, and 20 mule twist. Water twist is spun in smaller
quantities, generally of number 16. The maximum of either
kind is number 30. The mills are capable of spinning up to
40 ; but as a matter of fact, they never attempt this number,
owing partly to the inferior quality of the cotton, and partly
to the carelessness of the work-people. As regards piece-
goods, the kinds principally woven in the mills are those
known as T cloths, domestics, sheetings, drills, and jeans,
STATISTICS OF COTTON MANUFACTURE. 613
made entirely from the yarn spun in the same mills. Long-
cloths, chadars and dhutis, are also manufactured ; and recently
attempts have been made to turn out drawers, stockings, night-
caps, and towelling. But Manchester still possesses a practical
monopoly both of the higher * counts ' of yarn which are
used by the hand-loom weavers, and of the superior qualities
of cloth.
The Indian mills are almost without exception the property Joint-stock
of joint-stock companies, the shares in which are largely taken ^^^^
up by natives. The overlookers are skilled artisans brought
from England, but natives are beginning to qualify them-
selves for the post. The operatives are all paid by the piece ;
and, as compared with other Indian industries, the rates of
wages are high. In 1877, at Bombay, boys earned from 14s. Bombay
to ;^i a month ; women, from i6s. to £,\ \ and jobbers, from ^^S^^.
jQz ^^ £^1 I OS. Several members of one family often work
together, earning between them as much as ^^lo a month.
The hours of work are from six in the morning to six at night,
with an hour allowed in the middle of the day for meals and
smoking. The Indian Factories Act, xi. of 1881, regulates the
hours of work for children and young persons, and enforces
the fencing of dangerous machinery, etc.
Besides supplying the local demand, these mills are gradually Statistics
beginning to find a market in foreign countries, especially for of Bomlxiy
their twist and yarn. Between 1872-73 and 1882-83, the manu-
export of twist from Bombay increased from 1,802,863 lbs. factures.
valued at £^^^162 in 1872-73, to 21,271,059 lbs. valued at
;£'883,665 in 1878-79, and to 42,598,400 lbs. valued at
;^i, 705,978 in 1882-83, or an increase of twenty-four-fold in
quantity and nearly eighteen-fold in value in eleven years.
Within the same period, the export of grey piece-goods from
Bombay increased from 4,780,834 yards valued at ;£^75,495 in
1872-73, to i4,993j336 yards valued at ^198,380 in 1878-79,
and to 30,730,396 yards valued at ;£^357,32o in 1882-83. The
total foreign exports of Indian twist and yarn, and of Indian
manufactured grey, white, and coloured piece-goods from all
Indian ports amounted to ;£^2, 5 78,382 in value in 1882-83.
The above figures refer to Indian produce and manufactures
only; and are exclusive of ij million sterling of re-exported
British cotton manufactures. Including these re-exports, the
total exports of cotton twist, yarn, and manufactures amounted
to just under 4 millions in 1882-83 from all Indian ports. ^
The twist and yarn is mostly sent to China and Japan, the China and
piece-goods to the coast of Arabia and Africa. Africa.
6i4 ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
The figures for the coasting trade show a slower growth,
the total value of twist carried from port to port in 1878-79
having been ;£'8o4,996, and of piece-goods (including hand-
loom goods), ;£654,553. In 1882-83, cotton twist and yarn
to the value of ;£896,369, and piece-goods to the value of
;^633,3i6, were exported in the coasting trade, apart from
exports to foreign countries.
Future of jyjj.^ O'Conor, who has devoted much attention to the
the trade. , ... . . ,. , .
matter, thus summarizes his opinion regarding the future
of the Indian cotton mills in his Review of Indiafi Trade for
1877-78: — 'Whether we can hope to secure an export trade
or not, it is certain that there is a sufficient outlet in India
itself for the manufactures of twice fifty mills ; and if the
industry is only judiciously managed, the manufactures of
our mills must inevitably, in course of time, supersede Man-
chester goods of the coarser kinds in the Indian market.' The
correctness of this opinion is further shown by Mr. O'Conor's
Review of Indian Trade for 1884-85, in which he states — 'The
importation of the coarser kinds of twist has long been unim-
portant, the yarn of the Indian mills having driven it out of the
market. Even the medium kinds are now diminishing, an indi-
cation that the Indian mills are beginning to make them too.'
Wool Besides cotton mills, wool-weaving by steam machinery has
mills. recently been established in India, the principal mills being
the Egerton Mills in Gurdaspur District, Punjab, and the
Cawnpur woollen mills in the North-Western Provinces.
Jute mills. The jute mills of Bengal have sprung up in rivalry to
Dundee, as Bombay competes with Manchester ; but in Bengal
the capital for jute-manufacturing is almost entirely supplied
by Europeans. The jute-mills cluster round Calcutta, and on
the opposite side of the river in Howrah District. The industry
has also taken root at Sirdjganj, far away up the Brahmaputra,
in the middle of the jute-producing country.
Number In 1882-83, the total number of jute mills in India was
in 1882-83. 21, of which 19 were in Bengal, i at Koldba on Bombay
island, and i at Chittivaldsa in Vizagapatam District, Madras.
The weaving of jute into gunny cloth is an indigenous hand-
loom industry in Northern Bengal, chiefly in the Districts of
Purniah and Dinajpur. The gunny is made by the semi-
aboriginal tribe of Koch, Rajbansi or Pali, both for clothing
and for bags ; and, as with other industries practised by non-
Hindu races, the weavers are the women of the family,
and not a distinct caste. The mills turn out bags, and
JUTE MILL STATISTICS. 615
also cloth in pieces to a limited extent. The bags vary in Jute.
size, according to the markets for which they are intended. Varieties
The largest are the twilled wool packs sent to Australia, of gunny-
which measure 56 inches by 26 J, and weigh about 10 J ^^^s-
lbs. each. The smallest are the Hessian wheat bags for
California, measuring 36 inches by 22, and weighing only
12 ounces. The average weight may be taken to be from
2 to 2^ lbs.
The mills in Calcutta and its neisrhbourhood were estimated Out-turn of
in 1878 to keep about 4000 looms at work ; the total amount of jute^min^^
raw jute worked up annually was about ij million cwts., which 1878;
yielded about 90 million bags. The 21 steam jute mills in
India in 1883 worked 6139 looms and 112,650 spindles, the and 1883.
total quantity of raw jute worked up in the year being returned
at 2,831,778 cwts. These figures are below the mark, as
certain companies and private individuals have not supplied
full information. The jute manufacturing industry afforded
employment to 47,868 men, women, and children in 1882-83.
The activity of the jute trade, and the general direction of Indian and
the exports, will be seen by comparing the figures for 1877-78 co'i^s^p.
and 1882-83 in the two following paragraphs. tion.
In 1877-78, 3 million bags were brought into Calcutta from 1878,
Pabna District, being the product of the Sirajganj mills. The
total exports from Calcutta by sea and land of both power-loom
and hand-made bags numbered 80 millions in 1877-78, of which
not more than 6 millions were hand-made. The East Indian
Railway took 20 millions for the grain marts of Behar and
the North- Western Provinces (chiefly Patna and Cawnpur);
and I million went as far as Ludhiana in the Punjab. The
total exports by sea in 1877-78 exceeded 57 millions, of
which 32 millions represent interportal, and 25 millions foreign
trade. Bombay took as many as 16 millions, and British
Burma 1 2 millions. In fact, Calcutta suppHes bagging for the
whole of India.
In 1882-83, besides the local manufactures in Calcutta, and 1883.
28,972,920 bags were imported into that city from the interior
Districts, of which 12,494,243 were power-loom and 16,478,677
hand-made. The total exports from Calcutta of power-loom
and hand-made bags numbered 123,219,477 bags. Of the
internal trade, the East Indian Railway carried 16,808,855
bags for the following marts and Districts : — Patna (3,189,970),
Cawnpur (2,583,210), Faizabad (959>455)» Delhi (676,375),
Santdl Parganas (623,945), Monghyr (609,875), Birbhiim
(558,915), and Bardwan (544,355). The total internal
6i6 ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
exports by rail, boat, and road amounted to 18,877,715 bags
The exports by sea numbered 104,341,762 bags, of which
45,018,189 represented coasting, and 59,323,573 foreign
exports.
The foreign jute trade may be given in greater detail, for
gunny-weaving is perhaps the single Indian manufacture that
Sea-borne has secured a great foreign market. The sea-borne export
exports of of jute manufactures (bags and cloth) in 1872-73 was
•"" ^' valued at ;£"i88,859. By 1878-79, the value had risen to
Growth of ;£i, 098,434, and by 1882-83 to ;^r, 487,831, or an increase
the trade, of ;£^389,397 in four years. These figures seem to justify
Mr. O'Conor's statement in his Reineiv of Indian Trade for
1878-79, that 'there is little room to doubt that in course of
time India will be able, not only to supplant the manufactures
of Dundee in the American and other foreign m.arkets, but
to supply England herself with bags more cheaply than they
can be made in Dundee.' On the other hand, it must be
recollected that large figures, and even growing figures, do not
necessarily show that a business is remunerative. Calcutta,
like Bombay, sometimes suffers from the mismanagement inci-
dental to joint-stock enterprises. The principal countries
which take Indian gunny-bags are: — Australia, ;^7i4,747 in
1882-83; Straits Settlements, ;^i89,869 ; United States
(California),;^ 1 64,405 ; China, ;£i73j295-
Brewing. Brewing has been established on a large scale at the hill
stations for several years. There were in 1882-83, 22 breweries
Statistics i" India; 12 in the Punjab and the North- Western Provinces,
of Indian at Mari (Murree), Simla, Solon, Kasauli, Dalhousie, Masuri
1877-83' (Mussoorie), Ndini Tal, Chakrata, and Ranikhet ; 2 in
Bombay, at Moody Bay and at Bandord ; 3 in Madras, at
Utakamand and- Coonoor ; 4 at Bangalore in Mysore ; and i at
Rangoon. The total quantity of beer brewed was returned at
2,162,888 gallons in 1877, and 2,597,298 gallons in 1882-83.
The quantity imported into India in 1878-79 was 2 miUion
gallons by Government, and i million gallons on private
account. In 1882-83, the Government imports were just
under i\ million gallons, and the private imports a little over
I million gallons, total 2,656,788 gallons; so that the Indian
breweries now satisfy one-half of the entire demand. Indian
brewed beer is rising in public favour, and is rapidly super-
seding imported beer for commissariat purposes. In 1875,
349,095 gallons of Indian beer were purchased by the
Bengal Commissariat Department; in 1883, the quantity thus
PAPER-MAKING : LEATHER FACTORIES. 617
purchased was 1,936,221 gallons, as against 1,486,234 gallons
imported by Government.
At Simla, imported beer sells at over i8s. per dozen quarts, Beer
while that from the local breweries can be obtained for los. per P"ce.s.
dozen. The hops are entirely imported. An experimental
hop plantation of 100 acres established by the Maharaja of
Kashmir has not yet proved a practical success \ but efforts
are still being made, both in Kashmir and in India, to success-
fully introduce the hop plant into the country. The imports
of hops show an increase from 1529 cwts. in 1875-76, to Hop
1807 cwts. in 1876-77, and 2135 cwts. in 1877-78. in ^""PO'^t"'-
1882-83, however, the import of hops had fallen to 1940 cwts.
valued at ;^42,983.
The steam paper mills established in the neighbourhood of Paper-
Calcutta and at Bombay have almost entirely destroyed the ™^ '"^'
local manufactures of paper which once existed in many parts
of the country. The hand-made article, which was strong
though coarse, and formed a Muhammadan speciality, is now
no longer used for official purposes.
The Government possesses a large leather factory at Cawn- Leather,
pur, which turns out accoutrements, saddlery, etc., of excellent
quality. Two large European firms have also established
leather factories at Cawnpur. Indeed, leather hand-manufac-
tures have long been an important local industry in Oudh and
the North-Western Provinces. They are worked so cheaply
as to discourage importation from England, except in the case
of articles de luxe, and saddlery or harness for the richest
classes.
Rice-husking by steam machinery is largely carried on at the Rice-
ports of British Burma. husking.
[6i8 ]
CHAPTER XXL
MINES AND MINERALS.
Mines and The Indian peninsula, with its wide area and diversified
minerals, features, supplies a great store of mineral wealth. In utilizing
this wealth, English enterprise has met with many rebuffs.
Capital has been expended in many cases with no result
except disappointment. But the experience has not been
thrown away; and mining industry, now established on a
sure basis, is gradually rising into an important position.
Indian In purity of ore, and in antiquity of working, the iron
^^°^' deposits of India rank among the first in the world. They are
to be found in every part of the country, from the northern
mountains of Assam and Kumdun to the extreme south of
Madras. Wherever there are hills, iron is found and worked
Indigenous to a greater or less extent. The indigenous methods of
methods, smelting the ore, handed down unchanged through countless
generations, yield a metal of the finest quality in a form well
suited to native wants. But they require an extravagant supply
of charcoal; and notwithstanding the cheapness of native
labour, the product cannot compete in price with imported
iron from England. European enterprise, attracted by the
richness of the ore and the low rate of wages, has repeatedly
tried to establish ironworks on a large scale. But hitherto
each of these attempts has ended in failure.
Failure of The most promising early efforts were those undertaken
English jj^ Madras by Mr. Heath of the Civil Service, the anticipator
i82«;-' ^^ ^^^ Bessemer process. In 1825, he founded a company
which opened works at Porto Novo on the Coromandel coast,
in the hills of Salem District, and at Beypur in Malabar.
The iron and steel produced were of first-rate quality ; and
all went well so long as an unlimited supply of charcoal
could be obtained in the neighbourhood of the furnaces. But
when this essential condition of cheap production gradually
ceased, the enterprise became unremunerative, and had to be
1880. abandoned. Within the last few years, an attempt has been
made to smelt ore by means of coal, according to English
IRON- WORKS: COAL-MINING, 619
methods, in the neighbourhood of Raniganj and in Birbhiim
and Manbhiim. Coal abounds, and also limestone as a flux ;
but in this case, again, the company made no profit, and has
been compelled to wind up. Similar experiments in the Central
Provinces and in Kumaun have met with similar results.
In 1882-83, the Bengal Government took over the works Efforts by
of the suspended Barakhar Iron Company at Khendua in j^gnt*^"
Manbhiim District, and cast and pig iron is now manufactured
on the spot. The iron-works are doing a considerable amount
of good, as not only do they encourage the private coal com-
panies in the neighbourhood, but they also give employment to
a large number of skilled workmen. They also promise to be
remunerative ; and the question of the expansion of the works is
(1884) under the consideration of Government. With the ex-
ception of these works, iron in India is manufactured only by
peasant families of smelters, each working on a very small scale.
The initial difficulty in India is to find the three elements Difficulties
of iron-working, namely, the ore, the flux, and the fuel, suffi- ?^ Indian
ciently near to each other. The second difficulty is the choking works,
of the furnaces from the excessive quantity of ash in the coal.
Coal has been known to exist in India since 1774, and is Indian
said to have been worked as far back as 1775. The first ^°^*
English coal-mine was opened at Raniganj in 1820. There are
now (1885) 65 working collieries in the country, with an annual
out-turn of about i million tons. In India, as elsewhere, coal
and railway extension have gone hand in hand. Coal is com-
paratively worthless unless it can be brought to market by
rail ; and the price of coal is the chief element in determining
the expenses of railway working. The history of coal in India Historj- of
is, on the whole, a record of continual progress. The first ^^"p^
mine, as already mentioned, dates from 1820 ; and it has been mining,
worked regularly up to the present time. In 1878, its out- 1820;
put was 50,000 tons. Until about 1840 no other mine was
opened ; but the commencement of the East Indian Railway
in 1854 gave a fresh impetus to the industry, and since that 1854;
date collieries have been set on foot at the rate of two or three
every year. The largest number of additions was seven in 1874.
From these are supplied not only the railway itself, but also
the jute mills of Calcutta, and the river steamers of Lower
Bengal.
In 1883, there were in all 62 working collieries in Bengal, 1883.
besides 15 others, principally in the Santal Parganas, which
were either closed, or were not working during the year. The
620 MINES AND MINERALS.
Raniganj Sub-division, with its 50 working collieries, had an
output of 603,591 tons in 1883, as compared with an average
output of 547,930 tons in the previous three years. Four new
mines were opened during the year. Hazaribagh and Man-
bhiim Districts contain 6 collieries, which yielded an out-turn
of 559,849 tons in 1883, against an annual average for the three
previous years of 502,860 tons. The East Indian Railway Com-
pany's valuable mines at Karharbari and Srirampur are situated
within Hazarfbagh District. In 1883, these two mines yielded
a total output of 308,000 tons, against an average of 274,087
in the three previous years. The total out-turn from all the
working mines in Bengal in 1883 was 1,200,957 tons, against
an average of 1,058,084 tons for the three previous years. In
Imported 1882-83, the imports of coal into Calcutta by sea were only
^ 74)6 10 tons, so that Bengal now uses locally about 94 per
cent, of Indian to about 6 per cent, of foreign coal. Bombay
and Madras are entirely supplied with coal from England.
Coal- _ The collieries in the Central Provinces, the only other
Central^" Indian ones worked on a large scale, are limited to the supply
Provinces ; of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. They consist of —
(1) the VVarora colliery in Chanda District, under the manage-
ment of the Public Works Department ; and (2) the Mohpdni
colliery, which has been leased to the Narbada Coal Company.
(i)Waroraln 1878-79, the Warori colliery put out 43,000 tons, of
colliery; which 1 1, 000 tons consisted of slack. The gross receipts
were ;^i8,686, and the net receipts ;£^5873, being about 8*3
per cent, on the estimated capital expenditure of ;^7o,ooo.
In 1883, the Government mine at Warori yielded an
out-turn of 95,738 tons, and averaged 51,376 tons in the
previous three years. The profits are estimated at 4 to 6
per cent. But it is difficult to fix the sum, as the accounts
are mixed up with those of the Wardhd State Railway, a
branch from the Nagpur line of the Great Indian Peninsula
Railway. Cost of raising coal in the Central Provinces,
Rs. 2. 10. (5s. 3d.) per ton; price paid by the Railway Com-
pany for large coal, Rs. 5 (los.) per ton. In 1877-78, the
cotton mills at Ndgpur took 4872 tons.
(2)Moh- The Mohpdnf colliery had an output in 1878-79 of
colliery ^9°° ^°"^' valued at ;^8ooo. In 1883, the total output from
Mohpdnf mine was 19,281 tons, as against an average of
13,714 tons in the previous three years. Almost the whole
of this was taken by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.
Extensive coal-fields have recently been discovered at Umdria,
within the Native State of Rewd, only 34 miles beyond the
COAL-FIELDS OF INDIA. 621
northern boundary of the Central Provinces, which are
beHeved to extend into the northern portion of Jabalpur.
The principal drawback of Indian coal is its large proportion Excessive
of ash ; varying from 14 to 20 per cent., as against 3 to 6 per i^^ian
cent, in English coal. This places Indian coal measures at coals.
a great disadvantage, alike for iron-smelting and locomotive
purposes. But it has been proved that, with efficient fire-
grates and proper manipulation, 135 lbs. of Warora coal will
do the work of 100 lbs. of English coal.
The Raniganj coal-field has been estimated at an area of 500 Ram'ganj
square miles. In this ' black country ' of India, which is dotted coal-held.
with tall chimney-stalks, many European companies are at work,
besides many native firms.^ At first coal was raised from open
workings ; but regular mining is now carried on, according to
the system known as ' pillar and stall' The seams are entirely
free from gas, so that the precautions usual in England against
explosion are found unnecessary. The miners are all drawn
from the aboriginal races, chiefly Santals and Bauris, who are
noted for their endurance and docility. Bauris work with the
pick, but Santals will consent to use no other instrument than
the crowbar. Wages are high, and the men look well-fed,
although they waste their surplus earnings in drink.
The coal-fields of India lie almost entirely in the broad Distribu-
centre of the peninsula, between the Ganges and the Godavari. ^^^^ ?^
C03.1 in.
South of the Godavari no carboniferous strata exist ; and the india.
whole Presidency of Madras is thus compelled to depend for
its supply upon importation. North of the Ganges, the only
extensive fields are to be found in the outlying Province of Outlying
Assam. There, in the Khasi and Taintia Hills, mines have ^^^^^ ^'^
been worked on a small scale for many years ; but the aggre-
gate of the deposits is insignificant, and the difficulties of
caniage almost insurmountable. Still farther away, in the
frontier District of Lakhimpur, a large coal-field of excellent
quality was discovered at Makum ; and a private company has
been established with a view to open out the field, by means of
a railway. The company obtained a lease of the coal-beds for
a period of twenty years, and a light railway has been con-
structed to the mines. Operations have not yet been carried
sufficiently far to justify any forecast as to the profitable work-
^ For a full account of the Raniganj coal-field, see article Raniganj in
The Imperial Gazetteer ; and for its geological aspects, see a subsequent
chapter.
622
MINES AND MINERALS.
Darjiling,
Punjab.
The four
great coal-
fields.
Future of
Indian
coal.
ing of these deposits. In 1883-84, the out-turn from the
Makum mines was about 450 tons a week; but the company
hopes to increase the out-turn to 3000 tons a week, which it is
estimated will allow the mines to be worked at a fair profit.
Coal is also found in the neighbourhood of Darjfling, and in
the Salt Range of the Punjab.
Apart from these outlying beds, the central coal-fields of India
have been divided by Mr. Blanford, of the Geological Survey,
into the four following groups : — (i) The Ddmodar valley, in-
cluding both Raniganj and Karharbari, which yields at least
nine-tenths of all the coal as yet produced in India, and finds a
ready market at Calcutta. (2) The Chutia Ndgpur group, ex-
tending over a wide area of mountainous and difficult country,
as yet but imperfectly explored. (3) The Narbada valley,
south of the Satpura range, where actual borings have hitherto
proved disappointing, except in the case of the Mohpanf colliery,
which is connected by a short branch with the main line of the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway. (4) The Godavari valley,
where coal has been traced from Ndgpur southwards as far as
EUore : In this coal-field the only successful works are at Warora.
Of the future of Indian coal it is difficult to speak with
certainty. On the one hand, the demand is constant, and
increases with the construction of every fresh mile of railway,
and every new factory. On the other hand, the quality is dis-
tinctly inferior to English coal, which comes out to India at a
low freight — almost at ballast rates. Raniganj coal, which is
the best of the Indian coals, can do only from one-half to two-
thirds of the duty performed by the same amount of English
coal. It contains a low proportion of fixed carbon, and more
than three times the average percentage of ash.
Indian
salt.
Its three
sources.
Salt, an article of supreme necessity to the Indian peasant,
who eats no butcher's meat, except a festival goat or kid at
rare intervals, is derived from three main sources, exclusive
of importation from Europe.^ (i) By evaporation from sea-
water along the entire double line of seaboard from Bombay
to Orissa, but especially in Gujardt and on the Coromandel
coast. (2) By evaporation from inland salt lakes, of which the
Simbhar Lake in Rajputdna affords the chief example. The
right of working this lake was leased byGovernment in 1870 from
the Mahdrdjis of Jaipur and Jodhpur, within whose territories it
is situated, and who are paid a royalty upon the out-turn. (3)
1 For the administrative aspects of Indian salt, see ante^ chap. xvi. j
and for its geological aspects, post^ chap. xxii.
SALT: SALTPETRE. 623
By quarrying solid hills of salt in the north-east of the Punjab.
The last is the only source in which salt in India can be said
to exist as a mineral. It occurs in solid cliffs, which for extent
and purity are stated to have no rival in the world. The Salt
Range runs across the two Districts of Jehlam (Jhelum) and The Pun-
Shahpur, from the bank of the Jehlam river to Kalabagh in J^^ ^^^^
Bannu District. Similar deposits are found beyond the Indus
in Kohat District, where the salt is of two kinds, red and
green ; and in the Hill State of Mandi bordering on Kangra
District. The salt is found in the red marls and sandstones of
the Devonian group. In some cases it can be obtained from
open quarries ; but more generally it is approached by regular
mining by pick and blasting, through wide galleries. The
principal mine is at Kheura in Jehlam (Jhelum) District, now
called after Lord Mayo. The total annual out-turn in the
Punjab is returned at about 50,000 tons, yielding an average
net revenue to Government of from ;^3oo,ooo to ;^35o,ooo.
In Southern India, salt made by evaporation is almost Salt supply
universally consumed. Lower Bengal, and especially Eastern °f Madras
^ , ,. -^ ^11- 1 r and Ben-
Bengal, use salt imported from Cheshire, at low rates ofgai.
freight, and paying the excise duty at Calcutta or other port of
entry. In Orissa and South-Western Bengal, both imported
salt and salt made by solar evaporation are consumed ; the
solar salt being alone considered pure for religious purposes or
for the priests.
India has almost a monopoly of the supply of natural Indian
saltpetre, upon which Europe largely depends for the manu- ^^^^P^^''^-
facture of gunpowder. It occurs with other saline substances
as a white efflorescence upon the surface of the soil in many
parts of the country, especially in the upper valley of the
Ganges. Its preparation leaves common salt as one of the
residuary products ; and fiscal restraints have accordingly
tended to limit the manufacture to the most remunerative
region, which is found in North Behar.
The system of saltpetre manufacture is simple, and is System
entirely in the hands of a special caste of natives, called °^ "^anu^
. , , • /- 1 • • r 1 • lacture.
Nuniyas, who are conspicuous for their capacity of enduring
hard work. As is the case with most Indian industries, they
work under a system of money advances from middle-men,
who are themselves sub-contractors under large central houses
of business. In former times, the East India Company engaged
in the manufacture on its own account ; and when it gave up
its private trade, the works were taken over by European firms.
624 MINES AND MINERALS.
But these have in their turn retired from the business, which is
now in a state of dechne (almost killed in Southern India),
"^ partly owing to the general fall in price, and partly to the
restrictions imposed by the salt preventive department.
Process The manufacturing season begins with the cold season in
facture*^" November. The presence of saltpetre in the soil is revealed
by efflorescence after a heavy fall of rain. This earth is
scraped together, and first placed in a large vessel, through
which water is filtered. The brine is then boiled in pots, and
crude saltpetre mixed with common salt is the result. The
proportion of salt to saltpetre is said to be about one-sixth.
The sale of this salt is prohibited under stringent penalties.
The crude saltpetre is now handed over to the refiners, who
work on a larger scale than the Nuniyas. It is again subjected
to a process of boiling in large iron boilers of EngUsh manu-
facture, and is allowed to crystallize gradually in open wooden
troughs. In refining, it loses nearly one-half its weight, and is
now ready for the market. In 1873, the single District of
Tirhiit contained 22,528 filters, and 305 refineries.
Exports of The exports of saltpetre from Calcutta are fairly constant,
sa tpetre. averaging about 450,000 cwts. a year, of which one-half goes to
the United Kingdom. More than two-thirds of the total comes
from Behar, chiefly from the Districts of Tirhiit, Saran, and
Champaran, though Patna is the railway station for despatch to
Calcutta. Cawnpur, Ghdzipur, Allahdbad, and Benares, in the
North- Western Provinces, send small quantities ; while a little
comes from the Punjab.
Indian Although silver has ever been the currency of India in his-
gold. torical times, that metal is nowhere found in the country, nor
in the adjoining States of Central Asia. Gold, on the other
hand, exists in many parts of India, and probably in large
quantities. The * Ophir ' of King Solomon has been identified
by some scholars with the Malabar coast. However that may
be, India claims to rank as a gold-producing country. Many
hill streams are washed for gold, alike in the extreme south,
in the central plateau, and on the north-east and north-west
frontiers. Gold-washing is everywhere in India a miserable
business, affording the barest livelihood ; but the total amount
of gold obtained cannot be insignificant.
c;old- In recent years, attention has been prominently drawn to
mining in ^^ possibility of extracting gold from the quartz formation
of Southern India, which bears many points of resemblance to
GOLD-MINING : COPPER. 625
the auriferous quartz reefs of Australia. The principal locali-
ties are in the Waindd (Wynaad) Sub-division of the Nilgiri
District, and in Kolar District of Mysore. Gold-washing has
always been practised here ; and the remains of old workings
show that at some unknown period operations have been
conducted on a large scale. Since about 1870, individual
pioneers have been prospecting in this region. Crushing the
quartz by rude native methods, they proved that it contained
a larger proportion of gold than is known to give a profit in
Australia. These experiments on the southern ends of six
reefs yielded an average of 7 dwts. per ton of quartz, rising in
one case to 11 dwts. The best assay of the gold showed a
fineness of slightly over 20 carats. In 1879, Government
summoned a practical mining engineer from Australia, whose
report was eminently hopeful. He described the quartz reefs as
of great extent and thickness, and highly auriferous. One reef
in Kolar, laid bare 100 feet longitudinally, had given an average
of I oz. of gold per ton. In order to attract capital. Govern-
ment proposed to grant mining leases at a dead rent of Rs. 5
(ids.) per acre, subject to no royalty or further tax. Several
English companies with large capital entered the field, and the •
reports of their professional advisers held forth high hopes of
success. Those hopes have not, however, been yet realized.
Gold-mining in Southern India is in a depressed state; although
some of the operations again hold out promise of success (1885).
The other Indian metals comprise copper, lead, and tin. Other
Copper exists in many parts of the country in considerable °^^^^^^-
quantities. The richest mines are in the lower ranges of the Copper.
Himalayas, from Darjiling westward to Kumaun. The ore
occurs in the form of copper pyrites, often accompanied by
mundic, not in true lodes, but disseminated through the slate
and schist. The miners are almost always Nepali's, and the Nepali
remoteness of the situation has deterred European capital, n^^^ers
The extent of abandoned workings shows that these mines
have been known and worked for many years. The best
seams show a proportion of copper slightly above the average
of Cornish ore, but the ordinary yield is not more than
about 4 per cent.
The mines resemble magnified rabbit-holes, meandering 'Rabbit-
passages being excavated through the rock with little system. ^°^^
The tools used are an iron hammer and chisel, with some-
times a small pick. After extraction, the ore is pounded,
washed, and smelted on the spot. The price obtained
2 R
626 MINES AND MINERALS.
for the metal is Rs. 2. 8. per 3 sers^ or at the rate of about
lod. a pound. Copper-ore, of fair purity and extending over
Singbhum j^ considerable area, also occurs in Singbhiim District of
copper. (-^j^y|.j^ Nagpur, where there are many deserted diggings and
heaps of scoriae. In 1857, a company was started to reopen
the workings at these mines ; but although large quantities of
ore were produced, the enterprise did not prove remunerative,
and was finally abandoned in 1864. A similar attempt to
Nellore. work the copper found in Nellore District in Madras also
ended in failure.
Lead. Lead occurs, in the form of sulphuret or galena, along
the Himd^layas on the Punjab frontier, and has been worked
Tin. at one place by an English company. Tin is confined to
the Burmese peninsula. Very rich deposits, yielding about
70 per cent, of metal, occur over a large extent of country in
Mergui and Tavoy Districts of the Tenasserim Division. The
ore is washed and smelted, usually by Chinese, in a very rough
and unscientific way. Recent experiments by a European firm
tend to show that the deposits, although rich and extensive,
are not sufficiently deep to repay more elaborate processes.
Antimony. Antimony, in the form of surma, largely used by the natives
as a cosmetic for the eyes, is chiefly derived from the hill
States of the Punjab. It is also found in Mysore and Burma.
The minerals of Rdjputdna have not yet been thoroughly
Cobalt. investigated; but they include an ore of cobalt, used for
colouring enamel.
Petroleum, Petroleum is produced chiefly in Independent Burma, but
it has also been found in British Burma, in Assam, and in
the Punjab. Near the village of Ye-nan-chaung in Upper
in Burma ; Burma, on the banks of the Irawadi, there are upwards of
100 pits or wells with a depth of about 250 feet, from which
petroleum bubbles up in inexhaustible quantities. The annual
yield in 1877 was estimated at 11,000 tons, of which a consider-
able quantity was exported. Petroleum wells are also found
in the British Districts of Akyab, Kyauk-pyu (Kyouk-hpyu),
Pegu, and Thayet-myo, which first attracted British capital with
most promising results in 1877.
Oil-refin- Two private oil-refining companies having obtained a lease
ing m £ Qj^ Government, under favourable conditions, of certain
Burma. . . ^ . . , , ^^ , Vx- •
areas at Minbym m Ramri island, Kyauk-pyu District, are
working a number of wells by means of steam boring machinery,
under the superintendence of Canadian experts, with satisfac-
tory results. The oil when refined is of a high quality ; but
OIL-REFINING: LIME, 627
the expensiveness of the machinery and costly European
agency have so far proved an obstacle to the financial suc-
cess of the industry. The native oil-wells are constructed
and managed on much more economical principles than the
English companies, and many of them yield large profits.
The principal English company, the Boronga, has (1884) Chief oil
24 wells, one of them having a depth of over 1200 feet, p^^jgg-
Only 10 were at work in 1883-84, yielding an out-turn of
234,000 gallons of oil, of which 65,400 gallons was refined,
and the remainder sold in a crude state, the total realizations
for the year being about ;^6ooo. The Arakan Oil Company,
newly started, yielded during 1883-84 an out-turn of 107,800
gallons from 5 wells out of 7 sunk by them, the deepest being 400
feet, all of which was sold on the spot in its crude state. The
native wells, bored by means of locally-made tools, windlasses,
and sheers, run down to a depth of 250 to 350 feet. The total
out-put of the whole field, including English companies and
native wells, numbering about 1 70 in all, during the year, was
404,325 gallons. The imports of crude oil from the Ye-nan-
chaung wells in Upper Burma were 968,210 gallons, most of
which was taken by the Rangoon refinery, which produced
640,000 gallons of refined oil during the year.
In Assam, petroleum occurs in the neighbourhood of the in Assam ;
coal-fields in the south of Lakhimpur District. It was formerly
worked in connection with the coal by a private European
capitalist, but the enterprise failed to prove a success. A
Government concession to work the oil-beds was granted to
the Assam Railways and Trading Company, along with the
Makum coal-fields; but up till 1884 no attempt had been
made by the company to work the oil. In the Punjab, in Punjab,
petroleum is worked experimentally by the Public Works
Department at two spots in Rawal Pindi District. In 1873-74,
the total yield was 2756 gallons ; and in 1882-83, 5000 gallons.
Petroleum is also found in Bannu District, and probably in
other neighbouring Districts of the Punjab.
The commonest and also the most useful stone of India is Stone, etc.
ka7ikar^ a nodular form of impure lime, which is found in
almost every river valley, and is used from one end of the pen-
insula to the other for metalling the roads. Lime for building Lime.
{chundni) is derived from two sources — (i) from burning lime-
stone and kankar^ and (2) from the little shells so abundantly
found in the marshes, rivers, and lakes. Calcutta derives its
chief supply of limestone from the quarries of the Khis{
628 MINES AND MINERALS.
Hills in Assam, known as * Sylhet lime,' and from the Susunid
quarries in Bankura District. Except for occasional beds of
Kankar. kankar, the lower valley of the Ganges is absolutely destitute
of stone ; nor does the alluvial soil afford good materials for
Pottery, brickmaking or fine pottery. But a European firm has recently
established large pottery and cement works at Raniganj in
Bard wan, which employ about 500 hands, and carry out con-
tracts for drainage pipes and stoneware. These works are
annually increasing in importance and value.
The centre of the peninsula, and the hill country generally,
Building- abounds in building-stone of excellent quality, which has
stone. been used locally from time immemorial. Among the finest
Marble. stones may be mentioned — the pink marble of Rajputana,
of which the historical buildings at Agra were constructed ;
the trap of the Deccan; the sandstone of the Godavari
and the Narbada ; and the granite of Southern India.
Slate. Quarries of slate are scattered through the peninsula, and
Mica and sometimes worked by European capital. Mica and talc are
^^ '^' also quarried to make ornaments. Among the hills of Orissa
and Chutia Nagpur, household vessels and ornaments are
skilfully carved out of an indurated variety of potstone.
Precious Despite its legendary wealth, which is really due to the
stones. accumulations of ages, India cannot be said to be naturally
prolific in precious stones. Under the Muhammadan rule,
Diamonds, diamonds were a distinct source of State revenue ; but at the
present day, the search for them, if carried on anywhere in
British territory, is too insignificant an occupation to have
attracted the notice of Government. The name of Golconda
has passed into literature ; but that city, once the Musalman
capital of the Deccan, was rather the home of the diamond-
cutters than the actual source of supply. It is believed that the
at Gol- far-famed diamonds of Golconda actually come from the sand-
conda ; stone formation, which extends across the eastern borders of
the Nizdm's Dominions into the Madras Districts of Kistna
and Goddvari. A few worthless stones are still found in this
region,
in Sam- Sambalpur, on the upper channel of the Mahinadi river
balpur; jj^ ^^io. Central Provinces, is another spot once famous for
diamonds. In the last century, a British officer was despatched
to Sambalpur by Clive to arrange for remittances home by
means of Sambalpur diamonds. As late as 181 8, a stone is
said to have been found here weighing 84 grains and valued
at ;f 500. The river valleys of Chutid Ndgpur are also known
. PEARL FISHERIES. 629
to have yielded a tribute of diamonds to their Muhammadan
conqueror.
At the present day, the only place where the search for
diamonds is pursued as a regular industry is the Native
State of Panna (Punnah) in Bundelkhand. The stones in Bun-
are found by digging down through several strata of gravelly ^elkhand.
soil, and washing the earth. Even here, however, the pursuit
is understood to be unremunerative, and has failed to attract
European capital.
About other gems very little information is available. The
town of Cambay in Gujarat (Guzerat) is celebrated for its Came-
carving of carnelian, agate, and onyx. The stones come from ^^^"^•
the neighbourhood of Ratanpur, in the State of Rajpipla.
They are dug up by Bhil miners, and subjected to a process
of burning before being carved. The most valued colour for
carnelians is red, but they are also found white and yellow.
Lapis lazuli is found in the mountains of the north, and is
freely used in the decoration of temples and tombs.
Inferior pearl fisheries are worked off the coast of Madura Pearl
District in the extreme south, and in the Gulf of Cambay ; fisheries,
but the great majority of Indian pearls come either from
Ceylon (which is also rich in other gems) or from the Persian
Gulf. In the year 1700, the Dutch obtained a lease
of all the pearl fisheries along the Madura coast, and sublet
the right of fishing to native boatmen, of whom 700 are
said to have taken licences annually at the rate of 60 ecus
per boat.
We have now sketched the physical aspects of India, its Scientific
past history, and its present administration and condition branches
under British rule. It remains to briefly deal with the topics subject,
of scientific interest connected with the country : its material
framework or geology ; its climatic conditions, or meteorology ;
its animal and vegetable products ; and the health statistics of
its population. Each of these subjects forms the subject of
many elaborate volumes, and the adequate treatment of any
one of them would demand a body of scientific coadjutors not
available to the author of this work. But some account of
them may be useful for administrative purposes.
The following pages are offered, not for the instruction of Scope
specialists, but to the general reader who wishes to study ^^,t^^.
^ ,. . ' , . . , . . , followme:
India m all its various aspects. In previous sections, the chapters?
author has not hesitated to repeat himself when dealing with
Indian products, such as opium, cotton, and salt; first from
r
630 MINES AND MINERALS.
the administrative and then from the economic point of view.
For he believes that such repetitions are convenient to many
who desire a view of the subject under each head. In like
manner, the following sections will not shrink from repetitions,
in referring to certain productions, such as coal, iron, or
forests, in their scientific aspects.
[631 ]
CHAPTER XXII.
GEOLOGY OF INDIA.
For geological purposes British India may be mapped out
into the four geographical divisions of — the Himalayan region,
the Indo-Gangetic plain, Peninsular India, and Burma.^
The Himalayan Region. — The geology of this tract is more iiima-
complex and less fully known than that of the Peninsular ^^y^^-
area. Until the ground has been carefully gone over by the
Geological Survey, many points must remain doubtful; and
large arers of the Himalayas (Nepal and Bhutan) are still in-
accessible to Europeans. The oldest rock of the Himalayas
is a gneiss, differing in character from the gneiss of the Penin- Gneiss,
sula, and from that of Assam and Burma. The Himalayan
gneiss is usually white and grey, its felspar orthoclase and
albite; it contains much mica and mica schist, and is more
uniform in character than the gneiss of the Peninsula. The
latter is usually pink, its felspar being orthoclase and oligo-
clase ; it contains little mica schist, but often has quartzite and
hornblendic rock. Hornblende occurs in the syenitic gneiss
of the Northern Himalayan (or Ladakh) range.
The Central Himalayan region may be described as con- Central
sisting of two gneissic axes, with a trough or synclinal valley iP^^^sic
between them, in which fossiliferous beds have been deposited
and are now preserved. The gneiss of the southern or main
axis (the ' central gneiss ' of Dr. Stoliczka) is the oldest ; that
of the northern or Ladakh axis comes next in age. The gneiss
of the Ladakh axis is generally syenitic, or is that variety
of the Himalayan gneiss already described as containing
hornblende. It is probably an extremely altered condition of
ordinary marine sediment. The gneiss of the central axis is
the ordinary kind; it is penetrated by granite, which ranges
along some of the highest peaks. Between these two gneissic
1 This section is based upon the official Manual of the Geology of India ^
by Messrs. H. B. Medlicott and W. T. Blanford, 2 vols., Government
Press, Calcutta, 1879. Mr. W. Topley, of the English Geological Survey,
conducted the preliminary condensation.
632 GEOLOG V OF INDIA.
axes occurs the basin-shaped valley, or the Hundes and
Zanskar synclinal. In this valley, fossiliferous rocks are pre-
served, giving representatives of the Silurian, Carboniferous,
Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous formations. All these seem
there to have followed each other without important breaks or
unconformities; but after the deposition of the Cretaceous
rocks of the Himalayan region, important changes appear to
have taken place in its physical geography. The Nummulitic
(Eocene) strata were laid down on the eroded edges of some
of the older beds, and in a long trough within the Silurian
gneiss of the Ladakh axis.
Lower On the south of this true Himalayan region there is a band
k Ts^ of country known as the Lower Himalaya, in which the beds
are often greatly disturbed, and even completely inverted, over
great areas ; the old gneiss apparently overlying the sedimen-
tary rocks. This Lower Himalayan region is about 50 miles
wide, and consists of irregular ridges, varying from 5000 to
8000 feet in height, and sometimes reaching 12,000 feet.
Resting upon the gneiss, but often through inversion apparently
underlying it, in the neighbourhood of Simla, is a series of
unfossiliferous beds (schists, quartzites, sandstones, shales,
limestones, etc.) known in descending order as the Krol,
Infra-Krol, Blaini, and Infra-Blaini beds. In the Krol beds is
Krol a massive limestone (Krol limestone) probably representing
imes one. ^^ limestone of the Pir Panjal range, which is most likely of
Carboniferous age. The Blaini and Infra-Blaini beds are
probably Silurian.
Sub-^ The Lower Himalayan range ends at the Sutlej valley, west
kTs^ of which the continuation of the central range is followed
immediately by the third or sub-Himdlayan range. This
occurs almost always on the south of the Lower Himalayas,
and is composed of later Tertiary rocks (Siwaliks, etc.), which
stretch parallel with the main chain. Generally, the sub-Himd-
layas consist of two ranges, separated by a broad, flat valley
{dun or * doon ') ; the southern slope, overlooking the great
Indo-Gangetic plain, is usually the steepest. Below Naini T^l
and Ddrj fling (Darjeeling), the sub-Himdlayan range is want-
ing; on the Bhutan frontier the whole range is occasionally
absent, and the great alluvial plain slopes up to the base of the
Lower Himalayan region.
Siwdlik It is within the sub-Himdlayan range that the famous Siwdlik
^' beds occur, long known for their vast stores of extinct mammalia.
Of about the same age are the Manchhar beds of Sind, which
also contain a rich mammalian fauna. The Lower Manchhars
SALT RANGE, GANGETIC PLAIN, 633
probably correspond to the Nahan beds, the lowest of the
Siwaliks ; they rest upon the Gaj beds, which are probably
Upper Miocene. From this it would seem that the lowest
Siwaliks are not older than Upper Miocene. The higher
Siwdlik beds are considered by Mr. W. T. Blanford to be Plio-
cene, and to this later period he also refers the mammalian beds
of Pikermi in Greece. These have a large number of fossils in
common with the Siwdliks ; but they contain, at their base, a
marine band with Pliocene shells. The Manchhar and Siwalik
beds are chiefly of fresh-water origin.
The Salt Range in the north-west of the Punjab has, in Salt
addition to its economic value, a special geological importance. ^"^^*
Representatives of most of the great European formations of
Silurian and later epochs are found in it; and throughout
the vast length of time represented by these formations there
is here no direct evidence of any im.portant break in suc-
cession, or unconformity. The lowest beds (salt marl,
probably Silurian) and the highest (Siwaliks) are found through
the range. But the others cannot be traced continuously
throughout; some occur well developed in one place, some
in another. All the principal fossiliferous beds of the Jurassic,
Triassic, and Carboniferous formations are confined to the
western part of the range.
The Indo-Gangetic Plain covers an area of about 300,000 Indo-
square miles, and varies in width from 90 to nearly 300 pi^^n^^^
miles. It rises very gradually from the sea at either end. The
lowest point of the watershed between the Punjab rivers and
the Ganges is about 924 feet above sea-level. This point, by a
line measured down the valley, but not following the winding
of the river, is about 1050 miles from the mouth of the Ganges
and 850 miles from the mouth of the Indus, so that the average
inclination of the plain, from the central watershed to the Its slope
sea, averages only about i foot per mile. It generally exceeds ^^ ^ ^ ^^^'
this near the watershed ; but there is here no ridge of high
ground between the Indus and the Ganges, and a very trifling
change of level would often turn the upper w^aters of one river
into the other. It is not unlikely that such changes have in
past time occurred. Towards the sea, the slope becomes
almost imperceptible.
There is no evidence that the Indo-Gangetic plain existed as Its geo-
such in pre-Tertiary times. The alluvial deposits made known logical age.
by the boring at Calcutta, have already been described in
history.
634 GEOLOG Y OF INDIA.
Its alluvial sufficient detail.^ They prove a gradual depression of the area
eposi s. ^ t}^j.Qugj^ ti^g \2Xtx Tertiary times. There are peat and forest
beds, which must have grown quietly at the surface, alternating
with deposits of gravel, sand, and clay. The thickness of the
delta deposit is unknown; 481 feet was proved at the bore
hole, but probably this represents only a very small part of the
deposit. Outside the delta, in the Bay of Bengal, is a deep
depression known as the ' swatch of no ground ' ; all around
it the soundings give only 5 to 10 fathoms, but they very
rapidly deepen to over 300 fathoms. The sediment seems to
be carried away from this hole by the set of the currents ; so
that it has remained free from silt whilst the neighbouring
sea-bottom has gradually been filled up. If so, the thickness
of the alluvium is at least 1800 feet, and may be much more.
Its geo- The Indo-Gangetic plain dates back to Eocene times ; the
hlffo^ origin of the Himalayas may be referred to the same period.
Numerous minor disturbances occurred in the area which is
now Northern India during Palaeozoic and Secondary times,
but the great disturbance which has resulted in the formation
of the existing chain of the Himalayas took place after the
deposition of the Eocene beds. Disturbances even greater in
amount occurred after the deposition of the Pliocene beds.
The Eocenes of the sub-Himalayan range were deposited
upon uncontorted Palaeozoic rocks, but the whole has since
been violently contorted and disturbed. There are some
indications that the disturbing forces were more severe to the
eastward during middle Tertiary times, and that the main
action to the westward was of later date. It seems highly
probable that the elevation of the mountain ranges and the
depression of the Indo-Gangetic plain were closely related.
This view gains some support from a glance at the map, where
we see that the curves of the great mountain chains are
strictly followed by those of the great alluvial plain. Pro-
bably both are due to almost contemporary movements of the
earth's crust ; these movements, though now of greatly dimi-
nished intensity, have not wholly ceased. The alluvial deposits
prove depressions to have occurred in quite recent geological
times ; and within the Himdlayan region earthquakes are still
common, whilst in Peninsular India they are rare.
Peninsular PENINSULAR INDIA. — The oldest lOcks here consist of gneiss,
India. jj^ three tracts : — throughout a very large part of Bengal and
^ Vide anlfy chap. i. p. 26.
VINDHYAN AND GONDWANA BEDS. 635
Madras, extending to Ceylon ; among the Aravalli ranges ;
and in Bundelkhand. Of these formations, the gneiss of
Bundelkhand is known to be the oldest, because the oldest
Transition rocks rest upon it ; whereas the same Transition
rocks are altered and intersected by granitic dykes which
proceed from the gneiss of the other tracts. The Transition
rocks are of great but unknown age. The Vindhyan rocks
which succeed them are of very old Palaeozoic age, perhaps
pre-Silurian. Yet long before the earliest Vindhyan rocks
were laid down, the Transition rocks had been altered and
contorted. In more recent times there have been local dis-
turbances, and large faults have in places been found ; but
the greater part of the Peninsular rocks are only slightly
disturbed, and the most recent of the great and widespread
earth movements of this region date back to pre- Vindhyan
times.
The Vindhyan series are generally sharply marked off from vindhyan
older rocks ; although in the Godavari valley there is no rocks,
well-defined line between these and the Transition rocks.
The Vindhyan beds are divided into two groups. The Lower
Lower, with an estimated thickness of only 2000 feet, or slightly Vmdh-
more, cover a large area, — extending, with but little change
of character, from the Son (Soane) valley in one direction to
Cuddapah, and in a diverging line to near Bijdpur — in each
case a distance of over 700 miles. The Upper Vindhyans Upper
cover a much smaller area, but attain a thickness of about Vmdh-
12,000 feet. The Vindhyans are well-stratified beds of sand-
stone and shale, with some limestones. As yet they have
yielded no trace of fossils, and their exact age is consequently
unknown. So far as the evidence goes, it appears probable that
they are of very ancient Palaeozoic age, perhaps pre-Silurian.
The total absence of fossils is a remarkable fact, and one for
which it is difficult to account, as the beds are for the most
part quite unaltered. Even if they are entirely of fresh-water
origin, we should expect that some traces of life from the
waters or neighbouring land would be found.
The Gondwana series is in many respects the most interest- Gondwana
ing and important of the Indian Peninsula. The beds are series,
almost entirely of fresh-water origin. Many sub-divisions
have been made, but here we need only note the main
division into two great groups : — Lower Gondwdnas, 13,000
feet thick; Upper Gondwanas, 11,000 feet thick. The series
is mainly confined to the area of country between the Narbad^
and the Son (Soane) on the north, and the Kistna (Krishna) on
636
GEOLOGY OF INDIA.
Gondwana
fossils.
Panchet
group.
Talcher
group.
Damodar
series and
coal-fields.
the south ; but the western part of this region is in great part
covered by newer beds. The lowest Gondwdnas are very
constant in character, wherever they are found ; the upper
numbers of the lower division show more variation, and this
divergence of character in different Districts becomes more
marked in the Upper Gondwana series. Disturbances have
occurred in the lower series before the formation of the
upper.
The Gondwana beds contain fossils which are of very great
interest. In large part these consist of plants which grew near
the margins of the old rivers, were carried down by floods,
and deposited in the alluvial plains, deltas, and estuarine
areas of the old Gondwana period. So vast was the time
occupied by the deposition of the Gondwana beds, that great
changes in physical geography and in the vegetation repeatedly
occurred. The plants of the Lower Gondwanas consist chiefly
of acrogens (Equisetaceae and ferns) and gymnogens (cycads
and conifers), the former being the more abundant. The
same classes of plants occur in the Upper Gondwanas ; but
there the proportions are reversed, the conifers, and still more
the cycads, being more numerous than the ferns, whilst the
Equisetacese are but sparingly found. But even within the
limits of the Lower Gondwana series there are great diversities
of vegetation, three distinct floras occurring in the three great
divisions of that formation. In many respects the flora of the
highest of these three divisions (the Panchet group) is more
nearly related to that of the Upper Gondwanas than it is to
the other Lower Gondwdna floras.
One of the most interesting facts in the history of the
Gondwana series is the occurrence near the base (in the Tdlcher
group) of large striated boulders in a fine mud or silt, the
boulders in one place resting upon rock (of Vindhyan age)
which is also striated. There seems good reason for believing
that these beds are the result of ice-action. They probably
nearly coincide in age with the Permian beds of Western
Europe, in which Professor Ramsay long since discovered
evidence of glaciation. But the remarkable fact is that this
old ice-action occurred within the tropics, and probably at no
very great height above the sea.
The Ddmodar series, the middle division of the Lower Gond-
wdnas, is the chief source of coal in Peninsular India, yielding
more of that mineral than all other formations taken together.
The Karharbdri group is the only other coal-bearing formation
of any value. The Ddmodars are 8400 feet thick in the Rdni-
DAMODAR COAL AND IRON FIELDS. 637
ganj coal-field, and about 10,000 feet thick in the Satpura basin.
They consist of three divisions ; coal occurs in the upper and
lower, ironstone (without coal) in the middle division. The
Raniganj coal-field is the most important in India. So far Ram'ganj
as yet known, it covers an area of about 500 square miles, ^^o^^'^^^^-
running about 18 miles from north to south, and about 39
miles from east to west ; but it extends farther to the east
under the laterite and alluvium. It is traversed by the
Damodar river, and also the road from Calcutta to Benares
and by the East Indian Railway. From its situation and
importance, this coal-field is better known than any other
in India. Much has been learnt concerning it since the last
examination by the Geological Survey, especially from the
recent reports by Mr. H. Bauermann.
The upper or Raniganj series has eleven seams, with a Ram'ganj
total thickness of 120 feet, in the eastern district, and thirteen ^^^'
. T • rr-.! seams,
seams, 100 feet thick, in the western district. The average
thickness of the seams worked is from 12 to i8 feet, but
occasionally a seam reaches a great thickness — 20 to 80 feet.
The lower or Barakhar series (2000 feet thick) contains four Barakhar
seams, of a total thickness of 69 feet. Compared with Eng- ^^^™^*
lish coals, those of this coal-field are of a poor quality ; they
contain much ash, and are generally non-coking. The seams
of the lower series are the best, and some of these at Sank-
toria, near the Barakhar river, are fairly good for coke and
gas.
The best coal in India is in the small coal - field at Karhar-
Karharbari. The beds here are lower in the series than ^^J^ ^°^^'
those of the Rdniganj field ; they belong to the upper part of
the Talcher group, the lowest of the Gondwana series. The
Karharbari coal-beds cover an area of about 1 1 square miles ;
and have three seams, varying from 9 to 33 feet thick. The
lowest seam is the best, and it is nearly as good as English
steam coal. This coal-field, now largely worked, is the property
of the East Indian Railway, which is thus supplied with fuel at
a cheaper rate than any other railway in the world. Indian
coal usually contains phosphoric acid, which greatly lessens
its value for iron-smelting.^
The Damodar series, which, as we have seen, is the chief P^modar
source of coal in India, is also one of the most important ^"^^^'^ °"^'
^ The economic aspects of Indian coal have been dealt with in the
chapter on Mines and Minerals. For full accounts of the Indian coal-
fields, see articles Raniganj, Karharbari, etc., in The Imperial Gazetteer
of India.
638
GEOLOGY OF INDIA.
sources of Iron. The ore occurs in the middle division, coal
in the highest and lowest. The ore is partly a clay ironstone,
like that occurring in the coal-measures of England, partly
an oxide of iron or haematite. It generally contains phos-
phorus, which prevents its use in the preparation of the finer
qualities of steel. A similar difficulty attends the use of the
Cleveland ore of North Yorkshire. Experiments have been
in progress for years in search of a process which shall, in an
economical manner, obtain iron from Cleveland ore free from
phosphorus, latterly, it is hoped, with some success. If this
be so, India will be a great gainer. Excellent iron-ore occurs
in the metamorphic rocks south of the Damodar river. Laterite
(see below) is sometimes used as ore. It is very earthy, with
a low percentage of metal; but it contains only a comparatively
small proportion of phosphorus.^
The want of limestone for flux, within easy reach, is
generally a great drawback as regards iron-smelting in India.
Kankar. Kankar or ghutin (concretionary carbonate of lime) is col-
lected for this purpose from the river beds and alluvial
deposits. It sometimes contains as much as 70 per cent, of
carbonate of lime ; but generally the proportion is much less,
and the fluxing value proportionally diminished. The real
difficulty in India is to find the ore, the fuel, and the flux, in
sufficiently close proximity to yield a profit.
Deccan The enormous mass of basaltic rock known as the Deccan
trap. tj.^p^ jg Qf great importance in the geological structure of the
Indian Peninsula. It now covers an area of about 200,000
square miles, and probably extended in former times over a
much wider area. Where thickest, the traps are at least
6000 feet in depth. They form the most striking physical
features of the country, many of the most prominent hill
ranges being the denuded edges of the basaltic flows. The
great volcanic outbursts which produced this trap com-
menced in the Cretaceous period, and lasted into the
Eocene period.
Laterite ; Laterite is a ferruginous and argillaceous rock, varying from
30 to 200 feet thick, which often occurs over the trap area,
but is also found in other tracts. As a rule, it makes rather
barren land; it is highly porous, and the rain rapidly sinks
into it. Laterite may be roughly divided into two kinds,
high-level; high-level and low-level laterite. The former, which covers a
large area of the high basaltic plains, is believed by Mr. R. B.
^ For the economic aspects of Indian iron, see chapter on Mines and
Minerals.
!
DECCAN TRAP: BURMA. 639
Foote to be very frequently the product of decomposition of
the trap, and to have been thus formed in the place where it
is now found. Sometimes the high-level laterite overlies
gneiss or other rocks; and in these cases it has probably
been transported. The low-level laterite is generally more low-level,
sandy in character, and is often associated with gravels. In
most cases this has clearly been carried down to its present
position, probably largely by sub-aerial action, aided by rains
and streams. Possibly in some cases it has been spread out
along the coasts by marine action. The low-level laterite
fringes the coast of the Peninsula, from near Bombay on the"
west and Orissa on the east, to Cape Comorin. It is not
continuous throughout these regions ; and it is of very varying
width and elevation. The age of the high-level laterite is
unknown. Its formation probably extended throughout a long
period of time, much of which must be of very ancient
date ; for the laterite, together with the underlying basalt, has
suffered extensive denudation.
As regards gems, the geologist comes to the same con- Precious
elusion as the economist, viz. that the precious stones s'^°^^^*
of ancient India were the product of forced labour, and
that the search for them in our days can scarcely repay the
working expenses.
British Burma. — The geological structure of Burma com- Burma :
prises three sections — western, middle, and eastern, nearly ^'^^ ^"^^^^
corresponding to the Divisions of Arakan, Pegu, and Tenas-
serim.
The geological groups met with in Arakan and Pegu are, Pegu and
in the ascending order, as follow. The crystalline rocks of^"^^^^^*
Taung-ngu; age undetermined, comprising beds of different
ages. Axial or Arakan group, occupying the northern part of
Arakan range; age probably Triassic. Nummulitic group,
including the entire range of Arakan ; age Eocene or early
Tertiary. Pegu group, occupying the whole of the country
east of the Irawadi to the Sittaung river; age Miocene or
middle Tertiary. Fossil-wood group, most largely developed
in eastern Prome, in which fossil-wood, in the form of silicified
trunks of trees, some of them 30 to 40 feet long, is plentifully
present ; age probably Pliocene or newer Tertiary. Lastly, the
Alluvium group, comprising older alluvial deposits in places
where the river channels are excavated, and newer alluvial
senm.
640 GEOLOG Y OF INDIA.
deposits thrown down on the surface by the Irawadi and other
rivers.
Tenas- In geological structure, Tenasserim is entirely distinct from
Pegu and Arakan ; the groups in ascending order are as follow.
The crystalline rocks ; age uncertain. Mergui group, largely
developed in Mergui District; age perhaps Silurian. Maul-
main group, well seen near Maulmain and Amherst; age lower
Carboniferous. Tenasserim group, embracing the various coal-
fields in the southern part of the Tenasserim Division ; age
doubtful, but probably Tertiary.
[641 ]
CHAPTER XXIII.
METEOROLOGY OF INDIA.
The great peninsula of India, with its lofty mountain ranges Meteoro-
and its extensive seaboard, exposed to the first violence of jJS^^
the winds of two oceans, forms an exceptionally valuable and
interesting field for the study of meteorological phenomena.
But the Department of Government which deals with these
phenomena has had to contend with many obstacles ; and it
is only within the last few years that trustworthy statistics have
been obtained from a complete system of registration stations.
Every year, however, is now adding to our knowledge of the
meteorology of the country, and supplying authentic materials
for purposes of comparison and induction.
Meteorological Geography. — After the general description Meteoro-
of the country given at the beginning of this volume, it is only Ji^gical
necessary to sketch very briefly the meteorological geography
of India. The following paragraphs are condensed from
an interesting account in the official Report on the Meteorology
of India (for 1883), by Mr. H. F. Blanford. Mr. Blanford's
volum.e on the Meteorology of India ^ being the second part of
The Indian Meteorologist's Vade-Mecuni (Government Press,
Calcutta, 1877), should be in the hands of every student.
The great mountain ranges of the Himalayas and the Sulai-
MANS, which form the northern and north-western boundaries of
India, have been fully described.^ From the gorge of the Indus
to that of the Dihong (Brahmaputra), a distance of 1400 miles,
the Himalayas form an unbroken watershed, the northern flank Hima-
of which is drained by the upper valleys of these two rivers ; ^-'^y^^-
while the Sutlej (Satlaj), starting from the southern foot of the
KaiUs peak, breaks through the watershed, dividing it into
two very unequal portions, that to the north-west being the
smaller. The average elevation of the higher Himalayas may
be taken at not less than 19,000 feet, and therefore equal to
1 Vide ante, chap. I pp. 3-10 ; also articles Himalayas and Sulaiman
Mountains, The Imperial Gazetteer of India,
2 S
642
METEOROLOGY OF INDIA.
Hima-
layan air-
currents.
Eastern
Hima-
layas.
Western
Hima-
layas.
Vapour-
bearing
winds.
Punjab
frontier.
the height of the lower half of the atmosphere ; indeed, few
of the passes are under 16,000 or 17,000 feet. Across this
mountain barrier there appears to be a constant flow of air,
more active in the day-time than at night, northwards to the
arid plateau of Tibet. There is no reason to believe that any
transfer of air takes place across the Himalayas in a southerly
direction ; unless, indeed, in those elevated regions of the
atmosphere which lie beyond the sphere of observation. But
a nocturnal flow of cooled air, from the southern slopes, is
felt as a strong wind where the rivers debouch on the plains,
more especially in the early morning hours. This current
probably contributes to lower the mean temperature of the belt
of plain country which fringes the mountain zone.
The Eastern Himalayas present many points of contrast
with the western parts of the range. The slopes of the Sikkim
and Bhutan Hills, where not denuded for the purposes of cul-
tivation, are clothed with an almost impenetrable forest, which
at the lower levels abounds in figs, rattans, and representatives
of a tropical humid climate. At higher levels they are covered
with oaks, chestnuts, magnolias, pines, etc., of the most
luxuriant growth.
In the Western Himalayas, on the other hand, the spurs of
the outer ranges are more sparsely clad with forest, especially
on their western faces ; and naked precipitous crags are of
constant occurrence. The vegetation of the lower and warmer
valleys, and of the fringing belt (the Tarai), is comparatively
thin, and such as characterizes a warm but -dry region. Pines
of several species form a conspicuous feature of the landscape
at lower levels. It is chiefly the outer ranges that exhibit
these contrasted features ; and they depend partly on the
difference of latitude, but mainly on that of rainfall. In
Sikkim and Bhutan this is abnormaHy copious, and is dis-
charged full on the face of the range. As the chain recedes
to the north-west, tl->e greater is the distance to be traversed
by the vapour-bearing winds in reaching it, and the more
easterly is their direction. For such winds, whether coming .
from the Bay of Bengal (apparently their principal source) or
from the Arabian Sea, turn on reaching the Gangetic valley,
and blow more or less parallel to its axis and that of the
mountain range.
The country on either side of the Suldimdn range is
characteristically arid. Dry winds from the desert tracts of
Persia and Baluchistdn predominate throughout the year.
The scanty cultivation on the hills is dependent on the
INDUS AND GANGETIC PLAINS. 643
winter snows, or the rare showers which reach them from the
eastward, or the supply of the larger local streams. The
lower plains would be uninhabitable but for the fertilizing
irrigation furnished by the great river that traverses them.
At the foot of the great Himalayan barrier, and separating it
from the more ancient land which now forms the highlands of
the peninsula, a broad plain, for the most part alluvial, stretches Indus
from sea to sea. On the west, in the dry region, this is P^^'"^
occupied partly by the alluvial deposits of the Indus and its
tributaries ; partly by the saline swamps of Kachchh (Cutch), and
the rolling sands and rocky surface of the desert of Jaisalmer The great
(Jeysulmere) and Bikaner ; and partly by the more fertile j"g '^f"
tracts to the eastward. Over the greater part of this region
rain is of rare occurrence ; and not infrequently more than a
year passes by without a drop falling on the parched surface.
On its eastern margin, however, in the neighbourhood of the
Aravalli Hills, and again in the Northern Punjab, rain is more
frequent, occurring both in the south-west monsoon, and also
at the opposite season in the cold weather. As far north as
Sirsa and Miiltan, the average rainfall does not much exceed
7 inches.
The alluvial plain of the Punjab passes into that of the Gangetic
Gangetic valley without visible interruprtion. Up or down this P ^^"'
plain, at opposite seasons, sweep the monsoon winds, in a
direction at right angles to that of their nominal course ; and
in this way the vapour brought by winds from the Bay
of Bengal, is discharged as snow and rain on the peaks and
hill-sides of the Western Himalayas. Nearly the whole surface
is under cultivation ; and it ranks among the most productive
as well as the most densely populated regions of the world.
The rainfall diminishes from 100 inches at the south-east
corner of the Gangetic delta to less than 30 inches at Agra
and Delhi, and there is an average difference of from 15 to
25 inches between the northern and southern borders of the
plain.
Eastward from the Bengal delta, two alluvial plains stretch Eastern
up between the hills that connect the Himalayan system with l^engal.
that of the Burmese peninsula. The first is that of Assam and
the Brahmaputra, long and narrow, bordered on the north by
the Himalayas, on the south by the lower plateau of the Garo,
Khdsi, and Naga Hills. The second, or Sylhet and Cachar
valley, is chiefly occupied by swamps and jhth^ and separates
the Garo, Khasi, and Naga Hills from those of Tipperah and
the Lushai country. The climate of both these plains is
644
METEOROLOGY OF INDIA.
Central
table-land.
Satpura
ranfre.
Malwa
plateau.
Aravalli
range.
Southern
plateau.
damp and equable, and the rainfall is prolonged and gene-
rally heavy, especially on the southern slopes of the hills. A
meteorological peculiarity of some interest has been noticed,
more especially at the stations of Sibsdgar and Silch^r, viz.
the great range of the diurnal variation of barometric pressure,
particularly during the cool months of the year. It is the
more striking, since at Riirki, Lahore, and other stations near
the foot of the Himalayas, this range is less than on the open
plains.
The highlands of the peninsula are cut off from the
Himalayan ranges by the Indo-Gangetic plain. They are
divided into two unequal parts, by an almost continuous chain
of hills, loosely known as the Satpura range, running across the
country from west-by-south to east-by-north, just south of the
Tropic of Cancer. This chain may be regarded as a single
feature, forming the principal watershed of the peninsula. The
waters to the north of it drain chiefly into the Narbada (Ner-
budda) and the Ganges ; those to the south, into the Tapti,
the Godavari, the Mahanadi, and smaller streams. In a
meteorological point of view, this central chain of hills is of
much importance. Acting together with the two parallel
valleys of the Narbada and Tdpti, which drain the flanks of
its western half, it gives a more decided easterly and westerly
direction to the winds of this part of India, and con-
denses a tolerably copious rainfall during the south-west
moonsoon.
Separated from this chain by the valley of the Narbadd on
the west, and that of the Son (Soane) on the east, the plateau
of Mdlwa and Baghelkhand occupies the space intervening
between these valleys and the Gangetic plain. On the western
edge of the plateau are the Aravalli Hills, which run from
near AhmadabM up to the neighbourhood of Delhi, and
include one hill. Mount Abii, over 5000 feet in height. This
range exerts an important influence on the direction of the
wind, and also on the rainfall. At Ajmere, an old-established
meteorological station at the eastern foot of the range, the
wind is predominantly south-west. Both here and at Mount
Abii the south-west monsoon rains are a regular phenomenon ;
which can hardly be said of the region of scanty and uncertain
rainfall which extends from the western foot of the range and
merges in the Bikdner desert.
The peninsula south of the Satpura range consists chiefly
of the triangular plateau of the »Deccan, terminating abruptly
on the west in the Sahyddri range (Western Ghdts), and
SOUTHERN INDIA AND CEYLON 645
shelving to the east (Eastern Ghats). This plateau is swept by
the south-west monsoon after it has surmounted the western
barrier of the Ghdts. The rainfall is consequently light at
Poona and places similarly situated under the lee of the range,
and but moderate over the more easterly parts of the plateau.
The rains, however, are prolonged to the north of the Satpuras
three or four weeks later than in Southern India, since they are
brought there by the easterly winds which blow from the Bay
of Bengal in October and the early part of November ; when
the re-cur\'ed southerly wind ceases to blow up the Gangetic
valley, and sets towards the Kamatik. This was formerly
thought to be the north-east monsoon, and is still so spoken
of by some writers ; but the rainy wind is really a diversion
of the south-west monsoon.
At the junction of the Eastern and Western Ghats rises the Anamalai
bold triangular plateau of the Nilgiris, and to the south of ^'^^^•
them come the Anamalais, Palnis (Pulneys), and Travancore
Hills. These ranges are separated from the Nilgiris by a
broad depression or pass known as the Palghat gap, some
25 miles wide; the highest point of which is about 1500 feet
above the sea. This gap affords a passage to the winds, which
elsewhere are barred by the chain of the Western Ghats. The
country to the east of the gap receives the rainfall of the
south-west monsoon; and during the north-east monsoon,
ships passing Beypur meet with a stronger wind from the
land than is felt elsewhere on the Malabar coast. According
to Captain Newbold, the Palghat gap ' affords an outlet to those
furious storms from the eastward which sweep the Bay of
Bengal, and, after traversing the peninsula, burst forth through
it to the neighbouring sea.'
In the coast-strip of low country which fringes the peninsula Southern
below the Western Ghats, the rainfall is heavy, the climate warm coast-
and damp, the vegetation dense and tropical. The steep slopes
of the Ghats, where they have not been artificially cleared, are
also thickly clothed with forest.
Ceylon should, for meteorological purposes, be included Meteoro-
in this survey. The country both south and west of the '°sy f»f
hills which occupy the south centre of the island is very
rugged down to the coast. The rainfall is here frequent and Rainy
heavy ; and the temperature being high and equable, the south-west
vegetation is dense and very luxuriant, such as is characteristic
of islands in tropical seas, and also of the coast of Travancore.
The plains on the east coast are drier, and both in climate Drier east
and vegetation bear much resemblance to those of the Karnatik. c^^^^-
646
METEOROLOGY OF INDIA.
The con-
trast.
British
Burma.
Upper
Burma.
Observa-
tories.
When the south-west monsoon is blowing in May and June,
and discharging torrents of rain on the forest-clad spurs and
slopes that face to windward, the contrast presented by the
eastward face of the same hills is very striking, and the two
phases of climate are sharply demarcated. Newara Eliya
(7000 feet), day after day, and even week after week, lies
under a dense canopy of cloud, which shrouds all the higher
peaks, and pours down in almost incessant rain. But let the
traveller leave the station by the Badulla road, and cross over
the main range at a distance of two or three miles from
Newara Eliya. As he begins the descent towards Wilson's
bungalow, he emerges on a panorama of the grassy downs of
the lower hills, bathed in dazzling sunshine ; while on the ridge
above he sees the cloud-masses ever rolling across from the
west, and dissolving away in the drier air to leeward. Hence
the east and west coasts of Ceylon are as strongly contrasted
in climate as those of the southern extremity of the Indian
peninsula.
In British Burma, the western face of the Arakan Yoma
hills, like that of the Indian Western Ghdts, is exposed to the
full force of the south-west monsoon, and receives a very heavy
rainfall. At Sandoway, this amounts to an annual mean of
212 inches. It diminishes to the northwards; but even at
Chittagong, it amounts to 104 J inches annually.
The country around Ava, as well as the hill country of North
Burma, is the seat of occasional severe earthquakes, one of
which destroyed Ava city in 1839. The general meridianal
direction of the ranges and valleys determines the direction of
the prevailing surface winds ; subject, however, to many local
modifications. But it would appear, from Dr. Anderson's
observations of the movement of the upper clouds, that
throughout the year there is, with but slight interruption, a
steady upper current from the south-west, such as has been
already noticed over the Himalayas. The rainfall in the lower
part of the Irawadi valley, viz. the delta and the neighbouring
part of the Province of Pegu, is very heavy, about 190 inches;
the climate is warm and equable at all seasons. But higher
up the valley, and especially north of the Pegu frontier, the
country is drier, and is characterized by a less luxuriant
vegetation, and by a retarded and more scanty rainfall of
about 56 inches.
Observatories. — Up to the year 1883, meteorological obser-
vatories had been established at 125 stations in India (includ-
ing British Burma, the Andamans, and Nepdl). These
OBSERVATORIES: MEAN TEMPERATURES. 647
observatories are situated at all elevations, from the highest,
Leh (11,502 feet above mean sea-level) and Chakrata (7051
feet), to Sagar Island, 25 feet, and Negapatam, only 15 feet
above mean sea-level.
Observations. — The observations taken at Indian meteoro- Obs^rva-
logical stations record — (i) temperature of solar and of^^°^'*
nocturnal radiation, (2) air temperature, (3) atmospheric pressure,
(4) direction and velocity of the wind, (5) humidity, (6) cloud
proportion, and (7) rainfall. For full information on each of
these subjects, the reader is referred to the valuable and deeply
interesting reports of Mr. F. Blanford and Mr. Eliot, printed
at the Government Press, Calcutta, and available to all
inquirers at the India Office, London,
Solar Radiation. — Although, theoretically, differences in Solar
the height above ground of the registering thermometer produce >^adiation.
little difference in the amount of radiation from the ground,
yet the nature of the surface forms an important feature,
the action of which differs very considerably in different parts
of India, and interferes with an exact comparison of results
obtained from different stations. Thus, the radiation from
the parched, heated, and bare surfece of the soil in the
North-Western Provinces in May, must be considerably greater
than from the moist grass-covered surface of the soil at the
coast stations of Bengal and Western India in the same
month.
The following figures are obtained from Bengal stations Returns,
where the instruments are believed to be accurate and com-
parable. The yearly average maximum equilibrium tempera-
tures of compared sun thermometers in vacuo, varied in these
stations from 121 '5° F. at Darjiling (much the lowest average)
and 131*3° at Goalpdrd (the next lowest), to 145 '6° at
Bardwan and 147*4° at Cuttack. The excess of the above
over the corresponding maximum shade temperatures was : —
at Ddrjiling, 59*1° j at Goalpard, 48*4°; at Bardwan, 57°; and
at Cuttack, 55*8°.
Temperature of the Air. — From the average annual mean Tempera-
temperatures of 1 1 7 stations (derived from the means of three *V^ °^ ^^^
or more years), the following figures are taken. In the two
following stations in this list, the average mean yearly tem- Mean
perature was over 82° F. : — Trichinopoli, 82*1° ; Vizagapatam, f^^p^j-a-
82*8°. Both of these stations are in the Madras Presidency. The tures.
next highest means are returned by Madras, 82°; Madura (also in
Madras), 81*9°; Negapatam, 81 -6° ; Masulipatam, 81*3°; Kar-
niil, 8i*2°; Sironcha, 81° ; Cuttack, 80*7°; Bellary and Salem,
648
METEOROLOGY OF INDIA.
Hill
stations.
Monthly
tempera-
tures.
Atmo-
spheric
pressure.
Wind.
Humidity.
Cloud pro-
portion.
80-4° ; Port Blair, 80-3° ; Bikaner, 80° ; False Point, 79*3° ; Goa,
79*9° i Cochin, 79"6°; Sagar Island, 78"6°; Deesa, 79*9°; and
Calcutta, 7 7 '8°. The mean annual temperature of Bombay is
79*7°. The lowest means are obtained at the hill stations of
Darjiling, 5i'8°; Simla, 55°; Murree, 56*1°; and Chakrata,
56'3°. Between these and the next coolest stations is a gap,
Masuri (Mussoorie) following with 59*2°, Ranikhet with 60*2°,
Pachmarhi with 687°, and Rdwal Pindi with a yearly mean of
69*3°. The highest mean monthly temperatures given are : —
947° at Jhdnsi, in May; 94*4° at Miiltan, in June ; 937° at
Lahore, Delhi, and Agra, in June. The lowest monthly means
are returned by the four coldest hill stations mentioned above,
the figures being : — Murree — January 39°, February 39*4° ;
Simla — January 40*4°, February 41*4°; Chakrata — January
42:3°, February 43*4°; Darjiling — January 39*4°, February
41*2°. The mean temperature at Leh in January is 17*1°,
and in December 23*1° F.
Atmospheric Pressure. — The Meteorological Report for
1883 contains a table showing the annual mean pressure at
III stations, corrected (except in the case of Madras) to the
Calcutta standard, which reads o*oii inch higher than that
of Kew. From that table the following figures are obtained.
The mean yearly pressure in inches at the highest stations is :
— 22-944 at Darjiling, 23*224 at Chakrata, 23*275 at Simla,
24-059 at Ranikhet, 26*392 at Pachmarhi, and 26*924 at
Bangalore. The greatest annual mean pressures returned are :
— 29 889 at Cochin, 29*845 at Negapatam, 29-840 at Madras,
and 29*821 at Bombay. These pressures are not reduced to
the level of the sea.
Wind. — The general directions of the wind in different parts
of the peninsula have already been noticed in the introductory
portion of this chapter describing the meteorological geography
of the country.
Humidity. — The humidity figures given in the Report for
1877 are, according to Mr. Eliot, the Officiating Meteorological
Reporter to the Government of India, not generally inter-
comparable, as the mean relative humidity is deduced from a
varying number of daily observations.
Cloud Proportion. — The Report for 1883 gives the averages
of estimated cloud proportion for 113 stations in India, an
overcast sky being represented by 10 and a clear sky by o.
Some of the extreme figures follow. The average annual
proportion of clouded sky is represented at Sibsdgar by 7-19;
at Merkdra by 6*68; at Darjfling by 6*44; at Trichinopoli by
STATISTICS OF RAINFALL. 649
6'04; at Coimbatore by 5*19; at Salem by 4*66. The lowest
proportions recorded are: — for Jhansi, 1*20; Hyderabad
(Sind), I '69; Miiltan, i'66; Dera Ismail Khan, 2*04; Sagar
(Saugor), in the Central Provinces, 2*43.
Rainfall. — The average annual rainfall at 435 stations is Rainfall,
recorded in the Meteorological Report for 1883, from which
the following figures were derived.
In the Punjab, the highest average fall (124-91 inches) is at The
Dharmsala, which is situated on the face of the hills, and I'unjab.
exposed to the full force of the monsoon; the next highest
recorded is httle more than half that amount, or 71*24 inches,
at Simla. The lowest average falls in the Punjab are: — 5*88
inches at Muzaffargarh, 7*07 at Miiltan, 7*03 at Dera Ghazi
Khan, and 8-46 at Dera Ismail Khan. All these stations are
protected by the Sulaiman range from the monsoon.
In Rajputana and Central India the minimum is 12 '07 Rajputana
inches at Pachbadra, and the maximum, 6 3 '21, at Mount Abii, ^"^f^J^;
,,., ..',. ^^,.''^' ' tral India,
the highest pomt m this part of India.
In the North-Western Provinces the heaviest rainfalls are North-
at Masuri (9472 inches), Naini Tal (91-17), and Dehra (74-91), ^'estem
all of which lie high; the minimum average fall is 25*28 at
Muttra, the next lowest figures being 26*06 at Aligarh, 25*66 at
Agra, and 25-70 at Bulandshahr — all stations on the plains.
In Oudh, the maximum rainfall is at Bahraich, 43*48 inches; Oudh.
and the minimum at Rai Bareli, 32*18 inches.
The following stations of Bengal have an average rainfall of Bengal,
more than 100 inches: — Baxa, 220*91; Jalpaiguri, 129*21;
Mongpii, 128*43 ) Darjiling, 120*85 ) ^^^ Kuch Behar,
130*89 — all at the base of the hills; Noakhali, 111*75 ; Dema-
giri, 112*97; Cox's Bazaar, 141*60; and Chittagong, 104*58,
all near the north-east corner of the Bay of Bengal. The
lowest averages are returned by Keunjhar, 32-61 inches;
Buxar, 39*04 ; Chhapra, 39*15 ; and Gaya, 40*29. The
average rainfall throughout Bengal is 67 inches.
Assam possesses in Cherra Poonjee (Chdra Punji) the Assam,
station with the largest rainfall in the world. Former returns
gave the fall at 368 inches; later and fuller returns at 481*80
inches. A total fall of 805 inches was reported in 1 861, of which
366 were assigned to the single month of July. In 1850, Dr.
Hooker registered 30 inches in twenty-four hours, and returned
the fall from June to November of that year at 530 inches.
In the four days 9th to 12th September 1877, 56*19 inches
were registered. The cause of this extraordinary rainfall is
650
METEOROLOGY OF INDIA,
Central
Provinces
Bombay.
noticed in the chapter on Physical Geography. The following
stations in Assam have also a very high average rainfall : —
Silch^r, ii8"85 ; Sylhet, 156*12 ; Dibrugarh, ii3"53 ; and
Turi, 123*80. The lowest recorded averages in Assam are at
Samaguting (52*58 inches) and Gauhdti (69*26 inches), both
on the northern side of the hills separating Cachar from
Assam.
In the Central Provinces, the highest average falls are at
Pachmarhi, 77*85 inches, and Balaghat, 65*92 ; lowest
averages, Khandwa, 33*29 inches, and Arvi, 35*09 inches.
In Bombay, two stations on the Ghdts are recorded as
having an average rainfall of over 250 inches, viz. : — Malcolm-
pet (Mahableshwar), 258*49; and Baura (Fort), 255*28. Next
in order come Matheran, with 245*24 inches; Lonauli, with
165*13; Honawir, 138-08; and Igatpuri, Karwar, Vingurla,
and Ratnagiri, with 124*19, 116*03, no'Sg, and 104*55 inches
respectively. The lowest average rainfalls recorded in Bombay
are: — 18*82 inches at Mandargi ; 20*97 at Dhulia ; and 21*41
at Gokak. The average rainfall in Bombay is 67 inches.
In Sind, the average rainfall is very low, varying from 16*17
inches at Nagar, and -11*09 at Umarkot, to 4*65 at Shikarpur,
and 4*33 at Jacobdbad.
In Madras, the highest local averages recorded are: — 132*87
inches at Mangalore ; 129*68 at Cannanore ; 128*21 at Mer-
kara; 125*66 at Tellicherri ; 115*04 at Calicut; and 115*02 at
Cochin — all on the west coast. The lightest falls recorded are :
— at Bellary, 17*64; Tuticorin (sheltered by the Ghats), 19*44;
Guti (Gooty), 2 1 *79 ; and Coimbatore, 2 1 '34. All these stations
lie low. The average fall at the stations on the east coast is
about 41 inches. A fair average rainfall for Madras Presidency
is 44 inches.
The rainfall along the coast of British Burma is heavy, as
might be expected, the following averages being recorded : —
Sandoway, 212*03 inches; Tavoy, 197*02; Akyab, 197*61;
Maulmain, 189*37 ; Kyauk-pyu, 174*79. The smallest rainfall
is at Thayet-myo (47*37) ^"d Prome (53*00), sheltered by the
Yoma range.
Port Blair. The rainfall at Port Blair and Nancowry is also heavy, the
averages being returned as 118*38 and 108*91 inches respec-
tively.
Sind.
Madras.
British
Burma.
Sun-spot
cycles.
Sun-Spot Cycles. — These alleged cycles have formed the
subject of several separate papers, and the results were
popularly summed up in a joint article by Mr. Norman
SUN-SFOT CYCLES. 651
Lockyer and the present author in the Nineteenth Century
for November 1877. It will therefore suffice here to state
the views of the Indian Meteorological Department on the
intricate questions involved. The following are the inferences
which the meteorology of India appears to suggest, if not
to establish. There is a tendency at the minimum sun-spot
periods to prolonged excessive pressure over India, and at
the maximum sun-spot periods to an unusual development of
the winter rains, and to the occurrence of abnormally heavy
snowfall over the Himalayan region (to a greater extent pro-
bably in the Western than the Eastern Himalayas). This
appears also to be usually followed by a weak south-west
monsoon. The characteristics of a weak monsoon are, great
irregularity in the distribution of the rainfall over the whole of
India, and the occurrence of heavy local rainfalls, which tend,
by a law of rainfall and of air-motion, to recur over the same
limited areas. The irregularity of rainfall distribution is often
shown by the persistence of dry land winds and the prolonged
absence of rain over considerable areas. These areas of
drought and famine are partly marked off by nature, depending
to a certain extent on the geographical features and position
of the district. Thus, the rains are more likely to fall below
the amount necessary for cultivation in the dry region of the
Deccan or in Upper India, than over the Malabar coast area
or the Province of Bengal.
[652 ]
CHAPTER XXIV.
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF INDIA.
Mammals. WiLD ANIMALS. — First among the wild animals of India must
be mentioned the Hon (Felis leo), which is recorded to have
been not uncommon within historical times in Hindustan
Lion. Proper and the Punjab. The lion is now confined to the Gir^ or
rocky hill-desert and forest of Kathidwar. A peculiar variety
is there found, marked by the almost total absence of a mane;
but whether this variety deserves to be classed as a distinct
species, naturalists have not yet determined. The lion has
now almost entirely disappeared ; and the official Gazetteer of
Kathiawar states that there are now (1884) probably not more
than ten or a dozen lions and lionesses left in the whole Gir
forest tract. They are strictly preserved. The former extent
of the lion's range, or the degree to which its presence im-
pressed the imagination, may be inferred from the common
personal names, Sinh or Singh, Sher, and Haidar, which all
signify ' lion.' Sher, however, is also applied to the tiger.
Tiger. The characteristic beast of prey in India is the tiger (Felis
tigris), which is found in every part of the country from the
slopes of the Himalayas to the Sundarban swamps. Sir Joseph
Fayrer, the highest living authority on this subject, believes
that 12 feet is the maximum length of the tiger, when measured
from nose to tip of tail immediately after death. The advance
of cultivation, even more than the incessant attacks of sports-
men, has gradually caused the tiger to become a rare animal
in large tracts of country ; but it is scarcely probable that he
ever will be exterminated from India. The malarious tardi
fringing the Himalayas, the uninhabitable swamps of the
Gangetic delta, and the wide jungles of the central plateau,
are at present the chief home of the tiger. His favourite
food appears to be deer, antelope, and wild hog. When
these abound, he does not attack domestic cattle. Indeed,
the natives of certain Districts consider the tiger as in
some sort their protector, for he saves their crops from
destruction by the wild animals on which he feeds. But when
TIGER: LEOPARD: CHEETAH. 653
once he develops a taste for human blood, then the slaughter
which he works becomes truly formidable.
The confirmed man-eater, generally an old beast, disabled Man-
from overtaking his usual prey, seems to accumulate his tale of ^^J^f
victims in sheer cruelty rather than for food. A single tiger is
known to have killed 108 people in three years. Another killed
an average of about 80 persons per annum. A third caused
13 villages to be abandoned, and 250 square miles of land to
be thrown out of cultivation. A fourth, so lately as 1869,
killed 127 people, and stopped a public road for many
weeks, until the opportune arrival of an English sportsman,
who killed him. Such cases are, of course, exceptional, and
generally refer to a past period, but they explain the super-
stitious awe with which the tiger is regarded by the natives.
The favourite mode of shooting the tiger is from the back
of elephants, or from elevated platforms {machdns) of boughs
in the jungle. In Central India and Bombay, tigers are shot
on foot. In Assam, they are sometimes speared from boats, and
in the Himalayas they are said to be ensnared by bird-lime.
Rewards are given by Government to native shikaris for the
heads of tigers varying in time and place according to the
need. In 1877, 819 persons and 16,137 cattle were reported
to have been killed by tigers. On the other side of the account,
1579 tigers were destroyed by native hunters, and £zm P^^d
in rewards ; besides the slaughter by English sportsmen. In
1882, no fewer than 895 persons and 16,517 cattle were
returned as killed by tigers. The sum of ;£"48oo was paid
during the year to native shikaris for the destruction of 1726
tigers.
The leopard or panther (Felis pardus) is far more common Leopard,
than the tiger in all parts of India, and at least equally de-
structive to life. The greatest length of the Indian leopard
is about 7 feet 6 inches. A black variety, as beautiful as it
is rare, is sometimes found in the extreme south of the Indian
peninsula, and also in Java. The cheetah or hunting leopard Cheetah.
(Felis jubata) must be carefully distinguished from the leopard
proper. This animal appears to be a native only of the
Deccan, where it is trained for hunting the antelope. In some
respects it approaches the dog more nearly than the cat tribe.
Its limbs are long, its hair rough, and its claws blunt and only
partially retractile. The speed with which it bounds upon its
prey, when loosed from the cart, exceeds the swiftness of any
other wild mammal. If it misses its first attack, it scarcely
ever attempts to follow, but returns to its master. Among
654 ZOOLOG V AND BOTANY OF INDIA.
Other other species of the family Felidie found in India may be
species. mentioned the ounce or snow leopard (F. unica), the clouded
tiger (F. macroscelis), the marbled tiger cat (F. marmorata),
the jungle cat (F. chaus), and the common viverrine cat (F.
viverrina).
Wolf. Wolves (Canis lupus) abound throughout the open country,
but are rare in the wooded districts. Their favourite prey is
sheep, but they are also said to run down antelopes and hares,
or rather catch them by lying in ambush. Instances of their
attacking man are not uncommon ; and in 1882, 278 persons,
principally children, besides 8661 cattle, were reported to have
been killed by wolves. In 1827, upwards of 30 children
were carried off by wolves in a single pargand or fiscal division ;
and the story of Romulus and Remus has had its counterpart
in India within recent times. The Indian wolf has a dingy
reddish-white fur, some of the hairs being tipped with black.
By some naturalists it is regarded as a distinct species, under
the name of Canis pallipes. Three distinct varieties, the
white, the red, and the black wolf, are found in the Tibetan
Himalayas.
Fox. The Indian fox {Vulpes bengalensis) is comparatively rare ;
but the jackal (Canis aureus) abounds everywhere, making
Jackal. night hideous by its never-to-be-forgotten yells. The jackal,
and not the fox, is usually the animal hunted by the packs of
hounds kept by Europeans.
Dog. The wild dog or dhole is found in very many of the
wilder jungles of India, including Assam and British Burma.
Its characteristic is that it hunts in packs, sometimes containing
30 dogs, and does not give tongue. When once a pack of
wild dogs has put up any animal, whether deer or tiger, that
animal's doom is sealed. They do not leave it for days, and
finally bring it to bay, or run it down exhausted. These wild
dogs have sometimes been half domesticated, and trained to
hunt for the use of man. A peculiar variety of wild dog exists
in the Karen Hills of Burma, thus described from a specimen
in confinement. It was black and white, as hairy as a Skye-
terrier, and as large as a medium-sized spaniel. It had an
invariable habit of digging a hole in the ground, into which it
crawled backwards, remaining there all day with only its nose
and ferrety eyes visible. Among other dogs of India are the
pariah, which is merely a mongrel, run wild and half-starved ;
the poligar dog, an immense creature peculiar to the south ;
the greyhound, used for coursing ; and the mastiff" of Tibet
and Bhutdn.
BEAR: WILD ELEPHANT, 655
The striped hyaena (Hyaena striata) is common, being found Ilyoena.
wherever the wolf is absent. Like the wolf, it is very destruc-
tive both to the flocks and to children.
Of bears, the common black or sloth bear (Ursus labiatus) Bear,
is common throughout India wherever rocky hills and forests
occur. It is distinguished by a white horse-shoe mark on its
breast. Its food consists of ants, honey, and fruit. When dis-
turbed it will attack man, and it is a dangerous antagonist, for
it always strikes at the face. The Himalayan or Tibetan sun-
bear (Ursus tibetanus) is found along the north, from the
Punjab to Assam. During the summer it remains high up
in the mountains, near the limit -of snow, but in the winter
it descends to 5000 feet, and even lower. Its congener, the
Malayan sun-bear (Helarctos malayanus), is found in British
Burma, where also there is a smaller species (Helarctos eury-
spilus), and a very large animal reported to be as big as the
American grizzly. There were 114 persons returned as killed
by bears in 1882.
The elephant (Elephas indicus) is found in many parts of The Ele-
India, though not in the north-west. Contrary to what might P"^"^-
be anticipated from its size and from the habits of its African
cousin, the Indian elephant is now, at any rate, an inhabitant,
not of the plains, but of the hills ; and even on the hills it is
usually found among the higher ridges and plateaux, and not
in the valleys. From the peninsula of India the elephant has
been gradually exterminated, being only found now in the
primaeval forests of Coorg, Mysore, and Travancore, and in
the Tributary States of Orissa. It still exists in considerable
numbers along the tardi or submontane fringe of the Hima-
layas. The main source of supply at the present time is the
confused mass of hills which forms the north-east boundary of
British India, from Assam to Burma. Two varieties are there
distinguished, the gimda or tusker, and the inak7ia or hine^
which has no tusks.
The reports of the height of the elephant, like those of its
intelligence, seem to be exaggerated. The maximum is pro-
bably 12 feet. If hunted, the elephant must be attacked on
foot, and the sport is therefore dangerous, especially as the
animal has but few parts vulnerable to a bullet. The regular
mode of catching elephants is by means of a kheda or gigantic Elephant-
stockade, into which a wild herd is driven, then starved into ^^^^"^"S-
submission, and tamed by animals already domesticated. The
practice of capturing them in pitfalls is discouraged as cruel
and wasteful. Elephants now form a Government monopoly
656 ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF INDIA,
throughout India, The shooting of them is prohibited, except
when they become dangerous to man or destructive to the
crops ; and the right of capturing them is only leased out upon
conditions.
Elephant A special law, under the title of 'The Elephants Pre-
tion Act. servation Act' (No. VI. of 1879), regulates this licensing
system. Whoever kills, captures, or injures an elephant, or
attempts to do so, without a licence, is punishable by a fine of
500 rupees for the first offence ; and by a similar fine, together
with six months' imprisonment, for a second offence. In the
year 1877-78, a total of 264 elephants were captured in the
Province of Assam, yielding to Government a revenue of
^^3600. In 1882-83, 475 elephants were captured in Assam,
yielding a revenue to Government of ;£8573. In the season
of 1873-74, no less than 53 elephants were captured at one
time by Mr. Sanderson, formerly the superintendent of the
Kheda Department in Mysore, who has made a special study
of the Indian elephant, as Sir S. Baker has of the same animal
in Ceylon. Although the supply is decreasing, elephants con-
tinue to be in great demand. Their chief use is in the timber
trade, and for Government transport. They are also bought
up by native chiefs at high prices for ostentation. Sixty
persons were reported as killed by elephants in 1882.
The Rhin- Of the rhinoceros, four distinct varieties are enumerated, two
oceros. ^yith a single, and two with a double horn. The most familiar
is the Rhinoceros unicornis, commonly found in the Brahma-
putra valley and its wide swamps. It has but one horn, and
is covered with massive folds of naked skin. It sometimes
attains a height of 6 feet ; its horn, which is much prized by
the natives for medicinal purposes, seldom exceeds 14 inches
in length. It frequents swampy, shady spots, and wallows in
mud like a pig. The traditional antipathy of the rhinoceros
to the elephant seems to be mythical. The Javan rhinoceros
(R. sondaicus) is found in the Sundarbans. It also has but
one horn, and mainly differs from the foregoing in being
smaller, and having less prominent ' shields.' The Sumatran
rhinoceros (R. sumatrensis) is found from Chittagong south-
wards through Burma. It has two horns and a bristly coat.
The hairy -eared rhinoceros (R. lasiotis) is known from a
specimen captured at Chittagong, and sent to the Zoological
Gardens, London. Two are at Calcutta.
The wHd The wild hog (Sus scrofa, var. indica) is well known as
°^' affording the most exciting sport in the world — * pig-sticking.'
It frequents cultivated localities, and is the most mischievous
HOG: WILD ASS: SHEEP: GOAT, ETC. 657
enemy which the husbandman has to guard against; doing
more damage than elephants, tigers, leopards, deer, and ante-
lope, all put together. A rare animal, called the pigmy hog
(Porculia salvania), exists in the tardi of Nepal and Sikkim,
and has been shot in Assam. Its height is only 10 inches,
and its weight does not exceed 12 lbs.
The wild ass (Equus onager) is confined to the sandy The \vild
deserts of Sind and Kachchh (Cutch), where, from its speed ^^*
and timidity, it is almost unapproachable.
Many wild species of the sheep and goat tribe are to be Sheep ami
found in the Himalayan ranges. The Ovis ammon and O. ^°^^^'
poli are Tibetan rather than Indian species. The urial and
the shapti are kindred species of wild sheep, found respectively
in Ladakh and the Sulaiman range. The former comes down
to 2000 feet above the sea, the latter is never seen at altitudes
lower than 12,000 feet. The barhal, or blue wild sheep, and
the viarkhor and tahr (both wild goats) also inhabit the Hima-
layas. A variety of the ibex is also found there, as well as in
the highest ranges of Southern India. The sarau (Nemor-
haedus rubidus), allied to the chamois, has a wide range in the
mountains of the north, from the Himalayas to Assam and
Burma.
The antelope tribe is represented by comparatively few Antelopes,
species, as compared with the great number found in Africa.
The antelope proper (Antilope cervicapra), the ' black buck '
of sportsmen, is very generally distributed. Its special habitat
is salt plains, as on the coast-line of Gujarat (Guzerat) and
Orissa, where herds of 50 does may be seen, accompanied by
a single buck. The doe is of a light fawn colour, and has no
horns. The colour of the buck is a deep brown-black above,
sharply marked off from the white of the belly. His spiral horns,
twisted for three or four or more turns like a corkscrew, often
reach the length of 30 inches. The flesh is dry and unsavoury,
but is permitted meat for Hindus, even of the Brahman caste.
The four-horned antelope (Tetraceros quadricornis) and the
gazelle (Gazella bennettii) are also found in India. The chiru
(Pantholops hodgsoni) is confined to the Himalayan plateaux.
The nilgai or blue cow (Portax pictus) is also widely dis- Nilgdu
tributed, but specially abounds in Hindustan Proper and
Gujarat. As with the antelope, the male alone has the dark
blue colour. The nilgai is held peculiarly sacred by Hindus,
from its fancied kinship to the cow, and on this account its
destructive inroads upon the crops are tolerated.
The king of the deer tribe is the sdmbhar or gerau (Cervus Deer.
2 T
658 ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF INDIA.
aristotelis), erroneously called ' elk ' by sportsmen. It is
found on the forest-clad hills in all parts of the country. It is
of a deep-brown colour, with hair on its neck almost like a
mane ; and it stands nearly 5 feet high, with spreading antlers
nearly 3 feet in length. Next in size is the swamp deer or
bdra-singha, signifying 'twelve points' (Cervus duvaucelli),
which is common in Lower Bengal and Assam. The chitdl or
spotted deer (Cervus axis) is generally admitted to be the
most beautiful inhabitant of the Indian jungles. Other species
include the hog deer (Cervus porcinus), the barking deer or
muntjac (Cervulus muntijac), and the so-called mouse deer
(Tragulus meminna). The musk deer (Moschus moschiferus)
is confined to Tibet.
The Bison. fhe OX tribe is represented in India by some of its noblest
species. The gaur (Bos gaurus), the ' bison ' of sportsmen,
is found in all the hill jungles of the country, in the Western
Ghats, in Central India, in Assam, and in British Burma.
This animal sometimes attains the height of 20 hands (close
on 7 feet), measuring from the hump above the shoulder. Its
short curved horns and skull are enormously massive. Its
colour is dark chestnut, or coffee-brown. From the difficult
nature of its habitat, and from the ferocity with which it
charges an enemy, the pursuit of the bison is no less dangerous
and no less exciting than that of the tiger or the elephant.
Akin to the gaur^ though not identical, are the gaydl or mithmi
(Bos frontalis), confined to the hills of the north-east frontier,
where it is domesticated for sacrificial purposes by the ab-
original tribes ; and the tsine or banting (Bos sondaicus), found
in Burma.
The The wild buffalo (Bubalus arni) differs from the tame buffalo
Buffalo. Qfjiy \^ being larger and more fierce. The finest specimens
come from Assam and Burma. The horns of the bull are
thicker than those of the cow, but the horns of the cow are
larger. A head has been known to measure 13 feet 6 inches
in circumference, and 6 feet 6 inches between the tips. The
greatest height is 6 feet. The colour is a slaty black ; the hide
is immensely thick, with scanty hairs. Alone perhaps of all
wild animals in India, the buffalo will charge unprovoked.
Even tame buffaloes seem to have an inveterate dislike to
Europeans.
Rat tribe. The rat and mouse family is only too numerous. Con-
spicuous in it is the loathsome bandicoot (Mus bandicota),
which sometimes measures 2 feet in length, including its tail,
and weighs 3 lbs. It burrows under houses, and is very
BIRDS OF PREY: GAME BIRDS. 659
destructive to plants, fruit, and even poultry. More interesting
is the tree rat (Mus arboreus), a native of Bengal, about
7 inches long, which makes its nest in cocoa-nut palms and
bamboos. The voles or field mice (genus Arvicola) occasion-
ally multiply so exceedingly as to seriously diminish the out-
turn of the local harvest, and to require special measures for
their destruction.
The ornithology of India, although it is not considered so Birds,
rich in specimens of gorgeous and variegated plumage as that
of other tropical regions, contains many splendid and curious
varieties. Some are clothed in nature's gay attire, others dis-
tinguished by strength, size, and fierceness. The parrot tribe is
the most remarkable for beauty. So various are the species, that
no attempt is made here even to enumerate them, but the reader
is referred for details to the scientific works on the subject.^
Among birds of prey four vultures are found, including the Birds of
common scavengers (Gyps indicus and G. bengalensis). The ^"^^^^
eagles comprise many species, but none to surpass the golden
eagle of Europe. Of falcons, there are the peregrine (Falco
peregrinus), the shain (Falco peregrinator), and the lagar
(Falco jugger), which are all trained by the natives for
hawking; of hawks, the shikara (Astur badius), the sparrow
hawk (Accipiter nisus), and the crested goshawk (Astur
trivirgatus). Kingfishers of various kinds, and herons are
sought for their plumage. No bird is more popular with
natives than the maina (Acridotheres tristis), a member
of the starling family, which lives contentedly in a cage,
and can be taught to pronounce words, especially the name of
the god Krishna.
Waterfowl are especially numerous. Of game-birds, the Game
floriken (Sypheotides auritus) is valued as much for its rarity as ^ *
for the delicacy of its flesh. Snipe (Gallinago scolopacina, etc )
abound at certain seasons, in such numbers that one gun has
been known to make a bag of 100 brace in a day. Pigeons,
partridges, quail, plover, duck, teal, sheldrake, widgeon — all
of many varieties — complete the list of small game. The red
jungle fowl (Gallus ferrugineus), supposed to be the ancestor
of our own poultry, is not good eating; and the same may
be said of the peacock (Pavo cristatus), except when young.
The pheasant does not occur in India Proper; but a white
variety is found in Burma, and several beautiful species (con-
spicuously the jnanaul) abound in the Himalayas.
^ Especially those of Jerdon, Gould, Hume, and Marshall.
66o ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF INDIA.
Reptiles. The serpent tribe in India is numerous; they swarm in
the gardens, and intrude into the dwelHngs of the inhabitants,
especially during the rainy season. Most are comparatively
J^e ^ harmless, but the bite of others is speedily fatal.^ The cobra
di capello — the name given to it by the Portuguese, from the
appearance of a hood which it produces by the expanded skin
about the neck — is the most dreaded (Naja tripudians). It
seldom exceeds 3 or 4 feet in length, and is about an inch
and a quarter thick, with a small head, covered on the fore-
part with large smooth scales ; it is of a pale brown colour
above, and the belly is of a bluish-white tinged with pale
brown or yellow. The Russellian snake (Daboia Russellii),
about 4 feet in length, is of a pale yellowish-brown, beautifully
variegated with large oval spots of deep brown, with a white
edging. Its bite is extremely fatal. Itinerant showmen carry
about these serpents, and cause them to assume a dancing
motion for the amusement of the spectators. They give out
that they render snakes harmless by the use of charms or
music — in reality, by extracting the venomous fangs. But,
judging from the frequent accidents, they sometimes seem
to dispense with this precaution. All the salt-water snakes in
India are poisonous, while the fresh-water forms are innocuous.
Deaths gir Joseph Fayrer has demonstrated that none of the
snake-bite, reputed antidotes will cure the bite of the cobra, if the snake
is full-grown, and if its poison fang is full and be not inter-
fered with by clothing. The most hopeful remedy in all cases
of snake-bite is the injection of ammonia. The loss of life
from this cause in India is painful to contemplate. But
the extermination of snakes is attended with great difficulty,
from the great number of the species, the character of the
country, the rapid undergrowth of jungle, and the scruples
of the people. Something, however, is being effected by the
Statistics, Q^gj. Qf rewards. In 1877, a total of 16,777 persons are
' reported to have been killed by snakes, as compared with only
819 by tigers. In the same year, rewards to the amount of
;£"8ii were given for the destruction of 127,295 snakes. In
and 1882. 1882, a total of 19,519 persons are reported to have been
killed by snakes, as compared with 2606 by tigers, leopards,
and all other wild beasts. A sum of ;^i487 was paid in
1882 for the destruction of 322,421 venomous reptiles.
Crocodile. The Other reptiles include two varieties of crocodile (C.
' Sir Joseph Fayrer's Thanato'phidia is the standard work on Indian
snakes. Vincent Richards' Landmarks of Snake Poison Literature is an
excellent compendium.
FISHES: DOLPHL
porosus and C. biporcatus) and the garial (Gavialis gangeticus).
Scorpions also abound.
All the waters of India — the sea, the rivers, and the tanks — Fishes,
swarm with a great variety of fishes,^ which are caught in every
conceivable way, and furnish a considerable proportion of the
food of the poorer classes. They are eaten fresh, or as nearly
fresh as may be ; for the art of curing them is not generally
practised, owing to the exigencies of the salt monopoly. In
Burma, the favourite relish of iiga-pi is prepared from fish. At
Goalanda, at the junction of the Brahmaputra with the Ganges,
and along the Madras coast, establishments have been estab-
lished for salting fish in bond. The indiscriminate slaughter
of fry, and the obstacles opposed by irrigation dams to breeding
fish, are said to be causing a sensible diminution in the supply in
certain rivers. Measures of conservancy have been suggested ;
but their execution is attended with great difficulty, owing to
the habits and the necessities of the poorer population.
Among Indian fishes, the Cyprinidae or carp family and the
Siluridae or cat-fishes are best represented. From the angler's
point of view, by far the finest fish is the mahsir^ found in all
hill streams, whether in Assam, the Punjab, or the south.
One has been caught weighing 60 lbs., which gave play for
more than seven hours. Though called the salmon of India,
the mahsir is really a species of barbel. One of the richest
and most delicious of Indian fishes is the hilsd^ which tastes
and looks like a sort of fat white salmon. It is caught in
immense quantities in the rivers of the Bengal delta, and
forms a staple article of food in Calcutta. The Bombay and
Madras markets are still better supplied by a variety of delicate
fishes. But the enhanced price of this important article of native
diet throughout the country, the decreased supply, and the
ever-increasing fineness of the meshes of the nets employed in
catching the fry, are matters of grave concern alike to the
Government and to the poorer classes of the population.
In this connection may be mentioned the susu or Gangetic Dolphin,
dolphin (Platanista gangetica); a mammal often erroneously
called a porpoise. Both the structure and habits of this
animal are very singular. It measures from 6 to 12 feet in
^ The latest standard works on Indian fishes and their economic aspects
are the Reports and official volume by Dr. Francis Day, late Inspector-
General of Fisheries to the Government of India ; available to all inquirers,
at the India Office, London.
662 ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF INDIA.
length, and in colour is sooty-black. Its head is globular,
with a long, narrow, spoon-shaped snout. Its eyes are rudi-
mentary, like those of the mole ; and its ear-orifices are no
bigger than pin-holes. Its dentition, also, is altogether
abnormal. It frequents the Ganges and Indus from their
mouths right up to their tributaries within the hills. A
specimen has been taken at least looo miles above Calcutta.
Ordinarily its movements are slow, for it wallows in the muddy
bed of the river, and only at intervals comes to the surface to
blow. The susu belongs to the order Cetacea ; and inquiries
have recently been directed to the point whether its blubber
might not be utilized in commerce.
Insects. The insect tribes in India may be truly said to be innumer-
able; nor has anything like a complete classification been
given of them in the most scientific treatises. The heat and
the rains give incredible activity to noxious or troublesome
insects, and to others of a more showy class, whose large wings
surpass in brilliancy the most splendid colours of art.
Stinging musquitoes are innumerable, with moths and ants of
the most destructive habits, and other insects equally noxious
and disagreeable. Amongst those which are useful are the
Locusts, bee, the silkworm, and the insect that produces lac. Clouds
of locusts occasionally appear, which leave no trace of
green behind them, and give the country over which they
pass the appearance of a desert. Dr. Buchanan saw a mass
of these insects in his journey from Madras to the Mysore
territory', about 3 miles in length, like a long narrow red cloud
near the horizon, and making a noise somewhat resembling that
of a cataract. Their size was about that of a man's finger,
and their colour reddish. They are swept north by the wind
till they strike upon the outer ranges of the Himdlayas.
Indian Flora.^ — Unlike other large geographical areas, India is
remarkable for having no distinctive botanical features
peculiar to itself. It differs conspicuously in this respect
^ For a general sketch of the flora of India, recourse must still be had
to the introductory essay to the Flora Indica, published by Hooker &
Thomson in 1855. The Flora of British India, the preparation of which
is in progress at Kew, will comprise descriptions of all the species known
to science up to the date of publication. It will form a great national
work on the botany of India. For the following paragraphs on the flora,
written by Mr. W. T. T. Dyer of Kew, the author is indebted to the courtesy
of Messrs. A. & C. Black, publishers of the Encyclopcedia Briiannica.
HIMALAYAN FLORA. G^^z
from such countries as Australia or South Africa. Its vege-
tation is in point of fact of a composite character, and is
constituted by the meeting and blending of the various
floras adjoining, — of those of Persia and the south-eastern
Mediterranean area to the north-west, of Siberia to the north,
of China to the east, and of Malaya to the south-east. Space
does not admit of a minute discussion of the local features
peculiar to separate (districts ; but regarded broadly, four
tolerably distinct types present themselves : namely, the Hima-
layan, the North- Western, the Assamese or Malayan, and the
Western India type.
The upper levels of the Himalayas slope northwards Upper
gradually to the Tibetan uplands, over which the Siberian p^"^^-
temperate vegetation ranges. This is part of the great tem-
perate flora which, with locally individualized species but
often with identical genera, extends over the whole of the
temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. In the Western
Himalayas, this upland flora is marked by a strong admixture
of European species, such as the columbine (Aquilegia) and
hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha). These disappear rapidly
eastward, and are scarcely found beyond Kumaun.
The base of the Himalayas is occupied by a narrow belt Lower
forming an extreme north-western extension of the Malayan ^^'^^'
type described below. Above that, there is a rich temperate
flora which in the eastern chain may be regarded as forming
an extension of that of Northern China, gradually assuming
westwards more and more of a European type. Magnolia,
Aucuba, Abelia, and Skimmia may be mentioned as examples
of Chinese genera found in the Eastern Himalayas, and the
tea-tree grows wild in Assam. The same coniferous trees are
common to both parts of the range. Pinus longifolia extends
to the Hindu-Kush ; P. excelsa is found universally except in
Sikkim, and has its European analogue in P. Pence, found in
the mountains of Greece. Abies Smithiana extends into
Afghanistan ; Abies Webbiana forms dense forests at altitudes
of 8000 to 12,000 feet, and ranges from Bhutan to Kashmir;
several junipers and the common yew (Taxus baccata) also
occur. The deodar (Cedrus Deodara), which is indigenous to
the mountains of Afghanistan and the north-west Himalayas,
is nearly allied to the Atlantic cedar and to the cedar of
Lebanon, a variety of which has recently been found in Cyprus.
Another instance of the connection of the Western Himalayan
flora with that of Europe is the holm oak (Quercus Ilex), so
characteristic of the Mediterranean region.
664 ZOOLOG V AND BO TANY OF INDIA.
North- The north-western area is best marked in Sind and the
west. Punjab, where the climate is very dry (rainfall under 15
inches), and where the soil, though fertile, is wholly dependent
on irrigation for its cultivation. The low-scattered jungle con-
tains such characteristic species as Capparis aphylla. Acacia
arabica (pabul)^ Populus euphratica (the ' willows ' of Ps.
cxxxvii. 2), Salvadora persica (erroneously identified by Royl
with the mustard of Matt. xiii. 31), taiparisk, Zizyphus, Lotus^
etc. The dry flora extends somewhat in a south-east direction,
and then blends insensibly with that of the western peninsula ;
some species representing it are found in the upper Gangetic
plain, and a few are widely distributed in dry parts of the
country.
Assam and This area is described by Sir Joseph Hooker as comprising
Malayan < ^^^ ^0X2, of the perennially humid regions of India, as of
the whole Malayan peninsula, the upper Assam valley, the
Khasi mountains, the forests of the base of the Himalayas
from the Brahmaputra to Nepal, of the Malabar coast, and
of Ceylon.'
Western '^^^ Western India type is difficult to characterize, and is
India. intermediate between the two just preceding. It occupies a
comparatively dry area, with a rainfall under 75 inches. In
respect to positive affinities. Sir Joseph Hooker has pohited
out some relations with the flora of tropical Africa as evidenced
by the prevalence of such genera as Grewia and Impatiens, and
the absence, common to both countries, of oaks and pines
which abound in the Malayan archipelago. The annual vegeta-
tion which springs up in the rainy season includes numerous
genera, such as Sida and Indigofera, which are largely repre-
sented both in Africa and Hindustan. Palms also in both
countries are scanty, the most notable in Southern India being
the wild date (Phcenix sylvestris) ; Borassus and the cocoa-nut
are cultivated. The forests, although occasionally very dense,
as in the Western Ghdts, are usually drier and more open than
those of the Malayan type, and are often scrubby. The most
important timber-trees are the tim (Cedrela Toona), sdl (Shorea
robusta), the present area of which forms two belts separated
by the Gangetic plain ; satin - wood (Chloroxylon Swietenia),
common in the drier parts of the peninsula; sandal-wood,
especially characteristic of Mysore ; iron-wood (Mesua ferrea),
and teak (Tectona grandis).
[665 ]
CHAPTER XXV.
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
The vital statistics of India^ are derived from five chief Five
sources. Of these, the first or European army consists of health^ °
foreigners under special medical conditions, and subject to returns,
the disturbing influence of ' invaliding.' The second, or native
army ; the third, or jail population ; and the fourth, or police ;
are all composed of natives, but of natives under special con-
ditions as regards food, discipline, or labour. It is dangerous
to generalize from returns thus obtained, with regard to the
health statistics of the ordinary population of India. For that
^ The literature of Indian health statistics and medical aid may be
divided into eight chief classes : — (i) Separate treatises by a series of
medical observers, dating from the latter part of the i8th century and
continuing up to the present time. (2) Official special Reports of the
Medical Boards of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay on the great outbreak of
cholera in 1817 ; the Medico-Topographical Reports (1825-40) of the chief
stations of the Madras Presidency, by the Medical Board of that Presidency.
(3) The Transactions of the Medical Physical Society of Calcutta (1823-39),
and of Bombay (1837-76) ; the Indian Annals of Medical Science (Cal-
cutta) from 1853-80 ; other medical journals at different periods in the
three Presidencies. (4) Reports on the Medical Education of the Natives
of India, commencing with vernacular medical schools in Calcutta and
Bombay (1820-30), developing (1835-57) into the Medical Colleges of
Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and extending into medical schools at
Haidarabad (Deccan), Nagpur, Agra, Lahore, Balrampur (Oudh), Patna,
Dacca, Poona, Ahmadabad. (5) Reports on Vital Statistics by the various
Medical Boards, Medical Departments, and Inspectors-General of Hospitals;
since 1 827 these assume a prominent place. (6) The Annual Reports of
the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, since 1874,
and of the Sanitary Commissioners to the local Governments ; the Annual
Reports of the Inspectors-General of Jails, of the Inspectors-General of
Police, and of the health officers to municipal bodies in the various Presi-
dencies and Provinces. (7) Reports by special Committees or Commis-
sions, such as those on the Bardwan fever, on the cattle-plague in Bengal,
the Orissa famine of 1866, the Madras famine of 1878, etc. (8) Annual
Reports of the public hospitals, dispensaries, and other medical charities.
The author has been unable to test all the dates in this footnote ; but he
reproduces some of them, unverified, from a memorandum supplied to him
ly Dr. Morehead, formerly of Bombay.
666 VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
population, however, a system of registration exists, and this
system forms the fifth source of our data on the subject.
Registra- In certain Provinces, registration is carried out with some
eeneral ^^^g^ee of efficiency. But the natives shrink from pubUcity
population, touching the details of their life. They could only be forced
Why to give uniform and absolutely trustworthy returns of birth?,
worthy' deaths, marriages, sex, and age by a stringent legislation, and
a costly administrative mechanism, from which the Govern-
ment wisely abstains. In municipalities, however, registration
furnishes a fairly accurate account of the vital statistics of the
urban population. For the rural Districts, special areas in
some Provinces were selected for statistical supervision ; and
this has been now gradually extended, with the exception of
certain exceptionally situated tracts, to practically the whole
population. But the results obtained are still necessarily
imperfect.
The The Census operations, conducted under special legislation,
^"^"^' will furnish a general picture of the Indian people every ten
years. But the complete details have, up to the present time
of writing, been obtained only for the two Censuses of 187 1
and 1 88 1. The chief results of the Census of 1881 are given
in chapter ii., and in Appendices I. to X. at the end of this
volume.
Sources of In treating of the public health of India, therefore, three
^'^'^°^' points must always be borne in mind. The data are obtained
either, first, from limited classes under special medical condi-
tions ; or second, from limited areas under special statistical
supervision ; or third, from a general system of registration
spread over the whole country, but which has hitherto failed
to yield trustworthy results. General averages from such
sources, struck for the entire population, can only be accepted
as estimates based upon the best information at present
available.
Death-rate Subject to the above remarks, it may be stated that the
in India, evidence goes to show an annual death-rate of 32*57 per
thousand in India. During the famine of 1877-78, the death-
rate in Madras was ascertained to be equal to an annual rate
of 53'2 per thousand. In 1877, the death-rate among the
European troops in India was 12*71 per thousand, being the
lowest recorded up to that year; in the native army, 13*38
per thousand ; in the public jails, 61*95 per thousand, rising
to 176 per thousand in the Madras prisons, which were flooded
by the famine-stricken population. In 1883, the death-rate
returns of European troops in India showed a mortality of
BIRTHS AND DEATHS: BENGAL. 667
10 '88 per thousand, the lowest recorded in any year for which
full returns have been compiled. In the native army in 1883
the mortality on the total strength was 1176 per thousand, or
including men absent from their regiments, 14*31 per thousand,
being about one-half the average rates for 1877-81. The jail
mortality also showed a satisfactory reduction, the death-rate
having fallen to 33*64 per cent.
The returns of births, as given hereafter for each Province,
are too untrustworthy to allow of an attempt to calculate the
birth-rate for the whole country. The average duration of life Average
in India is, on slender foundation, estimated at 30I years. ^"j?^'^°"
Instead of attempting generalizations, which, although interest-
ing to the speculative statist, might mislead the actuary and be
perverted into an unsound basis for induction, the following
paragraphs are confined to the returns as furnished for the
separate Provinces ; together with the health statistics of the
European troops, the native army, and the jail population.
The following paragraphs are condensed from the Reports of
the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, for
1877 and 1883.
In Bengal, the system of collecting statistics over specially Vital
selected areas has been abolished, and an attempt is being of^gen^'^i
made to obtain returns equally from the whole Province. The in 1877.
registration of deaths in 1877 showed a ratio of 17*96 per
thousand (varying in different Districts from 36 down to 8),
which, according to the Sanitary Commissioner, ' must be very
much under the truth.' The mortality in towns (where the regis-
tration is less incomplete) was returned at 32*49 per thousand,
compared with 17*39 i^ ^^ rural circles. Of the total death-
rate, 20*24 per thousand was among males, and onlyi5*69 among
females, ' a discrepancy which must be due in the main to
defective registration.' The birth-rate, which averaged 10*20
per thousand for the whole Province, varied, according to the
returns, from 35 in Patnd to only 6 per thousand in Bardwan and
Bakarganj Districts. The male births were returned in 1877
as exceeding the female births in the proportion of 118 to 100.
Registration of vital statistics in Bengal is still very im- Vital
perfect, and it is only with regard to deaths that any attempt Qr^^^^jJ^^ ,
is made at a general registration. The total number of deaths in 18S3.
returned in 1883 as occurring among a population under regis-
tration of 66,163,884, was 1,245,676, or at the rate of 18J
per thousand (varying in different Districts from a maximum
of 36 down to a minimum of 10 per thousand). The defective
character of the registration is shown by the fact that the
668 VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
death-rate among the males was 20*59 P^^ thousand, and
among the females 17 "08 per thousand, showing an apparent
increase of over 18 per cent, of male over female deaths.
It is also exhibited in a comparison of the mortality in
towns and rural circles. In 96 towns in Bengal where
registration is necessarily under closer control, the death-rate
amounted to 27-28 per thousand, while in 552 rural registra-
tion circles it was only 18*49. Compulsory birth registration
in Bengal is only enforced in 46 towns and municipalities,
with a population of 1,685,159. These returned a total birth-
rate of 2 2 '08 per thousand in 1883 ; but that this is below the
truth is exhibited by the fact that the deaths exceeded the
births in the ratio of 7*87 per thousand, as well as by the fact
that the registered male births in towns exceeded the female
births by 14 per cent. The following figures show the causes
of the registered deaths in 1883, and the ratio they bear to the
general mortality : — Fevers, 13*81 per thousand; cholera, 1*36 ;
small-pox, 0*14; bowel complaints, 0*83; injuries, 0*35; all
other causes, 2*30 per thousand.
Vital In the Madras Presidency, both births and deaths were
^l^^!r^^\^^ much affected in 1877 by the famine which desolated that
of Madras . , , "' . . ,11
in 1S77. P^i"t of the country, and registration was conducted under
special difficulties. Though many defects are consequently
apparent, the Sanitary Commissioner is of opinion ' that the
relative intensity of the famine in different circles is fairly repre-
sented by the mortuary registration.' The general registered
death-rate was 53*2 per thousand ; and in Madras city,
ii6*7 per thousand (see article Madras Presidency, T/ie
Imperial Gazetteer of India), Among males, the rate is given
as 58*4, and among females 48*06 per thousand, 'which points
to imperfections in the record of female deaths.' The following
figures show the causes under which the deaths of 1 8 7 7 in Madras
were classified : — Cholera, 12*2 per thousand ; small-pox, 3*02 ;
fevers, 16*06 ; bowel complaints, 4*5 ; injuries, 0*5 ; all other
causes, 16*8 per thousand. The number of registered deaths in
1876 was 23*34, and in 1875, 21*1 per thousand. The famine
resulted in a marked reduction in the birth-rate, the ratio for
1877 being only 16*3, or less than that of 1876 by more than 5 per
thousand. For every too female births, 107 male births were
registered. In the nine Districts where the famine was most
severe, the birth-rate was only 12 per thousand, whereas in the
eight where the people suffered less, the rate w^as 20 per thousand.
Excess of deaths over births in Madras Presidency in 1877,
according to the above figures, 36*9 per thousand of the
BIRTHS AND DEATHS: BOMBAY, 669
population. The registration of births and deaths was not
compulsory in Madras in 1877.
Registration of vital statistics is still very imperfect in Vital
Madras, although better than in the Bengal Districts. The ^^^^^^^^f^^^
total number of deaths returned in 1883 as occurring among in 1883.
a population under registration of 28,503,100, was 541,930, or
at the rate of ig'o per thousand (varying in the several Districts
from a maximum of 38-6 to a minimum of 11 "8 per thousand),
the rate of male deaths being 197, and of female deaths 18*3
per thousand. The urban death-rate in 76 towns, with a
population of 1,696,075, was 24*9 per thousand, as against
18*6 per thousand in 153 rural registration circles, with a total
population of 26,839,745. The total number of births regis-
tered in 1883 was 791,774, or 277 per thousand, a larger
number and ratio than in any year since 1869, when registra-
tion was first commenced. The excess of male over female
births is less in proportion in Madras than in any other Pro-
vince of India, the ratio being 104*6 males to 100 females.
The death-rate from different causes in 1883 was returned as
follows: — Fevers, 7-1 per thousand; cholera, 1*2; small-pox,
1*3; bowel complaints, 07; injuries, 0*4; all other causes,
8"o per thousand. Excess of births over deaths registered in
1883, 87 per thousand of population.
In the Bombay Presidency, famine affected the death-rate in Vital
1877, and the year was also more than usually unhealthy, ^^aj^sucs
cholera and small-pox being both epidemic. The mortality, in 1877. '
according to the returns, was at the rate of 3876 per thousand.
In the famine-stricken Districts the mortality was 55*09, com-
pared with 25*71 per thousand in 1876. The following figures
show the causes of the deaths registered in 1877 : — Cholera,
2*53; small-pox, 1*69; fevers, 20*79; bowel complaints, 3*72;
injuries, 0*46 ; all other causes, 8*55 per thousand. The birth-
rate in 1877 was 19*26 per thousand (varying from 29 to 6), or
2*09 per thousand less than the rate for 1876 — 'a result which
is for the most part ascribed to the effects of famine ; but also,
in great measure, to neglect in registration.' For every 100
female births, 11 1 male births were registered. Excess of
deaths over births in Bombay Presidency in 1877, 19*54 per
thousand of the population.
Registration shows better results in the Bombay Presidency Vital
than in Madras or Bengal, but in the Sind Districts it is still ^^5^^^^*^^
1 1 r 11 , of Bombay
very imperfect, and the returns from these lower the average in 1883.
for the entire Presidency. The total number of deaths re-
turned in 1883 was 420,198, or 25*53 P^r thousand of the
670 VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
total population (varying from 41*97 per thousand in Khandesh
to 9 "1 9 in the Upper Sind Frontier District), the ratio of male
deaths being 26*02, and of female deaths 25-02 per thousand.
The male deaths registered were iii'o6, for every 100 female
deaths. The urban death-rate in 62 towns and municipalities,
with a total population of 2,105,756, was 29-61 per thousand,
as against 24*94 per thousand in 223 rural registration circles,
with a population of 14,348,658. The ratio of mortality due
to different causes was returned as follows : — Fevers, 16*21 per
thousand; cholera, 2*31; small-pox, o*8i ; bowel complaints,
2*14; injuries, 0*36; all other causes, 370. The number of
births registered during the year was 501,801, giving a rate of
30*50 per thousand of the population, which would be con-
siderably higher but for defective returns from Sind. Through-
out the entire Presidency, 109*22 male births were registered
for every 100 female. The excess of the registered births
over the deaths was at the rate of 4*97 per thousand of the
population.
Vital The North-Western Provinces and Oudh together returned a
statistics of (iea.th-rate in 1877 of 19*67 per thousand, varying from 29 to 12
Western P^^ thousand. For Oudh alone, the rate was 17*1; and for
Provinces the North-Western Provinces alone, 20*6. The mortality in
in 1877. ^^^^ towns of the amalgamated Province was 29*43, compared
with 18*99 i^^ t^^ rural circles; and of the total death-rate,
21*06 was among males, and 18*12 among females. The
registration of births, which in 1877 was confined to the
municipahties, showed an average rate of 39*22 per thousand,
varying from 70 at Urai to 14 at Dehra. Excess of births over
deaths, 10*27 per thousand of the population.
Vital Considerable improvement in registration of vital statistics
statistics of in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh has been effected
North- . „ , , . , ,, , , ...
Western smce 1877, and birth as well as death registration is now
Provinces carried on throughout the entire Lieutenant-Governorship. The
in 1883. statistics, however, still bear internal evidence that at the best
they are only approximately accurate. The total number of
deaths returned in 1883 (a year of improved health, accom-
panied by plenty and cheapness of food) was 1,216,297, or at
the rate of 27*57 per thousand of the population, the lowest
for any year since 1877 (varying from 48*33 to 17*49 P^r
thousand), the rate of male deaths being 28*49, ^^'^ ^^ female
deaths 26*58 per thousand, the excess of male over female
deaths being on an average 15*88 per cent. The urban death-
rate in 103 towns and municipalities, with a total population
of 2,756,493, was 35*32 per thousand, as against 2 7 05 i)er
BIRTHS AND DEATHS: PUNJAB, 671
thousand in 1044 rural registration circles, with a population
of 41,351,376. The ratio of mortality due to different causes
was returned as follows : — Fevers, 18 '8 2 per thousand ; cholera,
o'4i ; small-pox, 3*14; bow^el complaints, 1*51 ; injuries, 0*48;
all other causes, 3*2 1 per thousand. The mortality from small-
pox was unusually high during the year. The average birth-
rate in 1883 was 40*84 per thousand, the highest on record since
1879, when the general registration of births was first intro-
duced into these Provinces, and the highest in any of the
Provinces of India in 1883. The birth-rates in the various
Districts ranged from 58*24 per thousand in Lalitpur to 20*39
per thousand in Dehra Dun. Throughout the Lieutenant-
Governorship as a whole, iii'8i boys were born for every 100
girls. Except in the malaria-infested Tarai, the registered
births exceeded the deaths in every District, the total excess
of births over deaths being at the ratio of 13*27 per thousand
of the population.
In the Punjab, the death-rate for 1877 was recorded as 20 per Vital
thousand, and the same rate applies to both males and females statistics
taken separately. The District average varies from 27 per Punjab
thousand in I>ahore to 8 in Kohat on the frontier. In the towns, ^" ^^77-
the mean mortality was 33 per thousand, varying between a
maximum of 52 (in the town of Delhi) and a minimum of
12 (in Kohat). In 1877, births were registered only in the
municipal towns of the Punjab, and the results showed a birth-
rate of 31*86 per thousand. Excess of births over deaths, 5
per thousand of the population.
In 1883, the total number of deaths returned in the Punjab Vital
w^as 475,741, or at the rate of 25*25 per thousand of the statistics
population (varying in the several Districts from 35 to 16 per Punjab
thousand), the rate of male deaths being 25*13, and of female in 1883.
deaths 25*39 per thousand. The urban mortality in 1883, in
49 towns and municipalities, with a population (excluding that
of four hill sanitaria) of 1,310,383, was at the rate of 30 per
thousand, as against 25 per thousand in 397 rural registration
circles, with a population of 17,512,378. The ratio of mortality
due to different causes was returned as follows : — Fevers,
16*25 per thousand; cholera, o*oi ; small-pox, 0*64; bowel
complaints, 0*77; injuries, 0*28; all other causes, 7*29 per
thousand. The average birth-rate during the year was 39 per
thousand throughout the Punjab as compared with an average
of 41 in municipal towns. Throughout the Punjab as a whole,
ii5'i4 boys were born for every 100 girls, or an excess of
15-14 per cent, of male over female births. The excess of
672
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
Vital
statistics
of the
Central
Provinces
in 1877.
Vital
statistics
of the
Central
Provinces
in 1883.
Vital
statistics
of Berar
in 1877.
births over deaths was at the rate of 14 per thousand of the
general population. The year, however, was an exceptionally
healthy one, and the mortality from the chief diseases was less
than in any year since 1877.
In the Central Provinces and in Berar, the registration of
births and deaths is more general, and the results obtained
approach nearer to accuracy than in any of the other Provinces
of India. The recorded death-rate in the Central Provinces
in 1877 was 23*9 1 per thousand, varying from 38 in Mandla to
only 18 in Nagpur District. Among males the death-rate was
25-66, and among females 22'ii per thousand. In the towns,
the rate was 35*86 per thousand. In 1877, the total number
of births registered in the Central Provinces show a rate of
39*26 per thousand ; varying from a maximum of 45 per
thousand in Bilaspur to a minimum of 31 in Nagpur. The
proportion of male births recorded was tii for every 100
female births. Excess of registered births over deaths in
the Central Provinces in 1877, 15*35 per thousand of the
population.
In 1883, the total number of deaths returned in the Central
Provinces, among a population of 8,817,185 under registration,
was 304,763, or an average rate of 34*56 per thousand
(varying in the several Districts from 48*84 to 26*13), the
rate of male deaths being 35*83, an J of female deaths 33*28
per thousand, the excess of male over female deaths being 9
per cent. The urban mortality in 1883, in 74 towns and
municipalities, with a total population of 757,092, was at the
rate of 35*56 per thousand, as compared with 34*48 per
thousand in 94 rural registration centres, with a population of
8,060,093. The ratio of mortality due to different causes was as
follows: — Fevers, 19*86 per thousand; cholera, 1*84; small-
pox, 0*53; bowel complaints, 3*02; injuries, 0*52; all other
causes, 8*79 per thousand. Total number of births regis-
tered, 357,864, or at the average rate of 40*59 per thousand,
varying in the several Districts from 54*29 to 34*15. Male
births preponderated over female births by 7*61 per cent.
The excess of registered births over deaths was at the rate
of 6*03 per thousand of the population.
In Berar, the general registered death-rate was returned in
1877 at 28*1 per thousand. In the towns alone the mortality
was 31*4 per thousand. The birth-rate shown by the
returns of 1877 was 39*5 per thousand, varying from 47 in
Akola to 35 in Wdn District. The number of male births
recorded was 109 for every 100 female births. Excess of
BIRTHS AND DEATHS: BERAR: ASSAM. 673
births over deaths in Berar in 1877, ii"4o P^^ thousand of the
population.
The year 1883 was a particularly unhealthy one in Berar, Vital _
owing, it is supposed, to abnormally heavy rainfall ; and a severe of^BSr
epidemic of cholera largely raised the mortality returns. The in 1883.
total number of deaths returned during the year was 135,081,
or at the rate of 5 1 '3 per thousand of the population (varying
in the several Districts from 657 to 39*3 per thousand);
the rate of male deaths was 5 1 -4, and of female deaths 5 1 '3
per thousand, the excess of male over female deaths being
7 per cent. The urban death-rate in 11 towns and muni-
cipalities, with a population of 138,378, was 53*2 per thousand,
as against 51-3 per thousand in 134 rural registration circles,
with a population of 2,491,640. The ratio of mortality
due to different causes was as follows : — Fevers, 20*3 per
thousand; cholera, io'6 ; small-pox, 1-5; bowel complaints,
7*2; injuries, 0*4; all other causes, 11*3 per thousand. The
average birth-rate in 1883 was 40*3 per thousand, varying
from 43 "2 to 37*8 per thousand, the male births exceeding the
female by 6-5 per cent. Owing to the cholera epidemic, and
general unhealthiness of Berar in 1883, the registered deaths
exceeded the births in that year in the ratio of 1 1 per thousand
of the population.
In Assam, the system of registration in 1877 was that Vital
formerly in vogue in Bengal, of which this Province until statistics
recently formed part. The returns were taken over certain in 1877.
selected areas, and the results were quite untrustworthy. The
death-rate, as ascertained from these returns, was only 10-9
per thousand, varying in the several Districts from 29 to
5 per thousand. The births recorded in the selected areas were
at the rate of 20 per thousand, ranging from 34 to 10 per
thousand. The figures show an excess of deaths over births in
Assam in 1877 of 4*9 per thousand of the population.
Compulsory registration throughout the whole of Assam, Vital
with the exception of certain hill tracts, was not introduced st^^stics
till the latter half of 1882 ; and the results, as might be ex- in 1883.
pected, do not even approximate to accuracy. In 1883, the
total number of deaths registered was returned at 122,932,
or an average of 27*14 per thousand of the population
(varying in the several Districts from 41*89 to 16*27 per
thousand), the rate of male deaths being 28*34, and of female
deaths 25*89 per thousand. Excess of male over female
registered deaths, 16 per cent. In 21 towns and municipalities,
with a total population of 99,202, the average death-rate was
2 u
674
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
Vital
statistics
of British
Burma
in 1877.
Vital
statistics
of British
Burma in
1883.
30-07 per thousand, as against 27*08 per thousand in 657
rural registration circles, with a population numbering 4,428,732.
The ratio of mortality due to different causes was as follows : —
Fevers, i4'9o per thousand; cholera, 3*29; small-pox, 1*36;
bowel complaints, 3*19; injuries, 0*27; other causes, 4*12
per thousand. The average birth-rate in 1883 was 23*91 per
thousand, those of the males exceeding the females by nearly
10 percent. Excess of registered deaths over births, 3*23 per
thousand of the population.
In British Burma, registration is shown to be even more
defective than in the worst Provinces of India. The average
death-rate, according to the returns in 1877, was i7'44 per
thousand, the rate for males being 18, and for females 16 per
thousand. In Myanaung the deaths were returned at 119, and
at Maulmain at less than 13 per thousand. In the towns the
mortality was 34 per thousand, compared with 15 in the rural
circles. The birth returns showed a rate of only 21 per
thousand ; * and this general average,' to use the words of the
Report in 1877, 'is made up of such extremes that no rehance
can be placed on the figures.' In one place the birth-rate was
no less than 115 per thousand, in another it was as low as 5.
Excess of registered births over deaths in British Burma in 1877,
4 per thousand of the population.
No improvement in registration in British Burma seems to
have been effected up to 1883. Indeed, in that year the
death-rate had fallen below the figures returned for 1877. In
1883, the total registered deaths numbered 53,583, or a
rate of 14*67 per thousand of the population under regis-
tration (varying in the several Districts from 21*42 to 9*22),
the male deaths being returned at 15*37, and the female
deaths at 13*86 per thousand. The excess of registered
male deaths over female deaths was 27 per cent. In 20
towns and municipalities, with a total population of 425,775,
the registered death-rate was 25*50 per thousand, against
13*24 per thousand in 823 rural registration circles, with a
population numbering 3,227,854. The ratio of mortality
due to different causes was as follows : — Fevers, 7*19 per
thousand; cholera, o*6o; small-pox, 0*19; bowel complaints,
0*76; injuries, 0*17; other causes, 5*76. The birth-rate of<
the Province was returned at 23 per thousand, ranging in
the several Districts from 31*65 to i6*6o. The registered
male births exceeded those of the females by 6 per cent.
The registered births exceeded the deaths in the ratio of
8*0 per thousand of the population. A revised scheme of
HEALTH OF THE EUEOPEAJST ARMY. 675
registration for British Burma is now (1884) under considera
tion, the adoption of which it is hoped will result in more
accurate statistics.
After what has been stated in the introductory paragraph of Danger of
this section, it is manifest that the figures quoted from the sfatifiks!"^^
Reports of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government
of India are of little or no value for the purpose of establishing
the comparative healthiness or unhealthiness of the different
portions of the country. To construct a comparative table out
of the provincial returns would be misleading, if any attempt
vv^ere made to use it for actuarial purposes. But the tables on
the four following pages may be interesting as showing the
defects and uncertainties of Vital Statistics in India, as well as
the progress towards accuracy which has been effected between
1877 and 1883 in registering births and deaths among the
general population. The wide variations in both the birth and
death rates for various Districts usually arise from different
degrees of imperfection in the registration.
Health of the European Army. — The sanitary statistics Health
of the army in India are, in every way, more trustworthy than E^^opean
those obtained for the general population ; and as they have Army ;
been regularly collected on a uniform system for a number of
years, it is possible to draw valuable inferences.
The sanitary history of the European Army during 1877 its general
was more favourable than in any previous year for which the ?^^^g!,^^^
statistics are on record. The total strength of the Euro-
pean Army in India in 1877 was returned at 57,260 men ; the
admissions into hospital numbered 71,992 (1257 per thousand
of average strength); daily sick, 3196 (56 per thousand); deaths,
728 (1271 per thousand). The averages for the five years
1 871-1875 were as follows: — admissions into hospital, 1394
per thousand; daily sick, 57; deaths, 17*62 per thousand.
* Not only,' writes the Sanitary Commissioner, * do the results
compare favourably with the averages of the five years 187 1 to
1875, but, what is deserving of special notice, the admission-
rate and death-rate are the lowest which have yet (1877) been
attained.'
In 1883, the total strength of the European Army in India and 1883.
was 55,525; the average admission into hospital being at
the rate of 1336 per thousand ; daily sick, 63 per thousand ;
while the deaths were 10 '88 per thousand, the lowest on
\Senience conti?iued on page 680.
676
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
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GENERAL DEATH STATISTICS, 1883. 679
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1876, . .
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1877,
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1878,
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1879,
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1883, .
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44
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1492
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40
57
682
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding among European
Troops in the Three Presidencies during 1883.
Health
of the
Native
Army,
in 1877
and 1883,
of Bengal
Presidency.
Average
Strength.
Ratio per iooo of Average Strength. |
1
.5
1
u
Bengal, .
Madras, .
Bombay, .
34,079
10,498
10,948
1463
1013
1249
66
59
57
II -21
10*19
10*50
31
33
38
42-21
43-19
48-50
Health of the Native Army. — The sickness and mortality
in 1877 in the regular Native Armies of Bengal, Madras, and
Bombay, the Central India Regiments, Punjab Frontier Field
Force, and Haidarabdd Contingent, are shown by the following
figures : — average strength of troops (present with regiments),
1 13,966; admissions into hospital, 1030 per thousand; daily sick,
32; deaths from cholera, i'53; deaths from all causes, 10*90,
or, including men dying while absent from their regiments,
13*38 per thousand. In 1883, the total average strength of the
Native Army of India (present with regiments) was 114,830 ;
admissions into hospital, 923 per thousand ; average daily
sick, 31; deaths from cholera, 1*15 per thousand; deaths from
all causes, 1176 per thousand of actual regimental strength, or
i4'3i per thousand, including deaths among absentees. Malarial
fevers are the chief cause of admission into hospital ; wounds
and accidents come next; followed by dysentery, diarrhoea, and
enteric fever. The mortality amounted to 27*28 per cent, of
the total treated, the lowest since 1877. Respiratory diseases
were the cause of the largest mortality, namely, 3*91 per
thousand, followed by fevers, 1*41; and by cholera, 1*15 per
thousand.
In the Bengal Native Army, the death-rate in 1883 was
10 "5 5 per thousand, a lower ratio than for any one year since
1877, when it was 10*32 per thousand. In the Central India
Regiments, the mortality was as low as 7*89 per thousand in
1883, compared with 971 in 1877, and with 11 'lo, the average
of the ten years preceding 1877. In the Punjab Frontier
Force, the death-rate, including deaths among absentees, was
23*35 P^'^ thousand in 1883, and excluding absentees, 21*46 ;
while in 1877 the rate was 12*26 per thousand. Altogether,
the Sanitary Commissioner reports that the health of the
HEALTH OF THE NATIVE ARMY.
683
Native Army in Bengal is very satisfactor}', and that there is
still a tendency towards diminishing mortality in normal years.
In the Madras Native Army, the regimental mortality, in- of Madras;
eluding deaths among absentees, was 14*36 per thousand in
1877, and 12*51 per thousand in 1883. Excluding deaths of
absentees, the ratio was 11 -80 per thousand in 1877, and 10*76
per thousand in 1883. Besides garrisoning its own Province,
the Madras Army supplies troops for British Burma and the
Andaman and Nicobar islands, as also to certain Districts in
the Central Provinces, and to Cuttack District in Orissa.
In the Bombay Native Army, the death-rate, including of Bombay,
deaths among absentees, in 1877 was 12*96 per thousand,
varying from 1 1 '65 for regiments in the northern Division of
Bombay, to 18 '81 for those in the Konkan. In 1883, the rate
of mortality, including deaths among absentees, was i4'96 per
thousand ; excluding absentees, the rate among those actually
serving with their regiments was 12*81 per thousand.
The returns for the Haidarabad Contingent, both for 1877 Haidar-
and 1883, ^re more favourable than those for any other portion ^n^tm""
of the Native Army. The admissions into hospital in 1 8 7 7 were
only 806 per thousand ; daily sick, 26 ; and mortality (includ-
ing deaths among absentees), 9 "61 per thousand. The number
of deaths from cholera, however (4*43 per thousand), was
much above that recorded in any other part of the Native
Army. In 1883, the admissions into hospital had fallen to an
average of 572 per thousand, the daily sick-rate to 20 per
thousand, and the mortality to 7*59 per thousand.
The sickness and mortality in the Regular Native Army Results in
and other forces in 1877 and 1883 are compared in the p^^^^J^^^
following tables : — dencies
compared.
Sickness and Mortality among Native Troops in 1877.
i
Presidency, etc.
ill
III
III
<
Ratio per iooo.
•Ill
p
Is
SI
h
Bengal Native Army, .
Madras ,, „
Bombay ,,
Central India Regiments,
Punjab Frontier Field Force,
Haidarabad Contingent,
India,
13-63
14*36
12*96
io*59
14-55
9 -61
39,649
28,304
23,388
5,046
10,359
7,220
1096
860
1074
810
■as
i
25
41
26
•35
279
1-93
•79
4-43
10-32
ii-So
10-90
9-71
12-26
942
13-38
113,966
1030
32 -53
1090
684
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
Sickness and Mortality among Native Troops in 1883.
Health of
the jail
popula-
tion.
General
statistics,
1877.
Presidency, etc.
tj 3 c
III
<
Ratio per iooo.
Ill
E-
1 ^
'Ch
t
E
86
E .
Bengal Native Army, .
Madras ,, ,,
Bombay ,,
Central India Regiments,
Punjab Frontier Field Force,
Haidarabad Contingent,
India,
13-98
12-51
14-96
10-16
23'35
9-31
40,932
27,703
23,576
5,197
10,438
6,983
985
737
994
595
1,419
572
32
27
35
19
45
20
0-56
2-92
0-47
0-39
0-00
2-15
IO-55
10-76
12-8T
7-89
21-46
7-59
14-31
114,830
923
31
I-I5
11*76
Health of the Jail Population. — The Report of the
Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India for
1877, was the first which included the vital statistics of the
jails of all three Presidencies. 'The year 1877, to which
it refers/ says the Sanitary Commissioner, * is particularly
unfortunate for commencing this change, as, owing to
famine and distress over great portion of both Madras and
Bombay, the number of prisoners in those parts was sud-
denly increased far beyond all precedent ; the new prisoners
were, in large proportion, received in a low state of health,
consequent on continued privation ; the jails having such large
and unexpected calls for accommodation on them, were, as a
rule, greatly overcrowded, and the sickness and mortality, as
was to be expected, have been lamentably in excess of former
years.'
The average number of prisoners throughout India in 1877
was returned at 110,147; admissions into hospital numbered
1017 per thousand; daily sick, 36 per thousand; average
death-rate, 61 '95 per thousand. The months of October and
November gave the highest admission rate, 97 ; and the
month of November the highest death-rate, 9 '18. Dysentery,
diarrhoea, and cholera were the main causes of mortality, the
three together accounting for 33*61 out of the total of 61*95
per thousand. ' There are no previous figures with which
these general results of 1877 can be compared; they deserve
attention as the first collection of statistics regarding the sick-
ness and mortality among the prisoners of all India, a collection
which cannot fail in a few years to contribute very valuable
HEALTH OF JAIL POPULATION. 68
information.' The returns for the Bengal Presidency were very Returns
favourable, the mortality being 31*88 per thousand, as com-f°^^^p^_
pared with 37*51 in 1876, 33*65 in 1875, and 46*09, the sidencies,
average for the ten-year period, 1864-73. In the Madras Pre- ^^ ^^77 ;
sidency, the returns showed a mortality of 176*01, while the
ratio for the Bombay Presidency was 54*37 per thousand.
The causes of these high figures have already been indicated.
In only 17 of the 34 jails in the Madras Presidency was the
death-rate under 100 per thousand; in the others it varied
much, rising to 200, 300, 500, and in one (Coimbatore District
Jail) to 657 per thousand. And in Bombay Presidency,
where similar causes were at work, though in a minor degree,
the mortality, 54*37 per thousand, was double what it had
been for years.
Although 1877 was an abnormal year, especially in Madras in 1883.
and Bombay, owing to the causes stated above, the returns for
1883 show a great improvement in the vital statistics of Indian
jails over those of the previous five years. The average prison
population in India in 1883 was 88,174, as against 112,670 in
the previous five years ; the admissions into hospital were
996 per thousand, as compared with an average of 1189 in
1877-81 ; average daily sick, 36 per thousand in 1883, as
compared with 44*9 per thousand in 1877-81. The cholera
mortaUty was in the ratio of 2*28 per thousand in 1883, against
an annual average of 4*48 for the previous five years ; deaths
from dysentery and diarrhoea showed a ratio of 10*64 per
thousand in 1883, against 24*97 per thousand in the years
1877-81; while the deaths from all causes were 31*37 per
thousand in 1883, as against 63*01 per thousand in the five
years 1877-81. The heaviest jail mortality in 1883 was in
the Central Provinces (70*97 per thousand), Bengal (52*21
per thousand), and Assam (43*12 per thousand), while the
lowest ratio was reached in Berar, with only 8*49 deaths per
thousand.
The following tables condense the health statistics of the
Indian jails in 1877 ^"^^ i^ ^^^3 • —
[Sickness
686
VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA.
Sickness and Mortality in Indian Jails, 1877.
<
Ratio per iooo of Average Strength.
Province.
Deaths.
1
1,1
C U
< <
i
3
d
^
Bengal Proper,
North- Western Provii
Oudh.i .
Punjab,
Central Provinces,
Berar,
Assam,
British Burma, .
Madras,2 .
Bombay, 2 .
Andamans,
ices,i
17,862
21,668
6,726
12,129
3.484
963
1,261
4,686
20,328
11.531
9.039
1276
535
504
1504
907
1382
844
967
39
21
16
37
37
26
40
38
40
7^
8-29
1-43
"•08
•29
II-IO
19-63
26-12
3-64
...
18-98
2-08
16-64
12-92
1-04
23-00
18-56
85-15
26-19
5-20
3-42
1-89
I -19
1-07
12-92
5-19
2-38
4-27
24-50
8-67
7-19
49-66
19 71
10-56
33-80
45-06
15-58
56-30
5676
176-01
54-37
34-30
1 These, although now under one Local Government, are shown separately
for comparison with former years. The favourable results in Oudh are worthy
of attention.
2 It should be remembered that the mortality in the Madras and Bombay
Jails in 1877 was greatly increased by the reception of starving prisoners during
the famine.
Sickness and Mortality in Indian Jails, 1883.
Province.
Bengal Proper,
North-Western
and Oudh,
Punjab,
Central Provinces,
Berar,
Assam,
British Burma
Madras,
Bombay, .
Andamans,
Provinces)
14,288
22,924
12,128
3.875
1,060
1,206
S.149
7,666
7,806
11,511
Ratio per iooo of Average Strength,
1498
563
951
919
558
2125
1 159
861
734
1454
50 4 "27
23 2-18
27 i
36
14
56
39
32
27
67
2-84
5 -So
7-96
1*96
2-05
Deaths.
O D.
pa E
23 '44
4"32
6-i8
4671
1-89
16-58
7-96
12-78
679
2-87
^ i
O-TJ g
.0 c S
< <
2-94
1-48
1-24
4-13
3*32
1-55
2 '61
1-67
•69
52-21
19-76
29-11
70-97
8-49
43*12
28-94
29-87
34-33
19-63
APPENDICES.
APPENDICES.
689
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APPENDICES.
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APPENDICES.
693
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of Bombay,
Lieutenant - Governorship
of Bengal
Lieutenant -Governorship
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Lieu tenan t - Governorsh i p
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Commissionersh p of
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Chief - Commissionership
of British Burma, . .
<
696
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX VIII. — List of the 149 Towns in British India of which the Population
EXCEEDS 20,000, IN 188 r.
{Compiled from the Table in the Imperial Census Report.')
Name of Town.
Province.
District.
Population.
I. Bombay City and Island, .
Bombay, .
773.196
2. /Calcutta City, ....
Bengal, ,
433.219
3.1 Calcutta Suburbs, . ...
\ Total, . .
Bengal, .
251.439
684,658
4.1 South Suburban,
Bengal. . .
24 Parganas,
51,658
5. 'North Suburban,
Grand total of Calcutta and suburbs,
Bengal, . . .
24 Parganas, .
29,982
766,298
6. Madras City, ....
Madras, .
405,848
7. Lucknow, .
Oudh,
Lucknow, .
261,303
8. Benares,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Benares, .
199,700
9. Delhi,
Punjab, .
Delhi,
173.393
10. Patna,
Bengal, .
Patna,
170,654
II. Agra, .
N.-W. Provinces, .
Agra,
160,203
12. Bangalore, .
Mysore, .
Bangalore,
155.857
13. Amritsar, .
Punjab, .
Amritsar, .
151,896
14. Cawnpur, .
N.-W. Provinces, .
Cawnpur, .
151.444
15. Lahore,
Punjab, .
Lahore,
149.369
16. Allahabad, .
N.-W. Provinces, .
Allahabad,
148,547
17. Rangoon, .
•
British Burma, .
Kangoon, .
134,176
18. Poona,
Bombay, .
Poona,
129.751
19. Ahmadabad,
,
Bombay, .
Ahmadabad, .
127.651
20. Bareilly (Bareli),
N.-W. Provinces, .
Bareilly, .
113,417
21. Surat, .
Bombay, .
Surat,
109,844
22. Howrah, .
Bengal, . .
Howrah, .
105,206
23. Meerut,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Meerut, . . .
99.565
24. Nagpur, .
■ •
Central Provinces, .
Nagpur, .
98,299
25. Trichinopoli,
Madras, . . .
Trichinopoli, .
84.449
20. Peshawar, .
Punjab,
Peshawar,
79,982
27. Dacca,
Bengal, .
Dacca, .
79,076
28. Gaya, .
Bengal, .
Gaya,
76,415
29. Jabalpur, .
Central Provinces, .
Jabalpur, .
75-705
30. Shahjahanpur,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Shahjahanpur, .
74,830
31. Madura,
Madras, .
Madura, .
73,807
32. Kardchi, .
Sind,. .
Karachi, .
73,560
33. Multan, .
Punjab,
Multan, .
68,674
34. BhSgalpur, .
Bengal, .
Bhagalpur,
68,238
35. Ambala,
Punjab, .
Ambala,
67,463
36. Morad^bdd,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Moradabad, .
67,387
37. Darbhanga,
Bengal, .
Darbhanga,
65,953
38. Farukhabad,
N.-W. Provinces, .
FarukhabaJ, .
62.437
59. Koil(Airgarh),
N.-W. Provinces, .
Aligarh, .
61,730
40. Sholapur, .
Bombay, .
Sholapur, .
61,281
41. Saharanpur,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Saharanpur,
59,194
42. Gorakhpur,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Gorakhpur,
57.922
43. Calicut,
Madra-s . . .
Malabar, . . .
57,^85
44. Mirzapur, .
45. Faizabdd, .
N.-W. Provinces, .
Mirzapur, .
56,3/8
Oudh, . . .
Faizabad, .
55,570
46. Monghyr, .
Bengal, .
Monghyr, . .
55,372
47. Tanjore,
Madras, .
Tanjore, .
54,745
48. Negapatam,
49. BelTary,
Madras, .
Tanjore, .
53,855
Madras, .
Bellary, .
53,460
50. Maulmain, .
British Burma, .
Maulmain,
53,107
51. Rdwal Pindi,
Punjab, .
Rdwal Pindi, .
52,97s
52. Jdlandhar, .
Punjab, .
Jalandhar,
52,119
53. Chaprd,
Bengal. .
Sdran,
51,670
54. Khampii, .
Central Provinces, .
Ndgpur, .
50,987
SS. Salem,
Madras, .
Salem,
50,667
S6. Combaconum,
Madras, .
Tanjore, .
50,098
57. Behar,
Bengal, .
Patnd, . . .
48,968
58. Aimere,
59. Haidardbdd,
Rdjputdna,
Ajmere, .
48,73s
Haidardbdd, .
48,153
60. Muttra,
N.-W. Provinces, .
Muttra, .
47,483
61. SiAlkot, .
Punjab, .
Sidlkot, .
45,762
62. Sdgar (Saugor)
•
Central Provinces, .
Sdgar,
44,416
63. Ludhidna, .
Puniab, .
Madras, .
Ludhidna, .
44,163
64. Cuddalore, .
South Arcot,
43,545
65. Arrah,
Bengal, .
N.-W. Provinces, .
Shahdbdd,
42,998
66. Jaunpur, .
67. Cuttack, .
Jaunpur, .
42,845
Mengal, .
Sind,.
Cuttack, .
42,656
63. Shikdrpur, .
69, Muzafiarpur,
Shikdrpur,
Muzaffarpur, .
42,496
Bengal, .
42,460
70. Murshiddbid,
Reneal. .
Mur:,hiddbdd, .
39,231
71. Firozptir, .
! i Pui.Jab, . . .
Madras.
Firozpur, .
Coimbatore,
39,570
72. Coimbatore,
38,967
APPENDICES,
697
List of 149 Towns in British India of which the Population exceeds 20,000— continued.
Name of Town.
Province.
District.
Population.
74-
75-
76.
77-
78.
79-
80.
8i.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91-
92.
93-
94-
93-
96.
97-
98.
99.
100.
lOI.
I02.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
no.
III.
112.
"3-
114.
"5-
no.
117.
118.
119.
120.
122.
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
128.
129.
130-
131.
132.
153-
134-
135-
136.
137-
138.
139-
140.
141.
142.
143-
144.
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
Ahmadnagar,
Vellore, .
Broach,
Conjevaram,
Hubli,
Palghat, .
Amroha, .
Bandar (Masulipatai
Etawah, .
Bardwan, .
Akyab,
Bhiwani, .
Budaun, .
Midnapur,.
Ghazipur, .
Belgaum, .
Mangalore,
Hugli and Chinsura,
Agarpara,
Vizagapatam,
Burhanpur,
Pilibhit, .
Santipur, .
Satara,
Banda, .
Coconada,
Prome,
Nadiad, .
Bassein, .
Chandausi,
Nellore, .
Krishnagar,
Sukkur,
Dharwar, .
Khurja,
Nasik,
Ellichpur, .
Tellicherri,
Cannanore,
Hathras, .
Serampur,
Ellore, .
Hajipur, .
Panipat, .
Raipur,
Rajahrnahendri (Rajahmundry),
Batala, .
Rewari,
Berhampur,
Berhampur,
Amraoti, .
Tinnevelli,
Karndl, .
Mayavaram,
Gujranwala,
Vizianagaram,
Adoni,
Dera Ghazi KMn,
Dera Ismail Khdn,
Deoband, .
Puri, .
Naihatf, .
Brinddban,
Sambhal, .
Hoshiarpur,
Fatehpur, .
Nasirabad,
Bettiah, .
Jehlam (Jhelum),
Sirajganj, .
Chittagong,
Nagina, .
Karniil (Kumool),
Balasor, .
Mainpuri,
Panroti, .
Bombay, .
Madras, .
Bombay, .
Madras, .
Bombay, .
Madras, .
N.-W. Provinces,
Madras, .
N.-W. Provinces,
Bengal,
British Burma,
Punjab,
N.-W. Provinces.
Bengal,
N.-W. Provinces,
Bombay, .
Madras,
Bengal,
Bengal,
Madras, .
Central Provinces,
N.-W. Provinces,
Bengal,
Bombay, .
N.-W. Provinces,
Madras,
British Burma,
Bombay, .
British Burma,
N.-W. Provinces,
Madras, .
Bengal,
Sind, .
Bombay, .
N.-W. Provinces,
Bombay, .
Berar,
Madras, .
Madras,
N.-W. Provinces
Bengal,
Madras, .
Bengal,
Punjab,
Central Provinces,
Madras, .
Punjab,
Punjab,
Bengal,
Madras,
Berar,
Madras, .
Punjab,
Madras, .
Punjab,
Madras, .
Madras, .
Punjab,
Punjab, .
N.-W. Provmces,
Bengal,
Bengal,
N.-W. Provinces,
N.-W. Provinces,
Punjab,
N.-W. Provinces,
Ajmere, .
bengal,
Punjab,
Bengal,
Bengal,
N.-W. Provinces,
Madras, .
Bengal,
N.-W. Provinces,
Madras, .
Population of 56 towns with above 50,000 inhabitants,
Population of 93 towns between 20,000 and 30,000,
Tiital population of 149 largest towns, .
Ahmadnagar,
North Arcot,
Broach,
Chengalpat,
Dharwar, .
Malabar, .
Moradabad,
Kistna,
Etawah, .
Bardwan, .
Akyab,
Hissar, .
Budaun, .
Midnapur,
Ghazipur, .
Belgaum, .
S. Kanara.
Hugli, .
24 Pargana*!,
Vizagapatam,
Nimar,
Pilibhit, .
Nadiya, .
Satara,
Banda, _ .
Godavari, .
Prome,
Kaira,
Bassein, .
Moradabad,
Nellore, .
Nadiya, .
Shikarpur,
Dharwar, .
Bulandshahr,
Nasik,
Ellichpur, .
Malabar, .
Malabar, .
Aligarh, .
Hugli, .
Godavari, .
MuzafFarpur,
Karnal, .
Raipur,
Godavari, .
Gurdaspur,
Gurgaon, .
Murshidabad,
Ganjam, .
Amraoti, .
Tinnevelli,
Kamal,
Tanjore, .
Gujranwila,
Vizagapatam,
Bellary, .
D. G. Khan,
D. I. Khan,
Saharanpur,
Puri, .
24 Parganas,
Muttra, ^ .
Moradabad,
Hoshiarpur,
Fatehpur, .
Ajmere,
Champaran,
Jehlam,
Pabnd,
Chittagong,
Bijnaur, .
Karniil,
Balasor,
Mainpuri, .
S. Arcot, .
37,492
37.491
37,281
37,275
36,677
36,339
36,145
35,056
34,721
34,080
33,989
33,762
33,680
33,560
32,885
32,697
32,099
31,177
30,3»7
30,291
30,017
29,721
29,687
29,028
28.974
28,856
28,8-3
28,304
28,147
27,521
27,505
27,477
27,389
27,191
27,190
27,070
26,728
26,410
26,386
25,656
25,559
25,092
25,078
25,022
24,948
24,555
24,281
23,972
23,605
23,599
23,550
23,221
23,133
23.044
22,884
22,577
22,441
22,309
22,164
22,116
22,095
21,533
21,467
21,373
21,363
21,328
21,320
21,263
21,107
2t,037
20,969
20,503
20,329
20,265
20,236
20,172
6,591,810
2,794,935
9,386,745
698
APPENDICES.
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INDEX.
Abars, an aboriginal tribe in Assam, 57.
Aboriginal criminal tribes, 71, 72.
Aboriginal tribes, non-Ar}-an population,
chap. iii. pp. 53-74. Kistvaen builders,
flint and bronze periods, 53 ; non-
Arj-ans of Vedic India, 53, 54 ; Anda-
man islanders, 55 ; Anamalai hillmen,
55 ; Gonds and aboriginal tribes of the
Central Pro\-inces, 55, 56 ; the Juangs
or leaf- wearers of Orissa, 56 ; tribes of
the Himalayas, 56; of Assam, 57;
Santals, their tribal government, his-
tory, religion, 57-60; the Kandhs of
Orissa, their tribal government, blood
revenge, marriage by capture, and
human sacrifice, 60-63 ; origin of the
non-Ar}'an tribes, 63 ; the three non-
Aryan stocks — Tibeto-Burman, Dra-
vidian, Kolarian, — their languages,
63-68 ; statistics of non- Aryan races in
1872 and 1881, 69-71 ; Hinduizing
tendency among aboriginal tribes, 70,
71 ; crushed aboriginal tribes, 71 ;
gipsy clans, 71 ; aboriginal criminal
tribes, 71, 72; the non-Ar>'an hill
tribes as soldiers, 72 ; Colonel Dixon's
work among the Mhairs of Rajputana,
73 ; Sir James Outram's work among
the Bhils, 73; fidelity of the hill
races, 73.
Aborigines of India, by Mr. B. H. Hodg-
son, quoted, 340 (footnote i).
Abu, Mount, in Rajputana, held sacred
by the Jains, 35; 159.
Abul Fazl, Akbar's finance minister and
historian, and the author of the Ain-i-
AkbaH, 300.
Acta Sanctorum, Tlie, of the Hindus,
208.
Adams, Major, defeat of Mfr Kasim by,
at Gheriah and Udhanala, 386.
Adams, Mr., acting Governor-General
(1823), 403-
Adam's Peak in Ceylon, Shrine common
to Buddhism, Siva-worship, and Mu-
hammadanism, 203.
Adil Shahi, Muhammadan d>Tiasty in
Southern India (1490- 1636 A.D.), 288.
Administration of British India. — See
British Administration.
Adoption, Hindu practice of, 414, 415.
Afghan dynasty of Delhi (1540-56 A.D.),
291.
Afghanistan, History of, under the
Duranis (1747 - 1826), 406 ; early
British dealings with (1800 - ^j),
407 ; Afghan dynastic quarrels, 407 ;
Russian intrigues, 407 ; installation of
Shah Shuja, and occupation of Kabul
by a British force (1839), 407, 408;
rising of the Afghan people, murder of
the British envoy, and massacre of the
British army on its retreat through
the passes to India (1841-42), 408 ; the
British army of retribution, 408, 409 ;
Lord Ellenborough's proclamation,
409 ; second Afghan war (1878-81),
426, 427 ; murder of Sir L. Cavagnari,
the British Resident, 427 ; retributive
occupation of Kabul, 427 ; Sir F.
Roberts' march from Kabul to Kan-
dahar, and defeat of Ayub Khan, 424 ;
recognition of Abdurrahman Khan as
Amir, 427 ; the Rawal Pindi dafbdr,
427 ; trade routes to Afghanistan, 586 ;
value of Afghan trade, 586.
Agastya, the Brahman Saint of Southern
India, Legend of, 329.
Aghori, a carrion-eating sect of Sivaite
devotees, 214.
Agni, the Vedic God of Fire, 80.
Agra, capital of Akbar the Great, who
built the fort, 294 ; Akbar's tomb at
Sikandra near, 295 ; embassy of Sir
Thomas Roe to the Emperor Jahangir,
301 ; 367; Shah J ahan's great architec-
tural works at the Taj Mahal and Moti
Masjid, 304 ; deposition of Shah Jahan
and imprisonment within Agra Fort
(where he died), by his usurping son
2 y
7o6
INDEX,
Aurangzeb, 305 ; establishment of
English factory at (1620 A.D.), 367.
Agra Canal, 29 ; 532, 533.
Agricultural Relief Acts for Southern
India^ 449, 450.
Agricultural school at Saidapet in Madras,
516.
Agricultural stock in India, 519-523;
famous breeds of cattle and horses,
520, 521.
Agriculture and products, chap. xvii.
pp. 482-544. Agriculture in India,
the occupation of almost the entire
population, 482, 483 ; various systems
of agriculture, 483 ; rotation of crops,
petite culture, 483, 484 ; statistics of
rice cultivation in different Provinces,
484-486 ; hill cultivation, 486 ; wheat,
486 ; area under principal food-grains,
487 ; millets and minor cereals, 488,
489 ; pulses, 489 ; oil-seeds, 489 ;
vegetables, fruits, and spices, 490 ;
palms and sugar-cane, 491 ; cotton,
491-494; jute, 494, 495; indigo,
495-498 ; opium, 498, 499 ; tobacco,
• 499, 500 ; uncertainty of Indian crop
statistics, 500 ; approximate area under
certain principal crops, 501 ; special
crops, coffee, 502-504 ; tea, 504-509 ;
cinchona, 509-511 ; silk, 51 1-5 14; lac
and lac-dye, 515 ; model farms, their
small success, 515, 516; the problem
of improved husbandry, 517 ; the im-
pediments to better husbandry, namely,
want of cattle, want of manure, and
want of water, 517-519; agricultural
stock, 519-523 ; forest conservancy and
growth of the Indian Forest Depart-
ment, 522 ; 524-527 ; nomadic cultiva-
tion, 527, 528 ; irrigation and its
function in India during famine, 528,
529 ; irrigation areas in the different
Provinces, 529-538 ; irrigation statistics
for British India, 538, 539 ; famines
and their causes, 539, 540 ; summary
of Indian famines, 541, 542 ; the great
famine in Southern India (1876-78),
542-544.
Agriculture in India, small holdings, 62 ;
absence of large commercial towns,
62.
Ahams, tribe in Assam, formerly the
ruling race in that Province, now a
crushed tribe, 71 ; present descendants
of, 188.
Ahi, the Vedic Demon of Drought, 81
and footnote.
Ahmadnagar, Muhammadan Kingdom of
Southern India (1490- 1636 A.D.), 288.
Ahmad Shdh, Durdni (1747-61 A.D.),
3H. 315.
Ain-i-Akbarl^ or chronicles of Akbar,
translated by Professor H. Blochmann,
272 (footnote); 291 (footnote i) ; 295
(footnotes).
Aix-la-Chapelle, Madras restored to the
English by the treaty of (1748), 379.
Ajmere, establishment of an English
factory at (1614 A.D.), 366.
Akas, an aboriginal hill tribe in Assam,
57.
Akbar the Great, founder of the Mughal
Empire (1556-1605 A.D.), 291-300;
chief events of his reign, 291 (footnote) ;
his work in India, 292, 293 ; concilia-
tory policy towards the Hindus, 293 ;
conquest of Rajput chiefs, and exten-
sion and consolidation of the Mughal
Empire, 293, 294 ; change of capital
from Delhi to Agra, 294 ; his religious
faith, 295 ; army, judicial, and police
reforms, 296; his revenue survey and
land settlement of India, 297, 298 ;
revenues of the Mughal Empire under
Akbar, 297-300.
Alabaster, Mr., The Wheel of the Law,
quoted, 137 (footnote).
Ala-ud-din, the second King of the Khilji
dynasty (1295-1315 A.D.), 281 ; his
invasion and conquest of Southern
India, 281, 282; massacre of Mughal
settlers, 282 ; Hindu revolts, 282.
Albuquerque, second Viceroy of Portu-
guese India (1509 A.D.), 359; his
capture of Goa, and death there, 359 ;
his policy towards the natives, 359,
360.
Albuquerque, John de, first Bishop of
Goa(i539-53 A.D.), 244.
Alexander the Great, his expedition to
India, and campaigns in the Punjab
and Sind (327-325 B.C.), 163-166.
Alexandria, the modern Uchh in the
Punjab, founded by Alexander, 166.
Alfred the Great's Mission to India
(883 A.D.), 239.
All Vardi Khan, Nawab of Bengal
(1740-56) ; construction of the Maratha
ditch around Calcutta as a protection
against the Marathas, 381.
AUgarh, Defeat of the Marathas at, by
Lord Lake (1803), 398.
AHwal, Battle of, in the first Sikh war,
411,
Allahabad and Kora made over to the
Mughal Emperor by Clive, 387 and
footnote ; their resumption by Hastings
and sale to the Wazir of Oudh, 389,
39O;
Almeida, Francisco de, first Viceroy of
Portuguese India (1505 A.D.), 359.
Alphabets of ancient India, 102, 103.
Altamsh, the third monarch of the Slave
dynasty (1211-36 A.D.), invasion by
Mughals, 279.
Ambdla darbdr^ The, 425.
INDEX.
707
Amboyna, massacre of, 362 ; 368 ; 561.
Amherst, Lord, Governor - General of
India (1823-28), first Burmese war
(1824-26) ; capture of Bhartpur, 403,
404.
Amir Khan, the Pindari leader (18 17),
404.
An or Aeng, Pass over the Arakan Yoma
Mountains in Burma, 6.
Analysis of the Constitution of the East
In Ha Company, by P. Auber, quoted,
364, 365 (footnotes).
Analysis of Indian foreign import and
export trade, principal staples, 565-
Ancient India as described by Megas-
thenes and Arrian, by Mr. J. M'Crin-
dle, quoted, 1 68 (footnote i), 356
(footnote).
Ancient land system of India, 438.
Ancient mingling of castes, 195, 196.
Andaman Islanders, The, 55 ; assassina-
tion of Lord Mayo at Port Blair, 425.
Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan series, 102
and footnote.
Annals and Antiquities of Rdjasthdn, by
Colonel Tod, quoted, 180 (footnotes
I and 3); 184 (footnote 2); 185 (foot-
notes I and 3).
Antelope and deer, Varieties of, 657,
658.
Antimony, 626.
Arab expeditions to Bombay and Sind
(636-828 A. D.), 268.
Arakan Oil Company, 626, 627.
Arakan Yomas, range of hills in Burma, 3.
A J'c hero logical Sui'vey of Western India,
Mr. E. Thomas' Papers in, quoted, 147
(footnote); 172 (footnotes); 175 (foot-
note 3); 182 (footnotes i and 4); 185
(footnote 4).
Architecture, ancient Indian, 112; 170;
under the Mughal Emperors, 294,
304-
Arcot, capture and defence of, by Clive
(1751), 379; rival French and English
nominees lor the throne of, 379.
Area, towns, villages, houses, population,
etc, of British India, Appendix I.,
689.
Argaum, Battle of, 323; 398.
Armagaon, East India Company's fac-
tory established at (1625-26 A.D.),
368.
Army of India, its constitution, 470, 471 ;
the armies of the three Presidencies,
471 ; strength, 471 ; health and vital
statistics, 675-684.
Art and architecture in ancient India,
112; 170, 171.
Arts and manufactures, 112, 113, also
chap. XX. pp. 598-617. English com-
petition with native art- work, 598 ;
native rural industries, 599 ; forti-
fied weaving settlements of the East
India Company, 599 ; cotton-weaving
an indigenous industry in India, 599 ;
its decline, but still a domestic industry
supplying three-fifths of the Indian
consumption, 600 ; cotton-weaving in
different Provinces, 600, 601 ; special
Indian cotton fabrics, 601-603 '■> Indian
silk-weaving in Burma, Assam, and
Bengal, 602 ; classes of silk fabrics,
602, 603 ; steam silk factories, 603 ;
embroidery, 603 ; Kashmir shawls,
603 ; leather work, 603 ; velvet work,
603 ; jewelled embroidery, 604 ; carpets
and rugs, 604, 605 ; goldsmith's work
and jewellery, 605, 606 ; precious
stones, 606 ; iron work and cutlery,
606 ; chain armour and damascene
work, 606, 607 ; brass, copper, and
bell-metal work, 607, 608 ; pottery
and tile work, 608 ; sculpture, 608 ;
609 ; wood carving, 609 ; inlaying
and ivory carving, 609 ; European
industries, cotton mills, 610-615 ; jute
mills, 614-616; breweries, 616, 617;
paper mills, 617 ; leather factories,
Aryan and Turanian migrations from
Central Asia, 174, 175; 130, 131.
Aryan races of India, number in 1881,
51. Also chap. iv. pp. 75-131. The
Aryan stock, its European and Eastern
branches, 75 ; the Aryans in their pri-
mitive home, 75, 76 ; European and
Indian languages merely varieties
of Aryan speech, 76 ; Indo-European
words, 76 ; common origin of Euro-
pean and Indian religions, 76 ; the
Indo-Aryans on the march, and in
their new settlements, 76, 77 ; the
Rig- Veda, its supposed dates, 77 ;
Vedic hymns, 78 ; caste and widow-
burning unknown to the Rig- Veda,
78 ; Aryan civilisation in the Veda, 79 ;
eastern spread of the Aryans, 79 ; the
gods of the Veda, 79 ; Indra, the Cloud
Compeller or rain-bringer, and Agni,
the God of Fire, 80, 81 ; other Vedic
gods, 81 ; the Brahmanical triad, 81 ;
blood-loving deities of Hinduism
scarcely known in the Veda, 82 ; the
Horse Sacrifice a substitution for
Human Sacrifice, 82; Vedic conceptions
of the Deity, 82 ; a Vedic hymn, 82,
83 ; primitive Aryan burial, 84 ; burn-
ing of the dead, 84, 85 ; Vedic legend
of Yama, the King of Death, 85 ;
Vedic farewell to the dead, 85 ; Vedic
conception of immortality, 86 ; Aryan
advance towards the Jumna and Upper
Ganges, 86 ; Aryan tribes organized
into kingdoms, 87 j origin of priestly
7o8
INDEX.
families, 87 ; growth of the priest-
hood, 87, 88 ; the four Vedas, 88 ; the
Ijrahmanas, 88, 89 ; the Sutras or
sacred traditions, 89 ; formation
of the Brahman caste, 89 ; growth
of the warrior or Kshattriya caste,
89, 90 ; the cultivating caste (Vaisya),
90 ; the four Hindu castes, 90, 91 ;
increase of Brahman, Kshattriya, and
Siidra castes, 91 ; decrease of Vaisyas,
91, 92 ; struggle between the priestly
and warrior castes, 92 ; rising preten-
sion of the Brahmans, 92 ; well-known
prehistoric legends of Kshattriyas attain-
ing Brahmanhood, 92, 93 ; the Middle-
land, the focus of Brahmanisn, 93 ;
Aryan tribes outside the Brahmanical
pale, 93 ; establishment of Brahman
supremacy, 94 ; four stages of a
Brahman's life, 95 ; the Brahman rule
of life and its hereditary results on
the caste, 96 ; work done by Brahmans
for India, 97 ; Brahman theology, 97 ;
the post-Vedic gods, 97, 98 ; the
Hindu triad, 98 ; Brahman philosophy,
its six darsanas or schools, 98, 99 ;
summary of Brahman religion, ico ;
Brahman science, 100 ; Sanskrit gram-
mar, 100, loi ; Sanskrit and Prakrit
speech, loi; Sanskrit manuscripts, 102;
the Indian alphabets, 102, 103 ; Sans-
krit writings almost entirely in verse,
103 ; prose, a forgotten art, 103, 104 ;
Sanskrit dictionaries, 104 ; Brahman
astronomy, 104-106; Brahman mathe-
matics, 106 ; Brahman medicine, 106-
1 10 ; Indian surgery, 107, 108 ;
Buddhist public hospitals, 108, 109 ;
decline of Hindu medicine, 109 ; Eng-
lish Medical Colleges, 108, 109 ; verna-
cular medical publications, no; Hindu
art of war, no; Indian music, iio-
112; Indian architecture, 112; Indian
decorative art and painting, 112, 113;
Brahman law, 1 13-1 18 ; code of Manu,
113, 114; code of Vajnavalkya, 114,
115; scope of Indian law, its rigid caste
system, 115, 116; growth of Plindu
law, 116; its incorporation of local
customs, 117; perils of modern codi-
fication, 117, 118; secular literature
of the Hindus, 11 8- 129; the Maha-
bharata, 118-122; the Ramayana,
122-125 ; ^g^ of ^^ Sanskrit drama,
125, 126; Sakuntala and other Hindu
dramas, 126, 127 ; the Hindu novel,
127; Beast stories, 127; Sanskrit
lyric poetry, 128 ; the Puranas, 128,
129; Indian modern vernacular litera-
ture, 129 ; intellectual and religious
development of the early Aryans,
129, 130; the Brahmans in Indian
history, and attacks on Brahmanism
from the 6th to the 19th century, 130,
131-
Aryan influences on the'Dravidian races,
329, 330 ; the modern Aryan verna-
culars of India, 334-355-
Asiatic non-Indian population of British
India, Appendix VI., 694.
Asoka, Buddhist King of Magadha or
Behar (257 B.C.), 144-147; his Great
Council (244 B.C.), 144; his Rock
and Cave Edicts, 145 and footnote ;
his Department of Public Worship,
145 ; his missionary efforts and doc- \
trinal code, 145 ; character of the Rock
Edicts, 146, 147 and footnote.
Assam, unsuccessful invasion of, by
Aurangzeb's general, Mir Jumla, 309 ;
expulsion of the Burmese from, and
annexation of Assam to British terri-
tories (1826), 404; yearly settlement
of the land revenue, 445 ; frontier
trade of, 588-590.
Assaye, Battle of, 323 ; 398.
"Assisted" railways in India, 548.
Astronomy, Brahmanical system of, 104-
106 ; astronomy of the Vedas, 104 ;
Greek influences on Indian astronomy,
105 ; decay of astronomical science
under Muhammadan rule, 105 ; Raja
Jai Singh's observatories in the i8th
century, 105, 106.
Aswamedha or Great Horse Sacrifice of
ancient India, 82 ; connection of the
Horse Sacrifice with the Human Sacri-
fice of pre-Buddhistic times, 175, 176.
Atharva-Veda, The, %^.
Atrai, river of Bengal ; its changes of
course, 30.
Auber's Analysis of the Constitution of
the East India Company, quoted, 364,
365 (footnotes).
Auckland, Lord, Governor- General of
India (1836-42), 406-409 ; Afghan
affairs and our early dealings with
Kabul, 406, 407 ; Dost Muhammad,
Afghan dynastic wars, 407 ; Russian
influences in Afghanistan and the in-
stallation of vShah Shuja and occupa-
tion of Kabul by a Hritish force, 407,
408 ; rising of the Afghan people, and
massacre of the British army on its
retreat to India, 408.
Aurangzeb, sixth Mughal Emperor of
India (1658-1707 A.D.), 305-312; his
rebeUion and usurpation of the throne,
305, 306 ; chief events of his reign,
306, 307 and footnote ; murder of his
brothers, 307 ; conquests in Southern
India, 307 ; rise of the Mardtha power,
307, 308 ; Aurangzeb's Grand Army
and twenty years' guerilla war with
the Marathas, 308, 309 ; his despair
and death, 309 ; unsuccessful expedi-
INDEX.
709
tion to Assam, 309 ; his bigotry and
persecution of the Hindus, 309 ; revolt
of the Rajputs, 309, 310; revenues
of the Empire, 310, 311 ; Aurangzeb's
character, 312.
Austraha, India's trade with, 578, 579.
Avatars or Incarnations of Vishnu, 215,
216 (footnote 3).
B
Babar, first Mughal Emperor of Delhi,
(1526-30 A.D.), early life, defeat
and overthrow of Ibrahim Lodi at
Panipat ; conquest of Northern India,
290, 291.
Bahmani, Muhammadan dynasty in
Southern India (1347-1525 a.d.), 287.
Bairam Khan, regent of the Mughal
Empire during the early years of
Akbar's reign, 291, 292.
Baji Rao, second Maratha Peshwa
(1721-40 A.D.) ; his conquest of the
Deccan and Malwa from the Mughals,
and capture of Bassein from the Portu-
guese, 320.
Baji Rao ii., seventh and last Maratha
Peshwa (1795-1818), 323; second and
third Maratha wars, and annexation
of the Peshwa's territories, 323, 324.
Balaji Baji Rao, third Maratha Peshwa
(1740-61) ; his expeditions to Bengal
and to the Punjab ; defeat of, by
Ahmad Shah Durani at the third battle
of Panipat, 320, 321.
Balaji Viswanath, first Mai-atha Peshwa
(1718-20), extorts chauih from the
Delhi Emperor for the Deccan, 320.
Balance-sheet of British India, 465, 466.
Balance of trade (India's), 558, 559; Sir
R. Temple's Minute on, 581-583.
Balasor, East India Company's factory
founded at (1642 A.D.), 369.
Balban, the last King but one of the
Slave dynasty (1265-87 a.d.); his
cruelties to the Hindus ; Rajput revolts
and Mughal inroads ; his fifteen royal
pensioners, 280.
Ballantyne, Dr., The Sdnkhya Aphorisms
of Kapila, quoted, 154 (footnote i).
Bankipur, old settlement of the Ostend
East India Company on the Hiigli
between Calcutta and Chinsurah ; its
destruction by the Muhammadans
(1753), 374.
Bantam, a Presidency of the East India
Company in Java, 368, 369.
Baptist Mission of Carey, Marshman, and
Ward at Serampur, 260.
Barak river. Steam Navigation on, 552.
Barakhar coal seams, 637.
Bari Doab Canal, 29 ; 532, 533.
Barid Shahi, Muhammadan dynasty of
Southern India (1492- 1657 a.d.), 288.
Barlaam and Josaphat (Saints). Legeml
of, and its analogies with that of
Buddha, 151, 152.
Barlow, Sir George, ad interim Gover-
nor-General (1805-07); Mutiny of
Vellore, 399.
Baroda, Maratha State of Western India,
322, 323 ; deposition of the late Gaek-
war for an attempt to poison the British
Resident at his Court, 323 ; 426.
Bartholomew the Apostle, his preachings
in India certified by Pantsenus the
Alexandrian (2nd century a.d. ), 235;
conversion of India proper ascribed 10
St. Bartholomew, and of Persia and
Central Asia to St. Thomas, according
to Hippolytus (220 A.D.), 235.
Barth's Religions of India, quoted, 161
(footnote 2) ; and his Revue de PlJis-
toire des Religions, quoted, 16 1 (foot-
note 2).
Bassein, capture of, from the Portuguese
by the Marathas, 320 ; treaty of, at
the conclusion of the second Maratha
war, 323.
Baxar, deleat of the Mughal and Oudh
armies at, by Major Munro, 386.
Beal, Samuel, Si-yu-ki, or Buddhist Re-
cord of the Western World, translated
from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang,
quoted, 2 (footnote) ; 137 (footnote 2) ;
I54> 155 (footnote 3) ; 155 (footnote
2) ; 175 (footnote l) ; Catena of Bud-
dhist Scriptures frOfn the Chinese, 142
(footnotes); 147 (footnote 2); 151
(footnote i) ; 157 (footnote 2) ; 204
(footnote 2).
Beames, Mr. John, Comparative Gram-
mar of the Modtrn Aryan Languages
of India, 6^ (footnote) ; 103 (footnote);
335 and footnote ; 337 (footnote 2) ;
339 and footnote.
Bears, Species in India of, 655.
Beast stories and fables, 127 ; beast
hospitals, 201.
Bediyas, a semi-Hinduized gipsy clan of
Lower Bengal, 71.
Bells, manufacture of, 607.
Benfey, Professor, article ' Indieri ' (pub-
lished in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclo-
pocdie), quoted, no (footnote 2).
Bengal, early English settlements in,
368-385 ; first permission to trade
(1634 A.D.), 368; factories at Hugh,
Bala.-or, and Kasimbazar, 369, 370 ;
Bengal separated from Madras, 370 ;
English in Bengal and their early
factories, 380 ; native rulers of Bengal
(1707-56), Murshid Kuli Khan, AH
Vardi Khan, and Siraj-ud-daula, 380,
381 ; capture of Calcutta, the ' Black
710
INDEX.
Hole,' and battle of Plassey, 381,
382; Mir Jafar (i757-6o), 383; 385 ;
Permanent Settlement of (1793),
441-445.
Bengali literature and authors, 346-354 ;
geographical area and linguistic feat-
ures of the Bengali language, 347 ;
Sanskritizing tendency of Bengali, 347 ;
the three periods of Bengali litera-
ture, 347, 348 ; court poets of Bengal
in the 14th and 15th centuries, 348 ;
Vishnuite and Sivaite religious poetry,
349, 350 ; Makunda Ram and the
stories of Kalketu, and the Srimanta
Sadagar, 350, 351 ; Kasi Ram Das,
the translator of the Mahabharata, 351 ;
Ram Prasad, court poet of Nadiya in
the l8th century, 352 ; Bengali prose
in the 19th century, and modern Ben-
gali poets and authors, 353, 354.
Bentinck, Lord William, Governor-
General of India (1828-35), 404-406;
his financial reforms, abolition of Sati,
suppression of Thagi, 405 ; the renewal
of the Company's Charter, 405, 406 ;
Mysore taken under British adminis-
tration, and Coorg annexed, 406.
Berars handed over to the British by the
Nizam as a territorial guarantee for his
arrears of subsidy and for the pay of
the Haidarabad contingent, 415.
Beschi, Pere, Jesuit missionary and
scholar, 245 ; 253 ; 333.
B«twa Canal, a famine insurance work,
533-
Bhagirathi, the name of the source and
head-waters of the Ganges, 16.
Bhakta-Mala, the Hindu Acta Sanc-
torui7i, 208.
Bharat Chandra Rai, famous Bengali
poet of the i8th century, 352.
Bhars, an aboriginal and formerly domi-
nant race in Oudh, now a crushed
tribe, 71 ; 187 ; present descendants
of, 187.
Phartpur, repulse of Lord Lake before,
398 ; capture of, by Lord Comber-
inere, 404.
Bhils, aboriginal tribe of Khandesh and
Rajputana, formerly a predatory clan,
now largely converted into peaceable
cultivators and loyal soldiers, 72,
73.
Bhonsla, family name of the Maratha
Chiefs of Nagpur, lapsed to the British
for want of heirs in 1853, 322.
Bhor Ghat, mountain pass in the
Western Ghats, 36 ; 550.
Bhutan, war with (1864-65), 424, 425;
trade with (1883), 588-590.
Bidar, Muhammadan Kingdom of
Southern India (1492-1657 a.d.),
288.
Bidari work, damascening of silver on
bronze, 607.
Bidyapati Thakur, Court poet of Tirhut
in the 14th century, 348.
Bigandet, Bishop, Life or Legend of
Gaudama, quoted, 137 (footnote) ; 160
(footnote 3).
Bihari Lai, Hindi poet of the 17th
century, and composer of the Satsai,
345.
Bijapur, Muhammadan Kingdom of
Southern India (1489-1688 a.d.), 288.
Biliapatam, East India Company's factory
started at (1661 A.D.), 370.
Bird, Miss, Unbeafen Tracks in Japan,
quoted, 152 (footnote 3) ; 202 (foot-
note i) ; 224 (footnote 3).
Birds of prey, 659.
Bird wood. Sir G., Handbook to the British
Indian Section of the Paris Exhibition
of 1878, quoted, 163 (footnote 2) ;
Report on the Miscellaneous Old Re-
cords in the India Office, quoted, 359
(footnote 2) ; 360 ; 364 (footnotes i
and 2) ; 368 (footnote) ; 370 (footnote).
Bison, The Indian, 658.
Black Hole, The tragedy of the, at Cal-
cutta (1756), 381.
Black-Skins or non-Aryans, described by
the Aryans, 53, 54.
Blochmann, Professor H., translation of
the Ain-i-Akbari, 272 (footnote) ; 291
(footnote i) ; 295 (footnotes).
Boats, Bridges of, 551.
Bolan, mountain pass over the Brahui
hills, between Sind and Afghanistan, 6.
Bombay, ceded to the East India Company
(1661 A.D.), 370; made a Presidency
(1684-87), 370; the main centre of
Indian foreign trade, 560.
Book-binding and illumination, 112, 113.
Bore, The, or tidal wave in the Hugli
and Meghna, 30, 31.
Boronga Oil-refining Company in Akyab,
627.
Boscawen, Admiral, his ineffectual siege
of Pondicherri (1748), 379.
Botany of India, 662-664.
Boundaries of India, 3, 4.
Brahma, the Creator, the first person in
the Hindu triad, 98.
Brahman founders of Hinduism, 207.
Brahmanas, sacred Sanskrit writings ex-
planatory of the sacrifices and duties of
the priests, etc., 88, 89.
Brahmanical castes, north and south of
the Vindhyas, 193, 194 and footnote.
Brahmans, the priestly caste of ancient
India, 87-100 ; origin of priestly
families, 87 ; growth of the priesthood,
87, 88; the Brahman caste fully
formed, 89, 90 ; struggle between the
priestly and warrior castes, and ultimate
INDEX.
711
supremaqr of the Brahmans, 92-94 ;
Viswamitra the Kshattriya, and
Vasishtha the Brahman, 92, 93 ; the
four stages of a Brahman's life, 95 ;
Brahman rule of life and its hereditary
results on caste, 95, 96 ; Brahman
theology, the post-Vedic gods, 97, 98 ;
the Hindu triad, 98 ; the six darsatias
or Brahman schools of philosophy,
98, 99 ; Sanskrit grammar and speech,
100, loi ; Sanskrit manuscripts and
dictionaries, 101-104; Brahman astro-
nomy, 104-106; mathematics, 106;
medicine, 106-110; war, no; music,
1 10- 1 12; architecture and decorative
art, 112, 113; painting, 113; law,
113-118; secular literature, the epics,
118-124; poetry and the drama, 125,
126 ; novels. Beast stories and fables,
127, 128 ; post-Vedic theological
literature, the Puranas, 128, 129;
modern Indian literature, 129 ; attacks
on Brahmanism from the 6th century
B.C. to the 1 9th century A. D., 130, 131 ;
the Brahman caste analyzed, 193, 194.
Brahmaputra, one of the great rivers of
India, 13-16 ; its course and tributaries,
13 ; discharge, 13, 14; silt islands, 14,
15 ; changes in course, 15 ; traffic, 15,
16 ; junction of Ganges, Brahmaputra,
and Meghna, 24 ; their combined delta
and estuaries, 24, 25 ; alluvial deposits
of the Brahmaputra, 27 ; steam navi-
gation on, 552.
Brahul hills, a southern offshoot of the
north-western Himalayas, marking a
portion of the boundary between India
and Baluchistan, 7.
Brand reth, Mr. E. L., Papers on the
Gaurian languages, published in the
Jouriuxl of the Royal Asiatic Society^
vol. X. pp. 64-66 (footnotes), vols. xi.
and xii., 103.
Brass and copper work, 607.
Breweries, 616, 617.
Bridges of boats, 551.
Briggs', lieutenant-Colonel, Translation
of Firishta's History of the Rise of the
Muhammadan Pozuer in India, 271 ;
273 (footnote) ; 285 (footnotes 2 and 4) ;
287 (footnote) ; 291 (footnotes).
British Administration of India, chap.
xvi. pp. 431-481. Control of India
in England under the Company and
under the Crown, 431 ; Council of the
Secretary of State, 431 ; the Viceroy
and Governor-General in Council, 431,
432 ; Executive and Legislative Coun-
cils, 432, 433 ; High Courts of Jus-
tice, 433 ; Law of British India, 433,
434 ; Provincial administration, 434,
435; ' Regulation ' and 'Non- Regula-
tion ' territory, 435 ; duties of District
Officers, 435, 436 ; Districts, number
of, in India, 436, 437 ; the Secretariats
of the Government of India and of the
Local Governments, 437, 438 ; the
land-tax, 438-452 ; ancient land sys-
tem of India, 438 ; the Musalman land-
tax, 439 ; the Zaminddr made landlord,
439 ; landed property in India, and
the growth of private rights, 439, 440 ;
rates of assessment, Government share
of the crop, 441 ; methods of assess-
ment, 440, 441 ; the Permanent Settle-
ment of Bengal, creation of proprietors
by law, 441, 442 ; intermediate tenure-
holders, 443 ; Statistical Survey of
Bengal, 443 ; oppression of the cultiva-
tors, 443 ; Land Law of 1859, 443, 444 ;
subsequent enhancements of rent and
appointment of a Rent Commission, 444,
445 ; its recommendations, three years'
tenant right, and compensation for
disturbance, 444, 445 ; Orissa tem-
porary Settlement, 445 ; Assam yearly
Settlement, 445 ; rdyatwdri Settlement
in Madras, 445, 446 ; Sir Thomas
Munro's method of assessment, 446 ;
Permanent Settlement in estates of
zaminddrs and native chiefs in Madras,
446, 447 ; growth of cultivators into
proprietors in Madras, and extension of
tillage, 447 ; reduction of average land-
tax in Madras, 448 ; Bombay land
system, the * survey tenure,' its advan-
tages and disadvantages, 448, 449 ;
debts of the Deccan peasant, 449 ;
Bombay Agricultural Relief Acts of
1879 and 1 88 1, and rural insolvency
procedure, 449, 450; land Settlement
in the North- Western Provinces and
Oudh, corporate holdings, 451 ; land
system of Oudh, the 1 dlukddrs, 451,
452 ; land system of the Central Pro-
vinces, 452 ; land revenue of British
India, 452 ; salt administration, sources
of salt supply, and realization of salt
duty, 452, 453 ; working of the salt
monopoly, 453, 454 ; process of salt
manufacture, 444 ; excise on country
spirits, rice - beer, opium, gdnjd, and
charas, 454, 455 ; municipal adminis-
tration and statistics, 455-457 ; Im-
perial finance, and the 'business' of
the Indian Government, 457, 458 ;
changes in systems of account and the
obscurities resulting therefrom, 458,
459 ; gross and net taxation of British
India, 459-461 ; English and Indian
taxation, 459-461 ; Indian taxation
under the Mughals and under the
British, 462, 463 ; incidence of taxa-
tion in Native States and British terri-
tory, 463-465 ; gross balance-sheet of
British India, and analysis of Indian
71:
INDEX.
revenues, 465, 466 ; nature of the land-
tax, 467 ; items of taxation summarized,
460, 461 ; 467, 468 ; Indian expendi-
ture, — the army, public debt, loss by
exchange, public works, railways, etc.,
468-470 ; local and municipal finance,
470 ; constitution and strength of the
three Presidency armies, 471 ; police
and jail statistics, 472 ; education, 472-
479 ; education in ancient India, village
schools and Sanskrit 7c»/j, 472, 473;
the Company's first efforts at education,
the Calcutta Madrasa and other
colleges, 473 ; mission schools, 473 ;
State system of education, 474, 475 ;
the Education Commission of 1882-83,
and its recommendation, 474 ; educa-
tional statistics of British India, 474,
475 ; the Indian Universities and their
constitution, 475, 476; colleges, middle
schools, and primary schools, in the
various Provinces, 476-478 ; girls'
schools, 478, 479 ; normal and other
special schools, 479 ; the vernacular
press and native journalism, 480 ;
registered publications in India, 480,
48i. — For historical details, see Eng-
lish IN India, and History of
British Eule.
British Burma, its physical geography,
products, etc., 41, 42. — ^^^also Burma.
British conquest of India, not from the
Mughals but from the Hindus, 317.
British India, its twelve Provinces, area
and population in 1881, 43-45 ; also
Appendices I. to X., 689-703.
Britto, John de, Jesuit priest in Southern
India, murdered (1693 A.D.), 245.
Brocades, 603.
Brydon, Dr., the solitary survivor of the
Kabul garrison in its retreat from Af-
ghanistan, 408.
Bucephala, memorial city on the west
bank of the Jehlam, founded by
Alexander, and named after his favourite
charger, Bucephalus, near the modern
Jalalpur, 165.
Buchanan - Hamilton, Dr. Francis, his
MS. Survey of the North - Eastern
Districts of Bengal, quoted, 205, 206
(footnote 4) ; 207 (footnote i).
Buckingham Canal in Madras, navigation
on, 553-
Buddha, the Sakya, 176, 177.
Buddha^ his Life, his Doctrine, his Order,
by Professor Oldenberg, quoted, 161
(footnote 3).
Buddhism, and life of Gautama Buddha,
chap. v. pp. 132-162. The story of
Buddha modelled on the pre-existing
Indian epic type, 132-135; Buddha and
Rdma compared, 132 ; parentage of
Buddha, his youth and early married
life, 133 ; his Great Renunciation, 133,
134 ; his Temptation in the forest, 134 ;
his * Enlightenment,' 134, 135 ; his
public teachings and disciples, 135 ; his
conversions in the Gangetic valley, and
of his own family, 135, 136 ; his last
words and death, 136; different versions
of the legend of Buddha, 136, 137 ;
biographies of Buddha, 137, 138 ; the
southern and northern versions, 138 ;
political life of Buddha, 139 ; defeat
of his opponents by magical arts, 139,
140 ; overthrow of the schismatic
Devadatta, 140 ; Buddha as a Sakya
prince, 140 ; Chinese text of Buddha's
dying discourse, 141 ; his doctrines,
141 ; law of Karma, 141, 142 ; law of
Nirvana or 'liberation,' 142; moral
code of Buddhism, 143 ; missionary
aspects of Buddhism, 143 ; the four
great Buddhist Councils, 143-147 ;
the work of Asoka, his great Council,
144-146; his Rock Edicts, 144, 145 ;
Asoka's missionary efforts, 146, 147 ;
his reformed canon of the Buddhist
scriptures, 146, 147 ; Kanishka's
Council and his three commentaries
on the Buddhist faith, 147 ; the
northern and southern canons, 147,
148 ; Buddhism as a national religion,
148 ; its religious orders and practical
morality, 148, 149; spread of
Buddhism in the south to Ceylon, and
in the north to China, 149, 150 ;
Buddhist influence on Christianity, 150,
151 ; Buddha as a Christian saint, 151 ;
legend of saints Barlaam and Josaphat,
151, 152 ; a Japanese temple, its
analogies to Hinduism and Christianity,
152 ; Buddha as an incarnation of
Vishnu, 153 ; Buddha's personality
denied, 153, 154 ; continuous co-
existence of Buddhism and Brahman-
ism, 154 ; modern Hinduism, the
joint product of both religions, 154,
155 ; Buddhism in India in the 7th
century A. D., 156; Council of Siladitya,
156 ; Siladitya's charity, 156, 157 ;
monastery of Nalanda, 157 ; mingling
of Buddhism and Brahmanism, 157 ;
victory of Brahmanism, 157, 158 ;
Buddhism an exiled religion from India,
158 ; its foreign conquests, 158 ;
Buddhist survivals in India, 158-162 ;
the Jains, 158-162; Jain doctrines, 159 ;
Jain temple cities, 159 ; relation of
Jainism to Buddhism, 159, 160; anti-
quity of the Jains, 160, 161 ; date of
the Jain scriptures, 161, 162 ; the
Jains an independent sect, 162 ; modern
Jainism, 162.
Buddhist population in India, 136 (and
footnote); see also Appendix V,, 693 ;
INDEX.
713
Buddhist influences on later religions,
analogies of a Japanese temple to
Hinduism and Christianity, 152 ; 202.
Buffaloes, 520 ; 658.
liiihler, Dr. G., Tour in Search of Sanskrit
MSS. , published in the yaurna/ of the
Bombay Branch of the Asiatic Society,
No. xxxiv. A, vol. xii., 1877, quoted,
102 (footnotes i and 3) ; Digest of the
Hindu Laiv of Jnhcj'itance, Partition,
and Adoption, 117 (footnote 2).
Building stone, 627, 628.
Bundelas, a Rajput tribe, formerly
the ruling race in Bundelkhand,
ousted by the Marathas, 71 and foot-
note.
Burma, in ancient times and in the 15th
century A.D., 403 ; encroachments on
India and first Burmese war (1824-26),
403, 404 ; annexation of Assam,
Arakan, and Tenasserim, 404 ; second
Burmese war (1852) and annexation of
Pegu, 413, 414 ; prosperity of Burma
under British rule, 414; annexation of
Upper Burma (ist January 1886),
430 ; export of rice from, 572 ; trans-
frontier trade with, 588-590 ; geology
of, 639, 640. — See also British
Burma.
Bumell, Dr., Palceography of Southern
Ittdia, quoted, 103 (footnote) ; The
Ordifiances of Manu, 1 14 (footnotes) ;
Daya-vibhagha, II 7 (footnote); 195
(footnote 2).
Burnes, Sir Alexander, assassination of,
in Kabul (1841), 408.
Cabot's attempt to reach India by-way of
the north-west passage, 363.
Cabral's expedition to India (1500 A.D.),
and establishment of Portuguese fac-
tories at Calicut and Cochin, 358.
Cacharis, a semi-Hinduized aboriginal
tribe of Assam and North - Eastern
Bengal, 71 (footnote).
Calcutta founded (1686 A.D.), 371 ; cap-
ture of, by Siraj-ud-Daula, and the
Black Hole, 381 ; re-capture of Calcutta
by Clive, 381, 382 ; Calcutta Canals,
553 > Calcutta as a seaport and its share
of trade, 559, 560.
Caldwell, Bishop, Comparative Grammar
of the Dravidian Languages, quoted,
65-68, and footnotes ; 173 (footnote 2);
240 (footnote i) ; 327 (footnotes 2 and
3) ; 328 (footnote) ; 330 (footnote 2) ;
332 (footnote) ; 340 (footnote i); 369
(footnote).
Calicut, visits of Vasco da Gama to, and
establishment of a Portuguese factory.
35 7» 358; attempt of the English to
establish a factory at, 367.
Camels, 520 ; camel-hair embroidered
shawls, 603.
Campbell, Sir Colin (Lord Clyde), relief
of Lucknow by, 421 ; campaign in
Oudh, 421, 422.
Campbell, Sir George, Specimens of the
Latigtiages of India, quoted, 67 (foot-
note).
Canals (irrigation) in Sind and Bombay,
530, 531 ; the three great Punjab canals,
531, 532 ; the Doab canals in the North-
western Provinces, 532, 533 ; Orissa
canal system, 534 ; the Son canals
and irrigation in Bengal, 534, 535 ;
irrigation works in the Madras deltas,
536, 537.
Canning, Earl, Governor - General of
India (1856-62), 417-424. The Mu-
tiny of 1857-58, 417-424 ; downfall
of the Company, 422 ; India trans-
ferred to the Crown, and the Queen's
Proclamation, 423, 424 ; Lord Canning
the first Viceroy, 424 ; financial and
legal reforms, 424.
Car-Festival of Jagannath, 224-226 ; self-
immolation not practised, 224; blood-
less worship and gentle doctrines of,
225, 226.
Carnelians, 629.
Carpet- weaving, 604.
Caste, formation of the four castes,
87-91.
Caste rewards and punishments, 199,
200.
Caste system, its religious and social
aspects, 192-200.
Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the
Chinese, by Mr. S. Beal, quoted, 142
(footnote i); 147 (footnote 2); 150
(footnote 3); 157 (footnote 2); 176
(footnote 2) ; 204 (footnote 2).
Cathay and the Way Thither, by Colonel
Yule, quoted, 233 (footnote 2); 238
(footnote 3).
Catholic Missions in India, 229-259.
Origin of Christianity in India, 229,
230 ; the three legends of St. Thomas
the Apostle, Thomas the Manichoean,
and Thomas the Armenian, and their
respective claims as the founder of
Indian Christianity, 231-235; Nes-
torian Church in Asia side by side
with Buddhism for 1000 years, its
wide diffusion, 235, 236 ; the forcible
conversion of the Nestorians or St.
Thomas Christians, to the Church of
Rome, by the Portuguese, 241-243 ;
Syrian and Jacobite Catholics in
Malabar, 243, 244 ; labours of St.
Francis Xavier, 244, 245 ; early Jesuit
priests, their conversions and literary
714
INDEX.
labours, agricultural settlements, and
collegiate city of Cochin, 245-253 ;
Portuguese inquisition established at
Goa, autos da fe, and abolition of the
inquisition, 253, 254 ; suppression of
thejesuits( 1759-73), and their re-estab-
lishment (1814), 254, 255 ; organiza-
tion of modern Roman Catholic Mis-
sions, 255 ; jurisdiction of the Arch-
bishop of Goa, 255, 256 ; distribution
of Roman Catholics, 257 ; Syrian and
Roman Catholic Christians, 257 ;
Roman Catholic population of India,
258; progress of Roman Catholicism,
its missions, colleges, and schools,
259-
Cattle, Breeds of, 520.
Cave inscriptions of Asoka, 145, 146.
Cawnpur, the Mutiny at, massacre of
the garrison and the women and chil-
dren, 420.
Central Asia, trans-Himalayan trade with,
586-590,
Ceylon, India's trade with, 578, 579.
Chain armour, manufacture of, 606, 607.
Chaitanya, Hindu religious reformer
(1485- 1 527 A.D.), his life and teach-
ings, 219-221.
Chait Singh, Raja of Benares, exactions
of Warren Hastings from (1780), 390.
Chandarnagar, French Settlement in
Bengal, 381 ; bombardment and cap-
ture of, by Admiral Watson (i757)j
382.
Chand Bardai, Hindi poet (12th century),
345-
Chandelas, formerly a ruhng race in
Bundelkhand, North - Western Pro-
vinces, 71.
Chandi Das, religious poet of the 15th
century, 348 ; hymn to Krishna, 348,
349-
Chandra Gupta, King of Magadha (326
B.C.). 166-170; cession of the Greek
possessions in the Punjab to, by
Seleukos, Alexander's successor (306
B.C.); the Embassy of Megasthenes,
167-170.
Changes of caste occupation by the
Shahas, Telis, and TambuHsof Bengal,
196, 197.
Changes of river-beds and deserted river
capitals, 30.
Character of the non-Aryan tribes, their
fidelity as soldiers, 72.
Charak-ptija or hook-swinging festival,
213.
CharaSy Excise duty on, 455.
Charities of Indian trade guilds, 198.
Chauthy or * quarter-revenues ' exacted
by the Marathas in the Deccan and in
Bengal, 320, 321.
Cheetah or hunting leopard, 653, 654.
Chera, ancient Hindu dynasty in Southern
India, 286.
Cherra-Piinji, rainfall at, 7 ; 649, 650.
Child, Sir John, ' Captain-General and
Admiral of India' (1684), also Governor-
General, 370, 371.
Child-worship of Krishna, 222.
Childers, Mr., Dictionary of the PaU
Language, quoted, 132 ; 134, 137, 138;
142 (footnotes).
Chilianwala, Battle of, 412, 413.
China, India's trade with, 577 ; 582,
583.
Chinsurah, defeat of the Dutch at, by
Clive, 362, 363 ; head-quarters of the
Dutch settlement in Bengal, 381.
Chips from a German Workshop, by
Professor Max Miiller, quoted, 83
(footnote i); 127 (footnote 3); 142
footnote 2); 151 (footnote i).
Chola, Ancient Hindu dynasty in
Southern India, 286.
Christianity in India (100 to 1881 A.D.),
chap. ix. pp. 229-267. Christianity
coeval with Buddhism in India for 900
years, 229 ; origin of Christianity in
India, 229 ; Syrian Christians in India,
230 ; the three legends of St. Thomas,
230-233 ; wide meaning of India in
the writings of the Christian Fathers,
233, 234 ; first glimpse of Indian
Christians (190 A.D. ), 234 ; ancient
Roman trade with India, 234 ; Jew
Settlements in ancient Malabar, 234,
235 ; Indian Christians (190-547 A.D. ),
as described by Pantsenus, Hippolytus,
and Cosmos Indicopleustes, 235 ;
Nestorian Church in Asia, 235, 236 ;
Nestorianism and Buddhism side by
side for 1000 years, 236 ; wide diffu-
sion of the Nestorian Church, 236,
237 ; the ' Thomas Christians ' of
Persia and of India, 237 ; localization
of the legend of St. Thomas, 237-239 ;
embassy of Alfred the Great to India
(833 A.D.), 239 ; troubles of the
ancient Indian Church, 240 ; the
Nestorian St. Thomas Christians of
Malabar, a powerful and respected
military caste, 240, 241 ; Portuguese
efforts at their conversion to Rome,
241 ; Synod of Diamper (1599 A.D.),
241, 242 ; Malabar Christians freed
from Portuguese oppression by the
Dutch, 242, 243 ; Jacobite and Syrian
Christians in Malabar, 243 ; extinction
of Nestorianism in Malabar, 243, 244 ;
early Portuguese missionaries identi-
fied with Portuguese aggressions, 244 ;
Xavier and the Jesuits (1542 a.d. ),
244, 245 ; work done by the Madras
Jesuits, 245, 246 ; early Jesuit stations
in India, 246 ; conquest and con-
INDEX.
715
version the basis of Portuguese Indian
rule, 246, 247 ; parochial organiza-
tion of Portuguese India, 247 ; Jesuit
station of Thana (1550 A.D.), its
Christian craftsmen and cultivators,
247, 248 ; Jesuit rural organization,
248 ; Cochin, a Jesuit collegiate city,
248, 249 ; Jesuit itineraries and con-
versions, 250, 251 ; the Malabar
Mission in the 17th and i8th centuries,
251 ; caste questions among Malabar
Christians, 251, 252; Christian martyr-
doms, 252, 253 ; establishment of the
inquisition at Goa, 253, 254 ; autos
da fe, 254 ; persecutions and aggres-
sions by Portuguese, 254 ; Goa inquisi-
tion abolished (181 2), 254; suppression
of the Jesuits (1759), 254, 255; their
re-establishment (1814), 255 ; organiza-
tion of Roman Catholic Missions in
India, 255 ; separate jurisdiction of
the Archbishop of Goa, 255, 256 ;
distribution of Roman Catholics, 257 ;
the Verapoli vicariate in Travancore,
257 ; Syrian and Roman Catholic
Christians, 257 ; statistics of Roman
Catholic population of India, 258 ;
Roman Catholic progress, 259 ; Pondi-
cherri Mission, 259 ; Catholic colleges
and schools, 259 ; first Protestant
Missions in India (1705), 259, 260;
vernacular translation ot the Bible
(1725 A.D.), 260; Protestant mis-
sionaries in Tanjore, Calcutta, and
Serampur, 260 ; opposition of the
East India Company to Missions, 260 ;
Bishopric of Calcutta, 261 ; other
Indian sees, 261 ; Presbyterian and
other Protestant Missions, 261 ;
statistics of Protestant Missions, 261,
262 ; increase of native Protestants,
262, 263 ; extended use of native
agency, 263 ; rapid development of
school work of Protestant Missions,
262, 263 ; general statistics of Chris-
tian population in India, 263, 264 ;
Protestant denominational statistics,
264, 265 ; Indian Ecclesiastical estab-
lishment, 266, 267.
Chronicle of the Pathdn Kings of Delhi,
by Mr. E. Thomas, quoted, 271 (foot-
note) ; 280, 281 (footnotes) ; 283
(footnote i); 284 (footnote i) ; 285
(footnote 3) ; 287 (footnote 2) ; 291
(footnote) ; 298 (footnote i).
Chronological table of Governors, Gover-
nors-General and Viceroys of India
(1758-1885), 384.
Chronological table of Muhammadan
conquerors and dynasties (1001-1857
A.D.), 271.
Chronology of early European travellers
to India, 356, 357 (footnote).
Cinchona cultivation, 509-511 ; intro-
duction of plant, 509 ; the plantations
in Southern India and at Darjiling,
509, 510; statistics of out-turn and
financial results, 510, 511.
Clive, struggle with Dupleix in the Kar-
natik, 378, 379 ; defence of Arcot, 379 ;
re-capture ot Calcutta, 381, 382 ; battle
of Plassey and its results, 382 ; Clive's
jdgir, 383, 384 ; appointed Gover-
nor of Bengal, 384 ; Clive's second
Governorship, 386 ; his partition of
the Gangetic valley, 387 ; grant of the
diudni of Bengal, 387 ; reorganization
of the Company's service, 387.
Clyde, Lord, relief of Lucknow, 420 ;
campaign in Oudh, and suppression of
the Mutiny, 421.
Coal and coal mining, 41 ; 619 ; history
of Bengal coal mining, 619, 620 ; coal
in the Central Provinces, 620, 621 ;
Raniganj coal-fields, 621 ; outlying
coal-beds, 621, 622; future of Indian
coal, 622 ; geology of Indian coal-
fields, 636, 637.
Coalition of Vishnuism with Islam in
Kabir's teaching, 219.
Coasting trade of India and coast- shipping.
Cobalt in Rajputana, 626.
Cobra di capello. The, 660.
Cochin, the Jesuit Collegiate city of the
i6th century, 248-250 ; first establish-
ment of Portuguese factory at (1500
A.D.), 358.
Cofifee cultivation, 502-504 ; its intro-
duction into India, 502 ; area under
cultivation, 502, 503 ; suitable sites for
gardens, 503 ; processes of preparation,
503, 504; exports of, 575.
Colebrooke's Essays , quoted, 191 (foot-
note 2).
Colleges and high schools, 476, 477.
Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients
in the Indian Ocean, by Dean Vincent,
quoted, 164 (footnote i) ; 356 (foot-
note).
Commerce and Navigation of the Eryth •
rcean Sea, by Mr. J. M'Crindle, quoted,
166 (footnotes i and 2) ; 356 (footnote).
Commerce and trade, chap. xix. pp.
555"597' Ancient and mediaeval trade
of India, 555 ; function of modern
Indian trade, 555, 556 ; sea-borne trade
impossible under the Mughals, 556 ;
growth of trading and industrial cities
under British rule, 556, 557 ; summary
of Indian exports (1700-1885), 558;
India's balance of trade, 558, 559; the
Home charges, 559 ; India's yearly
trade savings, 559 ; the chief Indian
ports of export trade, 559, 560; eaily
Portuguese trade, 560 j Dutch mono-
7i6
INDEX.
poly of eastern trade, 560 ; early
English factories and advance of Eng-
lish trade, 560, 561 ; Company's trade
in 1834, 561, 562 ; abolition of inland
duties (1836-48), 562; growth of
Indian foreign trade (1840-84), 562,
563 ; Indian trade statistics (1878-85),
563 - 565 ; Suez Canal trade, 564 ;
tabular statistics of import and export
trade (1882-83), 5^6, 567 ; Manchester
cotton goods import trade, 565-568 ;
treasure, import of, and proportion of
gold to silver, 568, 569 ; raw cotton
export trade, 569, 570 ; jute exports,
57o> 571 > J^ice export trade, 572; rice
export duty, 572, 573 ; wheat trade
and exports, 573 ; oil-seeds, 573, 574 ;
indigo, safflower, myrobalams, turmeric,
and lac, 574, 575 ; tea and coffee ex-
ports, 575 ; exports of cotton and jute
manufactures, 575, 576 ; India's trade
with different countries, 577 - 580 ;
growth of Suez Canal trade, 581 ; Sir
R. Temple's Minute on the balance of
Indian trade, 581-583 ; coasting trade
and shipping of India, 583-586 ; frontier
trade, 586 ; trans-frontier trade with
Afijhanistan, Central Asia, Nepal,
Tibet, Burma, and Siam, 586-590 ;
internal trade of India, 591 ; trading
castes in Southern and Northern India,
591, 592 ; local trade of India, village
money-lenders, travelling brokers, re-
ligious fairs, etc. , 592, 593 ; internal
trade the chief safeguard against famine,
593> 594 '■> normal action of internal
trade, 594 ; Provincial statistics of
internal trade, 594, 595 ; trade of
Patna town, 595, 596 ; the village
mart of Dongargaon, 596 ; rural fair at
Karagola, 596, 597.
Common origin of European and Indian
religions, 76.
Common shrines of various faiths, 203,
204 ; Muhammadan and Hindu wor-
ship at St. Thomas' shrine in Madras,
238.
Communication, Means o^.—See Means
OF Communication.
Comorin, cape at the southernmost ex-
tremity of India, 3.
Comparative Dictionary of the Bihdrl
Language^ by Messrs. Hoernle and
Grierson, quoted, 336 and footnote ;
337 (footnote I); 341 and footnote;
344 (footnote).
Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian
Language^ by Bishop Caldwell, quoted,
66, 67, and footnotes ; 1 73 (footnote 2) ;
240 (footnote I) ; 327 (footnotes 2 and
3) ; 328 (footnote) ; 330 (footnote 2) ;
332 (footnote) ; 340 (footnote 2) j 369
(Jootnote).
Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian
LangiiageSf by Professor Hoernle,
quoted, 336 and footnote ; 337 (fooi-
note i).
Coviparative Grammar of the Modern
Aryan Languages of India., by Mr.
John Beames, quoted, 67 (footnote) ;
103 (footnote) ; 335 ; 337 (footnote 2).
Compensation for disturbance on eviction
in Bengal, 445.
Complexity of the Hindu caste system,
192-194.
Control of India in England under the
Company and under the Crown, the
Secretary of State's Council, 431.
Coote, Sir Eyre, defeat of Lally at Wande-
wash (1761), 379, 380; in the first
Mysore war (1780), 392.
Copper and copper-mining, 42 ; 607 ;
625, 626.
Cornwallis, Marquis of (1786- 1793),
392-394 ; his revenue reforms and the
Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 393 ;
second Mysore war, 394 ; second ad-
ministration of Lord Cornwallis (1805);
and his death after a few weeks in
India, 399.
Corporate holdings of cultivated land in
North - Western Provinces and the
Punjab, 451.
Cosmos Indicopleustes' history of the
Christian Church in Ceylon and along
the Malabar seaboard (547 A.D.), 235.
Cosquin, M. Emmanuel, Rroue des Ques-
tions IJistoriques, liv. 56, quoted, 151
(footnote 3) ; 152 (footnote 2).
Cotton cultivation and manufacture, 491;
the American war, its effects on Indian
cotton-growing, 491, 492 ; cotton dis-
tricts in India, area under cultivation,
and out-turn, 492, 493 ; cotton-clean-
ing, 494 ; imports of Manchester goods,
565, 566 ; exports of raw cotton, 569,
570; exports of manufactured cotton,
575 ; decline of cotton-weaving owing
to Manchester competition, but still a
domestic industry in India, 599-601 ;
steam cotton mills in different Pro-
vinces, 611,612; sound basis of Indian
cotton manufacture, 611-613; exports
of Bombay manufactured cotton to
China and Africa, 613, 614 ; future
prospect of Indian cotton manufactures,
614.
Cotton import duties, Abolition of, 468.
Covelong (or Coblom), old settlement of
the Ustend East India Company on the
Madras coast, 373.
Covilham, earliest recorded Portuguese
traveller to Cochin (1487 a.d.), 357;
Jesuit missionary in Southern India,
killed in 1500, 244.
Criminal Tribes Act, 71.
INDEX.
717
Crocodiles, 660, 661.
Crops of the Himalayas, 8 ; of the river
plains and Gangetic delta, 32, 33 ; of
Southern India, 40, 41 ; of Burma, 42.
— See also chap, xvii,, Agriculture and
Products, 484-511.
Crop statistics for India, Uncertainty of,
500, 501.
Crushed tribes, 71.
Csoma de Koros, Life and Works of, by
Dr. Theodore Duka, quoted, 153 (foot-
note i).
Cultivated, cultivable, and un cultivable
area, etc., of certain Provinces of
British India, Appendix III., 691.
Cultivators, Rights of, reserved by the
Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 442,
443 ; oppression of, by rack-renting
landlords, 443; the Land Act of 1859,
444; Rent Commission of 1879, and
its proposed reforms in the direction of
fixity of occupation and compensation
for disturbance, 444, 445.
Cunningham, General, Corpus Inscrip-
tionum Indicay-uvi, quoted, 103 (foot-
note) ; 144 (footnote); 145 (footnote) ;
146 (footnotes); 153 (footnote 2); 167
(footnote i); Ancient Geography of
India, 155 (footnote); 157 (footnote i);
164 (footnotes i and 3) ; 165 (footnote);
166 (footnote i); 167 (footnote 3);
185 (footnote 2) ; Reports of the
ArcluEological Survey of India, 185
(footnote 4).
Cust, Mr. R. N. , Linguistic and Oriental
Essays, quoted, 103 (footnote).
Customs, inland lines, abolished by Lord
Mayo, 425 ; customs import duties
abolished by Lord Ripon, 429.
Customs revenue, 467.
Cutch, Silver jeweller}' of, 605.
Cutlery manufactures, 606.
Dacca muslins, a decaying manufacture,
601.
Dadu, religious reformer and sacred poet
of Rajputana (i6th century), 344.
Dae, Mr. Arcy, The Literature of Bengal,
quoted, 347 (and footnote) ; 348, 349
(and footnote) ; 352 (footnote).
Dalhousie, Earl of, Governor-General of
India (1848-56), 412-417 ; his ad-
ministrative reforms, 412 ; inaugura-
tion of the Indian railway system and
the Public Works Department, 412 ;
second Sikh war and annexation of the
Punjab, 412, 413 ; second Burmese
war and annexation of Pegu, 413,
414 ; Lord Dalhousie's policy towards j
Native States, 414, 415 ; Lord Dal- |
housie's annexation of Oudh, and jus-
tification of the measure, 415-417;
Lord Dalhousie's scheme of trunk
military railways, 545.
Dalton, Colonel E. T., Ethnology of
Bengal, quoted, 67 (footnote).
Damascened steel work, 607.
Damodar coal tract. Geology of, 636-638.
Dandis, a sect of Sivaite religious as-
cetics and mendicants, 213, 214.
Danish East India Companies (1612 and
1670 A.D.), and their settlements, 372.
Danish missionaries, 259, 260.
Dasyus, the Aryan name for the non-
Ayrans, or aborigines, 53.
Davids, Mr. Rhys, Buddhism, quoted,
137 (footnote) ; Buddhist Birth Stories,
137 (footnote).
Death-rate and average duration of life
in India, 666, 667 ; death and birth
rates in different Provinces, 667-679.
Debt of India and its growth, 469.
Deccan, The, or Southern India, 34-41 ;
its mountain ranges and elevated table-
land, 35, 36 ; mountain passes, 36, 37 ;
rivers, 37; forests, 38, 40; scenery,
40 ; crops, 40, 41 ; minerals, 41 ;
Maratha power in the Deccan, 320,
322, 323-
Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Acts, a
rural insolvency law, 449, 450.
Decennial Settlement, The (i 789-1 791),
393.
Decline and fall of the Mughal Empire
(1707 -1857 A.D.), 312-316; chief
events, 312, 313 and footnote ; the
six puppet kings, 313 ; independence
of the Deccan and Oudh, 314; the
Maratha chatith, 314; invasions of
Nadir Shah the Persian, and Ahmad
Shah the Afghan, 314, 315; misery
of the Provinces, 315 ; third battle of
Panlpat, 315 ; fail of the Empire, 315,
316.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Einpire,
quoted, 230 (footnote i); 239 (foot-
note 2).
Decline of the Peshwas (1772-1818), 321,
322.
Decorative art in India, 112, 113.
Deer, Varieties of, 657, 658.
Delhi, Siege and storm of, 421,
Del Mar's History of Money in Ancient
Countries, quoted, 163.
Delta of Bengal, 23-28 ; deltaic distribu-
taries, 23 ; combined delta of the
Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna,
24 ; deltaic swamps, 24 ; land-making,
25 ; size of the Bengal delta, 26 ;
deltaic depressions, 26; subterranean
structure of the Bengal delta at Cal-
cutta, 26 (footnote) ; alluvial deposits
of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, 26,
7i8
INDEX,
27 ; amount of silt deposited at Ghazi-
pur and in the delta, 27, 28 ; age of
the Bengal delta, 28.
Deltaic channel of the Ganges, Section of.
Density of the Indian population, 46 ;
overcrowded and under-peopled Pro-
vinces, 46, 47 ; population entirely
rural, 46 ; immobility of the rural
population, 47 ; relation of labour to
land, 48, 49 ; unequal pressure of the
population on the land, 49, 50 ; in-
crease of population since 1872, 50.
Deserted river-marts and capitals, 30.
Devadatta, the Buddhist schismatic,
140.
Dhangars, a semi-Hinduized tribe of
Bengal and Chutia Nagpur, their
numbers in 1872, 71 (footnote i).
Diamonds, 41 ; 628, 629.
Dictionary of Hindu Mythology^ by
Professor Dowson, quoted, 180 (foot-
note 4) ; 184 (footnote i).
Dig, Battle of, and defeat of Holkar,
323-
Diminution of population in Madras and
Mysore, 50.
Dina Bandu .Mitra, dramatic poet and
author of the Nil Darpan, 354.
Dina Krishna Das, Uriya poet of the
1 6th century, 343.
Distillation of country spirits, 454.
Distribution of Indian trade with foreign
countries, 565-580.
District officers, Duties of, 436.
Districts, Number of, in India, their
varying size and population, 436, 437.
Diwani, or financial administration of
Bengal, granted to the East India
Company (1765), 387.
Dnyanoba, Marathi poet of the 13th
century, 346.
Doctrines of Buddha, 141, 142 ; moral
code and missionary aspects of Buddh-
ism, 143.
Dog, Different varieties of, 654.
Dongargaon, mart in the Central Pro-
vinces, 596.
Dowson, Professor, Dictionary of Hindu
Mythology^ quoted, 180 (footnote 4);
184 (footnote i).
Drama, The Indian, 125-127 ; 354.
Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava
brethren in the epic of the Maha-
bharata, 195.
Dravidians, The, aboriginal races of
Southern India, their languages, 64-
68 ; place of Dravidian languages
in philology, 327, 328 ; the Dravidians
in Sanskrit literature, 328 ; pre-Aryan
Dravidian civilisation, 328 ; Dravidian
art, 328, 329 ; Brdhmanical influence
on the Dravidians, 329, 330 ; develop-
ment of Dravidian speech into ver-
nacular literatures, 330 ; Tamil, the
oldest and the most influential ver-
nacular of Southern India, 330 ; Jain
cycle of Tamil literature, earliest
Tamil poets, 331 ; Tamil hymnology,
332 ; modern Tamil writers, Beschi,
the Italian Jesuit and Tamil scholar,
333 ; recent statistics of Tamil litera-
ture, 333.
Droughts. — See Famines.
Drugs and medicines, 34.
Dual system of administration in Bengal
(1767-72), 387, 388.
Duarte Nunez, first Portuguese bishop in
India (1514-17 A.D.), 244.
Duff, Rev. Alexander, first Presbyterian
missionary to India, 261.
Dufiferin, Earl of. Viceroy (1884), 430.
Duka, Dr. Theodore, Life and Works of
Alexander Csoma de Kords, quoted,
153 (footnote i).
Duncker, Professor Max, Ajuient History
of India, quoted, 81 (footnote 2); 84
(footnotes 2 and 4); 115 (footnote); 163
(footnote 4).
Dupleix, French administrator, his ambi-
tion of founding a French Empire in
India, and his struggles in the Karnatik
with Clive, 378, 379.
Durani rule in Afghanistan (1747- 1826),
406, 407.
Duration of life (average) in India, 667.
Durga, one of the forms of the wife of
Siva, 211, 212.
Dutch, The, in India (1602- 1824 A.D.),
361-363; Dutch East India Com-
panies, 361, 362 ; supremacy of the, in
the Eastern Seas, brilliant progress, and
decline, 362 ; Dutch relics in India,
363 ; English * Treaty of Defence '
with the Dutch (1619), 367; massacre
of Amboyna, and expulsion of the
English from the Eastern Archipelago
(1624), 368 ; Dutch conquests in India,
371, 372 ; Dutch defeated by Clive at
Chinsurah, 385 ; Dutch monopoly of
Eastern trade (1600), 560.
Dyes, export of, 574, 575.
E
Early Greek historians of India, 163,
164.
Early History of Tibet and Khoten, in
Mr. Rockhilrs Life of the Buddha,
from the Tibetan classics, 176 and 177
(footnotes).
Early Muhammadan rulers (711 -1526
A. D. ), chap. X. pp. 268 - 289.
Early Arab expeditions to Bombay
(636-711 A.D.), 268;. Muhammadan
INDEX.
719
settlement in Sind (711 A.D.), 268;
expulsion of the Muhammadans from
Sind (828 A.D.), 268; India on the
eve of the Muhammadan conquest
(1000 A.D.), 268, 269; the Hindu
kingdoms and Hindu power of resist-
ance, 269 ; slow progress of Muham-
madan conquest, 269, 270 ; Muhamma-
dan conquest only partial and tempo-
rary, 270 ; recapture of India from
the Muhammadans by the Hindus
(1707-61 A.D.), 270; chronology of
Muhammadan conquerors and dynas-
ties of India (1001-1857 A.D.), 271 ;
first Turki invasions, Subuktigin
(977-997 A.D.), 272; the seventeen
invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni (looi-
24 A.D.), 272-274; the Somnath ex-
pedition, 273, 274 ; Mahmiid's con-
quest of the Punjab, 274 ; the Ghor
dynasty (1152-1206 A.D.), 275-278;
Muhammad of Ghor's invasions (1191-
1206 A.D.), 275, 276; his conquest of
Bengal (1203 A, D.), 277, 278 ; Muham-
mad's work in India and subjugation
of Northern India, 278 ; Kutab-ud-
din (1206-10 A.D.), 278; the Slave
dynasty, 278-280; Altamsh (121 1-36
A.D.), 279 ; the Empress Raziya(i236-
39 A, D.), 279; Mughal irruptions and
Rajput revolts (1244-88), 279, 280 ;
Balban (1265-87 A.D.), his cruelties,
280 ; his Royal pensioners, 280 ; end
of the Slave Kings, 280 ; the house of
Khilji (1290- 1 320 A.D.), 280-283 ; Ala-
ud-din's raids into Southern India
(1294), 281 ; conquest of Northern
India (1295- 1303), 281 ; conquest of
Southern India (1303-15), 281, 282 ;
Muhammadan power and population
in India (1306), 282 ; Mughal merce-
naries and Hindu revolts, 281 ;
Khusru, the renegade Hindu Emperor
(1316-20 A.D.), 282, 283 ; the house
of Tughlak (1320-1414 a.d.), 283-286 ;
Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51 A.D.),
his expeditions, cruelties, forced cur-
rency, 283, 284 ; revolts, 284 ; Mu-
hammad Tughlak's revenue exactions,
284, 285 ; Firoz Shah Tughlak (1351-
88 A. D. ) ; his canals, 285 ; Timur's
invasion (1398 A.D.), 285 ; ruin of the
Tughlak dynasty, 285, 286 ; the Say-
yid, Lodi, and Bahmani dynasties (1450-
1526 A.D.), 286, 287 ; Muhammadan
States of the Deccan, 288 ; the Hindu
kingdom of Vijayanagar, 286, 288 ;
independent Nayaks and Palegars of
Southern India, 288 ; independent
Muhammadan kingdoms of Bengal,
Gujarat, and Jaunpur, 289.
East India Companies, and early Euro-
pean Settlements ; Portuguese, 356-361 ;
Dutch, 361-363 ; English, 363-371 ;
other India Companies, 371 ; P'rench,
372 ; Danish, Scotch, and Spanish,
372 ; German or Ostend, 372-374,
376 ; Prussian, 374-376 ; Swedish,
376 ; causes of failure, 376, 377.
East India Company (English), 363-
365 ; first Charter, 364 ; amalgamated
Companies, 365 ; early voyages, 365,
366 ; defeat of the Portuguese at
Swally, 366 ; wars with the Dutch, 367,
368 ; massacre of Amboyna, 368 ; early
English factories, 368-370 ; founda-
tion of Calcutta (1686), 371 ; the
Company embarks on territorial sway
(1689 A.D.), 371; downfall of the
Company, and transfer of India to
the Crown (1858 a.d.), 422.
Eastern branches of the early Aryans,
75-
Eastern Ghats, mountain range along the
Eastern coast of India, 36, 38 ; forests
of, 39-
Eastern Jumna canal, 29 ; 532.
Ecclesiastical Department, The Indian,
266, 267.
Education Commission appointed by Lord
Ripon, 429 ; its recommendations, 429 ;
474. '
Education in India, 472-479 ; educa-
tion in ancient India, 472 ; Sanskrit
tols^ 472 ; Calcutta Madrasa and other
colleges, 473 ; Mission schools, 473 ;
State system of education, 473, 474 ;
educational finance, 475 ; Indian uni-
versities, 475, 476 ; colleges, 476 ;
upper, middle, and primary schools,
476, 477 ; girls' schools, 478, 479 ;
normal and other special schools, 479 ;
educational classification of the popu-
lation, Appendix IX., 698-702. ■.
Elephants, domestic and wild, 521 ; 655 ;
elephant-catching a Government mono-
poly, 655, 656 ; Elephant Preserva-
tion Act, 656.
Elgin, Lord, Viceroy of India (1862-63),
424.
Ellenborough, Earl of, Governor-General
of India (1842-44), 408, 409 ; the
Afghan army of retribution under
Generals Nott and Pollock, 408, 409 ;
Ellenborough's Somnath proclamation,
409 ; conquest and annexation of Sind,
409 ; Gwalior outbreak, and the
battles of Maharajpur and Punniah,
409.
Ellichpur, Muhammadan kingdom of
Southern India (1484- 1572 a.d.), 288.
Elliot, Sir Henry, Tribes of the North-
western Frovijtces, 195 (footnote 2) ;
History of India as told by its own
Historians, 271 (footnote); 272 (foot-
notes 3 and 4) ; 273 (footnote) ; 287
720
INDEX.
(footnote 2) ; 290, 291 (footnotes) ;
295 (footnote i) ; 300 (footnote) ; 302
(footnote) ; 306 (footnote 2) ; 313 (foot-
note i).
Elphinstone's History of India, quoted,
175 (footnote 2) ; 180 (footnote 2) ;
273 (footnote) ; 291 (footnote) ; 300
(footnote 2) ; 302 (footnotes) ; 306
(footnote i).
Embden East India Company. — See
Prussian and Embden East India
Companies.
Embroidery work, 603.
English in India, The (1496- 1689 A.D.),
pp. 363-377. Attempts to reach India
by the North - West passage, 363 ;
Thomas Stephens, the earliest recorded
English traveller in India (1579 A.D.),
363, 364 ; Fitch, Newberry, and Leedes
(1583 A.D.), 364; first Charter of the
East India Company (1600 A.D.), 364 ;
later East India Companies, 365 ; the
amalgamated Company (1709 a.d. ),
365 ; early English voyages to India
(i6cx)-i2 A.D.), 365, 366; British
defeat of the Portuguese fleet at
Swally (1615 A.D.), 366 ; Sir Thomas
Roe, British Ambassador to India
(1615 A.D.), 367; wars between Eng-
lish and Dutch, 367, 368 ; massacre of
Amboyna, and expulsion of the British
from the Eastern Archipelago, 368 ;
early Indian factories in India, 367,
368; Madras founded (1639 A.D.),
369 ; Hugh', Balasor, and Kasimbazar
factories, 369, 370 ; Bombay ceded to
the British Crown (1661 A.D.), and
the Presidency transferred thither
from Surat (1684-87 A.D.), 370;
Bengal separated from Madras (1687
A.D.), 370; Sir John Child, first
'Governor-General,' 370, 371; Eng-
lish oppressed in Bengal by the native
Viceroys, 371 ; the Company starts on
territorial sway (1689 A.D.), 371 ;
causes of England's success in India,
and of the failure of other European
powers, 377.
Ethnical division of the population, 51,
52 ; 73, 74.
European and Indian languages merely
varieties of Aryan speech, 76.
European Settlements (1498 to i8th cen-
tury A.D.), chap. xiv. pp. 356-377.
The Portuguese in India, 356-361 ;
early Portuguese voyages, Covilham
(1487 A.D.), and Vasco da Gama (1498
A.I).), 357, 358; state of India on
arrival of Portuguese, 358 ; Portu-
guese territorial expedition (1 500 A.D.),
358 ; Portuguese supremacy in the
Eastern Seas (1500-1600 a.d.), 358,
359 ; capture of Goa by Albuquerque
(15 10 A.D.), 359 ; Portuguese cruelties,
359 ; Albuquerque's policy of concilia-
tion, 359, 360 ; later Portuguese Vice-
roys, their oppressions and conquests,
360 ; downfall of the Portuguese in
India (1639-1739), 360, 361 ; Portu-
guese possessions in 1881, 361 ; mixed
descendants, 361. The Dutch in India
(1602-1824), 359-362; Dutch East
India Companies, 361 ; Dutch supre-
macy in the Eastern Seas (1600- 1700
A.D. ), 362 ; their brilliant progress,
but short-slighted policy and ultimate
downfall, 362 ; Dutch relics in India,
363. The early English in India,
363-371 ; attempts to reach India by
the North-West passage, 363 ; Thomas
Stephens, the first authentic English
traveller in India (1579 a.d.), 363,364 ;
later travellers. Fitch, Newberry, and
Leedes (1583 a.d.), 364; first Charter
of the East India Company (1600 a.d.),
364 ; later East India Companies,
(1635, 1655, and 1698 A.D.), 365 ; the
amalgamated Company (1709 A.D.),
365 ; early English voyages (1600-12
A.D.), 365; defeat of the Portuguese
fleet at Swally, off Surat (1615), 366 ;
Sir Thomas Roe, first English Ambas-
sador to India (161 5 A.D.), 367 ; treaty
with the Dutch (1619 A.D.), 367;
English expelled from the Spice islands
and Java by the Dutch (1620-21 A.D.),
367 ; establishment of English factories
at Agra and Patna (1620 A.D.), 367 ;
Masulipatam factory established (1622
A.D.), 368 ; English expelled from
Eastern Archipelago, and retire to
India, 368 ; Emperor's Farman grant-
ing English liberty to trade in Bengal,
368, 369 ; Madras founded (1639
A.D.), 369 ; Hiigli factory established
(1640 A. D.), 369; Kasimbazar factory
(1658 A.D.), 369, 370; Bombay ceded
to the British Crown (1661 A.D.), 370 ;
Presidency removed from Surat to
Bombay (1684-87 a.d,), 370 ; separa-
tion of Bengal from Madras (1681),
370 ; Sir John Child, first ' Governor-
General' (1686 A.D.), 370, 371;
Calcutta founded (1686), 371; the
Company embarks on territorial sway
(1689 A.D.), 371 ; French East India
Companies and possessions in 1 881,
372; Danish, Scotch, and Spanish
Companies, 372 ; the German or
Ostend Company, 372 ; its Indian
settlements (1772 A.D.), 373; its
successful experimental voyages and
political objects, 373, 374 ; Ostend
Company bankrupt and destroyed
(1783-84 A.D.), and extinguished (1793
(A.D.), 374 ; the Prussian and Embden
INDEX.
721
Companies, 374-376 ; Swedish Com-
pany (173 1 A.D.), 376 ; causes of fail-
ure of foreign European Companies,
and of English success in India, 376,
377 ; European traders in India in
1872 and 1881, 377.
Everest, Mount, peak of th"e Himalayas,
and highest measured mountain in the
world, 5.
Everest, Rev. Mr., calculations regard-
ing silt discharge of Ganges, 27.
Exchange, Loss by, 469.
Excise administration, distilleries, rice-
beer, opium, gdnjd, charas, 454, 455 ;
467; expenditure and income of British
India, 465-470.
Excommunication from caste privileges,
199, 200.
Executive Council of the Governor-
General, 432.
Export trade of India, its origin and
growth, analysis and principal staples
o^ 567 ; 569-580 ; distribution of ex-
ports to different countries, 569, 580 ;
coasting trade, 584-586.
External sources of the ancient history
of India, 163.
Fa-Hian, Chinese Buddhist pilgrim of
the 5th century a.d., 155.
Famine relief expenditure, 469.
Famines, 539-544 ; causes of scarcity
and of real famine, 539 ; means of
husbanding the water-supply, 540 ;
irrigation area, 540, 541 ; summary of
Indian famines, 541, 542; the great
famine of 1876-78, its causes, 542,
543 ; famine expenditure, 543 ; mor-
tality from disease and starvation, 543,
544 ; famine a weak check on popula-
tion, 544.
Faulmann, Buck der Schri/t, quoted,
103 (footnote).
Fauna of India, 10. — See also Zoology,
652-662.
Female education, 478, 479.
Ferae Naturae of India. — See ZOOLOGY
AND Botany.
Ferdousi, Persian poet and historian in
the days of Mahmud of Ghazni, 275.
Fergusson, Mr. James, Paper in the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for
April 1880, quoted, 147 (footnote) ;
Tree and Serpent Worship, quoted,
185 (footnote 4) ; 204 (footnote i) ;
History of Architecture, 304 (footnotes).
Fetish-worship in Hinduism, 205, 206.
Feudatory India, the thirteen groups of
Native States, 43 ; population, 45.
Filatures. — See SiLK.
Final Struggles of the Fretuh in India,
by Colonel Malleson, 379 (footnote).
Finances and taxation of India, obscuri-
ties and changes in system of account,
457-465 ; taxation of British India,
459-461 ; taxation under the Mughal s
and under the British, 462, 463 ; taxa-
tion in Native States, 464 ; inci-
dence of taxation in British India, 464,
,465.
Firishta's Rise of the Mtihamvtadan
Poxuer in India, Colonel Briggs' trans-
lation, quoted, 271 (footnote); 287
(footnote 2) ; 291 (footnotes).
Firozshahr, Battle of, 411.
First Buddhist Council (543 B.C.), 143.
Firuz Tughlak, the third kmg of the
Tughlak dynasty (1351-88 A.D.), his
great canals and pubUc works, 285.
Fishes, 661., 662.
Fitch, Newberry, and Leedes, the first
English traders in India (1583 a.d.),
364-
Flint weapons of ancient India, 53.
Flora of India, 662-664,
Food-grains, Export of, 571-573.
Forde, Colonel, recapture of Slasulipatam
from the French (1759), 385.
Foreign trade of India, its gradual
growth, 561-581 ; returns of foreign
trade (1840-84), 562-564; staples of
import and export sea-borne trade
(1882-83), 565-581.
Forest Department, Growth of, and its
administration, 522-528 ; Forest Con-
servancy statistics, 526, 527 ; ' open '
and ' reserved ' forests, 526.
Forests of the Himalayas, 8 ; in Southern
and South-Western India, 38-40 ; in
Sind and Punjab, 524, 525 ; North-
western Provinces, 525 ; Sundarbans,
525 ; Assam and Burma, 525, 526. — See
also Forest Department, ut supra.
Fortified weaving settlements of the East
India Company, 599.
Fourth Buddhist Council (40 A.D.), 147.
Fo-wei-kian-king, Chinese translation
from the Sanskrit of the 'dying instruc-
tions of Buddha,' 141 and footnote.
Fox, The Indian, 654.
France, India's foreign trade with, 578,
579.
French East India Companies, and the
present French possessions in India,
372 ; French and English in the Kar-
natik, the first French war (1746-48),
378 ; capture of Madras by the French
(1746), and its restoration to the Eng-
lish (1748), 379; French influence in
India (1798- 1800), and intrigues with
Tipvi Sultan and the Nizam of Haidar-
abad, 394, 395.
Frobisher's, Davis', Hudson's, and Baffin's
2 Z
722
INDEX.
attempts to reach India by way of the
North-West passage, 363.
Frontier trade of India, 585-590.
Fruits, Varieties of, 490.
Funeral mounds and ceremonies of the
Sakyas and Buddhists in ancient India,
178.
Gaekwar, family name of the chief of
the Maratha State of Baroda, rise of
the family, deposition of the late
Gaekwar, 322, 323 ; 426.
Game birds of India, 659, 660.
Gandamak, Treaty of, 426.
Ganges, The, 11 ; 16-32; its river sys-
tem and course, 16, 17; discharge, 17;
sanctity, 17, 18 ; the fertilizer and
highway of Bengal, 19, 20 ; traffic, 20,
21 ; great cities, 20, 21 ; different
stages in the life of the Ganges or any
great Indian river, 21-25 ; as a silt
collector, 21, 22 ; as a land-maker,
22, 23 ; section of a deltaic channel
of the Ganges, 23 ; combined delta of
the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the
Meghna, 24, 25 ; subterranean struc-
ture of the Gangetic delta, 26 and
footnote ; silt brought down by Ganges
at Ghazipur, 27 and footnote ; esti-
mated silt of united river system, 28 ;
age of the Bengal delta, 28 ; river
irrigation, 28 ; the Ganges and Jumna
Canals, 28, 29 ; Ganges floods, 29 ;
saline deposits, 29 ; changes of Ganges
channel, 30 ; deserted river capitals,
30 ; the ' bore ' of the Ganges and
Meghna, 30, 31 ; the Goalanda rail-
way station washed away by the
Ganges, 31, 32; fluvial changes, allu-
vion and diluvion, 30-32 ; navigation
on the Ganges, 552.
Ganges Canals, 28, 29 ; 532, 533.
Gangetic historical and commercial cities,
20 ; deserted cities, 30.
Gdnjd, Excise duty on, 455.
Gaulis, an ancient ruling race in the
Central Provinces, now a crushed tribe,
71.
Gautama Buddha, the founder of the
Buddhist religion, his life and doctrine.
— See Buddhism.
Geography of India. — See Physical
A,SPECTS.
Geology of India, chap. xxii. pp. 631-
640. Geology of the Himalayas, 631 ;
the central gneissic axis, 631, 632 ;
lower Himdlayas, 633 ; the sub-Hima-
layas and Sivaliks, 632, 633 ; the Salt
Range, 633 ; Indo-Gangetic plain, its
age, history, and geological deposits,
^ZZ> 634 ; peninsular India, 634-639 :
the Vindhya system, 635 ; Gondwana
series, 635, 636 ; Panchet and Talcher
group, 636 ; Damodar series and coal-
fields, 636-638 ; Deccan trap and
laterite, 638, 639 ; precious stones,
639 j geological structure of Burma,
639, 640.
Ghakkars, a tribe in Rawal Pindi Dis-
trict, their invasions of India, and their
present descendants, 185.
Ghats, Eastern, mountain range along
the Eastern coast of India, 36 ; 38 ;
forests of, 39.
Ghats, Western, mountain range along
the Western coast of India, 36 ; the
Bhor Ghat pass, 36 ; Thai Ghat pass,
37 ; Palghat pass, 37 ; rivers of the
Western Ghats, 37, 38 ; rainfall, 38 ;
forests, 39.
Gheriah, defeat of Mir Kasim at, by
Major Adams, 386.
Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak, founder of tlie
Tughlak dynasty (1320-1324 A.D.),
283.
Ghor, Dynasty of (1152-1206 A.D.),
Muhammad of Ghor's invasions, his
first defeats and ultimate conquest of
Northern India and Bengal, 275 -
278. ^
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, quoted, 230 (footnote i) ; 239
(footnote 2).
Gingi, Surrender of, by the French to
Sir Eyre Coote, 380.
Gipsy clans, 71.
Girls' schools, 478, 479.
Gita Govinda, The, or ' Divine Herds-
man,' the song of Krishna, 128.
Goa, Supposed relics of St. Thomas at,
238 ; John de Albuquerque, first bishop
f>f (1539-53 A.D.), 244; establish-
ment of Archbishopric of, 245 ; Arch-
bishop Menezes (1596-99), 245 ;
jurisdiction of the Gt)a Archbishopric,
255* 256 ; capture of Goa by Albu-
querque (1510 A.D.), 359.
Goalanda railway station washed away by
the Ganges, 31.
Godavari river, 37 ; irrigation works,
improvement of navigation on, 551,
552.
Goddard, General, his march across
India during the first Maratha war,
391.
Golconda, Diamonds of, 41 ; 628.
Golconda, Muhammadan kingdom of
Southern India (1512-1688 A.D.), 288.
Gold and gold-mining in Southern India,
624, 625.
Gold and silver, imports of, 562, 568,
569.
Goldsmith caste in Madras, 196.
INDEX,
723
Goldsmiths' and jewellers' work, 605,
606.
Gold-washing in Indian rivers, 624.
Gonds, aboriginal tribe in the Central
Provinces, 55 ; 71 ; 187 ; 189.
Gondwana, Geology of, 635, 636.
Goiigh, Lord, battles of Chilianwala and
Gujrat, 412, 413.
Governors, Governors - General and
Viceroys of India (175 7- 1885 A.D.),
384-
Grafnmar of the Sifidhi Language by
Dr. E. Trumpp, quoted, 335.
' Grand Army,' The, of Aurangzeb, and
its twenty years' campaign in the
Deccan, 308, 309.
' Grand Trunk Road ' of India, The,
550.
Grant Duff's History of the Mardthds,
quoted, chap. xii. pp. 317-324, foot-
notes passim.
Greek influence on Indian art and archi-
tecture, 112 ; 170, 171.
Greeks in India, The (327 to 161 B.C.),
chap. vi. pp. 163-173. Early Greek
writers, 163 ; Megasthenes, the Greek
Ambassador to the Court of Chandra
Gupta, 163, 164 ; Alexander the
Great's expedition to India, 163-166 ;
his defeat of Porus, 164, 165 ; his ad-
vance through the Punjab and Sind, 165,
166; cities founded by Alexander, 164,
165 ; results of his Indian expedition,
166 ; Greek military settlements, 166 ;
cession of the Punjab and Sind to
Chandra Gupta by Seleukos, 167 ; Me-
gasthenes' embassy to Chandra Gupta's
Court, 163, 164 ; 167 ; the India
of Megasthenes, 168 - 170 ; ancient
petty Indian kingdoms, 170 ; Indo-
Greek treaty (256 B.C.), 170; later
Greek invasions of India, 170 ; Greek
influence on Indian art, 112 ; 170, 171 ;
Greek and Hindu types of sculpture,
171 ; Greeks in Bengal, 172 ; Greek
survivals in India, 172 ; the Yavanas,
172, 173-
Growth of trading and industrial cities
under the English, 556, 557.
Guaranteed railways, the eight great lines
of, 546, 547.
Gujrat, Battle of, 413.
Gunny bags. Exports of, 576 ; 614-616.
Gupta, ancient Indian dynasty in
Northern India (319-470 a.d. ) ; their
struggle with and overthrow by an
invasion of Scythians or White Iluns,
182.
Gurkhas, War with the {1814- 15), 400 ;
services during the Mutiny, 421.
Gwalari, mountain pass over the Brahui
hills from the Punjab into Baluchistan,
6.
Haas, Dr. E., 'Ueber die Urspvunge der
Indischen Medizin, mit besonderem
Bezug auf Susruta,' and ' Hippokrates
und die Indische Medizin des Mittel-
alters,' published in the Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenldiidischen Gesell-
schaft for 1876 and 1877, quoted, no
(footnote).
Hab river, the westernmost boundary of
India, separating Southern Sind from
Baluchistan, 3 ; 6, 7.
Haidar All, his wars with the British,
392.
Hala mountains, a southerly offshoot of
the Himalayas, marking a portion of
the western boundary of India, 3.
Hand-loom and steam-mill woven cotton,
601.
Hardinge, Lord, Governor-General of
India (1841. -48), 410, 411; history
of the Sikhi and of the first .Sikh war ;
battles of Miidki, Firozshahr, Aliwal,
and Sobraon, 410, 411.
Hardy, Mr. Spence, Majiualof Btiddhism,
quoted, 137 (footnotes).
Harris, General, storming of Seringa-
patam, 397.
Hastings, Marquis of, Governor-General
of India (1814-23), 400-402; war
with Nepal and treaty of Segauli, with
cession of Himalayan tracts (18 15),
400 ; Pindari war, 401 ; third and last
Maratha war and annexation of the
Peshwa's dominions (1818), 401, 402.
Hastings, Warren (1772-85), 388-392;
his administrative reforms and policy
towards native powers, 388 ; first
Governor - General of India (1774),
388 ; makes Bengal pay, 389 ; sale of
Allahabad and Kora to the Wazir of
Oudh (1773), 390; the Rohilla war,
plunder of Chait Singh and the Oudh
Begams, 390, 391 ; Hastings' impeach-
ment and seven years' trial in England,
391 ; the poor excuse for his measures,
391 ; first Maratha war and treaty of
Salbai, 391, 392 ; first war with
Mysore (1780-84), 392.
Haug, Dr., 7 he Origin of Brdhmanism,
quoted, 212 (footnote 4).
Havelock, Sir Henry, defeat of the
Cawnpur mutineers, first relief of Luck-
now, 420.
Hawkins, Captain, Envoy from James i.
and the East India Company to the
Court of the Great Mughal (1608 A.D.),
366.
Heber, Bishop of Calcutta (1823-26),
261.
Hekataios, the earliest Greek historian
who refers to India, 163.
724
INDEX.
High Courts of Justice in India, 433.
Hijili navigable canal in Midnapur
District, 553.
Hill cultivation, 9 ; 486.
Hill forts (Maratha) in the Deccan, 318.
Himalaya mountains, The, 4-10; the
double wall and trough, 5, 6 ; passes
and offshoots, 6 ; water-supply and
rainfall, 7 ; scenery, vegetation, irriga-
tion and products, 7-10; animals and
tribes, 10; geology, 631-633 ; meteor-
ology, 641, 642. — See also Trans-
Himalayan Trade.
Hindi literature and authors, 345, 346.
Hinduism, Rise of (750 to 1520 a.d.),
chap. viii. pp. 192 - 228. Disinte-
gration of Buddhism, 191 ; preaching
of Kumarila, 191 ; persecution of
Buddhism, 191, 192 ; caste and reli-
gion the twofold basis of Hinduism,
192 ; race origin of caste, 192 ; modi-
fied by 'occupation' and 'locality,'
192 ; complexity of caste, 192, 193 ;
the Brahman caste analyzed, 193, 194 ;
building of the caste system, 194; Hindu
marriage law, 195 ; ancient mingling
of castes, 195; 'occupation' basis of
caste, 196-199 ; the Vaisyas or ancient
cultivating caste, 196 ; the ' right-
hand ' and * left-hand ' castes of Madras,
196, 197 ; the Dattas of Bengal,
197 ; Shahas, Telis, and Tambulis
forcing their way to higher castes, 197 ;
caste, a system of trade-guilds, 197,
198 ; working of the Indian trade-
guild, its funds, charities, rewards,
and punishments, 198, 199 ; excom-
munication a penalty for a breach
of caste rules, 199, 200 ; the reli-
gious basis of Hinduism, its stages of
evolution, and how far influenced by
Buddhism, 200, 201 ; Beast hospitals,
201 ; monastic religious life, 201, 202;
analogies of Japanese worship to Hin-
duism and Christianity, 202 ; serpent
ornamentation in Buddhist, Hindu,
and Christian art, 202, 203 ; coalition
of Buddhism with earlier religions,
203 ; shrines common to various faiths,\
203, 204 ; non- Aryan elements in
Hinduism, 204 ; phallic emblems in
Hinduism, 204, 205; fetish -worship
in Hinduism, 205, 206 ; the Sdlgrdm
or village deity, 265"; jungle rites.V
2q6, 297 ; non-Aryan religious rites
merging into Hinduism, 207 ; Brah-
man founders of Hinduism, 207 ; low
caste apostles, 207, 208 ; mediaeval
Hindu saints, their miracles, 208 ;
Kabir's death, 208 ; Brahman reli-
gious reformers, 209, 210 ; growth of
Siva-worship, 210-215; Siva -worship
in its philosophical and terrible aspects,
211 ; twofold aspects of Siva and of
Durga his queen, and their twofold
sets of names, 211, 212 ; human sacri-
fices as late as 1866, 212, 213 ; animals
substituted for human sacrifice, 213 ;
the Charak pujd or swinging festival,
213 ; the thirteen Sivaite sects, 213,
214; gradations of Siva-worship, 214,
215 ; secret orgies of Sivaism, 215 ;
the 'right-hand' and 'left-hand'
forms of Siva - worship, 214, 215;
Siva and Vishnu compared, 215 ;
Vishnu the Preserver always a friendly
god, 215 ; his incarnations or avatars^
215 (and footnote) ; 216 ; the Vishnu
Puranas, 216, 217; Brahmanical and
popular Vishnuism, 217 ; Vishnuite
religious reformers, 217-222 ; Rama-
nuja, 217 ; Ramanand, 218 ; Kabir,
218, 219; Chaitanya, 219-221;
Vallabha-Swami, 221, 222 ; Krishna-
worship, 222, 223 ; the twenty chief
Vishnuite sects, 223 ; theistic move-
ments in Hinduism, 223 ; the Sikhs,
and Nanak Shah, their spiritual founder,
223 ; Jagannath, the coahtion of
Brahman and Buddhist doctrines
forming the basis of Vishnu -worship,
223, 224 ; Car festival of Jagannath,
224 ; bloodless worship of Jagannath,
self-immolation a calumny, 224-226 ;
gentle doctrines of Jagannath, 226 ;
religious nexus of Hinduism, 226 ;
practical faith of the Hindus, its toler-
ance, 226, 227 ; the modern Hindu
triad, 227 ; recapitulation, 228.
Hindu architecture, 112.
Hindu kingdoms of the Deccan, 286.
Hindu population of India, 51. — See also
Appendix V., 693.
Hindu Tribes and Castes, by the Rev.
M. A. Sherring, quoted, 193 (footnote
I); 194 (footnotes 2, 3, and 4); 195
(footnote 2) : 221 (footnote 4).
Histoire du Christianistne des Indes, by
La Croze, 232 (footnote i) ; 240
(footnote 4); 241 (footnote l) ; 242
(footnotes).
Histoire de la LittJratiire Hindotiic et
Hindoustanie, by Garcin de Tassy,
343 and footnote.
History of Architecture, by Mr. J. Fer-
gusson, quoted, 304 (footnotes).
History of British Rule (1757-1885 A.D.),
chap. XV. pp. 378-430. Madras, the
first British territorial possession in
India (1639), 378; Southern India
after the death of Aurangzeb (1707),
378 ; French and English in the
Karnatik, 378 ; first French war and
capture of Madras by the French
(1746), 379 ; second French war (1750-
61), 379; Clive's defence of Arcot
V
INDEX,
725
f 1 751)5 379; Sir Eyre Coote's victory of
Wandewash (1760), 379; capitulation
of Pondicherri and Gingi, 380 ; the
English in Bengal (1634-96), 380;
native rulers of Bengal (1707-56),
Murshid Kiili Khan, All Vardi Khan,
and Siraj-ud-daula, 380, 381 ; capture
of Calcutta by Siraj-ud-daula (1756),
381 ; recapture of Calcutta and
battle of Plassey, 382; Mir Jafar (1757-
61), 383-385 ; Zaffihiddri grzx\\. of the
Twenty-four Parganas, 383 ; Clive's
/dgir, 383, 384 ; Clive, Governor
of Bengal, 384 ; deposition of Mir
Jafar and enthronement of Mir Kasim
(1 761), 385 ; Mir Kasim's quarrel
■with the English, and massacre of
Patna, 385, 386 ; first Sepoy Mutiny
(1764), 386; battle of Baxar (1764),
386 ; Clive's second Governorship
(1765-67), partition of the Gangetic
valley, the Diwani grant of Bengal,
and reorganization of the Company's
service, 386, 387 ; dual system of ad-
ministration (1767-72), abolished by
Warren Hastings, 387, 388 ; Warren
Hastings' administration (1772-85),
388-392 ; his administrative reforms,
and policy with native powers, 388 ;
Warren Hastings, the first Governor-
General of India (1774), 388 ; his
financial administration, and sale of
Allahabad and Kora to the Wazir
of Oudh, 389, 390 ; withholds the
Emperor's tribute, 390 ; the Rohilla
war (1773-74), 390; plunder of Chait
Singh and of the Oudh Begams, 390 ;
charges against Hastings and his im-
peachment, 392 ; the first Maratha and
Mysore wars, 392, 393 ; Lord Corn-
wallis' administration (1786-93), his
revenue reforms, the Permanent Settle-
ment of Bengal, and second Mysore
war, 393, 394; Sir John Shore (I793-
98), 394 ; Lord Wellesley's administra-
tion (1 798- 1 805), 394-399; French
influence in India, 394 ; state of India
before Lord Wellesley, 395 ; Lord
Wellesley's scheme for crushing French
influence in India, 395, 396 ; treaties
of Lucknow and with the Nizam, 396 ;
third Mysore war and fall of Seringa-
patam, 396, 397 ; Wellesley's dealings
with the Marathas, and the second
Maratha war, 397, 398; British victories
and annexations (1803); British dis-
asters, Colonel Monson's retreat, and
General Lake's repulse before Bhartpur
(1804-05), 398 ; India on Lord Welles-
ley's departure (1805), 398, 399 ; Lord
Cornwallis' second administration as
Governor- General (1805), 399 ; Sir
George Barlow (1805), 399 ; Earl of
Minto's administration (1807-13), his
embassies to the Punjab, Afglianistan,
and Persia, 399, 400; Marquis of
Hastings' administration (1814-23), the
Nepal war and treaty of Segauli, the
Pindari campaign, the third and last
Maratha war, and annexation of the
Peshwa's territories, 400-402 ; Mr.
Adam, pro tern. Governor - General
(1823), 403; Lord Amherst (1823-28),
Burmese encroachments on India, first
Burmese war and annexation of Assam,
Arakan, and Tenasserim, 403, 404 ;
capture of Bhartpur, 404; Lord William
Bentinck (1828-35), ^^^ financial re-
forms, abolition of Sati, suppression of
Thagi and cruel rites, renewal of Com-
pany's Charter, Mysore taken under
British administration, and Coorg
annexed, 404-406; Sir Charles Metcalfe
(1835-36), the grant of liberty to the
Press, 406; Lord Auckland (1836-
42), our early dealings with Kabul,
and the disastrous Afghan campaign,
and annihilation of our army, 406-408 ;
Earl of Ellenborongh (1842-44), the
Kabul army of retribution, the ' Gates
of Somnath ' travesty, annexation of
Sind, and Gwalior outbreak, 408, 409 ;
Lord Hardinge (1844-48), the first
Sikh war and annexation of the
Cis-Sutlej tract, 410, 411 ; Earl of
Dalhousie (1848-56), 411-417; his
administrative reforms and public
•works, 412 ; second Sikh war and
annexation and pacification of the
Punjab, 412, 413 ; second Burmese
war and annexation of Pegu, 413,
414 ; Lord Dalhousie's dealings with
the Native States, the doctrine of
* Lapse ' in the case of Satara, Jhansi,
and Nagpur States, 414, 415 ; Berar
handed over by the Nizam of Haidara-
bad, as a territorial guarantee for arrears
of subsidies and for the payment of the
Haidarabad contingent, 415 ; annexa-
tion of Oudh and Lord Dalhousie's
grounds for the measure, 415-417 ;
Earl Canning (1856-62), 417-424;
the Sepoy Mutiny and its causes, 417-
419; the outbreak at Meerut and Delhi,
and spread of the Mutiny, 419 ;
loyalty of the Sikhs, 419, 420 ; the
siege of Cawnpur and massacre of the
survivors, 420 ; Lucknow, 420, 421 ;
siege and capture of Delhi, 421 ; re-
duction of Oudh by Lord Clyde, and of
Central India by Sir Hugh Rose, 421,
422 ; India transferred to the Crown,
the Queen's Proclamation and general
amnesty, 423, 424 ; Lord Canning's
financial and legal reforms, 424 ; Lord
Elgin (1862-63), his death at Dharm-
726
INDEX.
sala, 424 ; Lord Lawrence (1864-69),
the Bhutan war and Orissa famine,
424, 425; Lord Mayo (1869-72), the
Ambala Darbdr ; internal and finan-
cial reforms, and abolition of inland
customs lines, his assassination, 425 ;
Lord Northbrook (1872 - 76), the
Bengal famine of 1874, dethronement
of the Gaekwar of Baroda, and visit of
the Prince of Wales to India, 425, 426;
Lord Lytton (1876-80), Proclamation
of the Queen as Empress of India,
famine of 1877-78 ; the second Afghan
campaign, 426, 427 ; Lord Ripon
(1880-84); end of the second Afghan
campaign, rendition of Mysore to its
hereditary Hindu dynasty, internal
administration reforms, local Govern-
ment Acts, amendment of Criminal
Procedure, reconstitution of the Agri-
cultural Department, revenue reforms,
the Education Commission, abolition
of customs duties, Bengal Tenancy
Bill, 427-429 ; Earl of Dufferin (1884),
430 ; annexation of Upper Burma
(1886), 430.
History of British India, by J. Mill,
quoted, 314 (footnote 3); 365 (foot-
note 2).
History of India, by the Hon. Mount-
stuart Elphinstone, quoted, 270 (foot-
note) ; 291 (footnote) ; 300 (footnote) ;
302 (footnotes) ; 306 (footnote i).
History of India as told by its own
Historians, by Sir Henry Elliot,
quoted, 271; 287 (footnote 2); 291
(footnotes) ; 295 (footnote 2) ; 300
(footnote) ; 302 (footnote 2) ; 306
(footnote i); 313 (footnote).
History of the Settleitients and Trade of
the Europeans in the East and West
Indies, by Abbe Raynal, quoted, 374
(footnote).
History of the French in India, by
Colonel Malleson, 379 (footnote).
History of the Mardthds, by James Grant
Duff, quoted, chap. xii. pp. 317-324,
footnotes, passim.
History of the Mardthds, by E. Scott
Waring, quoted, 317 (footnote l).
Hiuen Tsiang, Chinese Buddhist pilgrim,
2 ; 155 and footnote; 156, 157; 178,
179; 182.
Hog, wild. The, 656, 657.
Ilolkar, family name of the Chief of the
Maratha State of Indore ; rise of the
family to power, 322; war with the
British, 323.
Horses, Breeds of, 520; Government
studs, 520; horse fairs, 521.
Hiiglf, East India Company's factory
established at (1640), 369; oppressed
by the Mughal governor, 370.
Human sacrifice among the Kandhs, 62 ;
in Siva - worship, 212; substitute of
animals for human offerings, 213.
Humayun, second Mughal Emperor of
Delhi (1530-56 A.D.), 290, 291 ; ex-
pulsion from India by his Afghan
governor of Bengal (1540), 291 ; sub-
sequent recovery of the throne by the
second battle of Panipat, 291.
Ibrahim Lodi, Defeat and overthrow of,
by Babar at the first battle of Panipat
(1526 A.D.), 290.
Imad Shahi, Muhammadan dynasty of
Southern India (1484- 15 72), 288.
Immobility of the Indian peasant, 47.
Impediments to improved husbandry,
namely, want of cattle, want of manure,
and want of water, 517-519.
Import trade of India, analysis and
principal staples of, 565-568 ; coasting
imports and exports, 584-586.
Incarnations of Vishnu, 215, 216 and
footnote.
Income and expenditure of British India,
465-470.
Increase of population between 1872 and
1881,47; 49, ,50- , ,
Independent Nayaks and Palegars of
Southern India, 288.
India on the eve of the Mughal conquest
(1526 A.D.), 290.
India, origin of the name, 1-3.
Indian Caste, by Dr. J. Wilson, quoted,
194 (footnote i) ; 195 (footnote 2);
196 (footnote i).
Indian products mentioned in the Bible,
163.
Indian Society as described by Megas-
thenes (300 B.C.), 168, 169.
Indian vernaculars and their literature,
chap. xiii. pp. 325-355. Asiatic
civilisation of India as found by the
early European powers, 325, 326 ;
India in the ist and the i6th centuries
A.D., 326, 327 ; the Dravidians or non-
Aryans, their language and its place
in philology, 326-328 ; the Dravi-
dians in Sanskrit literature, 328 ; pre-
Aryan Dravidian civilisation, 328 ;
Brahmanic influence on the Dravidians,
329, 330 ; development of Dravidian
speech into vernacular literatures, 330 ;
the Tamil language, 330, 331 ; Jain
cycle of Tamil literature, 331 ; the
Tamil Ramayana, 331, 332; Sivaite
and Vishnuite Tamil hymnology, 332,
333 ; modern Tamil writers, 333 ;
Beschi, the Jesuit Tamil scholar, 333 ;
recent statistics of Tamil literature,
INDEX,
^27
333 ; Aryan languages of North India,
Sanskrit, 334, 335 ; evidence as to
whether Sanskrit was ever a spoken
language, 334-336 ; Panini and Vara-
ruchi, ancient Sanskrit grammarians,
336 ; the Prakrits or ancient spoken
dialects of India, their divergence from
Sanskrit, 336 ; routes of Prakrit speech,
337 ; Prakrits developed by Buddhists
for their Scriptures, 338 ; evolution of
modern vernaculars from Prakrits, 338,
339 ; their Prakrit framework and
Sanskrit enrichments, 339 ; non-Aryan
element in the vernaculars, propor-
tion of non- Aryan words, 340, 341 ;
the fourfold composition of the verna-
culars, namely, the Prakrit and aborigi-
nal elements, Sanskrit borrowings and
Persian terms, 342 ; the seven verna-
culars of India, 342, 343 ; vernacular
literature and vernacular writers, 343,
344 ; Rajputana religious literature,
344 ; Hindi authors from the 1 2th
to the 19th centuries, 345, 346 ;
Marathi literature and authors, 346 ;
Bengali literature, its three periods,
343-348 ; Bengali religious poetry,
349-351 ; Bengali poets from the i6th
to the i8th centuries, 349-352 ; the
court of Nadiya, the chief seat of
learning in Bengal in the last century,
352 ; Bengali prose literature in the
19th century, 354 ; the Bengali drama,
354.
Indigo, Cultivation of, in different locali-
ties, 495, 496 ; systems of indigo-
planting, and out-turn in Bengal and
Behar, 497 ; export of, 497 ; 574.
Indische Alterthtc?7iskunde, by Professor
Lassen, quoted, 161 (footnote i); 191
(footnote 2) ; 340 (footnote 2).
Indo-Aryan stock, its European and
Eastern branches, 75, 76 ; their march
towards and into India, i-eligion, etc.,
76-7S.
Indo-Gangetic plain, Geology of, 633,
634 ; meteorology of, 643, 644.
Indo-Greek treaties (306 and 256 B.C.),
167, 170.
Indra, the Vedic God of Rain, 80, 81 ;
influence of the rainy season on Aryan
mythology, 80 ; Indra displaced by
the modern Brahmanical Triad, 81.
Indus, great river of Northern India
and Sind, 11-13; its upper waters,
II ; its feeder the Sutlej, 11, 12 ; its
inundations, 11 ; lower course, 12 ;
irrigation facilities, 13 : 529 ; silt de-
posits, 13; Indus steam flotilla recently
broken up on completion of the railway
system, 552.
Inlaying work, 609.
Inquisition established by the Portuguese
at Goa (1560), 241, 253 ; auios da fe,
254; abolished (1812), 254.
Inscribed pillars of Asoka, 145, 146.
Insects, Indian, 662.
Internal and local trade of India, 591-
596 ; village money-lenders, travelling
brokers, and religious fairs, 592, 593 ;
internal trade the safeguard against
famine, 593 ; normal action of internal
trade, 594 ; provincial statistics of
internal trade, 594, 595 ; trade statis-
tics of a large town, village mart, and
annual fair, 594-596.
Introdticiion to the Malta Language, by
the Rev. E. Droese, quoted, 327 (foot-
note i).
In-tu, the Buddhist derivation of the
word India, 2.
Invaliding, Causes of, in the European
army, 681.
Iron mining and smelting, difficulties of
Indian ironworks, 41 ; 619 ; indigenous
methods of iron-smelting, 618 ; failure
of English efforts, 618, 619 ; Govern-
ment efforts, 619.
Ironwork, 606^
Irrigated area in different tracts with
statistics, 528-538.
Irrigation from hill-streams in the Hima-
layas, 9 ; river irrigation in the plains,
28, 29.
Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, famous
modern Hindu social reformer, 353.
Italy, India's trade with, 578, 579.
Itinerary Jesuit missionaries in the 15th
and i6th centuries ; their labours and
conversions, 250, 251.
Ivory carving, 609.
Jackal, The, 654.
Jackson, Lowis D'A., Hydraulic Manual,
quoted, 17 (footnote).
Jacobi, Hermann, The Jaina Sutras,
forming vol. xxii. of Prof. Max Miiller's
Sacred Books of tlie East, 161 (foot-
notes 4 and 5) ; 167 (footnote i).
Jacobite branch of the Syrian Church in
India, 242, 243 ; 257.
Jagannath, Worship of, 223-226 ; his
Brahmanical and Buddhist origin, 224 ;
the Car festival, 225 ; English calum-
nies against Jagannath, self-immola-
tion seldom practised, 224, 225 ; his
bloodless worship and gentle doctrines,
225, 226.
Jahangir, fourth Mughal Emperor of
India (1605-27 A.D.), 300-302; chief
events of his reign, 300 (footnote 2) ;
rebellion of his son Shah Jahan, 301 ;
his Empress Nur Jahan, 301 ; personal
728
INDEX,
character, justice and religious tolera-
tion, 301, 302.
Jai Singh, Raja of Jaipur, his astro-
nomical observatories at Jaipur, Delhi,
Benares, Muttra, and Ujjain in the
i8th centur}', 105, 106.
Jail statistics, 472 ; vital statistics of
Indian prisons, 684, 685.
Jains, the modern representatives of the
Buddhists in India, 158 ; Jain popu-
lation in India, 158 (footnote) ; Jain
doctrines, 159; temple cities, 159;
relation of Jainism to Buddhism, 159,
160; antiquity of the Jains, 160; date
of the Jain scriptures, 161 ; the Jains,
an independent sect, 162 ; modern
Jainism, 162.
Jaipal, Hindu chief of Lahore, his defeats
by Subuktigin and Mahmiid of Ghazni,
272.
Jalal-ud-din, the first king of the Khilji
dynasty (1290-95 A.D.), 280.
Jama Masjid, Shah Jahan's great mosque
at Delhi, 304.
Jamuna, the name of the Brahmaputra
from its entering the Bengal delta to
its junction with the Ganges, 14.
Jang Bahadur, assistance rendered by,
during the suppression of the Mutiny,
421.
Jats, The, their Scythian origin, 179,
180.
Java, Conquest of, by Lord Minto, 399.
Jayadeva, a celebrated Sanskrit poet of
the I2th century, 128.
faziyd^ or Mughal poll-tax on non-
Musalmans, 309.
Jesuits in India, 244-255 ; first Portu-
guese missionaries (1500 A.D.), 244;
St. Francis Xavier, 244, 245 ; the
Madras Jesuits, 245 ; letters of the early
Jesuit missionaries, 246 ; Thana, a
Jesuit station (1550 a.d.), with its
colony of Christian artisans and culti-
vators, 247, 248 ; rural organization of
the Jesuits, 248 ; the Jesuit college
at Cochin, 248-250 ; Jesuit itinerary
missionaries, and their conversions, 250,
251 ; Jesuit missions in Malabar in
the 17th and l8th centuries, 251, 252 ;
Jesuit martyrdoms, 252, 253 ; literary
labours of the Jesuits, 253 ; establish-
ment of the Portuguese inquisition
at Goa (1560), 251-253 ; autos dafi,
253» 254 ; alx)lition of the inquisition
(1812), 254; the Jesuits suppressed
0759-73). 254, 255; re-established
(1814), 255.
Jewellery and goldsmiths' work, 605,
606.
Jewish settlements in ancient Malabar,
,^234. 235.
Jhansi, Native State, lapsed to the British
for want of heirs, 415 ; revolt of the
ex-princess in 1857, 421, 422.
Jones, Sir William, 114 ;i26.
Josaphat, a saint of the Christian Church,
analogies between him and Buddha, and
asserted identity of the two, 151, 152.
Journal Asiatique, Paper by M. Senart,
quoted, 175 (footnote 3).
Journalism and newspapers, 480.
Juangs, a leaf-wearing tribe in Orissa, 56.
Jumna, great river in Northern India,
and chief tributary of the Ganges, 17.
Jumna Canal, Eastern, Statistics of, 29;
532, 533.
Jumna Canal, Western, Statistics of, 29 ;
531-
Jungle products, tasar silkworm, lac,
etc., 34; 513-515.
Jungle rites in Hinduism, 206, 207.
Jute, Cultivation of, 494, 495 ; export of
raw and of manufactured jute, 495;
57o> 571 ; 576; 615 ; steam jute mills,
614-616.
E
Kabfr, Vishnuite religious reformer
(1380- 1420), claimed as a saint by both
Hindus and Muhammadans, 208 ; his
doctrines, 218, 219; coalition of Vish-
nuism with Islam, 219 ; Kabir's religi-
ous poetry, 345.
Kaders, aboriginal tribe of the Anamalai
Hills, Madras, 55.
Kailas, sacred mountain in Tibet, and
the watershed from which the Indus,
Sutlej, and Brahmaputra take their ribc,
II, 13.
Kaimur, range of mountains in Central
India and Bengal, an offshoot of the
Vindhyas, 35.
Kalanos, the Brdhman at Alexander's
court, 169.
Kali, the non-Aryan form of the wife of
Siva, 211, 212.
Kalidasa, famous Hindu poet and dra-
matist (56 B.C.), 125; his drama of
Sakuntald, 126.
Kanauj, ancient city, now deserted by
the Ganges, 30 ; court pageant at, in
the 1 2th century A.i)., 276.
Kanchanjanga, mountain in the Hima-
layas, 5.
Kandahar, wrested from the Mughal
Empire during the reign of Shah
Jahan, 303 ; occupation of, during the
first Afghan campaign (1839), 408;
defeat of Ayiib Khdn at, in the second
campaign (1880), 427.
Kandhs, aboriginal hill tribe of Orissa
and northern Madras, 60-63 ; their
patriarchal government, 60 ; wars and
INDEX.
729
punishments, and blood revenge, 6o,6r ;
agriculture, 61 ; marriages by capture,
61 ; serfs attached to their villages,
61, 62 ; human sacrifices, 62 ; the
Kandhs under British rule, 62, 63.
Kanishka, Buddhist king in North-
western India (40 A.D. ), his great
Council, 147, 148; 175, 176; 178.
Kankar, or nodular limestone, 628 ; 638.
Karagola, large trading fair, 596, 597.
Karakoram, pass over the Himalayas on
the trading route from the Punjab into
eastern Turkistan, 6.
Karengs, an aboriginal tribe of Burma
and Siam, 71.
Karharbari coal-field, 637.
Karma, Buddhist doctrine of, 141, 142.
Karnatik, The, English and French
wars in, rival English and French
candidates for the throne of Arcot
(1746-61), 379, 390.
Karnul canal purchased by Government
from the Madras Irrigation Company,
536, 537.
Kartabhajas, a reformed Vishnuite sect
in the Districts around Calcutta, 223.
Kashmir shawls, Weavi g of, 603.
Kasimbazar, East India Company's
factory established at (1658), 369 ; the
chief emporium of the Gangetic trade
in the middle of the i8th century, 380.
Kasim's expedition and temporary con-
quest of Sind (711-714 A.D.), 268.
Kasi Ram Das, Bengali poet of Bardwan
District, and translator of the Maha-
bharata {17th century), 351.
Kauravas, their quarrel and struggle
with the five Pandavas, as related in
the Mahabharata, 119, 120.
Kaveri (Cauvery) river, 37 ; irrigation
works, 536, 537.
Kennet, Reverend Dr., St. Thoiuas the
Apostle of India, quoted, 233 (footnote
3) ; 235 (footnote) ; 237 (footnote 4) ;
239 (footnote I).
Keshava Das, Hindi poet of the i6th
century, and composer of the Ram-
chandrika, 345.
Khaibar, mountain pass into Afghanistdn
from the Punjab, 6.
Khandesh, Annexation of, to the Mughal
Empire by Akbar, 294.
Khasis, an aboriginal tribe of Assam, 71
(footnote).
Khilji dynasty. The (1290- 1320 A.D.),
280-283 ; Jalal-ud-din (1290-95), 280;
Ala-ud-din (1295-1315), 281, 282;
Mughal mercenaries and Hindu revolts,
282, 283 ; Khusru, renegade Hindu
Emperor (1316-20), 282, 283.
Khusru Khan, renegade Hindu emperor
of the Khilji dynasty (1316-20 A.D.),
282, 283.
Kiernander, Danish Protestant missionary,
260.
Kirki, attack on by, and repulse of, the
Marathas (181 7), 402.
Kirtibas Ojha, Sivaite religious poet of
the i6th century, 349, 350.
Kistvaen builders of ancient India, 53.
Koch, an aboriginal tribe in Northern
Bengal, 187, 188.
Kolarians, aboriginal races of Bengal
and Central India, 64-68 ; their con-
vergence in Central India, 64 ; their
dispersion, 64, 65 ; scattered Kolarian
fragments, 65 ; Kolarian languages,
65-68.
Koros, Alexander Csoma de, Life and
Works of, by Dr. 'i heodore Duka,
quoted, 153 (footnote 2) ; Jotirnal
Asiatic Society of Bengal (1833),
quoted, 175 (footnote i).
Krishna - worship, 222 ; a religion of
pleasure, 222, 223 ; love songs, 223 ;
hymn to, 34S, 349.
Kshattriya or warrior caste of ancient
India, 89, 94 ; growth of the caste,
89-91 ; struggle between the priestly
and warrior castes, 92-94; casts of
Kshattriyas attaining Brahmanhood,
92, 93 ; legendary extermination of the
Kshattriyas by Parasurama, the sixth
incarnation of Vishnu, 94.
Kumarila, a Brahmanical religious re-
former (750 A.D.), 191; 209; 329,
330.
Kuram, mountain pass into Afghanistan
from the Punjab, 6.
Kushtia, river station of the Eastern
Bengal Railway terminus removed
owing to silting uf Ganges, 30.
Kutab-ud-din, the first of the Slave
dynasty, and the first resident Muham-
mad an sovereign in India (1206-10
A.D.), 278.
Kutab Shahi, Muhammadan dynasty in
Southern India (1512-1688 A.D. ), 288.
La Bourdonnais, capture of Madras by
a French squadron under the command
of (1746), 379.
Labour and land, Relation between, in
former times and at the present day in
India, 48, 49.
La Croze's Bistoire du Christianisme des
Jttdes, 232 (footnote i); 240 (footnote
4) ; 241 (footnotes i and 3) ; 242
(footnotes).
Lac industry, 513, 515 ; export of lac
and lac-dye, 575.
Lake, Lord, victories over the Marathas
at Laswari and Dig, 323 ; 398.
730
INDEX.
Lakshman Sen, last independent Hindu
king of Bengal, his overthrow by
Muhammad of Ghor (1203 A.D.),
,^77.
Lai Kavi, Hindi poet of Bundelkhand
in the 17th century, and author of the
Chhatra Prakas, 345.
Lally, Defeat of, at Wandewash by Coote
(1761), 379, 380; siege and surrender
of Pondicherri and Gingi, 3S0.
Land-making powers of deltaic rivers,
22-25 5 27.
Land revenue of India under the Mughals,
297-299 ; 304 ; land revenue of British
India, 452.
Land Settlement, 438-452 ; ancient land
settlement of India, 438 ; Musalman
land-tax, 439 ; the Company's efforts
at land settlement, 439 ; growth of
private rights, 439 ; the Permanent
Settlement of Bengal (1793), 441 ;
rights of the cultivators and intermedi-
ate tenure-holders, 442, 443 ; oppres-
sion of the cultivators, 543 ; land reform
of 1859, 443, 444 ; the Rent Commis-
sion (1879), and further schemes for
reform, 444, 445 ; temporary Settle-
ment in Orissa, 445 ; yearly Settlement
in Assam, 445 ; Madras rdyativdri
Settlement, 445-447 ; ' survey ' tenure
of Bombay, 448, 449 ; Southern India
Agriculturists' Relief Acts (1879 and
1 88 1), 449, 450; land system of the
N.-W. Provinces and the Punjab, 451 ;
tdhikddrs of Oudh, 451 ; land system
of the Central Provinces, 452 ; the
land revenue of India, 452 ; nature of
the land-tax, 469.
Languages (Aryan) of Northern India,
Sanskrit, 334 ; the evidence for and
against Sanskrit ever having been a
spoken language, 334-336 ; divergence
of Sanskrit and Prakrit, 336 ; spread
of the Prakrits, 336, 337 ; classifica-
tion of Prakrits — Maharashtri or Mara-
thf, the Sauraseni or the Braj of the
North-Western Provinces, the Magadhi
or modern Bihari, and the Paisachi or
non-Aryan dialects, 337 ; evolution of
modern vernaculars from the Prakrits,
33^* 339 ; the Sanskrit, Prakrit,
and non- Aryan elements in modern
vernaculars, 339-342; the seven modern
vernaculars, 342, 343 ; vernacular
literature and writers, 343-354.
Languages of non-Aryan tribes, 63-68 ;
the Cravidian languages of Southern
India; Tamil, its principal develop-
ment, 330-333-
Lassen , IndischeA Iterihuniskunde, quoted,
161 (footnote I); 191 (footnote 2);
340 (footnote I).
Laswari, Defeat of Holkar at, 323 ; 398.
Laterite, 628 ; 638, 639.
Lazu and Custoui of Hindu Castes, by
Mr. Arthur Steele, quoted, 195 (foot-
note 2).
Law, Brahmanical codes of, 113-118;
the Grihya Sutras, an outgrowth from
the Vedas, 113 ; code of Manu and its
date, 113, 114; code of Yajnavalkya,
114, 115; scope of Hindu law, 115;
its rigid caste system, 115, 116 ; growth
of the law, 116; its incorporation of
local customs, 117 ; perils of modern
codification, 117, 118; modern legal
literature, 118.
Law, The, of British India, 433, 434.
Lawrence, Lord, Viceroy of India (1864-
69) ; famine in Orissa ; Bhutan w^ar ;
inquiry into the status of the Oudh
peasantry ; the commercial crisis of
1866, 424, 425.
Lawrence, Major, his ineffectual siege of
Pondicherri in 1748 in co-operation
with the English fleet under Admiral
Boscawen, 379.
Lawrence, Sir Henry, Resident at Lahore
(1845), 410; Chief Commissioner of
Oudh, 415 ; killed at Lucknow (1857),
420.
Lead, 626.
Leaf- wearing tribe of Orissa, 56.
Leather work, 603 ; leather factories at
Cawnpur, 417.
Left-hand and Right-hand castes of
Madras, 196, 197.
Legislative Council of the Governor-
General, 432 ; of Madras, Bombay,
and Bengal, 433.
Leopard, The Indian, 653, 654.
Limestone, 41, 42 ; 627, 628.
Lion, The Indian, or maneless, of Gujarat,
652.
Literature of Bengal, The, by Mr. Arcy
Dae, quoted, 347 and footnote ; 348,
349, and footnote ; 352 (footnote).
Literature of India, 1 18-129 ;^ 343-354 ;
and 480, 481 ; the Mahabharata, 118-
122; the Ramayana, 122-124; later
Sanskrit epics, 124, 125 ; Valmiki, the
author of the Ramayana, 123 ; the
poet Kalidasa, 125 ; the Sanskrit
drama, 125, 126; the Hindu novel,
127; Beast stories and fables, 127;
Sanskrit lyric poetry, 128 ; the Puranas
or Brahmanical medioeval theological
writings, 128, 129 ; modern Indian
literature, 129 ; Uriya literature and
authors, 343, 344 ; Rajputana sacred
literature, 344 ; Hindi literature and
authors, 345, 346 ; Bengah' literature
and authors, 346-354; 480, 481.
Local finance, 470.
Local and internal trade, statistics of,
592-597.
INDEX.
731
Locusts, 662.
Lodi dynasty, The (1450-1526 a.d.),
286.
Loss by exchange, 469.
Love poems in Krishna-worship, 223.
Low-caste apostles in religious reforma-
tions in Siva and Vishnu worship, 207,
208.
Lower Ganges Canal, Statistics of, 29 ;
532, 533.
Lucknow, Siege and relief of, 420, 421.
Lucknow, Withdrawal of English factory
at, 369.
Lutheran Missions, 259, 260.
Lyell, Sir Charles, Principles of Geology,
quoted, 27.
Lytton, Lord, Viceroy of India (1876-80) ;
Proclamation of the Queen as Empress
of Lidia ; great famine of 1877-78 ;
second Afghan war, 426, 427.
M
Macaulay, Lord, first Law Member of
the Council of India, 406.
Macnaghten, Sir William, Assassination
of, at Kabul (1839), 408.
Madhava Acharya, a Sanskrit religious
writer of the 14th century, 191.
Madhu Rao, fourth Maratha Peshwa
(1761-72), 321.
Madhu Rao Narayan, sixth Maratha
Peshwa (1774-95) ; first Maratha war,
and treaty of Salbai, 323.
Madhu Sudan Datta, Bengali epic poet
of the 19th century, 354.
Madras, founded in 1639, the first terri-
torial British possession in India, 369 ;
378 ; capture of, by the French ; in-
effectual siege of, by the English ;
restoration to the British, 379.
Madrasa, Muhammadan College of Cal-
cutta, 473.
Mahabharata, the epic poem of the
heroic age in Northern India, 118-
122 ; the struggle between the Kaura-
vas and Pandavas, 119, 120; the
polyandry of Draupadi, 121.
Mahmiid of Ghazni (icxdi-30 a.d.),
272-275 ; his seventeen invasions of
India, 272, 273 ; patriotic resistance of
the Hindus, 273 ; sack of Somnath,
273> 274 ; conquest of the Punjab,
274 ; Mahmud's justice and thrift, 274,
275-,
Mahmud Tughlak, last king of the Tugh-
lak dynasty (1398-1414 a.d.), invasion
of Timiir (Tamerlane), 285.
Mailapur (St. Thomas' Mount), legend-
ary martyrdom of St. Thomas the
Apostle at, near Madras city, 231.
Makum coal-beds in Assam, 621.
Makunda Ram, famous poet of Bardwan
in the i6th century ; story of Kalketu
the hunter, 350, 351 ; the Srimanta
Sadagar, 351.
Malabar Christians, legendary preaching
of St. Thomas the Apostle on the
Malabar and Coromandel coasts (68
A.D.), 229; Thomas the Manichaean
and Thomas the Armenian merchant,
their rival claims as founders of Chris-
tianity in Southern India, 231, 232 ;
troubles of the ancient Indian Church,
240 ; the St. Thomas Nestorian Chris-
tians of Malabar, a powerful and re-
spected military caste, 240, 241 ; Por-
tuguese efforts at their conversion to
Rome, 241 ; incorporation of the St.
Thomas Christians into the Roman
Catholic Church, and downfall of the
Nestorian Church, 241 ; Synod of
Diamper (1599 a.d.), 241 ; Malabar
Christians under Jesuit prelates (1601
to 1653 A.D.), 241, 242; Malabar
Christians freed from Jesuit supre-
macy by the Dutch conquest of Cochin
(1563), 242 ; first Jacobite Bishop to
Malabar (1665), 242, 243; Malabar
Christians since 1 665, their division
into Syrians and Jacobites, and present
numbers, 243 ; tenets of the Jacobites
of Malabar, 243 ; Nestorianism extinct
in Malabar, 243, 244 ; the Jesuit
Malabar Mission in the 17th and
18th centuries, 251 ; caste among
Malabar Christians, 251, 252; letters
of the Jesuit missionaries of Malabar,
252.
Malabar navigable back-waters or la-
goons, 553.
Malik Kafiir, slave-general of Ala-ud-
din (1303-15 A.D.); his conquest of
Southern India, 282.
Malleson, Colonel, History of the French
in India, and Final Struggles of the
French in India, by, quoted, 379 (foot-
note).
Mammalia of India, 652-659.
Manchester cotton imports, 565 ; 568.
' Man hunts ' of Muhammad Tughlak,
284, 285.
Man Singh, Akbar's Hindu general and
governor of Bengal, 293.
Manu, the legendary founder of Sanskrit
law, 113, 114.
Manufactures and Arts. — See Arts and
Manufactures.
Manure, Use of, 483 ; want of, a draw-
back to improved husbandry, 518.
Maratha power, The (1634-1818 A.D.),
chap. xii. pp. 317-324. British
India won, not from the Mughals but
from the Hindus, 317; rise of the
Marathas, Shahji Bhonsla, 317; Sivaji,
732
INDEX.
the consolidator of the Maratha power,
317; state of parties in the Deccan,
(1650), 318; the Marathas courted by
the two rival Muhammadan powers,
318 ; Sivaji's hill forts, army of cavalry,
tactics, etc., 319; his murder of the
Bijapur general Akbar Khan, 319 ;
coins money in his own name, 319;
visits Delhi (1666), 319 ; enthrones
himself as an independent prince at
Raigarh (1674), 319 5 death (1680),
319 ; Aurangzeb's mistaken policy in
the Deccan, 319; Sambhaji and Sahu,
successors of Sivaji, 319 ; the Satara
and Kolhapur families, the last of
Sivaji's line, 320 ; rise and progress of
the Peshwas, 320 ; second Peshwa
(1721-40), conquers the Deccan, 320 ;
third Peshwa (1740-61), conquests in
the Deccan, and raids from Bengal to
the Punjab, 320, 321 ; defeat of the
Marathas by Ahmad Shah the Afghan
(1761), 321 ; fourth Peshwa (1761-
72), 321 ; the five great Maratha
branches, 321 ; fifth Peshwa (1772),
his assassination, 321 ; decline of the
Peshwas (1772-78), 321, 322; the
northern Marathas, Sindhia and
Holkar (1761-1803), 322 ; the Bhons-
las of Berar (1751-53), 322; the
Gaekwars of Baroda, 322, 323 ; the
sixth and seventh Peshwas (1774-
181 8), and the three Maratha wars,
323, 324; end of the Peshwas (1849),
324;
' Maratha Ditch,' The, moat constructed
partly around Calcutta as a protec-
tion against the Marathas, 320,
321.
Maratha wars, the first (1778-81),
323; 391; the second (1802-04),
398 ; third and last, annexation of
the Peshwa's dominions (1818), 323;
402.
Marathi literature and authors, 346.
Marble carving, 112; marble building
stone, 628.
Marco PolOy by Colonel Yule, quoted,
152 (footnote I); 231 (footnote i) ;
233 (footnotes i and 2) ; 237 (foot-
note 4) ; 239 (footnote 3) ; 356 (foot-
note).
Mar Gregory, first Jacobite Bishop to the
Syrian Church in India, 242, 243.
Mdrias, aboriginal tribe in the Central
Provinces, 55.
Maris, aboriginal tribe in the Central
Provinces, 55.
Marriage law of the Hindus, 195, 196.
Martyrdoms of Jesuit missionaries, 252,
253-
Masulipatam, East India Company's fac-
tory established at (1622), 368;
temporarily abandoned (1628), but re-
established under a fartnan from the
King of Golconda(i632), 368 ; murder
of the Company's factors at (1689),
371 ; recapture of, from the French,
385.
Mathematics, Brahmanical system of,
106.
Mauritius, India's trade with, 578, 579.
Mausoleums, 112.
Mayo, Earl of. Viceroy of India (1869-
72), 425, 426; the Ambala darbdr ;
visit of the Duke of Edinburgh,
administrative reforms, abolition of
customs lines, assassination at the
Andaman Islands, 425 ; his scheme
for Indian feeder lines of railway, 445,
Mayiir Pandit, Marathf religious poet
of the i8th century, 346.
M'Crindle, Mr. J. W. M., Commerce and
Navigation of the Erythrcean Sea,
quoted, 166 (footnotes i and 2) ; 356
(footnote) ; Ancient India as described
by Megasthenes afid Arrian, quoted,
168 (footnote I) ; 356 (footnote).
Means of communication, chap, xviii.
PP- 545-554- History of Indian
railways, 545 ; Lord Dalhousie's trunk
railway lines, 545 ; Lord Mayo's
branch or feeder lines, 545, 546 ; the
four classes of Indian railways, ' Guar-
anteed,' ' State,' ' Assisted,' and
' Native State,' 546-549 ; statistics
of Indian railways, 549, 550 ; roads,
the Grand Trunk Road, extension of
minor roads, 550, 551 ; road metal,
551 ; bridges of boats, 551 ; navigable
rivers, 551-553; navigable canals, 553,
554.
Medigeval trade of India, 555.
Medical colleges in India, 109.
Medicine and drugs, 34 ; Brahmanical
system of medicine, 106- no; its in-
dependent development, 4th to 8th
century, 107; scope of Indian medicine,
107 ; Indian surgery, 107, 108 ; Bud-
dhist public hospitals, 108, 109 ; decline
of Hindu medicine, 109; English Medi-
cal Colleges, 109 ; vernacular medical
literature, 109, no.
Medlicott and Blanford, Geology of India ^
quoted, 27 (footnote) ; 631-640.
Meerut, outbreak of the mutiny at, 419.
Megasthenes, Seleukos' ambassador to
thecourt of Chandra Gupta, 154; 163;
his description of India and of Indian
society (300 B.C.), 167-170 ; division of
India into petty kingdoms, 170.
Meghnd, the eastern estuary of the united
waters of the Brahmaputra and Ganges,
15 ; 21 ; 28 ; its *bore' or tidal-wave,
31 ; the Meghna delta, 25.
INDEX,
733
Mehidpur, defeat of Holkar at, in the last
Maratha war (1817-18), 402.
Memoir of the War in India^ conducted by
General Lord Lake, by Major William
Thome, quoted, 317 (footnote i).
Metcalfe, Lord, Governor - General of
India (1835-36), 406.
Meteorology of India, chap, xxiii.
pp. 641 - 655. Meteorological geo-
graphy of the Himalayas and Punjab
frontier, 641-643 ; the Indus plain,
and great Indian desert, 643 ; Gan-
getic plain and Eastern Bengal, 643,
644 ; the Central Indian and Southern
plateaux, 644, 645 ; Anamalai Hills.
645 ; southern coast strip and Ceylon,
645, 646 ; Burma, 646 ; solar radia-
tion, 647 ; air temperature, atmo-
spheric pressure, wind, humidity, 647,
648 ; rainfall statistics, 649, 650 ; sun-
spot cycles, 650, 651.
Mhairs, aboriginal tribe in Rajputana,
72, iz-
Miani, Defeat of the Sind Mi'rs at, by Sir
C. Napier (1843), 409.
Mica, 628.
Middleton, first Bishop ofCalcutta (1814),
261.
Middleton, Sir Henry, his naval defeat
of the Portuguese at Cambay (1611),
366.
Migration of the people, 47.
Military caste of St. Thomas Nestorian
Christians, 240 ; Portuguese efforts at
their conversion to Rome, 241.
Military Transactions in Iiidostan, by
Orme, quoted, 379 (footnote) ; 380
(footnote 2).
Mill, James, History of British India,
quoted, 314 (footnote 3) ; 365 (foot-
note 2) ; 379 (footnote) ; 383 (foot-
note).
Millets, Statistics of cultivation of, and
chief varieties, 487, 488, 489.
Mills by water-power in the Himalayas, 9.
Mineral oils, 42 ; petroleum wells and
oil-refining companies in Burma, 626,
627 ; petroleum in Assam and the
Punjab, 627.
Minerals and Mines. — See Mines and
Minerals.
Mines and Minerals, chap, xxi. pp. 618-
630. Indian iron, indigenous methods
of working, 618 ; failure of English
efforts, 618, 619 ; Government efforts,
619 ; Indian coal and history of Bengal
coal-mining (1820-83), 619, 620; the
Central Provinces and Bengal coal-
fields, 620, 621 ; coal-beds in Assam,
621 ; future of Indian coal, 622 ; salt
mining and manufacture, 622, 623 ;
saltpetre, 623, 624 ; gold - washing,
624 ; gold - mining in Madras and
Mysore, 624, 625 ; copper - mining,
626 ; lead, tin, antimony, and cobalt,
625, 626; petroleum in Burma, Assam,
and the Punjab, 626, 627 ; lime and
building stone, 627, 628 ; marble, 628 ;
slate, 628 ; diamonds and precious
stones, 628, 629 ; pearl fisheries, 629.
— See also Geology of India.
Miniature painting, 113.
Minto, Earl of, Governor - General of
India (1807-13); expeditions to Java
and Mauritius ; embassies to the
Punjab, Afghanistan, and Persia, 399,
400.
Mir Jafar, Nawab of Bengal (1757-60) ;
compensation for losses at Calcutta,
grant to the Company of the zamindari
of the Twenty-four Parganas, Clive's
jdgir, dethronement of Mir Jafar, 383 ;
385- „
Mir Jumla s unsuccessful expedition to
Assam in the reign of Aurangzeb
(1662), 309.
Mir Kasim, Nawab of Bengal (1760-63),
grant of Bardwan, Midnapur, and
Chittagong to the Company, his quarrel
with the English, massacre of Patna,
and defeat at Gheriah and Udhanala,
385, 386.
Miracles of Buddhist and Hindu religious
founders, 139, 140; 208; miracles of
the early Jesuits, 252.
Miscellatieous Essays, by Mr. B. H.
Hodgson, 340 (footnote i).
Missionary efforts of Asoka, 146.
Missions, Christian, in India. — See
Catholic Missions, Christianhy
IN India, Protestant Missions.
Mixed population, 51.
Model farms, the small success hitherto
attained, 515, 516.
Mohpani colliery in the Central Pro-
vinces, 620, 621.
Moira, Earl of. —6"^^ HASTINGS, Marquis
OF.
Monasteries (Hindu), 201, 202.
Monopoly, Salt, 453; opium, 455.
Monson, Colonel, liis retreat before
Holkar, 398.
Monze, Cape, and promontory in Sind,
marking the extreme western boundary
of British India, 3.
Mornington, Lord. — See Wellesley,
Marquis of.
Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque in Agra
Fort, 304.
Mudki, Battle of, 41 1.
Mughal Empire, The (1526-1761 a.d.),
chap. xi. pp. 290-316. State of India
in 1526, 290 ; early life of Babar (1482-
1526), 290; invasion of India and
defeat of Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat, 290 ;
Babar 's conquest of Northern India,
734
INDEX.
(1526-30), 290; Humayun (1530-56),
his expulsion from India (1540), and
reconquest by the second battle of
Panipat (1556), 290, 291, and foot-
note; Akbar the Great (1556-1605),
291-300; Akbar's work in India, 292
and footnote; conciliation of the Hindus,
293; extension of the Muf^hal Empire,
and reduction of the Rajputs (1561-
68), 293 ; Akbar's Hindu officers.
Rajas Man Singh and Todar Mall, 293 ;
Akbar's reform of Hindu customs,
293 ; reconquest of Bengal and sub-
jugation of Muhammadan States, 294 ;
change of capital from Delhi to Agra,
294 ; annexation of Khandesh in the
Deccan, 294 ; Akbar's death, 295 ; his
religious principles and new faith, 295 ;
Akbar's reorganization of the army,
police, and judicial administration of
the Empire, 296 ; his revenue system
and land revenue, 296, 297, and foot-
note ; large totals of Mughal taxation,
298, 299 ; Jahangir (1605-27), 300 and
footnote ; Rajput revolts, 301 ; the
Empress Nur Jahan, 301 ; Jahangir's
personal character, justice, and religion,
301, 302; Shah Jahan (1628-58), 302-
305 ; loss of Kandahar, 303 ; Mughal
conquests in the Deccan, 303, 304 ;
Shah Jahan's buildings, the Taj Mahal,
the Jama and Moti Masjids, and palace
at Delhi, 304, 305 ; rebellion of Prince
Aurangzeb, and deposition of Shah
Jahan (1657-58), 305 ; revenues of
Shah Jahan, 305 ; Aurangzeb's usurpa-
tion and reign (1658-1707), 306-312;
murder of his brothers, 307 ; rise of the
Maratha power, 307, 308; Aurangzeb's
southern campaign and twenty years'
war with the Marathas, 308 ; Aurang-
zeb's ' Grand Army ' worn out in the
struggle (1705), his despair and death
(1707)* 308, 309; Mir Jumlas dis-
astrous expedition to Assam, 306 ;
Aurangzeb's bigoted policy, and
oppression of the Hindus, 309 ; revolt
of the Rajputs, 309, 310; Aurangzeb's
revenues and land-tax, 310, 311;
character of Aurangzeb, 312 ; decline
and fall of the Mughal Empire, the
six puppet kings (1707 - 20), 312,
313 ; independence of the Deccan, of
Oudh, and of the Rajput States, 314;
oppressions of the Sikhs, 314; the
Maratha chauth, 314; Persian and
Afghan invasions from the north, 314,
315; third battle of Panfpat (1761),
and fall of the Mughal Empire, 315 ;
the last of the Mughals (1862), 316.
Muhammad of Glior, the first king of
the Ghor dynasty in India (l 186- 1206),
275-278 ; his conquests in Northern
India and overthrow of the Rajput
clans, 275, 276 ; subjugation of Bengal
and defeat of its last independent
Hindu king (1203 A.D.), 277, 278.
Muhammad Tughlak, second king of
the Tughlak dynasty (1324-51 a.d.),
283-285 ; expeditions to the south,
283 ; his cruelties, enforced change of
capital, revolts, revenue exactions, 284,
285 ; ' man-hunts,' 284, 285.
Muhammadan architecture, 112; 304.
Muhammadan conquest of India only
partial and temporary, 270.
Muhammadan population of India, 51 ;
also Appendix V., 693.
Muhammadan States of the Deccan
(1489-168S A.D.), 288.
Muir, Dr. John, Sanskrit Texts, quoted,
81 (footnote 2) ; 84 (footnote 3) ; 94
(footnote) ; 212 (footnote 4) ; 334 (foot-
notes I and 2).
Mulberry cultivation in Bengal, 513.
Mules, 521.
Miiller, Professor Max, History of Sanskrit
Literature, translation of Rig - Veda,
Zt, (footnotes i and 2) ; 84 (footnotes) ;
85 (footnote) ; Chips from a German
Workshop, 83 (footnote i) ; 127 (foot-
note 3); 142 (footnote 2); 151 (foot-
note 2) ; Conte??iporary Review for
July 1870, 151 (footnote 3); Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xxii., the Jaina
Sutras, by Hermann Jacobi, 161 (foot-
notes 4, 5,6, 7, and 8).
Mundas, an aboriginal tribe of Kols in
Chutia Nagpur, 71 (footnote).
Mundavers, a wandering pastoral tribe in
the Anamalai Hills, 55.
Municipal administration and statistics,
455-457 ; 470.
Muiuo, Major (afterwards Sir Hector),
Suppression of the first Sepoy Mutiny
by, 386 ; defeat of the Imperial and
Oudh armies at the battle of Baxar, 386.
Munro, Sir Thomas, introducer of the
rdyativdrl system of land settlement in
Madras, 446.
Murshid Kuli Khan, Nawab of Bengal,
his transfer of the capital from Dacca
to Murshidabad, 380, 381.
Music, Hindu, 110-112; peculiarities of
Indian music, 11 1 ; its modern revival,
III, 112.
Muslin manufactures of Dacca and
Madras, decline of industry, 602, 603.
Mustagh, pass over the Himalayas on
the trade route from the Punjab into
Eastern Turkistan, 6.
Mutiny, The, of 1857-58, 417-421 ; its
causes, 417, 418; outbreaks at Meerut
and Delhi, 419 ; spread of the revolt,
419; loyalty of the Sikhs, 419; mas-
sacre at Cawnpur, 420 ; siege and
INDEX,
73^
relief of Lucknow, 420, 421 ; siege of
Delhi, 421 ; reduction of Oudh, 421 ;
campaigns of Sir Colin Campbell (Lord
Clyde) and Sir Hugh Rose (Lord
Strathnairn), 421, 422.
Myrobalams, Export of, 574, 575.
Mysore, First war with, against Haidar
AH ( 1 780-84), 392 ; second Mysore
war (1790-92), 394; Tipii's intrigues
with France, and the third Mysore
war (1799), 396; fall of Seringapatam,
and death of Tipii in the breach, 397 ;
Mysore taken under British administra-
tion and protection, 406 ; rendition of,
to its ancient hereditary Hindu rulers,
427, 435-
N
Nahhaji Das, Hindi poet of the i6th
century, and author of the Bhaktamala,
345- , , . .
Nadir Shah's invasion of India and sack
of Delhi, 314.
Nadiya rivers, Engineering works to
keep open the navigation of, during
the dry season, 552, 553.
Naga Hills, the most easterly offshoot of
the Himalayas, 3.
Nagas or serpent-worshippers, Ancient
dynasties of, 185, 186; 204.
Nagpur, the territories of the Maratha
Bhonsla family lapsed to the British
for want of heirs (1853), 415.
Nairs, tribe of south-western India, their
polyandry, 55.
Nalanda, famous Buddhist monastery of
the 7th century A.D., 157.
Nam Deva, Marathi poet of the 13th
century, 346.
Nana Sahib, his proclamation as Peshwa
at the outbreak of the Mutiny, and the
massacre of the Cawnpur garrison, 420.
Nanak Shah, the founder of the Sikh
religion, 223 ; 410.
Napier, Sir Charles, conquest of Sind
by (1843), 409.
Narayan Kao, fifth Maratha Peshwa
(1772), his assassination, 321.
Narrative of Political and Military
Transactions of British India under
the Marquis of Hastings, by Henry T.
Prinsep, quoted, 317 (footnote i).
Native States of India, their relation to
the British paramount power, 43 ; area
and population of the thirteen groups
of States, 45.
Nats, a semi- Hind uized gipsy tribe of
Lower Bengal, 71.
Natural calamities. — See Famines.
Navigable canals, 553, 554.
Navak and Palegar chieftains of Southern
India, 288.
Nelson, Mr. J., Hindu Laiv as admini-
stered by the High Court of Judicature
at Madras, quoted, 117 (footnote i);
195 (footnote 2).
Nepal, War with, 400 ; Gurkha assist-
ance in the Mutiny, 421 ; trade with,
587-589-
Nestorianism among early Indian Chris-
tians, 236 ; its wide diffusion, 236,
237 ; its suppression and downfall,
241 - 243 ; Nestorian remnants, 242,
243-
Nicholson, General, his death at the
storm of Delhi, 421,
Nikaia, town founded by Alexander the
Great and identified with the modern
town of Mong in Gujrat District, 165.
Nil Darpan, a famous modern Bengali
play, 127 ; 354.
Nilgai or blue cow, 657.
Nilgiri hills in Southern India, 36.
Nirvana, Buddhist doctrine of, 142.
Nizam Shahi, Muhammadan dynasty in
Southern India (1490- 1636 A.D.), 288.
Nobilis, Robert de, founder of the Madras
Jesuits (1606-56), 245.
Nomadic cultivation, 9 ; 47, 48 ; 522 ;
the merits and destructiveness of
nomadic tillage, 528.
Non-Aryan or aboriginal races, 51, 52. —
See also Aboriginal Tribes, chap.
iii. and Appendix V. , 693.
Non-Aryan rites merging into Hinduism,
207.
Non-Asiatic population of British India,
Appendix VIL, 695.
Normal schools, 479,
Northbrook, Earl of. Viceroy of India
(1872-76), dethronement of the Gaek-
war of Baroda ; visit of the Prince of
Wales to India, 425, 426.
North- West passage, Attempts to reach
India by way of, 363.
Nott, General, his march from Kandahar
to Kabul (1842), 408, 409.
Numismata Orientalia (Ceylon fasc), 167
(footnote 2).
Nur Jahan, the Queen of the Emperor
Jahangir, 301.
Nyaya, one of the six darsanas or Brah-
manical schools of philosophy, 99.
Occupation basis of caste, 196, 197.
I Ochterlony, General, his campaigns in
j Nepal (1814-15), 400, 401.
Oil-seeds, Cultivation of, 489 ; export of,
573, 574.
Oldenberg, Professor Hermann, Buddha,
his Life, his Doctrine, his Order,
quoted, 161 (footnote 3).
736
INDEX.
Opium, Excise dut)^ on, 455 ; cultivation
of, in Bengal and Malwa, 498, 499 ;
export of, 499 ; Bengal opium system,
499.
Origin of Christianity in India, its con-
nection with St. Thomas thie Apostle,
229.
^ 0}'issa, by W. W. Hunter, quoted, 91
(footnote) ; 173 (footnote i) ; 193 (foot-
note i); 194 (footnote 5); 215 (foot-
note i); 224 (footnote 4); 225 (foot-
notes 2, 4, and 6) ; 343 (footnote 2).
Orissa Province, annexed to the Mughal
Empire by Akbar's Hindu General,
Raja Todar Mall (1574), 294; ceded
to the British (1803) by the Nagpur
Bhonsla on the termination of the
second Maratha war, 398 ; the famine
of 1866, 424 ; 542 ; settlement of the
land revenue, 445 ; canal system,
534.
Orme's Military Transactions in Indos-
tan, quotCvi, 379 (footnote) ; 380 (foot-
note 2).
Ostend East India Company established
1722 ; its factories at Covelong on the
Madras coast, and at Bankipur on the
Hugli, 372-374 ; political objects of
the Ostend Company, 373, 374 ; de-
struction of the Bankipur settlement
by the Muhammadans (1733), 374;
bankruptcy and downfall of the Ostend
, Company (1784-93). 374-
Oudh, Sale of Allahabad and Kora to the!
Wazir of, by Warren Hastings (1773),
389; the Rohilla war, 390; plunder
of the Oudh Begams, 390, 391.
Oudh, Annexation of, 415 ; Lord Dal-
housie's justification of the measure,
416 ; the mutiny in, 421 ; inquiry into
the status of the peasantry in, 424.
Outram, Sir James, his works among the
Bhils of Khandesh, 72, 73 ; annexation
of Oudh, 416 ; relief of Lucknow, 420.
Overcrowded and under-peopled districts,
46, 47.
Owen, Sidne;y J., Selections from the
Despatches of the Marquis of Wellesley^
quoted, 317 (footnote i) ; Selections
from the Indian Despatches of the
. Duke of Wellington, quoted, 317 (foot-
note i).
Pal) hills, a southern offshoot of the
North -Western Himalayas, forming a
portion of the boundary between India
and Baluchistan, 7.
Paikasht rdyats, or temporary cultivators,
48.
Painting, Indian art of, 113.
Palegar and Nayak chieftains of Southern
India, 288.
Palghat Pass, a remarkable break or gap
in the Western Ghats, 37.
Palitana, sacred temple city of the Jains,
159.
Palm-leaf writings, 102,
Palms, Varieties of, 491.
Pandavas, the five brethren of the Maha-
bharata ; their quarrel and struggle with
the Kauravas, 119-121.
Pandya, ancient Hindu dynasty in
Southern India, 286,
Panini, the compiler of the Sanskrit
grammar (350 B.C.), 100 ; 336.
Panipat, celebrated battlefield in Northern
India ; defeat of Ibrahim Lodi by
Babar (1526 A.D.), 290; defeat of
Afghans by Akbar and restoration of
Humayun to the throne (1556 A.D.),
291 ; overthrow of the Marathas by the
Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durani
(1761 A.D.), 315; 321.
Panna, Diamond mines of, 629.
Pantsenus, the Alexandrian stoic, his
evidence as to Christianity in India at
the end of the 2nd century A.D., 235.
Paper-making, 617.
Parameswara, the one First Cause, or
Supreme Deity of Hinduism, 227.
Parasnath, hill in Bengal, held sacred by
the Jains, 35 ; 159.
Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of
Vishnu, his legendary war of extermina-
tion with the Kshattriyas, 94.
Parochial organization of Portuguese
India, 247.
Partition of the Gangetic Valley by Clive
(1765), 387.
Passes of the Himalayas, the Khaibar,
Kuram, Gwalari, Tal, and Bolan
passes, 29 ; of the Western Ghats, the
Bhor, Thai, and Palghat passes, 36, 37.
Patala, town founded by Alexander the
Great, and identified with the modern
city of Haidarabad, the historic capital
of Sind, 166.
Fathdn A'iugs of Delhi, by Mr. E.
Thomas, quoted, 271 (footnote) ; 279,
280. 281 (footnotes) ; 283 (footnotes i
and 2); 284 (footnote i) ; 285 (foot-
note 3); 287 (footnote 2) ; 291 (foot-
note).
Patna, East India Company's Agency
at (1620), 367; massacre of, 386;
trade of, 595, 596.
Pearl fisheries, 629.
Pegu, Annexation of, as the result of the
second Burmese war, 413, 414-
Peninsular India, Geology of, 634-639.
Permanent Settlement, The, of Lord
Cornwallis and Sir John Shore, 393,
394.
INDEX.
737
Peshwas, the rise and progress of their
power (1718-1818), 320-324; annexa-
tion of the Peshwa's dominions, 402.
Petroleunv or mineral oil, 42 ; mines and
oil-refining Companies in Burma, 626,
627.
Petty kingdoms of ancient India in the
time of Megasthenes, 170.
Phallic emblems in Hinduism, 204, 205.
Philosophical and terrible aspects of Siva-
worship, 210, 211.
Philosophy of the Brahmans, its six
darsanas or schools, 98, 99.
Physical aspects of India, chap. i. pp.
1-42. General outline, i ; origin of
the name of India, 1-3; boundaries,
3, 4 ; the three regions of India, 4.
First region, the Himalayas, i-io : the
Himalayan wall and trough, 4-6 ;
Himalayan passes, 6 ; offshoots of the
Himalayas, 6 ; the gateways of India,
6, 7 ; Himalayan water-supply and
rainfall, 7 ; scenery, 7, 8 ; vegetation
and forests, 7 ; cultivation, 7, 8 ; irri-
gation and mill power, 9 ; saleable
produce, 9, 10 ; fauna of the Hima-
layas, 10. Second region, the northern
river plains, 10-34. The three river
systems of India, 10, ii — (i) the
Indus and Sutlej, ii, 12; lower
course of the Indus, 12, 13; (2) the
Tsan-pu or Brahmaputra, 1 3- 16 ; the
Kailas watershed, 13 ; the Brahma-
putra tributaries in Assam, 13, 14; the
Brahmaputra in Bengal, 14, 15 ;
Brahmaputra silt deposits and islands,
14, 15 ; changes in Brahmaputra
course, 15 ; the Brahmaputra as a
high-road, 15, 16 ; (3) the Gangetic
river system, 16-29; the growth of the
Ganges and its discharge at different
points, 17; its great tributary the
Jumna, 17 ; sanctity of the Ganges,
its places of pilgrimage, 17, 18 ; the
Ganges as water - carrier, fertilizer,
and great water highway of Bengal,
19-20 ; traffic on the Ganges, 20 ;
great Gangetic cities, 20, 21 ; first
and second stages in the life of a
great Indian river as a silt collector,
21, 22 ; loss of carrying power in
second stage, 22 ; third stage as a
land-maker, 21, 22 ; the delta of Bengal,
and of Gangetic deltaic distributaries,
23 ; character of a deltaic river, 23, 24;
section of a deltaic channel of the
Ganges, 23 ; junction of the Ganges, the
Brahmaputra, and the Meghna — their
combined delta, 24 ; last scene in the
life of an Indian river, land-making
in the estuary, 24, 25 ; Bengal, the
• gift of the Ganges,' in the same
sense as Egypt the ' gift of the Nile,'
25 ; size of the Bengal delta, 25 ; succes-
sive depressions of the delta, 26, 27 ;
its subterranean structure, 26 (foot-
note) ; amount of silt brought down by
the Ganges at Ghazipur, 27 ; estimated
silt of united river at the delta, 28 ;
time required to construct the Bengal
delta, 28 ; river irrigation by means of
canals, 28, 29 ; the rivers as highways
of trade, 29 ; saline deposits from *
canal irrigation, 29 ; changes of river
beds and deserted river capitals, 30 ; the
* bore ' of the Hugli and ISIeghna,
30, 31 ; destruction of river - side
villages, 31, 32 ; poetry of the Indian
river names, 32 ; crops of the river
plains of North-Western Bengal and the
delta, 32, 33 ; scenerj' of the river plains,
33, 34. Third region, the southern
table-land or the Deccan, 34-42 ; its
three supporting mountain walls, 35 ;
the Vindhya mountains and their
ranges, the ancient barrier between
Northern and Southern India, 35, 36 ;
the Eastern and Western Ghats, 36 ;
the central triangidar plateau, 36 ; the
Bhor Ghat, 36 ; the Thai Ghat, 37 ;
the Palghat pass, 37 ; rivers of the
inner plateau, yj^ 38 ; historical signi-
ficance of the Eastern and Western
Ghats, 38 ; rainfall of the Deccan, 1^ ;
the four forest regions of Southern
India, 38-40 ; scenery of Southern
India, 40 ; crops, 40, 41 ; minerals, 41 ;
recapitulation of the three regions of
India, their races and languages, 41 ;
British Burma, 42.
Pillar and Rock inscriptions of Asoka,
145 (footnote) ; 146.
Pindari freebooters, Expedition against
the (1817), 401.
Pippli, early seaboard settlement and
port of the East India Company, now
iar inland, 368, 369.
Plassey, Battle of (1757), 382.
Police statistics, 472.
Pollock, his march from the Punjab t©
Kabul {1842), 409.
Polyandry among the Nairs and Hima-
layan tribes, 55 ; polyandry of Drau-
padi, the wife of the five Pandava
brethren in the Mahabharata, 121 ;
polyandry in the Hindu marriage law,
195 ; modern survivals of, 195.
Pondicherri, Roman Catholic Mission,
259 ; ineffectual siege of, by Admiral
Boscawen's fleet and a land force under
Major Lawrence (1748), 379 ; siege of,
and capitulation to. Sir Eyre Coote
(1760). 380.
Poona, Treaty of (1817), 402.
Popham, Captain, storm of Gwalior for-
tress during the first Maratha war, 391.
3 A
738
INDEX.
Popular Vishnuism, 217.
Population of India, chap. ii. pp. 43-52.
General survey of the people, 43 ; the
feudatory chiefs and their powers, 43 ;
the twelve British Provinces, 44 ;
Census of 1872 and of 1881, 44, 45 ;
population tables of British, Feudatory,
and Foreign India, 44, 45 ; density
of the population, 46 ; absence of
large towns, 46 ; overcrowded dis-
tricts, 46, 47 ; under-peopled tracts,
47 ; immobility of the Indian peasant,
47 ; nomadic system of tillage, 47,
48 ; relation of labour to land in the
last century, and at the present day,
48, 49 ; serfdom, 49 ; unequal division
of the people, 49, 50 ; increase of
population since 1872, 50 ; ethnical
history of India, 51 ; fourfold division
of the people, into Aryans, non-Arj-ans,
mixed Hindus, and Muhammadans, 51,
52; population tables for 1881, 51 (foot-
note), and Appendices I.-X., 689-703.
Portuguese in India, 356-361 ; Covilham,
357 ; Vasco da Gama, 357, 358 ; Cabral,
358 ; Francisco de Almeida, 359 ;
Albuquerque, 359, 360 ; oppressions
of the Portuguese, 359, 360 ; downfall
of the Portuguese power, 360 ; Portu-
guese Indian possessions in 1871, 361 ;
mixed descendants, 361 ; defeat of the
Portuguese fleet at Swally off Surat
(1615), 366; temporary expulsion of
the Portuguese from Bengal, 368, 369;
early Portuguese trade with India, 560.
Porus, Defeat of, by Alexander the Great,
164.
Post-Vedic Gods, Rise of, 97, 98 ; the
Hindu triad, 98.
Potato cultivation in the Himalayas, 9.
Pottery manufactures, 608 ; 628.
Practical faith of the Hindus, its toler-
ance and fairness to Christianity, 226,
227.
Pre- Aryan kingdoms in Northern India,
184 ; pre- Aryan civilisation, 328, 329.
Pre - Buddhistic Scythian influences in
India, connection of the Horse Sacrifice
with the Human Sacrifice of pre-Buddh-
istic India, 175, 176; 183, 184; Scythic
and Naga influences on Hinduism, and
on the religions and domestic life of
modern India, 189, 199.
Precious metals in India, imports of
treasure, 562, 568, 569 ; gold-mining,
624, 625.
Precious stones, 9 ; 606 ; 628, 629 ; 639.
Predatory hill races ; their conversion
from marauding tril>es into peaceful
cultivators and good soldiers, 71-73.
Presbyterian Missions, 261.
Primary education, 477, 478.
Primitive Aryan burial, 85-87.
I Prince of Wales' visit to India (1875-76),
1 426.
I Prinsep, Henry T., Narrative of Political
i and Military Transactions of B7'itish
! India under the Marquis of Hastiizgs,
j quoted, 317 (footnote).
I Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of
j India, 426.
Products and agriculture. — See Agricul-
ture AND Products.
Protestant Missions in India, 259-269 ;
first translation of the Bible into the
vernacular, 260; Schwartz, Kiernander,
Marshman, Carey, and Ward, 260, 261 ;
opposition of the Company to Christian
missionaries, 260 ; withdrawal of the
Company's opposition, 260, 261 ;
Bishopric of Calcutta, 261 ; statistics of
Protestant Missions, 261-264.
Provincial Administration, ' Regulation '
and ' Non- Regulation ' territory, Dis-
trict officers and their duties, 434-437.
Prussian and Embden East India Com-
panies (1750 and 1753), Dutch and
English jealousy of, and their down-
fall, 374-376.
Public Works expenditure, 469, 470. —
See also Means of Communication,
Railway System, Roads, Canals,
etc.
Puliars, a wild aboriginal tribe in the
Anamalai Hills, Madras, 55.
Pulses, Cultivation of, 489.
Puranas, The, their place in Indian
literature, 216, 217.
R
Race origin of caste modified by ' occu-
pation ' and 'locality,' 192, 193.
Raigarh, enthronement of Sivaji as an
independent monarch at, in the Deccau
(1674), 319-
Railway system of India, inaugurated
by Lord Dalhousie, 545 ; extended by
Lord Mayo, 545, 546 ; the eight
guaranteed trunk lines, 546, 547 ; State
and * Assisted ' railways, 547, 548 ;
railways in Native States, 548, 549 ;
statistics of traffic and capital invested,
549, 550- ,
Rainfall, Himalayan, 7 ; Western Ghats,
38 ; statistics of rainfall for 435 Indian
stations, 649, 650.
Rajputana literature and sacred poetry,
344.
Rajputs, their reputed Scythian origin,
1 80 ; number of Rajput castes in modern
India, 194 ; distribution of Rajputs in
the I2th century A.U., 276, 277 ;
Rajput revolts against the Slave kings,
280 ; against the Khilji dynasty, 282 ;
INDEX,
739
against the Tughlak dynasty, 284 ;
conciliation of Rajputs by Akbar, 293 ;
revolt against Jahangir, 301 ; against
Aurangzeb, 309, 310.
Rama, the hero of the Sanskrit epic
Ramayana, 123, 124.
Ramanand, Vishnuite religious reformer
{1300- 1400 A.D.) ; his low-caste dis-
ciples, 218.
Ramanuja, Vishnuite religious reformer
(1150 A.D.), 217.
Ramayana, the Sanskrit epic relating to
the Aryan advance into Southern India,
121, 122 ; the story of Rama, his exile
together with his wife Sita ; the war
with the aboriginal king of Ceylon, and
triumphant return, 123, 124.
Ram ^lohan Rai, theistic religious re-
former and prose religious writer, 353.
Ram Prasad Sen, court poet of Nadiya
in the i8th century, 352.
Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh
kingdom, 410, 411.
Rdyahudri settlement of the land in
Madras, 445, 446 ; growth of the
Madras cultivator into a proprietor,
447 ; extension of tillage, 447 ; reduc-
tion of average land-tax, 448.
Raynal, Abbe, History of the Settlements
and Trade of the Europeans in the East
and West Indies^ quoted, 374 (footnote).
Raziya, Empress of Delhi (1236-39), the
only lady who ever occupied that
throne, 279.
Reconquest of India from the Muham-
madans by the Hindus (1707-61 A.D.),
270.
Reform of Hindu customs by Akbar, 293.
• Regulation ' and ' Non - Regulation '
Provinces, 435.
Religion of the Hindus^ by Dr. H. H.
Wilson, quoted, 201 (footnote 2) ; 205
(footnote i); 206 (footnote 2); 208
(footnote 2) ; 210 (footnote 2) ; 213
(footnote i) ; 221 (footnote 2) ; 223
(footnotes 3 and 4) ; 225 (footnote 5).
Religions of India, by Dr. Barth, quoted,
161 (footnote 2).
Religious classification of the population
of British India, Appendix V., 693.
Rennel, Major, map of Bengal in 1765, 15.
Rent Commission of Bengal (1879), and
its reforms in the extension of tenant-
right and compensation for disturbance,
444, 445-
Report on the Miscellaneous Old Records
in the India Office^ by Sir George Bird-
wood, 358 (footnote 2) ; 360 (footnote
i); 364 (footnotes i and 2); 368
(footnote) ; 370 (footnote).
Reptiles, 660 ; poisonous serpents, and
deaths from snake-bite, 660.
Rezenue Resources of the Mughal Empire, \
by Mr. E. Thomas, quoted, 271 (foot-
note) ; 297 (footnote 2) ; 299 ; 301
(footnote i) ; 304, 305 (footnote); 311
(footnotes).
Revenue system of British India, the
land-tax, 438-441, 452 ; salt-duty, 453,
454; excise and opium, 453-455 ; muni-
cipal revenues, 455-457 ; revenue and
expenditure of British India, 455-470.
Revenue of the Mughal Empire under
Akbar, 297 ; growth of the Mughal
revenues ( 1593- 1 761 a.d.), 269.
Revue de PBistoire des Religions, by Dr.
Barth, quoted, 161 (footnote 2).
Rhinoceros, The Indian, 656.
Rice cultivation in Bengal, 32, 33 ; in
other Provinces of India, its numerous
varieties, 485 ; out-turn, 485, 486 ;
export of, 572 ; export duty on, 573.
* Right-hand ' and ' left-hand ' castes of
Madras, 196, 197.
Rig- Veda, the earliest Sanskrit hymnal,
77, 88 ; its antiquity, 77, 78 ; caste and
widow-burning unknown, 78 ; the story
of the Aryan advance into India, 79 ;
Aryan civilisation in the Veda, 79 ; the
gods of the Veda, 79-81 ; Vedic con-
ceptions of the Deity, the modern blood-
loving gods unknown, 82 ; Vedic
hymns and prayers, 84-86 ; primitive
Aryan form of burial, 84 ; cremation
substituted for burial, 84, 85 ; Vedic
legend of Varna, the king of death,
85 ; the Vedic farewell to the dead,
85, 86.
Ripon, Marquis of (Viceroy of India,
1880-84) ; conclusion of the Afghan
war, amendment of criminal procedure,
revenue reforms. Education Commis-
sion, abolition of customs duties, Ben-
gal Tenancy Bill, 427-429.
Rise of the Maratha power, 307, 308.
— See also chap, xii., 'The Maratha
Power, 317-324.
River communications, 15, 16; 19, 20;
551-553-
River plains of India, 10-34 ; the great
rivers, Ganges, Jumna, Indus (wiih
Sutlej), and Brahmaputra, 11-20; the
different stages in the life of an Indian
river, 21-23 ; the Bengal delta and
process of land-making, 23-28 ; rivers
as irrigators and highways, 28, 29 ;
destructive floods, 29-32 ; poetry of
Indian river names, 32 ; crops and
scenery of the river plains and the
Bengal delta, 32-34.
River systems of Northern India, 10, ii ;
of Southern India, 37, 38.
River traffic on the Ganges and Gangetic
channels, and of the port of Calcutta,
20.
Roads, old military routes, the * Grand
740
INDEX.
Trunk Road,' inland route from Bom-
bay, extension of minor roads, 550, 551.
Roberts, Sir Frederick, his march from
Kabul to Kandahar and defeat of
Ayub Khan, 427.
Rock Edicts of Asoka, 144, 145 (foot-
note) ; 146 and footnote.
Rockhill, Mr. W. Woodville, Life of the
Buddha, and the ea7'ly History of his
Order, derived from Tibetan works,
and translated by, quoted, 137 (foot-
note 2); 138 (footnote 2); 154 (foot-
note 2) ; 160 (footnote 2); 176 (foot-
note i) ; 177 (footnotes).
Roe, Sir Thomas, first British Ambassador
to India, in the reign of Jahangir
(1615 A.D), 301 ; 367.
Rohilkhand and Bijnaur canal, 533.
Rohilla war, 390.
Roman Catholics, Distribution of, in
India, 257 ; the Verapoli vicariate, 257 ;
Roman and Syrian Catholic population
of India, 257-259 ; Catholic progress,
colleges and schools, 257-259. — See
also Catholic Missions.
Roman trade with India (190 A. D,), 234.
Rose, Sir Hugh (Lord Strathnairn),
campaign in Central India, 421, 422.
Rotation of crops, 483.
Roth, Professor, ' Indische Medicin,
Karaka,' published in the Zeitschrift
der Deutschen Morgenldndischen
Gesellschaft J or 1872, quoted, no
(footnote).
Rural population, 46; proportion of town
to rural population, 46; number and
population of villages and towns,
Appendix II., 690.
s
Sacred Boohs of the Easty by Professor
Max Miiller, quoted, 161 (footnotes 4,
5, 6, 7, and 8).
Safed Koh, mountain range forming a
portion of the western boundary be-
tween British India and Afghanistan,
RafBower, Export of, 574.
Sayar Island at the mouth of the Ganges,
a celebrated place of pilgrimage, 17, 18.
Sahu, son and nominal successor of Sam-
bhajf, 319, 320.
Saidapet, Government model farm at, in
Madras, recently closed, 516; agri-
cultural school at, 516.
.Snka or Scythian era (78 A.D.), 181.
Sakhi Sarwar, place of pilgrimage in the
Punjab, sacred both to Hindus and
Muhammadans, 203, 204.
Sakta or Tantiik sect of Siva-worshippers,
214.
Sakuntala, famous Sanskrit drama, 126.
Sakya race customs, 178.
Salbai, Treaty of, 323 ; 392.
Salim, Prince, Akbar's favourite son and
successor as the Emperor Jahangir,
300-302.
Saline deposits from canal irrigation, 29.
Salivahana, King of Southern India, his
wars with the Scythians, 181.
Salt administration, 452 ; somxes of
supply and systems of manufacture,
453, 454 ; the Madras monopoly, 453 ;
equalization of duty, 453, 454 ; yield
of salt duty, 468 ; the Kajputana salt
lakes, and Punjab salt mines, 622, 623.
Saltpetre, Manufacture of, 623, 624.
Salt range, Geology of, 633.
Sama-Veda, The, 88.
Sambalpur, Diamonds of, 628.
Sambhaji, son and successor of Sivaji,
put to death by Aurangzeb, 319.
Samvat and Saka eras(57 and 78 ad.), 181.
Sanctity of the Ganges, 17, 18.
Sandwip island, Slavery in, 49.
Sankara Acharya, a Sivaite religious re-
former (9th century A.D.), 209, 2iO.
Sankhya, one of the six darsanas or
Brahmanical schools of philosophy, 99.
Sajiskrit Graj?imar,\>y Professor Whitney,
334 (footnote i).
Sanskrit grammar and literature, 100-104 ;
334-336 ; Panini's grammar, loO, loi ;
Sanskrit and Prakrit speech, loi ;
Sanskrit manuscripts, loi, 102 ; the
Indian Alphabet, 102, 103 ; Sanskrit
writings almost entirely verse, 103 ;
prose a forgotten art, 103, 104 ; Sans-
krit dictionaries, 104 ; evidence as to
whether Sanskrit was ever a spoken
vernacular, 334-336.
Sanskrit Texts, by Dr. John Muir, quoted,
81 (footnote 2) ; 84 (footnote 3) ; 94
(footnote); 212 (footnote 4); 334
(footnotes 2 and 3).
Santals, an aboriginal tribe of Bengal,
57 ; their village government, 57 ;
social ceremonies, 58 ; religion, 58, 59 ;
the Santals under British rule, 59 ;
Santal rising (1855), 59, 60.
Satara, Native State, lapsed to the British
for want of heirs (1849), 415.
Sati, or widow-burning, unknown in the
Rig- Veda, 78 ; abolition of the rite by
Lord W. Bentinck, 405.
Satnamis, a reformed Vishnuite sect in
the Central Provinces, 223.
Satpura, range of mountains in Bombay
and Central India, 35.
wSayyid dynasty, The (1414-50 A.D.), 286.
Scarcities.— 5r^ Famines.
Schools. — See Education.
Schwartz, Protestant missionary in Tan-
jore, 260.
INDEX,
741
Scott-WarinjT, Mr. Edward, History of
the Mardthas, quoted, 317 (footnote l).
Sculpture, Greek and Indian types of,
171 ; 608, 609.
Scythic invasions and inroads (126
B.C. to 544 A.D.), chap. vii. pp.
174-190. Aryan and Turanian inva-
sions from Central Asia, 174; Scythic
movements towards India, 174, 175 ;
Kanishka's fourth Buddhist Council
(40 A. D.), 175 ; pre-Buddhistic Scythic
influences, 175 ; Buddha a Sakya
(? Scythian), 176, 177 ; early Tibetan
traditions, 177, 178 ; Sakya race
customs, 178 ; Scythic Buddhism in
India, 178, 179 ; Scythic elements in
the Indian population — the Jats and
Rajputs, 179, 180; Indian struggle
against the Scythians, 180-182 ; Vik-
ramaditya's achievements, 181 ; Sen,
Gupta, and Vallabhi dynnsties, 182,
183 ; the pre-Aryan element in ancient
India, 183 ; ancient pre-Ar)'an king-
doms, 184-189 ; the Takshaks of Rawal
Pindi, 184, 185 ; the Nagas, 185, 186 ;
the Ghakkars of Rawal Pindi, 186 ;
the Bhars of Oudh and the North-
Western Provinces, 187 ; Koch king-
dom of Northern Bengal, 187, 188 ;
the Ahams of Assam, 188 ; Bundelas,
188 ; Gonds, Ahirs, and Bhils of
Central India, 189 ; pre-Aryan ab-
original tribes of Lower Bengal and
Southern India, 189 ; Scythic and
Naga influences on Hinduism, and on
the religion and domestic hfe of modem
India, 189, 190.
Sea-borne trade of British India, 559-
581 ; the great seaports, 559, 560 ;
early European, Portuguese, Dutch,
and English traders, 560, 561 ; advance-
ment of English trade, 561, 562 ;
Indian trade (1878-85), 563, 564 ;
staples of foreign sea - borne import
and export trade, 561-581. — See also
Commerce and Trade.
Secret orgies in Siva-wor>hip, 215.
Secretariats of the Government of India,
and of the minor governments, 437, 438.
Secretary of State's India Council in
London, 431.
Sect and national classification of the
population. Appendix X., 703.
Secular literature of the Hindus, 1 18-128.
— See also chap. xiii. , 'The Indian
Vernaculars and their Literature,* 325-
355.
Segauli, Treaty of, at the termination of
the Gurkha war (1814-15), 400.
Selections from the Despatches of the
Marquis of Wellesley, by Sidney J.
. Owen, quoted, 317 (footnote i) ; Selec-
tions from the Despatches oftJie Duke of
Wellington, by Sidney J. Owen, quoted,
317 (footnote I).
Seleukf s, Alexander's successor to his
conquests in Bactria and the Punjab
(312-306 B.C.), 166. 167 ; cession of the
Punjab to Chandra Gupta, 167; Megas-
thenes' embassy to Chandra Gupta's
court at Ratal iputra (the modern
Patna), 167, 168.
Sena dynasty of Surashtra (70 B.C. -235
A.D.), 182.
Serampur or Fredriksnagar. settlement
of the Danish East India Company
(1616), acquired by the English by
purchase (1845), 372; Baptist Mission
at, founded by Carey, Marshman, and
Ward, 260.
Serfdom in India, 49.
Seringapatam, Capture of, and death of
Tipii Sultan, 396, 397.
Serpent-worship, its influences on Hindu-
ism, 185, 186; serpent ornamentation
in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christi-
anity, 202, 203.
Shah Jahan, fifth Mughal Emperor of
India (1628-58 A.D.), 302-305 ; chief
events of his reign, 302 (footnote) ;
loss of Kandahar (1653), 303 ; Deccan
conquests, 303, 304 ; Taj Mahal and
other architectural works, 304 ;
revenues, 304 (footnote 3) ; deposed
by his rebellious son. Prince Aurang-
zeb, 305 ; magnificence of his court,
305.
Shahji Bhonsla, founder of the Maratha
I5ower (1634), 317.
Shah Shuja installed by the British as
Amir of Kabul (1839), 407.
Shawls, 112; 603; an Indian jewelled
shawl, 604.
Sheep as beasts of burden in the Hima-
layas, 10.
Sheep and goats, 521 ; 657.
Sherring, Rev. M. A., Hindu Tribes and
Castes, 193 (footnote i); 194 (footnotes
2, 3, and 4) ; 195 (footnote 2) ; 221
(footnote 4).
Sher Shah, Afghan Emperor of Delhi
(1540-45), killed while storming the
fortress of Kalinjar, 291.
Shore, Sir John, Governor- General of
India (1793-98), 394.
Shrines common to different faiths, 203.
Siam, trans-frontier trade with, 589, 590.
Sikandra, Tomb of Akbar at, 295.
Sikhs, history of the. Nanak, the
founder of the religious sect, 223 ;
410 ; Ranjit Singh, the founder of the
kingdom, 410, 411 ; first Sikh war
(1845) ; battles of Miidki, Firozshahr,
Aliwal, and Sobraon, 411 ; second
Sikh war (1848-49^; battles of
Chilianwdla and Gujrat, 412, 413 ;
742
INDEX.
annexation of the Punjab and its
pacification, 413 ; loyalty of the Sikhs
during the Mutiny of 1857, 419, 420.
Siladitya, Buddhist King of Northern
India (634 a.d.), 156.
Silk and sericulture, 51 1-5 15 ; the Com-
pany's factories, 511-512 ; area and
out-turn, 512, 513 ; silk-weaving in
Bengal, Burma, and Assam, 602, 603 ;
jungle silks {tasar), 513, 514; steam
silk factories, 603.
Silt islands in the Brahmaputra, 14, 15 ;
in the estuaries and along the sea face
of Bengal, 24, 25.
Silver. — See Precious Metals.
Sindhia, the family name of the ruler
of the Maratha State of Gwalior in
Central India ; rise of the family to
power, 322 ; wars with the English, 323.
Singha and Sena dynasties of Surashtra
(70 B.C. -235 A.D.), 182.
Siraj-ud-daula, Nawab of Bengal (1756-
57), 380-382 ; capture of Calcutta by,
the Black Hole, 380, 381 ; recapture
of Calcutta and the battle of Plassey,
381, 382.
Sirhind canal, 532.
Sittar, a theistic school of Tamil hym-
nologists, 332, 333.
Siva, the Destroyer and Reproducer, the
third person in the Hindu triad, 98 ;
his twofold aspects, 211, 212.
Sivaji the Great, the consolidator of the
Maratha power (1627-80), 317-319;
his hill forts and guerilla warfare,
318, 319; coins money and enthrones
himself, 319.
Siva- worship, 210-215 ; twofold aspects
of Siva and his wife — their philo-
sophical and their terrible iorms,
211, 212; human sacrifice, 212, 213;
the Charak-puja or swinging festival,
213 ; the thirteen Sivaite sects, 213,
214 ; gradations of Siva- worship, 214 ;
secret orgies in Siva -worship, 215 ;
Siva and Vishnu compared, 215.
Siwalik hills, an offshoot of the Hima-
layas, geology of, 632, 633.
Slate, 628.
Slave kings. The (1206-90 A.D.), 278-
280; Kutab-ud-din, 278 ; Altamsh, the
greatest of the Slave kings, 279 ;
the Empress Kaziya, 279 ; Mughal
inroads and RAjput revolts, 279,
280 ; Balban, his cruelties and royal
pensioners, 280.
Slavery and serfdom, 49.
Slow progress of Muhammadans in India,
Hindu resistance and internal revolts ;
reconquest of India from the Musal-
mans, 269, 270.
Smarta Brahmans of Southern India, 209,
210.
Smith, Colonel Baird, Calcutta Journal
of A^atural History, quoted, 27.
Sobraon, Battle of, 411.
Somnath, Sack of, by Mahm.ud of
Ghazni (1024 a.d.), 293, 274. The
Somnath proclamation and procession
of the so-called gates by Lord Ellen-
borough, 409.
Son canal and irrigation works, 534, 535.
Spices, Cultivation of, 490, 491.
Sridhar, Marathi poet of the i6th
century, and compiler of the Marathi
paraphrase of the Sanskrit Puranas,
346.
Srimanta Sadagar, famous Bengali poem
of the 1 6th century by Makunda Ram,
351-
Stamp revenue, 467.
State railway system, 547, 548.
Statistical Survey of Bengal, completion
of, 443.
St. Bartholomew the Apostle, his preach-
ings and alleged conversion of India
testified to by Pant?enus (190 A.D.)
and Hippolytus (220 A.D.), 235.
St. Thomas the Apostle, the traditionary
founder of Christianity in India, 229,
230 ; the three St. Thomas of India,
and the legends c^mnected with each,
230-232 ; tradition of the Indian King
Gondaphorus and St. Thomas, 232,
233; Gondaphorus an Indo-Scythic
Punjab monarch, 233 ; wide meaning
of India in the writings of the Fathers,
233, 234 ; St. Thomas' work in Persia
and Central Asia instead of in India
proper, 235 ; localization of the legend
of St. Thomas in North India or
Persia, 237 ; shrine of St. Thomas at
Madras, 237 ; mixed worship at St.
Thomas' Mount, Madras ; 238 ; St.
Thomas' relics at Goa, 238 ; the St.
Thomas' Nestorian Christians, a power-
ful and respected military caste in
Southern India, 241 ; downfall of
Nestorianism, 241-243.
St. Thomas the Apostle of htdia, by the
Rev. Dr. Kennet, quoted, 233 (footnote
3) ; 235 (footnote) ; 237 (footnote 4) ;
239 (footnote i).
St. Xavier, his labours in India, 244, 245.
Steel, Mr. Arthur, Law and Custom of
Hindu Castes, quoted, 195 (footnote 2).
Stephens, Thomas, the first authentic
English traveller in India, and rector
of the Jesuit College at Salsette (1579
A. D. ), 363, 364.
Stevenson, David, Canal and River
Engineering, quoted, 23.
Strachey, General Sir R., calculations
on the age of the Bengal delta, 28.
Straits Settlements, India's trade with,
577 ; 579, 580.
INDEX.
743
* Strikes' among Indian castes, 198.
Su, a Tartar tribe, their overthrow of
the Greek settlements in Bactria, 175.
Subuktigin, first Turki invader of India
(977 A.D.), 272.
Sudlianwan's alleged persecution of the
Buddhists, 191 and footnotes.
Sudras, the servile caste of ancient India,
90, 91.
Suez Canal, Trade with India vid^ 564,
565 ; 581.
Sufed Koh, range in Afghanistan, an
offshoot of the Himalayas, 3.
Sugar-cane, Cultivation of, 491.
Sugar duties, Abolition of Inland (1836),
562.
Sulaiman range of hills, marking a
portion of the western boundary
between British territory and Afghanis-
tan, 3 ; 6.
Sun-spot cycles, 650, 651.
Sun-worship, Traces of, among the San-
tals, 58.
Surat, English obtain leave to trade at
(1612 A.D.), 366 ; defeat of the Portu-
guese fleet at Swally, the port of Surat,
by Captain Best (161 5 A.D.), 366 ;
Surat, the chief seat of the Company's
government in Western India till
1684-87, when it was transferred to
Bombay, 370 ; Surat pillaged by Sivaji
(1664), 370; treaty of Surat between
Raghunath Rao and the British, 391.
Sur Das, poet of Mathura in the 1 6th
century, and author of the Sursagar,
345-
' Survey ' land tenure in Bombay, its
simplicity, advantages, and disadvan-
tages, 448, 449.
Sutlej, great river of the Punjab and
chief tributary of the Indus, 11.
Sutras or sacred Sanskrit traditions, 89.
Swally, Defeat of the Portuguese Heet at
(1615), 366.
Swedish East India Company, 376.
Synod of Diamper (1599 A.D.), 241.
Syrian Christians in India, their numbers
and antiquity, 230 ; Syrian Catholics
in Malabar, 243, 244 ; Syrian rite re-
formed, 245 ; Syrian and Roman
Catholic Christians at the present day,
257, 258.
Taj Mahal, The, 112 ; 304.
Takht-i-Sulaiman, mountain in the Sulai-
man range, 6.
Takkas, a Turanian race, and the earliest
inhabitants of Rawal Pindi District,
164 (footnote 2); their present descend-
ants, 184.
Takshaks, an early Scythian tribe in the
Punjab, 184, 185.
Tal, mountain pass over the Brahui hills
from the Punjab into Baluchistan, 6.
Talikot, Battle of, and overthrow of the
Vijayanagar kingdom (1565 A.D.), 288.
Tdlukddrs or great landlords of Oudh,
45 1' 452.
Tamil, the oldest and most influential
of the vernacular literatures of Southern
India, 330 ; first cultivation of Tamil
by the sage Agastya, 330, 331 ; Jain
cycle of Tamil literature from the 9th
to the 13th century, 331 ; its great
Pariah poet and poetess (900 a.d,?),
331 ; the Tamil Ramayana, 331 ;
Sivaite and Vishnuite Tamil hym-
nologies, 332 ; the Sittar or anti-
Brahmanical Tamil poets of the 17th
century, 332 ; modern Tamil writers,
333; Beschi, the Jesuit priest, 333;
recent statistics of Tamil literature, 333.
Tantrik sect of Siva-worshippers, 214.
Tartar overthrow of Greek conquests in
Bactria, 175. — See also ScYTHic In-
vasions.
Tasar, or jungle silkworm, 34 ; 513, 514.
Tassy, Garcin de, Histoire de la Littera-
tiire Hindotiie et Hindoustanie, quoted,
343 and footnote i.
Taxation of India under the Mughal
Emperois (i 593-1 761 A.D. ), 299 ; taxa-
tion under the Mughals and the British,
463, 464 ; taxation in Native States,
464 ; incidence of taxation in British
India, 464, 465. — See also Finances
and Revenue System.
Taxila, ancient town in Rawal Pindi
District, Punjab, the home of the
Takkas, identified with the ruins of
Deri Shahan, 164 (footnote 2) ; 184.
Tea cultivation and manufacture, 504-
509 ; indigenous to Assam, 504 ; early
experiments and failures, 504, 505 ;
rapid progress of the industry, 505 ;
statistics of out - turn, 505 - 507 ;
varieties of the plant, 508 ; the work
of a tea-garden, 508, 509 ; export of
tea, 575.
Teak forests, 39 ; 42.
Tegnapatam (Fort St. David), East
India Company's factory established at
(1686-92), 371.
Temperature of various meteorological
stations in India, 647-649. — See also
Meteorology of India.
Temple's, Sir R., Minute on the balance
of Indian trade, 581-583.
Tenancy (Bengal) Bill, 429.
Tenant-right in Bengal, compensation for
disturbance, 444, 445.
Thagi or professional strangling, Sup-
pression of, by Lord \V. Bentinck, 405.
r-
744
.%..■ . INDEX,
Thall Ghat, mountain pass in the
Western Ghats, 37.
Thana, a Jesuit station (1550 A.D.), its
colony of Christian craftsmen and
cultivators, 247, 248.
Thdni rdyatSy or stationary husbandmen,
48-.
Theistic movements in Vishnuite reli-
gious reforms, 223 ; theistic hymns,
332, 333-
Thomas the Apostle, Thomas the
Manichsean, and Thomas the Armenian
merchant, conversion of India variously
ascribed to. — See chap, ix., 'Christi-
anity in India,' 229-238.
Thomas, Mr. E., Paper on the Sah and
Gupta coins, in the Report of the
Archceological Survey of Western India
for 1874-75, quoted, 147 (footnote) ;
172 (footnotes i and 2); 171; (foot-
note 3) ; 182 (footnotes i and 4) ;
Jainism, or the Early Faith of Asoka,
160 (footnote); Revenue Resources
of the Alughal Empire, 271 (footnote) ;
297 (footnote 2) ; 295, 301 (foot-
note i), 304, 305 (footnote); 311
(footnote) ; Chronicle of the Pathdn
Kings of Delhi, 271 (footnote), 280,
281 (footnotes); 283 (footnotes i and 2);
284 (footnote) ; 285 (footnote 3) ; 287
(footnote 2); 291 (footnote); 298 (foot-
note 2).
Thome's, Major William, Memoir of
the War in Jndia conducted by General
Lord Lake, 317 (footnote i).
Tibetan ideas and early traditions of
Buddhism, 176-178.
Tibeto-Burmans, non- Aryan tribes of
the lower Himalayas, their languages,
63 ; 68.
Tiger, The Indian, 652, 653 ; man-eating
tigers, 653.
Tile pottery of the Punjab and Sind, 608.
Timber trees, 34 ; 39 ; 41. — See also
Forest Department.
Timur (Tamerlane), Invasion of India
by (1398 A. D.), 285.
Tin in British Burma, 42 ; 626.
Tipu Sultan, son of Haidar AH ; second
Mysore war (1790-94), 394; third
Mysore war (1799); fall of Seringa-
patam and death of Tipu, 396, 397.
Tista, river of Bengal, its changes of
course, 30.
Titles of Siva and his wife in their
different Aryan and non-Aryan forms,
211, 212.
Tobacco cultivation and manufacture^
growth of the trade, 42 ; 499, 500.
Tod, Colonel, Annals and Antiqmties of
Rdjaslhdn, quoted, 180 (footnotes I
and 3) ; 184 (footnote 2) ; 185 (foot-
notes 1 and 3).
Todar Mall, Akbar's Hindu general and
finance minister, his revenue settle-
ment, 293, 300.
Tolerant spirit of Hinduism, 226, 227.
Topographia Christiana (Paris, 1 707),
quoted, 183.
Towns and villages of British India classi-
fied according to population, Appendix
II., 690.
Towns of British India with a popula-
tion exceeding 20,000, Appendix Vill.,
696, 697.
Towns, Absence of large, in India, 46.
Trade and commerce. — See Commerce
AND Trade. —
Trade, Tabular statement of, with foreign
countries, 579.
Trade-guilds, 197, 198 ; guild-funds and
charities, trade versus caste interests,
198, 199; caste a 'mutual insurance,'
and substitute for a poor law, 199.
Trade-unions. — See Trade-Guilds.
Trading castes in Northern and Southern
India, 591, 592.
Tranquebar, settlement of the Danish
East India Company (1616), acquired
by the English by purchase (1845), 372.
Trans-Himalayan trade, 586-590.
Treasure, Import of, proportion of gold
to silver, gold and silver currency, 568,
569.
Treaties, Early Indo-Greek (306 and 256
B.C.), 166 ; 170.
lyee and Serpoit Worship, by Dr. J.
Fergusson, quoted, 204 (footnote i).
Tribes of the North- Western Provinces,
by Sir Henry Elliot, 195 (footnote 2).
Troubles of the early Indian Church,
240.
Trumpp, Dr. E., Grammar of the Sindhi
Language, quoted, 335.
Tsan-pu, the Tibetan name for the upper
waters of the Brahmaputra before it
forces its way through the Himalayas,
Tue-chi overthrow of the Graeco-Bactrian
settlement in the Punjab, 175.
Tughlak dynasty, The (1320-1414 A.D.),
283-286 ; Ghiyas - ud - din Tughlak
(1320-24), 283; Muhammad Tugh-
lak (1324-51), 283; his cruelties,
forced currency, etc., 283, 284; revolt
of the Provinces, 284 ; revenue exac-
tions, 284; 'man-hunts,' 284, 285;
Firuz Shdh Tughlak (1357-88), 285 ;
Mahmiid Tughlak, 285 ; Timiir's inva-
sion (1398), 285 ; ruin of the Tughlak
dynasty (1399-1414), 285, 286.
Tukaram, Maratha Vishnuite religious
poet of the 17th century, 346.
Tungabhadra irrigation works, 536.
Turanian and Aiyan migrations into India
from Central Asia, 174, 175.
INDE
745
Turki invasions of India, 272.
Turmeric, Export of, 575.
u
Udhanala, Battle of, and defeat of Mir
Kasim, 386.
Uma, the Ar}an form of the Wife of Siva,
211, 212.
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Miss Bird,
quoted, 152 (footnote 3) ; 202 (foot-
note i) ; 224 (footnote 3).
Under-peopled Districts and Provinces,
47.
Unequal pressure of J>opulation on the
land, 49.
United States, India's trade with, 578,
579.
Universities, Indian, 475, 476.
Upendra Bhanj, Raja of Gumsar, a
famous Uriya poet, 344.
Uraons, an aboriginal tribe of Kols in
Western Bengal and Chutia Nagpur,
71 (footnote).
Uriya vernacular writers and poets, 343,
344-
Usman's Arab expedition to Thana and
Broach (647 A.D.), 268.
Usurpation of Aurangzeb, and murder of
his brothers, 306, 307.
Vaiseshikba, one of the six darsanas
or Brahmanical systems of philosophy,
99.
Vaisya or cultivating caste of ancient
India, 90; 196.
Valabhi, ancient Indian dynasty in
Western India and Sind (480-722
A.D.), their overthrow by Arab
invaders of Sind, 182.
Vallabha-swami, Vishnuite religious re-
former (1520 A.D.), Krishna- worship,
221, 222.
Valmiki, the reputed composer of the
Ramayana, 123,
Vararuchi, Prakrit grammarian of the
1st century B.C., 336, 337.
Vasco da Gama — his three voyages to
India, and death at Cochin, 356-358.
Vedantas^ two of the six darsanas, or
Brahmanical systems of philosophy,
99.
% edas, the four Sanskrit hymnals, 77-
89 ; their antiquity and inspired
origin, 78 ; caste and widow-burning
unknown, 78 ; Aryan civilisation in
the Veda, 79 ; the gods of the Veda,
78-81 ; a Vedic hymn, 82, 83 ; Vedic
prayers, Z-^, 84 ; Vedic legend of Yama,
the king of death, 85 ; Vedic concep-
tions of immortality, 86 ; the Rig-
Veda composed during the march of
the Aryans through Upper India, 86,
87 ; the Sama VeJa, Yajur Veda, and
Atharva Veda composed at a later
date than the Rig- Veda, after the
Brahmans had established their priestly
power, 88 ; the Brahmans or inspired
guides to the four Vedas, 88, 89.
Vegetables, Cultivation of, 490.
Vellore, Mutiny of (1806), 399.
Velvet work, 603.
Verapoli, Roman Catholic Vicariate, 257.
Vernacular journalism, 480, 48 r.
Vernaculars (Indian) and their Litera-
ture, chap. xiii. pp. 325-355. — See
Indian Vernaculars and their
Literature.
Viceroys and Governors - General of
India, 384.
Victoria-Gitika, a Sanskrit oi1e, in cele-
bration of the sovereigns of Eng-
land, III.
Victoria Point, marking the extreme
eastern and southern limits of British
India, at the mouth of the Kra river,
the boundary' between Tenasserim and
Siam, 4.
Viexu of Hindu Law, by Mr. Nelson,
C.S., 195 (footnote 2).
Vijayanagar, Hindu kingdom of
Southern India (1185-1565 a.d.) ;
subjugation by the Muhammadans at
the battle of Talikot, 286 ; 288.
Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain (57
B.C.) ; his war with the Scythian
invaders, 181.
Vincent's, Dean, Commerce and Nam-
gat ion of the Ancients in the Indian.
Ocean, quoted, 164 (footnote l) ;
356 (footnote).
Vindhyas, range of mountains, 35, 36 ;
geology of, 635.
Vishnu, the Preserver, the second person
of the Hindu trinity, 98. — See also
Hinduism.
Vishnuite symbols in Hinduism, 206.
Vishnu Parana, The, by Dr. H. H.
Wilson, quoted, 216, 217, and foot-
notes.
Vishnu- worship, 215-226 ; Vishnu and
Siva compared, 215 ; incarnations of
Vishnu, 215, 216 ; the Vishnu Purana,
the eighteen Puranas, 216, 217 ; Brah-
manical and popular Vishnuism, 217 ;
Vishnuite religious reformers (1150,
1520 A.D.), 217-222; Vishnuite sects-
223 ; theistic movements in Vishnuism,
223 ; Jagannath, 223-225 ; the truth
about the Car Festival, 224, 225 ;
bloodless worship of Jagannath, 225,
226.
746
INDEX.
Vital statistics of India, chap. xxv.
pp. 665-686. The principal sources
of health returns, 665 ; untrustworthy
registration statistics, 666, 667 ; death-
rate and average duration of life
in India, 666, 667 ; birth and death
rates for different Provinces, 667-679 ;
health and mortality in the European
army, 675 ; 680-682 ; in the native
army, 682-684 ; jail vital statistics,
684-686.
Von Bohlen, Das Alte Indien, quoted,
1 10 (footnote 2).
Vyasa, Brahman sage, the legendary
compiler of the four Vedas (3101 B.C.),
and of the epic of the Mahabharata,
118.
w
Wandewash, Battle of, and defeat of the
French under Lally {1761), 379, 380.
War, Art of, in Vedic and Sanskrit
times, no.
Wargaum, Convention of (1779), 391.
Warora coal-field in the Central Pro-
vinces, 620.
Warren Hastings. — See Hastings,
Warren.
Water-mills in the Himalayas, 9.
"W^atson, Admiral, bombardment and
capture of Chandarnagar, 382.
Weber, Professor, History of Indian
Literature f quoted, 94 (footnote) ; 102
(footnote i); 105 (footnote); no
(footnote i) ; 127 (footnote 3) ; 154
(footnote) ; 168 (footnote 2) ; 172 (foot-
notes 2 and 3) ; 175 (footnote i) ; 176
(footnote 3) ; Indische Studien, quoted,
161 (footnote I).
Wellesiey, General (afterwards Duke of
Wellington) — the victories of Assaye
and Argaum, 323 ; 398.
Wellesiey, Marquis of. Governor- General
of India (i 798-1803), 394-397 ; French
influence in India, 394, 395 ; Lord
Wellesley's scheme, 395, 396 ; treaty
with the Nizam, 396 ; third Mysore
war and storming of Seringapatam,
396, 397 ; second Maratha war (1802-04)
and annexations to British territory,
398 ; British successes and disasters,
398.
\\ estern Ghats, mountain range along the
western coast of India, 36 ; 39 ; its
passes, 36, 37 ; rivers, 37 ; rainfall,
38 ; forests, 39.
Western Jumna Canal, 29 ; 532.
Wheat, Statistics of cultivation and out-
turn of, 486488 ; export of, 573.
Whitney, Piofessor, Sanskrit Grammar,
quoted, 334 (footnote i).
Widows, Position of, in ancient India, "jS.
Williams, Professor Monier, 114; 129
(footnote i).
Willoughby, Sir John's attempt to force
an eastern passage along the north
of Europe and Asia, 363.
Wilson, Dr. H. H., IVorks of, quoted,
no (footnote i) ; 127 (footnote 2);
154 (footnote i); Ariana Antigua^
175 (footnote i); Vishnu Purdna,
180 (footnote 4); 216, 217 (footnotes) ;
Essays, 191 (footnote 2) ; Religion of
the Hindus, 201 (footnote 2) ; 205
(footnote i) ; 206 (footnote 2); 210
(footnote 2) ; 221 (footnote 2) ; 223
(footnotes 3 and 4).
Wilson, Dr. J., Indian Caste, quoted,
194 (footnote i); 195 (footnote 2);
no (footnote i).
Wilson, Mr. James, his financial reforms
after the Mutiny, 424.
Wise, Dr. T. A. , Review of the History
of Medicine among the Asiatics,
quoted, no (footnote i).
Wolf, The Indian, 654.
Women, Position of, in ancient India,
and in Vishnu- worship, 78 ; 221.
Wood-carving, 112; 609.
X
Xavier, St. Francis, his work in India,
244, 245.
Yajnavalkya's Code of Hindu Law, 114,
"5.
Yajur-Veda, The, 88.
Yak cow. The, a remarkably sure-footed
beast of burden in the Himalayas, 9,
10.
Yama, the Hindu god of death, Vedic
legend of, 85.
Yandabu, Treaty of (1826), 403, 404.
Yavanas, the name applied to Greeks
and Scythians by the Brahmans, 93 ;
172, 173-
Yoga, one of the six darsanas or Brah-
manical systems of philosophy, 99.
Yogis, a sect of Sivaite devotees, 214.
Yoma mountain range in Burma, 6.
Yule, Colonel Henry, Marco Polo, quoted,
151 (footnotes); 152 (footnote i) ;
231 (footnote i) ; 233 (footnotes i and
2) ; 237 (footnote 4) ; 238 (footnotes) ;
239 (footnote 3) ; 356 (footnote) ;
Cathay and the Way Ihither, 233
(footnote 2) ; 283 (footnote 5).
INDEX,
747
Zamlnddri grant of the Twenty-four !
Parganas, 383. j
Zaminddrs or revenue land collectors |
under the Mughals, converted into a j
proprietary body by the Permanent
Settlement of Bengal, 439 ; 442.
Zoology and Botany of India, chap.
xxiv. pp. 652-664, The Gujarat or
maneleas lion, 652 ; tiger, 652 ; leopard,
cheetah, 653, 654 ; wolf, fox, jackal,
dog, 654 ; bear, 655 ; elephant and
elephant-catching, 655, 656 ; rhinoceros,
656 ; wild boar and hog, 656, 657 ;
sheep and goats, 657 ; antelope and
deer, 657, 658 ; bison and buffalo,
658 ; birds of prey and game birds,
659 ; reptiles, 660, 661 ; insects, 662 j
Indian flora, 662-664.
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