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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
" 
 
INDIA: 
 
 ITS 
 
 HISTOEY, CLIMATE, PRODUCTIONS, 
 
 AND 
 
 FIELD SPOETS; 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF 
 
 EUROPEAN LIFE AND MANNERS, 
 
 AND OF THE VARIOUS 
 
 TRAVELLING ROUTES. 
 
 J. H. STOCQUELER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE " ORIENTAL INTERPRETER." 
 
 GEORGE 
 
 FABRINGDON STREET. 
 1853. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 numerous able pens. Her history, government, natu- 
 ral productions, commerce, geography, ethnology, 
 her religions, temples, antiquities, scenery, the man- 
 ners and customs of the manifold tribes contained in 
 her wide continent and adjacent islands occupy 
 libraries of volumes, from the ponderous folio to the 
 thick octavo, but nowhere can access be obtained 
 to a compendium of knowledge on these points. In 
 an age when the claims upon our time are so nu- 
 merous, that very little attention can be bestowed on 
 any single subject by ordinary readers, an endeavour 
 to present a general epitome of the contents of all 
 the works that have been published appears to be 
 particularly called for ; and although the author of the 
 following rapid sketch cannot expect to have satisfied 
 curiosity upon all points, he hopes at least to have 
 succeeded in conveying a general notion of " India," 
 and a correct idea of the routes to that country, and 
 the expenses of the voyage. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INDIA AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 Geographical sketch The early Hindoo settlers Alexander's 
 invasion The Mahomedan conquerors Discovery of the 
 route to India round the Cape of Good Hope The settlement 
 of Europeans in India Dupleix' views of French empire 
 Clive The progress of conquest The Mahrattas, Burmah, 
 The Punjaub 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 Early Government Establishment of the Board of Control 
 The East India Direction The Governmental Divisions of 
 India The Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Presidencies 
 The Native States The Civil administration The Army of 
 India -The Indian Navy Furloughs, Half pay, Betire- 
 ments, &c. ... ... page 14 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 Sea voyage The expense The necessary equipment Sailing 
 ships Screw steamers The overland routeThe steamers 
 of the Peninsular and Oriental Company The cost and the 
 equipment page 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EMIGRANT TO INDIA. 
 
 The European population of India Its character and extent 
 Advice to emigrants Equipment for such persons page 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 European life in India The kind of houses required Method 
 of furnishing Domestics Articles of life Markets House- 
 hold expenses Amusements and resources Diet Routine 
 of existence Literature Life in the Mofussil The indigo 
 planter Life of a lady in India Children . page 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 The first railway Boat travelling on the Ganges The hanks 
 of the Hooghly DawkMarching The necessary prepara- 
 tions and equipment page 72 
 
CONTETNS. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 
 
 The Banian tree Ganesha The Peepul General belief The 
 Sissoo The Sygwam The Talipot, its uses The Cocoa- 
 nut, invaluable to the native Traditions of the mango 
 grove page 90 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 
 
 Articles of export and import The carrying trade Exchange 
 Bullion The system of weights The Banyan Docks 
 Commercial Office Establishments The shipping for a 
 twelvemonth page 99 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 The Pine-apple The Custard-apple The Mango The Egg- 
 plum The Pomegranate The Melon The Guava The 
 Plantain The Pumplenose The Papaya The Loquat 
 The Jack The Leechee, &c page 100 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CLIMATE OF INDIA. 
 
 General range of the thermometer Bengal, Madras, and 
 Bombay Remedies for heat Diseases of India Hill 
 stations page 124 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 Jackall huntingBoar hunting Tiger hunting The man tiger 
 The Nepaul Terai Elephant hunting Bear hunting- 
 Deer stalking page 109 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 The Brahminical religion The Doorga Poojah The Nautch 
 Hindoo music The Churuk Poojah - Juggernat'h 
 The Suttee The Mohurrum--The Buckra Eade The 
 Bhearer . ... . . . . page 143 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, MONUMENTAL REMAINS, ETC. 
 
 The cave temples The river temples The character of Hindoo 
 sculpture Futtehpore Sikri Deeg Secundra Tomb of 
 Hoomaioon Agra The Taj Mahal Lucknow, &c. page 170 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay Delhi The Great Mogul 
 Agra Lucknow Benares Hyderabad . . page- 185 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 Productions Colombo Tiincomalee Point de Galle Kandy 
 Climate Population page 20'^ 
 
INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 Geographical sketchThe early Hindoo settlers Alexander's 
 invasion The Mahomedan conquerors Discovery of the 
 route to India round the Cape of Good Hope The settlement 
 of Europeans in India Dupleix' views of French empire 
 dive The progress of conquest The Mahrattas, Burmah, 
 the Punjaub. 
 
 INDIA ! To the reader of history, and the student of 
 human nature, what varied associations present them- 
 selves in that single word ! Magnificent enterprises, 
 incomparable heroism, unequalled sagacity, incredible 
 cruelty, horrible superstition, wonderful perseverance, 
 grandeur of conception, multiplied instances of the 
 loftiest efforts and the most abject degradation of 
 humanity the meeting at once of the extremities of 
 the sublime and the contemptible; these, and a 
 thousand other objects, strike the mind when the past 
 history and the present condition of British India are 
 forced upon consideration. In no part of the world 
 are we presented with so striking a proof of the influ- 
 ence of moral over brute force, or of the decay of 
 
 B 
 
X INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 Paganism in the presence of healthful Christian exer- 
 cise. Nowhere else do we behold the simple trader 
 rising 1 into the most powerful ruler ; millions of acres 
 of waste land and jungle rescued from the marauder 
 and the tiger, and converted into fertile lands and the 
 abodes of peace and industry ; an agglomeration of 
 nations, covering a vast extent of country, acknowledg- 
 ing the supremacy of a handful of islanders, whose 
 seat of government is five thousand miles away ! 
 India is a marvellous problem, a phenomenon which 
 puzzles the philosopher, while it charms the philan- 
 thropist. To the whole world its position is a mystery 
 to Englishmen a subject of the deepest interest and 
 the most lively solicitude. 
 
 The story of the occupation and mastery of India 
 by the English is soon told, and forms an unavoidable 
 prelude to the description we propose to give of the 
 country generally, and the means of access to its 
 shores. But first let us glance at the geography of 
 the land of which we intend to treat. 
 
 British India is comprehended in a continent ex- 
 tending north to south froni Cape Comorin, in lat. 
 8 N., and long. 77 E., to the Himalaya chain. On 
 the west it is bounded by the Indian Ocean ; on the 
 east by the Bay of Bengal. But even upon the 
 western shores of that bay England holds possessions, 
 and governs multitudes 5 for a considerable portion of 
 what was once the Burmese empire now acknowledges 
 our sway. The Tenasserim coast, the island of Pulo 
 Penang (now called Prince of Wales's Island), Malacca, 
 and the island of Singapore, are British settlements. 
 The once independent kingdom of Pegu has been 
 annexed to the dominions of the British crown, and 
 even a nook in China and a point in Borneo are occu- 
 pied by us in virtue of treaties. To secure a free pas- 
 sage in and out of the Eed Sea, the little town and 
 anchorage of Aden, in the straits of Babelmandeb, 
 
INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. O 
 
 have been ceded to us ; and possibly at tins moment 
 the successes of our army in Burmali may be extend- 
 ing our possessions to the very capital of Ava. Im- 
 mediately south of the peninsula of India is the island 
 of Ceylon, which is likewise British territory 5 and thus 
 upon some part of every state on the shores of the 
 eastern hemisphere the English ensign flutters in the 
 breeze, and is hailed as the type of civilization and the 
 earnest of protection to all within its influence who 
 suffer from oppression. 
 
 The early history of India is perhaps more per- 
 plexing than that of any other country which boasts 
 of an ancient civilization. Employing no dates ; or 
 clues to dates, in their temples and monuments, 
 perpetuating no rulers but those who owned a 
 (fabulous) divine origin, the people have furnished to 
 posterity no starting point in the story of their 
 origin upon which a rational mind can place the 
 smallest reliance. All that is really ascertainable is, 
 that two thousand years. ago they had a religion " less 
 disgraced by idolatrous worship than most of those) 
 which prevailed in early times." They had a despotic 
 government, restricted, however, by law, institutions, 
 and religion ; a code of laws, in many respects wise 
 
 and rational, and adapted to a great variety of relations 
 which could not have existed excepting in an advanced 
 state of social organization. They had "a copious and 
 cultivated language, and an extensive and diversified 
 literature; they had made great progress in the mathe- 
 matical sciences ; they speculated profoundly on the 
 mysteries of men and nature; and they had acquired 
 remarkable proficiency in many of the ornamental and 
 useful arts of life. In short, whatever defects may be 
 justly attributed to their religion, their government, 
 their laws, their literature, their sciences, their arts, as 
 contrasted with the same proofs of civilization in 
 modern Europe, the Hindoos were in all these respects 
 
4 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 quite as civilized as any of the most civilized nations 
 of the ancient world, and in as early times as any of 
 which records or traditions remain."* 
 
 From the wonderful influence which Brahminism 
 has exercised in all times over Hindostitn, and the vast 
 remains of temples whose antiquity it is impossible to 
 determine, the inference drawn by historians and anti- 
 quarians is, that the first foreign settlers in India were 
 a colony of priests from some of the countries west of 
 the Indus; that the whole country was, until their 
 advent, one immense jungle, inhabited by a race of 
 savages no further removed from wild beasts than are 
 the Bosjesmans of Africa. The Brahmins introduced 
 a religion, and gradually spreading themselves in a 
 southerly direction, founded the kingdom of Oude, 
 which, according to their Puranas or sacred books, in 
 which all the traditions (miscalled history) of the 
 Hindoos are written, was the birthplace of the dy- 
 nasties of the sun and moon. Both of these planets, 
 thus personified, are said to have issued originally from 
 Brahma, or the supreme being, through his sons the 
 patriarchs Daksha and Atri. 
 
 It were a waste of time to follow tradition through 
 all its absurdities and exaggerations from such a point. 
 Let it suffice that the Brahminical religion, aided by 
 the persecution of fire and sword, gradually extended 
 its influence over the minds of the Mlechas or original 
 barbarians of the country, and at length reached the 
 most southerly point of the continent, and even the 
 island of Ceylon, spreading civilization, and partially 
 converting forests into smiling plains. The people of 
 the coasts, acquiring the science of navigation and 
 ship-building how or when, no records show 
 gradually opened a communication by sea with other 
 countries ; and discovering within the bosom of their 
 
 * Professor H. H. Wilson. 
 
INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 5 
 
 own fertile lands various precious metals, with which 
 they decorated their persons or manufactured drinking 
 and other vessels, soon became objects of attraction to 
 their neighbours. Egypt and Assyria were in very 
 early times in communication with India ; but it is not 
 until Alexander the Macedonian penetrates Persia, 
 Afghanistan, and the Punjaub, to the river Hyphasis 
 (the modern Beeas), that we obtain any authentic ac- 
 count of the country. This was 325 years before Christ. 
 From that time onwards we lose trace of any connec- 
 tion between India and the nations west of the river 
 Indus, until we find the Saracens, who had conquered 
 Persia, recruiting their forces from among' the wild 
 tribes of Turks and Tartars who, like the Goths, 
 Vandals and Huns, had always a hankering after the 
 south and then invading India. " After the conver- 
 sion of the Affghans to Mahomedanism," says Dr. 
 Cooke Taylor, " which took place in less than half a 
 century from the first promulgation of that religion, 
 frequent incursions were made into the territories of 
 the Hindoos ; avarice and bigotry combined to stimu- 
 late the marauders to cruelty, for they regarded their 
 victims as at once the most wealthy and the most obsti- 
 nate of idolaters." This was 1,100 years ago, or at 
 the beginning of the eighth century since the birth of 
 our Lord. The tide of Mahomedan conquest having 
 once set in an easterly direction, it continued inces- 
 santly ; and although much stout resistance appears to 
 have been offered to the successive invaders, whether 
 Affghans or Tartars, they seem by the commence- 
 ment of the sixteenth century to have established their 
 dominion over the whole of the Indian continent, 
 governing in the south by deputy, and allowing 
 Hindoo sovereigns to retain their possessions only on 
 the condition of their paying heavy tribute. 
 
 Although, according* to Herodotus, the route round 
 the Cape to India had been effected three thousand 
 
6 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 seven hundred years ago by the Egyptians, under the 
 government of Pharoah Necbo II. , the produce of India 
 only reached Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries of the Christian era through the Persian and 
 Arabian gulfs ; for the Venetians and Genoese, even 
 if they were aware of any other route than those, care- 
 fully kept it a secret from the rest of the world, and 
 for a long' time enjoyed a monopoly of the trade. But 
 the wealth of the Italian republics arising out of this 
 monopoly at length awakened the cupidity and jea- 
 lousy of other nations, and the observation of travellers 
 having led men to reflect on the geographical conse- 
 quences resulting from the spherical figure of the earth, 
 an idea arose (out of a false calculation of the longitude 
 of Asia), that India might be reached by a voyage 
 from the coasts of Europe in a westerly direction. 
 Columbus first received this impression, and its results 
 are well known to the reader. Much about the same 
 time John II., the King of Portugal, commanded Bar- 
 tholomew Diaz to ascertain whether the coast of 
 Africa was, as Ptolemy had previously affirmed, ter- 
 minated by land which stretched to the west, or 
 whether any opening to the east lay along that coast 
 in its southerly direction. The description of Diaz's 
 voyage is graphically told in the following passage 
 from the " Edinburgh Cabinet Library ": " John 
 placed three vessels under the command of Bartholo- 
 mew Diaz, whom he strictly enjoined, if possible, to 
 pass the southern boundary of the continent ; and this 
 officer having arrived at the mouth of the Congo by a 
 course now easy and ascertained, began from that 
 point his career of discovery. He adopted the odd 
 contrivance of carrying with him four negro damsels 
 well clothed, and furnished with gold and silver orna- 
 ments, toys and spices, whom he landed at different 
 points of the coast, that they might spread brilliant 
 reports of the wealth and power of the Portuguese. 
 
INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. / 
 
 He gave names ; as he went along-, to remarkable bays 
 and capes, and at St. Jag-o, 120 leagues beyond the 
 Congo, erected a pillar of stone to denote at once 
 the dominion of the King and the Cross. He passed 
 successively the Bays of the Landing, of Isles, and of 
 Windings, the last named being given on account of 
 the many changes of course which during five days 
 the sinuosities of the coast, and adverse gales, obliged 
 him to make. The weather continuing stormy, drove 
 him from the land in a southern direction, where his 
 frail barks seemed scarcely fitted to live amid the 
 tempestuous seas by which they were surrounded. 
 After a voyage, too, along the burning shores of 
 Guinea, the Portuguese felt intensely the cold blasts 
 of the Antarctic seas. They considered themselves as 
 lost; when, after thirteen days, the tempest having 
 abated, they sought, by steering eastward, to regain 
 the land ; but they were already beyond the farthest 
 point of Africa, and saw nothing before them except 
 the unbounded ocean. Surprised and bewildered they 
 turned towards the north, and at length reached the 
 coast at a point which proved to be beyond the Cape 
 of Good Hope. They called it the 4 Bay of Cows/ 
 from the large herds seen feeding, but which the 
 natives immediately drove into the interior. Diaz 
 steered onwards till he came to a small island, where 
 he planted another pillar or ensign of dominion. A 
 general murmur, however, now arose among his ex- 
 hausted and dispirited crew. They urged that they 
 had already discovered enough land for one voyage, 
 having sailed over more sea than had been traversed 
 by any former expedition ; that their vessel was shat- 
 tered and their provisions drawing* to a close; and 
 finally, that the coast having been left running north 
 and south, and now found running west and east, there 
 must intervene some remarkable cape, the discovery of 
 which would give lustre to their voyage homeward. 
 
8 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 Diaz then called a council of his principal officers, who 
 all agreed in the necessity of returning. The com- 
 mander yielded, it is said, with deep reluctance, and 
 parted from the island where he had planted his last 
 ensign as a father parts from an exiled son. The Por- 
 tuguese had not sailed far westward when they came in 
 view of that mighty promontory which had heen vainly 
 sought for so many ages, constituting*, as it were, the 
 boundary between two worlds. The commodore, from 
 the storms he had endured in doubling it, named it the 
 Cape of Tempests ; but on his return, the king, ani- 
 mated by a more sanguine spirit, bestowed the appella- 
 tion, which it has ever since retained, of the Cape of 
 Good Hope." 
 
 The way thus opened to India by the Portuguese 
 was soon afterwards tracked by the Dutch, the Eng- 
 lish, the Spaniards, and the French. All commenced 
 their operations upon the coast of India as simple 
 traders who had formed themselves into companies, for 
 the double purpose of obtaining the command of a larger 
 amount of capital and enjoying the protection of their 
 respective sovereigns, who were by no means indiffer- 
 ent to enterprises which contributed to augment the 
 wealth and enhance the political importance of the 
 nations. It was in the year 1600 that Queen Eliza- 
 beth granted the first charter to the East India Com- 
 pany. From that time until near the middle of the 
 eighteenth century we were content to possess factories 
 upon the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, and to exist as 
 merchants by sufferance. As long as the nabobs and 
 rajahs the viceroys of the Great Mogul or Emperor 
 of Delhi, who ruled India found their account in 
 exactions in the shape of duty, they tolerated the 
 visitors, and the Europeans bore with the arrogance of 
 the delegate governors for the sake of the advantages 
 to be reaped from a commerce in cottons and silks, 
 drugs and spices, gold dust and elephants' tusks. 
 
INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 9 
 
 Gradually, as the settlements of the French and Eng- 
 lish increased in number, the factors sought permission 
 to introduce small detachments of European troops for 
 the protection of their property ; and to these they 
 added a handful of sepoys, or native soldiers, trained 
 and partially costumed after the European manner. 
 
 By the year 1747, one Dupleix, a French command- 
 ant, had conceived the idea of establishing- an indepen- 
 dent empire in India. He was an unscrupulous man, 
 of great courage and ambition one of those who are 
 produced every half-century to astound the world by 
 their successes, and ultimately to sink into insignifi- 
 cance. Conscious of his inability to achieve any great 
 objects single-handed, he began by sowing dissensions 
 among the nabobs in his neighbourhood. The dis- 
 tance at which these viceroys were placed from 
 Delhi made them almost irresponsible, and they acted 
 more like independent sovereigns than delegates from 
 a greater potentate. A vacancy in the viceroy alty, or 
 Nizamut of the Deccan, gave rise to disputes about 
 the succession, and led the rival pretenders to take up 
 arms. Dupleix immediately offered assistance in the 
 shape of French troops and artillery to one of the con- 
 tending parties the other threw himself upon the 
 protection of the English, and Major Stringer Law- 
 rence, the English commandant, entered heart and 
 soul into the contest. From this moment began those 
 military operations and political intrigues which even- 
 tuated first in the expulsion of the French from India, 
 and gradually led to the entire possession of the coun- 
 try by the English. 
 
 To Olive the brave, the enterprising, and sagacious 
 we owe the first foundation of British power in the 
 East, and without going into a history, which must be 
 read in all its entirety to enable the reader to come to 
 just conclusions, we may fairly assume that if every 
 part of his conduct was not regulated by the most up- 
 
10 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 right principles, and if some part of bis successes was 
 more owing* to good fortune than wisdom (for he was 
 strangely eccentric in some respects), it cannot be 
 doubted or denied that he was, from first to last, 
 animated by a noble and unexampled patriotism. 
 
 It were impossible, within the limits of this work, 
 to trace the gradual growth of the British empire in 
 India, the result of the combined action of commerce 
 and war, or the rise and progress of the Mahratta 
 States, and the destruction of the confederacy formed 
 by them against the English. The reader who would 
 know how, from simple traders, we have become the 
 mighty masters of the most extensive empire that ever 
 has existed since the downfall of Roman supremacy, 
 must consult the pages of Mill, Orme, Elphinstone, 
 Wilson, and Macfarlane, and the thousand and one lesser 
 volumes which enter into the details of war and the 
 progress of civilization. He would there learn how, in 
 their struggles to maintain supremacy, the native 
 sovereigns and chieftains leagued against us have suc- 
 cumbed to the valour and discipline of small united 
 bodies of troops, headed in battle by daring and saga- 
 cious officers ; how the infraction of treaties has led to the 
 chastisement of Nabobs and Rajahs, and the confisca- 
 tion of their territory ; how the insolence and violence of 
 the Burmese caused expeditions to be sent to the king- 
 dom of Ava, ending in victory and the appropriation of 
 the land upon the coasts, and the once independent king- 
 dom of Pegu ; how the atrocious irruption of the Sikhs 
 into the British dominions was followed by sanguinary 
 campaigns, which terminated in the annexation of the 
 whole of the Punjaub to the Anglo-Indian possessions ; 
 how Scinde, by her treachery, became a British pro- 
 vince ; and how, after the sword had done its work, 
 the arts of peace and the influence of the Gospel were 
 employed to give the newly conquered people assur- 
 ance of protection, and promote human enlightenment. 
 
INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 11 
 
 Opinions vary as to the strict integrity of all the trans- 
 actions which have made the East India Company 
 masters of India. According- to some writers, wanton 
 aggression, on the part of the English, has been the 
 herald of spoliation ; others, perhaps better informed, 
 show that the onus of provocation to war, and the ulti- 
 mate appropriation of territory, generally lay with the 
 native princes. Perhaps in this, as in other cases, 
 truth lies 1 between the two extremes. One thing', at 
 least, is certain whether we have come by our em- 
 pire righteously or unrighteously whether we have 
 been forced into possessions we did not covet, or have 
 sought quarrels that we might gain by their issue 
 the natives at large have essentially benefited by the 
 change of masters. We do not, indeed, erect temples 
 to idolatry, nor vast choultries and caravanserais, nor 
 huge tombs, nor lofty fortresses ; but we have done 
 our best, amidst enormous difficulties and obstructions, 
 to give the people the benefits of education and of a 
 wholesome administration of justice; we have con- 
 structed roads and canals, built bridges, introduced steam 
 navigation, and improved agriculture; we have been 
 tolerant of their prejudices and their various forms of 
 worship ; we have encouraged the supercession of 
 empirics by educated practitioners in the healing art ; 
 we have respected private property alike in our public 
 and every-day transactions ; and we have shown them 
 the way to wealth and preferment by the steady paths 
 which have led Englishmen in all countries to eminence 
 and respect. In proof of the effects of our rule, and 
 the ready way in which the people, however at one 
 time hostile to us and the Christian religion, adapt 
 themselves to our government, the following' extract 
 from one of the principal newspapers published in 
 India, describing' the condition of our latest conquest, 
 the Punjaub, may be safely offered : 
 
 " Looking at the state of the country politically we 
 
12 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 
 
 think there is a remarkable opening for the ministers 
 of the Gospel. As perfect peace and good order reign 
 in the whole extent of the Punjaub as in any part of 
 England. We see nothing to deter any prudent, 
 faithful man, from travelling about in all parts, or 
 settling in any one place, and preaching the gospel of 
 salvation fully; and, in doing so, holding up to just 
 condemnation all the false systems by which the people 
 are held bound 9f Satan. Much more, we think there 
 is not only a wholesome fear, but a just respect, for the 
 Englishman. The Government of the country has 
 done much to establish this state of things. The go- 
 verning board are well known for their high principles, 
 and their spirit and example pervade all the officers of 
 Government, who seem to have been selected for 
 energy, talent, habits of business, and upright charac- 
 ter. The rapidity of the improvements in the country 
 is really wonderful. A few years have done the work 
 of an age in the Punjaub ; and the people, feeling per- 
 fect security for life and property, and a strong reliance 
 upon the administration of justice, are freed from all 
 petty oppression, and, in the full exercise of industrious 
 pursuits, are not only contented but happy, and, more- 
 over, the general state of European society is good. 
 ' It does one good' (we refer to a private letter) ' to 
 see so many men of talent and rank all intent on their 
 work, and all alive and progressing* onward, and spar- 
 ing no labour of either body or mind to perform their 
 end. Everything here is on the alert. Men are on 
 their Arab horses, and off, at a moment's notice, any- 
 where, and at a rate that would terrify some in Eng- 
 land. Others go out and spend six months at a thne 
 in tents, and think nothing of either the hot sun by 
 day or the cold frosts by night, as they travel along 
 administering justice from town to town. They have 
 sometimes to leave a station at a week's notice, and, 
 selling off all, go to a distant part of the country. 
 
INDIA, AND HER HISTORY. 13 
 
 And, if men gladly do all these things as soldiers or 
 rulers, surely we ought not to be behind in a better 
 cause. They seem here to have their eyes open to 
 everything* that is g'oing on in the whole country, 
 making roads and canals, erecting bridges, settling 
 the revenue, building cantonments, planting trees, and 
 looking into the minutiae of everything. But we want 
 more men, for the members of the Government are 
 doing all they possibly can to encourage us, and pro- 
 bably there are few countries where such an opening 
 presents itself.' " 
 
14 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 Early Government Establishment of the Board of Control 
 The East India Direction The Governmental Divisions of 
 India The Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Presidencies The 
 Native States The Civil administration The Army of India 
 The Indian Navy Furlong fa, Half -pay, Retirements, <&c. 
 
 FOR a long time after they had obtained territorial 
 possessions in India, the East India Company ruled 
 without acknowledging- any responsibility to the 
 Crown of England. Uncontrolled power, however, 
 begat oppression, and the moral sense of England was 
 outraged between 1770 and 1780 by the receipt of 
 continual representations, that the grossest cruelty and 
 injustice were perpetrated by Englishmen. The enor- 
 mities charged against the local governors were, of 
 course, exaggerated, and it was difficult to arrive at 
 the truth when distance interposed an impenetrable 
 veil between the actors in the alleged atrocities and 
 their judges ; but the immense wealth which some 
 Englishmen who had returned from India displayed, and 
 the arrogant style of life they adopted, had sufficiently 
 excited the jealousy of the aristocracy of this country 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 to induce it to give ready credence to every 
 was advanced to the disparagement of Indian 
 as they were called. Constitutional priviL 5 c, .uuw- 
 ever, exacted that even the misdeeds imputed to the 
 English lords of the East, should not he summarily 
 dealt with. Official and public inquiry are the neces- 
 sary preludes to chastisement. Accordingly, at the 
 close of the American war, two committees of the 
 Houses of Parliament sat on Eastern Affairs. "In 
 one Edmund Burke took the lead. The other was 
 under the presidency of the able and versatile Henry 
 Dundas, then Lord- Advocate of Scotland. There was 
 as yet no connection between the Company and either 
 of the great parties in the state. The Ministers had 
 no motive to defend Indian abuses. On the contrary, 
 it was for their interest to show, if possible, that the 
 government and patronage of our Oriental Empire 
 might, with advantage, be transferred to themselves. 
 The votes, therefore, which, in consequence of the 
 reports made by the two committees, were passed by 
 the Commons, breathed the spirit of stem and indig- 
 nant justice."* 
 
 From this time (1784) the government of India was 
 placed under a Board of Control, composed of the 
 King's Ministers, who, in that capacity, bore the title 
 of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, and from 
 that time to the present the system of control has con- 
 tinued. The Home Government thus consists of an 
 East Indian Direction, whose locale is Leadenhall- 
 street, and the President of the Board of Control, 
 whose place of business is Cannon Row. The Di- 
 rectors enjoy nearly the whole of the patronage of 
 India, but the higher offices and commands are made 
 in communication with the Ministry, who likewise 
 originate all questions of peace and war, and who 
 
 * Macaulay's " "Warren Hastings." 
 
1l6 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 possess the power of reversing- the acts of the East 
 India Company and the Governments in India, and 
 also of sending' out instructions on special matters to 
 the Governor-General without consulting 1 the Directors. 
 
 East India Directors are elected by the proprietors 
 of a certain amount of India stock, who seldom trouble 
 themselves about the fitness of the candidates for their 
 favours. Thus, the London interest often prevails 
 over the claims founded on service in India, and we 
 continually witness struggles for a seat in the Direc- 
 tion, terminating* in favour of an opulent merchant or 
 banker, a prosperous lawyer, or " eminent brewer." 
 The emoluments of the office of Director are by no 
 means great ; the influence which the patronage gives 
 is therefore justly supposed to be the grand motive for 
 the competition. Once elected, a Director retains his 
 power for life, going out of office, however, every four 
 years, to be restored in rotation. The duties which 
 pertain to the office are slight, excepting in the case of 
 the chairman and deputy-chairman, and the select 
 committee, who do all the work. The " chairs" com- 
 municate with the President of the Board of Con- 
 trol. There are several secretaries and under-secreta- 
 ries at the East India House, and as these offices are 
 only conferred upon functionaries who have long held 
 appointments there, it is to be presumed that they are 
 required to be well acquainted with usage and prece- 
 dent and all the forms of office. 
 
 For the purpose of facilitating the government of 
 so vast an empire, India has been divided into three 
 presidencies, or distinct local governments, each under 
 a Governor and a Council. The Governor is the pre- 
 sident of the Council, whence the title of the guber- 
 natorial division ; but one of these governors is also 
 Governor-General of India, and to his supreme au- 
 thority the others owe obedience in respect to all 
 matters of general concern. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 17 
 
 The three Presidencies are respectively called the 
 Bombay, Madras, and Bengal. 
 
 The Bombay Presidency comprehends the whole of 
 the territority to the westward from Scinde to the 
 vicinity of Goa, north and south, and all that part of 
 the country from the Malabar coast to the interior, 
 which is known as the Deccan, the Concan, Guzerat, 
 and the southern Mahratta country. 
 
 The Madras Presidency embraces the Coromandel 
 coast, the country south of the Deccan, to the extreme 
 point of the Indian peninsula, and the territory west 
 of the Coromandel coast, to the boundary of the 
 Bombay presidency. 
 
 The Bengal Presidency comprehends the whole of 
 the stations from the entrance of "the river Hooghly, 
 north of the Bay of Bengal, to the river Indus. The 
 Himalayan chain, the kingdom of Nepal, are upon its 
 northern and north-eastern limits. West and south it 
 extends to the boundaries of the Bombay and Madras 
 governments. For purposes of easier local administra- 
 tion, the provinces to the north-west are under the 
 management of a Lieutenant-Governor ; and in like 
 manner the affairs of the Punjaub, or country of the 
 five rivers, are under the direction of a separate board 
 of officers. 
 
 But although the whole of India is thus amenable 
 to British sway, it must not be supposed that the 
 revenues of the country are monopolized by us. There 
 are large tracts entirely under the government of 
 native princes, who merely pay kist, or tribute, to the 
 English, and others to which, for a slight considera- 
 tion, we extend the mantle of protection. To make 
 each division and the actual extent of our authority 
 more clear and obvious, it will be advisable to show in 
 detail how the territory is allotted. 
 
 The Bengal Presidency is separated into regulation 
 and non-regulation divisions : in other words, into pro- 
 
 c 
 
18 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 vinces which are governed entirely on our system, and 
 subject to our laws and regulations, and provinces 
 which, as having come under our rule since the 
 revenue system was established, are managed, in some 
 degree, according* to their ancient usage. 
 
 The Bengal regulation districts, or collector ates, as 
 they are called, are seven in number all in the lower 
 or eastern part of India : viz,, Jessore, Bhaugulpore, 
 Cuttack, Moorshedabad, Dacca, Patna, and Chitta- 
 gong. These embrace 113,702 square miles, and a 
 population of 36,848,981. 
 
 The non-regulation provinces are Saugor and Ner- 
 budda, Cis-Sutlej, North-eastern Frontier; Galpara, 
 Tenasserim, South-west Frontier, the Punjaub, and the 
 Sunderbunds, enclosed in an area of 211,950 square 
 miles, and having a population of 11,109,339 per- 
 sons. 
 
 The regulation provinces subject to the jurisdiction 
 of the Lieut. -Governor of the North- western Provinces, 
 whose head -quarters are at the city of Agra, are 
 Delhi, Meerut, Rohilcund, Agra, Allahabad, and Be- 
 nares, covering 71,972 square miles, and containing 
 23,200,000 human beings. The non-regulation pro- 
 vinces are of small extent. They consist of the Bhat- 
 tie territory, Kumaon, Ajmere, &c., comprehended in 
 13,599 square miles, and having 600,000 inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 The Madras Presidency is divided for revenue pur- 
 poses into twenty-one collectorates, eighteen of which 
 are under the regulations of the Madras government ; 
 viz., Eajahmundry, Masulipatam, Guntoor, Nellore, 
 Chingleput, Madras, Arcot (south and north), Bel- 
 lary, , Cuddapah, Salem, Coimbatore, Trichinopoly, 
 Tanjore, Madura, Tinnevelly, Malabar, and Canara. 
 These are regulation districts. The provinces of 
 Ganjam, Vizagapatam, and Kurnaul, are non-regu- 
 lation, under the control of the agents of the Governor. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 19 
 
 All these districts cover 144,889 square miles, and 
 contain a population of 16,339,426. 
 
 The Bombay Presidency is divided into thirteen 
 collectorates, and three non- regulation provinces. 
 The collectorates are Surat, Broach, Ahmedabad, 
 Kaira, Candeish, Tannah, Poonah, Ahmednuggur, 
 Sholapore, Belgauin, Darwar, Rutnagherry, and the 
 island of Bombay. The non-regulation provinces are 
 Colaba, Scinde, and Sattara. The whole of these col- 
 lectorates and provinces are embraced in an area of 
 120,065 square miles, and the population amounts to 
 10,485,000 persons. 
 
 The Native states which are immediately controlled 
 by the East India Company, because they lie within 
 the limits of its political supremacy, without being 
 under its direct rule, are as follows : 
 
 The Nizam 1 s Territory in the Deccan, whereof the 
 capital is Hyderabad. 
 
 The Kingdom of Oiide, the capital of which is Luck- 
 now. 
 
 The Kingdom of Nepaid, the chief town of which is 
 Khatmandoo. 
 
 The Rajahship of Berar capital, Nagpore. 
 
 The Dominions of Scindia, including Bundlecund, 
 the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, Gwalior, and a 
 multitude of small states. 
 
 Indore, the capital of which is Indore. 
 
 The Bhopal States. The states of Rajpootana. 
 Rampore. 
 
 The Hill States Certain small states .contiguous 
 to Delhi. The Cis-Sutlej States Numerous small 
 states on the south-west frontier. Bhanndpore, on 
 the left bank of the Sutlej. Several petty and hill 
 states on the north-eastern frontier. Cochin. The 
 Guicowars dominions, of which Baroda is the seat of 
 Government. The Chieftainship of Kattiwar. The 
 states of Pahlunpore, Cambay, and Ballasinore, near 
 
20 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF IXDIA. 
 
 the collectorate of Kaira. Darampore, Baroda, and 
 Sucheen, contiguous to the British agency of Surat. 
 The Dating* Rajahs, near the Ahniednuggur collecto- 
 rate. Kolapore. Sarvant Warree. Myhee Gaunta. 
 Cutch. Certain Sattarah Jaghiredars ; and the Ja- 
 ghiredars of the Southern Mahratta country. 
 
 All these qiiasi independent states cover an area 
 of 690,360 square miles, and boast a population of 
 52,400,000 persons. They are controlled, advised 
 with or watched over, by British political residents, 
 agents to the Governor-General, commissioners, poli-. 
 tical superintendents, or revenue collectors. 
 
 It has been mentioned above that the Government 
 of India is entrusted to the Governor-General, two 
 Governors, a Lieut.-Governor, and Commissioners. 
 
 The Governor-General is assisted by a Supreme 
 Council, consisting of two civil members, one military 
 member, and one extraordinary member, who is en- 
 trusted with the preparation of acts and laws. The 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Army is likewise a member 
 of the Council ex qfficio. 
 
 The Governors of the mintfr Presidencies, have each 
 the assistance of a Council consisting of two civil and 
 one military member, the latter being the Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Army of the Presidency. 
 
 The whole of the civil administration of the country 
 is in the hands of a few hundred gentlemen who, 
 having received their education at the college of 
 Haileybury, Hertfordshire, obtain their appointments 
 from the East India Directors. Their qualifications 
 for office amount to an acquaintance with one or more 
 of the native languages, a smattering of law and 
 moral philosophy, and the ordinary accomplishments 
 of gentlemen. In their hands are all the judicial, 
 fiscal, and political offices. They commence their 
 career on a salary of 300 rupees (301.) per mensem, 
 and rise by gradation, in the course of fifteen or 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 21 
 
 twenty years, to the receipt of 5,OOOZ. to 10 ; OOOL per 
 annum. The moral responsibility of these functionaries 
 is great, and their labours, in some offices, enormous ; 
 seeing- that, in many cases, a single civilian exercises 
 control over a district 4,000 square miles in extent, 
 and inhabited by a mixed population of 50,000 souls. 
 
 In the several towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bom- 
 bay, and in the settlements on the Malayan Peninsula, 
 are courts of law, presided over by judg*es who have 
 been trained at Westminster Hall, and who administer 
 justice on the principles and after the forms of the 
 Court of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer, 
 and so forth. The practitioners in these courts are 
 men who have gone through the ordinary course of 
 preparation in the inns of court in London, and the 
 suitors enjoy all the advantages attending litigation in 
 England, not excluding its expenses and its glorious un- 
 certainty. The judges in these Supreme and Recorder's 
 Courts receive their appointments from the Board of 
 Commissioners for the Affairs of India, and are quite 
 independent of the Company's Governors. 
 
 The ecclesiastical establishment in India is upon a 
 liberal and a wholesome footing. Each Presidency 
 forms a separate diocese ; the clergy are stipendiary, 
 drawing their salaries from the East India Company. 
 On their first appointment they receive 600Z. a year, as 
 assistant chaplains, and, as vacancies occur, they rise 
 to the rank of senior chaplains, of whom there are 
 two or three classes ; the highest exercising their func- 
 tions at the chief towns, and deriving, in addition to 
 salaries of 1,200Z. to 1,500/. per annum, all the ad- 
 vantages accruing from marriage, baptismal, and burial 
 fees. 
 
 In addition to the clergy of the Establishment, there 
 are ministers of the Presbyterian Church (likewise 
 salaried from the revenues of India), Roman Catholic 
 bishops and priests, and a great number of Church and 
 
~!sJ THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 Baptist ministers, whose chief mission is the propa- 
 gation of gospel truth, and the .conversion of the 
 Hindoos. Many of these worthy men have distin- 
 guished themselves by their learning, their piety, and 
 zeal 5 and if their success in the work of proselytism 
 has not kept pace with their exertions, it should be 
 remembered that in no part of the world do ignorance 
 and superstition do such stout battle for the perpetua- 
 tion of idolatry and the rejection of Christianity. 
 
 It has often been maintained that our rule in India 
 is only upheld by the sword. The allegation is but 
 partially true. Compare the extent of the force with 
 the gross population, and it at once becomes evident 
 that in the moral weight of Great Britain lies the 
 grand secret of her dominance. There are 150 milllions 
 of natives of India, and the military force employed 
 to hold them in subjection, and guard the frontier, 
 does not exceed 250,000 effective soldiers. Of what 
 avail were one soldier to six hundred determined men ? 
 Once lose the influence resulting from the impression 
 entertained however erroneous or exaggerated of 
 our truth and sense of justice, and we lose the country 
 altogether. As the Duke of Wellington well said, 
 when he was governor of Seringapatam, everything 
 should be sacrificed in order to preserve our credit for 
 scrupulous good faith. 
 
 The enduring force of this axiom is demonstrated 
 in the fact of the numerical strength of the Indian 
 Army having never exceeded a quarter of a million, 
 and of that comparatively small body all but 20,000 
 are natives of the country, who have taken service less 
 from the suggestions of a warlike spirit than a con- 
 viction that their devotion would be well rewarded in 
 the amount and regularity of pay to the effective 
 soldier, and the pension to the invalid or wounded 
 sepoy. 
 
 Each Presidency has an army, separately coin- 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 23 
 
 mandecl and separately recruited. The organization 
 of each is, however, the same. There are European 
 troops, forming- a part of the royal army of Great 
 Britain ; European regiments of infantry, recruited 
 expressly for the East India Company ; native regulars, 
 and native irregulars. 
 
 The Bengal Army consists of 
 
 Three brigades of horse artillery, composed of 
 Europeans and natives. 
 
 Six battalions of European foot artillery. 
 
 Three battalions of native ditto. 
 
 An engineer corps. 
 
 Eleven regiments of light cavalry. 
 
 Two regiments of European fusiliers. 
 
 Seventy -four regiments of sepoys. 
 
 Thirty-one irregular regiments, so called because 
 they are officered from the regular army, but have a 
 lesser complement of officers, and are differently paid 
 and costumed ; a corps of Guides ; eighteen local 
 corps, of varied strength, each raised for service in a 
 particular district (chiefly in the hills) ; and contingent 
 irregular corps in certain native states. 
 
 In addition to this army, are twelve regiments of 
 Her Majesty's service, two of which are light 
 dragoons, for which the East India Company pay. 
 
 The Bengal Army is commanded by a general officer 
 of Her Majesty's service, who is, at the same time, 
 Commander-in- Chief in India. He does not interfere 
 in the general control of the armies of the other 
 Presidencies ; but, representing the sovereign, to him 
 alone is confided the review of the courts-martial held 
 on Queen's officers, and the confirmation of the sentence 1 ; 
 and the promotion and appointment of Queen's officers 
 to fill vacancies, pending* the receipt of a decision from 
 the Horse Guards. In the performance of these duties 
 the Commander-in-Chief in India is assisted by a de- 
 puty adjutant and a deputy quarter-master general of 
 
24 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 Queen's troops, several general officers, each of whom 
 commands a division, and a numerous staff. 
 
 The Madras Army likewise commanded by a 
 lieutenant-general of the royal service consists of 
 
 One brigade of horse artillery, composed of four 
 European and two native troops. 
 
 Four battalions of European, and one of native, foot 
 artillery. 
 
 A corps of engineers. 
 
 Eight regiments of light cavalry. 
 
 A regiment of European fusiliers. 
 
 A regiment of European light infantry. 
 
 Fifty- two regiments of native infantry. 
 
 In addition to these are five regiments of European 
 infantry, and one of light dragoons, or hussars, of the 
 royal service. 
 
 Two or three general officers (one of whom belongs 
 to the royal army) command the divisions of the army, 
 and the staff is selected from the officers of the line. 
 
 The Bombay Army is smaller than either of the 
 others, because the territory subject to the Bombay 
 government is of much lesser extent. It is composed 
 of , 
 
 One brigade of horse artillery. 
 
 Two battalions of European foot artillery. 
 
 Two battalions of native ditto. 
 
 A corps of engineers. 
 
 Three regiments of light cavalry. 
 
 One regiment of European fusiliers. 
 
 One regiment of European light infantry. 
 
 Twenty-nine regiments of native infantry, and four- 
 teen or fifteen irregular regiments of varied strength 
 and composition. 
 
 Three regiments of British infantry^ and one of 
 hussars, are lent by the Queen, and paid for by the 
 Company. 
 
 The annual expense of these combined armies aver- 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 25 
 
 ages ten millions sterling', arising- from the necessarily 
 liberal character of the pay and allowances. An 
 ensign the lowest commissioned grade receives 
 from ISL to 201. per mensem ; a general officer on 
 the staff draws 4,OOOZ. per annum ; and the salaries 
 of the Commanders-in-Chief range, from 8,000?. to 
 14,OOOZ. per annum. 
 
 All the staff offices, and many appointments which 
 elsewhere are filled by civilians, are in India held by 
 military men, and the salaries are upon a very generous 
 scale. Amongst those appointments which in the 
 British army are held by civilians, but which in India 
 are open to the ambition of officers, may be mentioned 
 the offices connected with the administration of military 
 law, called judge-advocates and deputy judge-advo- 
 cates ; the army and the ordnance commissariat ; the 
 survey orships ; the superintendence of the police of the 
 interior j the audit department; political residencies and 
 assistantships ; educational offices, &c. &c. . 
 
 The medical department of the India armies consists 
 of surgeons and assistant-surgeons. There are one 
 or more of these officers attached to each regiment, 
 assisted by natives, who have been duly educated in 
 the healing art ; and the remainder are scattered over 
 the country in special charge of hospitals, gaols, col- 
 leges, and the civil community of a station, or dis- 
 trict. The medical department is controlled by medical 
 hoards and superintending surgeons, who are the oldest 
 and most experienced persons in the service. These 
 latter appointments are well remunerated, and fall to 
 the surgeons in virtue of seniority and superior skill. 
 Medical officers are permitted to practise their pro- 
 fession among persons who are not in the Company's 
 service, and this a very large source of profit makes 
 an appointment to one of the chief towns of the Presi- 
 dencies an object of great ambition. 
 
 The appointments to the India service, both civil 
 
26 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 and military, are vested in the members of the Court 
 of East India Directors. Each director has a certain 
 number of writerships (as nominations to the civil de- 
 partment are called), and cadetships, or military com- 
 missions. All writers proceed at once to the college 
 at Haileybury, and must remain there four terms, 
 drinking in such knowledge as is supposed to fit them 
 for the offices they are destined to fill. No writer must 
 be under seventeen years of age when he enters the 
 college, nor more than twenty-three when he quits its 
 walls to proceed to India. Cadets, if intended for the 
 artillery or engineers, are required to proceed to Addis- 
 combe College. Their stay here is limited to four 
 terms, but they may pass through the seminary as 
 rapidly as their attainments and qualifications will 
 enable them to pass, after a year's residence, provided 
 that they are of the age of sixteen before the day of 
 their final examination. If they do not, after the four 
 terms, get through the examination required for the 
 artillery and engineers, they are appointed to the 
 cavalry and infantry. Direct, or infantry and cavalry, 
 cadetships do not involve the necessity for a residence 
 at the college. It is only requisite that the young- 
 men should be examined in history, geography, forti- 
 fication, Latin, French (or Hindostanee), mathematics, 
 and writing from dictation. If they have received the 
 education of gentlemen they are considered fit for 
 cadets. 
 
 Assistant-surgeoncies are in like manner in the gift 
 of individual Directors. The candidate must pass an 
 examination in surgery by the Royal College of Sur- 
 geons, unless he possesses a diploma from the Eoyal 
 College of Surgeons, or the colleges of Dublin, Edin- 
 burgh, or Glasgow. He must also pass an examination 
 by the East India Company's examining physician in 
 the practice of physic. 
 
 The seas of India enjoy protection from a fleet of 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 27 
 
 British men-of-war, and of steamers and small frigates 
 and sloops belonging to the East India Company. The 
 latter are officered by persons appointed midshipmen, 
 in the first instance, by the Directors. They must not 
 be under fifteen nor above eighteen years of age, when 
 first sent out, unless they shall have served on board 
 a steam-vessel, or under an engineer in a factory or 
 foundry. In India they serve either on board the 
 steam-packets which ply between Bombay and Aden, 
 or in the schooners and small frigates employed in the 
 Persian Gulf, China, and the Straits of Malacca ; and 
 in the surveys of the seas and coasts in the East. Mid- 
 shipmen rise to the rank of lieutenants, commanders, 
 and captains. There is no higher rank in the service 
 than captain. The Indian navy is commanded, or 
 superintended, by a captain of the British navy. 
 
 Liberal as is the scale of remuneration to all classes 
 of persons serving the East India Company, it is in 
 the arrangements made for securing a provision to 
 those who may have devoted their years and energies 
 to that Company that the advantage of belonging to 
 the service is most apparent. It is true that the 
 obligation of contributing to his own future support 
 and that of his brethren, their widows, orphans, and 
 families, is compulsory upon the officer ; but it is quite 
 certain that without the countenance and generous 
 support of the East India Company, none of the pro- 
 visions made for the "rainy day" could hold. 
 
 To improve the health and repair the constitutions 
 of those who may suffer from a prolonged residence in 
 the East, furloughs are allowed to all ranks of the 
 service; and during such absence from their duties, a 
 certain amount of pay is granted, and the various Civil, 
 Military, and Medical Funds contribute sums propor- 
 tionate to the rank and services of the individual. 
 Thus, a civilian on furlough to Europe draws 500/. 
 a year military officers receive the net pay of their 
 
28 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 rank, and their respective Funds grant them additions, 
 varying* from 50Z. to 150Z. per annum, if they stand in 
 need of such assistance. Hitherto, military men have 
 only been allowed one furlough of three years' duration 
 in the course of their service, and this rule was framed 
 many years ago, when voyages were of six months' dura- 
 tion, and the opportunities of going to and fro very rare. 
 But efforts are now making to procure an alteration, 
 dictated by the modern facilities of effecting a visit to 
 England, and the advantage of enabling gentlemen to 
 pay more than one visit to Europe in the course of 
 thirty years, and there can be little doubt that these 
 efforts will be attended with success. 
 
 Upon their ultimate retirement from the Company's 
 service, civilians, if they have regularly subscribed to 
 tL."ir Funds, receive annuities of 500Z. or 1,000/. per 
 annum, according to their length of service. The 
 regulations for the retirement of the military and other 
 officers are as follow : 
 
 Officers who have served less than three years in 
 India, and have lost their health there, are entitled to 
 an allowance from Lord Olive's Fund, if the Oourt of 
 Directors shall adjudge them to be proper objects of 
 that bounty, to the extent of If a second lieutenant, 
 cornet, or ensig'n, 2s. a day, or 36L 10s. a year; if a lieu- 
 tenant, 2s. 6d. a day, or 45 /. 12s. 6d. a year; provided 
 they are not possessed of, or entitled to, real or per- 
 sonal property to the extent of, if an ensign, 750Z., 
 if a lieutenant, 1 5 OOOZ. 
 
 " Officers who are compelled to quit the service by 
 wounds received in action, or by ill-health contracted 
 on duty after three years' service in India, are per- 
 mitted to retire on the half-pay of their rank ; viz. 
 If a second lieutenant, cornet, or ensign, 3s. a day, 
 or 54/. per annum ; if a lieutenant, 4s. a day, or 731. 
 per annum. 
 
 "A subaltern officer, or assistant-surgeon, having* 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 29 
 
 served six years in India, is permitted to retire on the 
 half-pay of ensig*n, if his constitution should be so 
 impaired as to prevent the possibility of his continu- 
 ing' in India. 
 
 " A. lieutenant having' served thirteen, or a second- 
 lieutenant, cornet, or ensign, nine years in India (in- 
 cluding- three years for a furlough), may retire on the 
 half-pay of his rank, in case his health shall not 
 permit him to serve in India. 
 
 " Regimental captains, majors, and lieutenant-colo- 
 nels, who have not served sufficiently long in India 
 to entitle them to retire on full pay, and whose ill- 
 health renders it impossible for them to continue to 
 serve in India, are allowed to retire from the service 
 on the half-pay of their ranks, viz : 
 
 "Captains, 7s. a day, or 1271. 15.?. per annum; 
 major, 9s. 6d. a day, or 173/. 7s. 6d. per annum 
 lieutenant-colonel, 11s. a day, or 200/. 15s. per annum. 
 
 "All officers who have actually served twenty-two 
 years in India, or twenty-five years, including three 
 years for a furlough, are allowed to retire on the full 
 pay of their respective ranks. 
 
 " Officers are also allowed to retire on the following 
 pensions, without reference to the rank they may 
 have attained, if they have served to the undermen- 
 tioned periods, viz. : 
 
 " After twenty-three years' service in India, includ- 
 ing three years for a furlough, on the full pay of 
 captain, viz., 191 L 12s. 6d. per annum ; after twenty- 
 seven years' service, including three years for a fur- 
 lough, on the full pay of major, 292Z. per annum ; 
 after thirty-one years' service in India, including 
 three years for a furlough, on the full pay of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, 365Z. per annum ; after thirty-five 
 years' service in India, including three years for a 
 furlough, on the full pay of colonel, 456Z. 5$. per 
 
30 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
 " Members of the Medical Board, who have been 
 in that station not less than two years, and not less 
 than twenty years in India, including- three years for 
 one furlough, are permitted to retire from the service, 
 and allowed 500Z. per annum, or in the event of ill- 
 health, they may retire on tlmtfpension, after any 
 period of service as members of the Medical Board. 
 If they have served jive years, or are obliged, after 
 three years' service in that station, to retire from ill- 
 health, they are allowed 700/. per annum. 
 
 " Superintending-surgeons, who have been in that 
 station not less than two years, and whose period of 
 service has been not less than twenty years, including 
 three years for one furlough, are permitted to retire 
 from the service and allowed 300/. per annum ; or in 
 event of ill-health, they may retire on that pension 
 after any period of service as superintending-surgeon. 
 If they have^ served five years, or are obliged, after 
 three years' service in that station, to retire from ill- 
 health, they are allowed 365 /. per annum. Surgeons 
 after twenty years' service, three years' furlough in- 
 cluded 191 a-y ear 
 
 24 years' service, 3 years' furlough 250 
 28 3 300 
 
 32 3 365 
 
 35 3 500 
 
 38 3 700 
 
 " The present regulations by which superintending- 
 surgeons are entitled as such to retiring pensions of 
 300Z. a*nd 3601. a year, and members of the Medical 
 Board to pensions of 5001. and 700?. a year, accord- 
 ing to period of service in those ranks respectively, 
 will cease to be the rule of the service for medical 
 officers after the date of the introduction of the new 
 arrangement ; but individuals then in the service, and 
 who may be appointed to the offices of superintending- 
 surgeon and member of the Board within ten years 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 31 
 
 from that date, will be allowed the option of retiring 
 upon pensions upon the old scale of length of service 
 in those ranks instead of the new scale of length of 
 service in India. 
 
 " When officers on furlough retire upon the pay or 
 half-pay of their rank, they are only entitled to claim 
 the benefits of the rank held by them at the expiration 
 of one year from the date of their landing in the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 " A veterinary surgeon is allowed to retire after six 
 years' service in India, provided his health shall not 
 permit him to serve in India, on 4s. 6d. a day ; after 
 ten years' service in. India, provided his health shall 
 not permit him to serve in India, 5s. 6d. a day. 
 
 After 20 years' service, 3 years' furlough 
 
 included 7s. a day. 
 
 After 25 years' service, 3 years' furlough 
 
 included 8s. 
 
 After 30 years' service, 3 years' furlough 
 
 included , 12s. 
 
 "A commissary, or deputy-commissary of Ordnance, 
 not being* a commissioned officer, is allowed to retire 
 on full pay, if he has served twenty-seven years in 
 India, of which twelve must have been in the Ord- 
 nance department; twenty-five years, fourteen of which 
 in that department; or twenty-two years, seventeen 
 years of which in the Ordnance department. 
 
 " A conductor of stores is allowed to retire on 60Z. 
 per annum, after twenty-five years' actual service in 
 in India. 
 
 te Officers retiring from service are considered to 
 have retired from the date of their application for 
 leave to retire ; or from the expiration of two years 
 and a half from their quitting India, whichever may 
 happen first." 
 
32 THE ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EOUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 Sea voyage The expense The necessary equipment Sailing 
 ships Screw steamers The overland route The steamers of 
 the Peninsular and Oriental Company The cost and the 
 equipment. 
 
 VERY little change has taken place during- the past 
 thirty years in the voyage to India hy sailing vessels. 
 The same scale of entertainment, the same cahin 
 dimensions, the same degree of speed, which distin- 
 guished the magnificent vessels of the East India 
 Company, when that Company enjoyed a monopoly of 
 the tea trade, now characterize the fleet belonging to 
 the great houses of Smith, Green, and Wigram. The 
 free traders, which, in the days when the leviathans 
 of the Company majestically ploughed the seas, mo- 
 destly confined themselves to 700 tons, have now- 
 swollen to the dimensions of the famous old East 
 Indiamen, and the passenger by the Marlborougli, 
 the Hardwiclte, &c., may fancy himself on board the 
 Marquis of Camden, the Charles Grant, or the Low- 
 iher Castle, with the advantage of not finding in his 
 cabin one of the formidable 32-pounders with which 
 Captain Dance fought the French squadron. 
 
ROUTES TO INDIA. 33 
 
 The charge for a cabin in one of the crack sailing- 
 vessels is as follows. The average is given a dif- 
 ference being* occasionally made to suit particular 
 circumstances : 
 
 For the largest stern-cabins, for a family of three, 
 8501. 
 
 For the largest stern-cabins, for one person, 160/. 
 
 For the smaller cabins, for one person, 70?. to 100/. 
 
 The outfit necessary for a voyage is by no means 
 so great as is alleged by those who make a livelihood 
 (if not fortunes), by the excessive supply ; but it will be 
 difficult for any one who desires ordinary comfort and 
 cleanliness to manage with a smaller wardrobe than 
 the following*. Allowing for the actual possession of 
 a fair quantity of linen, cloth coats, waistcoats, and 
 trousers, it will still be necessary that a gentleman 
 should have 
 
 Four dozen cotton shirts. 
 
 A dozen and a half India gauze flannel waistcoats. 
 
 Two or three dozen thin cotton socks or stockings. 
 
 Two dozen pairs of calico drawers. 
 
 Three dozen pocket-handkerchiefs 5 half-a-dozen 
 neck ditto. 
 
 A couple of cotton dressing-gowns, and loose cotton 
 trousers to correspond. 
 
 Two or three tunics of brown holland or gray 
 alpaca. 
 
 Two or three blue or black silk, jean, or crape 
 jackets. 
 
 Three or four dozen pairs of cotton or linen trousers. 
 
 Two dozen white cotton jackets. 
 
 Two or three alpaca, and a dozen white waistcoats. 
 
 In addition to these, the passenger will need a 
 clothes-bag, a couch or cot, eight pairs of sheets, 
 eight pillow-cases, two blankets and two quilts, two 
 dozen towels; a washhand-stand, <&c., a chest of 
 drawers, a looking-glass, chair (to fold up), a cabin- 
 
 D 
 
34 ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 lamp, tin can, soap, candles; writing-case, dressing'- 
 case, &c. ; one or two large sponges will also be of 
 g'reat use. 
 
 Ladies proceeding* to India by sea will require, be- 
 sides the last-named articles for cabin use, the sub- 
 joined equipment : 
 
 A black silk dress. 
 
 Pour coloured, and four white muslin dresses. 
 
 Forty-eight calico or cambric chemises. 
 
 Twenty-four calico night-gowns. 
 
 Twenty-four nig*ht-caps. 
 
 Twelve cambric slips. 
 
 Thirty-six petticoats. 
 
 Four flannel petticoats. 
 
 Eighteen India g*auze waistcoats. 
 
 Thirty-six pairs of cambric trousers. 
 
 Eight dressing-gowns. 
 
 Six dozen cambric pocket-handkerchiefs. 
 
 Four dozen towels. 
 
 Thirty-six white cotton or thread stockings. 
 
 Twelve kid gloves. 
 
 As there is seldom a library on board ship, a few 
 books will be valuable accompaniments, and it will not 
 be amiss if the following form part of the stock of a 
 person intended for a residence in India : " The Ori- 
 ental Interpreter and Treasury of Indian Knowledge," 
 published by Cox and Co., King William-street, 
 Strand ; Miss Emma Roberts' " Sketches of Hindos- 
 tan-" MacFarlane's "History of British India ;" and 
 Forbes' " Hindustanee Grammar and Dictionary," sup- 
 posing the passenger is inclined to study the Hindos- 
 tanee language. 
 
 The first attempts made thirty years ago to estab- 
 lish a communication between England and India 
 round the Cape of Good Hope, were failures, in 
 respect to an abridgment of the time consumed in a 
 voyage. The long intervals between the coaling 
 
ROUTES TO INDIA. 35 
 
 stations, and tlie period consumed in an irregular 
 course in order to reach them, neutralized all the 
 advantages gained by accelerated movement when 
 under steam. Mr. Waghorn, who followed Capt. J. 
 H. Johnston in advocating the Cape route, abandoned 
 it in 1830 ; in favour of the Red Sea line. But 
 within the last three or four years the great difficulty 
 has been surmounted through the energy and enterprise 
 of the General Screw Steam Shipping Company, and 
 coaling depots have been established upon the high- 
 way, which render the voyage easy and rapid. 
 
 On the 13th of each month, one of the large screw 
 steamers (six of which are of 1,800 tons burthen each), 
 leaves Southampton for Calcutta. Calling' for mails 
 at Plymouth on the 15th, the vessel proceeds to St. 
 Vincent (Cape de Verds), thence to Ascension, the Cape 
 of Good Hope, Mauritius, and so up to Point de Galle, 
 Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, which place is generally 
 reached in sixty days from the date of departure from 
 Southampton. The accommodation on board these 
 vessels is divided into three classes : First-class cabins 
 for ladies and families ; secondly, family cabins in the 
 fore part of the ship ; and, thirdly, general cabins. 
 Writers, cadets, and "other young gentlemen" pro- 
 ceeding to Calcutta for the first time, pay SQL each 
 in a general cabin ; to Madras they pay 75?.; and to 
 Ceylon, 70/. Other persons pay as follows : 
 
 To To To 
 
 Ceylon. Madras. Calcutta. 
 
 One person ^ ,81 82 10 90 
 
 Do. occupying a double cabin . 101 102 115 
 
 Two persons, occupying a treble cabin 192 205 220 
 
 By " one person" is meant an individual who merely 
 occupies a berth in a cabin which contains two or 
 three other berths. The other charg'os arise out of the 
 entire appropriation of a cabin by one or two persons. 
 
36 ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 There are cabins, with certain private accommodations 
 attached to them, which bear a still hig'her price. 
 
 The sums paid, as above, comprehend the advant- 
 ages of an excellent table, exclusive of wines, beer, and 
 spirituous liquors, which are charged for separately 
 a good and equitable arrangement, for very many per- 
 sons do not consume either one or the other, or at 
 least in a very moderate quantity, and it is hardly 
 reasonable to expect them to pay for what they do not 
 consume. 
 
 The charges for children above two years of age (all 
 below that age without a berth, and with their pa- 
 rents, are free) are :- 
 
 To To To 
 
 With the Parents : Ceylon. Madras. Calcutta. 
 
 5 years and under JO . . . 40 2 45 
 
 2 years and under 5 ... 27 28 10 36 
 
 ServantsEuropean .... 30 32 36 
 
 Native 23 25 28 
 
 Each adult passenger pays a fee of 2Z. to the steward 
 of the vessel, and for each child, a fee of II. is payable. 
 
 Passengers are expected to embark at Southamp- 
 ton, shipping their baggage two clear days before the 
 time appointed for the departure of the ship. Each 
 grown person is allowed thirty cubic feet of baggage ; 
 children and servants half that quantity. After the 
 shipment of the baggage, nothing is allowed to be 
 taken on board but a portmanteau, carpet-bag*, and 
 hat-box. No trunks, boxes, or portmanteaus, are 
 allowed in the cabins. 
 
 The office of the General Screw Steam Shipping 
 Company is at No. 2, Royal Exchange-buildings, City. 
 On application to the secretary the fullest particulars 
 are obtainable. 
 
 The equipment required by a gentleman or lady 
 proceeding by this route will be a medium between 
 what has been suggested for a sea voyage and what 
 
ROUTES TO INDIA. 37 
 
 is indispensably necessary for a trip overland. The 
 time consumed is ten or twelve days more than the 
 latter, and twenty to thirty days less than the former. 
 
 There are several ways of reaching* India by land 
 and sea combined ; but for the accomplishment of that 
 route which is popularly known as " the overland," 
 remarkable facilities have existed during the past 
 twelve years. 
 
 Persons who desire to visit the continent, or wish 
 to have as little of the sea voyage as possible, will pro- 
 ceed through France to Marseilles, or through Ger- 
 many to Trieste on the Adriatic. At either of these 
 ports they find vessels which convey them to Alex- 
 andria. 
 
 For the conveyance of passengers and packets by 
 the first-named route, the Peninsular and Oriental 
 Company built and equipped a fleet of superb steamers, 
 and it is by one of these a person anxious to make the 
 best of his way to India, will undoubtedly proceed. 
 
 The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers 
 leave Southampton on the 4th and 20th of every 
 month, at one o'clock P.M., excepting when the ap- 
 pointed day of departure falls upon a Sunday, when 
 the sailing of the vessel is postponed to one o'clock 
 P.M. on the following day. In five days the steamer 
 reaches Gibraltar, the rock famous in modern history 
 as the scene of a gallant exploit in the reign of Queen 
 Anne (when the place fell into our possession), and a 
 noble defence in the reign of George the Third, when 
 for between three and four years the wise and brave 
 Sir Gilbert Elliott, afterwards Lord Hetithfield, held 
 out against the combined fleets and arms of Spain and 
 France. Twelve hours' delay, while the steamer takes 
 in coal, affords an opportunity to the passeng'er of 
 landing, and taking a survey of the town a curious 
 melange of architecture and horticulture and the 
 vessel then proceeds on her course, reaching Malta in 
 
38 ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 five days more. Here a delay of twenty-four hours 
 presents an occasion for a ramble through the prin- 
 cipal streets, a visit to the churches and albergas, and 
 a short drive beyond the walls of the town. Four 
 days after quitting Malta, the steamer arrives at 
 Alexandria. Here the passengers are landed with 
 their baggage, and embarking in small steamers, at 
 once proceed up the Mahmoodie Canal that cele- 
 brated monument of the Pacha Mahomed Ali's en- 
 terprise and cruelty to Atfeh, where they are 
 transhipped to other vessels, which bear them up 
 the Nile to Cairo. Here a night's rest is obtained, 
 while the baggage is carried across the desert to Suez, 
 which place the passengers reach by carriages, by the 
 evening of the following day. The entire journey 
 from Alexandria to Suez thus divided, occupies about 
 sixty hours, allowing, besides the night's rest, ample 
 time for refreshment and repose at the central station 
 or hotel between Cairo and Suez. 
 
 In six days from the time of reaching Suez, where 
 the traveller embarks on a steamer corresponding in 
 all respects with the splendid vessel he has quitted at 
 Alexandria, he arrives at Aden, a military and coaling 
 depot at the south-easterly extremity of the Straits 
 of Bahelmandeb. Twenty-four hours suffice for the 
 reception of coal, and then the Indian Ocean is 
 crossed. On the thirty-fourth clay from the date of 
 departure from Southampton, the island of Ceylon 
 is reached. In five days more the steamer gets to 
 Madras, and three days later she casts anchor in the 
 river Hooghly, opposite the splendid city of Calcutta. 
 The whole voyage is thus accomplished in about sixty 
 days. 
 
 Supposing a person determines to take the ee over- 
 land route " to India, he books himself for a passage 
 at the office of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, 
 No. 122 ; Leadenhall-street, City. The rates of pas- 
 
ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 39 
 
 sage-money are as follow; and ; unlike those of the 
 General Screw Steam Shipping* Company, include 
 table, wines, stewards' fees, &c., for first-class passen- 
 gers. The expense of transit through Egypt is also 
 comprehended in the scale, with the exception of hotel 
 expenses, and of extra baggage, wines, beer, spirits, 
 and soda water, all of which the Egyptian transit 
 administration charge for separately. 
 
 Gentlemen, travelling singly, 
 occupying a berth in a 
 Cabin, with two or three 
 others on the Lower 
 Deck; and 
 
 Ladies, travelling singly, 
 occupying a berth in a 
 Cabin, with two or three 
 others on the Upper Deck J 
 
 Married Couples, occupying 
 a reserved Cabin on the 
 Main Deck .... 
 
 Chttdren.vfit'h their Parents, 
 3 years and under 10 . 
 
 A Child under 3 years of 
 age, free. 
 
 Servants European . . 
 Native . . . 
 
 Calcutta, 
 
 or 
 Ceylon. Madras. Penang. Singapore. 
 
 100 105 110 
 
 -iO 
 
 
 >>n 
 
 -250 
 
 
 46 
 
 28 
 
 50 
 30 
 
 '290 
 
 
 52 
 31 
 
 At Aden the passengers intending to proceed to 
 Bombay are transferred to a steamer belonging' to the 
 East India Company, and conveyed to Bombay for 
 301. a head. The passage from Southampton to 
 Aden in the Peninsular and Oriental Company's 
 steamer costs 701. 
 
 In the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental 
 Company, first-class passengers are allowed three 
 hundredweight of personal baggage free of freight. 
 Children and servants are allowed li cwt. each. 
 
40 ROUTES TO INDIA. 
 
 But a person taking a whole cabin is permitted to 
 have one-half more bag-gage than the regulated allow- 
 ance. The Egyptian Transit Company, however, de- 
 mand Us. per cwt. for conveyance of baggage through, 
 should it exceed 2 cwt. for first-class passengers, and 
 1 cwt. each for servants and children. No package of 
 baggage must exceed 80 Ibs. weight, or measure more 
 than 3 ft. in length 1 ft. 3 in. in breadth and 
 1 ft. 2 in. in depth. A departure from this regulation 
 causes a detention in Egypt to such packages of a 
 fortnight. 
 
 As soon as the baggage is embarked it is placed 
 below in the baggage room, no passenger being 
 allowed to take trunks, boxes, or portmanteaus, in the 
 saloon or cabin ; but on application to the captain the 
 baggage can be had up during the passage. 
 
 It is of importance that every package should bear 
 the name of the owner in legible characters, and that 
 the passage-money be paid before the passenger at- 
 tempt to embark. 
 
 The minimum equipment requisite for the overland 
 trip is as follows. Gentlemen and ladies can increase 
 this quantity ad libitum, but it should be remembered 
 that a portion of the articles with which they may 
 supply themselves are not needed in India, and will 
 only prove an encumbrance when the voyage is at an 
 end. We make no distinction in the supplies required 
 by writers and cadets, for it is presumed that all gentle- 
 men like to make the same appearance. Discarding, 
 then, the soft persuasions of the wily outfitter, and 
 remembering that the cheap and the good are not always 
 synonymous, let the intending traveller, when he has 
 engaged his passage, hie to Killick, 7, Ludgate Hill, 
 or Thresher and Glenny, Strand, and equip himself 
 with 
 
 Four dozen cotton shirts ; three dozen pairs of cotton 
 socks or stockings; a dozen India gauze flannel waist- 
 
ROUTES TO INDIA. 41 
 
 coats ; two dozen pairs of calico drawers ; three dozen 
 silk pocket handkerchiefs ; half a dozen silk cravats, 
 black and coloured ; two or three pairs of loose printed 
 cotton trousers (for bathing* purposes); a couple of 
 cotton dressing gowns; a cashmere or merino jacket; 
 a couple of Alpaca (gray) tunics or blouzes ; two or 
 three dozen pairs of white trousers ; a dozen cotton or 
 jean waistcoats; a straw hat with broad brim ; a cloth 
 cap; a dressing-case; a writing-case (well filled); a 
 large bag for foul linen ; and a couple of good large 
 leather trunks to contain the whole stock. It is con- 
 cluded that every one possesses a sufficiency of cloth 
 coats, trousers, hats, gloves, boots and shoes. At all 
 events a very small supply is requisite, for a few days 
 after quitting the shores of England tropical clothing 
 is indispensable, and continues so to the end of the 
 voyage. No towels or sheets are necessary, for these 
 are all provided in the steamer. 
 
 A lady will require for the trip about one-half the 
 articles recommended for the sea voyage in a pre- 
 vious page. 
 
42 THE EMIGRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EMIGRANT TO INDIA. 
 
 The European population of India Its character and extent 
 Advice to emigrants Equipment for such persons. 
 
 INDIA, though the largest, richest, and most valua- 
 ble appendage to the British crown, offers the smallest 
 inducement to the general emigrant of any of the 
 foreign dominions of the sovereign. The nature of 
 the climate effectually closing the door against the 
 common labourer, and the low rate of wag'es for which 
 the most ingenious native artisans can afford to work, 
 putting competition on the part of the English me- 
 chanic quite out of the question, the only classes who 
 can expect to make way in India are those who have 
 a sufficiency of capital to purchase plantations, or start 
 in business on their own account, or are sufficient 
 masters of an art of which the natives are ignorant to 
 be acceptable as foremen in large establishments. 
 These persons, and the various employes of the 
 Government, constitute the European population of 
 British India a wonderfully small population com- 
 pared with the millions of aborigines, yet a highly 
 
THE EMIGRANT. 43 
 
 prosperous and intelligent body, to whose energy and 
 moral conduct the ruling country owes, in a great 
 measure, the secret of her power. 
 
 To speak more definitely and distinctly, the Euro- 
 pean community of British India consists of the civil 
 and military officers of the East India Company, the 
 European troops belonging to the royal army, bishops 
 and judges, clergymen, barristers and attorneys, mer- 
 chant-seamen (captains and mates of ships), merchants, 
 shopkeepers, medical practitioners, indigo and sugar 
 planters, missionaries, clerks, artists, musicians, printers, 
 livery-stable keepers, &c. ; in all some fifty thousand 
 individuals, of whom twenty thousand are European 
 soldiers. 
 
 Until within the last twenty years it was a high 
 crime and misdemeanour for any European to be in 
 India without an appointment, or a special license from 
 the Directors" of the East India Company. Every 
 person who was not in the service of the government 
 could only proceed to India with the indentures of a 
 " free merchant," or a " free mariner/' both of which 
 were obtained at the India House with some difficulty, 
 under recognizances and securities that the applicant 
 was a person of good character, and seriously meant 
 either to carry on business as a merchant, or to be- 
 come a mate or commander of a country vessel. Now 
 and then some highly favoured individuals procured 
 permission to "reside" in India, but they were always 
 watched with jealous anxiety by the Government, lest 
 they should employ their privilege to poison the native 
 mind, bring the authorities into disrepute, and set 
 society by the ears. When the East India Company 
 were deprived of their commercial privileges in 1833, 
 and the act was passed which limited them to terri- 
 torial control and the exercise of political functions in 
 relation to India and the states im mediately con- 
 tiguous to the empire, all this jealous exclusion of 
 
44 THE EMIGRANT. 
 
 "interlopers" came to an end, and the door was opened 
 to the free ingress of persons who chose to make India 
 the scene of their exertions. The result has heen ad- 
 vantageous to the country in the more general diffusion 
 of European intelligence, especially as practical and 
 leg'al freedom has been given to the press, and the 
 natives have received in a large degree the advantages 
 of education and something has been done to evolve 
 the agricultural resources of India by the application 
 of European capital and energy to the cultivation of the 
 soil. But, on the whole, the removal of restraints 
 upon the resort of Englishmen to India has not been 
 attended by all the results contemplated by the ad- 
 vocates of the abolition of the trading charter, nor, at 
 the same time, have any of the fears of the enemies of 
 colonization been realized. A wide field still exists 
 for the profitable employment of industry, intelligence, 
 and capital, and there can be little doubt that when 
 railways have been established, and practicable roads 
 formed to facilitate communication with the fertile 
 districts of upper and central India, a greater number 
 of Europeans will find their way to the country. 
 
 The best advice which, under present circumstances, 
 can be given to persons desirous of emigrating to 
 India, for the purpose of obtaining an independent 
 existence, or of improving their means, is, that they 
 should carry with them letters of introduction to men 
 in authority, or a sufficiency of capital to obtain shares 
 in, if not exclusive possession of, indigo, sugar, 
 or coffee plantations, saltpetre manufactories, &c. 
 Through the letters of introduction, if sustained by a 
 fair share of talent and a good address, a young man 
 may obtain employment as a clerk, superintendent, 
 deputy collector or magistrate, assistant to a planter, 
 sub-editor of a newspaper, reporter, mate or master of 
 a river steamer, and so on offices which yield 
 generally from one hundred to five hundred rupees 
 
THE EMIGRANT. 45 
 
 per mensem. But these offices are not numerous, are 
 competed for by intelligent natives and East Indians, 
 and are not recognized, when obtained, as bringing* 
 the holder within the pale of good society. If a 
 young man has had the advantage of a legal educa- 
 tion in England, or happens to be connected with any 
 of the lawyers who are appointed judges of the several 
 Supreme Courts, he may, perhaps, become a clerk to 
 one of the " reverend signers," or a sealer, or procure 
 leave to practise as an attorney (after due qualifica- 
 tion) ; and there are occasional openings for young 
 medical practitioners who are not above contenting- 
 themselves with such fees as the parsimony of the 
 natives may induce them to offer but all these must 
 be regarded as prizes in a lottery, in which the blanks 
 are numerous, and every adventurer must be prepared 
 to support himself for some time, if he has not hospi- 
 table friends and relatives at one of the presidencies, 
 who will give him house and home until a situation of 
 some sort is available. 
 
 The young man who arrives in India with a small 
 capital, and a capacity to be useful, is in a much more 
 hopeful condition than he who merely carries with him 
 thews, sinews, brains, introductions, and an engag- 
 ing deportment. There are always brokers, agents, 
 planters, small merchants, auctioneers, newspaper 
 proprietors, ship-builders, boat-builders, and trades- 
 men enough in every town, disposed to extend their 
 sphere of operations by accepting as a partner one 
 who can bring a little money and considerable intel- 
 ligence and personal activity to the common stock. 
 Many a youth proceeding to India, thus prepared, has, 
 ere now, risen to a state of affluence in a compara- 
 tively short time ; and for the truth must be told not 
 a few have experienced the vicissitudes incidental to 
 commerce and speculation. 
 
 Addressing ourselves to these classes of intending ad- 
 
46 THE EMIGRANT. 
 
 venturers to India, we should say, " Content yourselves 
 with a moderate equipment ; arm yourselves with 
 patience, which is ever the hest attendant upon hope, 
 resolve when in India to practise temperance, and the 
 chances are greatly in favour of your doing* well, and 
 of retiring to your native country with an unbroken 
 constitution." 
 
 We have spoken of a " moderate equipment." This 
 brings us to the details of outfit, and we fear that we 
 shall be deemed guilty of heresy in counselling a wide 
 departure from the advice generally given on this 
 head, especially by those who find their account in 
 overloading' the passenger. Of course there is a great 
 difference in the quantity of articles required for a sea 
 voyage, and those needed for an overland trip, be- 
 cause the one is twice the duration of the other j but 
 in no case is it necessary for a young man to burthen 
 himself to the extent recommended by professional 
 outfitters. 
 
 The following scale may be confidently offered as 
 suited to either route the sea or overland. 
 
 OVERLAND. 
 
 One dozen pair of cotton stockings. 
 
 Ditto cotton socks. 
 
 Three dozen shirts. 
 One dozen of India gauze waistcoats. 
 
 Ditto calico drawers. 
 Two dozen silk pocket handkerchiefs. 
 Two black silk cravats. 
 Two pairs of braces. 
 One cotton dressing-gown. 
 One pair of pyjamas. 
 One clothes bag. 
 One straw hat (with veil for crossing the desert.) 
 
THE EMIGRANT. 47 
 
 One cloth cap. 
 
 One cashmere or merino jacket. 
 
 Twelve pairs of white cotton trousers. 
 
 Six pairs of Holland trousers. 
 
 Twelve white or printed cotton or jean waistcoats. 
 
 Two Holland or Alpaca blouses. 
 
 A dozen towels. 
 
 A large sponge. 
 
 A leathern writing'-case. 
 
 Overland trunks and a carpet-bag. 
 
 N.B. It is presumed that a hat, a dress coat, 
 frock, trousers, boots, shoes, slippers, brushes, necker- 
 chiefs, are already in the traveller's possession. 
 
 By SEA. 
 
 Two dozen pairs of cotton stockings. 
 
 One dozen ditto of cotton socks. 
 
 Four dozen day shirts. 
 
 Two dozen night ditto. 
 
 One and a half dozen of gauze waistcoats. 
 
 Three dozen silk pocket handkerchiefs. 
 
 Three black silk cravats. 
 
 Three pairs of braces. 
 
 Two cotton dressing-gowns and a couple of pair of 
 pyjanas or loose cotton trousers. 
 
 A straw hat and a cloth cap. 
 
 A couple of Merino or camlet jackets. 
 
 A couple of Alpaca or Holland blouses or tunics. 
 
 Twelve white and twelve coloured waistcoats. 
 
 Eighteen pairs of white cotton or linen trousers. 
 
 One dozen pairs of check cashmerette ditto. 
 
 Three dozen towels. 
 
 One dozen pairs of sheets and pillow-cases, with 
 blankets and a quilt. 
 
48 THE EMIGRANT. 
 
 A cot or hammock the former preferable because 
 of permanent utility. 
 
 A wash-hand stand and appurtenances. 
 
 A clothes-bag ; piece of carpeting* or floor-cloth for 
 cabin ; a foot- tub ; a chest of drawers ; a looking- 
 glass ; camp chair ; cabin lamp tin can ; and a few 
 books. 
 
 In respect to coats, waistcoats, and trousers, the 
 passenger will suit himself. It should be remembered 
 that, for the first ten days of the voyage, and for the 
 fortnight during which the vessel is rounding the 
 Cape, the weather is sufficiently cold to render woollen 
 clothes particularly acceptable. 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 49 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 European life in India The kind of houses required Method 
 of furnishing Domestics Articles of life Markets House- 
 hold expenses Amusements and resources Diet Routine of 
 existence Literature Life in the Mofussil The indigo 
 planter Life of a lady in India Children. 
 
 How to live, where to live, and what to live upon, 
 are questions which agitate all classes of Englishmen 
 who are not born with silver spoons in their mouths 
 in other words, who are not born independent of the 
 world's cares. To be able to make both ends meet is 
 the anxious consideration of four-fifths of the British 
 population ; but those who betake themselves to India 
 and the colonies carry their solicitude beyond that 
 point they wish to know not merely if their incomes 
 will support them in comfort, but if they will leave a 
 margin sufficiently broad to afford a fund for a pro- 
 vision in old age. In his native land a man is content 
 with a moderate sum; for to the means of existence 
 he adds the inestimable advantage of living in a mild 
 climate among friends and relatives he has learned to 
 value, and by whom he is esteemed. In India, on the 
 
 E 
 
50 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 other hand, he does battle with a noxious climate, and 
 is separated from those he loves best. It therefore 
 becomes a consideration whether expatriation is to be 
 attended with the advantage of a return to England 
 with a competency ; for, otherwise, it would be better 
 to remain at home on bread and cheese. In the case 
 of persons going out with appointments in the East 
 India Company's service, the question, as we have 
 shown, is placed beyond a doubt; for the enforced 
 subscriptions to civil and military funds, and the condi- 
 tions of the pension establishment, relieve a man of all 
 care for the remote future, if he never desires to grow 
 rich by his savings. It is far otherwise with the ad- 
 venturer who has nothing definite to calculate upon. 
 He knows that his only hope of doing well depends 
 upon a well regulated economy, and he shapes his 
 course accordingly. 
 
 The system of lodging-letting so common in Eng- 
 land and the continent is almost unknown in India. 
 Something is done in the boarding'-house way at the 
 chief towns by respectable widows, and each presi- 
 dency is provided with respectable hotels and club- 
 houses; but no one seeks or desires a permanent 
 residence at any of these places. They afford ex- 
 cellent temporary accommodation to persons newly 
 arrived in India, and upon a scale adapted to all sorts 
 of purses ; but when the stranger has had time to look 
 about him, he quits them for a more frugal and en- 
 during style of life. The writer goes to his station, 
 the cadet or assistant-surgeon to his regiment, and the 
 resident, who is neither civil nor military, seeks a 
 house suited to his means, or to the appearance he 
 must necessarily keep up. Let him not expect to find 
 a furnished house anywhere such things are un- 
 known in India; for when the occupants of mansions 
 quit the presidency for the interior they take every- 
 thing* away with them ; and if they return to England 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 51 
 
 all the property is sold off by auction to ensure the 
 means of settling- at home. This practice, however, of 
 selling off, causes an enormous quantity of capital 
 second-hand furniture to be always available in the 
 godorvns or store-houses of the auctioneers ; and if new 
 'furniture is preferred, there are scores of upholsterers' 
 shops where articles can always be obtained at a few 
 hours' notice. A stranger, on these occasions, after he 
 has looked about for an empty house adapted to his 
 wants, sends for a sircar (at Calcutta), a diibasli (at 
 Madras), or a Parsee butler (at Bombay), and bidding 
 him procure the necessary furniture, may expect in 
 two or three days to find himself installed in his own 
 domicile. The articles absolutely required at first are 
 few, as nothing in the shape of fixtures or hangings is 
 required. Matting for two or three rooms say a 
 dining'-room, drawing-room, and a couple of bed-rooms 
 or one bed-room, with bathing and dressing apart- 
 ment attached. A cot with gauze curtains, a wash- 
 hand-stand, dressing-table, towel-horse, chest of 
 drawers,* &c., will suffice for the bed-room ; a table, 
 half a dozen chairs, a sofa, and a few book- shelves, will 
 suffice for the drawing-room; a table, half a dozen 
 chairs, and a small side-board, are furniture enough for 
 a dining-room. To these add a punkah, or large fan 
 upon an oblong frame, which is suspended from the 
 ceiling of each sitting-room with a rope attached to it, 
 that a servant may keep it continually swinging when 
 the room is occupied. A few plates, dishes, cups and 
 saucers, spoons, knives and forks, a table-lamp and a 
 hanging-lamp, some water jars, and the commonest 
 earthen cooking* utensils, will complete the household 
 equipment of a bachelor. His purchase of a horse 
 and buggy, or a palankeen, or both, will depend upon 
 
 * The articles which have been used on board ship are often 
 quite good and handsome enough for these purposes. 
 
52 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 liis business, his inclination, and liis means. One or 
 the other will be unavoidable, because it is impossible 
 for any person, to walk to his place of business, or to 
 go to the houses and offices of those with whom he 
 may have transactions. Pedestrianism, excepting* for 
 a leisure stroll early in the morning- and the cool of the 
 evening, .is impossible. But if a man determines to be 
 severely parsimonious, and has not the wherewithal to 
 purchase a palankeen, he can hire one every day to 
 take him to and from his shop or counting-house, or 
 wherever else his business may lead him. A better plan 
 still will be, for a tradesman or merchant, to take a 
 house which will answer all the purposes of a domicile 
 and a place of business. The lower floors of houses 
 make capital offices and shops. 
 
 The expense of "life" at one of the Presidencies de- 
 pends upon the circumstances and position of the in- 
 dividual. A man may live on 2007. a year, or 170 
 rupees per mensem and he may also spend without 
 difficulty 10,OOOZ. a year. The size of the house, the 
 number of servants, horses, and carriages, and the ex- 
 tensive exercise of private hospitality and public 
 charity, make all the difference. To give an idea of 
 the maximum of expenditure, we will suppose an esta- 
 blishment at Calcutta upon, a grand scale. 
 
 A house of two stories, containing twenty rooms 
 and broad verandas, with bathing -rooms and out- 
 offices, all enclosed within a, garden or compound, costs 
 at least 500 rupees per month. The establishment of 
 servants will run as follows : 
 
 A khansumah, or butler, who markets and attends 
 at table on great occasions. He also makes pastry 
 and preserves, and superintends the kitchen. 
 
 Two or three lihetmutgars, who also attend at table, 
 clean the plate, &c. 
 
 A valet, of the khetmutgar class, who takes care of 
 the linen and clothes of his master, and looks after his 
 toilet. 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 53 
 
 A cook and a deputy, the latter of whom attends 
 the Jihansumah at market, and brings home the sup- 
 plies. 
 
 A sirdar and bearers sirdar meaning chief whose 
 duty it is to prepare the bath, polish boots and shoes, 
 attend to the lamps and candles, and see that the 
 bearers are ready either to pull the punkah, or to go 
 out with the palankeen, or waft away flies and insects 
 during' the meals, or polish the furniture. 
 
 A musalchee, who acts the part of a scullion, and 
 likewise prepares the lamps. 
 
 A bheestie, or water carrier. He draws water from 
 the wells or tanks, and fills the jars with the water re- 
 quired during the day. He sprinkles the cuscuss 
 tatties, or plaited grass coverings of the doors and 
 windows, during the hot season, and waters the garden 
 or grass-plots. 
 
 A miktur, or sweeper, who does all the dirty work of 
 the house. 
 
 A dhobee, or washerman. There are no washer- 
 women in Indo-European establishments. The modus 
 operandiy amounting to the beating of linen on flat 
 stones, is performed by a man, and his wife irons the 
 articles. 
 
 A durzee, or tailor. This functionary is chiefly em- 
 ployed in repairing the damages effected by dhobees, 
 or in making bed curtains, hemming sheets and table- 
 clothes, darning stockings, &c. His work is abun- 
 dant where there is a lady and children in the house, 
 because the lady rarely condescends to anything useful 
 in a large establishment. 
 
 A durwan, or doorkeeper. He sits at the entrance 
 gate, sounds a gong upon the arrival of a visitor, and 
 throws open the portals of the compound. To him also 
 is consigned the task of uttering the white lie, which 
 announces that the master or mistress of the house is 
 "not at home." 
 
54 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 An dbdar, or " keeper of the water." To him is 
 assigned the duty of cooling 1 the wines, beer, and water, 
 for dinner purposes; but the introduction of American 
 ice into India has nearly obliterated his functions. 
 
 A coachman, whose title announces his duty. 
 
 Syces, or grooms, one to each horse, or two to three 
 horses. They not only groom and feed the horses, 
 but either take their places behind a carriage or run by 
 its side, or by the side of the equestrian who may be 
 paying- visits, and require his horse to be occasionally 
 held. 
 
 A peon, or chuprassy. A belted messenger, who 
 awaits to carry letters and messages, or to accompany 
 the coachman upon state visits. 
 
 An ayah, or lady's maid, a very useful personage in 
 a family ; for she relieves the lady of the labour of 
 dressing her hair, and is most serviceable in shampoo- 
 ing and performing a number of delicate little offices 
 which the heat of the climate often renders necessary. 
 It is needless to add that she dresses her mistress, and 
 looks after her wardrobe, and dhobee's accounts. 
 
 A mihturanee, or metrannee, a female sweeper, whose 
 services are auxiliary to those of the ayah. 
 
 A sircar, who keeps the accounts of the establish- 
 ment, receives his master's pay, disburses it, and will 
 endeavour to prevent any one from cheating you but 
 himself. 
 
 To these domestics are added, dooreahs, or dog boys, 
 where people keep dogs ; chowheydars, or private con- 
 stables, who patrol the grounds during the night; 
 manjies and dandies, where a boat is kept ; coolies, to 
 carry burdens ; and hookah burdars, or preparers of 
 the hookah an office which is gradually becoming ex- 
 tinct under the modern passion for cigars. 
 
 We here give the titles which the domestics bear at 
 Calcutta. At Madras and Bombay there are the same 
 classes, but under different denominations. Thus the 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 55 
 
 khansumah is at Bombay a " butler," and at Madras a 
 dobash. The khetmutgliar is elsewhere called a "boy," 
 corruption of bhaiee brother. The bheestie at the other 
 Presidencies is denominated a puckauly. The syce 
 becomes a gora-nallah (horse -fellow) at Bombay, and 
 a ghirra-rvallah at Madras. The sircar is designated 
 a purvoe at Bombay, and the bearers are there called 
 hammals, an old Moorish word for " porters." 
 
 As none of these servants eat of the food cooked for 
 Europeans, they are upon a uniform system of wages, 
 which, though small as regards each individual, make 
 up a tremendous aggregate. Not less than 200 rupees 
 
 Eer mensem will pay the establishment of a man of 
 irge income, blessed with a family ; for several ayahs, 
 several peons, several syces and bearers, &c., have to 
 be retained. 
 
 The lowest establishment with which a person can 
 rub on consists of one khetmutghar or boy, one cook, 
 and one musalchee ; whose united wages, at either 
 Presidency, will amount to between 16 and 20 rupees 
 per month, or 25/. per annum. The lowest rate at 
 which a very small house (unfurnished) may be ob- 
 tained is 360 rupees, or 30Z. per annum ; and that not 
 always in a very desirable situation. Cotton clothes, 
 the general wear, are cheap in India, because the sup- 
 ply from England of piece goods is generally much in 
 excess of the demand. Woollen clothes, on the other 
 hand, are dear, for the tailors demand high prices for 
 the manufacture of coats, waistcoats, and trowsers. 
 Hats are dear; and boots of English and French 
 manufacture are likewise costly. Excellent boots are, 
 however, made of country leather by bootmakers on 
 the spot, and they cost about half the price of Euro- 
 pean boots. 
 
 The style of life in India corresponds, as regards the 
 table, with that in vogue at home. The breakfast 
 hour is generally from 8 to 9 A.M. Tea or coffee, 
 
56 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA, 
 
 bread, batter, rice, fish, eggs or curries, cold meats, 
 jams, honey or marmalade, grace the breakfast table. 
 Soups, fish, roast, boiled, stewed, broiled, and curried 
 meats, pastry, game, jellies, blancmange, &c., constitute 
 the dinners. The only distinctive feature of the Indian 
 table is the superiority and variety of the curries and 
 the pilaus. A dish called kitchri a compound of 
 rice, split peas, fried onions, chillies, small raisins, and 
 curried fowl or mutton is a favourite breakfast dish. 
 Instead of lamb, kid, the flesh of the young- goat, is 
 much esteemed. It is small, tender, and nutritious, 
 and admits of being roasted or cut up into cutlets. 
 
 Meat bears a very low price in India compared with 
 what is paid in England, although the markets car 
 bazaars (especially of Calcutta) are supplied with beef,', 
 mutton, and veal, scarcely inferior to the produce of" 
 our native country. From twopence to threepence 
 per pound is usually paid for the best kind of meat. 
 Poultry abounds in India, Turkeys are expensive, 
 ranging from 7 to 10 rupees each. Geese, ducks,, 
 fowls, and pigeons, are always obtainable, and at very 
 moderate prices. The game obtainable at the Presi- 
 dencies amounts to partridge, teal, snipe, wild duck, 
 and occasionally venison ; but it is never good for 
 much. If eaten soon after it is killed, it is tough and 
 tasteless ; if kept till it becomes tender, it is often un- 
 eatable. 
 
 The vegetable and fruit market is sufficiently stocked 
 to merit a separate chapter. Bread, composed of good 
 wheat flour, is very cheap ; rice, ditto. Milk of a thin 
 quality abounds ; .but everybody desirous of being well 
 supplied in this respect will keep his own cow. Home- 
 made butter is preferable to that which is purchased. 
 
 For all the extras and luxuries of the table, the 
 Indian resident is, in a great measure, indebted to 
 England, France, and America. York and West- 
 phalia hams, rein- deer tongues, cheeses of all kinds,. 
 
 E 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 57 
 
 hermetically sealed vegetables and fish, anchovies and 
 sardines, potted meats, German sausages, pickles, pre- 
 served fruits all the stock to be found at Fortnum 
 and Mason's may be purchased at the " Europe 
 shops" in India. Still, a good supply of delicacies is 
 of indigenous manufacture. The mango and lime 
 pickles, guava and other jellies, dried fish, buffalo* 
 humps, chetney sauce, and similar condiments, are al- 
 ways obtainable; and from China are received large- 
 stores of ginger and other preserves, teas, sugar- 
 candy, &c. 
 
 To Europe also the Anglo-Indian owes all his beeiv 
 wines, and spirits, paying for them less, perhaps, than 
 he would pay in the aggregate in England, because 
 they do not bear the same heavy duty. The beers and 
 pale ales of Hodgson, Bass, and Allsop, and the stout 
 of the famous Guinness, are in great request in India. 
 The quantity of these grateful beverages which some 
 men will drink in a single day is almost fabulous. The 
 price of a bottle of beer, if bought in bottles by the 
 dozen, is on an average Is. 3d. ; less, if you buy a cask 
 and bottle it yourself. Wines lose nothing by their 
 trip to India. Madeira gains. Even champagne and 
 claret are to be had in considerable perfection ; and 
 the best Cognac is procurable at half the price it costs 
 in Great Britain. Hollands, rum, whiskey, and liqueurs, 
 are carried to India in great quantities j and even Con- 
 stantia, Marsala, Tinto, and all the Rhenish wines, find 
 a large market at the Presidencies. Soda-water is 
 made by the chemists and provisioners of India ; but 
 nothing else in the shape of a beverage suited to 
 Europeans is manufactured in the East. 
 
 No one who is fond of fish will find himself subject 
 to very severe privations in India. The harbour of 
 Bombay abounds with pomfretft, species of flat fish 
 of so exquisite a flavour, that it has been reported of a 
 celebrated gourmand that he thought it well worth a 
 
58 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 voyage to India soles, seer (a large fish of the tur- 
 bot flavour), bummelows (a glutinous fish of the sub- 
 stance of white bait, preferable when dried), prawns, 
 hilsa (the salmon of India), and the rock fish. The 
 Ganges, the Indus, and Irrawaddee, yield bekhtee, 
 mullet, whiting, the tupsee a delicious little fish re- 
 sembling* the smelt, and called the mangoe-fish, 
 because it makes its appearance at the same time with 
 the fruit so termed oysters, lobsters, crawfish, and an 
 infinite number of diminutive members of the finny 
 tribe. 
 
 So much for the solids and fluids which go to the 
 sustenance of civilized man in the far East. 
 
 The order the routine, so to speak, of European 
 life in India is unavoidably uniform and monotonous. 
 People rise very early before the dawn of day for 
 dawn and twilight are of brief duration in India ; and 
 when the sun is once " up," we begin to experience his 
 influence. An hour's exercise, either on horseback or 
 afoot, is supposed to be necessary to ensure the healthy 
 action of the liver. Returning home, a bath, which 
 literally consists in having jars of water poured over 
 the body, is taken, the newspaper is read, and every- 
 body proceeds to business of some kind or other ; while 
 ladies, defying the sun, sally forth in their carriages to 
 pay visits and make purchases. 
 
 The coachmakers in Calcutta turn out vehicles 
 scarcely inferior in appearance to some of the best pro- 
 ductions of Long Acre. They consist chiefly of britzkas, 
 landaulettes, buggies, chariots, and broughams, and a 
 nondescript class of oblong and square carriages of all 
 sizes, which rejoice in the appellations of brownberries 
 and palkee-gharrees from their resemblance to a palan- 
 keen on wheels ; and which latter at Madras are called 
 shigrams, and at Bombay shigrampoes. 
 
 From ten in the morning until five in the evening, 
 everybody is at work. In the major part of the places 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 59 
 
 of business at the Presidencies, the heads, foremen/ and 
 principal clerks are either Europeans or East Indians ; 
 the name given to the class who have descended from 
 English fathers, and Mussulman or Hindoo mothers, 
 or from the early Portuguese conquerors who formed 
 honourable (or other) connections with native females. 
 In the middle of the day some persons take tiffin, as 
 luncheon is called ; and this, in too many instances, is 
 a sort of miniature dinner, when stews an<J curries 
 are devoured, washed down by copious draughts of 
 pale ale. 
 
 A bath and a change of dress precede the evening 
 ride or drive. Everywhere there are strands, courses, 
 beaches, where the denizens congregate to gossip or 
 listen to the music of military bands. Night closes 
 in, and the gay groups separate to return home and 
 dine. 
 
 This is a sketch of every day English life, but of 
 course it is varied by the seasons and the ordinary 
 usages of society. There is much interchange of 
 dinner-giving, balls are frequent at private houses, and 
 military messes. Billiards and cards furnish excite- 
 ment to great numbers ; a few persons cultivate music, 
 and now and then an amateur play, a discharge of 
 fireworks, at the expense of some rich native, a re- 
 gatta, or a nautcli (native dance), enliven society. 
 The races are also a great source of amusement, for 
 most people having access to the race-course during 
 the " trials" and training of the horses, become cog- 
 nizant of their powers, and interested in their success. 
 There is little or no trickery on the Indian turf, and 
 the actual races, which last for a fortnight, the run- 
 ning taking place on alternate days, bring together all 
 classes of society bent upon amusement. The horses 
 which come to the post, are Arabs, country-breds, 
 and the produce of the Cape of Good Hope. The 
 Arab, from his small and delicate structure, and the 
 
60 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 shortness of his stride, carries the lowest weight ; the 
 country-bred carries a stone more ; and the Cape 
 horse, two stone more. English horses are seldom 
 allowed to run, for it has been found, that, even with 
 three or four stone greater weight upon their back 
 than any other class of horse can bear, they win the 
 race in a canter, owing chiefly to their length of 
 stride. As elsewhere stated, there is some jackall 
 hunting carried on in Calcutta, and a little shooting in 
 the immediate neighbourhood of Bombay. Jaunts to 
 places of interest old temples, manufactories, curious 
 ruins, picturesque localities, ' where the scramble and 
 make-shift of a pic-nic impart excitement to the scene 
 are by no means unusual, and those who are fond of 
 yachting find ample entertainment when the weather 
 is fine and settled. 
 
 Yet, after all, the principal amusement of the Eng- 
 lish exile his solace when all other things fail is to be 
 found in literature, of which, happily, there is never 
 an insufficient supply. The local press teems with 
 publications. There are four daily, and three or four 
 weekly papers published in Calcutta, which, besides 
 containing all the local intelligence, and the news from 
 every part of the country, abound in interesting ex- 
 tracts from the English papers and magazines, which 
 reach India by every mail. At Madras there are 
 several papers published three times a week and 
 weekly. At Bombay they have a daily and a few 
 weekly papers. At every station throughout India 
 are book clubs and libraries. Calcutta boasts an im- 
 mense public library, to which access is easy, and at 
 each Presidency are learned societies, whose shelves 
 groan under the weight of ponderous volumes of 
 Asiatic and European lore. Then there are book- 
 sellers without number, and so vast a quantity of the 
 cheaper literature finds its way to India, that it is by 
 no means uncommon to be assailed in your palankeen 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN" INDIA. 61 
 
 (at Calcutta at least), with offers of albums and 
 scrapbooks, Kailway Libraries, Shilling* Series, Tra* 
 vellers' Companions, Household Words, &c., &c., 
 which fellows nearly nude will sell you for half the 
 London prime cost. All these resources combine to 
 cheat the exile of much of the wearisomeness of exist- 
 ence ; and if they be not enough, abundance of oppor- 
 tunities of employing time usefully are offered in the 
 numerous associations for charitable and other pur- 
 poses, which have been formed by the enterprise, 
 philanthropy, and public spirit of Europeans, Of 
 these, some account will be found in a subsequent 
 chapter. 
 
 Life in the Mofussil, or interior of India, is not> 
 perhaps, so much variegated as life at the Presiden- 
 cies. Still, at the larger military stations there is no 
 lack of such gaiety as the presence of two or three 
 regiments invariably affords to persons fond of field 
 sports ; there are agremens which are vainly sought by 
 the denizens of the large towns. Even at the purely 
 civil stations, where there is no regiment, the days pass 
 in useful occupation, for the collector, the magistrate, 
 the judge, and their assistants, have a world of work 
 to get through, leaving them very little time for in- 
 dulgence in the chase. The post is carried all over 
 India, to the most remote stations, and to places 
 most difficult of access. All the enjoyments, there- 
 fore, derivable from correspondence, the " news/ 7 and 
 new books, are patent to the resident up the country. 
 Even the indigo planter, isolated as he seems, is not 
 without his share of joys. His business is not irksome, 
 although it has its anxieties. When the plant has 
 been sown, Nature does the rest, and the only grounds 
 of solicitude on the part of the planter, are the possi- 
 bility of an inundation, a heavy fall of rain, which 
 may wash the dye entirely out of the plant, or intelli- 
 gence of a glutted indigo market in England. These 
 
62 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 subjects of anxiety set aside, the indigo planter leads 
 an easy life. He is generally something* of a farmer, 
 and not a little of a sportsman. He is the owner of 
 horses, dogs, cows, goats, sheep, and an elephant or 
 two. His horses are useful in enabling him to ride 
 over his estate and watch the progress of the shrubs; his 
 elephants are also useful for this purpose, and will carry 
 him when out on a tiger hunt. Possibly his nearest 
 European neighbour may reside twenty or forty miles 
 distant. What cares the planter ? He has a strong 
 buggy, perhaps of his own building, and in three or 
 four hours he is at a friend's door. The local papers 
 reach him daily, and between them and the society of 
 his little family (if he has one), or his chums and 
 assistants, the payment of his people, the superinten- 
 dence of his vats (tanks for the extraction of the dye), 
 and the settlement of some suits at law into which he 
 has been driven by the obstinacy or hostility of some 
 neighbouring zemindar, or farmer, he contrives to kill 
 time. He could scarcely be more fully employed in 
 the busiest town. 
 
 The following very rough sketch was handed to the 
 writer of these pages some few years ago. It is a 
 hasty and somewhat coarse picture of the life of a 
 prosperous planter, but its general truth is undeniable. 
 It came from the hand of one, a genuine Irishman, all 
 heart and animation, who sketched his own career. 
 The " town" of which he speaks, is Calcutta, which in 
 the cold season (November to March), is the rendez- 
 vous of all who have indigo to sell for shipment to 
 England and elsewhere. 
 
 "The indigo planter is a hale, hearty, rollicking-,, 
 kind-hearted, jovial soul, hospitable to a degree, al- 
 ways ready to serve a friend, and never happy but 
 when he has his house full of them, or his friends' 
 friends, to partake of his good fare. What a happy 
 fellow the planter is when he comes to town with his 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 63 
 
 bumper crop of Jlne blue, the favourite mark of the 
 brokers ! How happy every one is to see him, and 
 how happy is he to see every one ! Let us follow the 
 planter to Tulloh and Co.'s Horse Bazaar. Do you 
 see that ruddy-faced, broad-shouldered, good-humoured 
 looking- fellow, with a broad-brimmed hat, shawl-pat- 
 tern waistcoat, and green shooting-coat, into the ample 
 pocket of which he has just thrust his brawny left- 
 hand, whilst with the right he grasps the delicate 
 hand of a pale-faced merchant's clerk, who seems to 
 quake under the vice-like squeeze of his hardy friend ? 
 That's Morgan Rattler, Esq., of Luckygunge concern ; 
 he is one of the fortunate planters^ he only arrived in 
 town yesterday, has just had an interview with his 
 agents, who all rose to receive him and give him a hearty 
 shake of the hand to congratulate him on his splendid 
 turn out; they informed him that the brokers had 
 been looking on his muster cakes, and Messrs. Fidong 
 and Snale}' were mad after the batch for the French 
 market. Tiffin was at this time most opportunely an- 
 nounced, and for the first time in his life he was 
 invited to step up-stairs and take a bit of beef-steak 
 and a glass of beer, which, by the way, he consumed at 
 such a rate as made his bilious hosts to stare again. 
 See with what a good-natured entreating countenance 
 he continues to grasp the trembling hand of his sallow 
 companion ! What can he be saying to him so very 
 earnestly ? Let us approach, and for once play the 
 eaves-dropper. 
 
 " ( Hut- tut, man, don't be after making a fool of 
 yourself ! Here it's as plain as a pike-staff, you can 
 stand it no longer ; you're dying by inches, man, at 
 that horrid desk of yours ; ask for leave of absence, 
 man, and come along up with me ; and if I don't put 
 some flesh on those aguish bones of yours, and some 
 colour into your faded cheeks, why, my name is not 
 Rattler. There is plenty of room in my boat, an' 
 
64 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 you need take nothing in life with you, but yourself; 
 sure it's at Luckygunge, you'll find the best of every- 
 thing. And hark ye ! you must make up your mind 
 to stay for the chevo I'm going to give on Saint 
 Patrick's day in the mornin' ; and won't I invite some 
 pretty boys to meet you !' 
 
 " The planter, after eight or ten months of mixed toil 
 and pleasure, comes to town at the close of a prosper- 
 ous season with a joyous heart,, professedly to eat beef 
 and get rid of some superfluous cash ; he takes up his 
 quarters at Spence's, or Wilson's (the principal hotels), 
 where he has a good opportunity of doing both 5 but 
 the month which ijfc allows himself for the above pur- 
 pose, he perceives with regret is, like Bob Acre's 
 courage, fast oozing out, so he orders his g'ensral 
 storekeeper to send off his stores, and recommends 
 him to be particularly careful about the quality of the 
 champagne, 'for sure, didn't the fate of the next 
 season depend entirely on the pop of the first bottle 
 opened on the first day of manufacturing?* He de- 
 spatches a few fresh Arabs, and some additions to his 
 kennel ; and now, having feasted) and been feted, 
 having made a speech at the planters' annual dinner, 
 at the town hall, and sung a song at the horticultural 
 dinner ; having disbursed a few gold mohurs to some 
 of the knowing ones at the races; having visited 
 Wilson's saloon on Christmas morning, and purchased 
 a slice* of the mother of cakes ; having given a cham- 
 pagne tiffin to his friends ; in fact, having seen all that 
 was possible to be seen, and done all that it was pos- 
 sible to do in so short a space of time, the planter pro- 
 ceeds to take leave of his agents, preparatory to his 
 leaving town. As he is quitting the office, a bundle 
 of papers carefully folded and tied with red tape, is 
 put into his hands by one of the clerks ; it is his 
 account current, exhibiting a net profit on last year's 
 turn-out of Co.'s rupees 80,536-8-9. And now he is 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 65 
 
 off to liis own element, the Mofussil. Let us go along* 
 with him and see him in his g'lory. 
 
 " We' 11 suppose Morgan Rattler, Esq., arrived at 
 Lucky g'unge, where, as he approaches his handsome 
 and elegantly furnished mansion, he is met by his 
 gomasta-jee and a whole host of sircars, all bowing 
 and salaaming, and each anxious to catch a glance 
 from their master's eye ; he makes some inquiries 
 about the factory, the state of the October crop, and 
 the fate of such or such a civil suit that has been 
 going on for the last six years. He then turns to his 
 jemadar syce (or head groom), and makes most affec- 
 tionate inquiries after the henlth and well-being of 
 his horses and dogs. Having said a kind word to 
 each, he gives them all their rooksut. And now ap- 
 proaches his favourite, the garrulous English writer, 
 Rajnarain, with his ( good moren, sare ; hope master is 
 well in health ; many letters for master.' ' Hah ! are 
 there? from whom?' i Oh, from different, indif- 
 ferent gentlemens, master's friends, who all will be 
 much glad to hear master come back.' ' Ay, ay, 
 here they are, sure enough : what a precious set of 
 correspondents I have, to be sure ! Here's from 
 Snooks, and Shanks, and Brown, and Snnggs, and 
 Sniggers, and oh ! here's a chit from young Never- 
 do-good \ let's see what he has to say for himself: 
 
 " ' MY DEAR RATTLER, Glad you 're back again ; 
 we had capital sport yesterday ; such a run, and my 
 eye, such spilling ! oh, you ought to 've been with us ; 
 there never was such fun ; made seven grunters bite 
 the dust ; I had a most awful purl myself; went slap- 
 bang into a khate ; snapped off my mare's leg obliged 
 to shoot her on the spot, poor thing ! Oh, hang it, 
 never mind, I '11 replace her with half a dozen Arabs, 
 if I make a good season, and old Blowhard, my 
 gomasta, assures me that we 're sure to do so. Come 
 
 F 
 
66 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 over, man, or by Jove we '11 storm you, to give you a 
 benefit. We 're to have a grand rifle match in a day 
 or two. Old Snaiieyyow is floored at last. Just 
 heard of a grunter being in the neighbourhood, so I 'm 
 off. Yours to the last grunt, 
 
 f NEWMAN NOGGS.' 
 
 " The life of an indigo planter is decidedly the most 
 delightful one in India j much, however, depends on 
 the first set off. The getting connected with a good 
 concern at the first start, is the tide in the affairs of 
 the planter, which taken at the flood, leads on to for- 
 tune, &c. How perfectly independent he feels, and 
 really is, in the Mofussil ! with what awe and respect 
 he is looked upon by the ryots around him ! To whom 
 does the miserable, hard- worked, ill-fed ryot, in his 
 hour of trouble, flee for protection, aye, even for pror 
 tection against the unfair and oppressive acts of his 
 own countryman, the native talookdar ? To whom 
 but to the kind-hearted and generous planter, the ma 
 bap, as they style him, of the locality ? And seldom 
 does he apply in vain, for the planter has a heart that 
 can feel for another, and thus, in endeavouring to do 
 good to all around him, his days run peacefully on, 
 unless he has the misfortune to have a ludzat of a 
 neighbour to steal his coolies, and offer higher rents 
 for his lands as their pottahs (leases) expire. 
 
 "The planter rises in the morning with the lark ; he 
 passes through a lane of obsequious, well-dressed 
 servants, and receives a salaam down to the ground 
 from each as he makes his way to the veranda where 
 the khansamah awaits him, chowrie in hand, to keep 
 off the flies from his master's coffee. On a tea-tray 
 beside him rests the last newspaper which came in 
 during the night ; there are also letters, some from his 
 real, and some from his ' faithful ' friends ; he runs his 
 eye over them, and then turns to a fresh chapter of the 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 67 
 
 last new novel ; meantime his beautiful Arab is ready 
 saddled, being- led up and down the avenue before his 
 admiring' eyes, and his dog's caper about and make the 
 welkin ring- with their loud baying*. The gomasta 
 approaches with a handful of native letters from the 
 out-factories ; some announcing rain and the completion 
 of the sowings, some asking- for cash, &c. Answers are 
 directed to be prepared for each, and then the lig'ht- 
 hearted planter jumps into the saddle, and his noble 
 steed springs forward with its curved neck and flowing 
 tail ; he passes over fields of indigo, and his eyes are 
 gladdened at the sight of such flourishing plants. And 
 now he ventures to make a mental calculation of the 
 probable profit that barring all accidents may accrue 
 therefrom. As he continues his ride, turning duty into 
 pleasure, he sees his people at work around him, and 
 receives a ' salaam kodawund' from each as he passes ; 
 he has no fault to find with anybody; everything 
 cliulls (goes on) like clockwork, and so, after one or 
 two smart runs after a jackall or fox, with a contented 
 heart he turns his horse's head homewards. Arrived, 
 he throws himself upon a damask couch, or easy chair, 
 and takes up his favourite paper, to finish some pleasant 
 editorial contained therein. And now approaches his 
 faithful sirdar-bearer to inform his lord that the hazree 
 ka rvoquet (breakfast time) has arrived ; and as the 
 planter is about to retire to dress, rat-a-plat, rat-a-plat, 
 come galloping up the avenue half a dozen flannel- 
 jacketed and solah* -hotted planters, and their assist- 
 ants. Rattler runs into the veranda to give his friends 
 a hearty welcome, and in an instant has his right arm 
 nearly dislocated by the force with which his visitors 
 try at it in their empressement to welcome him back with 
 a hearty, true old. English shake of the hand. 
 
 * The solah is a white pulp of a tree, of a light texture, 
 admirably adapted to keep off the sun's rays. 
 
68 EURO JEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 " ( Well, Rattler, my boy, I'm as glad as twopence 
 to see you back again/ 
 
 " ' Ha ! Snooks, how goes it ? eli ? Comment vons 
 how do you do, Monsieur Sangfroid? Delighted to see 
 you.' 
 
 " ' Ha ! Mister Rattailer my goodness it is very 
 estrange -je ne pent jamais achever un compliment en 
 Anglais ; merci. Monsieur Rattleir, I am moosh glad to 
 see you back ; PAR bleu, dat will do I tink !' 
 
 " e Oh, Rattler ! we had such a flare up a!; Noggs's the 
 other day, but we wanted you, man we wanted you ; 
 have you heard of old Snarley's misfortune?' 
 
 " ( But I say, Sniggers, don't you feel rather corn- 
 flushed after last night's booz? Hi, Kudcla Bux, 
 bellattee pawny lao.' * 
 
 " ( Acha Iwdahround" f and in a brace of minutes 
 a dozen of Bathgate's double-aerated are made ma- 
 rines of. 
 
 " Breakfast is now over, the lamb chops and sau- 
 terne have been tried and pronounced excellent, and 
 now for the order of the day. 
 
 " i Well, my boys, what shall we be after ? Snooks, I 
 know, will be for the billiards ; let Shanks go along 
 with him, and you, Mr. Cunningfellow, you had better 
 follow and look on and learn, and let those who choose, 
 take a stroll with me into the stables. I want to look 
 after my purchases, after which we'll have a set-to 
 with the rifles or quoits, or whatever you like best/ 
 
 " Thus passes the day, during which beUattee pawny 
 is in constant requisition. Allsopp's pale ale has been 
 opened by dozens at a time, and hundreds, nay thou- 
 sands of Manillas have been puffed into the air. 
 
 " The sun is now declining in the western hemisphere, 
 and the jolly host reminds his guests that the horses 
 
 * " Bring soda-water ! " 
 
 f " Yes, sir ; " or " Good, your slave will do it." 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. OU 
 
 and elephant are ready at the door ; a hasty wash and 
 change of clothes now takes place, and behold our 
 friends mounted and dashing* on to the highlands in 
 search of a jackall, or whatever fortune may throw in 
 their way. 
 
 " It is night, and a hundred lights illume the man- 
 sion; the bearded khansumah, with folded hands, 
 informs his munnib that kannah (dinner) is on the 
 table. We will not say one hackneyed word about the 
 choicest viands of the season, sparkling- wines, groans 
 of the table, and all that kind of thing ; suffice it to 
 say, Morgan Rattler was never known to give a bad 
 dinner, and so now that we have got his guests' legs 
 under his mahogany, let us leave them to get from 
 under it when, and how, they can. 
 
 " It must not be supposed that the life of a planter is 
 always couleur de rose. Oh, no ! the dark clouds of 
 adversity and disappointment obscure the horizon of 
 the planter as they do that of all other walks in life ; the 
 season may be unfavourable, perhaps downright bad, 
 much money has been sunk, lost, because of a few 
 showers of rain more or less ; and then the agents hum 
 and haw, and look stiff, and talk about low prices, 
 scarcity of money in the market, panic at home, crisis 
 in America, hostilities with France, necessity of cur- 
 tailment, &c. &c. But all this kind of thing does not 
 make the planter despair: he exclaims with Jacob 
 Faithful, ' Better luck next time,' believes in the hope 
 of doing better next year, and when the next season is 
 closed, and his hopes have been realized beyond all 
 computation, who would, or could, grudge him his good 
 luck ? Let us rather close this long yarn by wishing 
 each good fellow among the fraternity a bumper 
 season this year, and many duplicates of it for the 
 future." 
 
 The life of an English lady in India is one of perfect 
 leisure, No household cares occupy her thoughts or 
 
70 EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 kill her time. The khansumak and the ayah between 
 them assume all the duties which in England pertain 
 to the mistress of a household, and she has little left 
 her to do beyond reading* the stock of a circulating 
 library, and doing a little knitting and crochet work. 
 If she be an equestrian, and is so circumstanced as to 
 have horses kept for her, the early mornings and late 
 evenings may be consumed in out-of-door exercise if 
 she is musical, or cultivates the fine arts, a part of the 
 day may be pleasantly employed in illustrating the 
 scenery of the country, and the costumes and habits of 
 the people. If piously or charitably inclined, or dis- 
 posed to activity in the absence of ennobling motives, 
 the numerous ladies' committees of the branches of the 
 Bible societies, or associations for the promotion of 
 education among the Christian poor or native females, 
 open a scope to her philanthropy. Should she happily 
 be a mother of children, the baba logue, or little people, 
 as the olive-branches are called in India, engage much 
 of her care, and mitigate the solitude of her position, 
 while her husband is engaged in his official duties. 
 
 Children, though a source of much delight in India, 
 are, at the same time, objects of great solicitude. Pre- 
 maturely enfeebled by the intense heat of the climate, 
 and exposed to all the diseases incidental to infancy in 
 other countries, they either grow up poor attenuated 
 creatures, or are sent to England, ere they attain their 
 sixth year, that their constitutions may not be shaken 
 irrevocably. In either case the parents endure much 
 agony. They must either see their offspring waste 
 away and fall victims to disease, or consent to be 
 separated from them for many years, to the utter 
 destruction of all those sentiments which hallow the 
 relations of parent to child, and constitute the chief 
 charm of existence. It is rare indeed that, after a 
 separation of five or six years, a son or daughter suf- 
 ficiently remember their parents to feel towards them. 
 
EUROPEAN LIFE IN INDIA. 71 
 
 the affection which is the result of perpetual inter- 
 course. A sad drawback is all this to the pleasure of 
 matrimony in India ; but it is an evil without remedy. 
 There are certainly schools and sanataria in the moun- 
 taifts of India, access to which is comparatively easy, 
 and where the fierceness of the sun is mitigated and 
 subdued by the fine breezes from the north ; but the 
 quality of education at the academies, and the con- 
 tinual companionship of native servants, are unfavour- 
 able to the formation of that peculiarly " British " cha- 
 racter which every Englishman holds to be desirable 
 in his child. Separation therefore becomes unavoid- 
 able. The addition of a child or two makes an enor- 
 mous difference in the expenditure of a family, for there 
 must be special servants to attend upon them. There 
 must be a nurse, and often a little boy, and when the 
 hope of the family is two or three years old, he must 
 have a pony wherewith to take the air, and the pony 
 must have a syce. Then the doctor of the establish- 
 ment is more frequently called in to assuage a mother's 
 alarm, and bills increase in length. It is only in the 
 article of dress that children are inexpensive. For the 
 greater part of the day their clothing consists of one 
 small chemise, and they are neither encumbered with 
 stockings nor shoes. Their toys are not costly, for the 
 India manufacturers compose them either of wood or 
 sola the light pulp of a tree; the former cannot be 
 broken, and the latter are so cheap, that if one hundred 
 per week were immolated, a father could hardly feel 
 the loss. 
 
72 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 The first railway Boat travelling on the Ganges The banks 
 of tJie Hooghly Daivk Marching The necessary prepara- 
 tions and equipment. 
 
 IT will scarcely be credited by those who know the 
 English propensity to improve every possession, re- 
 claim every inch of savage ground, and augment the 
 comforts of the inhabitants of any country under their 
 rule, how little has been done to promote intercourse 
 with the interior by the construction of carriage roads. 
 There are but one or two good long roads, extending* 
 across the continent, over which a buggy may be safely 
 driven the rest are paths cut by the continual traffic 
 of native carts, pedestrians, camel cqfilas, or caravans, 
 and the dawk. Had it not been that a railway has 
 just been opened in a corner of India, between Bombay 
 and Tannah, this little volume would have gone forth, 
 with the announcement, so discreditable to the rulers of 
 the country, that although we have had railways in 
 England since 18*27. and have constructed them in the 
 West Indies and other colonies., such a means of loco- 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 73 
 
 motion was still wanting- in tlie East Indies. The 
 event the opening- of the Bombay and Tannah rail- 
 way is one of such deep interest and importance, 
 neralding, as we may hope it does, a still greater ad- 
 vance in that direction, that we shall make no apology 
 for transferring* the description of the ceremony from 
 the fugitive pages of the Illustrated News. 
 
 The time-honoured maxim, that peace has its tri- 
 umphs as well as war, has just been exemplified in 
 Western India by the opening* of the Great Indian 
 Peninsula railway, on the 16th of April, 1853, which 
 must be a memorable day henceforth- in the annals of 
 the country memorable as the greatest of battles, and 
 surely more glorious. The interesting- intelligence 
 is recorded with glowing enthusiasm by the Bombay 
 journals. The Overland Telegraph and Courier de- 
 scribes the above event as " a triumph, to which, in 
 comparison, all our victories in the East seem tame and 
 commonplace. The opening of the Great Indian Penin- 
 sula railway will be remembered by the natives of India 
 when the battle fields of Plassey, Assay e, Meaiiee, and 
 Goojerat, have become the mere landmarks of history. 
 The proud arrays of England have conquered, and 
 kept in subjection, hundreds of millions of people, but 
 her power was never so nobly exemplified as when, 
 upon the above date, the long line of carriages, 
 conveying nearly 500 persons, glided smoothly and 
 easily away amidst the shouts of assembled thousands. 
 It was then that the immense masses of the native 
 population paid true and heartfelt homage to the power 
 and greatness of their European conquerors. The* 
 superstition of ages seemed to melt away as the 
 gigantic reality of steam and mechanism passed before 
 their wondering eyes. A locomotive engine conveys 
 an idea of calm concentrated power. There is no 
 straining at starting : a touch is given, the wheels re- 
 volve, and the immense mass rolls on without trembling 
 
74: TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 or undulation. The natives saw this, and they salaamed 
 the omnipotence of steam as it passed. 
 
 Before we describe the ceremony of the day, we 
 shall sketch the railway itself. The first turf was 
 turned at Bombay, on the 31st of October, 1850. 
 Very little was done for the first eight months, 
 till Messrs. Faviell and Fowler, the contractors, at 
 one end, and Mr. Jackson at the other, took mat- 
 ters in hand. The work appears to have been one 
 of great labour and difficulty. In addition to a most 
 trying- climate (in which the constitution of Mr. 
 Fowler, the partner of Mr. Faviell, as well as that of 
 many of the English labourers they took out with them, 
 failed), Mr. Faviell found himself, in March, 1852, 
 working single-handed, his partner having gone to Eng- 
 land for the benefit of his health. Mr. Faviell was 
 then dependent principally on native labour : the men 
 are scarce, and in the rice-harvest time always difficult 
 to manage : alteration in the arrangement of the work, 
 or strict orders given by the contractor, often gave 
 offence, when men went away in a body of fifty or a 
 hundred at a time. It was also difficult to get them 
 to earn their small rate of wages. 
 
 Snakes abounded on the line : the cobra di capello, 
 and a small dark snake, were very common among* the 
 stones the former is an object of worship, and both 
 have a deadly bite. Under these and many other 
 difficulties, however, the double line of railway has 
 been completed from Bombay to Tannah. 
 
 From the Boree Bunder the railway proceeds by a 
 'very densely -peopled district, till, skirting along the 
 shore, it passes the lofty precipice of Nowrojee Hill. 
 Here the public road twice crosses it at nearly right 
 angles, where huge gates shut up the railway, or cut 
 off the public road, according as they are in one posi- 
 tion or another. After passing under the Mazagon 
 viaduct, opposite the Suddur Awlut, the railway de- 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 75 
 
 scribes a graceful double curve of large radius, and 
 then crosses tbe Byculla road, near the Bishop's house, 
 and, passing under a viaduct, it reaches the flats near 
 the race-course. From the curious gravel-bank called 
 Phipps's Cart, it stretches along the flats to Sien for 
 six miles, in almost a straight line. At Sion it passes 
 under the public road and along the base of the hill, 
 on the summit of which is an old Marathi fort, and a 
 Portuguese church contiguous. Here it is joined by 
 the branch at Mahim, an unimportant fishing village, 
 but likely to be transformed by the railway into a busy 
 port. Next, the line sweeps across the Sion Marsh, 
 the embanking of which threatened to be very trouble- 
 some the material thrown in sinking amongst the 
 mud, which afterwards rose up, forming a little island 
 on each side along' the line. Here, immediately ad- 
 joining, and nearly parallel to the railway, we have 
 the Sion causeway on one side ; and full in view, two 
 miles distant, the magnificent work of the like kind, 
 constructed by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, and first 
 opened in 1844. The railway now bends considerably 
 to the right, and, passing through a long line of salt- 
 pans, it enters Salsette, and encounters the only for- 
 midable obstruction on the line a beautifully wooded 
 ridge, traversed by an open cutting, about a mile and a 
 half in length, about one hundred and twenty feet 
 across at the widest part, and fifty feet in depth. For 
 the next fourteen miles the line is perfectly level, the 
 rails being laid along the surface of the ground with 
 merely sufficient embanking to save them from the risk 
 of flooding during the rains. The country, for a con- 
 siderable distance, is open on both sides, and the view 
 is extremely beautiful. To the left are the low, rocky, 
 wooded ridges of Salsette ; woodlands and richly-culti- 
 vated fields, hamlets and cottages, filling up the inter- 
 vening space. On the right, parallel to and close beside 
 the railway for about eight miles, is the salt-water 
 
70 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 creek called the Tannah "River, and just beyond are the 
 magnificent ghauts. The line, on approaching Tannah, 
 becomes embowered under magnificent trees. On en- 
 tering' the village, it turns rather quickly round towards 
 the viaduct, by which it crosses the river, here divided 
 by a long and rocky island. The channel on the Tan- 
 nah side is narrow, and the arches here are of moderate 
 span. On the mainland side the channel is deep and 
 narrow ; and an iron bridge, somewhat on the tubular 
 plan, 86 feet span, permits the shipping to pass under 
 it. The whole viaduct, from shore to shore, including- 
 the part over the river, is about 1,000 feet in length, 
 and the ferry way about 40 feet above the high-water 
 mark. Thence the line runs along the base of the hill, 
 at a distance of about three miles, right on to the pro- 
 jecting spur of Parsick Point, which it penetrates by a 
 tunnel of 100 yards in length. On the other side the 
 traveller passes for about a mile along the margin of 
 the Callian River, surrounded by some of the most 
 magnificent scenery in the world, when a second tunnel 
 is passed, and the village of Callian is soon reached. 
 
 The inauguration, on the 16th of April, was alto- 
 gether a most interesting scene. By half-past three 
 o'clock the majority of the company had taken their 
 seats in the train. 
 
 The state carriage was occupied by Sir William and 
 Lady Yardley, Sir Charles and Lady Jackson, the Hon. 
 A. Bell and Lady, the Hon. D. A. Blane, Sir Henry 
 and Lady Leeke, &c. 
 
 At half-past three o'clock, a royal salute was fired 
 from -the ramparts of Fort George, immediately after 
 which the well-filled train, consisting of fourteen first, 
 second, and third-class carriages, drawn by three lo- 
 comotive engines, and containing in all, it was said, 
 above five hundred persons, started for the terminus at 
 Boree Bunder. 
 
 Tens of thousands of persons surrounded the spot ; 
 
TRAVELLING IN" INDIA. 77 
 
 and, as the moving- mass swept along the way, still 
 there were tens of thousands looking' on men, women, 
 and children perched on wall tops, on the branches of 
 trees, even on the masts of Arab buglas along the har- 
 bour ; from windows and from the tops of temples and 
 of houses; from every eminence around the town: 
 finally, when the train had passed the more densely- 
 populated parts, still the surrounding fields were 
 studded with spectators. 
 
 Besides the inhabitants of Bombay proper, and the 
 neighbouring country, there were in those crowds 
 people from Scinde, from Cabul, from Aifghanistan, 
 from Central Asia, from the Persian Gulf, from Arabia, 
 and from the East Coast of Africa. 
 
 There is little to describe, particularly to the great 
 majority of our readers, in an ordinary railway trip. 
 It is due, however, to those who had the task of ma- 
 turing all the arrangements for the occasion, to say 
 that everything went on smoothly. The train stopped 
 at Sion, going out, to allow of the engines being 
 watered. At no time was the speed above thirty-five 
 miles an hour, and generally it was much under that. 
 On the train approaching Tannah, the crowds lined 
 the sides thickly for more than a mile, and were kept 
 in order by the Ghat police. The time taken to reach 
 Tannah (twenty-four miles), including the stoppage at 
 Sion, was fifty-five minutes. The return trip occupied 
 only forty. 
 
 Arrived at Tannah, the party found, under an im 
 mense tent, at once a cool retreat and a splendid tiffin. 
 Major Swanson, the senior Director present, took the 
 chair ; supported by the Hon. Sir William Yardley, 
 Chief Justice ; by Sir Henry Leeke, R.N., Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy ; also immediately 
 surrounded by the Hon. Messrs. Bell and Blane, 
 Members of Council ; Sir Charles Jackson, Puisne 
 Judge H. M.'s Supreme Court; Colonel F. P. Lester, 
 
78 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 Surgeon - General Taylor, Superintending - Surgeon 
 Boyd, Colonel Woodburn, C.B., Commandant of the 
 Garrison ; Mr. Le Messurier, Advocate - General ; 
 Colonel Hale, Adjutant- General ; and a distinguished 
 company, comprising the elite of Bombay. 
 
 At a separate table laid out for the Parsee pas- 
 sengers were Messrs. Cursetjee Jamsetjee, Bomanjee 
 Hormusjee, Manockjee Nusserwanjee, Merwanjee Jee- 
 jeebhoy, Sorabjee Jamsatjee, Limjee Manockjee, Fur- 
 doonjee Hormasjee, Novvrojee Furdoonjee, Nowrojee 
 Dorabjee Chabookwalla. Sitting quietly looking on 
 were Meer Ali Jan and a few Marwarrie gentlemen. 
 
 Several appropriate speeches were made, and toasts 
 drunk, which we have not space to report. 
 
 Shortly after, the party broke up, and returned to 
 the Boree Bunder terminus. 
 
 As it must necessarily be some years before railways 
 can become general in India, we must altogether put 
 them out of consideration for the present in treating of 
 the mode of travelling open to the Europeans and re- 
 spectable natives in that country. 
 
 The only methods, then, by which remote distances 
 can be reached are the boat, the dawk, and the horse. 
 
 Boat travelling is common on the Ganges, the 
 Indus, the Brahmapootra, and the Irrawaddy. The 
 other rivers, such as the Nerbudda, the Godavery, 
 Kistna, &c., admit of traffic by small boats, but are 
 rarely traversed by Europeans. 
 
 The boat travelling is of two kinds. There is the 
 
 accommodation flat, tugged by iron steamers on the 
 
 proceeding as far 
 there is the barge, or schooner, under the various 
 
 Ganges, and proceeding as far as the Jumna, and 
 
 , , 
 
 denominations of budgerow, pinnace, and bholio. The 
 budgerow is the largest, and for a person who is not in 
 a hurry, it forms a very agreeable mode of transit. 
 The larger budgerows are of from fifty to eighty tons 
 burthen. One-half of the vessel consists of a decked 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 79 
 
 cabin having' two or three spacious rooms, a poop, and 
 an awning-. The fore part of the vessel is occupied bj 
 the crew, who consist of a manjee, or steersman, and 
 from six to ten dandies, or boatmen, who either work 
 the sails, or row or tug the vessel when the wind and 
 tide are adverse. The budg'erow is often accompanied 
 by a panshrvay, a small boat in which the cooking* is 
 carried on, for it is impossible to exist in the bungalow 
 cabin if cooking* is conducted on board with the wind 
 ahead. In these budgerows voyages are made into the 
 interior to a distance of 1,000 miles, occupying- two, 
 three, and even four months. A gentleman, therefore, 
 must take with him his establishment of servants at 
 any rate, his cook and his personal servant. Fowls, 
 milk, and butter, can be obtained at the villages on the 
 banks of the river, and rice and fire- wood are also to 
 be had; but anything else must be carried from Cal- 
 cutta, Thus a store of hams, tongues, humps, pre- 
 served meats, anchovies, sardines, pickles, preserves, 
 &c., will be found necessary, and a complete camp 
 equipage is indispensable. With a few books and an 
 intelligent companion a river voyage is by no means so 
 disagreeable a thing. The banks of the river present 
 a variety of scenery, and when the wind is foul, or the 
 budgerow gets upon a sand-bank, the passenger can go 
 on shore and amuse himself with his fowling-piece. 
 
 To one who has never seen any larger river than the 
 Thames or Severn, the Ganges presents a noble ap- 
 pearance. Its immense expanse raises the idea of an 
 ocean ; the distant trees look more as if they grew on 
 detached islands than on the opposite bank of the 
 river. The stillness of the scene adds to the illusion; for 
 notwithstanding the rapid current and muddy tinge of 
 the water, the Ganges flows on so soft and yielding a 
 soil that it is accompanied by none of that loud hoarse 
 murmuring which characterizes a body of water run- 
 ning over a rocky bed or gravelly bottom. 
 
80 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 The Ganges, however, is very different to the 
 Hooghly, the river which is continued from it to the 
 ocean. The former realizes the sublime, the latter is 
 simply pretty. 
 
 It is astonishing that so little has ever been said and 
 written about the extraordinary beauty of the banks of 
 the Hooghly, in the environs of Calcutta. The scenery 
 on either side of the river is charming. The mariner 
 who has, during a long* period, gazed upon nothing 
 excepting sky and water, must fancy that Paradise 
 has opened upon his wondering eyes. While the 
 upper provinces of India, though boasting grander 
 features (the Hooghly being the most sublime object 
 in the picture we are contemplating), present, at 
 various seasons of the year, very different aspects, 
 Bengal is always the same. The moisture of its 
 climate, and the nature of the soil, concur in preserving 
 an eternal verdure, which is only to be seen during the 
 season of the rains in the more arid districts. Even in 
 the hottest weather, when the thermometer is up to 
 130, perhaps for weeks together, and when the sun 
 pours down so fierce a flood of light that it would 
 seem as if its scorching influence were sufficient to 
 dry up every blade of grass, the whole earth is 
 covered with a rich carpet, and the moment that the 
 sun sets, a refreshing coolness fills the air, and the 
 eyes revel upon scenery of the richest luxuriance. 
 Excepting in the immediate vicinity of the river, 
 Bengal is a dead flat ; and were it not for the diver- 
 sity occasioned by the quantity of its wood, sometimes 
 spread into groves, at others thickening into forests, 
 and in all places profusely scattered, it would be 
 monotonous in the extreme. But the banks of the 
 Hooghly are, in many places, so high that, especially at 
 some sharp angle of the river, they assume the cha- 
 racter of promontories ; and these are wooded to the 
 top. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the foliage 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 81 
 
 winch waves over this favoured land. The bamboo 
 flings its long* branches down with all the grace of the 
 willow, the numerous species of palms rise in regal 
 majesty above, and the fine feathery foliag'e of both 
 are relieved by the bright masses of the neem, the 
 peepul, and a host of others, many bearing resplendent 
 flowers of a thousand dyes. The magnolia is common 
 in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and amid a vast 
 number of the acacia tribe, there is one of peculiar 
 beauty, called the babool. It is covered with a flower 
 tufted like a ball, of a golden colour, which gives out 
 so delicious a perfume to the breeze that one is suffi- 
 cient to scent a whole garden. 
 
 Upon leaving Calcutta, the river, for miles, presents 
 the most g'ay and beautiful scenes imaginable. At 
 comparatively short intervals there are ghauts or land- 
 ing places, built from the banks into the water, for the 
 purpose of affording* facilities for the natives to bathe 
 and fill their water-pots ; these are all constructed of 
 brick, chunamed. The chunam is a stucco made prin- 
 cipally of lime, which takes a fine polish, and which, 
 being porous, always presents a dry surface. It gives 
 all the effects of stone to the buildings which are 
 faced with it ; and when formed of the finest materials, 
 many beautiful architectural ornaments are constructed 
 of it. Near these ghauts, which consist of wide flights 
 of steps finished on either side with a balustrade, there 
 is usually a mosque, a pagoda, or a series of small 
 Hindoo temples, entitled mhuts, which are of a bee- 
 hive shape, and not a great deal larger, and which, 
 when grouped together, produce a very good effect. 
 The summits of the most striking elevations are usually 
 crowned by a picturesque building-, either a mosque or 
 a pagoda ; formerly the latter were invariably known 
 by the mitre-like appearance of their domes, but many 
 modern erections have the round, flattened dome of 
 Mussulman temples. These beautiful domes, or their ac- 
 
 G 
 
82 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 companying minarets, are sometimes only seen peeping 
 through the branches of the trees ; and if placed on 
 high ground, they are approached by a stair, which 
 winds down the declivity, and is partially revealed at 
 every opening. These stairs, which are very hand- 
 some, usually end in a ghaut; and they are often, if 
 belonging to a Hindoo temple, strewed from the top to 
 the bottom with fresh flowers of the most beautiful 
 description. Long garlands of the Indian jessamine, a 
 large white double blossom, with a rich but heavy 
 perfume or of a large scarlet or yellow flower, hang 
 over the rails, and are often flung into the river as 
 propitiatory offerings ; every Hindoo shrine being pro- 
 fusely decorated with flowers, the floors even are 
 strewed with them. The followers of Mahomed 
 have so far adopted the custom of their heathen 
 neighbours, as to spread flowers upon the tombs of 
 their departed friends; both religions light lamps in 
 their temples at night, and the glimmering of these 
 small beacons through the trees after sunset adds con- 
 siderably to the charm of the scene. There is likewise 
 another attraction. Many of the trees actually seem 
 encircled by a halo, in consequence of the multitudes 
 of fire-flies which glance in and out, emitting a greenish 
 golden light, like that which would proceed from a 
 lamp formed of emeralds. Though the greater num- 
 ber of these luminous insects disport themselves round 
 the trees, many flash like meteors along* the air, cross- 
 ing the path, whether on shore or on the water, 
 and rendering night more beautiful, even in the pre- 
 sence of the stars, which come out so thickly and so 
 brightly in this glittering hemisphere, that, excepting 
 during the cloudy season of the rains, the nights are 
 never dark. While the sun has still left a soft stain of 
 either saffron or crimson upon the river, how pleasant 
 it is to glide along ; at one time, a wooded promontory 
 stretching into the water, bounding the view at 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 83 
 
 another, a wide expanse of water opening- before it, 
 studded with islands, and apparently leading to regions 
 of still softer enchantment. All this pomp of beauty 
 is increased as we approach Barrackpore and Seram- 
 pore, places opposite to each other, on the banks of the 
 river, sixteen miles from Calcutta. 
 
 The principal part of Barrackpore lies inland, but 
 the ghaut, the signal-post, the viceregal palace, and 
 various other building's, partly embowered in trees, are 
 visible ; while on the opposite shore, Serampore pre- 
 sents one of the noblest esplanades that can be 
 imagined, backed by a range of magnificent houses. 
 Some are exceedingly lofty, and surrounded by exten- 
 sive court-yards ; others present rich clusters of pillars 
 in long colonnades, supporting verandahs tier upon tier, 
 while the number of fine trees which intervene afford a 
 most beautiful diversity of objects. The interior of 
 Serampore keeps the promise which a distant view has 
 given 5 it is without exception the best kept town in 
 India. The Protestant missionaries of Bengal have 
 established their head-quarters at Serampore ; there 
 they have erected a college, one of the largest and 
 handsomest amid the many large and handsome build- 
 ings of the place, and the Danes themselves (who for- 
 merly owned Serampore) being a highly religious and 
 a very quiet and orderly community, there is nothing 
 in the shape of dissipation going on in a settlement 
 which looks as if it must belong to some splendid and 
 brilliant court, the suburban retreat of regal magnifi- 
 cence. The ghauts are not crowded as in Cal- 
 cutta with multitudes of merely trading vessels, 
 but the frigate-like pinnace, the gaily-painted bud- 
 gerow, and the graceful bohlio, somewhat resem- 
 bling, though more brilliant in its decorations, the 
 Venetian gondola, dance upon the glittering surface 
 of the river, or spreading their white sails to the 
 breeze, glide swiftly along. These gay and fairy-like 
 
84 TRAVELLING IX INDIA. 
 
 vessels are contrasted by the country craft continually 
 ascending 1 or descending* the mig'hty stream, boats of 
 various dimensions, from eighty maunds burthen (a 
 maund is about forty pounds), to the small dinghee, 
 which looks as if the centre was formed of a hogshead, 
 the sort of cabin or awning raised as a protection 
 against the weather, having this appearance. ^ The 
 larger kinds have thatched roofs, or choppers as they 
 are called ; and they are rendered still more picturesque 
 by a ragged sail, sometimes the colour of ochre, and 
 by long garlands of white, yellow, and scarlet flowers, 
 festooned from the prow. 
 
 The native groups which congregate in the streets 
 and ghauts of Serampore are very striking. No abject 
 poverty, and no disg*usting features of any kind, are to 
 be seen ; the very convicts who work in fetters in the 
 streets, and who are employed in removing dirt or rub- 
 bish of every sort, are cheerful and orderly. In fact, 
 the lower orders of natives lazily reconcile themselves to 
 their condition, and if not ill-treated will submit with 
 patience to any chang*e of fortune. And here it will 
 not be out of place to introduce an anecdote relative to 
 convicts in India that is highly characteristic of 
 native society, and shows the extraordinary principles 
 of honour on which even the lower classes act : A 
 magistrate, being anxious to cut a road through a 
 dense forest, employed the convicts under his charge 
 for that purpose. The labour was very great, and also 
 exceedingly tedious, in consequence of the difficulty 
 which the men sustained in working* in their manacles. 
 The magistrate was known to be of a benevolent dis- 
 position, and a deputation of the convicts waited on 
 him one day, and told him that if he would permit 
 their fetters to be removed, and trust to their pledge 
 that they would not take advantage of the facilities it 
 would afford them for escape, he should not lose a 
 single man ; while the work would be more speedily 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 85 
 
 and efficiently performed. The magistrate, after a 
 short deliberation, determined to hazard the chance of 
 what might have been a very serious affair to himself, 
 and relieved the men from their chains. Long- before 
 he could have expected its completion he had nine 
 miles of broad road cleared ; while the convicts re- 
 turned voluntarily every night to their jail, and as they 
 had promised, he did not lose one of their number. 
 
 There are a number of natives resident at Seram- 
 pore. Some of their houses, having* rather a cas- 
 tellated appearance, and being- more secluded from 
 view than those of the Europeans, may be seen half- 
 shadowed by trees, and half abutting- into the river, 
 adding considerably to the beauty and variety of the 
 landscape. They also assemble in huge parties in the 
 streets and thoroughfares, all clad in the purest white 
 muslin. The Hindoos of Bengal have not so generally 
 adopted the Mohammedan vest and trousers as those 
 of the upper country. They wear the dhotee, which 
 consists of one long breadth of muslin folded round the 
 loins, and descending in very graceful drapery to the 
 ancles. The upper part of their bodies is only par- 
 tially covered with another breadth of muslin, which is 
 arranged in a variety of ways, the wearer often chang- 
 ing its mode as he walks along. Notwithstanding the 
 fierce vertical rays of the sun, the Bengallees fre- 
 quently go bareheaded, the men occasionally some- 
 what effeminately wearing a wreath of white flowers 
 in their hair. The triple string, the distinguishing 
 mark of a Brahmin, worn across the shoulder, and 
 fastening on the opposite side at the waist, is fre- 
 quently formed of threaded flowers, and has a good 
 appearance upon the polished skins of men, who from 
 the symmetry of their proportions may be compared 
 to so many moving statues of bronze. Sometimes the 
 rich people are disfigured by a superabundance of 
 flesh, but in that case they have usually the good 
 
86 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 taste to put on additional clothing. Rich gold or- 
 naments in the shape of bracelets, ear-rings, and 
 talismans of various kinds suspended from the neck, 
 complete a costume which is graceful, flowing, and 
 picturesque. It would be difficult by mere words to 
 convey any adequate idea of the soft enchantments of 
 a scane in which the magnificent and the romantic are 
 so strongly blended together. 
 
 The adoption of the budgerow in preference to the 
 river steamer or the dawk, is generally the result of 
 economical considerations. The fare by the river 
 steamer is very hig'h, and beyond the means of a young 
 officer about to join his regiment, or an assistant 
 planter proceeding- to his factory. In the case of the 
 officer a certain number of days are allowed him for 
 the voyage, during which he receives a travelling 
 gratuity in the shape of extra daily pay, and this sup- 
 plies an inducement to him to take the slower course 
 when other motives do not prevail. 
 
 Boat travelling can only be effected by those who 
 belong to the Bengal Presidency, or who may be or- 
 dered from the mouth of the Indus to a station at the 
 upper part of the Sutlej. In the latter case, the Bom- 
 bay officer is conveyed to Kurrachee, the chief port at 
 the mouth of the Indus, and from thence he makes 
 his way by a river steamer or boat. The voyage up 
 the Indus is far from pleasant. Tte intense heat, the 
 sandy shores, the burning blast, carrying' with it mil- 
 lions of particles of sand, the unfriendly character of 
 the natives all combine to render the voyage dreary, 
 painful, and uninteresting. 
 
 The dawk, or palankeen conveyance, is a certain 
 if not a rapid means of transit. Ensconced in a 
 palankeen, borne by four natives, who are accompanied 
 by four or eight more, to relieve them at brief inter- 
 vals, you are carried up the country at the rate of 
 something less than three miles an hour. Lying your 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 87 
 
 length along upon a well-stuffed mattrass, covered 
 with silk or morocco leather, supported by pillows, 
 and having in front of you at the upper end of the 
 interior of the palankeen, a shelf and drawer, and 
 nettings containing books, a telescope, writing mate- 
 rials, biscuits, and a bottle of weak brandy and water, 
 you pass over many miles delightfully enough. You 
 stop when you please, and at intervals arranged by 
 yourself you halt at a bungalow, or small building 
 on the ground floor, which the Government has con- 
 structed for the accommodation of travellers in a 
 country where no road-side inn offers shelter to the 
 wayfarer. Here an active servant prepares you a 
 breakfast, or a simple dinner of curried fowl, while a 
 mussalchee will procure you the means of having a re- 
 freshing bath, in a room appropriated to such pur- 
 poses. 
 
 You may remain, if you like, an entire day at the 
 bungalow for the small charge of one rupee; of 
 course, paying extra for the meals a mere trifle. As 
 your baggage always accompanies you, in tin boxes, 
 covered with waterproof material, and slung across the 
 shoulders of bangy wallahs, as they are called, you 
 are enabled to procure a change of linen, to write 
 letters of business or friendship, and to while away an 
 hour in sketching (if you have a taste and talent for 
 drawing) the scenery around you, which is often of a 
 very pleasing* character. To do them justice, the en- 
 gineer officers, who constructed the bungalows, have 
 selected the most interesting and elevated sites. 
 
 If a person intends to proceed into the interior by 
 dawk, the Post-Master-General at the Presidency 
 must receive timely intimation of his purposes, that he 
 may give orders to the functionaries along the line of 
 route, to order the relays of bearers to be in attendance 
 at the time specified. At the same time the intending* 
 traveller pays to the Post-Master-General the expenses 
 
88 TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 of the trip, and an additional sum, by way of deposit 
 for demurrage that is to say, he offers a sort of gua- 
 rantee that, if he does not travel at the rate he at 
 first intended, he will make good the sum that has 
 been expended in retaining bearers on the line for his 
 special use. 
 
 Dawk travelling is conducted both by night and 
 da} r . At night, a mussalchee runs by the side of the 
 palankeen with a lighted torch to guide the bearers 
 through the jungles which torch he continually feeds 
 from a bottle of oil slung at his waist. To scare away 
 wild animals and serpents, and to cheer them on their 
 journey, the bearers often keep up a low murmuring 
 chorus one of them calling out a few words of a song 
 (often impromptu, and not always complimentary to 
 the traveller if he be above the average weight), and 
 the remainder taking up the refrain. 
 
 A horse dawk has been established within the last 
 few years to run between Calcutta and Delhi. It 
 consists of a palankeen on wheels, and will perhaps 
 become general before the railways are constructed. 
 
 A more independent, but of course a much slower 
 mode of making one's way up the country, is to 
 inarch, or rather ride on horseback, accompanied by a 
 tent, bag, and baggage. This plan is unavoidable along 
 the roads where a dawk has not been established, or 
 when an officer proceeds with a detachment of troops. 
 Rising at four or five A.M., the traveller mounts his steed 
 and proceeds for about fifteen miles or more, while his 
 tent either precedes or follows him. By the time the 
 sun is high in the heavens, and his rays become 
 intolerable, the tent has been pitched in a mango 
 grove, breakfast prepared, the horse picketted and 
 
 f roomed, and the traveller refreshed with a bath, 
 he day is then passed in shooting, reading, or per- 
 haps in a visit to some neighbouring civilian, or 
 planter, and bed is sought at an early hour, that the 
 
TflAVELLING IN INDIA. 89 
 
 tent may be struck betimes ; and conveyed to the next 
 appointed stage. 
 
 Short distances are often accomplished by relays of 
 horses. Men in India think no thin g of riding- from 
 fifty to seventy miles without any other pause than is 
 necessary for dismounting 1 from one horse and mount-- 
 ing another. Sometimes, when the road will admit 
 of it ; a journey is made in a buggy a sort of hooded 
 cab. On the Bombay side of India there is a regular 
 coach, which travels up the ghauts from Panwell, two 
 hours' sail from Bombay, but the distance effected is 
 very small in comparison to what ought to be accom- 
 plished in and for such a country as India. 
 
 In speaking of travelling', no reference is necessary 
 to journeys on the summit of an elephant or a camel. 
 No one having' respect for his bones, would volunta- 
 rily adopt a species of locomotion which is invariably 
 attended with great pain and fatigue. 
 
90 THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 
 
 The Banian tree GaneshaThe Peepul General belief The 
 Sissoo The Syywam The Talipot, its uses 'The Cocoa-nut, 
 invaluable to the native Traditions of the mango grove. 
 
 THE tropical lands are proverbially rich in vegetation. 
 Nature has lavished upon them all her choicest gifts. 
 The most gigantic trees, the densest forests, the 
 broadest leaves, the largest flowers, the most luxurious 
 1 creepers, luscious fruits, nutritious vegetables, herbs 
 of overpowering fragrance, simples of inestimable 
 efficacy a pharmacopeia unrivalled. These are the 
 characteristics of the spontaneous vegetation of India. 
 Nowhere is there such abundance or such infinite 
 variety. But man, not content with the free offerings 
 of Nature, or anxious to recognise and expand her fer- 
 tility, has employed all the resources of art to evolve 
 the powers of the soil, and to add to the stores of the 
 East the useful and wholesome productions of the 
 West ; while piety has laboured to increase the indi- 
 genous offspring of the land, and commerce has de- 
 manded a multiplication of those trees which enjoy 
 
THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA, 91 
 
 favour in countries where vegetation is comparatively 
 scant. There is nothing* for which the sylvan scenery 
 of India is more remarkable than the groves of palm 
 and mango trees planted all over the empire the 
 former in the vicinity of the coasts, the latter in the 
 north-western provinces and Behar. A strong reli- 
 gious feeling influences the Hindoo in these planta- 
 tions. He believes that his soul in the next world is 
 benefited by the blessings and grateful feelings of 
 those of his fellow creatures who, unmolested, eat the 
 fruit and enjoy the. shade of the trees he has planted 
 during his sojourn in this world. The names of the 
 great men who built the castles, palaces, and tombs at 
 Delhi and Agra, have been almost all forgotten, be- 
 cause no one enjoys any advantages from them but 
 the names of those who planted the mango groves are 
 still supposed to be remembered by all who eat of 
 their fruit, sit in their shade, and drink of their water, 
 from whatever part of the world they come. 
 
 The most stupendous and remarkable trees in India 
 are, the teak, the palm, the banyan, the sissoo, the 
 saul, the peepul, the bamboo, and the talipot. 
 
 Of these, for the extent of ground which it covers, 
 and the peculiarity of its growth, the banian, or 
 Ficus Religiose*,, is the most worthy of notice. It 
 has a woody stem, branching to a great height, with 
 heart-shaped leaves, ending in acute points. Some of 
 the trees are of amazing size, as they are continually 
 increasing, and, contrary to most other things in 
 animal and vegetable life, they appear to be exempt 
 from decay. Every branch from the main body throws 
 out its own roots at first in small tender fibres several 
 yards from the ground ; these continually grow thicker 
 until they reach the surface ; and there, striking- in, 
 they increase to large trunks, and become parent 
 trees, shooting out new branches from the top ; these 
 in time suspend their roots, which, swelling into 
 
92 THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 
 
 trunks, produce other brandies, and so they continue 
 in a state of progression as long- as the earth contri- 
 butes her sustenance. There are some banian trees 
 in India which actually measure several thousand 
 feet in circumference, and can afford shade and shelter 
 to 8,000 persons. 
 
 The Hindoos hold the banian tree in special venera- 
 tion, often assembling beneath its boughs, like the 
 Druids of old, to perform ceremonies and sacrifices, 
 and not unfrequently placing* idols at the foot of the 
 stems in a conspicuous place. The god most gene- 
 rally honoured with this distinction is Ganesha, the 
 sylvan ^deity, the Pan of the Hindoos, and who is at 
 the same time their Mercury and patron of letters. 
 Rudely carved, he sits in stolid majesty, and receives 
 the homage of his devotees in the shape of red ochre, 
 flowers, grain, and sweetmeats. In form he resembles 
 a short fat man, with "fair round belly," and an 
 elephant's head : he has four hands, one of which 
 holds a shell, another a chiikra (or quoit), a third a 
 club, and the fourth a water-lily : he sits upon a rat ; 
 he has but one projecting tusk, the other having been 
 torn out (so says the mythological tradition) by 
 Vishnu, because Ganesha denied him entrance to the 
 abode of Seva. Ganesha is not only honoured in 
 religious ceremonies, but his protection is invoked by 
 travellers setting out on a journey, and no good Hin- 
 doos writes a letter or literary work without commenc- 
 ing with a salutation to Ganesha. 
 
 THE PEEPUL (Ficus Indicus) is found in great 
 abundance, and, as some suppose, grows spontaneously 
 assuredly it rises in most extraordinary places, and 
 often to the great detriment of public buildings, 
 growing out of the cement which connects stones and 
 bricks, and by the violence of its pressure gradually 
 destroying the edifices. 
 
 The branches of the young peepul afford a grate- 
 
THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF IXDIA. 93 
 
 ful shade, and the growth of the tree is, therefore, en- 
 couraged by the natives. It makes its appearance by 
 the sides of the flights of stone steps leading down 
 to bowlieSj or larg*e wells, above the domes of mosques, 
 through the walls of gardens, &c. No Hindoo dares 
 and no Christian or Mahomedan will condescend to 
 lop off the heads of these young trees, and, if they 
 did, it would only put off the evil and inevitable day, 
 for such are the vital powers of their roots, when they 
 have once penetrated deeply into a building, that they 
 will send out their branches again, cut them off as 
 often as you may, and carry on their internal attack 
 with undiminished vigour. "No wonder," says 
 Colonel S'eeman, "that superstition should have con- 
 secrated this tree, delicate and beautiful as it is, to the 
 gods. The palace, the castle, the temple, and the 
 tomb all those works which man is most proud to 
 raise, to spread, and to perpetuate his name crumble 
 to dust beneath her withering* grasp. She rises trium- 
 phant over them all in her lo^y beauty, bearing- 
 high in air, amidst her light green foliage, fragments 
 of the wreck she has made, to show the nothingness 
 of man's efforts." In the very rudest state of society, 
 among the woods and hills of India, the people have 
 some deity whose power they dread, and whose name 
 they invoke when much is supposed to depend upon 
 the truth of what one man is about to declare. The 
 peepul tree being everywhere sacred to the gods, who 
 are supposed to delight to sit among 1 its leaves and 
 listen to the music of their rustling, the deponent 
 takes one of these leaves in his hand, and invokes the 
 g*od who sits above him, to crush him, or those dear 
 to him, as he crushes the leaf in his hand, if he speaks 
 anything but the truth : he then plucks and crushes 
 the leaf, and states what he has to say. The large 
 cotton-tree is, among' the wild tribes of India, the fa- 
 vourite seat of gods still more terrible, because their 
 
94: THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 
 
 superintendence is confined exclusively to the neighbour- 
 hood, and having their attention less occupied, they 
 can venture to make a more minute scrutiny into the 
 conduct of the people immediately around them. 
 The peepul is occupied (according to the Hindoos) by 
 one or other of the Hindoo triad, the gods of creation, 
 preservation, and destruction, who have the affairs of 
 the universe to look after, but the cotton and other trees 
 are occupied by some minor deities, who are vested with 
 a local superintendence over the affairs of a district, or 
 perhaps, of a single village. 
 
 The Sissoo yields a wood which possesses a very fine 
 grain, and rather handsomely veined. It grows in 
 most of the great forests, intermixed with the saul ; 
 but in lieu of towering* up, with a straight stem, seems 
 partial to crooked forms, such as suit it admirably for 
 the knees of ships, and for such parts as require the 
 g'rain to follow some particular curve. This wood is 
 extremely hard and heavy, of a dark brown, inclining* 
 to a purple tint, when polished ; after being properly 
 seasoned, it rarely cracks or warps ; nor is it so subject 
 as saul to be destroyed by either white ants or river 
 worms. The domestic uses of sissoo are chiefly con- 
 fined to the construction of furniture, especially chairs, 
 tables, tepoys (or tripods), bureaus, bookcases, escri- 
 toires, &c., &c., for all which purposes it is peculiarly 
 appropriate, with the exception of its being very pon- 
 derous. This objection is, however, counterbalanced 
 by its great durability, and by the extraordinary 
 toughness of the tenons, dovetails, &c. f necessarily 
 made by the cabinetmaker or joiner. Sissoo is, of late, 
 more employed than formerly for the frame, ribs, 
 knees, <fcc., of ships, especially those of great burden ; 
 for such it is found to be fully as tough and as durable 
 as the best oak. When timbers can be had of this 
 wood long enough for the purpose, it is often applied 
 for bends, and, indeed, for a portion of the planking or 
 
THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 95 
 
 casing ; but it is very rarely that a plank of ten feet 
 can be had free from curve. 
 
 The SYGWAM, or teak, affords the best timber for 
 building- in whatever branch ; but its dearness prevents 
 its general use, especially since naval architecture has 
 been so much an object of speculation at Calcutta. 
 
 Those who build houses of the first class, rarely fail 
 to build all their terraces upon teak joists 5 both 
 because they possess superior strength, and that they 
 are far less likely to be attacked by the white ants. 
 This has been attributed to the quantity of tannin con- 
 tained in teak wood, which some have asserted to be a 
 perfect preventive or antidote. There is in teak wood 
 evidently some property, hitherto occult, that repels 
 the white ant, at least for some years, but which is 
 doubtless diminished by exposure to the air, as we find 
 that very old teak timbers became rather more subject 
 to depredation than new ones. 
 
 The greater part of the teak used in Bengal and at 
 Madras, is imported from the Pegu coast in immense 
 beams, and in spars, planks, &c., qf all sizes. It is by 
 no means unusual to see the squared timbers measuring- 
 from forty to fifty feet in length, and averag-ing* from 
 fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. 
 
 The TAL-IPOT, or TALPAT tree, is common in the 
 island of Ceylon, and on the coasts of Malabar and 
 Coromandel. It grows very straight and lofty, from 
 eighty to a hundred feet, and has a large tuft of im- 
 mense leaves at the top. The wood is seldom put to 
 any other use than that of rafters for buildings. Near 
 the root of the tree the wood is black, very hard, and 
 veined with yellow, but the inside is nothing more 
 than pith, for the sake of which it is sometimes cut 
 clown, as the natives make use of it for food, beating it 
 in a mortar till it becomes like flour, when they mix 
 it with water for dough, and bake it. It bears no 
 fruit till the last year of its life. When the flower,, 
 
96 THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 
 
 which is encased in a sheath (like that of a cocoa-nut), 
 is ripe, the sheath bursts with a loud noise, and emits 
 so disagreeable a smell, that the people sometimes cut 
 it down, not being able to live near it. The fruit is 
 round, and about the size of an apple. It contains 
 two nuts. The most curious and useful part of this 
 tree are its leaves. These hang down from the top, 
 and are nearly circular, and very large one of them 
 being^ sufficient to cover fifteen or twenty men. The 
 leaf folds up in plaits, like a fan, and is cut into tri- 
 angular pieces, which are used everywhere as umbrellas 
 for protection against the sun or rain. The leaf, in 
 strips, is used in schools to teach children to write upon, 
 and as every letter is cut into it by a sharp pointed 
 style, the writing* is indelible, and continues legible as 
 long as the leaf itself lasts. The tents of the Kandian 
 kings and others, in time of war, were made of these 
 leaves, and hence were called tal-ge, tal-pat houses. 
 They used to carry with them great quantities of these 
 leaves, already prepared, and cut into proper shape, 
 and thus the labour of erecting a tent was very small. 
 They are also used to cover carts, palankeens, or any- 
 thing that it is necessary to keep from the sun or rain 
 in travelling. 
 
 The COCOA-NUT tree abounds in the peninsula of 
 India, the coast of Burmah, and the west, north, and 
 east parts of the island of Ceylon. It is a tree of im- 
 mense value to the people and to its possessors. 
 
 The tree begins to bear when eight or nine years of 
 age. 
 
 Nearly all the domestic wants of the Hindoo and 
 the Cingalese can be supplied by the cocoa-nut tree. 
 He can build his house entirely of it. The walls and 
 doors are made of cadjans (the leaves plaited), the 
 roof is covered with the same, the beams, rafters, &c., 
 are made of the trunk. The builder needs no nails, as 
 he can use the coir rope made from the outside husk. 
 
THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 97 
 
 If lie wants a spout lie hollows the trunk, split in two. 
 It also supplies him with spoons, ladles, and cups, 
 pans and drinking* vessels, hookah bowls, lamps, and 
 water-buckets; the refuse of the kernel, after the oil 
 is expressed, serves for food for cows and pig's; the 
 milk from the kernel is used in his food. In short, if 
 a man has a few cocoa-nut trees in his garden, he will 
 never starve. 
 
 Arrack, a strong' spirit, resembling* whiskey, is made 
 from toddy, the juice of the flower ; and brooms are 
 made from the ribs of the leaflets. 
 
 There are many curious customs, traditions, and 
 superstitions, among* the Hindoos respecting trees. In 
 planting the mango groves, it is a rule that the trees 
 shall be as far from each other as will prevent their 
 branches from ever meeting. " Plant trees, but let 
 them not touch." Yet the marriage of trees is a very 
 common custom. Neither the man who plants a grove 
 nor his wife can taste of the fruit of a mango tree, 
 until he has married one of the trees to some other 
 tree, commonly the tamarind, that $rows near it in the 
 same grove. A great deal of pomp and ceremony 
 attends these vegetable unions ; and, of course, occa- 
 sion is taken by the Brahminicnl priests to make the 
 ceremony one of profit to themselves. The larger the 
 number of Brahmins fed at the marriage, the greater 
 the glory of the proprietor of the grove. Colonel 
 Sleeman relates that, on his visiting the grove of an old 
 man, he asked how many he had feasted; and the 
 man answered, with a sigh, only one hundred and 
 fifty. " He showed me the mango tree which had 
 acted the part of bridegroom on one occasion, but the 
 bride had disappeared from his side. e And where is 
 the bride, the tamarind? ' ' The only tamarind I had 
 in the grove died/ said the old man, 4 before we could 
 bring about the wedding ; and I was obliged to get a 
 jasmine for a wife for my mango. I planted it here, 
 
 H 
 
98 THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 
 
 so tliat we might, as required, cover both bride and 
 brideg'room under one canopy during the ceremonies ; 
 but after the marriage was over the gardener neg- 
 lected her, and she pined away and died.' 'And 
 what made you prefer the jasmine to all other trees 
 after the tamarind ? ' e Because it is the most cele- 
 brated of all trees, save the rose.' 'And why not 
 have chosen the rose for a wife ? ' e Because no one 
 every heard of a marriage between the rose and the 
 mango ; while they take place every day between the 
 mango and the chumlaelee, jasmine.' " 
 
 In Upper India are many large forest trees, called 
 Jtulhtp, or liulpa Iriksha, having a soft silvery bark, 
 and scarcely any leaves. It is affirmed and believed 
 by the natives, that the name of the god Ham, and his 
 consort Seeta, are written by the hand of God upon 
 all. Assuredly, Europeans have seen the name of that 
 incarnation of Vishnu written on many Jtulpas in San- 
 scrit characters, but though there is a softness in the 
 impression, no one is disposed to believe that the writ- 
 ing is supernatural. 
 
 In the north-west provinces the people have a cu- 
 rious idea that the shade of the tamarind tree is un- 
 wholesome to man and beast, and for this reason they 
 are seldom planted in the groves where caravans are 
 accustomed to halt. 
 
COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 99 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, &c. 
 
 Articles of export and import The carrying trade Exchange 
 Bullion The system of weights The Banyan Docks Com- 
 mercial Office Establishments The shipping for a twelve- 
 month. 
 
 .IT can hardly be expected that, within the compass 
 of one small volume consecrate to a general account 
 of India, such a description can he given of the com- 
 merce of the country, as would satisfy the wishes and 
 expectations of those who may direct their attention 
 to the country with mercantile views. Some thirty 
 years ago or more, Mr. Milburn, an accomplished 
 merchant, deemed the subject of Indian commerce 
 worthy a quarto volume, and since then the establish- 
 ment of a free trade has opened up so many new 
 sources of wealth and speculation to the enterprising 
 trader, that three such volumes would hardly convey 
 an adequate idea of the resources of the empire, and 
 the extent of its imports and exports. 
 
 It would be difficult, in describing the produce of 
 
100 COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 
 
 India, which constitutes her exports, to distinguish 
 very minutely hetween what has been grown and ma- 
 nufactured within the vast continent, and what has 
 been conveyed thither from the Malayan Peninsula, ' 
 the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, China, Persia, 
 <fcc., for the purpose of being reshipped. An enume- 
 ration alone can be given of the articles which are 
 brought to England and carried to other lands, leiiving 
 to persons interested in such inquiries to distinguish 
 between the absolute offspring- of the soil of India, and 
 the goods of which her ports have temporarily become 
 the emporia. 
 
 According, then, to the returns, to which access has 
 been obtained, the grand exports from India consist of 
 indigo, sugar, cotton, saltpetre, opium, silk, rice, 
 pepper, betel nuts, coffee, teak timber, tobacco, drugs, 
 dye stuffs, sugar-candy, cocoa-nut oil, cochineal, coir, 
 wax, ginger, cowries (shells), shawls, tamarinds, talc, 
 chillies : all these are undoubtedly the produce of India 
 
 ner. Of the following very many may be from 
 a, but the most part are yielded by the islands and 
 coasts in her vicinity and the empire of China : Ten, 
 ivory, lac, gold and silver filigree work, cornelians, 
 ghee, grain, oils, putchock, seeds, soap, horses, sarda, 
 cassia, turmeric, ambergris, Colombo root, elephants' 
 teeth, fish maws, sandal wood, zedoary, coarse piece 
 g'oods, nankeen, dried fruits, tortoise shell, cinnamon, 
 arrack, arica nuts, wild honey, precious stones, cop- 
 peras, pearls, carpets, dholl, flax, hemp, hides, horns, 
 black salt, copper, tin, lead, wood-oil, earth-oil, dam- 
 mer, silver, naphtha, birds' nests, timber, rattans, gold 
 dust, camphor, gum benjamin, argus' feathers, kajiput 
 oil, cloves, nutmegs, brimstone, birds of paradise, gum 
 copal, civet, salt, rose water, ottar of roses, sapan wood, 
 tutenague, shrimp caviar, cones, dragons' blood, borax, 
 and a multitude of drugs and cotton piece goods of 
 rude manufacture. 
 
COMMERCE; COINS, WEIGHTS ; MEASURES, ETC. 101 
 
 The imports of India comprise every single product 
 of Europe that can be calculated to improve the com- 
 fort or promote the luxury of man in a civilized state. 
 The raw cotton received from her is returned, after it 
 has passed through the looms of Manchester, Preston, 
 and Paisley, in millions of yards. Hundreds of ships 
 from England, the Clyde, from France, and the 
 United States, visit her ports annually, laden with 
 hardware and cutlery, with wines, ales, hams, cheeses, 
 woollens, rich glass manufactures, hooks, bronze arti- 
 cles, steam engines, printing presses, varieties of iron 
 and brass machines, paper, hats, carriages, horses, 
 furniture in short, every production of nature, every 
 offspring of the handiwork of man, excepting such 
 articles as are only adapted to the severest frosty re- 
 gions, are carried to India. 
 
 The carrying trade between Europe and India is 
 conducted in vessels of all dimensions, from 300 to 
 1,500 tons. The steamers which ply round the Cape 
 and between the Red Sea of India carry but a small 
 amount of cargo. They are chiefly adapted to the 
 transport of passengers and packets, and only convey 
 a few cases of light goods, books, &c., for which a very 
 heavy freight is demanded. The trade between China 
 and India is carried in ships of considerable burthen, 
 excepting that part of it which concerns the opium 
 grown in India. For this trade, light, fast-sailing 
 clippers are employed. The Malabar coasting trade 
 is borne in large vessels of rude construction, high at 
 the stern and low at the prow, called pattamars and 
 buggalows, the latter of which likewise carry the pro- 
 duce of India to the Arabian and Persian gulfs, and vice 
 versa. Along the Coromandel coast to the ports of 
 Calcutta, Arracan, Chittagong, and other places to the 
 eastward, two-masted vessels, denominated dhonies 
 and grabs, are used. The river traffic of India is en- 
 trusted to boats of all forms and dimensions, and a 
 
102 COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 
 
 great variety of names. On the Ganges a few iron 
 steamers ply, but the cargoes despatched in them rarely 
 consist of anything beyond the supplies of European 
 goods required by the residents and regimental messes 
 in the interior. 
 
 The greater part of the transactions between Eng- 
 land and India are conducted by bills of exchange, 
 supported by bills of lading of the goods transmitted. 
 The coinage of India consists of rupees, annas, and 
 pice : sixteen annas go to a rupee, and three pysa, or 
 pice, to an anna. The rupee is of silver, about the 
 size of a florin, and is divided into halves and quarters. 
 Sixteen rupees constitute a gold mohur, but the con- 
 tinual exportation of bullion and the practice among* 
 the natives of melting down gold coins, and converting* 
 them into personal ornaments, has caused the total 
 extinction of the coin. It is now merely nominal. 
 In transactions on the coast and with poorer classes of 
 natives, small shells, called cowries, are partially made 
 use of for fractional payments, but their value is sub- 
 ject to continual fluctuations, and they are now nearly 
 superseded by the copper currency. 
 
 In the conversion of the rupee into the equivalent 
 currency of other nations in drawing bills of exchange, 
 the fluctuation of the relative value of the precious 
 metals inter se, is taken into consideration, from the 
 circumstance of gold being* in some, and silver in 
 others, the legal medium of circulation. It is also 
 necessary to take account of the mint charge for coin- 
 ing at each place, which adds a fictitious value to the 
 local coin. The par of exchange is, for these reasons, 
 a somewhat ambiguous term, requiring to be distin- 
 guished under two more definite denominations. 1st, 
 The intrinsic par, which represents that case in which 
 the pure metal contained in the parallel denominations 
 of coins is equal. 2nd, The commercial par, or that case 
 in which the current value of the coin, at each place 
 
COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 103 
 
 (after deducting 1 the seignorage leviable for coinage) 
 is equal ; or, in other words, " two sums of money of 
 different countries are commercially at par, while they 
 G&o. purchase an equal quantity of the same kind of 
 pure metal." 
 
 Thus, if silver be taken from India to England, it 
 must be sold to a bullion merchant at the market 
 price, the proprietor receiving payment in gold (or 
 notes convertible into it). The London mint is closed 
 against the importer of silver, which metal has not, 
 therefore, a minimum value in the English market, 
 fixed by the mint price, although it has so in Cal- 
 cutta, where it may always be converted into coin at 
 a charge of two per cent. On the other hand, if a 
 remittance in gold be made from India to England, 
 its out-turn there is known and fixed. The new Cal- 
 cutta gold moliur fluctuates as considerably in India as 
 that of silver does in England ; the natural tendency 
 of commerce being to bring to an equilibrium the 
 operations of exchange in the two metals. 
 
 The exchange between England and India has, 
 therefore, a twofold expression; for silver, the price 
 of the sicca rupee in shillings and pence ; for gold, 
 the price of the sovereign in rupees. 
 
 The system of British India weights and measures 
 is founded upon the principle of making the maund, or 
 highest nominal weight, equal to one hundred Eng- 
 lish troy pounds ; and thirty-five seers equal to seventy- 
 two pounds avoirdupois, thus establishing* a simple 
 connection, void of fractions, between the two Eno-Ksh. 
 metrical scales and that of India. The unit of the 
 British India ponderary system is called the tola. It 
 weighs 180 grains, English troy weight. From it 
 upwards are derived the heavy weights, viz., the 
 cliittacli, the seer, and maund : 
 
104: COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 
 
 Ibs. oz. dwts. grs. 
 
 The mauncl is equal to ... 100 troy. 
 The seer ... 2600,, 
 
 The chittack ... 1 17 12 
 
 The tola ... 7 12 
 
 Goldsmiths and jewellers use smaller weights, such 
 as the masha, ruttee, and dhan. One masha is equiva- 
 lent to fifteen grains, and one ruttee to 1*875. The 
 dhcui only weighs one quarter of a grain. 
 
 In the straits of Malacca and Manilla, and in the 
 island of Ceylon, the Spanish dollar forms the chief 
 currency : hut English money and rupees are never- 
 theless a legal tender, the rupee heing valued at 
 1*. lid. 
 
 Bank-notes issued by the hanks of India, are current 
 throughout the country, but they form comparatively 
 a small part of the circulation. Bills of exchange, 
 called hoondees, are employed as a means of remit- 
 tance from one part of the country to another, and are 
 obtained from the bankers and shroffs, who are found 
 scattered all over the country. The rest of the paper- 
 money consists of Treasury notes, bills issued by the 
 civil officers of Government for equivalent, to facilitate 
 the remittable operations of their own servants and 
 others. The most secure investment of savings is 
 in the Government paper, or promissory notes which 
 are issued, bearing interest at four or five per cent, per 
 annum according to the necessity of the Government, 
 and the state of the money-market at the moment of 
 opening a loan. All trust property, all the estates of 
 intestate persons, are required to be converted into 
 Government paper. It is the only security recognised 
 by the authorities, and any amount of money can be 
 obtained, at a reasonable interest, on the deposit of 
 such paper (which may be compared to English Ex- 
 chequer bills) when parties are not inclined to sell out 
 their stock. 
 
COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 105 
 
 A considerable portion of the capital employed in 
 the India trade, is supplied by English merchants. 
 They depute members of their firms, or confidential 
 clerks, to proceed to the Presidencies to establish com- 
 mercial houses, and there to purchase and transmit 
 produce to England, China, Australia, and the East 
 Indian Archipelago, and to obtain a market for Eng- 
 lish produce and manufactures. These gentlemen are 
 assisted in duties so new to them by a class of natives 
 called Banyans. 
 
 The term BANYAN implies a Hindoo merchant, 
 shopkeeper, or confidential cashier and broker. The 
 term is used in Bengal to designate the native who 
 manages the money concerns of the European, and 
 sometimes serves him as an interpreter. 
 
 At Madras the same description of person is called a 
 dubasli, a corruption of dtvi bashi. one who can speak 
 two languages. Some banyans usurp the designation 
 of deivan, which should imply an extensive delegated 
 power; that office, under the Emperors of Hiridostan, 
 and even now in the courts of Lucknow, Hyderabad, 
 &c., being confidential, and never bestowed but on 
 persons in high favour. The banyans are invariably 
 Hindoos, possessing*, in general, very large property, 
 with most extensive credit and influence. So much is 
 this the case that Calcutta was, some years ago, abso- 
 lutely under the control of about twenty or thirty 
 banyans, who managed every concern in which they 
 could find means to make " a profit. It is incon- 
 ceivable what property was in their hands. They 
 were the ostensible agents in every line of business, 
 placing their dependents in the several departments 
 over which themselves had obtained dominion. If a 
 contract was to be made with Government by any gen- 
 tlemen not in the Company's service, the banyans be- 
 came the securities, under the condition of receiving a 
 per-centage, and of appointing their friends to such 
 
106 COMMERCE, COINS; WEIGHTS; MEASURES, ETC. 
 
 duties as might control the principal and save them- 
 selves from loss. When a person in the service of 
 the Company was desirous of deriving benefit from 
 some contract; in the disposal of which he had a vote, 
 and which; consequently, he could not obtain in his 
 own name, then the banyan became the principal, 
 and the donor either received a share or derived ad- 
 vantage from loans, <c., answering his purpose equally 
 well. The same person frequently was banyan to 
 several European gentlemen, all of whose concerns 
 were, of course, accurately* known to him, and thus 
 became the subject of conversation at those meetings 
 the banyans of Calcutta invariably held, and do yet 
 hold, after the active business of the day has been 
 adjusted. 
 
 A banyan invariably goes attended by several under- 
 ling sircars, hircarahs, &c. He, to a certain degree, 
 rules the office ; entering it generally with little cere- 
 mony, making a slight obeisance, and never divesting' 
 himself of his slippers a privilege which, in the eyes 
 of the natives, at once places him on a footing of 
 equality with his employers. Of late years, however, 
 the power of the banyan has dimininishecl greatly; 
 for, if we except a few large concerns, such as bank- 
 ing houses, and the principal merchants, who, having 
 valuable cargoes on hand, are each under the necessity 
 of retaining one of these people, for the purpose of 
 obtaining cash to make up payments, or to furnish ad- 
 vances to indigo factors, &c v no one troubles himself 
 with a banyan. It cannot, however, be denied that 
 many speculations are carried on by the aid of ban- 
 yans, which, but for the strength of their resources, 
 could never have been attempted. We owe our pre- 
 sent extended trade in the fabrics of Dacca, &G.J in 
 the sugar of the western and northern districts ; in 
 indigo throughout the country, and numerous other 
 branches of commerce, to the support given by this 
 
COMMERCE; COINS; WEIGHTS; MEASURES; ETC. 107 
 
 class to such gentlemen as appeared to them likely 
 to succeed. 
 
 All the produce of the world which reaches India is 
 deposited in extensive warehouses called godorvns, or 
 in bonded warehouses. The cotton, which is brought 
 from the interior of the country; is carried to lofty 
 buildings where ponderous screws are established; and 
 is there screwed into bales of a compact form, previous 
 to its shipment. At two of the Presidencies, Calcutta 
 and Bombay, are dockyards. Those at Bombay are 
 wet docks, where some of the finest British men-of- 
 war have been constructed of the teak of the Malabar 
 or Tenasserim coasts, each vessel often bringing home 
 a duplicate of herself in the form of cargo, to be put 
 together on her arrival in England. 
 
 Every mercantile house in India has an establish- 
 ment of clerks, chiefly natives, who write English 
 correctly, and keep accounts upon the English system 
 with surprising accuracy. The salaries of the clerks 
 (baboo s and sircars, keranies and pttrvoes, as they are 
 called at the several Presidencies) are much lower 
 than they are in this country, the highest salary rarely 
 exceeding 15Z. per mensem, and the great majority 
 averaging 31. to 61. per month. Attached to the offices 
 of business also are a number of peons or sepoys, 
 to run upon errands, and convey chits or notes, of 
 which the circulation is immense in a country where 
 Europeans cannot move about much, and have no 
 recognised Exchanges or other places of rendezvous. 
 
 We cannot close this chapter without submitting a 
 statement of the amount of shipping which has sailed 
 to and from India during the past twelvemonth. It 
 will afford some idea of the extent of the trade carried 
 on between the limits of the East India Company's 
 charter : 
 
108 COMMERCE, COINS, WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 
 
 Total. 
 
 293 
 53 
 91 
 
 117 
 
 53 
 39 
 9 
 10 
 
 2 ' 
 
 140 
 
 131 
 
 40 
 
 This is an increase of forty vessels over the pre- 
 ceding- year. The increase in the number of vessels 
 which cleared outwards is still greater. It amounts to 
 155 vessels, comprising' a tonnag'e of 129,375 tons, 
 and within the quarter ending- 31st March, there has 
 been an increase of 181 outward, and 58 inward 
 vessels. The return of vessels does not include the 
 steamers, of which some thirty or forty reach India 
 with light goods and small packages, in the course of 
 the vear. 
 
 From j 
 
 Calcutta .... 
 Madras 
 
 To 
 
 Condon. 
 
 195 
 46 
 
 To 
 Liverpool. 
 
 85 
 
 7 
 
 To 
 Bristo 
 and 
 Hull. 
 
 5 
 
 o 
 
 1 To the 
 Clyde. 
 
 8 
 
 Q 
 
 Bombay . . . 
 
 31 
 
 48 
 
 4 
 
 
 China 
 
 87 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Ceylon 
 
 53 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 Q 
 
 Singapore and Penang 
 Phillipine Islands 
 Java and Sumatra 
 Arabia 
 
 27 
 
 7 
 10 
 2 
 
 ^ - 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 , 1 
 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 New South Wales, } 
 New Zealand, &c. 5 
 Mauritius .... 
 Cape of Good Hope . 
 
 133 
 
 71 
 
 37 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 2 
 
 
 
 20 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 The Pine-apple The Custard-apple The Mango The Egg- 
 plum The Pomegranate The Melon The Guava The 
 Plantain -The Pumplenose The Papaya The Loquat The 
 
 Jack The Leechee, d'c t 
 
 NATURE, as if anticipating the abstinence of millions 
 of Hindoos from the use of animal food, has been 
 wonderfully liberal of her supply of vegetable diet. 
 No part of the world is so fruitful of those prouucts, 
 which are at once nutritious and agreeable. Every 
 fruit and vegetable known to mild, and even cold 
 regions, is produced on the hills or the plains of India ; 
 and in addition to these, vast varieties, peculiar to the 
 tropics, grow in luxurious abundance. To enumerate 
 them all would be impossible, within the limits of 
 this volume, and the quality of many would be diffi- 
 cult of description without the aid of the horticulturist 
 and the naturalist. Let it suffice, that the fertile soil 
 of India yields mangoes, pine-apples, plantains, pome- 
 granates, pumplenoses, jacks, custard-apples, leechees, 
 guavas, melons, oranges, lemons, limes, grapes, sour 
 
110 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 sops, almonds, gooseberries, strawberries, tamarinds, 
 plums, figs, dates, citrons, loquats, potatoes, cabbages, 
 cucumbers, yarns, brinjalls, peas, beans, artichokes, 
 salads, celery, beetroot, cauliflower, nollcoll, mangos- 
 teens, &c., &c. } most of which, at some time or other, 
 are found upon the tables of Europeans. 
 
 THE PINE-APPLE (bromelia ananas) is called by the 
 natives anarusli. As the name of the fruit is Persian, 
 and there being no Sanscrit one, it is supposed to 
 be an imported fruit in India, though common all 
 over the country, where the climate is not too severe 
 for its growth in the open air ; a green-house, hot- 
 house, or cool-house for plants or fruits, being yet 
 entirely unknown in India, even amongst Europeans. 
 The common bazaar pine of India is a very inferior 
 fruit to the English hot-house pine, and even to those 
 which have been raised with care and under shade 
 (which they seem to prefer), in India. Those of the 
 eastern islands are very far superior, the commonest 
 Malay, or Javanese anana being equal, it is said, to 
 the best in India, except, perhaps, those of Goa and 
 other Portuguese establishments on the western coast, 
 where, as in the case of the mango and some other 
 fruits^ we still find traces of the care which the early 
 Portuguese colonists bestowed on them. This is pro- 
 bably owing to peculiarities of soil and climate, as 
 well as care ; though the Portuguese, like the Dutch, 
 were good gardeners, and paid attention to horticul- 
 ture, which the English, hitherto, cannot be said to 
 have done. It is said, and with much justice, that 
 no fruit in India requires to be eaten more cautiously 
 than this, both by new comers and new residents. 
 It is accused, and with some considerable truth, of 
 occasioning very severe and dangerous attacks of 
 pseudo-cholera and dysentery. To the newly arrived 
 Europeans, especially of the lower orders, it is indeed 
 a tempting fruit, and its powerful acid and tough 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. Ill 
 
 flesh may often make it dangerous to them. An 
 exceedingly beautiful flax, of great fineness and 
 strength, may he prepared from the leaves of this 
 plant hy simple maceration and heating. In the 
 Philippine Islands, dresses equal to the finest muslin 
 are woven from it, and emhroidered with extraordinary 
 taste ; and though expensive, they last for many years, 
 being in duration, colour, and beauty, equal to fine 
 Flanders lace. 
 
 THE INDIAN CUSTARD-APPLE (cinnona squamosa) is 
 called by the natives, ata, the fruit of a small tree 
 which gTovvs about fifteen feet high in all parts of 
 India. The leaves are smooth and soft, and about 
 three inches long, tapering at both ends. The fruit 
 is nearly round, with a rough outside, about the size 
 of an orange. When ripe, it is easily burst. It is 
 filled with a soft white substance, of a sweet taste, and 
 separable into small portions, each containing a small 
 black seed. It bears once a-year. The fruits are ripe 
 in July, and are much sought after. Perhaps there is 
 no Indian fruit about which we hear so many various 
 opinions expressed by Europeans. To some it is the 
 most delicious fruit in the country, while to others its 
 flavour seems not merely a mawkish sweetness, but 
 almost nauseating. In a word, it is rare to meet two 
 persons who agree in their opinion of the custard- 
 apple. Care should be taken when eating it not to 
 scrape off with the spoon the part* which adheres to 
 the outside scales of the fruit -, for this certainly will, 
 if frequently repeated, cause a smart inflammatory 
 sore throat ; and the finer the fruit the more liable it 
 is to cause this. The part which surrounds the seeds, 
 and which adheres to them, should alone be eaten. 
 The kernels of the seeds are also poisonous, though 
 the see'ds are frequently swallowed whole without any 
 ill effects. In countries where it meets with peculiar 
 soils and careful cultivation, as in the Mauritius and 
 
112 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 the Eastern islands, the ata attains a very large size, at 
 least double that of the largest in India, and its 
 flavour is generally improved ; this last difference 
 may be observed here, and indeed with many fruits 
 in all countries ; the largest sized are generally the 
 best flavoured. There is much uncertainty as to 
 whence this fruit, and its congener, the annona reticu- 
 lata, or sour-sop of the West Indies, were origi- 
 nally derived ; it has been supposed that both were 
 brought from Spanish or Portuguese America, and 
 thus propagated through their Asiatic dominions, and 
 to China ; though, from its abundance in China and 
 Cochin China, it may equally have been obtained from 
 those countries. It is probable that the Portuguese 
 settlements on the eastern coast of Africa may have 
 furnished it on the one side and China on the other ; 
 but if the truth be told, there is but little or nothing 
 known of what are the peculiarities of the various 
 kinds of this and many other fruits, which are, how- 
 ever, well worthy of more attention and study than 
 they have hitherto obtained from us. The annona 
 reticulata is said to be indigenous in the mountainous 
 country of South America, and the absence of any 
 Sanscrit name for the fruit is evidence enough that it 
 is of foreign introduction, though now the commonest 
 fruit in India. 
 
 THE MANGO (fruit of the mangifera Indica), or as 
 the natives call it awn, is a rich fruit, of a bright 
 orange-coloured pulp, and a coat of orange or green, 
 intermingled with a red bloom. There are in India so 
 many sorjts and varieties of this rich fruit, which, in 
 fact, may be called, from its abundance, the Indian 
 apple, that it would take a volume to describe them. 
 As a mere tree it is valuable, being of not very slow 
 growth, and affording by its dense, dark shade, the 
 most gTateful shelter from " the traveller's enemy" 
 the sun. Its wood is most extensively used, and, in 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 113 
 
 fact, the planks supply, for a large part of India, the 
 uses of fir plank in Europe, and when carefully pre- 
 served by paint, it lasts many years. The fruits, in. 
 their season, are so abundant in all the bazaars that the 
 cows are often reg*aled with them, and always with the 
 stones, which they crunch, apparently with great de- 
 light. A curious fact is, that in remote villages, near 
 extensive forest tracks, the bears, at the season of the 
 fruit, are known to uivade the mango topes, and to take 
 possession of them till they have devoured all the 
 fruit, in spite of all the efforts of the villagers to drive 
 them out ! The finest mangoes on the Bengal side of 
 India are said to be those of Malda ; though there 
 are certainly some in the neighbourhood of Calcutta 
 equal, or superior to them. The finest in all India are 
 said to be those of Goa, where they have been culti- 
 vated by the Portuguese. Until of late years, how- 
 ever, little or no attention was paid to the sorts planted, 
 or, at all events, it was rarely thought, by the natives 
 at least, worth the trouble or expense of sending for 
 good kinds ; the topes, indeed, being* as often planted 
 as an act of piety, to afford shade, as for the fruit, 
 which he who planted rarely expected to taste. Good 
 grafts, and these upon good stocks/are now more sought 
 after, especially in the neighbourhood of large towns, 
 where a few mang*o trees, if bearing' choice fruit, are 
 valuable property. Perhaps nothing can show more 
 strongly what the mango may become by careful cul- 
 tivation, than the fact, that at the plantation of Black 
 River, in the Isle of France, no less than twelve 
 varieties, of the most exquisite flavour, of sizes from 
 a large apple to that of a man's head, some almost 
 without stones, have been obtained by the care and 
 attention of a long series of years. The mango in 
 India is eaten in every possible form ; and an exten- 
 sive trade is carried on in the young* green and acid 
 fruits, which, being dried in the sun, are sold in all the 
 
 I 
 
114 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 bazaars as a favourite condiment for curries. The crop 
 of this fruit is very uncertain, as the prevalence of 
 fogs at the time of flowering*, drought, or storms, will 
 often destroy a large crop in a few hours. 
 
 THE EGG-PLUM (ziziphus jujiiba) is called by the 
 natives, bair. Of this fruit there are several varieties. 
 Originally from Western India and Persia, it is now 
 naturalized in all the gardens about Calcutta, and in 
 some of the larger towns. TliQ inferior and hedg'e 
 sorts are met with all over India. The common wild 
 kind much resembles in shape, colour, flavour, and size, 
 an unripe crab-apple, and one would almost suppose 
 that from it a good cider might be made. The better 
 and fine sorts are of the flavour of an inferior apple, or 
 wild plum. They are eaten in large quantities by 
 natives of India, by whom the fruit, in all its states, is 
 very highly esteemed, not only when green and ripe, 
 but also when dried and preserved in various ways. 
 The best produce of the wild tree, however, is not its 
 fruit, but the strong and durable silk (tusser) which it 
 produces. The trees, even in the midst of the towns, 
 are often seen with numbers of worms upon them ; and 
 in the districts where the silk is an object of culture, 
 the moths are bred from the cocoons, and the worms 
 fed upon the leaves like silk-worms. They are, how- 
 ever, kept in close baskets, being very active, and 
 crawling away fast, if left on open spots. The great 
 enemies to the culture are crows and other birds, and 
 ants, which devour the young* caterpillars in all the 
 stages of their growth. 
 
 POMEGRANATE (Punwagranatuvti)^ the Hindostanee 
 word for which is dalim. From Spain to Persia, and 
 from Persia to China, the pomegranate is held in high 
 repute, not only as a delicious, cooling*, and highly 
 wholesome fruit, but as a remedy, a principal ingre- 
 dient in many drinks, sherbets, and sweetmeats ; and, 
 finally, as a source of allusions for lovers, poets, war- 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 115 
 
 riors, and orators. In inter-tropical India, except at 
 considerable elevations, it is rarely found of a fine 
 quality, being* mostly not of the sweet kind, but of the 
 sour, becoming- even stringent as the fruit approaches 
 more to the common wild kind. It is an object of 
 much care and attention in the south of Europe and 
 Barbary, both as a fruit, as a flowering plant, and as 
 one proper for g-arden hedges and covering of walls in 
 espaliers, or something between the espalier and the 
 creeper. This it is to a very considerable height and 
 extent, its numerous branches forming a close covering, 
 and its brilliant flowers and excellent fruit making it an 
 object of great beauty, and even of value in some 
 situations, where the flowers and fruit are all saleable 
 to the druggists or the dyers. The bark of its root is 
 also, there is no doubt, an invaluable remedy against 
 that frightfully severe disease, the tape-worm, which, 
 before the knowledge of it, had baffled, both in India 
 and Europe, all the skill of physicians. 
 
 THE MELON, or foonti. Of melons there are many 
 varieties in India, but there are few of the Bengal 
 sorts worth eating ; for their flavour, except in the 
 northern or north-western provinces, where the Persian 
 and Affghan conquerors have brought some good kinds, 
 is very indifferent. In inter-tropical India the best 
 melons almost immediately degenerate into a sort of 
 half water-melon. A few successful attempts have 
 been made, with great care and attention, to raise fine 
 high-flavoured melons from seed obtained from Eng*- 
 land, France, and Afghanistan ; but it is yet only by 
 a succession of fresh seed that good ones can be ob- 
 tained, and the care and cost are such, that hitherto 
 there seems little chance of counting the melon of Per- 
 sia, Aifghanistan, or Europe amongst the Indian fruits. 
 The water-melon in some "parts of India attains to a 
 monstrous size. Those of Agra, which are cultivated 
 on the sandy flats left by the subsiding waters of the 
 
116 THE FRUITS OF IiYDIA. 
 
 Jumna, are famous ; and stories of them are standard 
 jokes of approved currency in those parts. On the 
 coast they are also considered to attain " great respect- 
 ability ; " and, in short, good water-melons are pretty 
 common all over India, and they are very highly 
 esteemed by the natives and by many Europeans. 
 The foonti, or phootee, as it is called by the Bengalees, 
 has a strong melon scent, but very little of the taste, 
 and less of the perfume of the true melon. To some 
 Europeans, and to most natives, however, it is an 
 acceptable fruit, at least as a change, during the short 
 time that it is in season, and in great demand for the 
 various preparations, such as sherbets, and the like, 
 into which it enters. It is like all the tribe, considered 
 as cooling, and even medicinal, and no doubt justly so. 
 THE GUAVA, called in Hindustani, soopri am, is a 
 fruit of the psidium pomiferum and pyriferum. The 
 fruit is usually thought to be originally from the West 
 Indies, but it is certain that there is more than one 
 African, and several Chinese and Cochin-Chinese spe- 
 cies or varieties, both of the edible and wild sorts. 
 These may, it is true, have been carried to China by 
 the early voyagers, and India may have received hers 
 from the coasts of Africa, with which, long before 
 Europeans visited her shores, she held a steady inter- 
 course. The most remarkable evidence of its being' of 
 foreign introduction in India, is that it has, we believe, 
 no Sanscrit name. Thence we suppose it, like tobacco, 
 to have been brought, perhaps about the same time. 
 The facility with which this fruit is propagated from 
 its numerous fertile seeds, of which the hard shell 
 resists insects and the other destructive influences for 
 a very long period, renders it one of the most com- 
 mon in India. The strong flavour of the common 
 sorts is usually found disagreeable to newly arrived 
 Europeans, but to this custom reconciles ; and the 
 finer sorts, of which one, the psidiwn microphylla, or 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 117 
 
 true West Indian sort, has the flavour of the rasp- 
 berry; and another, a large and very rich kind, has 
 scarcely any of the strong' taste of the bazaar gua- 
 vas. There are some very fine varieties amongst the 
 Malay Islands ; for with the Malays and Chinese, as 
 with the natives of India, this, like all high-flavoured 
 fruits, is a favourite. By Europeans it is more gener- 
 ally eaten and stewed in wine, and for the well known 
 jelly made from it, when much of its flavour disappears. 
 The leaves of the tree are somewhat aromatic, and 
 much used in the Eastern Islands medicinally, or as a 
 substitute for the betel-leaf. The wood of the old 
 trees is exceeding close-grained and tough, and in 
 some degree resembles boxwood. It is much used 
 amongst the natives of India for gun-stocks, as it 
 takes a good polish, and is rarely known to split with 
 heat, or fracture from blows. 
 
 THE PLANTAIN (musa paradisiaca), called by the 
 natives liela* The varieties of the plantain in India 
 are innumerable both as to size and taste. With re- 
 spect to size, there are the diminutive cknmpa, which 
 might be clasped, by " an alderman's thumb-ring*," 
 and the great Dacca plantain, which is nine or ten 
 inches long, and proportionally thick. Indian plan- 
 tains, however, are but dwarfs compared to the great 
 Madagascar ones, which are as large as a man's fore- 
 arm ; and those, even, are small, compared to a sort 
 produced in the mountains of the Phillipine Islands, of 
 which a single fruit is said to be a load for a man ! 
 As to quality, there are some of the wild kinds, which, 
 says Roxburgh, are "not even fit for a monkey to 
 eat," and others, of the cultivated sorts, of which the 
 flavour approaches to that of the richest pear. Some 
 also, and those* are in great demand amongst the 
 natives, require, like potatoes, to be boiled, or roasted 
 on the embers, before they are eatable, though many 
 of them become excellent. Of this kind are all the 
 
113 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 monstrous sorts spoken of above. The plantains and 
 bananas are not merely fruit, they are also a very 
 considerable article of food amongst the natives of all 
 the nations of the East, as well as of the West, who 
 possess this invaluable fruit, and most of the sorts are 
 very wholesome. The uses of the wild plantain are, 
 as yet, not fully known in India. Valuable cordage 
 . is made from the stems in large quantities and ex- 
 tensively exported from Manilla to all parts of the 
 world ] of this manufacture, the natives in India are 
 wholly ignorant, and it is singular, that abounding as 
 the forests in some parts are- with wild kinds, no 
 European has yet shown them that the fibres give a 
 valuable hemp, or indeed both hemp and the finest 
 flax; for, not only are the largest cables made from 
 it, but also tissues almost as fine as those from fibres 
 of the anana. The fruit from the plantain, when dried 
 in the sun, is found to keep perfectly for a length of 
 time, and to resemble a rich fig. The plaintain leaf is 
 of great utility. It forms plates and dishes for the 
 natives, and the cool upper side is constantly applied 
 by our medical men in India, as dressings for blisters, 
 or as a covering for the shaven head, in cases of brain 
 fever. 
 
 THEPuMPLENOSE^Yr^s decumauus). There seems 
 no doubt with botanists that Java is the native 
 country of this fine fruit, of which the best varieties 
 almost rival a good orange, and its easy growth and 
 abundant bearing make it in fact pretty nearly the 
 orange of the inter-tropical country, or where, from 
 want of elevation or peculiarity of soil or climate, the 
 orange is difficult to rear. This is the case in Cal- 
 cutta, which is supplied with oranges from the 
 Sylhet Hills. In the West Indies, this fruit is called 
 the shaddock, and is said to be so named after the 
 captain of the ship who brought it from the East, 
 which seems probable, for it is not mentioned in the 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 119 
 
 writings of the early Spanish authors. The varieties 
 of the fruit are numerous, and of all degrees of flavour, 
 from that of a rich sugary orange, melting in the 
 mouth, to a tough, half-sour, and half-dry taste, 
 which prejudices many against the fruit. It is a 
 singularity, that the trees which bear very fine ones 
 one year, will give but indifferent ones the next j but 
 this may be owing to the utter want of all care and 
 culture, which our tree fruits invariably experience. 
 A tree which gives fruit is, to the native of Bengal, 
 something so ready-made to his hand, that he does 
 not seem even to suspect it can be improved. In 
 Upper India, where, through their Tartar, Persian, 
 and Aifghan neighbours and conquerors, they have 
 some ideas of gardening, and even books upon it, 
 much more attention is paid to these matters; but the 
 climate there becomes too severe for the pumplenose. 
 There can be no doubt, from the richness of flavour of 
 the finer sorts, that they are susceptible of vast im- 
 provement. The sherbet prepared from them is a 
 most grateful drink to the sick ; and the fruit itself, if 
 good ones can be had, is an invaluable sea stock. 
 
 THE PAPAYA (car ica papaya). This fruit, though 
 abounding in India, is a well recognised importation 
 from the West Indies or Africa, where it is found 
 abundantly, and of far larger size than those of the 
 common Indian growth. As a fruit, eaten both raw 
 and boiled, pickled or preserved, it ranks high ; the 
 choice ones being of a very rich and somewhat melon- 
 like flavour when eaten with sugar and wine. As a 
 tree, it is highly ornamental ; few garden or orchard 
 trees surpass it in gracefulness of appearance, in which 
 indeed it approaches to the palm. The size and 
 beauty of the leaf, and even of the leaf-stalks, are 
 always much admired when closely examined by those 
 to whom the wonders of tropical vegetation are new. 
 One of the curious properties of the papaya-tree is, 
 
120 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 that it renders tough or newly-killed meat, tender, 
 when hung- up amongst its leaves for a few hours, 
 which effect is also produced hy some other trees. 
 
 THE LOQUAT (jnespihisjaponwa). As a pretty and 
 almost a picturesque fruit and tree, the loquat may 
 rank very high, for the dark-green foliage of the 
 tree, and twice in the year, the rich perfume of the 
 flower, which renders it- a great addition to the garden 
 and equally so to the dessert, when served with a faw 
 of their leaves. Of the properties of the fruit there is 
 but little to say, being almost what the Erench would 
 call un fruit insignifiant in India, though much prized 
 in its native countries of China and Japan, where it 
 grows to a much larger size, and has a far richer 
 flavour than in India, or even in the Eastern Islands, 
 in all of which countries the climate seems too warm 
 and moist for it ; while in Northern India, though it 
 may there have the winter which it evidently requires, 
 it has not the same degree of moisture ; the winter of 
 China and Japan being, as compared with those of 
 India, wet winters. Amongst the natives of India 
 it does not seem to be a fruit much thought of or 
 prized, not being common in their gardens at any 
 distance from large towns, and probably not being 
 sufficiently high-flavoured. Amongst the Europeans 
 there also it is nearly neglected, and when it appears, 
 may be said to be rather tasted as a novelty than 
 eaten as a favourite fruit. Amongst the Chinese and 
 Dutch in the Eastern Islands, it is, however, much 
 more prized, and the culture of the tree much at- 
 tended to. Presents of fine sorts are frequently inter- 
 changed, and from the gardens of some of the wealthy 
 Chinese, and Malay- Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch 
 families of the olden times, who are all capital horti- 
 culturists, and have, in the great Chinese population 
 of those countries, excellent gardeners, the fruit is 
 really a delicious one. 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 121 
 
 THE JACK, which in shape and size is not unlike 
 a horse's head) grows, undeniably out of the body of 
 the tree. It has an exceedingly rough, green outside, 
 thickly covered with short blunted prickles. When 
 cut open it is full of kernels, or seeds, ahout the size 
 of a small plumb, each of which is imbedded in yellow 
 pulp, which, through disagreeable in smell, is by no 
 means so in taste, being full of saccharine matter. It 
 is much eaten by the natives in this state, as well as 
 used in curries. When the fruit is cut from the tree, 
 a thick, milky gum in large quantities drops from it. 
 The kernels are often boiled and used at table as 
 vegetables; the taste is like that of beans. The 
 general size of the jack fruit is about one foot nine 
 inches long, and two feet six inches round. Some 
 are much larger ; it is often the case that one is as 
 much as a person can carry. 
 
 LEEGHEE (neechee phot) is a purely Chinese fruit, 
 for it bears no other name but its Chinese one in any 
 part of the world. Like most foreign fruits, it has 
 much degenerated in India, from the utter want of 
 culture, and by propagation from seed only ; the 
 natives, except a few gardeners about the larg*e towns, 
 being wholly ignorant of grafting, and too indifferent 
 to practise it, or to give a young plant the care and 
 attention necessary to produce a fine fruit-bearing 
 tree. Hence, with the exception of some from the 
 Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, the majority of the 
 leechees in India, are of a most inferior description, 
 and not to be compared with those of China, Batavia, 
 the Mauritius, and Bourbon. It is, moreover, in and 
 about Calcutta, a very capricious fruit-tree as to its 
 bearings, the crop being' very subject to failure from 
 various causes ; and even when the fruit is ripening, the 
 trees must be covered with netting, to prevent the 
 fruit being destroyed by the rapacious crows, which, 
 with the squirrels, are the great enemies of all fruit 
 
122 THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 
 
 g-ardening in Lower India, as the monkeys are in 
 other parts. While the leechee lasts, however and 
 its duration is but for about a month in any perfec- 
 tion it is a rich addition to the dessert, and to the 
 breakfast-table. The Chinese dry it in ovens, and in 
 the sun, and it is thus exported in considerable quan- 
 tities ; but in this state ifc is little sought after in 
 India. The juice of the fruit is perfectly wholesome. 
 In countries where the leechee abounds, and from its 
 sweetness and rich flavour it is greedily eaten by 
 children, deaths from indigestion and obstructions 
 brought on by this cause are so common, when the 
 fruit is in season, that in slave colonies the fruit is 
 often broken from the trees when green, to avoid this 
 danger to the children and the young negroes. The 
 leechee-tree is very hardy, and will bear cold, heat, 
 excessive rains, and even inundation for weeks, with- 
 out apparent suffering, though doubtless the fruit is 
 affected in quantity or quality by these trials. 
 
 THE NOONA (annona reticulata), the sour sop, is a 
 very ordinary fruit in the East; those of the West 
 Indies have a superior flavour. The fruit is eaten 
 both raw and roasted in embers ; its bark, or hard ex- 
 ternal skin is a powerful astringent and tonic, and of 
 great use in native medicine, particularly amongst the 
 Malays and Chinese, who also use it in some of their 
 dyeing processes. The tree does not grow to a 
 size which would allow the wood to be of any use. 
 The fruit is much coveted by bats, squirrels, monkeys, 
 and other vermin, which in the East so completely 
 disappoint the hopes of the gardener. 
 
 THE JAMROOL (cugenia alia or aquea), is a taste- 
 less white fruit. This tree is mostly planted for orna- 
 ment, its bright, pale, and almost transparent fruit, 
 hanging in clusters amongst the large, dark green 
 leaves, rendering it an object of pecular beauty. The 
 Malays and natives of India, who are great lovers of 
 
THE FRUITS OF INDIA. 123 
 
 watery fruits, which they eat as cooling- medicines, 
 think very highly of the jamrool, and eat it in large 
 quantities during its season, which is always the 
 hottest month of the year. The Malay name for it 
 is a very expressive one, jamber arger (the water 
 jamba), and, with them the bark is thought a sove- 
 reign remedy for apthse in children. The fruits of 
 all the family appear to be singularly attractive to 
 bats of all kinds and sizes, which swarm about the 
 trees at the time of its ripening ; the large bats will 
 even cut through a net to get at the fruit, and are 
 thus caught by those tribes of Coolies, Dangurs, and 
 Boornwaks, who esteem a dish of stewed bats as a 
 delicacy, and sometimes pass a night in hunting them, 
 with as much perseverance and zest as the English 
 sportsmen follows the snipe or the floriken. 
 
124: THE CLIMATE OP INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE CLIMATE OF INDIA. 
 
 General range of the thermometer Bengal, Madras, and Bom- 
 bay Remedies for heat Diseases of India Hill stations. 
 
 " How about the climate ? " is a question which 
 very naturally suggests itself to all persons purposing 
 to take up their abode in India. Any advantages in 
 the shape of pecuniary gain and social position which 
 India may confer are dearly purchased at the expense 
 of health ; indeed, these advantages cannot be reaped 
 at all if there is not some measure of certainty, or 
 some reasonable chance, that the climate will be found 
 suited to the constitutions of those who may proceed 
 to either of the Presidencies. 
 
 Of course, in so vast a continent, varied in its phy- 
 sical features, and embracing twenty degrees of latitude, 
 there must necessarily be a great diversity of climate. 
 The air of the hills is purer and cooler than that of the 
 plains \ the presence of jungle and swamp is more per- 
 nicious than their absence; excessive aridity is as 
 injurious as superabundant moisture. In India we 
 find all the topographical peculiarities which induce 
 
THE CLIMATE OF INDIA. 125 
 
 contrariety of effect; and each Presidency is more 
 or less affected by its difference of geographical 
 position. 
 
 The situation of Bengal is low and level : in some 
 parts remarkable for a dry and sandy in others for a 
 moist and clayey soil. For eight months in the 
 year, that is, from November to June ; scarcely a drop 
 of rain falls, excepting in the shape of an occasional 
 storm, which lays the dust arid cools the heated atmo- 
 sphere. On the other hand, from July to October in- 
 clusive, a dry clay is a rarity. Eain either falls for many 
 days together, or for certain portions of each day, 
 swelling the rivers and the tanks and diffusing universal 
 humidity. To enable the reader to judge of the de- 
 gree of heat, without reference to qualifying circum- 
 stances, it will suffice to state that the lowest range of 
 the thermometer in January is 52 early in the morn- 
 ing, and its highest 65 in the afternoon. This is mild 
 and pleasant enough. At no period of the year does 
 the thermometer fall below 52. After January it 
 gradually begins to ascend, reaching in the evening of 
 February 75 ; in the afternoon of March 82. In 
 April the mercury runs up to 90 in the shade and 
 110 in the sun. In May it ranges in the shade from 
 85 in the morning to 93 in the afternoon, rising to 
 140 if exposed to the sun. June finds it still on the 
 ascent. It is frequently 99 in the shade at noon ; but 
 the rains begin to fall in the middle of the month, and 
 the air becomes cooler as we advance towards July. 
 The thermometer, 'in the latter month, falls to 80 and 
 89. It preserves the same range in August. In 
 September it falls to 78 in the morning, going up to 
 85 p in the afternoon. In October it seldom reaches a 
 higher range than 80 in the afternoon, whence it de- 
 clines in November to 75, and in December to 65 in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 The seasons at Bombay correspond with those of 
 
126 THE CLIMATE OF INDIA. 
 
 Calcutta. The thermometer takes much the same 
 range as in Bengal ; and although, in the hottest 
 months, the casual advantage of a thunder-storm is 
 never obtained, the sea breezes which set in towards the 
 middle of the day essentially mitigate the heat of the 
 atmosphere. Early in June the S. W. monsoon com- 
 mences, the rains fall in rich abundance, and the air 
 becomes cool and agreeable. 
 
 The Madras seasons and temperature differ from 
 those of the other Presidencies. January and February 
 are the coldest months of the year. The thermometer 
 ranges between 75 and 78. Rain falls in slight 
 showers continually, leaving a deposit of fractions of an 
 inch. From March to June the range is between 76 
 and 87. In July the rains commence, and the ther- 
 mometer then falls to 84. It retains that position 
 with very little deviation through August, and about 
 four inches of rain fall. In September the thermo- 
 meter falls to 83, and the rain increases. In October 
 the clouds begin to assume a more dense appearance 
 than heretofore; the thermometer declines to an 
 average of 81, and the rainy season fairly commences, 
 just as it has terminated at the other Presidencies. 
 During November the rains fall very heavily not less 
 than fourteen inches being* deposited. The thermo- 
 meter falls to 75 in December, and the rains abate. 
 
 Of course, every scheme that human ingenuity can 
 devise to mitigate the discomfort of heat is resorted to. 
 The punkah is continually kept swinging* over the head 
 of the European the window-blinds of the houses are 
 closed to exclude as much light as may be consistent 
 with convenience ; matting of fragrant grass is placed 
 at doors and windows, and continually watered; and 
 every possible attention is paid by the prudent to 
 clothing and to diet. From November to March woollen 
 clothes may be worn with advantage : during the rest 
 of the year everybody is clad in white cotton. No 
 
THE CLIMATE OF INDIA. 127 
 
 one ventures into the sun without parasols of a broad 
 and shady form, or in palankeens roofed with tuskas. 
 
 Nevertheless the European constitution is exposed 
 to the attacks of many diseases. Fevers, dysentery, 
 affections of the liver, cholera morbus, and rheumatism, 
 are common ; and there are numerous minor disorders, 
 the effect of climate acting upon a slight or an ex- 
 cessively robust system, which few can escape. These 
 latter consist of a troublesome cutaneous eruption 
 called prickly heat, boils, and ulcers. Boils grow to a 
 large size, are excessively painful and disturbing, and 
 the lancet is often necessary to the relief of the 
 patient. Constipation is also a common complaint, 
 needing exercise and stimulating medicines. 
 
 Yet it does not follow that all persons should be 
 assailed by the diseases of India. Very many in- 
 dividuals go through life in all parts of the empire, 
 with perhaps only a single attack of one or two of the 
 greater complaints and not a few w r ill pass thirty 
 years in India unscathed. The writer of these pages 
 was singularly favoured. During a residence of 
 twenty-one years one half the time at Bombay, and 
 the other half at Calcutta he never had a single day's 
 illness. 
 
 And if sickness should overtake the dwellers in any 
 one of the Presidencies, baffling the skill of the practi- 
 tioner, great facilities exist for resorting to the sana- 
 tory hills in the vicinity of each town. The resident of 
 Calcutta can find relief by proceeding to the Darjeling 
 mountain one of the Sinchul range where he finds 
 a climate as- temperate as that of his own native land. 
 The place is reached by very easy stages in three or 
 four days, and from the burning plain the invalid finds 
 himself transported 7,200 feet above the level of the 
 sea in a temperature of 55. From Madras the Neil- 
 gherry hills are reached with ease in a week, and at 
 Ootacumand, the principal station, or settlement, the 
 
128 THE CLIMATE OF INDIA. 
 
 finest climate in the world is found, and convalescence 
 rapidly achieved. Bombay boasts its Mahabuleshwar 
 hills, which are less than seventy miles distant, and 
 easily accessible by boat or palankeen. Here the mean 
 annual temperature is at 66, and beautiful scenery, 
 added to healthful breezes, gives life to the valetudi- 
 narian. 
 
THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 120 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE WILD SPOETS OF INDIA. 
 
 Jackall hunting Boar hunting Tiger hunting The man tiger 
 The Nepaul Terai Elephant hunting Bear hunting 
 Deer stalking. 
 
 THE axe and the ploug'li have been at work during 
 the past fifty years to reclaim the jungle, the forest, 
 and the wastes of India and the sporting ardour of 
 the European Nimrods has dealt deadly havoc among 
 the animals which found shelter and sustenance in 
 these wilds and wildernesses ; but, nevertheless, a large 
 quantity of land is still monopolized by untamed and 
 untameable quadrupeds and feathered game of infinite 
 varieties; and in the pursuit of them the English resi- 
 dents of the Mofussil (or interior) find abundant sources 
 of excitement and entertainment. 
 
 The animals which chiefly abound in India, are the 
 tiger, the leopard, the bear," the elephant, the lion, the 
 wolf, the boar, the jackall, the bufMo, the hyena, the 
 jaguar, the jungle cat, the wild dog, the lynx, and 
 many varieties of deer, from the samlur of the hills to 
 
 1C 
 
130 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 the antelope of the plains. Among- the feathered tribe 
 are the floriken, pheasants (white and golden), par- 
 tridges, bustards, pea fowl, jung-le cocks and hens 
 (smaller than, but resembling in plumage, the domestic 
 fowl), quails, pigeons, wild ducks, teal, wild geese, snipe, 
 ortolans, plovers, &c. 
 
 Excepting jackall-hunting and snipe-shooting, very 
 little field sport is to be enjoyed in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the Presidency towns of Calcutta, 
 Madras, and Bombay. It is the exclusive privilege of 
 the dweller in the interior or among the hills, and 
 compensates him for the absence of general society and 
 those pastimes which the inhabitants of populous and 
 wealthy towns provide for themselves. But those who 
 have lived long in India seldom hesitate to give a pre- 
 ference to life in the Mofussil, for there is endless 
 pleasure in shooting and hunting, and health is pro- 
 moted by the activity they demand. 
 
 Jackall-hunting is a very good substitute for fox- 
 hunting'. At Calcutta it is pursued with much ardour. 
 The jackalls are numerous, and in the cold mornings of 
 November, December, January, and February afford 
 a capital run. The hounds are chiefly imported from 
 England, and are the produce of some of the best 
 packs. The expense of importing them is considerable ; 
 but the Calcutta Hunt have never been chary of cost 
 when thoroughly good dogs have been offered or 
 despatched to them. The jackall is a great pest to the 
 farmers and villagers ; for like the fox in England, he 
 commits great havoc among the poultry. His death, 
 therefore, receives full sanction even at the expense of 
 a few acres of wheat and rice-field trodden down in the 
 chase. 
 
 The most popular sports in the interior are hog and 
 tiger-hunting. Skill and courage are the indispensable 
 attributes of the huntsman, and spears and rifles his 
 necessary weapons ; the spear for the boar, the rifle for 
 
THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 131 
 
 the tiger. Englishmen altogether discard the German 
 method of attacking the boar ; they use neither fire- 
 arms nor dogs. Mounted upon a nimble little Arab 
 (in the west and south of India), or a gallant country- 
 bred in the east and north-west, and having a long- 
 bamboo spear, they betake themselves to the skirts of 
 a jungle or sugar-cane plantation and with beating 
 heart and firm hand, await the rush of a sounder (a 
 small herd or drove) of hogs, which have been turned 
 out of their franks, by a posse of beaters armed with 
 long sticks. It is not long before a fine boar makes 
 his appearance. Scared at the sight of his enemies he 
 rushes frantically across the open field. A hundred 
 vards or less of law is given him, and away the hunts- 
 men fly in hot pursuit. It is a race for the spear. 
 He who comes up first with the hog and buries his 
 spear-head in the grisly fellow's heart, wins the tusks, 
 the coveted trophies of the chase. It is an even race 
 so far, often over very rough and stony ground. The 
 hog now begins to blow, he fears to fall from exhaus- 
 tion without striking a blow ; suddenly he slackens his 
 pace, wheels round, and with a terrific snort charges 
 his pursuers. This is the critical moment. One false 
 thrust, one miss, and the boar's tusks rip up the horse 
 or unseat the rider. But a single turn of the wrist 
 will lift the sagacious Arab, in time, and as the boar 
 rushes by, the spear is thrust into his shoulder ; 
 another thrust from the rival chasseur follows, and 
 after an ineffectual struggle or two the gray patriarch 
 of the sugar-cane khet (plantation), yields up his life- 
 blood. 
 
 The story of one boar-hunt is the story of a thou- 
 sand. It is only varied in the scene and in the number 
 of the huntsmen, and the hogs. The chief localities of 
 hog-hunting were the Deccan, and the centre of 
 India. The progress of agriculture has tended to 
 very materially reduce the range of the sportsman 
 
132 THE WILD SPORTS OF IXDIA. 
 
 and to diminish the number of hogs, and now it is 
 difficult to rear (or turn up) a sounder within many 
 miles of the places where they once abounded. Still 
 an occasional good run is to be had, and in lower 
 Bengal a considerable number of pigs afford trophies 
 to the Budge-Budge Hunt. 
 
 The flesh of the wild boar is much esteemed in 
 India ; but the sportsman prefers the possession of the 
 tusks to any other fruits of his prowess in taking 
 " first spear." 
 
 Tiger-hunting, the next in general favour, is pur- 
 sued upon a different system to that adopted in the 
 case of hog-hunting. It would not be safe to risk the 
 encounter of a tiger on horseback. Elephants, there- 
 fore, are put into requisition, and are trebly useful in 
 conveying the sportsman to the field, protecting him 
 from the tiger's charge, and assisting in the destruc- 
 tion of the " feline monster." 
 
 A tiger's chief haunt is the jungle skirting a 
 meadow or wheat land, where oxen either graze or 
 draw the plough. It is seldom that a sortie from the 
 jungle is not rewarded by the capture of a heifer or 
 young buffalo. When, therefore, the death of a trou- 
 blesome scourge of the herds is determined on, it is 
 not unusual to bait the field with a cow, whose lowings 
 at night attract the tiger. The latter sallies forth, 
 seizes the prey, destroys it at once, and is found in 
 the morning gorged to repletion by his nocturnal 
 repast. The sportsmen, occupying howdahs on the 
 backs of elephants, well armed with a couple of rifles 
 each, which a servant keeps continually loaded, and 
 provided with cigars, biscuits, and brandy-and-water, 
 or pale ale, advance in line upon the tiger, and the 
 moment he is sighted, salute him with a volley. Death, 
 often, is the immediate result, and nothing then remains 
 to be done but to provide the carcase with a carriage 
 home, which is generally accomplished by throwing it 
 
THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 133 
 
 over the back of an elephant, not already encumbered 
 by a howdah. But very frequently the tiger is only 
 wounded, or perhaps alarmed then look out for a 
 charge ! With a. growl and a roar, he springs upon 
 the elephant, and has been known by his weight, to 
 roll the latter, sportsman and all, on to the earth ; a 
 critical situation, from which the prostrate party are 
 only rescued by a judiciously directed shot from a 
 companion sportsman, who has just come up. If the 
 elephant on the other hand can sustain his weight, the 
 tiger makes an effort to reach the tenants of the howdah. 
 This is a ticklish position, especially for the mahout or 
 driver, who is seated on the elephant's neck, and has 
 only the hankas or iron hook, with which he urges 
 and directs the elephant's course, wherewith to defend 
 himself. But if the danger of the sportsman is aug- 
 mented by this charge, so also is the danger of the 
 tiger. He has brought himself within a few feet of 
 the deadly rifle, and it will be strange, indeed, if he 
 escapes the shot directed at his osfrontis or his chest. 
 Instances have been been known of a tiger's tearing 
 the sportsman from his seat, and bearing him away to 
 the jungle, but these casualties a.re very rare. Or- 
 dinarily, the animal falls to the repeated shots, and is 
 carried home that his skin, well dressed, may be con- 
 verted into a rug or a howdah carpet, or despatched 
 as a present to a loving friend at the Presidency or in 
 England. 
 
 It is an unfortunate thing for a village when a tiger 
 once carries off a peasant, for having tasted of human 
 blood, his voracity becomes enormous, and he will not 
 be easily contented with any other description of 
 food.* Such timers will establish themselves in some 
 
 * A tiger who destroys men is called, par excellence, a " man 
 tiger." In the Saugor and Nerbudda territories the natives 
 have an idea, that after a tiger has killed one man the rest of 
 
134 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 narrow pass, where they lie in wait for passers by, 
 men who carry the letter-bag's, being' their principal 
 victims. Should there be any European stations at 
 hand, the monster is soon sacrificed ; but when the 
 villagers can have no assistance of the kind, ten or 
 twelve victims have been known to fall under the in- 
 satiable appetite of the savage, before the country has 
 been sufficiently aroused ^ against him, to take effectual 
 measures for his destruction. A reward of five hun- 
 dred rupees (fifty pounds), is sometimes offered by the 
 native chief of a district, for the head of a tiger, that 
 has become formidable to the people of a village ; and 
 a general muster of men and weapons, takes place in 
 consequence of this stimulant to action. Having* as- 
 certained the haunt of the tiger, where he lies in wait, 
 to spring from the bush, which forms his cover, on the 
 unhappy passenger who endeavours to cross the path, 
 the whole hunt assembles and the wilderness swarms 
 with men ; every tree is converted into a watch tower ; 
 the circle is formed, which, pressing- in upon all sides 
 contracts until, completely hemmed in, the tiger roused 
 in his lair, and opposed in every direction, meets his 
 death ! , 
 
 Like boar-hunting, tiger-shooting is rapidly de- 
 clining as a sport, under the auspices of the plough- 
 share. In former times, there was no district in India 
 more celebrated for its tiger-shooting than Goruckpore, 
 near the Nepaul frontier. Year after year parties 
 proceeded to its apparently inexhaustible Terai, and 
 always returned with the spoils of numerous of these 
 magnificent animals. In the time of Sir Roger Martin 
 
 mankind are safe, for the spirit of the man rides upon his head 
 and conducts him to prey. They also believe that tigers with- 
 out tails (for such there are victims of accident, conflict, or 
 disease) are men who have converted themselves into tigers by 
 eating of a particular root, which effects the metamorphosis at 
 once. 
 
THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 135 
 
 there was a well known tiger on the Nepaul frontier, 
 who was the terror of the neighbouring' villagers ; man 
 was his food, and he scorned to prey on any inferior 
 animal. He once attempted to enter the hut of a 
 Taroo, but the inmate received him with such a blow 
 on the he#d from a Jimgh axe, that the tiger was glad 
 to retreat, and carried the scar of the wound to his dying 
 day. By this scar he was known and recognised, and 
 his depredations at last became so serious that Sir 
 Roger Martin went out for the express purpose of kill- 
 ing him. He shot forty-eight tigers before he fell in 
 with the one he was in search of, but the forty-ninth 
 was "Le Balafre" himself, who fell, fighting to the last, 
 and well supported his former character for ferocity. 
 
 Abbye Singh, the Rajah of Omorah, a very old and 
 good sportsman, is known to have been at the death 
 of nearly five hundred tigers ; but it would be an end- 
 less task to enumerate all the instances in which large 
 numbers of these animals have bit the dust, and yielded 
 their skins as trophies to the sportsman. From the 
 above, it can easily be imagined that tigers were " plen- 
 tiful as blackberries' 7 a few years ago ; and it is easily 
 accounted for. After the Nepaul war, the Terai was 
 one wide inhospitable waste, without a vestige of in- 
 habitants or cultivation, intersected by nullahs in every 
 direction, and abounding- in swamps; the jungles sprang 
 up luxuriantly, and became the haunt of innumerable 
 tigers, and wild animals of all descriptions. The annual 
 inroads of sportsmen, and some slaughter by native 
 shikarees did not apparently much diminish the num- 
 ber of the tigers ; year after year they were killed in 
 the same spots, and it appears that a desirable covert 
 was no sooner vacated by the death of one, than an- 
 other took possession of it, and a party was tolerably- 
 sure of good sport in the Goruckpore Terai. 
 
 It is very different now ; the tigers would never have 
 been extirpated by sportsmen ; indeed, those killed bore 
 
136 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 such a small proportion to the whole number, that for 
 some years no decrease appeared to have taken place. 
 But it is the change in the Terai itself which has 
 diminished them, and which hids fair very shortly to 
 put a stop to tiger-shooting* entirely. Where formerly 
 there was a howling- wilderness, now villages have 
 sprung up, the land is cultivated, and the jungle 
 cleared; the march of civilization has made inroads on 
 the domains lately sacred to the tiger and the hear. 
 English gentlemen have received grants of land from 
 Government on clearing leases, and by their efforts the 
 jungle is rapidly disappearing. Nor are the Nepaulese 
 behind us ; on their side of the boundary cultivation is 
 increasing in a great degree, and the country daily 
 becoming more densely populated. On the spot where 
 a friend of the author's once killed a fine tiger, there 
 is now a thriving village. The natural consequence of 
 all this is, that the tigers have been obliged to retreat 
 before the approach of civilization, and where formerly 
 there were hundreds, you now will not find one ; they 
 have taken refuge in the lower range of hills, where 
 they still find cover, but of course cannot be got at 
 there. One may now pass through the Terai for miles 
 without finding a good covert: the only shooting 
 you are likely to see is a revenue surveyor " shooting 
 the sun " with his theodolite ; and instead of an ac- 
 count of the deeds of a tiger party, we get a report 
 on settlements. 
 
 Elephant-hunting forms no part of an Englishman's 
 sport on the continent of India. It is only in the forests 
 of Coorg, in the peninsula, that the animals abound, and 
 they are snared by the natives that they may be trained 
 and domesticated. Sending two tame elephants into 
 the jungle to decoy a wild one by their caresses, and 
 driving them towards the spot where the ropes are 
 disposed for his reception, the unfortunate beast finds 
 himself in the coils, and in spite of all his fierce and 
 
THE WILD SPOUTS OF INDIA. 137 
 
 powerful struggles, is bound fast, and kept on low diet 
 until lie can be carried away in triumph. 
 
 It is in the island of Ceylon that the elephant is the 
 victim of the European rifle. Sallying- forth with a 
 good supply of ammunition, a sportsman will not have 
 to proceed many miles into the interior before he comes 
 upon herds of elephants grazing' at their ease. He 
 selects one for his prize, brings the deadly tube to 
 bear upon a vital point, and the ponderous beast falls 
 upon his knees and surrenders his life. If slightly 
 wounded, he sees his enemy, and deeming he is to be 
 reached, the elephant will come down at a thundering 
 pace, trumpeting with his proboscis en Talr. A 
 friendly tree will then afford cover for protection and 
 another shot 5 still the animal advances, but when he 
 is within a few yards of the object of his counter- 
 attack, the latter slips aside and runs past the elephant. 
 Too unwieldy to turn with ease and rapidity, the un- 
 fortunate animal again becomes a mark for the bullets 
 of the rifleman, and after a few wild and ineffectual 
 efforts to get at his persecutor, he dies, and his tusks 
 are appropriated and sold. 
 
 Bear-hunting affords a good deal of sport, for Bruin is 
 full of courage, and takes a great deal of killing. From 
 the number of shot he will receive before he gives up 
 the ghost, one would almost imagine that he bore a 
 charmed life. The " sport " consists in the first in- 
 stance, in finding the bear* in the second place, in 
 evading' observation and pursuit by him ; and in the 
 third, in shooting him under difficulties and risks. 
 Bears are not often found in plains and level jungles : 
 they affect mountains and rocky eminences, inter- 
 spersed with ravines and dells. A friend of the 
 author, who has had many opportunities of partici- 
 pating in the sport, gives the following description of 
 the modus operandi, and the exciting scenes which 
 attend upon the chase. 
 
138 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 a The hunting of bears forms a favourite amusement 
 with the few, who enjoy the violent exertion and ex- 
 citement which it calls forth. As such sports are not 
 common in India, few stations of the army affording" 
 the haunts of the bear in their immediate vicinity, it may 
 perhaps be worth while to relate how it is carried on, 
 especially as it is the most manly and interesting of 
 field sports, and highly conducive to the health and 
 active habits of those addicted to it. 
 
 " The sportsmen should be at least three in num- 
 ber, to pursue bears over rugged ground with any 
 prospect of success. They must also be provided with 
 about a dozen beaters, to roll down rocks into the 
 glen, and start the game, and cannot take with them 
 too many fire-arms, as, from the long distances at 
 which it is necessary to fire, it is desirable to multiply 
 the chances of killing; arid the bear, besides, will 
 seldom drop with a single ball, and when wounded is 
 no despicable foe. 
 
 " The sportsmen having assembled at the ravine by 
 break of day, two of them take possession of the hither 
 brink of the ravine, while the third accompanies the 
 beaters along the further verge, inciting them to shout 
 and cast down masses of rocks into the gulf below. If 
 Mr. Bruin happens to be outside his den he is generally 
 aroused by this disturbance, and will be seen either at 
 the very bottom, or making his way along the side of 
 the precipice, by paths where the human head would 
 whirl with giddiness and the human foot find no 
 security. No time is to be lost in firing, as the bear 
 having so decidedly the advantage in the race over 
 ground for which nature and experience have particu- 
 larly fitted him, the space between him and his pur- 
 suers increases at every moment. If not struck he 
 will seldom turn, and there is little prospect of coming 
 up with him, because the sportsman has every now 
 and then to make a long detour to avoid broken 
 
THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 139 
 
 ground, and is besides describing the outer curve, as it 
 were, of a large circle, of which the bear occupies a 
 position near the centre. 
 
 " If the bear be struck when near his pursuers, he will 
 usually turn upon them, and then coolness is required 
 not to throw away their fire until he approach so near 
 as to give them the choice of the wound they shall 
 inflict. On such occasions I would recommend the 
 young sportsman to drop on his knee in taking aim, 
 which by bringing him more nearly to a level with the 
 bear, prevents the advance of that animal from ma- 
 terially altering the line of fire. If the beast be ad- 
 vancing directly upon him, and he be cool enough to 
 allow him to approach within seven or eight paces, he 
 cannot perhaps do better than aim at the space be- 
 tween its eyes, taking care not to throw his ball much 
 higher than that, or it will pass harmlessly through 
 the huge tuft of hair which overshadows the forehead, 
 and crests its neck and shoulders. If the beast afford 
 a side mark, let him, by all means, strike the point im- 
 mediately behind the shoulder, bearing in mind that a 
 great portion of the object presented to view, both 
 above and below, consists of a shaggy fringe of long 
 hair, susceptible of no damage from his weapons. A. 
 ball striking the ribs rarely fails more or less to dis- 
 able the quarry, piercing either the heart, the lungs, or 
 the liver. But even then he must be approached with 
 caution, although he should appear dead or dying*. 
 The native servant of an officer was scalped and killed 
 outright by a single blow from the paw of a wounded 
 bear, which he approached under the idea that it was 
 defunct. Owing to the deception the eye meets with 
 in such ravines, the sportsman will miss his game 
 much oftener than he thinks the distance warrants; 
 and as he can never measure that distance afterwards, 
 the mistake is not easily corrected, objects there appear- 
 ing in general very much nearer than is really the case. 
 
140 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 The ordinary charge of a gun at those long ranges 
 would not carry a ball up with any certainty; and if 
 the gun be of solid materials (and no other should be 
 used in such break-neck places), two and a half 
 drachms of powder will not be too much for a ball of 
 eighteen to the pound. 
 
 " Double-barrelled guns at long ranges are not true 
 to the aim taken along the plate, between the barrels ; 
 for each barrel being thicker at the breech than at the 
 muzzle, slopes slightly inwards, so that the fire of the 
 two will meet and cross at a certain distance. The 
 difference, it is true, is not great ; but when added to 
 the various other considerations which affect the ac- 
 curacy of ball practice at long' ranges, it is of much 
 importance." 
 
 The wild buffalo affords rare sport in fact, there is 
 none superior to it, from the ferocity and great strength 
 of the animal, and the noble trophy his death places in 
 the hands of his destroyer. The immense curved horns 
 of the buffalo, sometimes measuring' six feet in length, 
 proudly decorate the hall of the sportsman who has 
 been fortunate enough to slay one of the monsters. 
 These buffalos are awfully destructive to the crops and 
 the sugar-cane, and it is therefore under great circum- 
 stances of rejoicing that the ryot witnesses their immo- 
 lation. 
 
 The chase of the deer in India admits of much 
 variety. In Southern India greyhounds are employed 
 in coursing antelopes. In Central India and the plains 
 in the north-west, the ckeeta, or hunting leopard, is 
 used ; while in the hills, where the deer are large and 
 fierce, stalking is adopted, much upon the same prin- 
 ciple and after the same manner with similar sport in 
 the Highlands of Scotland. But many persons prefer 
 shooting the deer, even in the plains, albeit, from the 
 excessive vigilance and timidity of the race, it retjuires 
 great caution and no inconsiderable degree of patience. 
 
THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 141 
 
 An extract from a letter from an old sporting friend to 
 whom the author wrote a few years since for a hint or 
 two upon the subject of deer-shooting*, may not be 
 unacceptable in this place. 
 
 "The best place for shooting- deer, which I have 
 been able to discover for the open plains, after some 
 3* ears' constant practice is, to circle them on horseback, 
 taking* care not to get too close, till you get the sun 
 arid wind in your favour. Having fixed on this desi- 
 rable point, gradually close into it, the deer will be in 
 a state of uncertainty ; take your rifle from the bearer's 
 shoulders, who is walking at your stirrup, and the 
 moment the deer make up their minds to be off, dis- 
 mount ! Ay, ay ! what a splendid buck he turned 
 round to see what you were doing ; and as the sight 
 of the rifle meets your eye, his clean, white breast is all 
 before you, distant one hundred and fifty yards ; one 
 moment, and all the herd but him are scattered at 
 their speed over the plain. Now pace the distance, 
 and see if you judged correctly. Ay ! one hundred 
 and forty paces not so bad ! and the ball in the 
 centre of the bottom of the neck. A deer standing, as 
 I have mentioned, is, I think, the best mark ; a rifle is 
 generally held straight on the object, and a ball varies 
 more in its elevation than it does sideways. An 
 amusing way for two people is with double barrels. 
 You spy a herd of deer a mile off; take your guns and 
 canter away to the right and left, at a moderate angle 
 from your people, who are to go straight on the herd ; 
 as you get towards the flank of the herd, gradually 
 close in ; they are getting* alarmed, but looking* at your 
 men more than yourself. Judgment is now required 
 when to ride fast or slow ; now the leading doe makes 
 a dash forwards, and all the rest follow her example ; 
 she stops, and so do they ; you both gallop as they 
 do, and stop when they do, and if the judgment is 
 good, they will run between you, giving each sports- 
 man two good shots." 
 
142 THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA. 
 
 A similar method of approaching the bustard is also 
 recommended; he is a tall and timid bird; accustomed 
 to the sight of the husbandmen with their plough, he 
 does not seem disturbed by their approach. It is other- 
 wise with the sportsman. The peculiarity of his cos- 
 tume arouses the apprehension of the bird, and he 
 wings his flig'ht beyond fowling-piece range the mo- 
 ment he sees his enemy. The best plan, therefore, is 
 to employ a native ploughman or a hackery wallah with 
 his vehicle to approach the bustard in concentric 
 circles, diminishing the distance at each revolution. 
 You accompany him, concealing yourself by the 
 man's side, or behind his cart, and when within proper 
 distance, level, and bring down your game. 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CBEEDS, &c. 
 
 The Brahminical religion The Doorga Poojah The Nautch 
 Hindoo music The Churuk Poojah JuggernafhThe 
 Suttee The Mohurrum The Buckra Eade The Shearer. 
 
 No better proof can be presented of the perfect and 
 admirable toleration of the British rule in India, than 
 the multitude of places of worship which may be seen 
 at one view in any considerable town between Cape 
 Cormorin and the Himalayas. The spire of the Chris- 
 tian church, in juxtaposition with the pagoda of the 
 Hindoo, the dome, roof and lofty minarets of the Ma- 
 homedan mosque ; the Parsee augiaree (or fire-temple), 
 the Baptist Mission chapel, and the Greek church 
 to which the Armenians resort, demonstrate that re- 
 ligious persecution is unknown, though political free- 
 dom may be under some restraint. It is by no means 
 an uncommon thing to hear, early of a morning in any 
 one of the cities, the bells of the Roman Catholic 
 chapel and the Hindoo temple, forming with the cry 
 of the muezzin from the summit of the minaret a not 
 
144 KELIGIOUS CE1?:-:MONIK3, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 unpleasing concord. The bigots of all persuasions 
 may detest each other, and manifest in their private 
 intercourse the presence of strong* religious prejudice, 
 but no open demonstration of hostility is permitted. 
 The law takes immediate cognizance of any violent 
 ebullitions of hate ; and this fear of the law holds even 
 the passions of the fanatic in subjection. 
 
 The religion of the Hindoos, though based upon 
 Brahminism, admits of many ramifications. Buddhism, 
 an offshoot of Brahminism, possesses perhaps more 
 votaries than any existing- religion. Buddha, the 
 ninth incarnation of Vishnu, " the illustrious lord of the 
 universe," taught that the soul when sufficiently puri- 
 fied shall lose all consciousness of separate existence, 
 and be received into the essence of the godhead. It 
 teaches that this state of bliss is equally attainable by 
 men, angels, and demons : it substitutes sanctity for 
 sacrifice. The Jains, another branch of Brahminism, 
 resemble the Buddhists in religious tenets, but look 
 upon God as so inconceivable in his nature that the 
 human understanding is too feeble to comprehend his 
 perfections. 
 
 For purposes of religious and temporal government 
 the early Brahmins instituted caste. Menu, the great 
 Hindoo lawgiver, in all his writings insisted upon the 
 importance of preserving the divisions of mankind 
 intact ; and to this time nothing is more terrible to a 
 Hindoo than the risk of losing his caste by the wilful 
 or accidental perpetration of some act which is in- 
 hibited to his sect. There are four original castes : 
 The Brahmins, or priests; the Ksatriyes, or warriors; 
 the Vaisyas, or merchants ; and the Soodras, or vulgar. 
 To the first belongs, or belonged, the exclusive privilege 
 of reading and explaining the sacred books, the Vedas. 
 The warrior caste come next. Agriculture and trade, 
 as third in order of importance according to the 
 original constitution of society, constituted the pur- 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 145 
 
 suit of the Vaisyas ; and the Soodras, to whom all 
 knowledge of the Yedas was forbidden, filled all the 
 menial and degrading- offices. These four great castes 
 have been infinitely subdivided, and as each minute 
 subdivision acknowledges the protecting influence of 
 some special deity or family of deities, the Hindoos 
 have many thousands of slightly distinct forms of 
 worship. It would be impossible to convey anything 
 like an adequate idea of the mythology of the Hindoos 
 within the compass of this volume, for the attributes 
 of each special god and demi-god are infinite, and to 
 our homely notions, gross and improbable. All the 
 fabulous achievements ascribed by the heathen Greeks 
 and Romans to the subjects of their Pantheon, rise 
 into the possible by the side of the monstrous absurd- 
 ities of the Hindoo creed. And their sculptured and 
 modelled impersonations of their deities are as frightful 
 and revolting as the major part of their belief. The 
 ancients of Europe fitly associated their notions of 
 super-excellence with the most beautiful embodiments. 
 The perfection of the human form was deemed indis- 
 pensable to the realization of the idea of supernatural 
 power. The Jupiter, the Mars, the Apollo, and the 
 Venus of the unknown sculptors who worked under 
 the magic influence of religious enthusiasm, are ex- 
 amples of form and expression, which degraded and 
 corrupt humanity never could completely attain. It is 
 otherwise with the Hindoo. His sense of the powerful is 
 of the vulgarest order. He gives an additional number 
 of legs and arms to his destroyers and avengers, and 
 connects their human attributes with portions of the 
 limbs and heads of animals. He worships the energy 
 of man and the fruitfulness of woman with unmis- 
 takeable symbols, and his idea of the godhead, Brahm, 
 is only realized by three distinct heads, destitute of 
 facial expression, each looking in a different direc- 
 tion. 
 
146 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 In honour of these various tutelar deities, or patron 
 saints, the Hindoo holds numerous festivals on some 
 of which occasions he makes great holiday. Indeed, 
 so numerous are the holidays of the Hindoos, that at 
 one time it was difficult to induce them to give their 
 services to their employers for more than 200 days 
 in the year. Certain imperative ceremonies of bathing 
 and prayer are continually alleged as causes of un- 
 avoidable absence from business. At length the 
 Government deemed it necessary to institute inquiries 
 into the rigorous exactions of religion, and it was soon 
 found that the threat of expulsion from office enabled 
 the Hindoo materially to curb those devotional exer- 
 cises, which amounted to mere form, if, in reality, 
 they were practised at all. From fifty to one hundred 
 festivals, the " red letter days " came down to twenty, 
 and even these, are now somewhat reduced. The 
 great poojas (poqja, worship) are limited to two or 
 three, and it is only upon the occasion of the Doorga 
 pocja, or the Dusserah, as it is called in Western 
 India, that some days of absence from all public duties 
 are permitted. 
 
 A festival in honour of Doorga, or the goddess-con- 
 sort of Siva, is the most splendid and expensive, as 
 well as the most popular of any of the Hindoo 
 festivals. It takes place in the month Asliwinn or 
 Assin (the end of September or beginning of October). 
 The preliminary ceremonies occcupy several days, 
 previous to the three days' worship. 
 
 During the whole of this period, all business 
 throughout the country is suspended, and universal 
 pleasure and festivity prevail. On the first of the 
 three days of worship, the ceremony of giving eyes 
 and life to the images takes place, before which they 
 cannot become objects of worship. This is performed 
 by the officiating Brahmin touching* the cheeks, eyes, 
 breast, and forehead of the image, saying, " Let the 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 sonl of Durga long continue in happiness in this 
 image." Other ceremonies, and the sacrifice of nu- 
 merous animals, as buffaloes, sheep, goats, &c., then 
 follow. The flesh and blood of the animals, and other 
 articles, are then offered to the images of the goddess 
 and the other deities which are set up. The ceremo- 
 nies and sacrifices of the second and third days of the 
 worship are nearly similar to those of the first day. 
 After the whole of the beasts have been slain, the 
 multitude daub their bodies with the mud and clotted 
 blood, and then dance like Bacchanalian furies on 
 the spot. On the following morning*, the image is, 
 with certain ceremonies, dismissed by the officiating 
 Brahmin. 
 
 This image one of the most disgusting that can 
 be conceived represents Kalee (Doorga's impersona- 
 tion of the Destroyer), a very black or blue female, 
 having in one hand a scimitar, and in another the head 
 of a giant, which she holds by the hair. Another 
 hand is spread open, bestowing* a blessing* and with 
 the fourth she is forbidding fear. She wears two dead 
 bodies for ear-rings, and a necklace of skulls, and her 
 tongue hangs down to her chin emblematic of her 
 shame on discovering that, in her wild and ungovern- 
 able passion, she is trampling on her husband, Siva. 
 The heads of several giants are hung in a girdle round 
 her loins, and her tresses fall down to her heels. 
 Having drank the blood of the giants she has slain 
 in combat, her eyebrows are bloody, and the blood 
 is falling in a stream down her breast ; her eyes are 
 red like those of a drunkard. She stands with one leg 
 on the breast of her husband, and rests the other on 
 his thigh. 
 
 This image is placed by the priests on a stage 
 formed of bamboos, and carried, surrounded by a con- 
 course of people of both sexes, and accompanied by 
 drums, horns, and other Hindoo instruments, to the 
 
148 HELIG10US CEREMONIES, CREEDS; ETC. 
 
 shore, and cast into the water in the presence of all 
 ranks and descriptions of spectators ; the priest, at the 
 time, invoking- the goddess, and supplicating- from her, 
 life, health, and affluence ; urging- her (their universal 
 mother, as they term her) to go then to her abode, 
 and return to them at a future time. During- this 
 period licentiousness and obscenity prevail. For three 
 days of worship in Bengal the houses of the rich Hin- 
 doos are at night splendidly illuminated, and thrown 
 open to all descriptions of visitors ; and they acknow- 
 ledge, with much attention and gratitude, the visits 
 of respectable Europeans. The images exhibited on 
 these occasions, are made of a composition of hay, 
 sticks, clay, &c., and some of them are ten and twelve 
 feet high. 
 
 During the whole of the day after the pooja, as some 
 of the images are brought from villages at a consider- 
 able distance from the holy stream, in order to be cast 
 in, the uproar and din are indescribable. Immense 
 sums of money are expended on these festivals. A 
 great deal is given in charity, and in feeding and 
 clothing* priests and beggars. Much is also spent in 
 general feasting, and not a little is lavished on the 
 nautcli girls, or bayaderes, who dance before the god- 
 dess. 
 
 The NAUTCH is an Indian entertainment, of which 
 dancing forms the chief element ; not, however, where 
 the guests dance, but where they witness certain 
 evolutions dignified by the appellation of dancing. 
 
 The native of India does not condescend to Terpsi- 
 chorean indulgence. He prefers to be a spectator of 
 the gesticulations of others, who make a trade of the 
 " light fantastic," and are called nautch girls. 
 
 These girls are of different kinds. The most re- 
 spectable, according to the author of the " Vade 
 Mecurn," are the meerascens, sometimes called doo- 
 minca; though the real doominca exhibit in public be- 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS; ETC. 149 
 
 fore men, which the meeraseens never do. The word 
 meeras means an inheritance, and meeraseen an in- 
 heritress, from the custom, in certain families, of never 
 changing the set. As the meeraseens are never accom- 
 panied by male minstrels, they seldom play on other 
 instruments than drums of different kinds, such as the 
 tabla, dholult, and munjeera ; though the meeraseens 
 never perform before assemblies of men, yet the hus- 
 band and his sons may be present. They are modest 
 and chaste in their manners and dress ; but notwith- 
 standing this, it sometimes happens that a fair meera- 
 seen attracts the attention of the male part of the 
 family. The liunclienee are of an opposite stamp : 
 they dance and sing for the amusement of the male 
 sex, and in every respect are at their command. They 
 are attended by male minstrels, to whom they are 
 often married. It is said these women always consider 
 their first lover as their real husband during the rest 
 of their lives ; and, on his death, though they should 
 be married to another, they leave off their pursuits for 
 a prescribed period, and mourn agreeably to the cus- 
 tom of widows. They do not consider any part of 
 their profession either disgraceful or criminal. 
 
 There are many other kinds of dancing women, 
 such as, Tioorkenees, bazeegarnees, dharees, &c. &c. In 
 dancing*, the nautch-girls present very picturesque 
 figures, though somewhat encumbered by the volumi- 
 nous folds of their drapery. Their attire consists of a 
 pair of gay-coloured silk trousers, edged and em- 
 broidered with silver or gold lace, so long as only to 
 afford occasional glimpses of the rich anklets, strung 
 with small bells, which encircle the legs. Their toes 
 are covered with rings, and a broad, flat, silver chain. 
 is passed across the foot. Over the trousers a petti- 
 coat of some rich stuff appears, containing at least 
 twelve breadths, profusely trimmed, having broad 
 silver or gold borders, finished with deep fringes of 
 the same. 
 
150 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 The coortee, or vest, is of the usual dimensions, but 
 it is almost hidden by an immense veil, which crosses 
 the" bosom several times, hanging' down in front and at 
 the back in broad ends, either trimmed to match the 
 petticoat, or composed of still more splendid materials, 
 the rich tissues of Benares. The hands, arms, and 
 neck, are covered with jewels, sometimes of gTeat value, 
 and the hair is braided with silver ribbons, and con- 
 fined with bodkins of beautiful workmanship. The 
 ears are pierced round the top, and furnished with a 
 fringe-like series of rings, in addition to the ornament 
 worn in England -, the diameter of the nose-ring is as 
 large as that of a crown-piece ; it is of gold wire, and 
 very thin ; a pearl and two other precious gems are 
 strung upon it, dangling over the mouth, and disfiguring 
 the countenance. With the exception of this hideous 
 article of decoration, the dress of the nautch-girls, when 
 the wearers are young and handsome, and have not 
 adopted the too-prevailing custom of blackening their 
 teeth, is not only splendid but becoming; but it re- 
 quires, however, a tall and graceful figure to support 
 the cumbrous habiliments which are worn indiscrimi- 
 nately by all the performers. The nautch-girls of 
 India are singers as well as dancers ; they commence 
 the vocal part of the entertainment in a high, shrill 
 key, which they sustain as long as" they can ; they 
 have no idea whatsoever of modulating their voices, 
 and the instruments which form the accompaniment 
 are little less barbarous ; these consist of nondescript 
 guitars, and very small kettle-drums, which chime in 
 occasionally, making sad havoc with the original me- 
 lodies, some of which are sweet and plaintive. The 
 dancing is even more strange, and less interesting than 
 the music ; the performers rarely raise their feet from 
 the ground, but shuffle, or to use a more poetical, 
 though not so expressive a phrase, glide along the 
 floor, raising their arms, and veiling 1 or unveiling as 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 151 
 
 they advance or describe a circle. The same evolu- 
 tions are repeated, with the most unvarying* monotony, 
 and are continued until the appearance of a new set of 
 dancers gives a hint to the preceding- party to with- 
 draw. 
 
 The passionate fondness of the natives for the 
 nautch has in it something 1 extraordinary. Many 
 Europeans also were formerly so excessively devoted 
 to it as to excite the special ridicule of a distinguished 
 satirist. A few lines of his diatribe occur to us 
 
 " Shrilly she shrieked, and high above 
 The music of her fiddles three, 
 Rose the romantic strain of love, 
 Chota, chota, natchelee ! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 And then she danced ! for so they call, 
 Jingling her anklets while advancing, 
 With many a horrid squeal and squall, 
 With twirling hands and sudden lacks, 
 Her charms of person much enhancing ; 
 People may patronise such tricks, 
 But shouldn't, surely, call it dancing." 
 
 The music of the Hindoos consists of melodies j har- 
 mony is unknown. It (the music) is termed surgeet. 
 The gamut is called soorgum, from the first four notes 
 of the scale abbreviated. The number of tones is the 
 same as in European music, with an infinite variety 
 of semi-tones and quarter tones. The general term of 
 melody is rag or raggaree. 
 
 The chief instrument of the nautch orchestra is the 
 vena. It is strung with seven metal wires, three steel and 
 four brass, but the melody is generally played on one of 
 the steel wires. The other instrument is the tom-tom, 
 or drum, an oblong hollow instrument of larger circum- 
 ference in the middle than towards the ends. It re- 
 sembles the small barrel used by fishmongers for the 
 transport of presents of oysters. 
 
152 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 There are twenty species of vocal compositions. The 
 dlwor pud is the principal. It is the heroic song' ; the 
 subject being* generally the memorable actions of 
 heroes; the style is masculine, easy, and free from 
 ornament. The holees or Iwrees are the common 
 ditties which recite the amours of Krishna in the 
 groves of Vrig. The tuppa is the favourite species of 
 song ; its subject is love. The tenor of the tuppa is 
 one or more of the following themes : beseeching' the 
 lover to be propitious lamentations for his absence 
 imprecations of rivals complaints of inability to meet 
 him from the watchfulness of the mother and sister-in- 
 law and the tinkling of the bells worn round the 
 ancles, &c. In the tones of a Hindoo orchestra there 
 is something peculiarly drowsy and discordant, but the 
 natives prefer it infinitely to the European combina- 
 tion. 
 
 To proceed with the detail of native ceremonies 
 The CHURUK POOJAH is a Hindoo festival deriving* 
 its name churuk (or chalira), a wheel or discus, from 
 the circle performed in the swinging part of it, that 
 terminates the annual ceremonies in honour of Siva. 
 " The higher classes," says Williamson, " do not en- 
 gage in it, although they contribute towards the 
 expense of, and countenance it. The initiatory cere- 
 monies of purification, abstinence, and exercises of devo- 
 tion, take place several days before the commencement 
 of the rites, during which time the sunny asees, or 
 worshippers, form themselves into parties, and wander 
 about the streets with horns, drums, &c., making a 
 most intolerable din. The first exhibition is that of 
 suspension, which is performed by two posts being* 
 erected, on the top of which is placed a strong bar, 
 from which the sunnyasee, or worshipper, is suspended 
 by his feet over a fire kindled beneath him, into which 
 rosin is occasionally cast. His head is then com- 
 pletely enveloped in the smoke, though sufficiently 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 153 
 
 high to be beyond the reach of the flame. On the 
 following- day the sunnyasees dance and roll themselves 
 upon the downy beds of various descriptions of prickly 
 plants. Their next ceremony is called the Jamp 
 sanyo,) or jumping- on a couch of pointed steel, which 
 has been thus described. A bamboo scaffolding" of 
 three or four stages is erected, on which the sunnyasees 
 stand, tier above tier, the principal and most expert 
 occupying the upper row, which is sometimes between 
 twenty and thirty feet high. A kind of bedding-, sup- 
 ported by ropes, is stretched beneath the scaffolding* 
 by a number of men. Upon the mattress are attached 
 several bars of wood, to which are fixed very loosely, 
 and in a position sloping- forward, semicircular knives, 
 upon which the sunnyasees throw themselves in suc- 
 cession. In general the effect of the fall is to turn the 
 knives flat upon the bedding, in which case they do no 
 harm, but occasionally severe wounds, and even death, 
 are the consequences of this rite. Before they take 
 their leap the performers cast fruits, as cocoa-nuts, 
 bels, plantains, &c., among the crowd, among which 
 there is a great scramble for them, as they are sup- 
 posed to possess much virtue. Women desirous of 
 progeny are very anxious to g'et these donations ; and 
 those of the first families send persons to obtain and 
 bring them for their private eating. 
 
 The next is the day of the churuk, or swinging 
 ceremony. Posts, about thirty feet in height, are 
 erected in the suburbs of a town, across the upper 
 part of which are loosely suspended long bamboos, so 
 as to enable them to traverse freely. To one end of 
 the bamboo two hooks are fixed by ropes, which are 
 run through the fleshy parts of the back, near the 
 shoulders. A rope is also fastened to the other end 
 of the bamboo, which as soon as the party who is to 
 swing is secured to the hooks, is pulled by several 
 men, who thus raise the other end somewhat higher 
 
154 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 than the post. They then go round with it, with con- 
 siderable velocity; by which means the man at the 
 other end describes a circle of about thirty feet in 
 diameter. 
 
 Sometimes a cloth is tied round the body, and 
 secured to the hooks, to prevent, if the flesh should 
 be torn away, the man from being- dashed to pieces ; but 
 such is frequently not the case, and the party falling* is 
 often killed on the spot. Some of these men while 
 swinging amuse themselves by smoking, and throwing 
 fruit and flowers (which they take up on purpose)", 
 among the spectators. 
 
 On the morning following the clmruli, Siva is wor- 
 shipped in the temple, and the festival is concluded. 
 
 During each day of the festival, the sunny asees 
 worship the sun, pouring water, flowers, (fee., &c., on a 
 clay image of the alligator, and repeating muntras, or 
 prayers. 
 
 Great efforts have been made by the missionaries 
 and the British Government to put an end to these 
 barbarous rites, and there can be little doubt that 
 under the influence of education they will soon become 
 mere matters of history. 
 
 But horrible as is the rite of churuk poojah it sinks 
 into insignificance, or rises into humanity, by the side 
 of the immolations which take place before the rolling- 
 car of Juggernat'h. Some account of this famous 
 temple, its supposed origin, and the scenes which are 
 enacted upon the occasion of the procession of Rath 
 Jatra, may not be out of place here. 
 
 JUGGERNAT'H, in Hindoo mythology, is the re- 
 animated form of Krishna. According to the Hin- 
 doos, the love-inspiring' Krishna was one day shot with 
 an arrow from the bow of a hunter, who left the lovely 
 form of the deity, whom the Gopias had so franticly 
 adored, to rot under the tree where it fell. After 
 some time, his bones were collected by some pious 
 
11ELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS; ETC. 155 
 
 persons, and made the means of enriching the priests 
 of the Hindoos. Being placed in a box, they re- 
 mained till Vishnu, on being applied to by a religious 
 monarch, Indra Dhoomna, commanded him to make 
 an image of Juggernat'h; and place the bones in it. 
 The king' would willingly have done as he was de- 
 sired, but unfortunately, possessed not the skill for 
 such an undertaking ; so he made bold to ask Vishnu 
 who should make it ? Vishnu told him to apply to 
 Viswakarma, the architect of the gods. He did so, 
 and Viswakarrna set about forming the image of Jug- 
 gernat'h, but declared, if any person disturbed him in 
 his labours, he would leave his work unfinished. All 
 would have gone on well, had not the king shown a 
 reprehensible impatience of those divine injunctions 
 which he had solemnly pledged himself to observe. 
 
 After fifteen days he went to see what progress the 
 holy architect had made, which so enraged him, that 
 he desisted from his labours, and left the intended 
 god without either arms or legs. In spite, however, 
 of this perplexing event, the work of Viswakarma has 
 become celebrated throughout Hindostan ; and pil- 
 grims, from the remotest corners of India, flock, at the 
 time of the festivals of Juggernat'h, to pay their adora- 
 tion at his monstrous and unhallowed shrine. Be- 
 tween two and three thousand persons are computed 
 to lose their lives annually on their pilgrimage to 
 Juggernat'h. The temples of this deity being the 
 resort of all the sects of the Hindoos, it is calculated 
 that not less than 200,000 worshippers visit the cele- 
 brated pagoda in Orissa, yearly, from which the Brah- 
 mins draw an immense revenue. All the land within 
 twenty miles round the pagoda is considered holy ; 
 but the most sacred spot is an area of about 650 feet 
 square; which contains fifty temples. The most con- 
 spicuous of these is a lofty tower, about 184 feet ia 
 height, and about 28 feet square inside, called the 
 
156 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 Bur Dewali, in which the idol and his brother, and 
 sister Subhadra, are lodged. Adjoining are two 
 pyramidical building's. In one, about forty feet square, 
 the idol is worshipped ; and in the other, the food 
 prepared for the pilgrims is distributed. These build- 
 ings were erected in A.D. 1198. The walls are covered 
 with statues, many of which are in highly indecent 
 postures. The grand entrance is on the eastern side ; 
 and close to the outer wall stands an elegant stone 
 column, thirty -five feet in height, the shaft of which is 
 formed of a single block of basalt, presenting sixteen 
 sides. The pedestal is richly ornamented. The column 
 is surrounded by a finely-sculptured statue of Hanu- 
 man, the monkey-chief of the Ramayana. The 
 establishment of priests and others belonging' to the 
 temple, has been stated to consist of 3,900 families, 
 for whom the daily provision is enormous. The holy 
 food is presented to the idol three times a day. This 
 meal last about an hour, during which time the danc- 
 ing girls belonging to the temple, exhibit their pro- 
 fessional skill in an adjoining building. Twelve festi- 
 vals are celebrated during the year, the principal of 
 which is the Rath Jatra. Juggernat'h is styled the 
 Lord of the World. 
 
 His temples, which are also numerous in Bengal, 
 are of a pyramidical form. During the intervals of 
 worship, they are shut up. The image of this god is 
 made of a block of wood, and has a frightful visage, 
 with a distended mouth. His arms, which, as he 
 was formed without any, have been given to him by 
 the priests, are of gold. He is gorgeously dressed, 
 as also the other two idols which accompany him. In 
 a compartment in the temple of Rama, he is repre- 
 sented in company with Bala Rama and Subhadra, 
 without arms or legs. 
 
 The town of Juggernat'h is situated on the coast of 
 the province of Orissa, in lat. 19 49' N., long, 85 54' 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 157 
 
 E. It is named, and usually called Pooree, and is in- 
 habited chiefly by the Brahmins, and others con- 
 nected with the pagoda. On the sea shore, eig'hteen 
 miles to the northward of Juggernat'h, are the re- 
 mains of an ancient temple of the sun, called, in 
 English, the black pagoda. The greater part of 
 the temple is in ruins, having been thrown down, 
 apparently by lightning, or earthquake,- but from 
 what remains, it appears to have been one of the most 
 singular edifices ever constructed in India. Part of 
 the tower, 120 feet high, is still standing, and the ante- 
 chamber, orjungmohatn, about 100 feet high. 
 
 This temple, which has been long deserted, was 
 built by a rajah of Orissa in 1241. 
 
 " Historians have often remarked the surprising re- 
 semblance which exists in the external worship of 
 India and Egypt. In the religions of both countries, 
 bloody and unbloody sacrifices ; the strict observance 
 of pilgrimage, causing a numerous assembly of people 
 at festivals, penances, bathing in supposed holy waters, 
 and if drowned, the act supposed to confer eternal 
 bliss y their gods conveyed from one temple to another 
 on enormous stages, erected upon huge cars. These 
 latter customs, related by Herodotus (forming part of 
 of a long comparison between the Hindoos and 
 Egyptians, admirably set forth in Heeren's " Re- 
 searches)," are particularly applicable to Juggernat'h. 
 
 At Pooree, about the middle of every year, three 
 large cars are built for the Eath Jatra, at which festi- 
 val the images take " an airing" as far as Gondicha 
 Hour, or god'a country-house, a mile and a half 
 distant : " the cars are dragged by Kattabethias, or 
 coolies, and by thousands of other people." But ap- 
 parently, it must be the peculiar duty and privilege of 
 these people to draw the cars. 
 
 The images are placed in their respective positions 
 by the Dytas, or charioteers of Juggernat'h. "The car 
 
158 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 of Juggernat'h is forty-five feet in height ; it has sixteen 
 wheels of seven feet diameter, and a platform thirty-five 
 feet square. The ruth of Bulbhudra is forty-four feet 
 high ; it has fourteen wheels of six and a half feet 
 diameter, and a platform thirty- four feet square. The 
 car of Subhudra is forty-two feet high ; it has twelve 
 wheels of six feet diameter, and a platform thirty- 
 three feet square. A small rail, about eight inches in 
 height, nearly surrounds the platform of each ruth. 
 An opening is left of a few feet in front of the idol." 
 
 " The entire scene of the Ruth Jatra savours, to an 
 incredible extent, of the ludicrous, the barbarous, and 
 the awful. The eag'er expectation, the unceasing din 
 of a great multitude, the acclamations of " Victory to 
 Juggernat'h ! " which rend the ear, when the images 
 are brought forth, in an erect posture, or rather rolled 
 forth, by means of iron handles fastened in their backs, 
 and exposed to the stupid gaze of the delighted 
 people. 
 
 "There you may picture to yourself Christianity 
 shuddering; there, morality weeping. Momus is not 
 to be found there the God of Mirth has slunk away 
 trembling; as for intellect, she slumbers in silence, 
 awaiting the dawn of a better day. 
 
 u The ponderous machines are set in motion ; they 
 creak while the creatures strain the cables in the midst 
 of their joy and madness. There they are 
 
 ' All around, behind, before, 
 With frantic shout, and deafening roar ; 
 And the double double peals of the drum are there, 
 And the startling burst of the trumpets*blare ; 
 And the gong, that seems, with its thunders dread, 
 To astound the living, and waken the dead.' 
 
 " But all their enthusiasm has soon subsided ; and on 
 the termination of the festival, many of that once de- 
 lighted multitude either retire to die, or reach their 
 
RELIGIOUS CERELIONIES ; CREEDS, ETC. 159 
 
 deserted homes the victims of ignorance, poverty, and 
 wretchedness. 
 
 " It is, perhaps, useless to state here that human 
 sacrifices under the wheels of the car have long- heen 
 abolished."* 
 
 The suppression of the rites of the car of Juggernat'h 
 is not the only service rendered to humanity hy the 
 British Government. 
 
 SUTTEE, female immolation on the funeral pile of a 
 deceased husband, once very common was put down 
 in 1828 by Lord W. Bentinck. Although the Shas- 
 tras recommend, and contain regulations for the prac- 
 tice of the rite, the sacred ordinances not only do not 
 expressly, as some had supposed, enjoin it, but distinctly 
 point out in what manner a woman, after the decease 
 of her husband, shall be taken care of 5 and leave it 
 optional with her, either to burn herself, or live a future 
 life of chastity and respectability. If, they say, after 
 marriage her (the woman's) husband shall die, her 
 liusbancTs relations or, in default thereof, \^ father's 
 or, if there be none of either, the magistrate, shall 
 take care of her ; and, in every stage of life, if the 
 person who has been allotted to take care of a woman, 
 and do not take care of her, each in his respective 
 stage, the magistrate shall fine them. 
 
 The ordinance nevertheless adds, that it is proper 
 for a woman to burn herself with the corpse of her 
 husband; in which case she will live with him in 
 Paradise three crore and fifty lacs, or thirty-five mil- 
 lions of years. If she cannot burn, she must observe 
 an inviolable chastity. If she remain always chaste, 
 she will go to Paradise ; if not, she will go to Hell. 
 Immediate beatitude, an almost immortal life in hea- 
 
 * See a very elaborate and interesting account of Orissa and 
 the temple of Juggernat'h, from the pen of Lieut. Laurie, of 
 the Madras Engineers. 
 
160 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 vens of ineffable delight, and other enjoyments, whose 
 gross sensualities are concealed by the dazzling bril- 
 liancy of oriental colouring, are among the irresistible 
 charms which are held forth to enthral the mind, and 
 lead the victim of marital selfishness too often to 
 become a suttee. In short, it is averred, that the gods 
 themselves reverence and obey the mandates of a wo- 
 man who becomes one. There is, besides these, 
 another powerful motive which operates in conjunction 
 with them. Among the Hindoos a woman, after the de- 
 cease of her husband, loses entirely her consequence in 
 his family, and is degraded to a situation little above 
 that of a menial. She is told that if she become a suttee, 
 she will not only escape from that life of assured de- 
 basement and contempt, but will ascend to a state as 
 pre-eminently exalted 5 and will thus (whatever the 
 crimes of the parties may have been) save both her 
 own soul, and the souls of her husband and her hus- 
 band's family, from purgatory and future transmigra- 
 tion. 
 
 These doctrines, impressed on the minds of weak 
 women by a designing priesthood, were in the olden 
 time sufficiently convincing to lead to much personal 
 immolation. Drugged and excited, the victim went 
 to her death with an air of heroism, and the deafening 
 noise of torn toms, the crackling 1 of the faggots, and the 
 shouts of the multitude, drowned her cries and shrieks 
 until the destructive power of the flames reached her 
 heart. The harvests of the Brahmins on these occa- 
 sions were considerable. Fees were paid and feasts 
 given by the woman's friends, and as she ascended the 
 pile she distributed her trinkets among the priests. 
 
 Without pretending to rigid accuracy of computa- 
 tion, I should say that about one-fourth of the entire 
 population of India are of the Mahomedan persuasion. 
 Vast numbers of the sepoys, public and private ser- 
 vants, sailors, shopkeepers, western agriculturists, ped- 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 161 
 
 lars, the horsemen in the service of native chieftains 
 and in the irregular cavalry of our own service, are 
 Mahomed ans. Especially in the centre and north- 
 west of Hindostan, the mosque occurs as frequently 
 as the Hindoo pagoda, and a lively hatred is cherished 
 by the followers of the prophet towards the idolatrous 
 disciples of Brahma. It is not, however, so strongly 
 manifested in their intercourse with each other as to 
 lead to any breaches of the peace. There is, perhaps, 
 more real animosity between the sects of Mahomedan- 
 ism, for each looks upon the other as an apostate, or the 
 representative of a principle calculated to shake the 
 consistency of the creed, and this hostility is most 
 powerfully manifested in some of the public ceremonies 
 and processions, the most remarkable of which is the 
 Mokurrum. 
 
 The annual celebration of the Mohurrum in all large 
 Mahomedan communities of the Sheah sect, though, 
 strictly speaking, a fast of the most mournful kind, is 
 accompanied by so much pomp and splendour, that 
 strangers are at some loss to distinguish it from festi- 
 vals of pure rejoicing. The Sheahs, who are settled 
 in Hindostan, are in some degree obnoxious to the 
 charge of introducing rites and ceremonies, almost 
 bordering upon idolatry, in their devotion to the me- 
 mory of the Imaums Hossein and Houssein. 
 
 Imbibing a love of show, from long domestication 
 with a people passionately attached to pageantry and 
 spectacle, they have departed from the plainness and 
 simplicity of the worship of their ancestors, and in the 
 decorations of the tazees (mimic tombs), and the pro- 
 cessions which accompany them to the place of sepul- 
 ture, display their reverential regard for Ali and his 
 sons in a manner which would be esteemed scandalous, 
 if thus accompanied, in Persia and Arabia, where the 
 grief of the Sheah is more quietly and soberly mani- 
 fested. 
 
 M 
 
162 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 Several processions take place during the celebration 
 of the Mohurrum. At Lucknow, on the fifth day, the 
 banners are carried to a celebrated shrine or durgali in 
 the neighbourhood to be consecrated, it being supposed 
 that the standard of Hossein, miraculously pointed out 
 to a devout believer, is preserved at this place. The 
 veneration in which this sacred relic is held, nearly 
 equalling that which in some places in Europe is dis- 
 played towards pieces of the true cross, affords another 
 proof of the corruption of the Mahomedan religion by 
 the Sheah sect of India. The durgah at Lucknow is 
 not only visited at the commemoration of Hossein's 
 obsequies, but prayers and oblations are offered in its 
 holy precincts upon recovery from illness, or any other 
 occasion which calls for praise and thanksgiving. 
 
 The gifts deposited at the durgah, consisting of 
 money, clothes, and other valuable articles, become the 
 property of the officiating priest, who is expected to 
 disburse the greater portion in charity. All the 
 Moslem inhabitants of Lucknow are anxious to con- 
 secrate the banners employed at the Mohurrum, by 
 having them touched by the sacred relic ; and for this 
 purpose, they are conveyed to the shrine with as much 
 pomp and ceremony as the circumstances of the pro- 
 prietors will admit. A rich man sends his banners 
 upon elephants, surrounded by an armed guard, and 
 accompanied by bands of music. The arms and ac- 
 coutrements, representing those worn by Hossein, are 
 carried in some of these processions; and one of the 
 most important features is Dhull Dhull, the horse slain 
 with his master on the fatal field of Kurbelah : his 
 trappings are dyed with blood, and arrows are seen 
 sticking* in his sides. Multitudes of people form these 
 processions, which frequently stop while the moollahs 
 recite the oft- told, but never- tiring story, or the tragic 
 scene is enacted by young men expert at broadsword 
 exercises ; and as Hossein is surrounded and beaten 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 163 
 
 down, muskets are fired off, and shouts and beatings of 
 the breast attest the sincerity with which his followers 
 bewail his untimely end. On the seventh nigiit of the 
 Mohurrum, the marriage of Hossein's daughter with 
 her cousin, a faithful partizan of the house of Ali, is cele- 
 brated with much pomp and show. The procession of 
 the marriage of the unfortunate Co*sim and his ill-fated 
 bride is distinguished by trays bearing the wedding 
 presents, and covered palankeens, supposed to convey 
 the lady and her attendants ; the animals employed in 
 the cavalcade, with the exception of the favoured 
 Dhull Dhull, are left outside the walls ; but the trays 
 containing sweetmeats, &c., a model of the tomb of 
 Cossim, and the palankeen of the bride, are brought 
 into the interior, and committed to the care of the 
 keepers of the sanctuary until the last day, when they 
 make a part of the final procession to the place of in- 
 terment. 
 
 The most extraordinary feature, however, in the 
 commemoration of the deaths of Hossein and Hous- 
 sein, is the participation of the Hindoos, who are 
 frequently seen to vie with the disciples of Ali in their 
 demonstrations of grief for the slaughter of his two 
 martyred sons, and in the splendour of the pageant 
 displayed at the anniversary of their fate. A very 
 large proportion of Hindoos go into mourning during 1 
 the ten days of the Mohurrum, clothing themselves in 
 green garments, and assuming the guise of fakeers. 
 
 The complaisance of the Hindoos is returned with 
 interest at the Hooly, the Indian Saturnalia, in which 
 the disciples of the prophet mingle with the heartiest 
 good will, apparently too much delighted with the 
 general license and frolic revelries of that strange 
 carnival, to be withheld from joining* it by horror of its 
 heathen origin. The ceremonials observed at the cele- 
 bration of the Mohurrum are not confined to pro- 
 cessions out of doors; persons of wealth and respect- 
 
164: RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS; ETC. 
 
 ability having- an Imaum-barrah constructed in the 
 interior of their own dwellings. This is usually a 
 square building, containing- a hall and other apart- 
 mentS; in which the mourning" assemblages during- the 
 period of the festival are congregated. It is decorated 
 for the time with all the splendour which the owners 
 can afford. The tazee is placed upon the side facing 
 Mecca ; under a canopy of velvet or tissue richly em- 
 broidered ; and near it there is a pulpit; very hand- 
 somely constructed of silver, ivory, ebony, or carved 
 wood, having a flight of stairs covered with an expen- 
 sive carpeting of broad cloth, velvet, or cloth of gold. 
 
 The tazee is lighted up by numerous wax candles j 
 and near it are placed offerings of fruit and flowers, 
 presented by pious ladies to do honour to the memory 
 of the Imaums. 
 
 The remainder of the hall is fitted up with con- 
 siderable splendour, furnished with mirrors, which re- 
 flect the light from numerous lustres, lamps, and 
 girandoles. Poorer persons are content with less glit- 
 tering ornaments : and in all, an assemblage is held 
 twice a day, that in the evening being the most im- 
 posing and attractive. The guests are seated round 
 the apartment; the centre of which is occupied by a 
 group of hired mourners, consisting of six or eight 
 persons. 
 
 These men are usually of large stature, and of con- 
 siderable muscular strength. They are very scantily 
 clothed in a drapery of green cloth; their breasts and 
 heads being perfectly uncovered. A moollah, or priest; 
 selected on account of his superior elocution; ascends 
 the pulpit; and proceeds to the recital of a portion of a 
 poem in the Persian language; which contains a de- 
 tailed account of the persecution and tragic fate of the 
 Imaums. The composition is said to be very pure ; 
 and its effect upon the auditory is prodigious. 
 
 After some well wrought passage, describing the 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 165 
 
 sufferings of the unhappy princes, the reader pauses, 
 and immediately the mourners on the ground com- 
 mence violently heating- their breasts, and shouting 
 " Hossein ! Hossein ! " until at length they sink ex- 
 hausted on the ground amid the piercing cries and 
 lamentations of the spectators. A part of each day's 
 service consists of a chant in the Hindostanee lan- 
 guage, in which the whole assembly join; and the 
 Sheahs end it by standing up and cursing the usurp- 
 ing Caliphs by name, devoting the memory of each 
 offending individual to universal execration. The 
 Soonnees hold these solemn assemblies ; but their 
 grief at the cruel sufferings of so many estimable 
 members of the prophet's family does not assume so 
 theatrical a character. Attired in the deepest mourn- 
 ing, they evince the most profound sorrow ; and it is 
 persons of this persuasion who manifest the greatest 
 indignation when there is any risk of their processions 
 being crossed by the heathen revelries of the Hindoos^ 
 The pomps and ceremonies which precede it are 
 nothing to the grandeur reserved for the display on the 
 last day of the Mohurrum, when the tazees are borne 
 to the place of interment. This pag'eant represents 
 the military cavalcade of the battle of Kurbelah, 
 together with the funeral procession of the young 
 princes, and the wedding retinue of the bride and 
 bridegroom divorced by death upon their nuptial 
 day. The banners are carried in advance, the poles 
 being usually surmounted by a crest, composed of an 
 extended hand, which is emblematic of the five holy 
 personages of the prophet's family, and a symbol par- 
 ticularly designating the Sheah sect. Many make a 
 declaration of their religious principles by holding up 
 the hand; the Soonnee displays three fingers only, 
 while the Sheah extends the whole five. The horse of 
 Prince Hossein and his camp equipage appear fur- 
 nished with all the attributes of sovereignty ; some of 
 
160 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES; CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 the tazces, of which there is a great variety, are ac- 
 companied by a platform, on which three effigies are 
 placed, the ass Borak, the animal selected by Ma- 
 homed to bear him on his ride to heaven, and two 
 houries. The tomb of Cossim, the husband of Hossein's 
 daughter, is honoured by being carried under a canopy ; 
 the bridal trays, palankeens, and other paraphernalia, 
 accompany it, and the whole is profusely garlanded 
 with flowers. 
 
 These processions, followed by thousands of people, 
 take the field at break of day ; but there are so many 
 pauses for the reading of the poem dedicated to this 
 portion of the history of the events of Kurbelah, and 
 such numerous rehearsals of Hossein's dying scene, 
 that it is night before the 'commencement of the inter- 
 ment. Devout Mussulmans walk, on these occasions, 
 with their heads and their feet bare, beating their 
 breasts, and tearing- their hair, and throwing ashes 
 over their persons with all the vehemence of the most 
 frantic g*rief; but many content themselves with a 
 less inconvenient display of sorrow, leaving to hired 
 mourners the task of inciting and inflaming the multi- 
 tude by their lamentations and bewailments. 
 
 The zeal and turbulence of the affliction of Ali's 
 followers are particularly offensive to the Soonnees, 
 who, professing to look upon Hossein and Houssein as 
 holy and unfortunate members of the prophet's family, 
 and to regret the circumstances which led to their un- 
 timely end, are shocked by the almost idolatrous frenzy 
 displayed by their less orthodox brethren; and the 
 expression of this feeling often leads to serious dis- 
 turbances, which break out on the burial of the tazees. 
 Private quarrels between the sects are frequently re- 
 served for adjustment to this period, when, under 
 pretext of religious zeal, each party may make an 
 assault upon his enemy without exposing the real 
 ground of his enmity. In a few places which border 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS; ETC. 167 
 
 the Ganges or Jumna, the tazees are thrown into the 
 river ; but generally there is a large piece of ground 
 set apart for the purpose of the burial. It is rather a 
 curious spectacle to see the tombs themselves consigned 
 to earth, with the same ceremonies which would attend 
 the inhumation of the bodies of deceased persons ; the 
 tazees are stripped of their ornaments, and when little 
 is left except the bamboo frames, they are deposited in 
 pits. This ceremony usually takes place by torchlight, 
 the red glare of innumerable flambeaux adding con- 
 siderably to the wild and picturesque effect of the 
 scene. 
 
 The followers of Mahomed have another annual 
 festival called the Buckra Bade, or goat sacrifice. 
 Claiming to be descendants of Abraham, through his 
 son Ishmael, whom they aver to have been chosen for 
 the offering to the Almighty, and not Isaac, they cele- 
 brate the event. It is commemorated by the sacrifice 
 of particular animals : camels, sheep, goats, kids, or 
 lambs, according to each person's means ; this is sup- 
 posed to answer a double purpose, not only honouring 
 the memory of Abraham and Ishmael, but the sacri- 
 fices assisting in a time of great need. 
 
 It is supposed that the entrance to Paradise is 
 guarded by a bridge made of a scythe, or some in- 
 strument equally sharp, and affording as unstable a 
 footing. The followers of the Prophet are required to 
 skate or swim over this passage, and it will be attended" 
 with more or less difficulty, according to the degree of 
 favour they have obtained in the sight of Heaven. 
 
 The truly pious will be wafted over in safety, but 
 the undeserving must struggle many times, and be 
 often cut down in the attempt, before they can attain 
 the opposite side. In this extremity, it is imagined 
 that the same number and kind of animals, which 
 being clean, and esteemed fitting for sacrifice, they 
 have offered up at the celebration of the BucJira 
 
168 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 
 
 Hade, will be in waiting to convey them in safety 
 along the perilous passage of the bridge. 
 
 Under this belief, the richer classes of Mahom- 
 edans supply their poorer brethren with goats and 
 sheep for the sacrifice ; a work of charity, incited by 
 the purest motives, and which, if not possessing all 
 the efficacy ascribed to it, at least furnishes the poor 
 man's home with an ample and a welcome feast ; for 
 though poverty compels the lower classes of Mussul- 
 mans to imitate the Hindoos in the frugality of a 
 vegetable meal, they never refuse meat when it is pro- 
 curable. 
 
 The B HEARER is another annual Mahomedan fete. 
 It takes place at night. It is instituted in honour of 
 the escape of an ancient sovereign of Bengal from 
 drowning who, as the tradition relates, being upset 
 in a boat at night, would have perished, his attendants 
 being unable to distinguish the spot where he struggled 
 in the water, had it not been for a sudden illumination 
 caused by a troop of beauteous maidens, who had 
 simultaneously launched into the water a great num- 
 ber of little boats, formed of cocoa-nuts, garlanded 
 with flowers, and gleaming* with a lamp, whose flicker- 
 ing flame each viewed with anxious hopes of a happy 
 augury. The followers of the king, aided by this 
 seasonable diffusion of light, perceived their master 
 just as he was nearly sinking, exhausted by vain 
 efforts to reach the shore, and guiding a boat to his 
 assistance, arrived in time to snatch him from a watery 
 grave. This is the common, though not the universal 
 interpretation of the origin of the festival. 
 
 Whatever may have been the motive of its institu- 
 tion, the scene which is exhibited on the occasion of its 
 celebration is exceedingly beautiful. The banks of the 
 Ganges are brilliantly lighted up on the evening of the 
 festival, and numerous flights of rockets announce the 
 approach of a floating palace, built upon a raft, and 
 
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, CREEDS, ETC. 169 
 
 preceded by thousands of small lamps, which cover the 
 surface of the water, each wreathed with a chaplet of 
 flowers. The raft is of considerable extent, formed of 
 plantain trees fastened together, and bearing- a struc- 
 ture, which Titania herself might delight to inhabit. 
 Towers, gates, and pagodas, appear in fantastic array, 
 bright with a thousand colours, and shining in the 
 light of numberless glittering cressets. 
 
170 ARCHITECTURE) TEMPLES, ETC 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, MONUMENTAL 
 REMAINS, <fcc. 
 
 TJie cave-temples The river-temples The character of Hindoo 
 sculpture Futtehpore Sikri Deeg Secundra Tomb of 
 Hoomaioon Agra The Taj Mahal Lucknow, &c. 
 
 WERE the grandeur of the native governments of India 
 to be judged by the architectural remains which still 
 decorate different parts of the country, a lofty impres- 
 sion would be entertained of the early civilization of 
 the Hindoo and Mahomedan rulers. From the south- 
 ernmost points of the Peninsula to the vicinity of 
 Delhi, majestic temples, gorgeous palaces, and splendid 
 tombs, are still extant, in various stages of decay, 
 each attesting a vastness of design and a delicacy of 
 execution which scarcely find a parallel in the stu- 
 pendous works still seen on the banks of the Nile, and 
 in the vicinity of the Tigris and Euphrates. Ancient 
 Egypt and Mesopotamia may have exceeded other 
 countries in the dimensions of the abodes and the 
 sepulchres of their kings, but they are fairly rivalled 
 in India by the exquisite taste of the architects who 
 flourished under the Mahomedan dynasties, or who 
 
ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 171 
 
 embodied the conceptions of the founders of the Brah- 
 minical system of worship. 
 
 In Southern India, because more remote from the 
 seats of Mahomedan government, Delhi, Lahore, Oude, 
 <&c., the Hindoo temples are the main objects of attrac- 
 tion. Some of them are of great height, covering two 
 or three acres of land, and divided into an infinite 
 number of apartments. 
 
 But perhaps the most extraordinary specimens of 
 Hindoo architecture are the cave-temples in Western 
 India and the Deccan. Ellora, Ajunta, and Elephanta, 
 are the most remarkable, and were probably con- 
 structed because their freedom from external climatic 
 influences, and their concealed positions, which re- 
 duced the chances of their being despoiled by the 
 bigots of other creeds, ensured to them a greater 
 permanence. 
 
 The cave- temples of Ellora or Verrool, as the place is 
 called by the natives are situated about a mile from the 
 ancient Mahomedan city of Dowlatabad. In magnitude 
 and execution they excel every thing of the kind in 
 India. They comprise several temples, and are filled 
 with figures, some dedicated to Siva, and some to 
 Boodh. As far as can be ascertained, these temples 
 were constructed 2,500 years since, but the Brahmins 
 assign to them a much more extravagant antiquity, 
 going even 2,000 or 3,000 years higher than the date 
 assigned by us, according to the Scriptures, to the 
 creation of the world. 
 
 The temples of Ajunta are by no means so extensive 
 as those of Ellora, but they are exceedingly curious, 
 and afford an excellent idea of the taste and talent of 
 the Hindoo sculptors of the olden time. 
 
 The other cave -temples are near the island of 
 Bombay, on Salsette and Elephanta. 
 
 The little island of Elephanta, the true name of 
 which is Shapooree, derives the Portuguese appellation 
 
172 ARCHITECTURE,, TEMPLES, ETC. 
 
 from a huge stone elephant, about three times as large 
 as life, which stands in a field about a quarter of a mile 
 to the right of the usual landing-place. The elephant 
 is rudely sculptured, and is so much dilapidated by 
 climate as to leave little beyond a rough outline of the 
 animal it is intended to represent. From the landing- 
 place a steep and narrow path leads up the hill, wind- 
 ing prettily through woods and on the banks of pre- 
 cipices for about three-quarters of a mile, when, after 
 passing a ruined portico, supported by two pillars and 
 two pilasters, we reach the entrance to the great cavern, 
 magnificently situated for the prospect which it com- 
 mands. The cave is excavated out of the solid rock, 
 the roof being supported by pillars which once ex- 
 hibited traces of beautiful carving and architectural 
 taste. The form of the interior of the cave, which 
 was evidently a temple dedicated to Siva, is that of a 
 cross, and not unlike the plan of a basilica. 
 
 At the upper end is an enormous bust, with three 
 faces, looking in different directions, and reaching from 
 the pavement to the ceiling. It was at one time sup- 
 posed to represent the Trimurti, or Hindoo Trinity 
 Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; but more recent dis- 
 coveries have ascertained that Siva himself, to whose 
 worship and adventures most of the other ornaments of 
 the cave refer, is sometimes represented with three faces, 
 so that the temple was evidently consecrated to him. 
 
 In the interior of the continent, and more es- 
 pecially in Upper and Central India, the pagodas and 
 sculptured rocks are very numerous, and illustrative of 
 the extensive character of the mythology of the 
 Hindoos. At the confluence of rivers, on the summit 
 of lofty hills, at the base of prodigious rocks in se- 
 cluded places, the traveller constantly comes upon 
 singular remains, attesting at once the vigorous con- 
 ceptions and religious zeal of the statuaries. Near 
 Oojein, in the province of Malwa, for instance, are some 
 
ARCHITECTURE; TEMPLES, ETC. 173 
 
 splendid vestiges of sculpture. At Oomerkantuck, in the 
 province of Gondwana, at the source of the rivers Soane 
 and Nerbudda, there is a temple said to have been built 
 by one of the ancient rajahs of Butturpore, and to contain 
 an image of Bhavani, under whose name the consort of 
 Siva is worshipped in that part of the country. In 
 Guzerat also are ruined temples, originally of great 
 magnitude ; and from the source to the mouths of the 
 Ganges are not less than 3,500 edifices of various 
 dimensions consecrated to Gunga, the goddess of the 
 river, and some of these date back two or three cen- 
 turies, when the fervid zeal of the Hindoo defied the 
 relentless persecution of the Mahomedan. Gunga is 
 the personification of the sacred stream. The honour 
 of giving birth to that goddess has been claimed for 
 their deities both by the Shivas and Yishnaivas, the 
 former alleging that she sprang from the locks of Siva 
 the latter that she issued from the foot of Vishnu. 
 According to either, she came to restore to King 
 Suguin the 60,000 sons whom the deity Brigu had 
 caused his wife to have at one birth, and who, for 
 some malpractices, had been reduced to ashes. In her 
 passage towards the sea she was swallowed by a holy 
 sage for disturbing him in his worship ; but by some 
 channel or other she contrived to make her escape, 
 and having divided herself into a hundred streams 
 (now forming the Delta of the Ganges), reached the 
 ocean, when, it is fabled, she descended into Palata to 
 deliver the sons of Suguin. All castes of the Hindoos 
 worship this goddess of their sacred stream. Clay 
 images are set up in the temples to her honour. The 
 waters of the river are highly reverenced, and are 
 carried in compressed vessels to the remotest parts of 
 the country, from whence also persons perform journeys 
 of several months' duration to bathe in the river itself. 
 By its waters the Hindoos swear in our courts of 
 justice. A person, by either bathing in or seeing the 
 
174: ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 
 
 river, may be as much benefited as if he had visited 
 all the places of worship on its banks. For miles near 
 any part of the banks of the sacred stream, thousands 
 of Hindoos of all ages and descriptions pour down 
 every night and morning to bathe in or look at it. 
 Persons in their dying moments are carried to its 
 banks to breathe their last, by which means the deaths 
 of many are often accelerated ; and instances have been 
 known wherein such events have thereby been actually 
 produced. Several festivals are held during the year 
 in honour of Gunga ; and then the bathing, especially 
 at the junction of the main stream with a tributary, 
 is universal. 
 
 To return to the temples, some of singular form and 
 character are erected on the rises of the Kistna river, 
 near Mahabuleshwur, a range of hills in Western India ; 
 and their situation is not less worthy of remark than 
 their structure and materiel. Although knowing little 
 of painting, and not much more of poetry, if we 
 except their ancient lyric songs of Sanscrit origin, the 
 Hindoos have yet an eye so true to nature (when not 
 called upon to imitate it) that their temples are ever 
 found commanding the most lovely and attractive 
 views. At Mahabuleshwur, a fine arch, cut in one of 
 the basaltic temples, permits the rich foliage of the 
 mountains to be seen at its back, as well as the ex- 
 quisite landscape that forms the foreground of the 
 picture. 
 
 Of the temple of Juggernauth we have elsewhere 
 spoken in the chapter on religious ceremonies, &c. 
 and for a minute scientific account of the character of 
 Hindoo architecture, its stages, and most remarkable 
 extant illustrations, the reader is referred to the elaborate 
 and interesting work of the late Major Kitto, of the Ben- 
 gal army, and the Journal of the Asiatic Society. The 
 following unpublished observations upon Hindoo sculp- 
 ture generally are deserving of attention for their truth 
 
ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 175 
 
 and originality. They are from the pen of a travelled 
 officer of the Bengal Engineers of gTeat taste and 
 experience 
 
 " The new city of Bujrungghur becomes visible 
 after a passage of some ten miles of extremely wild 
 and rugged road (on the way from Agra to Mhow in 
 Malwa), and just at the point from which it appears, is 
 a statue of Mata Devi, in high relief upon a stone 
 placed upright on the left-hand side of the road. It 
 has few of the horrible accompaniments peculiar to 
 that fearful goddess, and is designed to represent a 
 beautiful woman in an attitude calculated to display 
 the figure. Though a little overstrained, it is the most 
 spirited attempt I have seen of the Hindoo's chisel on 
 this rough rock, and excepting the figures of Gopris 
 (or nymphs), the most graceful. 
 
 " In the features of the face, Hindoos always fail, 
 therefore nothing is ever to be expected in that depart 
 ment ; but in the more ancient of their sculptures, the 
 figures are sometimes ably executed. 
 
 " And here I cannot forbear remarking, that the 
 Hindoos bear an undue imputation of indecency in their 
 religious sculpture. There can be no doubt that 
 temples do exist wherein the most abominable repre- 
 sentations abound ; the reports of travellers have testi- 
 fied to this, and it is very possible, that in the peninsular 
 countries, the taste may be more depraved than in 
 Upper Hindostan. But I can affirm that in marching 
 from Cawnpore to Agra, Meerut, Kurnaul, Simla, and 
 thence through Delhi and Jypore, to Mhow in Malwa, 
 and the banks of the Nerbudda, and from thence again 
 through Oojyne hither, a distance of about 1,400 
 miles, I have not met with even one obscene image, 
 although I have lost no opportunity of inspecting 
 works of art, of whatever nature, on the road ; I of 
 course except the Phallus or Lingam, the symbol of 
 Mahadeo as god of nature, which is to be found in 
 
176 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 
 
 every village and under every considerable tree in 
 Malwa. And I consider that there are good grounds 
 for this exception, and that to regard it as a proof of 
 the pruriency of the Hindoo imagination is both unwise 
 and uncharitable ; although doubtless its origin may 
 be attributed to the most depraved taste in the ori- 
 ginator. In the first place, it is so unlike that of 
 which it is a symbol, that unless informed of its mean- 
 ing, it would be impossible to conjecture it, nineteen 
 out of twenty of these symbols being mere shapeless 
 masses of rock placed upright under a bingnit or 
 peepul tree, and those which are chiselled being almost 
 as unmeaning. And secondly, the habit of regarding 
 it from infancy as a religious emblem, must tend to 
 prevent any connection with it of impure ideas. Add 
 to this, that the notions and habits of natives of this 
 country, whatever their rank, birth, or real modesty, 
 are so utterly un softened by delicacy, according to our 
 notion of that word, thatjiot an expression, however 
 literally coarse, in the compass of a language eloquent 
 in a certain species of anatomy, is considered as too 
 large, or too rude for the most gentle lips. And a 
 woman, who would sacrifice herself to a most fearful 
 death to escape a breach of chastity, would, in the 
 innocence of her heart, utter expressions which would 
 assure her the unrivalled sway of Billingsgate. This 
 familiarity with all the arcana of European polish, 
 however revolting, however objectionable upon other 
 accounts, does certainly tend to rob of its dangerous 
 tendency any symbol such as that under discussion. 
 Nor can I doubt, while I reprobate the system of 
 Lycurgus, which sought to destroy by familiarity the 
 pruriency of the imagination, that it was so far a suc- 
 cessful, though a most ungraceful expedient, and one 
 that, by uprooting personal bashfulness, and with it all 
 our dreams of female sacredness and reverence, and in 
 rendering common what is chiefly desired as rare, had 
 
ARCHITECTURE; TEMPLES, ETC. 177 
 
 a fatal tendency to divert tlie passions from their na- 
 tural course, and beget an indifference in particulars 
 wherein the most exclusive nicety should prevail." 
 
 The architectural remains of the Mahomedans are 
 not, of course, of the same antiquity as those of the 
 Hindoos, and can hardly be said to have any connec- 
 tion with religion. They consist chiefly of palaces, 
 tombs, serais, and halls of justice. The greater por- 
 tion are in Upper India. A few may be described : 
 Futtehpore Secree, lying- about twenty-four miles from 
 Agra, is celebrated for the mausoleum of Sheikh 
 Saleem. The town, such as it is, stands upon the 
 back of a narrow ridge of sandstone hills, rising* 
 abruptly from the alluvial plains, to the highest about 
 150 feet ; and extends three miles north-north-east 
 and south- south- west. The origin of the celebrity of 
 the place is thus described by Colonel Sleeman. The 
 Emperor Akbar's sons had all died in infancy, and 
 he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the celebrated 
 Moin-od-deen, of Cheest, at Ajmere. He and his 
 family went all the way on foot, at the rate of three 
 coss, or four miles a day, a distance of about three 
 hundred and fifty miles. Kunauts, or cloth walls, 
 were raised on each side of the road, carpets spread 
 over it, and high towers of burnt brick erected at 
 every stage, to mark the places where he rested. On 
 reaching the shrine, he made a supplication to the 
 saint, who at night appeared to him in his sleep, 
 and recommended him to go and entreat the inter- 
 cession of a very holy old man, named Sheikh Saleem, 
 who lived a secluded life upon the top of the little 
 range of hills at Secree. He went, accordingly, and 
 was assured by the old man, then ninety-six years 
 of age, that the Empress Jodh Baee, the daughter 
 of a Hindoo prince, would be delivered of a son, who 
 would live to a good old age. She was then pregnant, 
 and remained in the vicinity of the old man's hermit- 
 
 N 
 
178 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 
 
 age till her confinement, which took place 31st August 
 1569. The infant was called after the hermit, Mirza 
 Saleem, and hecame in time Emperor of Hindostan, 
 under the name of Jehangeer. It was to this Em- 
 peror Jehangeer, that Sir Thomas Roe, the am- 
 bassador, was sent from the English court. Akbar, 
 in order to secure to himself, his family, and his 
 people, the advantage of the continued intercessions of 
 so holy a man, took up his residence at Secree, and 
 covered the hill with magnificent buildings for himself, 
 his courtiers, and his public establishments. The quad- 
 rangle, which contains a mosque on the west side, and 
 the tomb of the old hermit in the centre, is perhaps one 
 of the finest in the world. It is 575 feet square, and 
 surrounded by a high wall, with a magnificent cloister 
 all around within. On the outside is a magnificent 
 gateway, at the top of a noble flight of steps, twenty- 
 four feet high. The whole gateway is one hundred 
 and twenty feet in height, and the same in breadth, 
 and presents beyond the wall five sides of an octagon, 
 of which the front face is eighty feet wide. The arch 
 in the centre of this space is sixty feet high hy forty 
 wide. The gateway is extremely grand and beautiful, 
 composed of red sandstone, with inlaid decorations of 
 marble ; but the beholder is struck with the dispro- 
 portion between the thing wanted and the thing- pro- 
 vided. There seems to be something quite prepos- 
 terous in forming so enormous an entrance for a poor 
 diminutive man to walk through ; and walk he must 
 unless he is carried through on men's shoulders ; for 
 neither elephant, horse, nor bullock, could ascend the 
 flight of steps. " In all these places the staircases, 
 on the contrary, are as disproportionately small. They 
 look as if they were made for rats to crawl through, 
 while the gateways seem as if they were made for ships 
 to sail under." The tomb of Sheikh Saleem, the 
 hermit, is a very beautiful little building, in the centre 
 
ARCHITECTURE; TEMPLES; ETC. 179 
 
 of the quadrangle. It once boasted a great deal of 
 mosaic ornament; but the Jats, when they reigne.l, 
 removed it all. 
 
 At Deeg 1 is a noble quadrangular garden, con- 
 structed by the Jats during their ascendancy. It is 
 475 feet long by 350 feet wide ; and in the centre is 
 an octagonal pond; with openings on four sides leading 
 up to four buildings; which stand in the centre of each 
 face of the garden. These buildings are justly ac- 
 counted the most beautiful Hindoo edifices for accom- 
 modation ever erected. They are formed'bf a very fine 
 ground sandstone, brought from the quarries of Roop- 
 bas; which are eight or ten miles south-west of Futteh- 
 pore Sikree. These stones are brought in in flags, 
 some sixteen feet long, from two to three feet wide, 
 and one thick, all sides as flat as glass; the flags 
 being of the natural thickness of the strata. The 
 openings spoken of above have, from the centre of 
 the pond to the foot of the flight of steps leading 
 from them; an avenue of jets cVeau. 
 
 At Secundra, a few miles from Agra, is the mag- 
 nificent tomb of Acbar. It stands in a square area of 
 about forty English acres enclosed by an embattled 
 wall, with octagonal towers at the angles, surmounted 
 by open pavilions, and four very noble gateways of red 
 granite, the principal of which is inlaid with marble, 
 and has four high marble minarets. The space within 
 is planted with trees and divided into green alleys^, 
 leading to the central building', which is a sort of solid 
 pyramid, surrounded externally with cloisters, galleries, 
 and domes, diminishing gradually on ascending it, till 
 it ends in a square platform of white marble, sur- 
 rounded by most elaborate lattice work of the same 
 material, in the circle of which is a small altar tomb, 
 also of white marble, carved with a delicacy and 
 beauty which do full justice to the material and to the 
 graceful forms of Arabic characters which form its 
 
180 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 
 
 chief ornament. At the bottom of the building, in a 
 small but very lofty vault, is the real tomb of this 
 great monarch, plain and unadorned, but also of white 
 marble. 
 
 Delhi contains in its immediate neighbourhood some 
 beautiful mosques and other edifices in good preserva- 
 tion. There is the Jumma Musjeed, the mausoleum of 
 Hoomaioon, and the Kootub Minar. The latter is a 
 lofty pillar or minaret, deriving its appellation from 
 Kootuboodeen (the pole star of religion), who under the 
 Emperor Mahomed Ghori became a mighty general, 
 and ultimately achieved the throne, and was the first 
 of the Pat an or Affghan sovereigns. The circumfer- 
 ence of the pillar measures 143 feet, and its height 
 was formerly between 200 and 300 feet, but the upper 
 part being struck by lightning and destroyed, it now 
 only reaches about 110 feet. 
 
 The tomb of Hoomaioon, about six miles from Delhi, 
 through masses of ruins, is a noble building of granite 
 inlaid with marble, and in a very chaste and simple 
 style of Gothic architecture. It is surrounded by a 
 large garden, with terraces and fountains, all now gone 
 to decay. The garden itself is surrounded by an em- 
 battled wall with towers or minarets, four gateways 
 and a cloister within, all the way round. In the 
 centre of the square is a platform of about twenty feet 
 high and about two hundred feet square, supported 
 also by cloisters, and ascended by four flights of granite 
 steps. Above rises the tomb, also a square, with a 
 great dome of white marble in its centre. The apart- 
 ments within are a circular room, in the centre of 
 which lies, under a small raised slab, the unfortunate 
 prince to whose memory the fine building is raised. 
 In the angles are smaller apartments where other 
 branches of his family are interred. 
 
 The Jumma Musjeed, or principal mosque of Delhi, 
 is a superb building in excellent repair. It is elevated 
 
ARCHITECTURE; TEMPLES, ETC. 181 
 
 very advantageously on a small rock}' eminence to at 
 least the height of the surrounding houses. In front 
 it has a large square court, surrounded by a cloister 
 open on both sides, and commanding* a view of the 
 whole city, which is entered by three gates, with a 
 fine flight of steps to each. In the centre is a great 
 marble reservoir of water, with some small fountains, 
 supplied by machinery from the canal. The whole 
 court is paved with granite inlaid with marble. On its 
 west side, and rising up another flight of steps, is the 
 mosque itself, which is entered by three noble Gothic 
 arches surmounted by three domes of white marble. 
 It has at each end a very tall minaret. The size, the 
 solidity, and the rich materials of this building, place 
 it nearly at the head of all the specimens of Mahomedan 
 architecture now extant. 
 
 But unquestionably the most beautiful monument in 
 Hindostan is the Taj Mehal, erected near the city of 
 Agra. It is a magnificent tomb, constructed at the 
 instance of the Mogul Emperor, Shah Jehan, in com- 
 memoration of his beautiful queen, Noor Jehan, the Light 
 of the World. The building was designed by Austin de 
 Bordeux, a Frenchman of great talent and merit, in 
 whom the emperor placed great reliance. It cost 
 3,174,802/., and occupied 20,000 labourers and archi- 
 tects for twenty-two years. The building stands upon 
 the north side of a large quadrangle, looking down 
 into the clear blue stream of the river Jumna, while 
 the other three sides are enclosed with a high wall of 
 red sandstone. The entrance to this quadrangle is 
 through a magnificent gateway in the south side, op- 
 posite the tomb; and on the other two sides are very 
 beautiful mosques/ facing inwards, and corresponding 
 exactly with each other in size, design, and execution. 
 That on the left, or west side is the only one that can 
 be used as a place of worship, because the faces of the 
 congregation, and those of all Maliomedans, at their 
 
182 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES; ETC. 
 
 prayers, must be turned to the tomb of their prophet 
 to the west. The mosque on the east side was, 
 therefore, built merely as a companion to the other. 
 The whole area is laid out in square parterres, planted 
 with flowers and shrubs in the centre, chiefly the 
 cypress, all round the borders, forming 1 an avenue to 
 every road. These roads, or paths, are all paved with 
 slabs of freestone, and have, running 1 along 1 the centre, 
 a basin, with a row of jets d'ean in the middle, from 
 one extremity to the other. The quadrangle is from 
 east to west 964 feet, and from north to south 329. 
 The mausoleum itself, the terrace upon which it stands, 
 and the minarets, are all formed of the finest white 
 marble, inlaid with precious stones. The wall around 
 the quadrangle, including the river face of the terrace, 
 is made of red sandstone, with cupolas and pillars of 
 the same white marble. The inside of the mosques and 
 apartments in and upon the walls are all lined with 
 marble or with stone-work that looks like marble ; but 
 on the outside the red sandstone resembles uncovered 
 bricks. The dazzling white marble of the mausoleum was 
 brought from the Jeypore territories, a distance of 300 
 miles, upon wheeled carriages. What was figuratively 
 said of Augustus may be literally said of Shah Jehan : 
 he found cities all brick, and left them all marble. The 
 emperor and his queen lie buried side by side in a 
 vault beneath the building, to which access is obtained 
 by a flight of steps. Their remains are covered by 
 two slabs of marble, and directly over these slabs, upon 
 the floor above, in the great centre room under the 
 dome, stand two other slabs, or cenotaphs, of the same 
 marble, exquisitely worked in mosaic. Upon that of 
 the queen, amid wreaths of flowers, are worked in 
 black letters, passages from the Koran. Upon the slab 
 over the emperor there are none : merely a mosaic wall 
 of flowers and the date of his death. 
 
 The cause of the difference is, that Shah Jehan had 
 
ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC, 183 
 
 himself designed the slab over his wife, and saw no 
 harm in inscribing' the words of God upon it ; whereas, 
 the slab over himself was designed by his more pious 
 son, Aurungzebe, who did not think it right to place 
 there " holy words " upon a stone which the foot of 
 man might some day touch. 
 
 Noor Jehan, the Light of the World, or, as the in- 
 scription on her tomb calls her, Ranoo Begum, the 
 ornament of the palace, died in 1631 ; her husband in 
 1666. She died in giving birth to a daughter, and on 
 her death-bed made two requests; first, that Shah 
 Jehan would not marry again after her death, and get 
 children to contend with hers for his favour and do- 
 minions ; and secondly, that he would build for her 
 the tomb with which he had promised to perpetuate 
 her name. 
 
 Both her dying requests were granted. Her tomb 
 was commenced upon immediately. No woman ever 
 pretended to supply her place in the palace, nor had 
 Shah Jehan children by any other. 
 
 The city of Lucknow, the capital of the kingdom of 
 Oude, contains a great many noble specimens of archi- 
 tecture, the most striking of which are the tombs of 
 Nabob Saadut Ali, the gate of Roum (Constantinople), 
 and the Imambarra, or cathedral. This last grand 
 mosque consists of two courts rising with a steep 
 ascent, one above the other. It contains besides the 
 mosque a college for instruction in Mussulman law, 
 apartments for the religious establishment maintained 
 there, and a noble gallery, in the midst of which, under 
 a brilliant tabernacle of silver, cut glass, and precious 
 stones, lie buried the remains of its founder Asuph ad 
 Dowlah. The whole is in a very noble style of eastern 
 Gothic, and is remarkable for richness and variety, as 
 well as for the proportions and general good taste of its 
 principal features. 
 
 At the city of Benares, the holy city of the Hindoos, 
 
184 ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, ETC. 
 
 and at Ajmere in central India, are some beautiful 
 specimens of architecture, especially at the latter, 
 where there is a tomb to the memory of a celebrated 
 Mahomedan saint, one Sheik Kajah Mooadeen. Thou- 
 sands of Mussulmans make pilgrimages to this tomb to 
 implore the blessing of male offspring. It is of white 
 marble inlaid with gold and silver. A similar tomb is 
 found at Currah, between Allahabad and Cawnpore. 
 It was erected to the memory of one Camaul Sheikh. 
 The architecture is grave and solemn, consisting of a 
 square tower pierced on each front with elegantly 
 formed and carved Gothic doorways, and surmounted 
 with a dome of a very judicious form, and harmonizing 
 with the general character of the building, not being 
 semicircular, but conical, and in the form of a Gothic 
 arch. Besides this large chapel are many raised 
 tombs, to the memory of the sons and disciples of 
 Camaul Sheik, who appears to have been a person of 
 great sanctity. 
 
 Briefly, India abounds with monumental remains, 
 and when all that England has accomplished, in the 
 architectural way, shall have crumbled to the dust, the 
 majestic works raised three or four or more centuries 
 ago, by Hindoos and Mussulmans, will survive to attest 
 the sublimity of their conceptions, and the munificence 
 of their expenditure. 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay Delhi The Great Mogul 
 Agra Lucknow Benares Hyderabad. 
 
 PRESUMING that the reader of these pages is destined 
 for one or other of the three great presidencies, it is 
 not impossible that a slight sketch of the characteris- 
 tics of each of the great towns will be acceptable. 
 
 CALCUTTA, as the metropolis of British India, is by 
 far the largest and most populous of the towns. It 
 stands upon the left bank of the river Hooghly. The 
 approaches to it, between the rich and and well- wooded 
 banks of a winding river, are extremely picturesque, 
 entirely shading the town from view, until the vessel 
 which is bound for Calcutta is within a quarter of a 
 mile from its anchorage. Here the whole splendour of 
 the town at once bursts upon the view. The Govern- 
 ment House with its vast dome and ornamental gates, 
 the churches with their lofty spires, the public offices 
 and enormous private dwellings, all faced with white 
 stucco, relieved by green Venetians, the handsome 
 ghauts, or landing places, the suspension bridge over a 
 
186 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 rivulet which encircles the town, the ramparts of Fort 
 William bristling with guns, the tall column erected to 
 the memory of Sir David Ochterlony all serve to im- 
 press the spectator with exalted notions of the magni- 
 ficence of the City of Palaces an impression which 
 a closer inspection and greater familiarity serves to 
 dissipate. Before, however, Calcutta is seen, we pass 
 between the magnificent gardens of spacious suburban 
 villas, not unlike some of the handsome residences 
 which fringe the Thames, in the vicinity of Richmond 
 and Thames Ditton. These are, for the most part, on 
 the left bank of the river, but on its opposite stands 
 the Botanical Garden of the East India Company, 
 adorned with many of the finest tropical productions 
 trees of stupendous altitude, and a banian tree, whose 
 shadowing branches extend over two or three acres of 
 ground. Here also is Bishop's College, an elegant 
 Gothic structure of a quadrangular form, like most of 
 the buildings of the same character in Oxford and 
 Cambridge, but not joined at the angles, the southern 
 side of the square being also open to the river, thus 
 exhibiting the buildings of the northern side as the 
 most conspicuous objects from the opposite bank. The 
 north side of the building is composed of a central 
 tower, which is in height sixty-five feet in depth, 
 from north to south, twenty-five feet. The right, or 
 western, side of this tower is occupied by a building- of 
 equal depth, but whose height is but forty feet, and its 
 length, from east to west, sixty feet the ground floor 
 of which is the hall. The upper floor is the library of 
 the college. The left, or eastern, side of the central 
 tower, is occupied by the chapel, a building of the same 
 dimensions with the preceding, but in every other 
 respect altogether dissimilar : being, of course, a single 
 compartment, with an arched roof^ in its exterior figure 
 and decorations approaching to a miniature resemblance 
 of that superb structure, King's College Chapel, in 
 
'5* 
 % 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 187 
 
 Cambridge. The ground floor of the central tower 
 forms an entrance both to the chapel and the hall. 
 The first floor is the vestibule of the library. The two 
 wings, extending from north to south, to the length of 
 150 feet (equal to that of the northern side described 
 above), are allotted to the residence of professors, 
 pupils, and domiciliaries. The edifice cost above 
 13,OOOJ. 
 
 The college is founded for a principal and two other 
 professors from the English Universities, and as many 
 students as can be maintained, either on the proper 
 foundation of the incorporated society, or on the en- 
 dowment of any other religious society of the Esta- 
 blished Church, or of the local governments, or indi- 
 viduals. The students are educated either as mission- 
 aries for the extension of Christianity in its present 
 form, and in the mode of ancient discipline and order 
 which is alone recognised by the Church of Eng'land, 
 or as schoolmasters for the dissemination of general 
 and useful knowledge. 
 
 Landing at Calcutta, we find that between the fort 
 and the town, immediately opposite the anchorage, is 
 an extensive plain, called a Maidaun, along one side of 
 which runs an aqueduct, and on three sides of it a 
 handsome broad road, which of an evening is crowded 
 with vehicles of all descriptions, and innumerable 
 equestrians. We now have an opportunity of inspect- 
 ing the principal buildings. These consist of the Town 
 Hall, a spacious edifice wherein public meetings are 
 held, balls and public dinners given ; the Sudder De- 
 wanee Adawlut, or principal Court of Justice, the 
 Supreme Court, the Bengal Club, the principal market, 
 the Racket Court, the offices of the Adjutant and 
 Quarter- Master-General, and several private dwellings. 
 At the southern extremity of the eastern range of 
 buildings stands the jail, and contiguous to it a large 
 hospital, and the race-stand -for where the Maidaun 
 
188 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 terminates the race-course begins. Near to this spot 
 also rises St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 
 This beautiful structure, a monument of the Christian 
 piety and zeal of the Right Rev. Dr. Wilson, Bishop 
 of Calcutta, was eight years in course of erection. 
 
 The first stone was laid on the 8th October, 1839. 
 The fimds were obtained by the Bishop, either by sub- 
 scription, or from his own private purse ; the entire 
 expense being about 50,OOOZ. 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen, at an audience granted to 
 the Bishop when last in England, was pleased to ap- 
 prove highly of the ground plan and elevation of the 
 cathedral, and to present a superb set of silver gilt 
 plate for the service of the Holy Communion. Her 
 Majesty had previously condescended to sanction the 
 gift of the painting of .the Crucifixion, by West and 
 Forrest (originally designed for St. George's Chapel, 
 Windsor, in 1787, by his late Majesty King George 
 the Third), to St. Paul's Cathedral. The centre part 
 of this picture now adorns the great eastern window of 
 the choir. 
 
 His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury convened 
 a meeting at the Palace, Lambeth, in March, 1840, 
 for opening a subscription in aid of the design, which 
 his Grace honoured with his own subscription of 2001. 
 
 The Hon. East India Company made a grant of 
 15,000/. in February, 1840, besides the gift of the site, 
 and the appointment of two Chaplains. 
 
 The University of Oxford presented books for the 
 Cathedral library to the value of 200/., and also 3001. 
 in money. 
 
 The Venerable Incorporated Society for Propagating 
 the Gospel in Foreign Parts, made a grant of nearly 
 half a lakh of rupees for founding a Native Canonry. 
 
 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 
 presented 5,0007. and a superb folio Bible and Prayer- 
 book. 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 189 
 
 The British and Foreign Bible Society gave twelve 
 beautifully bound large quarto Bibles. 
 
 A relative of the late Rev. John Natt, of St. John's 
 College, Oxford, and Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, London, 
 contributed 4,OOOZ. to the Endowment Fund, and 750Z. 
 for a Canon's residence. 
 
 A lady of North Wales presented 1,0007. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Craig, of Leamington, presented a 
 Lectern, in the form of a brazen eagle, with expanded 
 wings, after the model of those in the cathedrals at home. 
 
 Mr. Llewellyn, late of Calcutta, presented an ala- 
 baster model of the Cathedral, executed in Italy, five 
 feet in length by two feet in height, which the Bishop 
 has given to the University of Oxford, and which is 
 deposited on a suitable base in the Picture Gallery of 
 the Bodleian Library. 
 
 Captain Kittoe provided a most handsome stone font, 
 eight and a half feet each way at the base. 
 
 The cathedral of Calcutta will gradually become a 
 native or mission church, for service in the vernacular 
 languages. The mission has begun wisely and cau- 
 tiously ; and is intended to be of a peculiarly learned 
 and staid character, as connected immediately with the 
 bishop and clergy of the cathedral. 
 
 There is no doubt that it will be a kind of guardian 
 to the other missions in our Church in the diocese, 
 tending to animate what is good in them, and to 
 check anything approaching to what is unsuitable or 
 injudicious. 
 
 The style of the architecture is the English perpen- 
 dicular Gothic, with a few variations, occasioned by 
 the climate ; it is, in fact, Indo, or Christian Gothic. 
 The tower and spire are built after the model of the 
 admired Norwich Cathedral, with improvements sug- 
 gested by that of Canterbury. Most of the details of 
 the ornaments, externally and internally, are taken 
 from the finest specimens of York Minster. 
 
190 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 The building is constructed of a peculiar kind of 
 brick, specially prepared for the purpose. It is dressed 
 with Chunar stone, and well covered and ornamented 
 inside and out with chunam, which takes a polish like 
 marble. 
 
 The sacred edifice was consecrated on Friday, Oc- 
 tober 8, 1847, being the anniversary of the day when 
 the first stone was deposited in 1839. 
 
 The whole edifice is not larger than many of the 
 fine old parish churches in England, as Saffron Walden, 
 Halifax, Southwell, Manchester but it is as large as 
 the necessity of the case requires. And a district or 
 parish church having been urgently wanted for twenty- 
 five years, it has been merely distributed in all its 
 parts so as to meet the special purposes of a cathedral, 
 and it is furnished and fitted up with that end in 
 view. 
 
 Turning back and proceeding into the interior of the 
 town, in a northerly and easterly^ direction, we find 
 many stately buildings, all announcing either the com- 
 mercial importance of Calcutta, or the ample means of 
 the inhabitants, the liberal spirit which has contributed 
 to the foundation of public institutions, or the toler- 
 ance which prevails in religious matters. There is the 
 Metcalfe Hall, a splendid edifice, raised in memory of 
 Lord Metcalfe, who, as acting Governor- General, 
 crowned a long and brilliant career of usefulness and 
 honour, by giving freedom to the press of India. In 
 this hall, is an extensive public library, the museum 
 and library of the Asiatic Society, and the offices and 
 rooms of the Agricultural Society. Then there are 
 Writers' Buildings, a long range of chambers, in front 
 of which is a spacious tank called the Loll Biggie, 
 fringed with trees, the Custom House, the Mint, a 
 building of classical form and of great extent, boast- 
 ing a machinery corresponding with that of the Royal 
 Mint on Tower-hill, London ; the Bank of Bengal ; the 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 191 
 
 extensive premises of the auctioneers ; Protestant and 
 Roman Catholic churches, Mahomedan mosques and 
 Hindoo pagodas ; a Jesuit's College, once a handsome 
 theatre ; the Medical College, one of the finest architec- 
 tural ornaments of the city ; the Hindoo and Madrissa 
 (or Mahomedan) college ; and a number of chapels, 
 offices, and masonic lodges. In the interior also we 
 find large and commodious hotels, numerous shops, 
 as large as the largest in Regent-street, especially the 
 coachmakers, booksellers, upholsterers, jewellers, and 
 general shopkeepers. All these, intermingied with pri- 
 vate dwellings, impart a grandeur to the town, which 
 loses nothing of its importance in the activity of a 
 thriving population of 250,000 persons. 
 
 Calcutta is abundantly supplied with good water 
 and excellent markets. It is under the management 
 of a municipal committee, and boasts an active police. 
 The health of the town is much looked after, and if it 
 were lighted with gas, no city in Europe would stand 
 a comparison with the proud City of Palaces. 
 
 As the whole country around Calcutta is perfectly 
 level, there is little of beauty in the suburbs excepting 
 upon the river's banks. At a distance of twelve miles 
 stand the handsome barracks of the Artillery, at Dum 
 Dum. Sixteen miles off, through a delicious park 
 where the Governor- General has a residence, lies the 
 Barrackpore cantonment, where there are generally 
 five or six regiments quartered. To these places, and 
 to certain factories and villas within a circuit of twenty 
 miles, the denizens of Calcutta occasionally resort for 
 recreation and change of air, but the temptation to 
 leave the town, in other respects, is very slight. 
 
 MADRAS, the capital of the Presidency of that name, 
 is the town next in importance to Calcutta. It stands 
 upon the Coromandel coast, and is the emporium of 
 the trade from Cape Comorin upwards. Fort St. 
 Georg-e, which stands immediately upon the shore 
 
192 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 contiguous to the town, protects the roadstead and the 
 town. 
 
 Landing at Madras is a service of danger. A tre- 
 mendous surf rolls towards the shore, with so much 
 force at certain seasons of the year, that if the greatest 
 care were not taken by boatmen, their craft must 
 inevitably be swamped. The passage between ships 
 and the shore is effected in large barges called Mas- 
 soollah boats, rowed by three or four pairs of oars. 
 They have awnings for the purpose of enclosing pas- 
 sengers, who sit deep in the boat. As the boat ap- 
 proaches the land the boatmen watch the roll of the 
 waves, and pulling as near to the shore as possible, 
 leap out of the craft and drag it high and dry before 
 the next breaker can assail it. There is a class of 
 vessel called the catamaran, which consists merely of 
 a log or two of wood, across which the boatman, if he 
 may so be called, sits paddling himself to and fro. If 
 he is capsized, an event which never can happen to his 
 primitive vessel, he immediately scrambles on to the 
 catamaran again, and resumes his work. These men, 
 wearing conical caps, are very useful in conveying notes 
 and parcels to passengers, when communication by 
 larger boats is impossible. 
 
 . The houses at Madras, standing upon the sea-shore, 
 are of white and pale yellow stucco, with verandas and 
 Venetian blinds. The absence of all shade is very 
 striking, and to the eye at first offensive. The rest of 
 the houses of the town, belonging to the gentry, stand 
 in large compounds, scattered over a considerable ex- 
 tent of ground, and mingled with gardens. Some of 
 the roads, especially the Mount Road leading to St. 
 Thomas's Mount, are broad and well kept, but cannot 
 escape being exceedingly dusty in the dry season of 
 the year. The Government House is handsome and 
 has a banqueting-house attached, and here very large 
 parties are given upon occasion. The Madras Club is, 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 193 
 
 however, the most striking edifice. It is a very ex- 
 tensive building* designed for the accommodation of a 
 great number of persons, under admirable regulations, 
 and at a moderate expense. It has entirely superseded 
 the necessity for hotels : such as are to be found here 
 are small and miserably furnished and attended. A 
 statue to Sir Thomas Munro, formerly Governor of 
 Madras, and two statues in honour of the Marquis 
 Cornwallis, attract the attention of visitors ; and those 
 who are destined to remain at Madras, soon become 
 interested in the great number of useful and charitable 
 institutions with which, the town abounds. Among 
 these are the Madras College, the Medical College 
 (which contains 120 pupils), the Orphan Asylum, the 
 Mission, Charity and Free Schools, the Philanthropic 
 and Temperance Associations, the Masonic Lodges, the 
 Moneygar Choultry (a species of serai), the private 
 seminaries, the institutions for the education of native 
 females, &c. The churches are numerous at Madras, 
 several excellent newspapers are published, and there 
 are large establishments or shops where everything 
 that humanity, in its most civilized state, can require 
 is to be had for the money. Messrs. Pharaoh, Franck, 
 and Ashton, will supply you with a paper of pins, a 
 chandelier, or a steam-engine a library of books, a pot 
 of anchovies, and a carriage and pair. The prices at 
 which the productions of Europe are sold, are by no 
 means high, considering the expense of carriage to 
 India, warehousing, insurance, establishment, the in- 
 terest of money, &c. Very large fortunes are made 
 in trade in Madras, and it is remarkable that, while 
 Calcutta has experienced a great many vicissitudes, 
 some of which have scattered ruin and desolation 
 throughout society, the Madras houses of business, by 
 a steadier system, have remained unscathed. 
 
 BOMBAY comes third in order of importance, but it 
 is a town of greater interest and activity than Madras, 
 
 o 
 
194 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 and has the advantage of a most picturesque and beau- 
 tiful situation. The harbour well deserves the appel- 
 lation which the Portuguese bestowed upon it of 
 lomo-bdioy or " good bay." The island projects from 
 the Malabar coast, with which it is connected by a 
 tongue of land, or causeway now converted into a 
 railroad. The lofty western ghauts rise, as it were, 
 immediately above it, and form one side of the bay. 
 The town is enclosed within a fortress, constructed 
 after Vauban's first system, and between it and the 
 native town is an extensive esplanade, suited to military 
 operations. A good many Europeans reside an the 
 town the houses of which are lofty, spacious, and 
 handsome ; but the major part of the opulent inhabi- 
 tants occupy mansions beyond the native town, as the 
 picturesciue localities of Mazagon (so famous for its 
 mangoes), Bycullah (where there is a club, a church, 
 and a race-stand), Girgaum, Malabar Hill, Breach 
 Candy, &c. The Governor resides, when he is in town, 
 at Parell, a magnificent and commodious house, three or 
 four miles from the fort, standing on a slight elevation. 
 Connected with Bombay by a causeway, is the small 
 island of Colabah, where there is a church, many pretty 
 villas, and barracks for a European regiment. A light- 
 house and observatory terminate the island. 
 
 Some of the buildings of Bombay are fine, and their 
 purposes excellent. Jhere is the Elphinstone College, 
 founded in honour of Mountstuart Elphinstone, once 
 governor of the island and dependencies a college 
 where hundreds of natives have been admirably edu- 
 cated ; a mejlical college^, es lab lished by the late Sir 
 Robert Grant ; St. Thomas's Church, the Mint, and the 
 Town Hall. The latter is a superb and classical edi- 
 fice, where the sittings of the Supreme Court are held, 
 and balls, concerts, (fee., given. It is likewise the place 
 of public assembly, and the meetings of the commit- 
 tees of the different societies. The Bombay branch of 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 195 
 
 the Asiatic Society has an immense and well-chosen 
 library and a museum ; but books may also be ob- 
 tained at the " Europe shops," where everything- else 
 is vended. The bazaars are not very handsome, but 
 well supplied ; there is a theatre, where amateurs oc- 
 casionally act ; enormous cotton screwy a spacious 
 hotel, commercial houses and offices upon a grand 
 scale, and an infinite variety of places of worship. 
 The Roman Catholic chapels and churches are more 
 numerous here than in any other part of India, as the 
 descendants of the early Portuguese visitors abound. 
 Mosques and Hindoo temples are constantly found 
 contiguous to each otber, and here the Parsees the 
 descendants of the Guebres, or fire-worshippers, who 
 fled from Mahomedan persecution to India have 
 their auc/iaree, or fire temple, where the sacred fire 
 is constantly kept up by the priests, who receive, from 
 pious Parsees, through the grating which encloses the 
 silver stove, offerings in the form of sandal wood. 
 There are few statues in Bombay, but the churches 
 contain handsome monuments, and there are some 
 busts and pictures in the Town Hall and the rooms of 
 the Societies and Institutions. 
 
 There is probably no place in the world which con- 
 tains such a motley population as the town and island 
 of Bombay. Strolling, towards the evening-, either on 
 the esplanade, or in the vicinity of the Town Hall, you 
 may encounter Banians (pedlars arid merchants), Per- 
 sian and Arab horse-dealers, Parsees, descendants of 
 the Guebres, Chinese, Portuguese, Armenians, Hindoo 
 clerks, coolies, Abyssinians, Europeans, infantry, ca- 
 valry and artillery soldiers, &c. All live in perfect 
 harmony, for all enjoy the benefit of the greatest tole- 
 ration in the exercise of their several religions. 
 
 Nor is the diversity of objects confined to the people 
 who perambulate the town. There is much variety in 
 the vehicles in use. While the natives who are in 
 
lyo THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 good circumstances, move about in all sorts of queer 
 carts and cars, the Europeans patronize buggies a 
 covered kind of gig landaulettes, chariots, britzkas, 
 and slmgampocs. The last named is a square carriage, 
 something like a palankeen on wheels, and being sur- 
 rounded by Venetian blinds, is a cool and agreeable 
 means of locomotion. 
 
 Of the towns in the interior the most remarkable are 
 Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Benares, Hyderabad, and 
 Ajmere. Dinapore, Cawnpore, Poona, Meerut, Ban- 
 galore, Bellary, Belgaum, and similar places, owe 
 their imporjpnce to the cantonments which form a 
 considerable part of the towns themselves, and which 
 are maintained by the towns. They consist, for the 
 most part, of bungalows in compounds, bazaars, and 
 places of worship : those which are on the banks of 
 the Ganges having likewise warehouses and handsome 
 ghauts. Patna and Mirzapore, on the Ganges, are 
 also towns of some extent, where a considerable trade 
 is carried on with the lower provinces of Bengal. At 
 Patna are large opium godowns, for here the poppy is 
 grown, and the opium extracted, forming a large article 
 of export to China. The opium is the exclusive pro- 
 perty of the Government, by whom it is sold to the 
 merchants and brokers at public auctions. It has been 
 the source of immense fortunes to many persons, and a 
 fountain of trouble to the Government; for the attempt 
 to force it upon the Chinese, resulted in an expensive 
 war. 
 
 DELHI, the ancient capital of the Emperors of Hin- 
 dostan, is still the residence of their lineal descendants. 
 The " Great Mogul," however, with whose " effigies " 
 all card-players are more or less familiar, has long been 
 entirely bereft of all political authority. He is now a 
 mere pensioner; but the officers of Government offer 
 him all the external marks of courtesy pertaining 
 to the regal office ; and when European or native 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 107 
 
 strangers of distinction reach Delhi, they are expected 
 to call and pay their respects to his Majesty, jdio 
 ordinarily invests them with a " Khillut," or roW of 
 honour. A recent article in the Delhi Gazette gives 
 the following account of his actual position : 
 
 " A few days since, the representative of the Royal 
 House of Timour, the veritable Great Mogul of British 
 history, and master of Hindostan, and the rest of the 
 universe, according to traditions which were accepted 
 as realities but a century since, celebrated at the Jumma 
 Musjid (the principal mosque in Delhi) the solemn fes- 
 tival which closes the fast of the Ramazan, Nothing 
 of regal pomp was wanting to keep up the semblance 
 of kingship. Banners waved and guns thundered ; 
 and as the monarch's elephant passed slowly along the 
 line of procession, military bands struck up in succes- 
 sion, ' God save the Queen/ while the English present 
 uncovered their heads, and his Majesty, who never deigns 
 to return a salute, reverentially counted his beads. But 
 for the undisturbed presence of booted unbelievers in 
 the galleries which surround the sacred edifice, and the 
 reckless way in which a couple of sowars (horsemen) 
 hustled the crowd right and left, to force a passage for 
 a solitary and unarmed European, one might have fan- 
 cied that the days of Aurungzebe had come back again,, 
 and the English were a handful of submissive traders, 
 only too glad to purchase at any price the blessings of 
 being allowed to wear their heads, and fill their- 
 pockets. 
 
 " Bahader Shah is really a king"; not merely by con- 
 sent of the Honourable Company, but actually created 
 such by their peculiar letters patent. Lord Lake 
 found the grandfather of the present sovereign an 
 emperor in rags, powerless, eyeless, and wanting the 
 means of sustaining existence. The firmans of the 
 Padshah made the general an Indian noble ; the sword 
 of the latter made the descendant of Tamerlane a 
 
198 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 Company's king 1 , the least dignified, but the most 
 secure of Eastern dominations. 
 
 " In public and private, Bahader Shah receives the 
 signs of homage which are considered to belong to 
 his pre-eminent station. The representative of the 
 Governor-General, when admitted to the honour of an 
 audience, addresses him with folded hands in the atti- 
 tude of supplication. He never receives letters, only 
 ' petitions, ' and confers an exalted favour on the 
 Government of British India by accepting a monthly 
 present of 80,000 rupees (8,OOOJ.). In return he 
 tacitly sanctions all our acts ; withdraws his royal 
 approbation from each and all our native enemies, and 
 fires salutes upon every occasion of a victory achieved 
 by our troops. It would be impossible to find a royalty 
 more courteously disposed, and as the treaties which 
 bind us to him exist on durable parchment, and are not 
 likely to be violated by his oriental majesty, it would 
 apparently follow that, except at a monstrous sacrifice 
 of good faith, the Mogul line will continue for ages 
 to sway a nominal sceptre. Yet it is almost certain 
 that his dynasty is on the verge of extinction. He 
 is most probably the last of his race who will sit on a 
 throne, and this, too, in spite of covenants and solemn 
 obligations which were to endure as long as the sun 
 and stars. 
 
 " To sweep away the house of Tamerlane will not 
 add the slightest tittle to the power enjoyed at this 
 moment by the Company. Outside the walls of his 
 palace the King of Delhi has no more authority than 
 the meanest of his servants, but within that enclosure 
 his will is fate, and there are twelve thousand persons 
 who live subject to it. The universal voice of society 
 ascribes to this population the habitual practice of 
 crimes, of which the very existence is unknown in 
 England, except to the few who form the core of the 
 corrupt civilization of great cities. Its princes live 
 
THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 199 
 
 without dignity, and its female aristocracy contrive to 
 exist without honour. The intellectual qualifications 
 of both sexes, with one or two exceptions, do not reach 
 even the Mahomedan standard of merit perhaps the 
 lowest in the scale of modern humanity. 
 
 " But it is not the condition or the morals of the 
 inhabitants of the royal palace, nor the maintenance of 
 an exclusive jurisdiction, that form the chief reasons 
 why the kingdom of Delhi should be abolished. The 
 latter belong to a class of topics with which the readers 
 of Malthus and Poor Law Commissioners' reports are 
 familiar. The royal family of Delhi consists of twelve 
 hundred persons, with a sure prospect of further in- 
 crease every month, and how is the East India Com- 
 pany to support all this army of princes and princesses ? 
 As yet the hardship has only fallen upon the monarch, 
 who has been obliged to divide and sub-divide his 
 income, until there are princes who receive only 25 
 rupees a month ! Let the honest democrats of London 
 and Manchester try, if they can, to imagine the case 
 of a king's son, nephew, or cousin, however far re- 
 moved, living in a state of royalty on thirteen shillings 
 and sixpence a week, constantly addressed as ' Shah-i- 
 Alum,' the King of the World, and feeling it neces- 
 sary for his rank's sake, on choosing a wife, to settle on 
 her a dowry of five lakhs of rupees ! 
 
 " While this farce of a monarch is kept up, the 
 f Sulateen' continues to multiply within the royal 
 residence, and to live on the royal bounty, their sole 
 occupation being confined to playing on the sitar, and 
 singing the king's verses. There is no- employment 
 for them in the service of the state, and they are vastly 
 too proud to condescend to labour, even if qualified to 
 undertake it, which, as matters stand, is entirely out of 
 the question." 
 
 Delhi has one or two broad and handsome streets, a 
 number of handsome private residences, and an ex- 
 
200 THE CHIEF TOWNS OF INDIA. 
 
 tensive cantonment for troops. But the main attrac- 
 tions of the town consist in the mosques and minarets, 
 which are spoken of in another chapter. 
 
 Agra, .Lucknow, and Hyderabad (the capital of the 
 iNizam), are Mahomedan cities of a fine appearance, 
 from the clusters of mosques and minarets, and other 
 public building's. 
 
 Lucknow is however, more hybrid than the others, 
 because many of the residences of the upper classes 
 are built upon the principle of English villas. There 
 is a park and a menagerie at Lucknow, and the 
 iVawaub of Oude, who resides here, keeps up a 
 sort of ragged royal state, which lends a picturesque 
 variety to the streets. His elephants are numerous, 
 and his guards gaily attired. Of the Imaumbarra and 
 Roumi Durwaz the two most remarkable public edi- 
 fices mention has already been made. 
 
 Hyderabad is a very handsome town ; seen from a 
 short distance, the rich variety of mosques, palaces, 
 houses, and other edifices, interspersed with trees, give 
 to the whole the character of a city built in the midst 
 of an immense garden. The most prominent objects 
 are the Great Mosque, the Palace of Twelve Gates, 
 and the Chor Minar, or four minarets. The town is 
 surrounded by a massive stone wall, sometimes 40 feet 
 in length, and 10 feet in thickness. 
 
 Benares is a remarkable city, more eastern in cha- 
 racter than the general run of Hindoo towns. The 
 streets are extremely narrow, only admitting of an 
 elephant's passing, and the houses rise above the 
 streets, as they do at Chester. The upper parts of 
 the houses are embellished with verandas, galleries, 
 and projecting* oriel windows, with broad and over- 
 hanging eaves, supported by carved brackets. The 
 temples are very numerous, and stuck like shrines 
 in the angles of the streets. The city is held in 
 great sanctity by the Hindoos all over India. They 
 
Tin: CHIEF TOWXS or INDIA. 201 
 
 call it, par excellence, the " Holy City ; " and there 
 is a saving- virtue in a pilgrimage to the town, and 
 the waters which flow past the ghauts. 
 
 Agra, the capital of Akbar, stands on the left bank of 
 the Jumna, and is picturesque without being' imposing*. 
 It is nearly four miles in length, and contains a noble 
 road, eighty feet wide, descending* to the river. The 
 houses are chiefly built of red sandstone, which is pro- 
 cured in great abundance from some hills to the south. 
 Agra abounds in noble ruins ; and the most beautiful 
 edifice in the world, the Taj Mehal, stands close to the 
 town. The fort of Agra is one of the grandest in India. 
 It occupies a large space of ground on the banks of the 
 river, and within its embattled walls of red granite 
 stands the Motee Musjeed a magnificent mosque. 
 The remains of the palace attest the grandeur of its 
 ancient occupants. 
 
202 CEYLON. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CEYLOX. 
 
 Productions Colombo Trincomalce Point tie Galle Kandy 
 Climate Population, 
 
 ALTHOUGH this beautiful island forms no part of 
 India proper, and is not included in the possessions 
 of the East India Company, it nevertheless deserves 
 notice at our hands, from its importance and its situa- 
 tion. 
 
 Lying to the extreme south of the Indian Peninsula, 
 it is 270 to 280 miles in length (N. to S.), and 140 
 miles in breadth. The land contiguous to the sea is 
 flat, varying from eight to thirty miles in breadth ; the 
 interior of the country is mountainous. The former 
 has long" been the property of the English, the latter 
 constituted the kingdom of Candy, but is now ruled 
 by us. 
 
 The vegetable productions of Ceylon are numerous 
 and valuable. Besides the ordinary produce of tropical 
 climates, no country in the world yields such a vast 
 number of cocoa-nut trees, or such quantities of cin- 
 namon and coffee. The Palmyra palm and the areca- 
 
CEYLON. 203 
 
 nut abound, and are celebrated for their superior qua- 
 lities. The cocoa-nut trees, which form groves fringing' 
 the shores of the island, have been computed at twelve 
 millions in number, yielding' a revenue to the pos- 
 sessors of nearly 40,000/. per annum. Their fruit and 
 milk are used as food, or for the expression of oil, and 
 the husks of the fruit are converted into coir, which 
 has become a large article of commerce, besides being 
 much employed in the island. The cinnamon of 
 Ceylon, at one time, grew wild in the jungles, and was 
 widely disseminated by the crows and wood-pigeons, 
 who devoured the berries, just as coffee was propa- 
 gated by the jackalls, and birds who ate the fruit. 
 But within the past twenty years, both of these valu- 
 able spices have been cultivated in extensive planta- 
 tions which are private property. 
 
 Ceylon was discovered by the Portuguese in 1506, 
 who established a settlement at Colombo, to this hour 
 the principal European town. In 1640 the town fell 
 into the hands of the Dutch, who for their own pur- 
 poses had joined the King of Candy in hostilities against 
 the Portuguese. In 1796, when Holland, created a 
 republic, had united herself with France in a war 
 against the liberties of Europe, Colombo and other 
 maritime provinces and towns were captured by the 
 English, by whom they have since been retained. 
 
 Colombo is prettily and advantageously situated on 
 the sea-shore. It is protected by a fort, which stands 
 on a peninsula projecting into the sea, and is very 
 extensive, surrounded by a broad, deep ditch ; near the 
 glacis is the end of a large lake, which extends some 
 miles into the interior, and in the middle of the lake is 
 an island called by the Dutch " Slave Island." The 
 pettah, or native town, contiguous to the fort is ex- 
 tensive and populous. There are not less than 60,000 
 inhabitants of a mixed race, descendants of Dutch, 
 Portuguese, and Kandyans. The town is handsome, 
 
204 CEYLON. 
 
 and nearly divided into four parts by two broad 
 streets. There are many Dutch houses, distinguishable 
 from the English by their glass windows, instead of 
 Venetians. Without the town are many European re- 
 sidences, beautifully situated, especially near the sea. 
 They are nearly all lower-roomed houses, with pro- 
 jecting low-roofed verandas. The floors are of brick, 
 which contributes to keep the houses cool, though 
 much dust is engendered. Chunam, which in India 
 forms so pleasant and serviceable a coating* to the floors, 
 cannot be made in Ceylon, excepting at great expense, 
 [t is composed of shells, the mere collection of which is 
 attended v. ith considerable cost. The Government- 
 house of Colombo, or " Queen's House," is handsome, 
 and is situated in King-street. The other public 
 buildings of consequence are the light-house, 97 feet 
 above tl k level of 'the sea ; the English church ; a 
 library, well stocked with books of all kinds ; the 
 general post-office, the hospital, the museum, and the 
 custom-house. The Supreme Court of Judicature, the 
 magistrate's court, the churches of the Dutch, the 
 Portuguese Protestants, the Roman Catholics, and 
 the Malabar or Tamul church, are, with the Portu- 
 guese, Wesley an, and Baptist chapels, situated in 
 the pettah or native town. Three English judges pre- 
 side over the Supreme Court at Ceylon, and one of 
 them is required by the charter to be always at Co- 
 lombo. The magistrates rf the district courts are 
 subordinate to the Supreme Court, which receives 
 appeals from their decisions, and the Governor of 
 Ceylon has the power to reverse the sentence of the 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 The other towns of Ceylon are Trincomalee, on the 
 east coast, possessing a large and commanding har- 
 bour capable of containing the whole navy of Great 
 Britain ; Point de Galle, at the extremity of the south 
 coast ; Jaflah, or Jaffnapatam, which lies on the north 
 
CEYLOX. 205 
 
 of the island, 219 miles from Colombo ; and Kandy, or 
 Sinhala, or Maha Nawara, the great city, which is 
 situated near the centre of the island in an amphi- 
 theatre formed by the surrounding* hills, the highest 
 of which is 3,192 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 Point de Galle has a fort, about a mile in circumfer- 
 ence, which encloses the town. The houses in general 
 are good and convenient, and the station, though hot, 
 is healthy and agreeable. There is a Dutch church 
 within, a chapel, and a Mahomedan mosque. The 
 pettah is extensive, and is separated from the fort by 
 the esplanade. Point de Galle is the port of arrival 
 for the steamers from the Red Sea, which thence pro- 
 ceed to Madras and Calcutta. Here also the screw 
 steamers stop to coal on their way to the Australian 
 colonies down the straits of Malacca. 
 
 Trincomalee is enclosed in a fort, covering an extent 
 of three miles. It has a citadel called Fort Ostenburg*, 
 erected on a cliff that projects into the sea. There are 
 a few good houses in the occupation of English, 
 Dutch, and Portuguese, and several chapels, mosques, 
 and temples. Jaffiaapatam is a fortified town. The 
 works are in the form of a pentagon, and contain bar- 
 racks, a Dutch church, and a few good buildings. 
 
 The town of Kandy, in the time of the kings, con- 
 sisted of one street, about two miles in length, having 
 a few narrow lanes branching out on both sides. None 
 of the houses or huts were tiled or whitewashed, ex- 
 cept those of the king* and his ministers, and a few 
 head men ; the rest being covered with cadjan matting, 
 shingles, or thatch. Since its capture by the English, 
 however, the town has been much improved ; many 
 new and commodious houses have been erected ; new 
 streets have been formed, the old ones widened, and 
 all the houses in the town tiled. There is a pavilion, 
 the residence of the Governor for about half a year, 
 one of the handsomest buildings in the country. The 
 
206 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 king's palace and the buildings connected with it arc 
 now used as government offices, and the former hall of 
 audience has been converted into a court of justice. A 
 public library, erected on pillars built in a lake, is a 
 neat and commodious building well supplied with. 
 books. In Kandy are numerous wiharas, temples, 
 for this is the chief seat of Buddhism. The principal 
 temple contains the " most sacred relic of Buddha's 
 canine tooth/ 7 encased in a golden dagoba, set round 
 with jewels. 
 
 There are several other small towns and villages 
 scattered over the island, but they are thinly populated, 
 and are not of any material account. 
 
 In the mountainous part of the interior, fifty miles 
 south-east of Kandy, is the settlement of Nuwera Elia, 
 the city of light. For a few months in the year this 
 is a delightful place of resort. No rain falls in De- 
 cember, January, February, or March, the air is pure 
 and healthy, the thermometer ranges at night below 
 the freezing' point, and in the daytime seldom rises 
 higher than sixty-six or sixty-eight degrees, Fahren- 
 heit. All kinds of European vegetables common in 
 gardens grow at Nuwera Elia, and thrive abun- 
 dantly. It is found to be an excellent station for 
 invalids. The plain of Nuwera Elia is about four 
 miles in length, and varies in breadth from half a mile 
 to a mile and a half. Roads have been made round 
 the plain, and neat wooden bridges have been thrown 
 across a small river that runs through the middle 
 of it. 
 
 The population of Ceylon amounts to a quarter of a 
 million, two-thirds of whom a,re Singhalese, or abo- 
 riginal inhabitants, professing the Buddhist religion, 
 in which no distinction of caste is recognised. In 
 general appearance they are good-looking ; they have 
 bright black eyes and long black hair, which persons 
 of both sexes turn up behind and fasten in a knot. 
 
CEYLON. 207 
 
 which they call a candy. In the Kandian country 
 distinctions of rank are rigidly observed by the natives, 
 and a great many of the higher classes now hold im- 
 portant and responsible posts under the British Go- 
 vernment of the settlement. 
 
 Two or three British regiments, and one composed 
 of the natives (a rifle* regiment), but officered by Eng- 
 lishmen, constitute the protective force of the colony. 
 The native soldiers are chiefly Malays and Caflres, and 
 are in an excellent state of discipline. 
 
 Ceylon abounds with minerals and precious stones, 
 and is covered with magnificent and hig'hly productive 
 trees. The jungles and mountains are inhabited by 
 elephants in vast numbers, whose teeth and tusks form 
 an important article of commerce. Tame, elephants 
 are used for purposes of travelling in the interior. 
 The chase of the wild elephant, though attended with 
 some risk, is a favourite pastime with the European 
 officers and others in Ceylon. A good shot, with a 
 stout heart, will kill a sufficiency of elephants in the 
 course of a year, to enable him to add to his income 
 by the sale of the trophies. A Major Rogers, who for 
 some years resided on the island, is computed to have 
 slain 800 elephants in the course of his career. 
 
 English education has been widely spread in Ceylon, 
 and the gospel, under the active exertions and influ- 
 ence of pious missionaries, is being rapidly propa- 
 gated. 
 
 THE END. 
 
London : 
 
 Printed by STEWAKT and MVRHAY, 
 Old Bailey. 
 
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