r 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON.
 
 18/ 2 - /tTAT 72
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, 
 
 BRITISH RESIDENT AT THE COURT OF NEPAL, 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE ; FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY ; 
 A VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 By sir WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, 
 
 K.C.S.I., M.A., LL.D. , 
 A VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 LONDON : 1896.
 
 • • •,• • • ; • •,• • 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
 
 
 I 
 
 lis 
 H5SH"5 
 
 Oaken Holt, Ccmnor, 
 Near Oxford. 
 
 Dear Mrs. Hodgson. 
 
 TJtis book owes muck to your care and skill in col- 
 lecting private letters. I also thank you for other help, 
 and for many touches of the inner nature of him whose 
 life it records. It would have been his zvish that an 
 effort to perpetuate his monory should be associated luith 
 your name. I beg therefore to dedicate it to you. 
 
 Believe me. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 W. W. HUNTER. 
 
 September \st, 1896. 
 
 t^«J> 4 
 
 .7349
 
 [ vii ] 
 
 C O N T E N T S. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IIOYHOOD : iSoO — 1816 ....... I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 OLD HAILKYFiUKY : 1816 — ^1817 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 FIRST YKAR IN INDIA : CALCUTTA, 1818 — 1819 . . .22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 FIRST API'OINTMKNT : KU.MAUN, 1819 -1S2O 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 EARLY YKARS IN NLPAL — AND A CHKCK : 1820 — 1824 57 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A SOLITARY HKART 66 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 ASSISTANT RLSIDLNT IN NEPAL: 1825 — 1833 93 
 
 CHAPTl.k VIII. 
 RESIDENT IN NLl'AL : 1833 TO THE FALL OF UHI.M SEN 
 
 IN 1839 '26 
 
 CHAIIER IX. 
 LAST FOUR YEARS OF RESlDENTSHIl- IN NII'AI. : 1839 — '^43 I 77
 
 Vlli CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE DARJILING RECLUSK : 1845 — 1858 . . . 237 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 HODCSON AS A SCHOLAR ....... 261 
 
 CHAPTER XI 1. 
 HODGSON AND THK HILL RACES ...... 284 
 
 CHAPTER -XIII. 
 HODGSON AS A NATURALIST 302 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THi: CHAMPION Or VERNACULAR EDUCATION • 3IO 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CONCLUSION : LAST YEARS 325 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 Appendix A. — List of Presentations of Sanskrit MSS. and 
 Tibetan Printed Books by Mr. Hodgson to Learned 
 Societies, and Catalogues of his Sanskrit Manuscripts, 
 with Separate Lndex 337-356 
 
 Appendix B. — List of Unpublished MSS. on Nepal presented 
 
 BY Mr. Hodgson to the India Office. . . . 357-361 
 
 Appendix C. — List of Mr, Hodgson's Buddhist, Ethno- 
 logical, AND Miscellaneous Writings and Books . 362-367 
 
 Appendix D. — List of Mr. Hodgson's Zoological Writings 
 AND Drawings ; with List of New Genera and Species 
 
 FIRST DESCRIBED BY HIM . . . . . . 368-378 
 
 INDEX .... 379-390
 
 [ix] 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. PCRTRAITOF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON IN HAILEY- 
 
 nURY GOWN, AGED 1 7. BY MRS. CARPENTER 
 
 (NIECE OF SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE) . . . To filCC fi. 23 
 
 2. SKETCH OF NEPAL RESIDENCY TAKEN BY LIEUT. 
 
 WILLIAM HODGSON, 1 836 ,, „ 84 
 
 3. BHIM SEN THAPPA, PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL . „ „ I3I 
 
 4. BUST OF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, /ETAT. 44. BY 
 
 T. E. THORNYCROFT „ ,,176 
 
 5. KINCHINJINGA, AS SEEN FROM MR. HODGSON'S HOUSE 
 
 AT DARJILING 11 11 245 
 
 6. PHOTOGRAPH OF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, 
 
 /ETAT. 71. TAKEN IN 1S7I „ ,, 328 
 
 7. PORTRAIT OF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, /KTAT. 72. 
 
 BY MDE. STARR CANZIAM. TAKEN IN 1872. . FrOtttisft'eCe 
 
 8. PHOTOGRAPH OF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, JE1A1. 
 
 91. TAKEN BY MRS. BRIAN HODGSON IN 189I . To foCC p. 333 
 
 Tlie illustrations have been prepared and the photographs taken by Mrs. 
 Brian Hodgson, from the originals now in her house at Abinger. Surrey. 
 
 The inscription on the cover is an epitome of the Buddhist faith, as given 
 m one of the Sanskrit MSS. discovered 1»> Mr. Hodgson in Nepal, and may be 
 rendered : — 
 
 "The cause of all things hath Buddha « xplaincd. The great Sramana hath 
 likewise explained the cause of the e.xtinci; 11 of all things."
 
 [ I ] 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON. 
 
 1800 — 1894. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BOYHOOD : 1 800 — 1 8 1 6. 
 
 BRIAN HODGSON died in 1894, in his ninety-fifth 
 year. Had he died seventy years previously, he 
 would have been mourned as the most brilliant youni; 
 scholar whom the Indian Civil Service has produced. 
 Had he died in middle life, he would have been remem- 
 bered as the masterly diplomatist who held quiet the 
 kingdom of Nepal and the warlike Himalayan races 
 throughout the disasters of the Afghan war. Had he died 
 at three-score years of age, he would have been honoured 
 as the munificent Englishman who enriched the museums 
 of Europe with his collections, enlarged the old boundaries 
 of more than one science, and opened up a new field of 
 original research. 
 
 He outlived his contemporaries. In 1883 the learned 
 Italian, Count Angelo di Gubernatis, when introduced to 
 him, exclaimed : " Surely not the veritable Hodgson, the 
 founder of our Buddhist studies ! He, alas, is dead these 
 many years." In 1889, when Oxford conferred on him her 
 degree of D.C.L., the Shcldonian rang with welcome to the 
 beautiful white-haired scholar who seemed to have stepped 
 
 I
 
 2 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 forth from a byi:jone world. Many of his honours came 
 to him when young ; some arrived too late. There is a 
 story of how a thrifty monarch sent his too tardy largesse 
 to the bard Ferdousi. But as the mules laden with bags 
 of gold entered the eastern archway of the poet's city, the 
 poet's bier was borne out by the western gate. 
 
 The chief services which Hodgson rendered to his 
 country are the least known. The distinctions conferred 
 on him by learned societies in many lands made him 
 conspicuous among Orientalists during the first half of this 
 century. But it was as British Resident at an Indian 
 Court that Hodgson earned his highest claims upon 
 the nation. He was a civilian diplomatist on whom, 
 during a dark hour of our rule, fell the task of upholding 
 the British supremacy in a hostile military State, unsup- 
 ported by force of arms, and with only his personal in- 
 fluence to sustain his counsels. The work done for our 
 Indian Empire by such men, as distinguished from Soldier 
 Politicals, is yet unrecorded. I purpose to tell the story 
 of one of them from the official documents written on the 
 spot, and now for the first time laid open to the public 
 eye. 
 
 The story may be wanting in the dramatic effects of 
 the Soldier Political's career, with a treaty in one hand 
 and a sword in the other. But it will disclose certain 
 aspects of the British suzerainty of India not hitherto 
 realised. We shall learn how a young civilian was 
 trained in building up newly annexed districts, left waste 
 by the misrule of a usurping Himalayan Power, into a 
 peaceful and prosperous British province. We shall then 
 see him at his first lessons in dealing with the usurping 
 Himalayan Power itself We shall next find him holding 
 back that Power from our frontier, with a nation of warriors 
 exultant at the destruction of our Afghan army and 
 fiercely straining in his leash. We shall watch him thread 
 his perilous way through the intrigues of rival queens, 
 royal kinsmen, and mayors of the palace, guarded solely by
 
 I.] BOYHOOD: 1800— 1816. 3 
 
 his own immovable calm amid their tragedies of massacre 
 poisoning, torture, suicide, and exile to the snows. After 
 twenty years of thankless labour we view him emerge from 
 the homicidal scene, followed by the tears of the prince 
 and the acclamations of the people. 
 
 From first to last we find his conduct regulated by two 
 motives — the desire to preserve the integrity of the kingdom 
 to which he was accredited, and the determination to 
 render its integrity a source of strength instead of danger 
 to the British Government. We also discern how many 
 annoyances the East India Company would bear rather 
 than destroy the independence of a Native State by 
 annexation. 
 
 I have referred at some length to the public aspects of 
 Brian Hodgson's career. For no man recognised more 
 keenly than he that an Indian civilian must be judged, 
 first of all, by his public work. Xor would any one have 
 more despised a scholarly reputation gained by the neglect 
 of official duties. But his many-sided activities made 
 themselves equally felt in his public and in his private life. 
 Condemned by ill-health to isolation in the Himalayas 
 throughout his whole Indian career, far away from books, 
 and shut off from the inspiring sympathy of brother 
 students, he used his solitude as a vantage-ground for 
 original research. The situation which would have been 
 another man's despair, he turned into an unique opportunity. 
 He proved to all who may come after him that neither 
 loneliness nor ill-health, nor personal peril, nor harassing 
 public cares, need preclude a true worker in India from 
 rendering great services to scholarship and winning an 
 enduring fame. 
 
 Brian Houghton Hodgson was born at Lower Beech, in 
 the parish of Prestbury, Cheshire, on February ist, iSoo. 
 He came of a long-lived stock, and was the fourth in 
 succession of four Brian Ilodsjsons whose lives extended
 
 4 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 from 1709 to 1894. The average age of his three imme- 
 diate progenitors and their wives amounted to eighty-five 
 years each, and he himself died at the ripe age of ninety- 
 four.' He used to say modestly that his ancestors were 
 remarkable for nothing unless it was for their longevity 
 and love of field sports. The earliest surviving of the 
 family pictures, a full-length portrait of a forefather five 
 generations back by Vandermyn in 1728, now in the 
 possession of Sir Arthur Hodgson of Clopton, represents 
 a striking-looking man holding a gamecock. His 
 descendant, the subject of this book, was an enthusiastic 
 student of all wild creatures, and in spite of bad accidents 
 he hunted with two packs of hounds till nearly seventy 
 years of age. 
 
 The grandfather, Brian No. 2 in the subjoined list, figures 
 as a man of considerable property in Derbyshire. For 
 some time he lived at Wootten Lodge, Staffordshire, " a 
 fine old castellated mansion," according to the District 
 History, "said to have been designed by Inigo Jones." '•* 
 Wootten Lodge was famous in the seventeenth century for 
 its Royalist defence against the Parliamentary troops, and 
 down to the middle of the eighteenth for its well-stocked 
 deer-park of one thousand acres. But it is now best 
 remembered as the favourite retreat of Jean Jacques 
 Rousseau during his sojourn in England. David Hume 
 had procured for the philosopher the neighbouring house 
 of Wootten Hall at a nominal rent, " an agreeable and 
 
 ' Brian Hodgson (1st), great-grandfather, died 1784 aged 75. 
 Elizabeth his wife 
 Brian Hodgson (2nd), grandfather 
 Ellen his wife 
 
 Brian Hodgson (3rd), father 
 Catherine his wife 
 Brian Houghton Hodgson, born 1800, 
 
 Average of the 6 previous lives and his own (7) 86 years. 
 
 Total 602 
 
 * The History a?id Topography of Ashbourn and the I 'alky of the 
 Z><n/^ (Dawson & Hobson, Ashbourn, 1839), p. 253. 
 
 1806 , 
 
 , 90. 
 
 1827 , 
 
 . 85. 
 
 1830 , 
 
 . 91- 
 
 1858 , 
 
 , 92. 
 
 I85I , 
 
 . 75- 
 
 1894 , 
 
 . 94-
 
 I.] BOYHOOD: 1800— 1816. 5 
 
 sequestered asylum," says Jean Jacques, "where I hope to 
 breathe freely and at peace." The cjuaint and romantic 
 gardens of Wootten Lodge were Rousseau's daily resort, 
 and a seat was long pointed out under the shelter of the 
 rockery at the back of the house, on which he loved to 
 meditate and write. 
 
 Grandfather Brian,' who dwelt in this pleasant ab<xle 
 from 1781 to 1788, seems to have been a typical country 
 gentleman of his time, kept a well-known pack of grey- 
 hounds, commanded the yeomanry cavalry for many years, 
 and received a handsome presentation of plate on retiring 
 from the regiment. His sister Mar-^arct married in 1765 
 Dr. Beilby Porteus, successively Bishop of Chester and of 
 London. Another member of the family, Robert Hodgson, 
 became Dean of Carlisle and Rector of St. George's, 
 Hanover Square. They were all on terms of close 
 intimacy, and the Dean eventually wrote the Life of the 
 Bishop. Both the Dean and Bishop lived into the present 
 century, and the young Brian ((nir Brian) spent many 
 happy days of his boyhood at the Bishop's palace at 
 Fulham, and at the Dean's house in London. 
 
 His father, Brian No. 3 in the list, born 1766, was 
 brought up to no profession. At the age of thirty, having 
 married^ a beautiful girl of twenty, Catherine, daughter of 
 William Houghton, Esq., of Manchester and Newton Park 
 in the county of Lancashire, he settled down to a country 
 life in Cheshire, ("hildren soon began to fill his home .it 
 Lower Beech. Bki.xn Houghton, the second child and 
 eldest son, was born four years after the marriage, in 
 1800. Among his earliest recollections were his father's 
 return from hunting in a scarlet coat, and his grandfather 
 after a cock-fight with his hands covered with blood and 
 feathers. It was a house full of dogs, and two favourite 
 hounds Ringwood and Watchman, born and bred on the 
 
 ' Brian Hodgson of Swinscoc near Ashbourn, described in the District 
 History as '• Brian Hodgson, Ksqnirr, of Aslilwurn " (A/-rm.. p. 371). 
 ' In the Collegiate Churrli in Mantluvstcr on May i6ih, 1796.
 
 6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 place, were long-rcmembcrcd playfellows of Brian's child- 
 hood. 
 
 In an unlucky hour the easy-going country gentleman 
 looked round on the young group growing up about 
 him, and thought he must bestir himself to better their 
 fortunes. He entered into partnership with a cousin 
 Hawkins in a bank at the neighbouring town of Maccles- 
 field. After some years of affluence the bank failed, owing, 
 it was said, to a too spirited support of Irish mining enter- 
 prises. The ruined father faced his shipwreck like a man, 
 broke up the house at Lower Beech, and moved first to 
 Macclesfield and then to Congleton. Young Brian 
 suddenly found the home of his childhood disappear, 
 leaving behind it only a dim impression of some great 
 calamit}' which overshadowed his boyhood. 
 
 The father, although he met his reverses with courage, 
 had not the qualities which enable a broken gentleman to 
 make a fresh start in middle life. Children still increased 
 in the wandering household, until the tale of .seven — three 
 sons and four daughters — was complete.' Fortunately the 
 family had connections able and willing to hold out a 
 helping hand. But even if the wind be tempered to the 
 shorn lamb, it bites shrewdly. It was the mother's force 
 of character that carried her husband through those dark 
 years. Mrs. Hodgson, a county toast and one of the 
 " Lancashire witches " in her youth, retained traces of a 
 refined loveliness to her old age. In her home her influence 
 reigned supreme, an influence curiously compounded of 
 the old strict enforcement of parental authority and 
 of the children's admiration for a beautiful young mother 
 who exercised a fascination over distinguished men. Her 
 immediate neighbours in the new abode at Congleton, 
 Mr. Maxey Pattison and his brother James, became her 
 devoted friends, and used their patronage to launch her 
 
 ■ (i) Catherine, born 1798; (2) Brian Houghton, 1800; (3) Ellen, 
 1802; (4) William Edward John, 1805; (5) Ann Mary, 1808 (died 
 young); (6) Frances Martha, 1810; (j) Edward Legh, 1813.
 
 I.] BOYHOOD: 1800— 1816. 7 
 
 sons in honourable careers. She carried on a lifelong 
 corrcsiX)ndcnce with several of the minor celebrities of her 
 day, two of whom — Professor William Smyth of Cam- 
 bridj^e, the historian,' and the polished and scholarly Karl 
 of Clarendon-' — were destined to exercise an influence on 
 young Brian and his fortunes. 
 
 Professor Smyth had known reverses, not altogether 
 dissimilar to her own. The son of a wealthy banker whom 
 the war between France and Eni^land in 1793 stripjH.'d of 
 his fortune, William Smyth unex|x:ctedly found himself 
 compelled to earn a livelihood withf^ut a profession at the 
 age of twenty-seven. 1 le accepted the post of tutor to 
 the eldest son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, accompanied 
 the youth to Cambridge, and there himself studied with 
 such success as to win a high place in the list of Wranglers. 
 In 1806 he sprang into fame by his volume of British 
 Lyrics, and in 1809 was appointed Professor of Modern 
 Hi.story at Cambridge, a chair which he ably filled for 
 forty years. His pt^rtrait, drawn and published by Josiah 
 Slater, shows a gentle intellectual face, not devoid of 
 esprit. With this middle-aged poet and leisurely man of 
 letters, Mrs. Hodgson, then in the prime of her young 
 matronly beauty, formed an enduring and graceful friend- 
 ship. His letters proved his admiration for her bright 
 intelligence, and one of his cleverest writings was a little 
 pamphlet entitled an Occasional Lecture, " prompted by 
 the desire of a lady to hear his academical discourses," 
 half a century before the girl graduate dawnetl upon our 
 I'niversitics. It is an eulogium on woman, full of humour 
 and varied learning, dated 1814, and printed privately in 
 I S40. 
 
 Brian, the first boy, was the mother's favourite child. 
 
 He used to say that, although hers was a discipline of love, 
 
 it was a discipline. She imbued her sons with a high idea 
 
 of womanhood, and as they grew up instilled into them 
 
 ' Horn 1766; 8tlj WraiiRk-r, 1797; died 1S49. 
 
 ' Thomas, :nd Earl: burn 1753; died nnm. 1824.
 
 8 LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 a chivalrous reverence for all women as women. Brian's 
 high and courteous bearing, which was so striking a charm 
 of his personality through life, he acquired from his mother. 
 In the height of his reputation as a diplomatist and scholar 
 he shared with her his inmost thoughts, writing to her 
 always with a deferential tenderness very graceful in a 
 grown-up and famous son. His letters to his sister Fanny, 
 penned from his solitude in the Himalayas, will supply 
 some interesting pages to this book. Brian was a tall and 
 manly boy, and the mother looked absurdly young by his 
 side. She used to say that the finest compliment ever paid 
 her was by a mill-girl near Macclesfield, who remarked as 
 the mother and son passed, " What'n a pretty lass yonder 
 lad has gott'n ! " 
 
 While the family were moving from place to place in 
 quest of a fresh start in life, all England was arming to 
 defend her shores from a French invasion. Mr. Hodgson 
 during the days of his wealth had borne his part as a loyal 
 country gentleman, and in 1814 the Earl of Clarendon 
 obtained for him the post of guardian of the Martello 
 Towers, then fortified against the expected landing. The 
 wandering household settled down at Clacton near 
 Colchester, in Essex,' and the fathers sterling merits, 
 together with the more shining qualities of his wife, soon 
 won friends around their new home. 
 
 During their period of eclipse Brian had been sent to 
 Dr. Davis' .school at Macclesfield, which at that time had 
 a considerable repute. Brian, a big boy for his age, did his 
 best to uphold its reputation in town-fights with the lads 
 of the borough school. Among his favourite comrades in 
 mischief were Jodrell of Henbury, and John Nicholson of 
 Balrath, one of the first Irish squires who, in spite of his 
 .kindly and generous character, suffered boycotting in the 
 old days. Nicholson wrote a pretty Horatian ode to his 
 " Dulcis Amicus" Hodgson on their parting in April 1814- 
 
 ' The family afterwards removed to Canterbury, and lived there for 
 many years.
 
 1.] BUYHUOD; 1800— l8l6. 9 
 
 Brian took the lead in ^^amcs, and made his mark 
 esjjccially in cricket which he aftcrv^■ard.s taught to his 
 escort at the (^nirt of Nepal. He also owed to Dr. Davis 
 the careful groundin'^ and thoroughness in work by which 
 he was presently to win distinction in more advanced schools, 
 and which he carried into every pursuit of his mature life. 
 About the age of fourteen he was sent to Dr. Delafossc's 
 seminary at Richmond, Surrey, and there completed his 
 short school education at sixteen. 
 
 Those two years were among the happiest of his life. 
 His holidays were spent at his relative's the Dean of 
 Carlisle in London, or in shooting and hunting in Msscx. 
 He always seems to have been able to obtain a mount, 
 cither from his f ither's modest stable or from .some country' 
 neighbour's better-filled stalls, and he established a reputa- 
 tion as a bold and fearless rider. On one of his visits to 
 his boy friends the Nassaus at St. Ozeth's Priory near 
 Colchester, a hunter was brought round but declared un- 
 manageable. The groom, however, said that he thought 
 young Mr. Hodgson could ride the horse, and he woultl 
 warrant it leading the field. And .so Hrian did, won the 
 brush, and came home with his cheeks painted red to his 
 anxious and delighted father, who met him on the door- 
 steps with open arms. He and his sister Kllen used to 
 .scour the country on their ponies, and became favourites 
 with the jolly farmers and yeomen of K.ssex, then in the 
 height of their prosperity with wheat at war-prices. 
 
 His great-uncle, the Bishop of London, had expressed a 
 desire that his nej)hew's eldest son should be destined to 
 the Church. But the aged prelate died ' when Bri.in was 
 in his tenth year, and although his other relative the Dean 
 of Carlisle's influence also pointed to the same profession, 
 the spirited lad found that it was one for which he had no 
 calling. When Brian reached sixteen the question was 
 disposed of by a generous offer from Mr. James Batti.son, 
 
 ' On May 1 3tli. 1 809.- Ufe of (he Kt. Rev. lieilby J'orteus, I). I)., liishop 
 0/ London, hy Dr. Robert Hodgson, Dean of Carlisle, p. 255. Kd. 1821.
 
 lO LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 the famih' friend and nei>^hbour at Conf^lcton. In 1816 
 Mr. Pattison was a Director of the East India Company, 
 of which he became Chairman two years later. He secured 
 a nomination for his old friend's son to the Company's 
 Civil Service, and Brian, having passed a successful exami- 
 nation, was allowed to enter Haileybury College nearly a 
 twelvemonth before attaining the regulation age of seventeen. 
 This change in 18 16 marks the end of Brian Hodgson's 
 schooldays. It may be well to pause before entering on 
 the new career which then opened to him, and dwell for 
 a moment on the other members of the home circle from 
 which he was soon to be separated. The mother's influence 
 seems to have given a charm to the daughters, and her 
 character a force to the sons, which led to a successful 
 establishment in life for all her children. The eldest 
 daughter, Catherine, born 1798, married Mr, Laurence 
 George Brown and settled prosperously in Canada. The 
 second daughter, Ellen, born 1802, married Huibert Gerard 
 Baron Nahuys van Burgst, a Major-Gencral in the Dutch 
 Army. She accompanied her husband to Java, where he 
 held high offices as Resident at the Court of Surakarta 
 and Member of the Council of Netherlands India.' Baron 
 Nahuys' sister was the wife of Count Schimmelpenninck, 
 the Grand Pensionary of Holland. We have had a glimpse 
 of this Ellen (Baroness Nahuys) as Brian's companion on 
 his wild cross-country rides in Essex. She grew into a 
 woman of remarkable beauty, and was long known at the 
 Court of Holland as La Belle Anglaise. She lived to the 
 age of eighty, leaving a son and three daughters who 
 married into families in the Netherlands."^ In her widowed 
 old age Brian made his house her home, and watched over 
 her with fraternal piety during her last illness (1878). 
 
 ' His remarkable and brilliant services form the subject of an inte- 
 resting Dutch family history : Reminiscences of the Public and Private 
 Life (1799 — 1849) of H. G. Baron Nahuys van P urgst (Arnhem, 1858). 
 
 ' The son left three daughters, Helen, Huberta, and Fanny, who are 
 now the representatives of this branch of the Houghton Hodgsons.
 
 I.] BOYHOOD: 1800—1816. II 
 
 The third dauj:;htcr, Ann, born iSoS, died in girlhood. 
 The fourth, Frances, born 18 10, was the " Dearest Fanny" 
 with whom Brian kept up an affectionate correspondence 
 throughout their whole lives. His affection was warmly 
 reciprocated. " Though but a child of eight when he 
 went to India, in iSiS," writes one of the family, "and 
 although they did not meet again till 1844, yet she was 
 brought up by her mother (who herself idolised her eldest 
 sonj to think there was no one like Hrian. Her admira- 
 tion for her brother and her devotion to him were ab.solutc. 
 She always spoke of him as 'the most perfect of human 
 beings ! ' " We shall see with what pathetic playfulness 
 Brian tried by his letters during his long absence in India 
 to warm that admiration for an almost unknown ideal into 
 a human affection for an exile pining for sisterly love. She 
 married Pierre Baron Nahuys, the .son of General Iluibert 
 Nahuys by a previous wife, and therefore a step-son of her 
 sister Ellen. The Baron Pierre had a distinguished career, 
 and became Governor of Overyssel, one of the Seven 
 Provinces of Holland. 
 
 Of the three sons, Brian the eldest forms the subject of 
 this book. The second son, William, born 1805, entered 
 the Bengal Artillery, and died as a young Major of great 
 promise. Brian was devotedly attached to him, and we 
 shall find the two brothers together at the Residency at 
 Nepal. The third brother and youngest child, Filward 
 Lcgh Hodg.son, born 181 3, obtained an appointment to 
 the East India Company's Civil Service, through the 
 influence of the .same family friend, Mr. James Pattison, 
 who had given Brian his nomination sixteen years pre- 
 viously. Edward was at Haileybury from 1829 to 1831, 
 and carried off seven prizes during his three terms.' He 
 served in India as A.ssistant Commissioner of Meerut from 
 1832 to 1835, and died there on July 3ril of the latter year. 
 
 > Memorials oj Old HatUybury CoIUgf, by K. C. iJanvcrs. Sir M. 
 Monier-Williams, Sir Stcuart Baylcy, Percy Wigram, and other ron- 
 tributors \^Crnstablc & Co., 1894), p. 397.
 
 12 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. i. 
 
 I have presented the several sisters and brothers at the 
 outset, as the following pages will deal almost exclusively 
 with the work of Brian himself, cut off from his kindred 
 during the next quarter of a century by a third of the 
 circumference of the globe. Yet in order to understand 
 the man it is necessary to bear in mind the background 
 of home life which was always present in his memory. 
 During his long isolation in Nepal, that well-loved family 
 group seemed to stand out for him with an ever-increasing 
 distinctness. The recollections of the patient father who 
 had borne the buffets of fortune, of the brilliant young 
 mother with her circle of distinguished and admiring friends, 
 of his sisters and brothers, half of whom were to die young 
 while the other half were to be scattered over the old and 
 new hemispheres — these were the recollections which during 
 twenty-five years supplied the human links between the 
 solitary worker among the Himalayas and the outward 
 world.
 
 [13] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OLD HAILEYI5URY : 1816— 1817. 
 
 HAILEYBURY COLLEGE, which Brian Hodgson 
 entered in 1816, was not unworthy of the magnificent 
 design of its founders. It formed the embodiment in stone 
 and lime of the East India Company's resolve to govern 
 well the empire which they had won. From 1600 down to 
 the second half of the eighteenth century the Company's 
 servants, alike in England and in India, had been sea- 
 captains, merchants, and mercantile clerks. Their territorial 
 conquests from 1757 onwards demanded an entirely 
 different class of men. But the necessity of making the 
 " annual investment " wherewith to pay an annual dividend 
 for some time obscured the change which had taken place. 
 A generation of officials passed away before the Court of 
 Directors definitely realised that they had grown into the 
 Sovereign Power in India, and that their main function was 
 government rather than trade. 
 
 It was not until the year 1800 that a regular institu- 
 tion was formed for the training of the civil servants of 
 the Company. This institution, known as the College of 
 Fort William, was established by the far-seeing Marquis 
 VVelleslcy in Calcutta. The Court of Directors, however, 
 considered its scope too wide, sanctioned it only on a reduced 
 scale, and determined to create a place of education of their 
 own in England for their young civil servants. Their 
 intention, cxjircsscd in 1802, received effect in 1805 by the 
 purchase of the Ilaileybury estate in Hertfordshire for 
 ;t5,900. The building was completed in 1809 at an esti-
 
 14 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 mated cost of ^^50,000. Durini^ the intervening years from 
 1806, the new institution carried on its work temporarily 
 at Hertford Castle under the title of the East India College 
 Herts. In 181 3 Parliament enacted that it shall not be 
 lawful for the Court of Directors to nominate, appoint, or 
 send to the Presidencies of Fort William, Fort St. George, 
 or Bombay, any person in the capacity of Writer, unless 
 such person shall have been duly entered at Haileybury 
 College, and have resided there four terms, and shall pro- 
 duce a certificate of having during the period duly con- 
 formed himself to the rules and regulations of the same. * 
 
 While the entrance into the Company's administrative 
 service was thus restricted to young men specially trained 
 at Haileybury, the doors of Haileybury were jealously 
 guarded. The nominations to the covenanted Civil 
 Service formed the most valuable patronage exercised by 
 the Directors of the East India Company, and the chief 
 share of it naturally fell to their relatives or intimate 
 friends. But the long list of their nominees proves that, 
 outside their immediate family circles, it was exercised in 
 a noble spirit. Many a Director conscientiously used his 
 patronage as a solatium to officers worn out in the 
 Company's wars, and hard pressed to find an opening 
 for their sons. The scars and buffets of his father's 
 ill-requited service formed John Lawrence's chief recom- 
 mendation for Haileybury, and gave to India the future 
 saviour of the Punjab. From the hour that a lad 
 entered the College it impressed on him the lesson of 
 integrity which the earlier servants of the Company had 
 found so hard to learn. No youth was admitted with- 
 out two certificates : one as to his personal character ; 
 
 'Act 53 Geo. III. 0. 155, quoted in Memorials of Old Haileybury 
 College (Constable, 1894), p. 18. The minimum residence was after- 
 wards reduced to three terms (a year and a half), or in times of 
 urgency even to two terms. During a considerable period, students 
 above the age of eighteen who obtained certificates of High Distinction 
 might proceed to India after only two terms.
 
 II.] OLD HAILEYBUKY: 1816— 1817. I 5 
 
 the other, a solemn declaration that the Director who had 
 given his nomination made no pecuniary gain by the 
 transaction. 
 
 In 1 8 16 the professional staff of the College consisted 
 chiefly of Cambridge men. It was therefore with peculiar 
 pleasure that Professor William Smyth of that University 
 undertook to launch the eldest son of his fair correspondent 
 in what was practically a coterie of his old college friends. 
 He took Brian to Hailcybury, and settled him as a guest 
 in the house of Malthus, the Professor of Political Economy, 
 until he should pass his entrance examination. Malthus 
 was elected a Fellow of Jesus in 1793, the year thai 
 William Smyth entered at Cambridge. The Rev. Joseph 
 Hallct Batten, a Fellow of Trinity, Cambridge, and 
 a high Wrangler as well as an excellent classic, had 
 been appointed Principal of Hailcybury College in 
 181 5. The Dean was the Rev. Charles Webb Le Bas,' 
 fourth Wrangler in 1800, and also a Fellow of Trinity. 
 The Rev. Henry Walter, a second Wrangler and one 
 of the most genial of men, had just joined as Professor 
 of Chemistry and Natural History,- and perhaps gave 
 an impulse to Brian's taste for the study of beasts and 
 birds which was to become one of his main pleasures 
 throughout life. 
 
 Malthus^ received his friend's protege kindly, and for 
 a season retained him as his guest. The foundation of 
 an intimacy was thus laid which for the first time turned 
 the young student into a thinker, and brought him into 
 
 • Appointed Professor of Mathematics in 1S13; Dean 1814; Principal 
 (in succession to Dr. Ratten) 183S. 
 
 » In i8i6. 
 
 ' Thomas Robert Malthus, born 1766; Fellow of Jesus College, 
 Cambridge, 1793 (not 1797) ; issued his lirst Essay on the Principles of 
 Population 1798, and the greatly altered editioti 1803; Professor of 
 History and Political Economy at the Kast India College, Herts, 1805 
 — 1834; issued his Corn-Law Pamphlets \Z\\-\'^,\\\s Inquiry into the 
 Nature of Rent 1815, and his Principles of Political Economy 1820; 
 died 1834.
 
 l6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 contact with eminent men. Malthus had then reached 
 the height of his fame, and his house formed a resort of 
 the intellectual Whigs of the day. Lord Jeffrey and the 
 Edinburgh Reviewers, Sir James Mackintosh (who became 
 Professor of Law at Haileybury two years later ^), and 
 statesmen of higher if more temporary note were frequent 
 visitors to the Haileybury philosopher. It happened that 
 the period of Brian's residence there was one of great 
 literary activity even in Malthus' busy life. For he was 
 recasting the rent sections for the seventh edition of his 
 Principles of Population (1817), and full of the ideas to 
 be embodied in his crowning work on Political Economy 
 published in 1820. 
 
 But the unique position which Malthus held in the 
 College did not altogether depend on his reputation with 
 the outer world. One of the original professors appointed 
 in 1805, he had acted as its literary champion," and was 
 at this very time preparing his final rejoinder to its 
 opponents. He was not only the most famous member 
 of the teaching staff, but he was also the public representa- 
 tive of the system with which the professors and students 
 were alike identified. His sweetness of temper that 
 served as an armour against the bitterness of theological 
 opponents — " one of the serenest and most cheerful " of 
 men, says Miss Martineau — and his nobility of aim which 
 never sought personal preferment, made him both the 
 favourite and the hero of Haileybury College. His friend- 
 ship was the best passport for a newcomer, and Brian 
 found himself at once within the family circle of the 
 professorial staff. 
 
 In after-life Hodgson used to relate how he sat silent 
 in a corner many an evening, listening to the talk of 
 distinguished men whose names he had previously only 
 known through the newspapers. On one occasion Lord 
 
 ' From 1818 to 1824. 
 
 - e.d. Letter to Lord Gra7iville (in defence of the East India Col- 
 lege), 1813 ; Statc?ncnts respecting the East India College, 18 17.
 
 II.] OLD IIAILEYBURY: 1816— 1817. IJ 
 
 Jeffrey^ had been induced to read out an article which 
 praised the language of Shakespeare as rich but never 
 diffuse. The company, suspecting that Jeffrey was the 
 author, agreed as to Shakespeare, yet with a malign 
 pleasantry wished they could say as much for the some- 
 what ornate style of the reviewer. Jeffrey quietly read 
 out again a concluding passage of his article containing 
 yEnobarbus' description of Cleopatra's galley : — 
 
 " The barge she sat in, Uke a burnished throne, 
 Burnt on the water ; the poop was beaten gold : 
 Purple the sails, and so perfumed that 
 
 The winds were love-sick with them. The oars were silver, 
 Which to the tune of lutes kept stroke." 
 
 " You see," said Jeffrey, " that tJiough the sails were 
 purple and the oars silver, they wafted her not less swiftly 
 than if they had been made of homespun and deal. 
 Gentlemen, / wrote the article." Upon which all the 
 company laughed and clapped their hands. I repeat the 
 story as Hodgson told it more than half a century after- 
 wards. It formed one of his cherished bits of jetsam from 
 the Disputationcs Hailcyburioiscs to which the kindness of 
 Malthus gained him admission. 
 
 The new impulse given to Hodgson's mental activity was 
 of rather a discursive character. But from the outset he 
 showed an aptitude for the native languages, and obtained 
 a prize for Bengali at the end of his first term (May 1816). 
 During his second year he brought home to his delighted 
 mother the prize for classics (May 181 7), and continued to 
 win a prize for Bengali at each of his half-)'carl>' examina- 
 tions during his stay at the College. In December 1817 
 he passed out of Hailcybury as gold medallist and head 
 of his term. 
 
 Haileybury was not designed to supply a strictly pro- 
 fessional training to the East India Company's civil servants. 
 It carried further their previous school-studies in classics 
 
 ' 1 give him the title by which he is most generally known, altliough 
 Jeffrey was not promoted to the Scottish Bench until 1S34. 
 
 2
 
 l8 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON [chap. 
 
 and mathematics. It also grounded them in the general 
 principles of law and political economy, and in the history 
 and languages of India. The higher instruction in these 
 last-named branches it left to the College of Fort William in 
 Bengal, or to corresponding studies in Madras and Bombay, 
 l^ut the residence at Ilaileybury did for the young Indian 
 civilians what no system or device had ever done for 
 them before. It bred up and knit together a service with 
 a strong and honourable esprit de corps, a knowledge 
 of each other's characters, and a mutual trust. Some 
 of Hodgson's intimates at Haileybury became, as we shall 
 see, rulers of great provinces. Many of them continued 
 his friends through life. Whatever its later shortcomings, 
 the essential service rendered by Haileybury to the nation 
 was this — that during half a century when India could 
 only be held by a compact, self-reliant, and honest British 
 bureaucracy, it produced the compactest, most self-reliant, 
 and most honest bureaucracy which the world had ever 
 seen. 
 
 One of Hodgson's fellow-students, Charles Fraser, was 
 destined to render good service as the Governor-General's 
 Agent, that is as political ruler, in the Sagar and Narbada 
 Territories. Another, William Dampier, besides holding 
 many high offices, practically created the police of Bengal. 
 A third. Sir George Clerk,' became for a short time Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces, and twice 
 Governor of Bombay. A fourth. Sir Frederick Currie, Bart., 
 was Foreign Secretary to the Government of India during 
 the great Sikh struggle under Lord Hardinge, Resident 
 at Lahore under Lord Dalhousic, and one of the most 
 influential Members of his Council. Both Clerk and Currie, 
 after their retirement from India, rendered valuable service 
 for many years on the Council of the Secretary of State, 
 and both of them continued warm friends of Hodgson to 
 the end of their long lives. Another of his best-loved 
 
 • G.CS.I. and K.C.B.
 
 11.] OLD HAILKVIJLKY; 1816-1817. I9 
 
 Hailcybury companions, the Honourable Frederick Shore, 
 closed a career of high promise, and of some achievement, 
 by a too early death. Curiously enough, sons of the two 
 civilian Governors-General of India, Lord Teignmouth and 
 Sir George Barlow, entered Ilaileybury in the same year as 
 Brian Hodgson, and the three went Uj Calcutta in 1818. 
 
 Four other Bengal civilians who attained to high eminence 
 overlapped Brian's residence at the College : John Lowis, 
 one of Lord Dalhousie's Members of Council ; Ross Donelly 
 Mangles, Secretary to the Bengal Government, and after 
 his retirement a Member of the Court of Directors and of 
 the Council of the Secretary of State ; Sir Henry Ricketts, 
 K.C.S.I., a Member of Council under Lord Hardinge ; 
 and Sir Robert Hamilton, K.C.B., the Governor-General's 
 Agent in Central India during the Mutiny, who had the 
 courage to override the orders of the Governor-General on 
 the memorable occasion of March 1858. 
 
 I have particularised the foregoing members of the service 
 as all of them went, like Brian Hodgson, to Bengal, and 
 continued his friends throughout his career. Other tlistin- 
 guished officers, including Sir Daniel Elliott and Sir John 
 Pollard VVilloughby, who were with him at Hailej'bury 
 went to Madras and Bombay. But with few exceptions 
 these soon fell out of his knowledge. 
 
 The life at I laileybury seems to have somewhat resembled 
 that at the Universities during the .same period, except that 
 there was rather less dissipation and a more direct control. 
 Hodgson frequently got a day's hunting, and he seems to 
 have enjoyed a good deal of hospitality from the families in 
 the neighbourhood. The Lady Salisbury of that time took 
 notice of the lad one day when he was struggling on a hired 
 horse to keep in the first Hight with the hoimds, and her 
 balls at Hatfield were among the most brilliant rect)llections 
 of his Haileybury days. But it was the distinguished 
 statesmen who from time to time comi)limcnted the College 
 by a visit that impressed themselves most deeply on his 
 memory. On one occasion the family friend, Mr. James
 
 20 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap 
 
 Pattison ' who had given Brian his nomination, and who 
 was also an intimate friend of George Canning, came 
 down with the celebrated Minister to Haileybury and 
 brought him into young Hodgson's room. Canning, then 
 President of the Board of Control, was full of the thoughts 
 of Indian imperial .sway which made him accept the 
 Governor-Generalship some years later." 
 
 " He stood with his back to the fire," Hodg.son used to 
 relate, " and put his hand inside the breast of his coat, 
 |X)uring forth words which fired my ambition. He drew a 
 brilliant sketch of the career po.ssible for an Indian civilian, 
 showing how ever)'thing was open to a man of ability and 
 industry up to the Governor-Generalship. Then telling mc 
 to read Orme and learn how India had been won, he took 
 up the story himself, and in a quarter of an hour had given 
 me a most masterly n'sumc of Indian history." Those 
 fifteen minutes put ideas and aspirations into Brian's head 
 which were destined to bear fruit in due season. The great 
 Minister had touched the youth with the magic wand of his 
 genius, and one touch suflFiced. 
 
 During his holidays Brian was much at the house 
 of his kinsman Robert Hodgson, Dean of Carlisle. The 
 Dean, being also Rector of St. George's Hanover Square, 
 resided most of the year in town, and having a clever wife, 
 his house in Grosvenor Street was a popular one. Brian 
 became a devoted admirer of the Dean's daughters, more 
 especially of Henrietta who grew up into a woman of 
 beauty and of social charms. He also spent many 
 happy days in the quiet rectory of his uncle Edward 
 
 ' Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors in 1817, when Hodgson 
 was at Haileybury ; Chairman in the following year, 1818, and again in 
 1822. 
 
 * On the news of the intended retirement of the Marquess of Hastings 
 reaching England early in 1822. But before Canning sailed Lord 
 Castlercaghs tragic death made it necessary that Canning should fill 
 his place at the Foreign Oftice, and with many regrets he resigned the 
 Governor-Generalship in the autumn of the same year. Lord Amherst 
 went out instead.
 
 II.] OLD HAILKYBURY 1816^-1817. 21 
 
 Hodgson,' whose first wife, a highly accomplished musician, 
 made Moore's Irish melodies an abiding mcmoiy for 
 Brian : a memory that often came back to him in the 
 loneliness of his Himalayan years. To his cousin the son 
 of the Rector, and now Sir Arthur Ihxigson of Clopton, 
 I gratefully acknowledge my debt for interesting materials 
 for this book. But Brian's own home, with its beautiful 
 and talented tnothcr, the generous patient father, and tho 
 spirited group of sisters and brothers now looking «»ut like 
 himself with expectant eyes ujx)n the world, remained as 
 ever the dominant chord in his life. 
 
 ' Rector of Kickmansworth.
 
 [22] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRST YEAR IN INDIA. 
 CALCUTTA, 1S18-1819. 
 
 HAVING passed out of Haileybury as medallist and 
 head of his term in December 1817/ Brian Houghton 
 Hodgson sailed in the following year round the Cape of 
 Good Hope to Calcutta. 
 
 ' His Haileybury certificate runs thus : — 
 
 "We, the Principal and Professors of the East India College, do 
 hereby testify that Mr. Brian Houghton Hodgson having been nomi- 
 nated a Student of the College by the Court of Directors of the 
 Honourable East India Company, has resided therein Four Terms, and 
 has duly conformed himself to the Statutes and Regulations of the 
 College. 
 
 "The said Brian Houghton Hodgson has also attended the Public 
 Examinations of May 1 8 16, in which he gained a prize in Bengalese, 
 and passed with great credit in other departments ; December 1816, 
 in which he gained a prize in Bengalese, and was highly distinguished 
 in other departments; May 18 17, in which he gained a prize in 
 Classics, a prize in Political Economy, a prize in Bengalese, and was 
 highly distinguished in other departments; December 1817, in which 
 he gained the medal in Classics, a prize in Bengalese, and was highly 
 distinguished in other departments. 
 
 " The College Council, in consideration of his distinguished Industry, 
 Proficiency, and Conduct, place him in the First Class of Merit; and 
 assign him the Rank of First on the List of Students now leaving 
 College for the Presidency of Fort William. 
 
 " Given under the College Seal, and signed in behalf of the College 
 Council, this fifth day of December in the year of our Lord one 
 thousand eight hundred and seventeen." 
 
 Signed, 
 
 J. H. Batten, Principal. 
 Countersigned, 
 
 Edward Lewton, Registrar.
 
 BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON. I8I7-;CTAT 17
 
 CHAP. III.] FIRST YEAR IN INDIA: 1818—1819. ~3 
 
 The Englishmen of those days started early in life. 
 Hodgson was, after all, only a lad of seventeen, with 
 enough of Latin and Greek to enable him to quote Horace 
 or to make an iambic, a fair specimen of the sixth form 
 boy at a public school in the present day. But he carried 
 with him from Haileybury a habit of original observation 
 which a sixth form boy rarely imbibes at our public schools. 
 Its professorial system of imparting instruction by means 
 of lectures, although compatible with a good deal of 
 indolence and sham work, was highly stimulating to the 
 keener class of youthful intellects. In the hands of 
 Malthus political economy became a living science, dealing 
 with the actual facts and needs of humanity, and quicken- 
 ing young minds with ideas instead of cramming them 
 with formulae. 
 
 Malthus was, in fact, the dominant influence in Hodgson's 
 intellectual horoscope. He found him a young aristocrat 
 in social feelings and sympathies ; he left him an advanced 
 liberal in politics. But for the inspiration of Malthus, 
 the youthful civilian would scarcely have embarked on a 
 comprehensive study of the institutions and constitutional 
 problems of Nepal, or struck into the great conflict over 
 popular education in India with a scheme of his own. 
 How closely the lad had listened to Malthus' lectures, 
 his prize in Political Economy at Haileybury attests. 
 Hodgson to the end of his life used to sum up his political 
 creed in a quotation, learned at Haileybury from Bacon's 
 Essay of Innovations : " All this is true, if time stood 
 still : which, contrariwise, moveth so round that a froward 
 retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation ; 
 and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn 
 to the new." 
 
 The love of liberty and the generous respect for the 
 liberties of others, with a belief in their capacity for ex- 
 ercising those liberties aright, which Malthus impressed on 
 Hodgson's awakening mind, resisted the effacing influences 
 of time and of a bureaucratic career. Even w hen, as a man
 
 24 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 of eighty-six, Hodt;son had to choose between the old 
 hberaHsm now identified with the Unionist party in politics, 
 and the new liberalism associated with Irish home-rule, he 
 did not fear to take the plunge. Although living in a circle 
 of Tory country-gentlemen, he followed Mr. Gladstone in 
 all the later developments of that statesman's pohcy, and 
 died with an unshaken belief in its results. This courageous 
 belief in the future of humanity, and in the power of a 
 people to work out its own salvation, gave a beautiful 
 youthfulness to his old age. It furnishes the key to many 
 of the activities of his life. If one had to differ from him 
 as to its practical application, one could not withhold a 
 feeling of reverence for the enthusiasm which years did not 
 chill nor public disappointments daunt. 
 
 Meanwhile Hodgson was a young civilian not yet eighteen. 
 The scheme of a junior civilian's training in those days 
 included at least a year at the College of Fort William in 
 Calcutta, for the further study of the native languages and 
 of Indian law. Brian accordingly found himself a member 
 of a small and close fraternity of very young men, who had 
 a good deal of leisure on their hands and who were deter- 
 mined to enjoy it. The contemporary descriptions of their 
 life are not always edifying. As a whole they seem to have 
 been a body of spirited English lads let loose a little early 
 in life, tasting sometimes too freely of the first pleasures of 
 an independent income, and indulging in extravagances 
 at which they afterwards smiled, but which crippled not 
 a few for many a year. Calcutta society looked at their 
 follies with a lenient eye, and made much of those who 
 cared for its blandishments. For after all they were a well- 
 spring of perpetual youth in a small official community 
 which was apt to feel very weary ; almost all of them had 
 friends or relatives among the seniors ; and each one of 
 them had the possibilities of a brilliant career. 
 
 It is difficult for an Anglo-Indian of the present day to 
 realise how small and how official Calcutta then was. 
 The new Charter in 1813 had broken down the Company's
 
 111.] FIRST YEAR IN INDIA: i8l8— 1819. 25 
 
 monopoly of the East India trade, while maintaining it 
 as regards China. But the influx of independent mer- 
 chants and capitalists who were to raise Calcutta to one 
 of the commercial capitals of the world had scarcely set 
 in. The non-official Englishman, unless he belonged to 
 one of the half-dozen great agency houses closely united 
 by family ties with the Services, was regarded as an 
 inferior person. Under the old system, if a merchant or 
 planter did not come out under the protection of the 
 Company, he was an "Interloper" in the eye of the law. 
 He still remained an interloper in the eye of society. On 
 his part, he regarded the governing body with the jealousy, 
 and sometimes with the injustice, of an outsider. A plate 
 published in London in 18 16, the year that Hodgson 
 entered Haileybury, shows the pagoda tree as " Exhausted," 
 but with Indian officials still eagerly clambering up the 
 mutilated stem, which an elephant is breaking off at the 
 root. 
 
 A period of rapid fortunes in India had given place 
 to one of commonplace ostentation. The depravity of 
 the " nabobs " of the last century, whom Burke and 
 Sheridan scourged — sometimes laying the lash on the 
 wrong shoulders as is the way with orators — had been 
 followed by the dull and pompous officials over whom 
 Thackeray, himself the .son and grandson of Bengal 
 civilians, made .savage laughter. Barwcll bawling to his 
 footmen to " bring round more curricles " was succeeded 
 in Engli.sh literature by the fatuous coward Josh. Sedley, 
 and by Binnie the plethoric cynic. Sedley is Thackeray's 
 portrait of the ignoble class of Bengal civilians of the prc- 
 Haileybury type, which still supplied some of the leaders 
 of Calcutta society at the time of Hodgson's arrival. 
 
 Haileybury, and the aims which Haileybury repre- 
 sented, had during the preceding twelve years done 
 something to improve upon that type. But although 
 the Indian services then, as at all times, produced high- 
 minded and able men, and administrators who have never
 
 26 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 been surpassed, the general tone of Calcutta society 
 remained much more orientalised than it now is. India 
 was a place of exile to a degree which we of the present 
 day can scarcely understand, and the exiles found far 
 fewer interests outside the routine of their ordinary work. 
 The alleviations of Indian existence which we regard as 
 matters of course — a cheap and abundant supply of ice, 
 the European telegrams every morning at breakfast in 
 varied and well-written newspapers, the weekly mail from 
 England with its budget of letters and new books, the 
 summer trip to the hills, and the inexpensive frequent 
 holiday home — were all unknown to our forerunners in 
 Bengal at the beginning of the century. 
 
 On the other hand they had the hookah, the heavy 
 midday meal, and the still heavier afternoon sleep. Eng- 
 lish ladies, although more numerous than formerly, had 
 not yet acquired an absolute predominance in Calcutta, or 
 completely imposed their social standards. Some of the 
 great Calcutta houses have wings or annexes which are 
 still pointed out as the native female apartments of 
 those days. Calcutta society, which now strikes a new- 
 comer as bright and friendly, only left an impression 
 of w^eariness in the memoirs of a century ago. Macaulay's 
 recollections of the Calcutta dinner-parties as combining 
 the dulness of a State banquet and the confusion of a 
 shilling ordinary refer to a period not long after Hodgson's 
 arrival. 
 
 This unattractive picture of Anglo-Indian society in its 
 earlier developments is borne out by contemporary accounts 
 from widely different hands. It was the P. and O. Company 
 that Europeanised the social life of Calcutta. Indeed the 
 struggle between Eastern and Western influences upon the 
 habits and standards of our countrymen in India forms 
 not the least curious chapter in the history of our Asiatic 
 rule. Even towards the end of the transition stage, the 
 stage contemporary with Brian Hodgson's service in India, 
 the tone was widely different from what it now is. The
 
 III.] FIRST YEAR IX INDIA: 1818— 1819. 27 
 
 Bombay Courier for 1830,' the letters of a lady written 
 from Madras a few years afterwards,'- and the Rev. Charles 
 Acland's experiences in Bengal from 1842 onward, tell 
 the same dull unflattering tale.^ Henry Martin records* 
 some striking examples of Indianised Englishmen in the 
 decade preceding Hodgson's arrival. 
 
 One of the forgotten benefits conferred by Hailcybury 
 upon Anglo-Indian society was its tendency to stamp the 
 old indulgences as bad form. For Haileybury disciplined 
 the young civilians in the use of comparative liberty, and 
 imbued them in some measure with the responsibilities 
 which attach to independence. They came out to India 
 with much the same feeling in regard to the more vulgar 
 forms of dissipation as that of undergraduates at the 
 Universities in their third year. Hodgson, who always 
 remembered his mother's look of disgust when gentlemen 
 who had drunk more than enough lurched into her 
 drawing-room after dinner, did not find orgies amusing. 
 He used to tell how, on arriving in Calcutta, the colonel 
 of a crack regiment and his fellow-passenger on the voyage 
 asked him to dine at mess. No sooner was the cloth re- 
 moved than several large cases of wine, which the hospit- 
 able colonel had brought out with him, were deposited on 
 the floor. The host then locked the door, put the key into 
 his pocket, and, turning to the company, said, " There, 
 gentlemen, is your night's work." Before the evening 
 was over, most of the gallant entertainers and their guests 
 were under the table. But the colonel magnanimously 
 allowed Hodgson to pass the bottle on the score of his 
 youth, and did not oblige him to sit out the revel. 
 
 ' Quoted in Dr. George- Sinitlis Life of John Wilson, D.D., F.R.S., 
 
 P- 54- 
 
 * Letters from Madras (iuriiit; the Years 1836 — 1839, by a Lady. 
 
 John Murray, 1843. 
 
 ■• A Popular Account of the Manners ami Customs of India, by the 
 Rev. Charles Acland, late Chaplain of Cuttack. 
 
 ' Letter dated March 14th, i'&o?>.— Henry Martin, by George Smith, 
 LL.D., pp. 221, 222. Ed. 1S92.
 
 28 LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Hodgson soon found friends of another sort. His aunt, 
 the Dean's wife, had Indian connections and gave him 
 introductions to them. Two of these, Sir Charles and 
 Lady D'Oyly, took a likiny; to the young man, and made 
 their house his home. Sir Charles belonged to a family which 
 has enjoyed an almost hereditary distinction among Bengal 
 civilians. He himself had the accomplishments of a man 
 of taste, sketched cleverly in water-colours, and was the 
 leading dilettante in Calcutta society of that day. His 
 father, Sir John D'Oyly of Shottisham, M.P., the sixth 
 Baronet, retrieved the family fortunes by Indian service. 
 Curiously enough, he held in the previous generation the 
 same office to which his son and successor Sir Charles was 
 appointed in the year that Hodgson reached India — the 
 controller.ship of customs in Calcutta. 
 
 Sir Charles, the seventh Baronet, rose during the course of 
 his forty years' service to high positions in Bengal, but it 
 was as a man of brilliant talents, rather than as an adminis- 
 trator, that he formed the delight of his contemporaries. 
 The Marquess of Hastings, then Governor-General, was 
 so charmed with him that he resolved to bring him on his 
 personal staff. A commission in the Calcutta Militia 
 enabled Lord Hastings to appoint him Honorary Aidc- 
 de-Camp, in addition to his civil duties. D'Oyly took up 
 his residence in Government House in that capacity, and 
 married one of two beautiful sisters, second cousins of Lady 
 Hastings,' who were also staying in the house. The other 
 sister married the young officer who became General Sir 
 Walter Raleigh Gilbert. It was not only in the gay world 
 that Sir Charles D'Oyly played a leading part. Bishop 
 
 ' The Marchioness of Hastings was Countess of Loudon in her own 
 right. Her second cousin, Elizabeth Jane Ross, who married Sir 
 Charles D'Oyly, was the daughter of Major Thomas Ross, R.A. I am 
 indebted here and elsewhere to the admirable Family Book of the 
 D'Oylys, unpublished, in the possession of the present Sir Charles 
 D'Oyly of Dorsetshire. Sir Charles has also a portrait of his predecessor, 
 the seventh baronet and Hodgson's friend, as a strikingly handsome 
 man in the uniform of the Calcutta Militia, temp. circ. 1S14.
 
 III.] FIRST YEAR IN INDIA: 1818—1819. 29 
 
 Hcbcr describes him as " the best fjentlcman artist 1 ever 
 met with," rich in the then rare gift of seeing the beautiful 
 and the picturesque in Indian rural life.' In 181S he was 
 thirty-seven years of age, and in the prime of his j^roductive 
 energy. During the preceding five years he had published 
 the volumes ^ of sketches and letterpress, one of them en- 
 graved from his original drawings by John Landsccr, which 
 made D'Oyly's fame in England. He dashed off trifles — 
 portraits, hunting scenes, and caricatures — for his friends 
 with a never-failing flow of humour, and Hodgson cherished 
 a portfolio of D'Oyly's sketches made during his early days 
 in Calcutta. 
 
 Lady D'Oyly had also a clever pencil, and a light touch 
 scarcely to be distinguished from that of her husband. 
 She was one of the first Englishwomen whose portraits 
 of ladies of the Indian zananas have come down to 
 us. In 18 1 8 she was a charming woman of twenty-nine 
 spirited and with a noble heart. She conceived for 
 Hodgson a friendship which lasted unbroken during fift\- 
 seven years, until her dc;ith in 1875. The eleven years of 
 difference in their age gave her the influence of a fascinating 
 and mature young woman over Hodgson's adolescence, and 
 helped to form his mind and ideals — one of the most 
 valuable experiences that can happen to a man on his 
 entrance into life. When Hodgson retired from India forty 
 years afterwards, no summer passed without an interchange 
 of hospitalities. Her annual visit of a month to his house 
 at Aldcrley was kept up as long as her health allowed her 
 to leave home. She became in turn the dear and trusted 
 friend of both the ladies whom he married, and retained for 
 the old man of seventy-five the same generous interest and 
 
 ' Mebt-r's Narrativf of a Journey Ihroui^h the Upper Prmnnces of 
 India, 1824-25, Vol. I., p. 314. John Murray, Kd. 1828, 
 
 * The European in India, 1813; Antiijuitirs of Da(ca, with 
 engravings by John Landsccr from Sir Charles D'Oyly's drawings, 
 1814-15. His subsequent works were Tom Kaw, the Griffin: a 
 EnrUzque Poem, 1828, and Sketches on the Snv Roiui in a Jonmey 
 from Calcutta to Gyah, 1830.
 
 30 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 admiration which she had accorded to the bright youth of 
 eighteen. Her portrait, in the collection of General Sir 
 Charles D'Oyly, represents a tall aristocratic woman past 
 middle life, with finely cut features and a look of firm 
 intelligence almost amounting to command. 
 
 As an inmate of the D'Oyly 's house, Hodgson found 
 himself among the pleasantest set in Calcutta. In a dull 
 society, clever and agreeable people defend themselves from 
 the circumambient mass by means of coteries. Lady 
 D'Oyly's coterie was the most brilliant, and in its way the 
 most exclusive of her time — exclusive not as regards social 
 position, for there is a frank equality among the Indian 
 services, but in the more serious matter of the exclusion 
 of bores. It was fortunate for Hodgson that during his 
 first year in India, the only year he was ever to spend in 
 Calcutta or in fact anywhere out of the wilds of Nepal, he 
 had thus the opportunity of becoming known to the rising 
 men of the Government, the men who were to grow into 
 Chief Secretaries, Members of Council, and Governors of 
 Provinces throughout his service. Lady D'Oyly's influence 
 practically decided Hodgson's Indian career. The most 
 attractive appointments in those days of conquest and 
 annexation were political residentships and assistant-resi- 
 dentships at the Courts of the Native Princes. These 
 appointments the Governor-General, Lord Hastings, kept 
 in his own hand. Lady D'Oyly, as the close friend and 
 relative of the Marchioness of Hastings, brought her hand- 
 some prot^g^ into the inner circle of Government House, 
 and opened for him the path to one of the most coveted 
 positions for a young civilian when the opportunity arose. 
 
 Meanwhile Hodgson was pursuing his studies at the 
 College of Fort William. The position which he had 
 obtained as head of his year at Haileybury fired his 
 ambition for further distinction, and he determined to 
 read for honours in Sanskrit and the vernacular languages. 
 But the first year in India is a trying one to an English 
 constitution, and Hodgson did not in any way economise
 
 in.] FIKST YEAH IN INDIA: 1818— 1S19. 3I 
 
 himself. Always a pretty bo)-, he had now acquired that 
 delicate beauty of face, ver\- unusual in an Kn<ilish- 
 man, which renders his bust remarkable among the 
 more massive marbles of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta 
 and London. He and his fast friend Lieutenant (after- 
 wards General Sir Josias) Clocte appear in Sir Charles 
 D'Oyly's sketches as types of the Calcutta dandies of the 
 day, arrayed in the Re'^ency fashion with high neck- 
 cloths and brass-buttoned coats, which must have been a 
 purgatory to their wearers in Bengal. Hodgson predomi- 
 nated at balls, was a joyous spirit in the Tent Club, and 
 then as ever rode in the first flight whether after a boar 
 or a fox or a jackal. He also tried to wedge in a good 
 deal of hard study between his social occupations, with 
 the result of a serious breakdown in health. Fever laid 
 hold of him with a grip that quinine could not loosen. 
 In spite of careful nursing by his friends the D'Oylys, it 
 seemed for a time that his Indian career must come to an 
 end. " My medical adviser," wrote Hodgson in some brief 
 autobiographical notes sixty-two years afterwards, " recom- 
 mended me to throw up the service, and go home. * Here,' 
 said he, ' is your choice — six feet underground, resign the 
 service, or get a hill-appointment.' " 
 
 To return an invalid on the hands of the father who had 
 struggled .so hard to set him forth in life seemed to 
 Hodgson worse than death. The family troubles of his 
 early years had sunk deeply into his mind, anil from the 
 day he left England he was resolved never to cost a penin* 
 to the heavily burdened parents at home. Indeed the 
 recollection of home often weighed .so gravely on him that 
 his gayer comrades of the Tent Club nicknamed him the 
 young philosopher. I^ut at that time a hill-appointment 
 was almost an impossibility for a \"oung civilian. Simla, 
 Darjiling, Naini Tal, the pleasant summer capitals of 
 modern India, were )et unkiKJwn. '" (^f hill-appointments," 
 wrote Hodgson, " there were then in the Bengal i'residency 
 only two" open to a junior civil .servant — the assistant-
 
 32 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. hi. 
 
 commissionership in Kumaun, and the assistant-resident- 
 ship in Nepal. For a time it seemed as if " the six feet 
 underground " were his only choice. 
 
 But he had already made friends in high places. His 
 position as head of his year at Haileybury counted for 
 something, the influence of Lady D'Oyly probably for a 
 good deal more, and Hodgson found himself, to his surprise 
 and delight, appointed assistant to the Commissioner of 
 Kumaun. It was a narrow escape which left behind it 
 the sobering effect of a liver disease not to be shaken off 
 for many a year. Meanwhile he had to give up his pur- 
 pose of reading for honours in the classical languages of 
 India. He carried away, however, from the College of 
 Fort William a grounding in Sanskrit, and left behind 
 him a reputation for proficiency in Persian, which was 
 afterwards to serve him in good stead.* 
 
 * " His career at the College was a highly satisfactory one, and he 
 distinguished himself greatly by his zeal, assiduity, and successful 
 study of the Persian language." — Rajendra Lala Mitra in his Preface to 
 The Satiskrit Buddhist Literaiicre of Nepal, p. iii. (Calcutta, 1882).
 
 [33] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST APPOINTMENT. 
 KUMAUN, 1819— 1S20. 
 
 THE frontier territory to which Hodgson was appointed 
 had been conquered only four years previously, in 
 18 1 5, by Lord Hastings who still kept it in a special 
 manner under his eye. Situated among the outer ranges 
 and spurs of the Himalayas, Kumaun then contained about 
 11,000 square miles, of which nearly 6,000 were mountain 
 forests or wastes, while 3,000 were returned as " snow." ' 
 When the young invalid, after a month's palankeen journc\- 
 up the hot valley of the Ganges — a journey which killed 
 off many a promising liver patient in its day — at length 
 reached the base of the hills, a broad belt of jungle and 
 swamp seemed to block all further progress. Having 
 forced his way through this upon an elephant, with the 
 knowledge that a night's detention in it meant a return 
 of fever in its most fatal form, he entered a region of 
 waterless forests, without a spring, and deeply scarred 
 by dry river beds. Thence he ascended into the network 
 of hills and mountain valleys, about 4,000 feet above the 
 sea, which was to be the scene of his first labours in India. 
 
 This was Hodgson's first lesson in the geography of 
 Kumaun. The inner region forms a maze of mountains 
 rising into peaks of eternal snow, 33,000 to 25,000 feet 
 
 ' Report on Kumaun for 1822-23, by George William Traill, Com- 
 missioner for Kiimatm affairs. Reprinted by order of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, Nortii-Western Provinces: Ojrnia/ Rt-poris on Kumaun, 
 Agra, 1851, p. I. Tlie above figures include the Garluval district of the 
 present Commissionership of Kumaun. 
 
 3
 
 34 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 above sea-level, with perilous trade-passes of 16,000 to 
 iS,ooo feet northwards to Tibet. In Kumaun proper there 
 are no plains ; the base of one ridge generally touches the 
 foot of the next, with only a narrow space for a torrent 
 between. A gorge of half a mile in breadth is considered 
 a fine cultivable valley. The waters from the melting 
 snows pour down these gullies till they reach the Bhabar 
 forest tract, formed of the loose detritus of the lower hills 
 resting on a bed of hard clay. Here the streams sink 
 underground through the porous alluvium, in some cases 
 disappearing altogether for a space of nine or ten miles, 
 in others dwindling into threads of water from the same 
 cause. Having flowed unseen through the Bhabar forests, 
 beneath the detritus of gravel and above the hard clay bed, 
 the waters again emerge in springs and swamps which feed 
 the lush vegetation of the swamp and forest belt known as 
 the Tarai. Truly a region of extremes, rising with strange 
 suddenness from the Indian plains, and one which pro- 
 foundly impresses itself on the memory of every English- 
 man who has dwelt among it. 
 
 " I have seen much of European mountains," Sir John 
 Strachey writes of Kumaun, where, like Hodgson, he spent 
 some of the early years of his service, " but in stupendous 
 sublimity, combined with a magnificent and luxuriant 
 beauty, I have seen nothing that can be compared with the 
 Himalaya. The Alpine vegetation of the Kumaun Hima- 
 layas, while far more luxuriant, closely resembles in its 
 generic forms that of the Alpine regions of Europe. But 
 after you have left the plains for 100 miles and have 
 almost reached the foot of the great peaks, the valleys are 
 still in many cases only 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the sea, 
 conveying, as General Strachey says, ' the heat and vege- 
 tation of the tropics among ranges covered with perpetual 
 snow.' ' Thus,' he adds, ' the traveller may obtain at a 
 glance a range of vision extending from 2,000 to 25,000 
 feet, and see spread before him a compendium of the 
 entire vegetation of the globe from the tropics to the
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMKNT: 1819— 1820. 35 
 
 poles.' Something; similar may be said of the animal 
 world. Tigers, for instance, are common in the valleys ; 
 and it is not very unusual to see their footprints in the 
 snow among oaks and pines and rhododendrons 8,000 to 
 10,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 " Among earthly spectacles, I cannot conceive it p>ossiblc 
 that any can surjiass the Himala)'a, as I have seen it at 
 sunset on an evening in October from the ranges thirty 
 or forty miles from the great peaks. One such view in 
 particular, from Binsar in Kumaun, stands out vividly in 
 my remembrance. This mountain is 8,000 feet high, 
 covered with oak and rhododendron. Towards the north 
 you look down over pine-clad slopes into a deep valley, 
 where, 6,000 feet below, the Sarju runs through a tro- 
 pical forest. Beyond the river it seems to the eye as if 
 the peaks of perpetual snow rose straight up and almost 
 close to you into the sky. From the bottom of the vallc\' 
 to the top of Nanda Devi you see at a glance almost 
 24,000 feet of mountain. The stupendous golden or rose- 
 coloured masses and pinnacles of the snowy range extend 
 before you in unbroken succession for more than 250 miles, 
 filling up a third part of the visible horizon, while on all 
 other sides, as far as the eye can reach, stretch away 
 the red and purple ranges of the lower mountains. ' In 
 a hundred ages of the gods.' writes one of the old Sanskrit 
 poets, ' I could not tell you of the glories of Himachal." 
 
 Few influences exercise a more permanent effect on 
 a young Indian civilian than the character and conduct 
 of the first officer under whom he serves. The new- 
 comer's standards of work, and his conceptions of duty 
 towards the people around him, receive an impress at 
 starting which is seldom afterwards effaced. This held 
 true even in later times when civilians went out to Imlia 
 as grown-up men after a University career, some of them 
 as distinguished Fellows of their College. It holds true 
 to this day. A third of a century still leaves fresh in my 
 memory the enthusia.stic ailmiration which I had for some.
 
 36 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 and the equally unqualified (although I now hope less 
 deserved) contempt with which I regarded others, of the 
 officers under whom I passed the opening years of mj' 
 service. 
 
 Eighty years ago, when civilians joined their first 
 appointment as mere lads, the personality of the man with 
 whom they were first placed had an even greater influence. 
 Their critical faculty with the habit of forming judg- 
 ments for themselves had not so fully developed, and they 
 insensibly adopted the methods, views, and idiosyncrasies 
 of the senior who was their first instructor and guide. 
 A working District Officer turned out a series of working 
 assistants ; a sporting District Officer made sporting 
 assistants ; a District Officer with a taste for revenue 
 administration trained the men who were destined to con- 
 duct the land-settlement of provinces ; while a District 
 Officer who did what was right in his own eyes, with as 
 little regard as possible to the central control, produced 
 a useful stubborn breed who were prepared to fight for 
 their own measures, or mistakes, against all the authority 
 of distant Secretariats and Boards. 
 
 Brian Hodgson was fortunate in his first master. George 
 William Traill, then Commissioner of Kumaun, formed 
 one of the group of strong-handed administrators whom 
 Lord Hastings' conquests developed. In order rightly to 
 understand this type it must be remembered that the 
 five years preceding 1819, when Hodgson went to Kumaun, 
 had seriously tested the resources of the British power in 
 India. Since Lord Moira, better known by his later title 
 as the Marquess of Hastings, assumed the Governor- 
 Generalship in 18 13, he had been forced into three wars 
 of the first magnitude. In 18 14 and 181 5 he conducted 
 the two Nepalese campaigns which, after critical reverses 
 to our troops, compelled Nepal to enter into a subsidiary 
 alliance, and to cede to us the Himalayan States of 
 which Kumaun formed part. In 18 17 he hurled the 
 strongest British force yet seen in India, numbering
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819— 1820. 37 
 
 120,000 men, against the Pindaris, and stamped out their 
 bandit armies with a thoroughness which left no alternative 
 but absolute submission or flight to the jungles, where one 
 of the last of their leaders perished by a tiger. In 18 18 
 he had to face the separate but simultaneous rising of 
 the three great Maratha Powers at Poona, Nagpur, and 
 Indore. He crushed them by battles sometimes fought 
 in the teeth of tremendous odds, and annexed the territories 
 which now form large portions of the Bombay Presidency 
 and the Central Provinces. 
 
 It was a time that called forth strong men. Lord 
 Hastings had re-made the map of India, and he needed 
 civilians with courage and independence of resource to 
 convert his disorderly conquests into peaceful British 
 provinces. Among these administrators of the transition 
 stage, Traill occupied a foremost place. One of the first- 
 fruits of the Haileybury system,' he arrived in India in 
 1 8 10, and after five years' service was appointed in 181 5 
 assistant to the Honourable E. Gardner, the political officer 
 with the Nepal expedition. Mr. Gardner had conducted 
 the political business of the campaign, and at the end of 
 it, in April 1815, he had the satisfaction to make the con- 
 vention by which the Nepalese ceded to us the territories 
 that included Kumaun.- He was appointed Commissioner 
 of Kumaun, and Traill was posted as his assistant in May 
 i<Si5. In 1 8 16 Gardner was promoted to be the first 
 Resident at the Court of Nepal. Traill succeeded him 
 as Commissioner of Kumaun. 
 
 I have ventured to arrest the narrative by these details 
 not without a reason. P'^or Hodgson, as we shall sec, 
 was soon to be appointed as Gardner's assistant in Nepal, 
 and was in due time to succeed him as Resident. 
 
 ' George William Traill, Haileybury 180S-9 ; India iSio-36 ; dird 1847. 
 
 ' Mr. E. T. Atkinson's Rr/'ort on Kumaun, dated August 31st, 1877, 
 para. 60, from which the following dates in the text are also taken. 
 The final and general treaty with Nepal was not ratified till after 
 further hostilities in the following year (March 4th, 1816), as I shall 
 afterwards explain. 

 
 3^ LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Meanwhile Hodgson began to learn his business as a fron- 
 tier administrator from a master who had a free hand and 
 a perfect confidence in himself George William Traill 
 looked upon Kumaun very much as a principality of his 
 own to which he had succeeded by conquest. He had 
 been on the spot when it was taken over from its previous 
 rulers. During twenty years one Governor-General after 
 another let him have his own way, for on the whole it 
 was a way of righteousness ; and he set an example of 
 personal government to succeeding Commissioners of 
 Kumaun which, in spite of some inconveniences and occa- 
 sional scandals, was only broken down in our own day. 
 
 The Governor-General might be ruler of India, but Traill 
 was " King of Kumaun." The stamp of personal inde- 
 pendence which he gave to its administration survived for 
 seventy years, and its last great Commissioner, General 
 Ramsay, was still known as " King of Kumaun," even 
 under strong Viceroys like Lord Mayo and Lord North- 
 brook. " Traill ruled absolutely till 1835,"* and he trained 
 up successive assistants in the habit of thinking that a 
 frontier administrator knew what was good for his territory 
 much better than any distant central authorities. We 
 shall see that this early formed conviction determined 
 Brian Hodgson's action in the crisis of his diplomatic 
 career ; and under a Governor-General who by no means 
 took that view. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine a more interesting work for a 
 young and generous nature than that on which Hodgson 
 now found himself launched. During seventy years Kumaun 
 had suffered every misery of invasion, conquest, and revolu- 
 tion. In 1744 a horde of Afghan Musalmans known as 
 the Rohillas seized the country from the Hindu dynasty 
 which, according to its genealogists, ruled Kumaun from 
 700 A.D.- " Though their stay was short," wrote the 
 
 ' Report on Kumaun by Mr. E. T. Atkinson, dated August 31st, 
 1877, para. 61. 
 * Samvat, 757. According to other authorities the Chand dynasty,
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819— 1820. 39 
 
 official annalist, " its ill results to the province arc well and 
 bitterly remembered, and its mischievous though zealously 
 religious character is still attested by the noseless idols 
 and trunkless elephants of some of the Kumaun temples." ' 
 After seven months of outrages upon the Hindu inhabitants, 
 the Rohillas, disgusted with the rigours of the climate, 
 accepted a bribe of ;{^30,000, and returned to the plains. 
 A second ineffectual invasion of Rohillas was followed b>' 
 a period of internecine struggles in Kumaun itself,- and 
 before 1780 the Hindu Rajas had lost all their lowland 
 possessions except the lihabar forest tract. 
 
 A worse calamity .soon afterwards befell Kumaun. The 
 Gurkhas, who made themselves masters of Nepal in the 
 middle of the i8th century, resolved to push their conquests 
 westward, and in 1790 invaded the Kumaun hills. During 
 twent>'-four years they oppressed Kumaun with such 
 cruelty that " no sooner had the British forces entered 
 the hills (in 181 5) than the inhabitants began to join our 
 camp, and bring in supplies of provisions for the troops." " 
 " Their tyranny has passed into a proverb, and at the 
 present time, when a native of these hills wishes to protest 
 in the strongest language in his power against some 
 oppression to which he has been subjected, he exclaims 
 that ' for him the Company's rule has ceased, and that of 
 the Gurkhas has been restored.' " * 
 
 which the Koliillas dispossessed in 1744, rose to power in the twelftli 
 century a.d, Vikram Chand (circ. 1400) is alleged to have been the 
 thirty-fourth ruler in succession from the founder, Som Chand, who. 
 Iiowevcr, is placed by Batten, in his Report, as late as 11 78 a.d. A 
 mean between the extreme dates is generally taken for the commence- 
 ment of the Chand dynasty in Kumaun — say the tenth century A.D. 
 
 ' Report on the Kiimann and Rohilkund Tarai, by J. H. Batten, 
 fiien .Senior Assistant Commissioner (afterwards Commissioner) of 
 Ivumaun, dated October tjtii, 1844, para. 8. Printed by order of the 
 I.ieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces: Agra, 1S51. 
 
 * Idem., paras. 9, 10. 
 
 ' Mr. E. T. Atkinsons Report, ilated August 31st, 1S77, para. 57. 
 This Report is printed in the volumes of the I^'orth-W'e stern Provintfs 
 Gazetteer. *■ LUm., para. 54.
 
 40 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 The initial measures for converting this shattered princi- 
 pality into a British province were being taken at the time 
 when Hodgson reached Kumaun. The Gurkhas had 
 roughly divided each district into a number of petty 
 military commands, sharply enforced a fixed sum from 
 the Gurkha officer in charge of each, and practically 
 left him and his soldiers to wring as much as they could 
 out of the people. " The consequence was that villages 
 were left waste ; the inhabitants fled into the densest and 
 most impenetrable jungles." ^ The first object of the 
 British officers was to restore confidence and to render 
 exactions impossible by fixing the revenue demand. 
 
 The extortions of the Gurkha soldiery afforded no safe 
 basis of assessment, so Traill had to fall back on the 
 system of taxation under the old Hindu dynasty. He 
 found it made up of a variety of imposts, such as transit 
 duties on goods, taxes on trade, on cultivation, on mining, 
 on law-suits, on the manufacture of glii or clarified butter, 
 on weaving, on grazing cattle, on commodities produced 
 from the land, and a variety of " presents " or forced gifts 
 to the Raja on the occasion of births, marriages, and the 
 various incidents of agricultural life. These taxes were 
 continued and others added by the Gurkhas. Such a 
 s}'stem strangled trade and industry, and was prohibitive 
 of progress among the working population. It had, in fact, 
 been designed to maintain in pomp and idleness the Hindu 
 royal family and its crowds of retainers. The British 
 officers gradually relinquished the old oppressive imposts 
 one after another, until only three of the most equitable 
 of them remained : the land revenue, mining royalties, and 
 grazing on forest dues. 
 
 Traill and his assistant Hodgson marched from hamlet 
 to hamlet, and, after long and apparently inconclusive 
 talks with the elders, fixed some sort of rough a.ssessment 
 on each cultivated valley or hill-side. Their only roads 
 
 ' Atkinson's Report on Garhvval District (part of Kumaun), p. 27. 
 ut supra.
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819— 1820. 4 1 
 
 were narrow footpaths and zigzags up ihc precipices, 
 sometimes mere ledges cut out of the rock with a thou- 
 sand feet of sheer descent below. Their shelter was a 
 little hill-tent, a dismantled tower, or a draughty temple, 
 often open on three sides to the storms. But they were both 
 young men, indeed astonishingly young considering the 
 duties assigned to them. Hodgson was nineteen, Traill 
 under thirty, and they went joyously to work " to settle " 
 the province. They found the greater part of it owned 
 by petty proprietors who derived their title from various 
 sources — from grants by the old Rajas, from purchase, 
 from military or " service " tenures, or from long-established 
 occupancy. Most of them hoed and watered their fields 
 with their own hands, but some cultivated by means of an 
 inferior order of tillers of the soil who were mere tenants at 
 will. Besides these three classes there were various inter- 
 mediate ranks of grantees. 
 
 In all cases the fundamental ownership was vested in 
 the State, or rather the State had a fundamental right to 
 a first charge on the produce of the land. The rights of 
 the several classes had to be ascertained, and the assess- 
 ment to be regulated accordingly, from a rate which only 
 represented a light land-tax to a rate which amounted to 
 a substantial rent. It was a work of classification as well 
 as of assessment, and much patience was required in 
 enforcing a reasonable amount for the Government with- 
 out infringing on the var)Mng rights of the separate orders 
 interested in the lantl. 
 
 It is easy to classify the tenures of an Indian district 
 on paper. But it is very difficult to make any such 
 classification correspond with all the facts. The difficulty, 
 in the case of the first attempts at a land-.settlement in 
 Kumaun, was enhanced by the fact that Traill .and 
 Hodgson had to deal with old rights and claims impaired 
 or broken down b>' twenty-four years of Gurkha usur- 
 pation — that is to say, with rights that had more or less 
 lapsed during almost a whole generation as Indian life
 
 42 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 was then reckoned. It was further complicated by the 
 inchoate rights and claims which had grown up during 
 that period. If Traill or Hodgson had brought to their 
 task a long experience of the revenue system of any of 
 the older provinces of British India, with the precon- 
 ceptions which such an experience develops, it might have 
 hindered rather than helped them. For the state of things 
 with which they were called to deal was essentially diverse ; 
 even a universal term like rMinhtdar, or landholder, has 
 a different meaning in Kumaun from what it has in 
 Bengal. In Kumaun it connotes no particular form of 
 ownership, but is " apparently synonymous with cultivator, 
 whether proprietor or tenant." ' To the two young British 
 of.icers in 1819, the landholders of Kumaun must have 
 seemed a confused mass of hereditary proprietors, here- 
 ditary occupants holding as tenants at will, and occupants 
 h('lding as prandial serfs or as domestic slaves. 
 
 All classes had a more or less hereditaiy claim to con- 
 tinue to cultivate their plots as long as they paid the 
 diverse and by no means clearly defined charges upon 
 them. There were " resident " cultivators with village 
 rights, and " non-resident " cultivators who, although desti- 
 tute of such rights, usuall)' held on more easy terms/'' The 
 competition at that time in Kumaun was not for land, 
 but for labour to till it ; and cultivators from outside could 
 make the best bargain. There were also grazing rights, 
 forest rights, irrigation rights, and monopolies in water- 
 power for mills. Out of this confusion Traill had to 
 develop some sort of revenue system, and in the mean- 
 while he had to collect an actual revenue within each 
 twelve months. 
 
 He seems to have gone sensibly to work. In the first 
 years he looked little to the future, and tried to find what 
 each hamlet could practically pay without hardship. Then 
 
 ' The proprietors of land in Kumaun are called thhatwatis. — Atkin- 
 son's Report, para. 33. 
 
 * They still apparently do. — Atkinson's Report (1877), para. 35.
 
 IV.J FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819—1820. 43 
 
 he proceeded to a more exact survey of the resources of 
 the province, and it was durin^; this period, 1819-20, that 
 Hodgson served as his assistant. The results were 
 embodied in Traill's memorable Report of 1822-23. Then 
 followed a period of settlement for terms of years, but it 
 was not till 1846, eleven years after Traill had left the 
 district, that a definite settlement could be safely carried 
 out* Even that settlement was only for twenty years, 
 and more than half a century elapsed after Traill and 
 Hodgson's labours before the regular North- West system 
 of a thirty-years' settlement could be applied to Kumaun. 
 
 Meanwhile Brian Hodgson learned mountaineering in 
 a practical school. " The inter-reticulations between these 
 ranges," wrote Mr. Atkinson,- " present an extraordinary 
 maze of ridges, peaks, and crags, with a few narrow strips 
 of culturable land along the banks of the rivers in the lower 
 portions of their courses." However inaccessible a spot 
 of cultivation might be, if Hodgson was told off to assess 
 it, he had to find his way thither. Many of the gorges 
 could only be ascended by repeatedly crossing dangerous 
 rivers, over which he had to pass with the help of men 
 swimming upon gourds.'' The bridges, where bridges 
 existed at all, tested pretty severely the nerve of the 
 traveller and the steadiness of a young head. Traill has 
 left a vivid account of them. 
 
 The most solid sort " consists of a single spar thrown 
 across " a gorge, or of successive blocks of timber projecting 
 each a little beyond the other from both sides till they 
 meet in the middle on the cantilever principle, their usual 
 width being that of two or three trunks uf trees. " The 
 third description of bridges, called the jhula" continues 
 Mr. Traill, " is constructed of ropes ; two .sets of cables 
 being stretched acro.ss the river, and the ends secured in 
 the banks. The roadway, consisting of slight ladders of 
 
 ' Official Reports on Kutnaun (Agra, 1851), pp. 2:3 ft sfij. 
 
 * Atkinson's Report, para. 4. 
 
 ' Traill's Report, p. 5. Agra reprint, 1S51.
 
 44 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 wood two feet in breadth, is suspended parallel to the 
 cables by ropes of about three feet in length. By this 
 arrangement the horizontal cables form a balustrade to 
 support the passenger while reaching from step to step of 
 the ladders. To make the jhula practicable for goats and 
 sheep, the interstices of the ladders are sometimes closed 
 up with twigs laid close to each other. A construction of 
 this kind necessarily requires a high bank on both sides, 
 and where this evident advantage may be wanting, the 
 deficiency of height is supplied by a wooden gallows, 
 erected on the two banks, over which the ends of the 
 cables are passed. The fourth and most simple bridge 
 consists merely of a single cable stretched across the 
 stream, to which is suspended a basket traversing on a 
 wooden ring ; the passenger or baggage being placed in this 
 basket, it is drawn across by a man on the opposite side 
 by means of a rope attached to the bottom." ^ 
 
 It was by the two latter kinds of bridges that Hodgson 
 had generally to make his way across the ravines, with 
 torrents roaring hundreds of feet below. Traill set about 
 the construction of the two more substantial classes of 
 wooden bridges first described ; many of the still existing 
 ones date from his time, although their timbers have been 
 renewed. He says that iron chain bridges, like those 
 described in Turner's Tibet, appear to have once been 
 used in Kumaun, but that no remains of them .survived. 
 In Hodgson's time the public works of the old Hindu 
 dynasty had disappeared, while those of the new rulers 
 were just being begun. The only beasts of burden in the 
 Kumaun hills were then sheep and goats, with an occasional 
 yak-cow. The sheep carried burdens of ten to sixteen 
 pounds of salt or borax in worsted pockets slung over their 
 backs, the goats from twelve to twenty-four. But the larger 
 breed of sheep from Tibet, somewhat resembling an Ice- 
 land ram, could march their five miles a day under loads of 
 forty pounds. 
 
 ' Traill's Report, pp. 5, 6.
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819— 1820. 45 
 
 Travelling in the hills brought Hodgson very near to 
 the people. The common hardships and common dangers 
 established a bond between the young Englishman and his 
 native followers such as has seldom a chance of growing 
 up in the official intercourse of lowland districts. Every 
 day he discovered qualities in them which won his esteem 
 — powers of endurance, steadiness of nerve, resource in 
 unexpected difficulties. The hill races can laugh heartily, 
 and they understand a joke. Sometimes the single file of 
 travellers would be suddenly stopped by a long train of 
 pack-sheep coming round a projecting rock, on a ledge so 
 narrow as to seem to render it inevitable that one or the 
 other of the lines should be forced over the precipice. For, 
 as Traill tells us, no attempt had ever been made by the 
 native rulers to construct roads " calculated for beasts of 
 burden."' When he and his assistant met one of these 
 strings of goats or sheep, it was Traill and Hodgson with 
 their following that had to clamber up or down the rock, 
 for the line of animals absolutely refused to give way. 
 In the Kumaun hills the etiquette of the road, as well 
 as the necessities of the situation, compelled the human 
 travellers to get out of the path. Hodg.son must have 
 clung as best he could to the face of many a precipice, 
 amid the good-natured laughter of his retinue, while the 
 train of borax-laden sheep passed by. 
 
 His love of sport endeared him to the hill-men. At that 
 time elephants roamed throughout the Bhabar forest, and 
 wild beasts were so common that the British Government 
 had to offer rewards for their destruction. In one year, 
 even at a subsequent period, 45 tigers, 124 leopards, and 
 240 bears were destroyed in Kumaun proper at a cost 
 of Rs. 1,400 to the Treasury. The fauna of the district 
 is widely varied, from the great carnivcrs and nilgai 
 and many species of deer in the lower tracts, to the 
 wild goats of the higher ranges, and the wild \ak,- the 
 
 > Traill's Krporl, p. 4. Agra reprint, 185 1. 
 
 » Banchaum {/)0s gntftit-ns). — Atkinson's Re|)ort, j>ar.i. 10.
 
 46 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 wild sheep,' and the Ovis Aiiunon among the snows. 
 Reptiles, from the enormous boa-constrictors sometimes 
 thirty feet long in the submontane jungles, to the Halys 
 Himalayanus in the forests 10,000 feet above the sea, were 
 numerous. Many interesting species of birds also fell to 
 the young ornithologist's gun. As late as 1876 several 
 thousands of the beautiful Kumaun pheasants were shot, 
 without regard to their age, sex, or condition, by European 
 dealers for the sake of their skins. The taste for natural 
 history which Hodgson had imbibed from Professor Walter 
 at Haileybury now became one of the pleasures of his life. 
 
 His main duty was, under Traill's direction, to collect 
 data for the revenue-settlement of the following year, 182 1. 
 The last land-assessment of the Gurkhas, made in 181 2 
 when their oppressions had depopulated the province, 
 amounted to Rs. 241,122,^ besides customs, miscellaneous 
 imposts, and the innumerable intermediate extortions levied 
 by their local agents. After the British drove out the 
 Gurkha usurpers in 181 5, Gardner and Traill at once 
 perceived that, if they were to repeople Kumaun and to 
 tempt back the cultivators to its deserted villages, they 
 must cut down the Gurkha assessment by one half. They 
 accordingly celebrated the first . year of British rule by 
 reducing the land-assessment to Rs. 123,577.^ The popu- 
 lation which had fled from the Gurkha oppression to the 
 jungles quickly responded to our milder and justcr ad- 
 ministration. Hill-sides that had fallen out of cultivation 
 were hoed up again. Villages long left without an 
 
 ' Bharal {Ovis nahura). — Atkinson, para. 10. 
 
 2 Appendices to Traill's Report for 1822-23, Statement D. Agra 
 reprint, 1851. In all these statements the term Kumaun includes the 
 district of British Garhwal, as the Commissionership of Kumaun does 
 at the present day. 
 
 ^ Idem., Statement D. The gross demand from the province by the 
 last Gurkha settlement in 181 2 was Rs. 268,977 (besides extortions 
 by local agents). The givss demand of the first British settlement in 
 1815-16 was Rs. 132,723, without extortions. — Appendices to Traill's 
 Report.
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819-1820. 47 
 
 inhabitant began once more to send forth curls of smoke 
 from their deserted hearths. During each of the following 
 years the land-revenue spontaneously increased notwith- 
 standing the abolition of old taxes,' and by 1 8 19, when Hodg- 
 son began his work in Kumaun, it exceeded Rs. 1 50,cxx)." 
 
 In 1819-20 the improvement went on rapidly, and Traill 
 determined to inquire into the whole subject of the capa- 
 bilities of Kumaun. With the help of Hodgson each 
 village was visited, and arranged in one of four classes : 
 as revenue-paying, revenue free for military or other 
 "services," "assigned to temples," or "deserted." Even 
 as late as 1822, after a great extension of tillage had taken 
 place, the " deserted " villages exceeded 2,000, or more 
 than a quarter of the whole revenue-paying villages in 
 the province — a lasting witness to the miseries inflicted 
 during the Gurkha usurpation. When we received the 
 province in 1815, the land actually out of cultivation, 
 owing to the oppressions of the Gurkhas, was probabl)- 
 not less than one half of the cultivable rent-paying area.^ 
 About a thousand villages were exempted for " services " 
 rendered or as temple lands, and a moderate assessment 
 roughly averaging Rs. 20 per village was levied from the 
 remaining 7,892 revcnue-i)aying hamlets. The total land- 
 assessment made by Traill and Hodgson for 1821 was under 
 Rs. 170,000, or an average of about Rs. 4^ from each house 
 in the revenue-paying district.^. A " hou.se " usually con- 
 tained several families/ or grown-up sons : " The number 
 
 ' Among others, Rs. 14,016 of transit duties on trade. — Traill's 
 Report, Appendice.s, p. vii. 
 
 * Idem., Statement I). 
 
 ' In 1824 Traill reported 187,273 bisis (or units of land — vitU post, 
 p. 50) as "waste," against 215,310 under cultivation. But it does not 
 appear liow much of the " wa.ste " in Kumaun and Garhual was really 
 cultivable. — Traill's Report, Supplementary Statement, p. viii. Reprint 
 of 1851. 
 
 ' There were 39,369 houses in the revenue-paying villages of 
 Kumaun including Garhwal, 4,599 in the villages assigned to temples, 
 and 681 in the revenue-free villages. — Traill's Report, Appendices, 
 Statement .\.
 
 48 LIFE OV BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 of hamlets consisting of one house," says Traill, " is very- 
 great." ' 
 
 This settlement, based on the data collected in 1819-20, 
 carried a little further the principles which had been acted 
 on since our deliverance of the country from Gurkha oppres- 
 sion six years previously. Broadly speaking, it assigned 
 a fixed demand to each village, based upon an examination 
 of the actual capabilities of the village lands. The Gurkha 
 system had been one of confiscation and squeezes. " The 
 countr}'," wrote Traill in his Report of 1822-23, " including 
 all the villages hitherto reserved for the support of the 
 Court and their attendants, was parcelled out in separate 
 assignments to the invading army." " The villages were 
 everj'wherc asses.sed rather on a consideration of the sup- 
 posed means of the inhabitants than on any computation 
 of their agricultural produce. Balances soon ensued, to 
 liquidate which the family and effects of the defaulter 
 were seized and sold. The consequent depopulation was 
 rapid and excessive." - For a time indeed it seemed that, 
 under Gurkha rule, the only alternative for the Kumaun 
 hill-men lay between flight to the jungles and the sale of 
 themselves and their women and children into slavery on 
 the Indian plains. 
 
 It was in vain that the central Gurkha Government in 
 Nepal tried to arrest the depopulation of Kumaun. It had, 
 indeed, issued a commission of inquiry from the Nepalese 
 capital to fix the Kumaun revenues at reasonable rates. 
 Much of its machinery for the collection of the revenue, 
 and its registers of village cultivation, were continued by 
 the British administration. But notwithstanding a Gurkha 
 inspection of the resources of each village, the Gurkha 
 " assessment must be viewed," says Traill, " rather as a 
 tax founded on the number of inhabitants than on the 
 extent of cultivation." ^ In spite of an elaborate system 
 
 • Report, p. 12. Reprint of 1851. 
 
 * Traill's Report, pp. 41, 42. Agra reprint, 1851, 
 ' Traill's Report, p. 42.
 
 rv.] FIRST APP0INTM?:NT: 1819— 1820. 49 
 
 of returns and registers, made up village by village and 
 bearing the seal of the Gurkha State, " the absence of a 
 controlling power on the spot rendered the arrangement 
 almost nugatory." ' 
 
 The Gurkha revenue-agents and soldiers squeezed the 
 last drop out of the people in Kumaun ; in the Garhwal 
 district their exactions were so heavy that even the Gurkha 
 military chiefs found it impossible to enforce them. \Vc 
 have seen that the legal demand of the Gurkha Govern- 
 ment, apart from the extortions of its local agents and 
 their underlings, amounted to the double assessment which 
 our officers thought reasonable when the province passed 
 under British rule. According to the Gurkha system, the 
 cultivators who remained were responsible for making good 
 the whole revenue. But the depopulation under the Gurkha 
 oppressions had rendered it impossible for the Gurkha 
 taskmasters to wring the full demand out of the remaining 
 inhabitants. Fiscal brutalities and depopulation kept pace 
 together, the revenue balances under the Gurkhas "annu- 
 ally increasing from the attempt to enforce the full 
 demand." ' 
 
 The settlement of 1 820-2 1 , following upon Traill's previous 
 reforms, put an end to this state of things for ever. In 
 order to adjust fairly the taxation of the land, Traill and 
 Hodgson made a sort of revenue census. They not only 
 counted the villages and arranged them into the four classes 
 mentioned on p. 47 ; they also made a careful estimate 
 of the number of houses and the quantity of cultivated 
 land in each village, together with the number of buffaloes, 
 cows, and oxen. The tabular statements which they were 
 thus enabled to prepare look very complete. But, as a 
 matter of fact, Traill and Hodgson had to arrive at the 
 area under cultivation by a .series of guesses instead of 
 by actual measurement. The>' adopted the native system, 
 current throughout the hills, of calculating the area of 
 fields by the supposed quantity of grain which would be 
 ' Traill's Report for 1822-23, P- 42. * ItUm., p. 42. 
 
 4
 
 50 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 required to sow them. The unit of land was the bisi, which, 
 as the term implies, meant tn'cnty " measures of seed." ' 
 The superficial area of a bisi of land differed widely, as the 
 grain was sown much more sparsely on poor lands near the 
 summit of the cultivated hill-sides, than on rich lands at 
 the base of the mountains or on alluvial patches in the 
 valleys. It was the only method of arriving at an equitable 
 adjustment of the land-tax then practicable in Kumaun, 
 and it rendered the demand from each village fairly pro- 
 portionate to the aggregate produce of the village lands. 
 
 With these materials before him and proceeding as far 
 as possible on the old native registers, Traill assisted 
 by Hodgson let out the revenue-paying area of the pro- 
 vince in 7,883 lots, a lot usually corresponding to a 
 village." But before doing so they had to determine a 
 question, the most important of all in its influence on the 
 contentment of the people. Who was the person in each 
 village entitled to receive the Government lease ? Here 
 too they followed the old native system, and merely carried 
 our administrative arrangements a step further along the 
 lines adopted on our first acquisition of Kumaun in 18 15. 
 Almost every village had its representative man, who 
 was recognised to have a right to engage for the land- 
 revenue with the ruling Power. This title he might 
 derive from several distinct sources : from hereditary pre- 
 scription, or from election by the co-sharers in the village 
 lands, or in the case of clan-communities by election of 
 the clans. As a rule a son succeeded his father in the 
 office, unless deemed incapable by reason of youth or of 
 feebleness of character, in which case the village co-sharers 
 or the clansmen (as the case might be) chose another 
 representative from among themselves. 
 
 The representative or head-man ^ of a Kumaun village 
 
 > Nalis. 
 
 * There were 7,902 "khalsa, " or direct revenue-paying villages, and 
 7,883 separate leases. — Traill's Report for 1822-23, Appendices, .State- 
 ments A. and D. 
 
 ^ Padhan, a vernacular corruption of the Sanskrit pradhan, chief,
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819—1820. $1 
 
 had distinct privileges and distinct obligations. He paid 
 the land-tax, in the first place for his own share of the 
 cultivated lands. With the aid of the village assembly the 
 head-man allotted a fair proportion of the total village as- 
 sessment to each cultivator, collected the whole, and handed 
 it over to the revenue officer. He managed the distribution 
 of the uncultivated lands, letting them out to applicants 
 and accounting for their rental to the co-parcenary village 
 body. Perhaps the most difficult duty of the head-man 
 was to make good the losses arising from fields falling out 
 of cultivation. The death of a husbandman without heirs, 
 or his migration to another village, left for the moment 
 a deficit in the general collections. This deficit the head- 
 man had to rai.se.' He called a "general assembly" of the 
 village co-sharers, and with their consent added a per- 
 centage to the land-tax of each of the co-parceners in the 
 cultivated lands. The vacant holding pa.s.sed for the time 
 into the general stock of uncultivated lands, in which the 
 villagers had rights in common. The remuneration of the 
 head-man consisted of an allotment of revenue-free land,* 
 averaging about five per cent of the whole cultivated area 
 in Kumaun proper, together with fees on marriages. 
 
 A useful rej^resentative person of this sort grew into 
 importance under the British system of adjusting the 
 
 principal. The term was used throviRlioiit India for widely different 
 classes of functionaries, from the Prime Minister at a Hindu Court, 
 and the eight chief civil and military officers of tlic Maratha State as 
 established by Sivaji, to a villagf htad-maii, or a respectable cultivator 
 with hereditary riglits. 
 
 ' For an account of this .system of joint responsibility, by wliicli the 
 village commune had to make up the land-tax of deceased or defaulting 
 members, sec my lienf^al MS. AVrcn/i (4 vols. , 1894), Introduction, p. 54, 
 etc. Under the Mughal revenue settlements it developed into a regular 
 abwab or extra tax, the ttajai. 
 
 * Termed Hfk I'lulhanihari, and amounting practically to 5,(XX) bisis 
 out of a total of 101,^24 fn'sis of revenue-paying laiui in Kumatm 
 proper. In the Garluval district the system varied. — Traill's KrjKirt 
 for 1822-23, P- 5-> compared with Appendices, Statement D.
 
 52 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 land-revenue fairly to the capabilities of each village. 
 He became " the village ministerial officer entrusted with 
 the collection of the Government demand, and with the 
 supervision of the village police." * During the inquiries 
 of Traill and Hodgson in 1819-20, he formed an invaluable 
 link between the British officers and the people. It was 
 from constant intercourse with the village head-men that 
 the two young investigators chiefly obtained the informa- 
 tion which made up Traill's Statistical Sketch of Kuviaun 
 two years later. 
 
 The collection of the materials for that work opened out 
 a new world to Hodgson, although his share in collecting 
 them was a subordinate one. It is impossible now to 
 distinguish his contributions. But the habit of systematic 
 inquiry into the population, their history, language, 
 social institutions, and economic conditions, which Traill 
 impressed upon Hodgson in his first years of service, 
 became the keynote of Hodgson's whole official career. 
 It is surprising how long a really good piece of work lives 
 in India. The Report for which Traill and his assistant 
 were gathering the materials in 1819-20 became the basis 
 of the administrative handbook to the province. It was 
 published in the Asiatick Researches in 1828;^ entered 
 largely into Batten's Settlement Reports of Kumaun from 
 1 842 to 1 848 ; was reprinted by order of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the North-Western Provinces in 185 1 ; 
 supplied the materials for the account of Kumaun ^ written 
 by Mr. Atkinson^ in 1877 for the Statistical Survey of 
 India ; and then started life afresh in the article " Kumaun " 
 
 ' Traill, quoted in J. H. Batten's Report on Garhwal, dated 
 August loth, 1842, para. 20. 
 
 ' Under the title of " Statistical Sketch of Kumaun," Asiatick Re- 
 searches, Vol. XVI. (Calcutta, 1828), pp. 137-234. 
 
 ^ As No. I of The Official Reports of the Province of Kumaun. 
 Secundra Orphan Press, Agra, 1851. 
 
 *• Dated Naini Tal, August 31st, 1877, and printed in the Gazetteer 
 volumes of the North-Western Provinces. 
 
 ^ Mr. E. T. Atkinson afterwards became Comptroller-General of
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMENT: 1819— 1820. 53 
 
 in the Imperial Gazetteer of India. That article reproduced 
 in 1886 some of the ipsissima verba of Traill written in 1823. 
 
 If any young Indian civilian, in the solitude and ill- 
 health amid which some of his earlier years may be spent, 
 feels inclined to despond about the reality of his work, let 
 him read the foregoing paragraph. No lives could be 
 more solitary than those of Traill and Hodgson in Kumaun, 
 and few civilians have had to struggle so hard with ill- 
 health as the latter during the first part of his Indian 
 service. Yet not only their work but their very words are 
 alive and bearing fruit to this day. 
 
 There is something very refreshing in the sight of these 
 two young men setting to work with almost boyish zest 
 to take stock of the terra incognita of a new British province. 
 They found the population divided into two classes : 
 human beings and ghosts. Of both classes Traill furnishes 
 an equally serious account. The ethnical origin of the 
 various human races in the mountains is discussed, and a 
 realistic description of their customs winds up with a 
 tribute to their integrity. " Of the honesty of the hill 
 people," writes Traill, " too much praise cannot be given. 
 Property of all kinds is left exposed in every way, without 
 fear and without loss. In those districts whence periodical 
 migration to the Tarai takes place, the villages are left 
 with almost a single occupant during half the year, and 
 though a great part of the property of the villagers remains 
 in their houses, no precaution is deemed necessary, except 
 securing the doors against the ingress of animals, which is 
 done by a bar of wood, the use of locks being as yet 
 confined to the higher chis.se.s. In their pecuniary trans- 
 actions with each other, the agricultural classes have rarely 
 recourse to written engagements ; bargains concluded by 
 the parties joining hands (Jiath mama) in token of assent 
 
 Finance to the Government of India, and tilled the ofticc of President 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. His comparatively early death cut 
 short a career of usefulness both to the Indian administration and to 
 Oriental scholarship.
 
 54 LIt'E OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 prove equally effectual and binding as if secured by 
 parchment and seals." ' 
 
 But the most complete details are reserved for " the 
 ghost tribe," which Traill informs us " is divided into many 
 varieties. The first and most formidable is the Bhut," or 
 ghosts of persons who have died a violent death, by murder, 
 drowning, or public execution, and to whose vicmcs due 
 funeral honours have not been paid. These require to 
 be appeased by sacrifices and offerings. " Masan or imps 
 are the ghosts of young children, the bodies of whom 
 are buried and not burnt, and who prowl about the villages 
 in the shape of bears and other wild animals. Tola or 
 will-o'-the-wisps are ghosts of bachelors, that is males who 
 may die at mature age unmarried," dwellers in solitary 
 places and contemned by other ghosts. The Airi or ghosts 
 of persons killed in hunting wandered about the forest in 
 which their death occurred, and might be heard from time 
 to time hallooing to their spectral dogs. The Acheri or 
 hill fairies were the ghosts of young female children, who 
 flitted about the tops of mountains, producing wondrous 
 optical illusions among the distant ranges, and descending 
 at dusk to play in the valleys. The Deos or demons 
 formed a numerous and malignant class ; " indeed scarce a 
 village but has its peculiar Deo."- 
 
 I have condensed the foregoing paragraph to show 
 the minute character of the inquiries conducted by Traill 
 and his assistant not only into the social conditions, but 
 also into the inner life of the people. It would be easy to 
 multiply interesting examples of the customs and super- 
 stitions which they were thus enabled to record. I confine 
 myself to one more passage from Traill's Report dealing 
 with the judicial procedure by ordeal which he found in 
 full work in Kumaun. 
 
 " Three forms of ordeal were in common use : First, the 
 Gola Dip, which consists in receiving in the palms of the 
 
 • Traill's Report, p. 64. Reprint of 1851. 
 - Traill's Report for 1822-23, PP' 65-67.
 
 IV.] FIRST APPOINTMKNT: 1819—1820. 55 
 
 hands, and carrying to a certain distance, a red-hot bar of 
 iron. Second, the Kami Dip, in which the hand is plunged 
 into a vessel of boiling oil, in which cases the test of truth 
 is the absence of marks of burning on the hand. Third, 
 Tarazu-ka Dip : in this the person undergoing the ordeal 
 was weighed at night, against stones which were then 
 carefully deposited under lock and key and the seal of the 
 superintending officer. On the following morning, after a 
 variety of ceremonies, the appellant was again weighed, and 
 the substantiation of his cause depended on his proving 
 heavier than on the preceding evening. 
 
 " The Tir-ka Dip, in which the person remained with his 
 head submerged in water, while another ran the distance of 
 a bowshot and back, was sometimes resorted to. The 
 Gurkha governors introduced another mode of trial by 
 water, in which two boys, both unable to swim, were thrown 
 into a pond of water, and the longest liver gained the cause. 
 Formerly, poison was, in very particular causes, resorted to 
 as the criterion of innocence : a given dose of a particular 
 root was administered, and the party, if he survived, was 
 ab.solvcd. A further mode of appeal to the interposition of 
 the deity was by placing the sum of money, or a bit of earth 
 from the land in dispute, in a temple before the idol. 
 Either one of the parties volunteering such test then, with 
 imprecations on himself if false, took up the article in 
 question. Supposing no death to occur within six months 
 in his immediate family, he gained his cause ; on the 
 contrar)', he was cast in the event of being visited with any 
 great calamity or if afflicted with severe sickness during 
 that period.'" 
 
 Hodg.son seems to have given satisfaction to his young 
 chief, and in 1820 an unexpected piece of promotion befell 
 him. Mr. Stuart the assistant to the British Resident at 
 the Court of Nepal died,'^ and the Resident, Gardner, 
 
 ' Traill's Report, pp. 29, 30. 
 
 ' Robert Stuart, Haileybury 1808-9; India 1 8 10; dicii Marcli i4tli, 
 1820.
 
 56 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. iv. 
 
 wanted a thoroughly competent man to replace him. 
 Stuart had been a contemporary of Traill at Hailcybury, 
 and went out to India in the same year. Traill was 
 Gardner's assistant in Kumaun, as Stuart was his assistant 
 in Nepal. Gardner would naturally consult Traill in filling 
 the vacant post, and probably on Traill's recommendation 
 Hodgson was appointed. 
 
 Sir Charles D'Oyly may have put in a good word for 
 him at headquarters in Calcutta, but it is almost certain 
 that so junior an officer as Hodgson would not have been 
 selected for this responsible position if he had not already 
 made his mark and been strongly recommended by his 
 immediate superior. Indeed it is difficult to imagine a 
 better training (brief as it was) for his new duties at the 
 Gurkha capital of Nepal than Hodgson received in 
 Kumaun. He learned at first hand the process by which 
 a territory was being redeemed from Gurkha misrule and 
 converted into a prosperous British province. 
 
 Traill started in 1815 on the old native methods of 
 administration, except when they conflicted with justice 
 or humanity. By three years of experimental settlements ^ 
 he patiently found out in what particulars those methods 
 were defective. He then commenced a careful investiga- 
 tion of the conditions and actual capabilities of the province, 
 with a view to a more permanent arrangement based on 
 the ascertained facts. These inquiries, conducted throughout 
 1818-20, yielded the materials for the fourth British settle- 
 ment of Kumaun in 1820-21," and for the general Report 
 on the province for 1822-23. Traill had the art of getting 
 the most out of his assistants and of stamping his personality 
 upon them. In less than two years he not only taught 
 Hodgson how to inquire, but also implanted in him a love 
 of inquiry which was destined to extend, in more than 
 one direction, the boundaries of human knowledge. 
 
 * For 1815-16, 1816-17, 1817-18. - Samvat, 1877.
 
 [57] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EARLY YEARS IN NEPAL — AND A CHECK. 
 
 1820— 1824. 
 
 HODGSON carried with him from Kumaun a very 
 grateful remembrance of his first master. " I was 
 much struck," he writes in his brief autobiographical notes, 
 " by the simple yet efficient method of administrating the 
 province, a new acquisition tenanted by very primitive and 
 poor tribes. The Commissioner (Traill) who spoke and 
 wrote the local language, dispensed with all formalities, 
 settled cases in court like the father of a family, and 
 encouraged every one who had a complaint to put it in 
 writing and drop it into a slit in the court door, of which 
 he kept the key. Answered viva voce, in court or out. 
 He was of active habits, and went everywhere throughout 
 the province, hearing and seeing all for himself. His 
 cheerful simple manners and liking for the people made 
 him justly popular. Took a hint from him when myself 
 in authority in Nepal as to the way of becoming popular." 
 Nor was his new chief Gardner, under whom Traill also 
 had made his mark, less gifted with qualities which win the 
 admiration of a generous youth. " Found at Kathmandu," 
 continue Hodgson's jottings, " in the head of the embassy 
 another man to form myself upon, a man with all the 
 simplicity and more than the courtesy of Traill, — a man 
 who was the perfection of good sense and good temper ; 
 who, liking the Nepalesc and understanding them, was 
 doing wonders in reconciling a Court of Chinese proclivities 
 to the offensive novelty of responsible international dealing
 
 58 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 through a permanent diplomatic establishment in their 
 midst — a Court whose pride and poverty made it, more- 
 over, jealously fretful at the novel sight of the costly and ? 
 pompous style then inseparable from our Indian embassies." ^ | 
 
 The Honourable Edward Gardner was the Marquess of 
 Hastings' right-hand man in bringing Nepal into treaty 
 relations with the British. Edward Gardner and his 
 cousin, Lieut-Colonel William Gardner, had mainly effected 
 the conquest and annexation of Kumaun which turned 
 the tide of the Nepal war in our favour. Descended from 
 the gallant Gardner of Coleraine, who commanded a com- 
 pany within Derry during the memorable siege, the family 
 rose to distinction in the person of Admiral Sir Alan 
 Gardner " in the reign of George the Third. The Admiral 
 received a peerage for brilliant services prolonged over 
 more than half a century. One of his nephews William 
 Linnseus Gardner,^ after chequered experiences in the 
 British army, married an Indian princess, and concluded 
 a career of military adventure with the Marathas by 
 taking pay as a leader of irregular horse under Lord 
 Lake {circa 1804). His kinsman, Edward,^ fifth son of 
 
 ' Notes written by Brian Hodgson about 1881, and given to me by 
 Mrs. Hodgson. 
 
 - Born 1742; entered royal na\-y 1755; lieutenant of the Bellona 
 1760; Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's ships in Jamaica 1786; 
 fought in Lord Howe's actions of May 29th and June ist, 1794; 
 Baronetcy 1794; second in command in the action off Port L'Orient, 
 1795 ; Irish peerage 1800; peerage of the United Kingdom 1806; died 
 1809 (according to Foster's Peerage, December 30th, 1808). 
 
 ' Born 1770; died 1835. See the spirited notice in the Dictiottary 
 of National Biography, and article " Kasganj " in my Imperial Gazetteer 
 of India, Vol. VIII., pp. 59, 60. Ed. 1886. 
 
 * Born 1784; arrived in India as a Writer 1802; Registrar and 
 Assistant to Magistrate of Aligarh 1805 ; Assistant to Resident at Delhi 
 1808; acting Judge and Magistrate of Moradabad 1813 ; Commis- 
 sioner and Governor-General's Agent in Kumaun 1814; Resident in 
 Nepal 1816; for a short time Resident for the Native States in 
 Bundelkhand and Superintendent of the Narbada Territories 18 19, but 
 presently resumed the Residency in Nepal ; retired from the Service 
 1829; died in England October 5th, 1861. — hidia Office MS. Records.
 
 v.] EARLY YEARS IN NEPAL: 1820— 1824. 59 
 
 Admiral Lord Gardner, entered the Bengal Civil Service in 
 1802. He early distinguished himself in political employ- 
 ment, and in the districts which had formed the scene of 
 Lord Lake's campaign of 1802-3. In 18 14 the Marquess 
 of Hastings employed the two cousins Edward and 
 William Gardner in the central or Kumaun expedition 
 against the Gurkha power. 
 
 The success of its operations was in no small measure 
 due to Lieut. -Colonel William Linnaeus Gardner's tact 
 and knowledge of the native character. Edward, as 
 political officer with the force, put the seal of peace upon 
 the conquest of Kumaun. Colonel W. L. Gardner after 
 further service in Central India, the North- Western 
 Provinces and Burma, at the head of his irregular cavalry 
 known as Gardner's Corps,^ settled down with his princess 
 on a property which they bought in Etah District, and 
 there they both died within a month of each other at a 
 ripe age in 1835. His cousin the Honourable Edward 
 became, as we have seen, the first Commissioner of 
 Kumaun, and was promoted by Lord Hastings after the 
 ratification of the Treaty of Segauli to be the first British 
 Resident in Nepal. 
 
 Hodgson came to Nepal at a time when this stirring 
 period had given place to a reaction of sullen acquiescence. 
 After half a century of aggression and insolence the 
 Nepalese had been forced to submit to our arms. The 
 Company's earlier relations with them tended, indeed, to 
 encourage a contempt for its power.- In 1767, at the time 
 of the Gurkha usurpation of Nepal, we had declared in 
 favour of the legitimate but effete Ncwar Raja of Kath- 
 mandu, and despatched to his aid a force which never 
 
 ' Otherwise the 2nd Local Horse. 
 
 - The following summary is condensed from .Sir Charles Aitchison's 
 Treaties and Eno;agcmcnts, Vol. IL, Part III. (Ed. 1876); H. T. 
 Prinsep's Historv of the Political and Military Transactions in India 
 during the Administration of the Marquess of Hastings, iS 13-1823, 
 Vol. I. (Ed. 1825); and General Sir John Malcolm's Political History of 
 hidiafrom 1784 to 1823 (Ed. 1826).
 
 60 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 got farther than the juiv^ly outskirts of the country — the 
 deadly Tarai. 
 
 In 1792 the Gurkhas, having completely subjugated 
 Nepal, were encroaching on Tibet and advanced as far 
 as Digarchi, the Lama of which was spiritual father to the 
 Emperor of China. The Chinese Emperor replied to 
 their insolence by a mighty army. The Nepal Court 
 sought the favour of the British by means of a commercial 
 treaty/ and Lord Cornwallis offered to mediate between 
 China and Nepal. But before our envoy reached the 
 frontier, the Chinese general had imposed an ignominious 
 submission on the Nepalese within a few miles of their 
 capital Kathmandu. 
 
 During the first twenty-five years of our intercourse 
 we had thus appeared to Nepal equally incapable as an 
 opponent and as an ally. This tradition survived during 
 a generation, and, as we shall see, affected the attitude of 
 the Nepal Court throughout Hodgson's whole residence. 
 The commercial treaty of 1792 speedily became a dead 
 letter, the Nepalese encroached on our frontier, and a 
 new treaty in 1801 ended in our further discomfiture.'^ On 
 that occasion we mixed ourselves up with the domestic 
 disputes of the reigning family in Nepal. The treaty of 
 1 80 1 provided, inter alia, for the appointment of a British 
 representative at the Court of Kathmandu, and Captain 
 Knox was appointed to the post. But he was treated 
 with such contumely as to compel him to withdraw from 
 Nepal in 1803, and on January 24th, 1804, Lord Wellesley 
 formally dissolved our alliance with the Nepalese. 
 
 The next eight years formed a period of unavailing 
 rcmon.strance against Gurkha aggressions along the whole 
 length of our frontier. The Gurkhas seized one piece of 
 territory after another. Only on a single occasion did 
 they give up their prey, and on that occasion only when a 
 
 ' Dated March ist, 1792, and numbered LI. in Aitchison's Treaties, 
 Vol. II., p. 159. Ed. 1876. 
 
 * No. LII. in Aitchison's Treaties, II., pp. 161-164.
 
 v.] EARLY YKARS IX NEPAL: 1820—1824. 61 
 
 British detachment was despatched to retake possession of 
 the lands at the point of the bayonet (1810). In the next 
 year they again crossed our frontier, and their forcible 
 entry among an unwilling population gave rise to the first 
 border skirmish. Lord Minto was at length compelled to 
 recognise that a gradual invasion of the British districts 
 was being carried on. After trying in vain to effect a 
 settlement by commissioners, he formally called on the 
 Gurkha Government in June 181 3 for redress. 
 
 Before the reply — a most unsatisfactory one — arrived, 
 Lord Hastings ' had assumed the Governor-Generalship. 
 The alternative forced upon him was simple. " I might 
 shrink," he wrote, " from the declaration plighted by Lord 
 Minto, abandoning the property of the Company, sacri- 
 ficing the safety of our subjects, and staining the character 
 of our Government ; or I had to act up to the engagements 
 bequeathed to me, and to reprove the trespass of an in- 
 satiable neighbour." - 
 
 The war which followed is a matter of general histor)', 
 and has been lately summarised by a military expert of 
 no ordinary skill.^ It must suffice here to state that, after 
 an unsuccessful campaign by four British columns in 1S14, 
 the struggle was renewed in the following year. In April 
 181 5 the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Gardner forced 
 the centre of the long-extended frontier of the Nepalese 
 dominions, and occupied Kumaun. The fall of its capital 
 Almora took the heart out of the Gurkha army, already 
 tired of a protracted conflict, and enabled our western 
 column operating from the Sutlej to secure possession of 
 the Simla and Punjab hill-states. Our troops thus set free 
 in the west were emplo)'ed to reinforce the British army 
 
 ' Throughout I call Lord Moira by his latt-r and best-known title of 
 Marquess of Hastings. 
 
 * Nepal Papers, 992. Quoted. 11. II. \\iIsoirs History of British 
 India from 1805 to 1835, ^*"'- 'I- !'• 7''. loctnote. Ed. 1846. 
 
 ' It forms Chapter IV. of the admirable monograph on Thf Afarqtuss 
 of Hastings, written by Major Ross-of-Bladensburg, C'.H., for tlu- 
 Rulers of India Series, 1S93.
 
 62 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 advancing in the cast from Bengal upon Kathmandu. In 
 the spring of 1816 it imposed terms of peace within a 
 short distance of that capital. After exhausting every 
 device of procrastination the Nepalese delivered to our 
 victorious general, Sir David Ochtcrlony, " at half-past two 
 o'clock p.m. on the 4th of March, 1816,"^ a treaty by which 
 ihey renounced all claims to the lands in dispute before 
 the war, ceded extensive territories, and engaged never to 
 employ any European or American without our consent. 
 Nepal thus entered into subordinate alliance to the British 
 power. To secure that the new relationship should be 
 effectually maintained, it agreed "that accredited ministers 
 from each shall reside at the Court of the other." - 
 
 It was this Treaty of Segauli that the Honourable Edward 
 Gardner had been appointed in 18 16 to carry out. The 
 task was made easier for him by the frankly cordial atti- 
 tude which the Governor-General adopted towards Nepal 
 from the moment that hostilities ceased. Lord Hastings, 
 " with a view to gratify the Raja in a point which he has 
 much at heart,""' authorised Gardner to soothe the wounded 
 honour of the Nepalese by giving them back, for a 
 pecuniary consideration, a part of the Tarai conveniently 
 separated from the British boundary. 
 
 Lord Hastings aimed at converting Nepal from a 
 troublesome neighbour into if possible a friendly, or at 
 least a quiescent, ally. Gardner was exactly the man to 
 give effect to the Governor-General's policy " that all 
 future causes of misunderstanding should be avoided."* 
 During the thirteen years of his residcntship at Kath- 
 mandu, he preserved an attitude of benevolent non-inter- 
 
 ' Sir David Ochterlony's endorsement. — Aitchison's Treaties, Vol. II., 
 p. 168. Ed. 1876. 
 
 ^ Treaty of Segauli, Article 8. — No. LIII. in Aitchison's Treaties, 
 Vol. II., pp. 166-168. 
 
 ^ Memorandum of December 8tli, 1816, signed "Edward Gardner"; 
 and counterpart letter and document from the Raja of Nepal, received 
 on December nth, 1816. — Aitchison's Treaties, Vol. II., pp. 168-171. 
 
 * The Marquess of Hastings, by Major Ross-of-Bladensburg, p. yj.
 
 v.] EARLY YKARS IN NEPAL: 1820-1824. 63 
 
 ferencc and abstained from raising any new questions. 
 That long period added not a single document to our 
 public engagements with Nepal, and Sir Charles Aitchison's 
 authoritative narrative of our diplomatic transactions passes 
 without comment from 1S16 to 1832.' This policy of non- 
 intervention was rendered possible by the long predomin- 
 ance of the minister Bhim Sen Thappa, who had witnessed 
 the whole course of the war and had definitely although 
 reluctantly recognised the invincible force of the British 
 arms. 
 
 Mr. Gardner found Bhim Sen in complete control of the 
 factions which made up the Gurkha nation. Soon after 
 Gardner's arrival at Kathmandu the nominal Raja died, 
 leaving an infant two years old as his successor. Bhim 
 Sen remained in power as Prime Minister, with the Queen- 
 Mother as nominal Regent during the long minority. He 
 conciliated the Gurkha chiefs by keeping up a large 
 standing army, and by a display of almost insolent indif- 
 ference to the British Resident. At the same time he 
 avoided any cause of actual rupture with the English 
 power. Gardner perfectly understood the position. His 
 business was to do nothing, so he and the Prime Minister, 
 while privately good friends, maintained in public an 
 attitude of haughty aloofness, like two estimable augurs 
 without a wink or a betraying smile. 
 
 Hodgson too was not long in realising the situation. 
 After the first pleasure in his promotion wore off, he by 
 no means relished the prospect of doing nothing for an 
 indefinite period in an out-of-the-way corner of India. 
 Gardner, a man of only thirty-six in 1820, was evidently 
 a fixture in Nepal for life. Hodgson, fresh from his robust 
 training in Kumaun, shrank from .so prolonged a study in 
 the art of looking on. Instead of the world of administra- 
 tive activities into which Traill had launched him. he now 
 found him.sclf shut up in the narrow round of Residency 
 routine, and forbidden to .stray further than a morning's 
 ' Aitchison's Treaties and EngagenuHts,\Q\. II., p. 152. Ed. 1876.
 
 64 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 ride from its walls. His friends at headquarters bestirred 
 themselves, his Persian proficiency at College remained on 
 record, and after two years of laissez-faire in Nepal he 
 was brought into the Foreign Office, Calcutta, as acting 
 Deputy-Secretary in the Persian Department.^ 
 
 So in 1822, after barely five years in India, Hodgson's 
 great chance in life came to him. The Deputy-Secretary- 
 ship was in itself one of the chief prizes of the junior 
 service. It might lead to the very highest positions — to 
 Governor-General's Agencies, to Council, or to the govern- 
 ment of a province. It gave almost certain opportunities 
 for personal distinction. A Bengal civilian with a fair 
 amount of talent and industry had only to follow step by 
 step the line of promotion which it naturally opened up, 
 in order to enjoy an interesting and a lucrative career. 
 But before long it became apparent that the pleasant 
 places at headquarters were not to fall to Hodgson's lot. 
 The climatic complaints which had formerly driven him 
 from Calcutta again fastened on him, and with a more 
 lasting hold. 
 
 The Calcutta autumn of 1823, like that of 1819, tried 
 him severely, and by the end of the year the old alter- 
 native was once more forced upon him, an appointment 
 in the hills or a grave on the plains. To him also as to 
 many an eager soul, from the days of Baruch the son of 
 Neriah downwards, came the message : " And seekest thou 
 to do great things for thyself?" A voyage to England 
 might have restored his health, and opened afresh to him 
 the brilliant career which stretched its vista before his eyes. 
 But a voyage to England was for him impossible. He 
 had already become the bread-winner of an unprosperous 
 far-off home, and he could not intermit the support on 
 which his parents in large measure depended. 
 
 In the present case there was no means of breaking the 
 fall. The office of Assistant at the Nepalese Residency 
 had been filled up, and Hodgson " at the beginning of 
 * November 1822. — India Office MS. Records.
 
 v.] EARLY YEARS IN NEPAL: 1820-1824. 65 
 
 1824 returned to Kathmandu to assume charge of the 
 post-office there." • T'or more than a year he recruited his 
 health in that subordinate post. In 1825 the assistant- 
 residentship again fell vacant, and Hodgson was reappointed 
 to it.- But the hope of a career in the great arenas of 
 Indian diplomacy and administration, opened up by the 
 deputy-secretaryship in the Foreign Office, had closed 
 to him for ever. He knew that if he were to continue to 
 live in India his life must be spent in Nepal. 
 
 ' Rajendra Lala Mitra, Preface to The Sanskrit Btiddhist Literature 
 0/ Nepal {CaXcxxiia, 1882), and India Office MS. Records. 
 ^ India Office MS. Records.
 
 [66] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A SOLITARY HEART. 
 
 SO in 1824 Hodgson returned to Kathmandu, seeing 
 clearly that for him an Indian career was circum- 
 scribed by stringent limits. A pent-up valley in the 
 Himalayas which he could traverse in a forenoon, and 
 beyond which no European might penetrate, was hence- 
 forward to be his world. How he converted his misfortune 
 into an opportunity, and used his isolation as the poet 
 employs the narrow bounds of the sonnet to perfect his 
 work, forms the story of this book. His life was to be one 
 of solitary labour, with small chance of recognition, and 
 indeed with little thought of the outer world. The best 
 memorial of him is his work, and I shall try to show what 
 he was by a plain statement of what he did. I thus fulfil 
 his own wish, a wish expressed in many gentle ways during 
 the last twenty-five years of his life, when I had the 
 happiness to call him friend. 
 
 He has, of a truth, left so vast and multiform a mass of 
 labour that there is danger of his individuality being buried 
 beneath its own creations. While therefore the following 
 chapters of this volume will be almost exclusively occupied 
 by a record of his work, it seems well, before we enter upon 
 it, to get a clear idea of the man. It may save interrup- 
 tions in the subsequent narrative, and explain certain of its 
 episodes, if we carr)- with us .some perception of his per- 
 sonality — sensitive, high-minded, I had almost said haughty, 
 careless of praise yet longing for love — and of that insatiable 
 spirit of exploration into many regions of human know- 
 ledge which marked him out among men.
 
 CHAi>. VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 67 
 
 Hodgson soon discovered th.it intense mental activity, 
 even when it brings success, docs not satisfy a man's whole 
 nature. He began to feel the hunger of the heart which 
 forms so marked a feature in the lives of Englishmen 
 who have rendered great services in India. Almost from 
 the outset he managed to send part of his salary to his 
 mother, and the straitened household at Canterbury had 
 got into the habit of depending on him for no incon- 
 siderable part of its income. The father never recovered 
 the loss of his fortune in middle life, and although his com- 
 mandantship of the Martello Towers led to another small 
 military appointment, whose duties he faithfully and 
 modestly discharged, it became clear that Brian must be 
 a main support of the family. The younger children 
 grew up to regard Brian as a sort of tutelary power rather 
 than as one of themselves — a power working in the myste- 
 rious distance for their good, and capable of being specially 
 invoked when each brother or sister had to be furnished 
 forth in life. 
 
 Hodgson, however, was no mere benevolent abstraction, 
 but a very .solitary man longing for human affection. Like 
 many an Anglo-Indian brother and father, he felt that he 
 was growing to be an outsider to the dear ones at home, 
 and he would gladly have exchanged all their gratitude 
 and admiration for a little love. Especially did he feel this 
 in regard to his favourite sister Frances, always throughout 
 life his " dearest Fan." She was only a child of eight when 
 he left for India, and her early fondness for him as a 
 comrade soon faded away into veneration for a distant 
 benefactor. But veneration is rather trying to a healthy- 
 minded youth of twenty-five, and 1 lodgson, in his letters 
 to her, half attempted to live up to it and half tried to 
 break it down into some warmer siUerly feeling. A few 
 extracts from these letters will show the inner nature of 
 the man. He felt forced to play the mentor, yet hated the 
 part. 
 
 The first which has been preserved wa^ written to his
 
 68 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 sister when about fifteen. In judging of the style one must 
 remember that it was .still the age of fraternal responsibility 
 and of the suppressed and ornamental position of girls. 
 It might have been written by an elder brother in one of 
 Jane Austen's novels, and consequently contains passages 
 which may make a modern girl stamp her foot. 
 
 " Kathmandu, Nepal.' 
 
 ' ' December i j/, [ 1 82 5]. 
 " My sweet Fan ! — A letter under date May 23rd, 
 from our dearest mother, gives me a charming account of 
 your talents, industry, and acquirements. You love music 
 and promise to excel. You have possessed yourself of 
 those elegant languages French and Italian. How I long 
 to hear my sweet Fanny sing an Italian song with all the 
 taste and feeling of a genuine lover of music ! And as you 
 take pains to accomplish yourself in these fascinating arts, 
 I doubt not that you bestow your talents and industry with 
 equal or greater zeal on the acquisition of more important 
 arts — the noble arts of self-command, of a just control over 
 your thoughts and affections ; and the constraining of both 
 into a steady course of action sufficiently rigid in regard to 
 yourself, and sufficiently gentle and considerate in regard 
 to all others. Gentleness, dearest Fan, is the crown of 
 womanhood, and, when accompanied by spirit and talent, 
 forms the perfection of your .se.x in the eyes of ours. 
 
 " I am very glad to hear you are fond of reading, because 
 books open sources of satisfaction more permanent, more 
 within our own command, more various, and more suited 
 to a cultivated mind than any other which this world 
 affords to us. Accident or good luck led me to turn my 
 attention early towards books, and I can assure you, from 
 experience, that during the past six years I have drawn 
 the chief joys of my life from this fount. 
 
 " I do not, however, mean to read you a lecture, dearest 
 Fan — I am a laughing philosopher, if philosopher at all — 
 
 ' Received at Boulogne, May 23rd, 1826.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 69 
 
 and so little am I used to this grave mood that the deep 
 interest I take in your happiness could alone have moved 
 me to assume it. You will, my pretty one, readily believe, 
 and seriously think on, what a brother tells you — a brother 
 who speaks to you from the distance of half the world. 
 Wisdom in the conduct of life is nothing mysterious or 
 hard to find. Children may comprehend it. ' She crieth 
 aloud in the streets,' as Scripture says ; and the only secret 
 is, not to know, but to act up to her injunctions — which 
 even the most sensible and well-disposed cannot do with- 
 out early disciplining themselves to habits of self-denial 
 and of consideration for others. Let the very look of 
 your parents be a law to you — give your sister's wish the 
 preference to your own — and, in general society, ever re- 
 member that all mankind love themselves better than they 
 love you. Consequently the quality most agreeable to them 
 is modesty — the most disagreeable is pride or vanity. 
 
 " Ah, dearest Fan, 'twill be many a long year before I 
 can hope to see you, and in saying what I have said, no 
 possible motive can have influenced me but the desire to 
 make you lovely in the eyes of those who will see you, 
 I beg you will henceforward write to me once every month 
 or two months, and in my future letters I will be more gay 
 and gallant. I am very well, and busy among my blutT 
 friends from Tibet, who are now here on their annual visit. 
 Will has had a fever, but is doing well and on his way to 
 Bhartpur with the army. I got, long ago, the dear lock 
 of your hair, with one of Ellen's, and I sent you a lock of 
 mine. Ever, sweet Fan, your affectionate 
 
 " liKIAN. " 
 
 " Will " (his brother William, born 1805) had obtained a 
 nomination to the Company's military service from the 
 same family friend, Mr. James Tattison, to whom Ikian 
 owed his own appointment. After three years at Addis- 
 combe, William received his commission in 1S23,' and 
 
 ' Addiscombe 182023; date of commission as Second Lieutenant
 
 70 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 shared in the prize-money on the capture of Bhartpur by- 
 Lord Combermere in January 1827. But he paid for his 
 good luck by a long illness, and during the next two years 
 he was constantly on sick-leave, most of which he spent as 
 Brian's guest in Nepal.' Brian nursed him back to health 
 again, but William's constitution seems to have been 
 permanently undermined, and his subsequent life in India 
 was a struggle against ill-health broken by intervals of 
 good service. Brian had ample room for the invalid in 
 his official abode as Assistant Resident — a pleasant two- 
 storied villa in the Indo-Italian style with a handsome 
 pillared portico, shaded by trees, and surrounded by a 
 garden and park. 
 
 In 1829 the Honourable Edward Gardner resigned the 
 service, and Hodgson became Acting Resident in Nepal. 
 " My superior in office here," he wrote to his sister Fanny 
 on April 23rd, 1829, " left this Residency March ist, since 
 which time I have been cJiarg^ (Taffaires, and they tell me 
 I shall soon be confirmed in the exalted post in which 
 I now only officiate. I am a great man, with a great 
 house and great establishment, and, what is far better, 
 possessed of a high and honourable charge. Whether all 
 this is to last or not will depend on the Governor-General. 
 Our dearest mama bids me come home, but how can I 
 leave my present glorious prospect of confirmation as 
 Resident in full ? And even were that prospect suddenly 
 overcast, alas I have not the means to visit England. 
 William, if he be careful, may do so in five or six years, 
 and without injuring his advancement." 
 
 June 6th, 1823; Lieutenant, September 28tli, 1827; Captain, June 6th, 
 1838; Major, G. O., June nth, 1838 ; died at Mhow, June 12th, 1838. 
 — India Office Records. 
 
 ' Leave for six months to Nepal on sick certificate, G. O., March 5th, 
 1827; extended for four months on sick certificate, G. O., November 
 29th, 1827 ; leave extended for twelve months in Nepal on sick certifi- 
 cate (which cancels his last extension), G. O., December 8th, 1827 ; 
 and again extended for three months to rejoin, G. O., November 21st, 
 1828. — I?tdia Office Records.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HKART. 7 1 
 
 The truth is that his youni^cst brother, Kdward Lcgh 
 Hodgson, had this year (1829) U) be started at liailcybury, 
 and the demands upon Brian's purse more than consumed 
 his income. 
 
 As the correspondence goes on, Hodgson keenly feels 
 that he is becoming more and more of a brother in the 
 abstract to the charming sister now blossoming into 
 womanhood. He envies the warmer relationship between 
 the younger members of the family. " Trust me, sweet 
 Fan," he writes on September 22nd, 1829, "there lives not 
 a person, not even ' Darling Will,' who loves you more 
 than I do." He thanks her for her lively letter and hopes 
 .she is as cheerful in actual life. " Sure I am that that 
 eternal sunshine of the mind which makes us prized and 
 cherished wherever we go is the best gift of Heaven when 
 it is constitutional, and one which it is our first duty to 
 strive to possess ourselves of, if we are not naturally 
 endowed with it. By this, however, I do not mean the 
 shining with a glaring lustre in large parties, but the 
 .shedding the ' useful light ' of cheerfulness round the little 
 circles in which we ordinarily dwell. The former is entirely 
 a vulgar merit, but the latter, the crown of manhood, and 
 yet more, of womanhood." 
 
 Hodgson's letters disclose the difficulty (felt by how 
 many a "big brother" in India!) of readjusting their tone, 
 which was once suitable to the little girl whom he had 
 known and loved, but who had now grown into a young 
 woman. She seems to have felt it also, and to have let 
 him know that she did. By this time Hodg.son had moved 
 into the Residency, where he kept an open table for his 
 assistant and the officer of his escort — the " two guests " 
 referred to in the following letter, dated May 7th, 1830: — 
 
 "My DEAREST Fan, — I owe you two letters, and must 
 endeavour to pay them by one long if not agreeable one. 
 You seem vexed at me for still, as you deem, considering 
 you and writing to you as a child. Vou are utterly
 
 72 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 mistaken, my dear sister. I entertain no such notion of 
 you, but, on the contrary, am thrice proud of your sense, 
 talents, and accompHshments ; and as for my letters to you, 
 good lack, what is there for me to talk of? This is the 
 veriest retreat in the world, and, without change of scene, 
 event, or character, I live on in it, as from day to day, so 
 from year to year. 
 
 " What shall I say to a mercurial, accomplished girl of 
 your age unless I draw upon my imagination for topics? 
 Shall I be content to tell you that 1 usually, at this .season 
 when the mornings are cold and foggy, rise at eight o'clock, 
 go to breakfast at nine, get up from the breakfast-table at 
 ten ? Then, alas ! indite a public letter to Government 
 acquainting the Right Honourable the Governor-General 
 of the continued disposition of the Court of Kathmandu 
 to maintain the relations of amity and concord for some 
 time past so happily established. Or turn over some of 
 my heaps of raw materials for the future investigation of 
 the manners and institutions of the Nepalese, and sigh to 
 see how far from sufficient for the object in view those 
 materials still are, after ten years of search. Or mount 
 my horse and follow the strenuous idleness of woodcock- 
 shooting ; or take up my Cuvicr and seek in him how to 
 dispose some of my now numerous and valuable ornitho- 
 logical specimens ; or pore over some book taking a general 
 and scientific view of the subject of law — more for edification, 
 in this last instance, than pleasure. 
 
 " Thus, one way or other, I more or less rationally con- 
 sume the hours till about four o'clock, when, if I have not 
 been shooting, I put my hat on head, take my stick in 
 hand, and stroll forth, the very model of a country gentle- 
 man, to look at my garden, my grounds, or my farmyard. 
 At six, home to dress for dinner, which is served at half- 
 past six o'clock. Eating and drinking and chat, or billiards 
 or backgammon, till nine, when my two guests retire and 
 I draw my chair to the fireside, and, taking up the last 
 work that has reached me from my bookseller in Cornhill,
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 71 
 
 read and meditate till midnight, or haply till one o'clock. 
 Then to bed, and so ends the day. 
 
 " Then for the variations. Say, I indite no solemn 
 trifling about amity and concord to the Governor-General, 
 but have some heroic talc to tell how Gopi Mohan Das, a 
 Ncpalcse, crossed the frontier, seized and carried off into 
 this territory from under the shadow of the Company's 
 wing, Deo Datt, Bengali ; said Deo Datt having five years 
 before bought some timber of said Gopi Mohan, and 
 perseveringly excused himself from paying for the same. 
 
 " Or perchance (as has this very hour occurred) the 
 Court scribe comes to me and explains how a Captain So- 
 and-so, the Company's public agent for supply of timber, 
 won't settle his accounts with one Girdhari Choudry, a 
 Nepalese timber merchant. Meanwhile, in all probability, 
 the said Captain has already paid and settled all that was 
 and is due to said Choudry ; and, moreover, has had the 
 unheard-of effrontery and cruelty to bid said Choudry 
 produce his books before a set of arbitrators of both 
 nations, in order that these books and those of the Captain 
 may show how matters stand between the litigants. 
 
 " Say, I go not a-woodcock-shooting because birds are 
 .sadly scarce and the toil too great for the spoil, why then 
 if I must ramble, and 'tis too fine weather to sit at home, 
 I am off to some grassy bank with my comrades and a 
 basket of prog, and we three dream away the day in 
 Jacques' style. Or haply I go alone, for my companions 
 are no antiquaries, and explore some old Buddhist temple 
 and muse and meditate, like the famous Roman amid the 
 Ruins, upon the changes and chances of this mutable 
 world. Mere arc before me the traces of a creed which 
 once divided with Br.iliinaiiism the minds of the Hindus, 
 but of which no visible trace, nay, not even an intelligible 
 legend, remains in all the vast continent of India ! 
 
 " The end of my paper ! Why then it is time to let you 
 know that, as the Governor-General lately passed up the 
 country, he stayed three days with the D'Oylys. and that
 
 74 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 excellent woman Lady D. (for mama says I must not 
 call her Eliza) attacked the great man upon his usage of 
 me, making me do the Resident's work and giving me 
 only half the pay. The Right Honourable the Governor- 
 General said I was a proper person enough, and applauded 
 the talent manifested in a recent report made by me, and 
 added what a thousand pities it was I was so very young. 
 There, Mistress Fanny, you see you are not the only body 
 in the world who has reason to be wrathful because some 
 folks will have it that he or she has not come to years of 
 discretion ! The truth is that these are saving times, and 
 the Governor-General the prince of political economists. 
 And verily, if he does not supersede me, he will keep 
 me charge d'affaires for another year for the sake of the 
 saving. 
 
 " He showed my said report to the Lord Bishop, and 
 the Church joined the State in applauses : as the Church 
 told Lady D'Oyly (for the Church too is migratory in 
 India) when recently said Church personified, alias the 
 Bishop, passed Patna on his or its way down to Calcutta. 
 Yet I get only half-pay, and am beginning now and then 
 to con over Falstaff s apostrophe to Honour ! And yet I 
 am well and happy, and, but for our dear parents, have 
 enough and to spare. 
 
 " And now, having got the advantage over you in pro- 
 spect, by the inditement of this so long and charming 
 epistle, I have a great mind to have my scold too, in 
 return for yours. 
 
 *' Tell me. Fan, how is it that your letters to William 
 come so much more from the heart than those to me? It 
 is like soul to one and the body to the other : and cousin 
 Mary too can write to dearest William ! And sister Fan 
 and cousin Mary can finally and decisively settle that one 
 brother is a dear, frolicsome, spirited fellow, fit to fill 
 woman's eye and heart, whilst the other is the most perfect 
 of beings — that is the greatest bore, simply ! 
 
 " So long as I lived in the world I was, by all men's
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 75 
 
 voice, a 'lady's man,' and truly I feel not that I am altered, 
 albeit I have not seen the fringe of a petticoat for eight 
 years, and therefore dare not speak positively. But then 
 I am, I must be, a bookworm ! Books I love ! But arc 
 they all grave books ? and does my love of books make 
 me less bold a rider, less keen and good a shot, less able at 
 billiards, cricket, quoits ? Perhaps the whole secret of the 
 misapprehensions is, that you and Will remember each 
 other perfectly, you and I most imperfectly. 
 
 " Alas, alas, and as for letters, consider what a different 
 condition I stand in to that of William in respect to the 
 letters I must write and receive from our dearest parents. 
 I must talk and feel gravely when I take up the pen, and 
 so must they. Nor can it be otherwise until, with God's 
 blessing, I have been enabled to take off entirely the load 
 that has ever pressed on them since my reason and memory 
 dawned — a day of liberation for them, how ardently longed 
 for by me, and surely now not far off ! 
 
 " Thus it is that you have come to imagine me to 
 yourself as a most grave and reverend senior brother, who 
 could not even sympathise heartily with a sister because 
 she was a woman. Dearest Fanny, you do me grievous 
 wrong by such imaginings. For wise or foolish in what- 
 ever degree, I have ever worshipped woman, and have ever 
 held her to be worthy the worship of the highest and 
 greatest of our sex. 
 
 " And now I must conclude. William has latel\- taken 
 a trip to the Western Hills, and has come back to Mecrut 
 in perfect health and spirits. A thousand thanks for your 
 pretty little present, which I kiss for thy sake now at this 
 moment as I hold it in m)- hand. God bless thee, dearest, 
 and think of me no longer as the ' most perfect of human 
 beings,' but as a most affectionate brother merely, and one 
 whom nature made of so ga>' a temperament that even all 
 our domestic woes have not turned me serious. I never 
 peeped into Trophonius' cave, and never mean ti' do till 
 you cease to love me."
 
 -jd LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Hodgson's hope of being appointed full Resident in 
 Nepal was not immediately realised. He held the officiat- 
 ing appointment for two years after Gardner's retirement 
 in 1829, but the Governor-General very properly thought 
 him too young for the permanent responsibility of so 
 involved and important a position. So in 1S31 T. Herbert 
 "\Iaddock (afterwards Sir Herbert) was sent to Kathmandu. 
 -Maddock was four years senior to Hodgson and had 
 recently held high political offices in the Native States, 
 including perhaps the most important of all — the Residency 
 in Oudh. He soon satisfied himself that Hodgson, young 
 though he was, might be entrusted with the management 
 of the Nepalese Court, and he seems to have impressed this 
 view on the Governor-General. 
 
 Indeed Hodgson's work and reports had by that time 
 attracted high praise, not only at headquarters in Calcutta, 
 but also from the Court of Directors in London. Accord- 
 ingly, when Maddock took furlough in 1833, Lord William 
 Bcntinck appointed Hodgson, having just completed his 
 fourteenth year of service, to be Resident in Nepal. 
 Maddock carried away from Kathmandu a fi.xed opinion 
 as to Hodgson's sterling qualities which made him a friend 
 for life, and enabled him to speak with conviction in the 
 final crisis of Hodgson's career. 
 
 The income of the Resident was ;^4,ooo a year. But 
 Hodgson, abstemious in his personal habits, had borrowed 
 sums to send home, and still owed money to his banker. 
 His one ambition in life was to free his parents from 
 the burden of debt " that had ever pressed on them 
 since his reason and memory dawned." He al.so spent 
 considerable amounts on the purchase and copying of 
 Buddhist or Sanskrit manuscripts, and the preparation of 
 zoological specimens, which he presented in a munificent 
 spirit to the Asiatic and other learned or scientific Societies. 
 But if his public and private liberality prevented him 
 from saving, it richly rewarded him in the way most 
 congenial to his nature. By this time, as we shall
 
 vi] A SOLITARY HEART. T/ 
 
 see in subsequent chapters, he was beginning to be 
 recognised in Europe as a man of unique research into 
 the languages, religion, and zoology of the Himalayan 
 regions. He had also the happiness of aiding to set 
 forth his youngest brother on his start in life as a Bengal 
 civilian in 183 1-2, and of again receiving his soldier 
 brother William as his guest at Kathmandu. William 
 had a return of ill-health in 183 1,' and spent another 
 whole year with Brian. 
 
 But the sense of isolation becomes more intense as the 
 years roll on. In 1833 he writes to his sister : " I am, and 
 long have been, secluded from society, without wife, child, 
 or any other object of affection." He is afraid of" petrify- 
 ing within," and begs for less respect and a warmer love. 
 At the same time he feels the stern pleasures of re- 
 sponsibility and work. Here are a few paragraphs 
 from a letter to " my dearest Fan," dated October 32nd, 
 
 1833- 
 
 " I am thirty-three — the last thirteen years passed in 
 the wilderness without wife, children, or the presence of 
 a female. No change, no society ! What think you I 
 am likely then to be ? Something, at least, sweet Fan, 
 standing in need of more of your affection than I h.ive 
 yet experienced. So entirely are we strangers to each 
 other's habits and occupations, that I feel the awkwardness 
 of a stranger in attempting to interest you in what con- 
 cerns me, and in asking you to repay me in kind. Alas ! 
 this should not be, should not have been. To William 
 you are a constant and garrulous correspondent, and yet 
 William loves you not better than I do. and stands far 
 less in need of feminine affection. I think I shall begin 
 a Diary, and send it you from time to time through my 
 London bookseller. 
 
 " I am, and have been since February, Resident Minister 
 
 ' Granted leave to visit Katlimandu on sick certiticate for nine 
 inoDths, G. O., March 5th, 1831 ; extended for four months to rejoin. 
 G. O., November 4th, 1831.— //////Vi Office Records.
 
 78 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 at this Court, the only independent ^ one now left in India. 
 Sufficient honour for thirty-three ! But my situation is 
 by no means so agreeable as it might be if these bar- 
 barians did but know their own good. Instead of which 
 they are insolent and hostile, and play off on us, as far 
 as they can and dare, the Chinese etiquette and foreign 
 polity. The Celestial Emperor is their idol, and, by 
 the way, whilst I write, the [Nepalese] sovereign himself 
 is passing by the Residency in all royal pomp to go three 
 miles in order to receive a letter which has just reached 
 Nepal from Pekin. There they go! Fifty chiefs on 
 horseback, royalty and royalty's advisers on eight ele- 
 phants, and three thousand troops before and behind the 
 cavalcade ! They have reached the spot. The Emperor's 
 letter, enclosed in a cylinder covered with brocade, hangs 
 round the neck of a chief ; the Prince descends from his 
 elephant to take the epistle, a royal salute is fired, the 
 letter is restored to the chief, who, mounted on a spare 
 elephant, is placed at the head of the cavalcade, and the 
 cortege sweeps back to the capital. 
 
 " Shall I tell you how I spend a day ? Breakfast at 
 ten, business till two. Then luncheon, after which I read 
 till five. From five to seven drive or ride out, dinner at 
 eight, chat with the gentlemen - till ten, and read again 
 till twelve or one, my bedtime. The roads are not very 
 carrossable, but well suited for riding at all seasons, and 
 I am a cheerful and bold cavalier. The valley, about 
 sixteen miles long and broad, is beautiful except in winter. 
 At present it presents an unbroken sheet of golden rice, 
 just ready for the sickle. When the major part of the 
 crop is down— there being excellent quail-shooting in the 
 standing patches — but for the consciousness of doing 
 wrong by injuring the poor peasant, I should enjoy the 
 amusement. That feeling has latterly made mc give up 
 
 1 As distinguished from the feudatory States. 
 
 ^ His staff, consisting of his assistant, the officer in command of his 
 escort, and his surgeon.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 79 
 
 shootiniT in the crops, and I shall this year confine myself 
 to the woods, wherein pheasants and woodcocks may be 
 found. The wood-shooting lasts from November till 
 March, and during that time one may be abroad all day 
 without fear of the solar beam. 
 
 " At other seasons I read and read and read, and love 
 nothing so well as my books. Yet have I a fund of con- 
 stitutional gaiety and feeling ; only there is no one to draw 
 upon it ! 
 
 " Zoology in the branches of birds and quadrupeds 
 amuses me much. I have three native artists always 
 employed in drawing from nature. I possess a live tiger, 
 a wild sheep, a wild goat, four bears, three civets, and 
 three score of our beautiful pheasants. A rare menagerie ! 
 And my drawings now amount to two thousand. The 
 antiquities, too, of the land afford me much entertainment. 
 I pore over the pictorial, sculptural, and architectural 
 monuments of Buddhism by the light of the ancient books 
 of the sect ; and the learned Thebans of your isle appear 
 to gather up my gleanings with eagerness. But the past 
 chiefly interests me as it can be made to illustrate the 
 present — the origin, genius, character, and attainments of 
 the people. 
 
 " I have published a good deal alrcad}' in the Asiatic 
 Society's Transactious of London and of Calcutta. In the 
 Journal des Savmis there is a review of my sketch of 
 Buddhism by a famous scholar of Germany, in which I 
 am given all sorts of laudation and placed at the head 
 of all who have treated the subject. I sent home for 
 you my diploma as Ambassador, and also the Court of 
 Directors' public thanks for my papers researching into 
 the institutions, laws, and resources of this kingdom. 
 
 "William has been ill again, but is now well in thi- 
 Western Hills. He will be down soon and meet Kdward 
 at Meerut. Edward is well and strong, and his promise 
 as good as you could wish. He has reached Meerut, and 
 commenced his public career. The Governor-General's
 
 8o LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 private secretary, who was very kind to him at Calcutta, 
 speaks most highly of him. The D'Oylys have returned 
 from the Cape, and are now at Calcutta. He has been 
 very ill, and I fear is but a bad life. She is all that I 
 desire to honour and love. 
 
 " Dearest, I have just got your letter of May 2nd. 
 Heaven bless you and make you thrice happy in your 
 marriage. Give my love to Pierre,* and make him write 
 with you to me. . . . God bless you. With fondest love to 
 all, believe me, sweet Fan, thine affectionate 
 
 "B. H. Hodgson." 
 
 If I quote from more than one letter the routine of his 
 daily life, it is in order that the reader may realise the 
 gentle monotony which pervaded his whole twenty years 
 in Nepal. 
 
 In 1834 his brother William had another breakdown in 
 health, and Brian determined to give him a more complete 
 change of climate than could be obtained in Nepal. A 
 subaltern of artillery who was an invalid during more than 
 half his service formed a heavy drain on the fraternal purse. 
 " I mean to send him to the Cape," Brian writes to Fanny 
 on September 15th, 1834, "where he will draw his full 
 pay, save money if he pleases, and enjoy a fine climate. 
 Eighteen months hence I can recommend him to come 
 here and command my escort in the room of Captain 
 Robinson, who will then retire. 
 
 " I am now sojourning at a caravansery on the summit 
 of the ridge of mountains limiting the valley to the east. 
 The spot is about one thousand feet above the valley, and 
 enjoys a much cooler and more bracing temperature, which, 
 I am sorry to sa)', is but too needful for me just now. 
 During all August 1 suffered from liver, and am still com- 
 plaining, though better. Send me a particular account of 
 your new [married] establishment and mode of life. With- 
 
 ' Her husband, Baron Pierre Nahuys, afterwards Governor of 
 Overj'ssel.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 8 1 
 
 out such minute touches continually renewed, our ^reat 
 distance gradually renders cvcrythinj^ indistinct. 
 
 " My society is unchanging and limited to my suite — 
 a secretary, commander of escort, and surgeon, all ver>' 
 pleasant folks in their various ways. The first is a brother- 
 civilian, young, sceptical, and gay. The second, a worthy 
 captain of foot, selfish but discreet, and whose scientific 
 pursuits form an odd contrast to the plain and unformed 
 character of his mind in other respects. He has a charm- 
 ing temper, the continual sunshine of which is worth all 
 the intellectual gifts of fifty abler persons. The doctor 
 is about my own age, and is sensible, spirited, and amiable. 
 
 " After breakfast I discharge my official duties, which, 
 though responsible, are not onerous, and then read. M\- 
 favourite amusements of the sedentary kind arc researches 
 into the origin, genius, and attainments of the various 
 singular races of men inhabiting Nepal. Its birds and 
 quadrupeds likewise agreeably diversify my easier hours of 
 study. After lunch, billiards for an hour, and then reading 
 till eventide, when I exercise on horseback or in vehicle. 
 After dinner, chat only, eked out from books — no cards, 
 our society being too limited and peculiarly connected for 
 that. 
 
 " In the six colder months I follow the woodcock and 
 pheasant with all the energy of a Nimrod, and I always 
 deeply relish the sweet air and noble scenery of this fine 
 region. Upon the whole my life, though monotonous, flags 
 not, nor is liable to tedium, and with good health I should 
 not envy the Monarch of Great Britain. In about six or 
 seven years I hope to rejoin you, with the aid of my 
 pension and my slender savings in prospect ; for still I 
 am in debt. God bless you and your husb.md. Your 
 most affectionate brother, 
 
 " H. 1 1. llniH'.SON." 
 
 Next year, 1S35, brought a great sorrow to Hodgson. 
 His brother Edward, the young civilian, whom he described 
 
 6
 
 82 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 a few months before as " well and merry at Meerut," died. 
 The poor lad, like Brian a keen sportsman, caught a fatal 
 fever from snipe-shooting in the swamps. Like Brian 
 also, he had distinguished him.sclf at Haileybury, carrying 
 away six prizes in Arabic, Hindustani, and Bengali. He 
 ended his brief Indian career in his very first appointment 
 as Assistant Commissioner at Meerut, in July 1835.^ Brian, 
 after breaking the news to his father, tried to comfort his 
 sister in their common bereavement 
 
 " Mv OWN DEAR Fanny,- — How I sympathise with your 
 regrets for young Edward — the last and so recently known 
 and seen of your brothers ! But do not mourn unduly. 
 Happy, thrice happy they who quit this troubled scene 
 ere the bloom of their virtuous feelings has been rubbed 
 off ! Poor boy, he dreamed not of fatal con.sequences, and 
 of course left no will. The Registrar of the King's Court will 
 administer : his debts will become mine ; and I have taken 
 measures to secure the possession of whatever may serve 
 to remind us of him, such as his prize books, trinkets, etc. 
 
 " Already had he given evidence of such talents and 
 dispositions as made his immediate superiors forward to 
 employ and advance him. In his private capacity he had 
 won so much respect from the society of Meerut that all 
 the station combined to honour his remains. Let these 
 things be your consolation. 
 
 " I write to you from a cottage on one of the boundary 
 ridges of the valley, built for my convenience by the Court, 
 which is growing very civil and courteous. The cottage 
 is a pretty domicile, though small, and commands a double 
 view of the valleys of Nepal proper and of Nayakot, to 
 the east and west respectively. The elevation is 2,5CX) 
 feet above the former, 3,500 above the latter, and 7,000 
 
 ' His short sen'ice is thus summed up in the India Office MS. 
 Records: Edward Lcgh Hodgson, 1S32, arrived September 22nd as 
 writer ; 1833, Assistant to Commissioner of Revenue and Circuit, Meerut 
 Division ; died July 3rd, 1835, at Meerut. 
 
 * August 1st, 1835.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 83 
 
 higher than the sea-level, as indicated by the boiling of 
 water at 199" of Fahrenheit's Ihermometcr, as well as by 
 the barometer. At present the foggy or rather misty 
 drizzle is inconvenient, but the temperature is charming — 
 65° being the maximum heat. 
 
 " There is not much level space, but the undulations 
 of the hill's summit are graceful, and covered by superb 
 forest of rhododendron, oak, and numberless Laurifolias. 
 The sward is an emerald, and the familiar tokens it displays 
 of England in its daisies, fern, thistle, and colewort, arc 
 dear to the exile ! Parallel with the course of the ridge, 
 one can walk and ride a native pony with case and pleasure. 
 But there is no transverse development of flat ground ; and 
 in the direction of either valley, a lusty bound from the 
 door might carry you a good way towards either ! 
 
 " I am felling, and digging, and sowing potatoes and 
 oats — yea, with my own proper hand. Somewhat to the 
 admiration of the Court gentry, who, however, have very 
 little of the pompous inanity of Asiatic high-breeding 
 about them, and, I believe, value me the more for my 
 simple habits. The air and exercise do me good, nor 
 have I for five years been so well at this season as I am 
 now ! I want William and his little wife to join me,' and 
 think I shall be able to effect this object in December. 
 He will command my bodyguard of two hundred soldiers, 
 and his wife may perhaps help to wean me from some bad 
 bachelor habits. William is now at Patna preparing to 
 wed, and if he join me, he will stay there till the cessa- 
 tion of the malaria at the foot of the hills allows him 
 to come up. 
 
 " Marriage will make him more careful of his health. 
 As he is now near thirty, it is well that it should be so : 
 especially since seclusion has, I suspect, fixed my proud 
 and shy natural character against incurring the hazards 
 
 ' A project never to be realised, and probably in the state of public 
 feeling in Nepal at that time regarding "a white-faced woman" not 
 possible of realisation. Sec post, p. S6, footnote.
 
 84 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 of possible rejection. I have cherished in my soh'tude 
 by means of literature quick sensibilities, whilst I have 
 lost the aptitude of indulging them, except speculatively 
 and in reference to my beloved home. Thou, dearest Fan, 
 shalt preside over my table, if it be God's pleasure that 
 we meet again in England. God bless you, dearest." 
 
 Hodgson had now for some years been established in 
 the Residency, and his love of gardening did much to 
 beautify its surroundings. It was a spacious, indeed an 
 imposing, edifice in that Indo-Gothic style which has 
 grown up in spite of some ridicule in Bengal, and of which 
 perhaps the best-known examples arc the Cathedral and 
 the High Court at Calcutta. He delighted in the thought 
 that it afforded ample room for him to make a home for 
 his brother and newly wedded wife, and for any family 
 which might come to the couple. A steady income of 
 ;i(^4,ooo a year enabled him not only to provide new 
 comforts for his parents in England, but to pay off the 
 debts which he had previously incurred for that purpose. 
 
 The staff of native copyists and draughtsmen whom 
 he employed to copy Buddhist manuscripts and to draw 
 his collection of Himalayan birds and mammals now 
 ceased to be felt in his annual expenses. For the aggregate 
 pay of a dozen such assistants did not much exceed 
 Rs. 3,000 (;^30o) a year, less than his salary for a month. 
 Honours, too, began to rain upon him. The Royal Asiatic 
 Society and the Linnean Society in England elected him 
 to their bodies with flattering expressions of regard. The 
 Zoological Society of London sent him their diploma as a 
 corresponding member. The Societe Asiatique de Paris 
 and the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle paid him high 
 distinction. Scholars and naturalists of worldwide fame 
 sought a correspondence with him : Csoma de Korbs, 
 Burnouf, Jacquet, Mohl, Prinsep, S. Wilkinson, [Lord] 
 Macau lay. 
 
 By the middle of 1837, he had got together the materials
 

 
 i
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 85 
 
 for a great illustrated work on the Birds and Mammals 
 of Nepal. The Museum d'Histoirc Naturclle de Paris and 
 other learned bodies came forward as supporters, three 
 hundred and thirty subscribers were already registered in 
 India, and in July 1837 he was able to write to his father 
 that the means of publication were secured. " I make sure 
 of three hundred and fifty to four hundred subscribers, and 
 if we say i^io per copy of the work, this list should cover 
 all expenses. Granted my first drawings were stiff and 
 bad, but the new series may challenge comparison with 
 any in existence." In another letter, with his usual 
 generosity, he makes over the property in the book to his 
 father. All he required was an assistant in England to 
 catalogue his birds, and carry out some technical details, 
 for which ";^ioo shall be forthcoming." He would thus 
 be enabled to go on without interruption with his Zoology 
 of Nepal, to which he hoped to put the finishing touches 
 by 1840. 
 
 Hodgson's official work at this time acquired an un- 
 wonted importance from factious struggles among the 
 Gurkha chiefs, and from the palace intrigues of the royal 
 family destined soon to end in revolution. The Governor- 
 Gencrar began to fix an anxious eye on his Xepalesc 
 neighbour who had already cost the British two hard- 
 fought campaigns. Hodgson noted the signs of the 
 gathering storm, and found himself unexpectedly a person- 
 age of importance in the great game of Indian politics. 
 
 I advert for a moment to these public and literary 
 aspects of his work, as they throw a side-light on his inner 
 life, which forms the sole subject of this chapter. He had 
 never been so busy or in such good health, and in April 
 1837 he was able at last to write to his sister that he had 
 got rid of his debts. " I am beginning to save a little 
 money ! But I must pay Rs. 50,000 to get the pen- 
 sion,' and I am not worth half that sum now. So if I 
 
 ' Of ;^i,ooo a year after twenty-five years' service. Then as now, 
 the Indian Government contributed only a portion (now not exceeding
 
 86 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 must wait till I amass a few pounds of my own beyond 
 the pension, I shall hardly be able to leave India in 1840, 
 as I purpose doing if I can." He had hoped to take leave 
 for three years to England in 1S40, and then resign at the 
 end of his furlough in 1843, when he should have com- 
 pleted his twenty-five years of service. 
 
 Moreover a new source of happiness had come into 
 Hodgson's life. He had formed a domestic connection 
 with a Musalman lady which, although not amounting 
 to marriage in the legal sense, was strictly observed as 
 such by both parties as long as she lived, and extended 
 over twenty years. No Englishwoman was allowed to 
 reside in Nepal, then considered a dangerous outpost of 
 British diplomacy.* Of Hodgson's domestic relations at 
 this period I shall only say that he communicated them 
 frankly to his own family, and watched with a father's care 
 over his children, who were brought up by his sister in 
 Holland with all the advantages to which his position 
 entitled them. They formed a well-spring of comfort in 
 his heretofore solitary existence, and their early deaths 
 were a deep sorrow to him. It is characteristic of him 
 that there was no concealment on the subject either at the 
 time or when he subsequently married, and it would have 
 been his wish that I should deal with the matter in the 
 same candid spirit. 
 
 The year 1837, which found him in good health, free 
 from debt, in the enjoyment of scholarly fame and high 
 
 j[Jboo a year; of a civilian's pension. Each officer has to pay up the 
 equivalent of the remaining ;^4oo; usually much more. In some cases 
 a Bengal ci\'ilian's contributions from his pay exceeded, and still 
 exceed, the whole actuarial value of his pension of ^1,000. 
 
 ' Even as late as 1843, on Sir Henry Lawrence being appointed 
 Resident in Nepal, "there were 'many fears and misgivings that he 
 might not be allowed to take his wife to a country where no white- 
 faced woman had ever been seen ' ; for as in China so in Nepal there 
 was a tradition that ' tlie introduction of a foreign woman would be 
 the downfall of feheir empire.'" — Mrs. Lawrence's Journal, quoted in 
 Sir Herbert Edwardes' Li/c of Sir Henry Lawrence, Vol. L, p. 449. 
 Ed. 1872.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. 87 
 
 official distinction, was destined to end in a sickness which 
 seemed unto death. His old malady returned in an aggra- 
 vated form, and forced him to seek the specialist aid 
 which could only be obtained in Calcutta. Flight from 
 India and a sea voyage again appeared his only chance, 
 l^ut a crisis took place, apparently caused by the bursting 
 of a tumour in the liver, and he once more rallied. In 
 March 1S38 he was able to return to Nepal. In April he 
 writes to his mother that he is .so much stronger " that 
 I hope I shall ere long shake off the last dregs of my 
 obstinate disease." 
 
 His recovery perhaps saved the East India Company a 
 war with Nepal. \Vc shall afterwards see with what a cool 
 head and firm hand he steered his course through the next 
 five years of palace intrigues and fits of turbulent insolence 
 towards the British Power. His strength and spirits rose 
 with each new danger, and in December 1839 he assures 
 his sister of his re-established health. " I am grown pru- 
 dent and money-making," he adds, " though somewhat l.itc 
 in the day. My children are well, and make my heart glad 
 and soft amid all the rough obstructions of life." 
 
 Part of Hodg-son's influence with the Nepal chiefs was 
 due to the extraordinary reputation which he acquired at 
 this time as a man of ascetic life, deeply versed in divine 
 thing.s. His Buddhistic learning won the friendship of 
 their Tibetan over-lord, the Grand Lama him.self. His 
 unwearied search after Sanskrit manuscripts and his tran- 
 scriptions of Hindu texts endeared him to the pandits 
 about the Nepal Court. Always an abstemious man, he 
 became after his severe illness in 1837 almost a Brahman 
 in regard to food and drink. In 1839 he wrote to his 
 si.stcr, " I t(juch not meats or wines, and find the Indian 
 habits of fcx)d well suited to the climate." By his strictly 
 vegetarian diet he acquired the sobriquet of " The Hermit 
 of the Himalayas," and a sanctity in the eyes of the 
 Nepalcse only equalled by that which Csoma de Koros 
 gained in the snowcd-up monastic cells of Tibet
 
 88 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 But the year 1838, while it saw him on the road to 
 renewed health and increased usefulness, brought the 
 second great sorrow of his life. His brother William had 
 been transferred to the Horse Artillery in 1835/ and 
 Brian hoped, as we have seen, to obtain for him the com- 
 mand of his escort as Resident in Nepal. These fraternal 
 plans were cut short by the renewed illness of Captain 
 Hodgson, who reached his Majority on June nth, 1838, 
 after only fourteen years' service.- It was an empty pro- 
 motion. He died on the very next day at Mhow, June 
 1 2th, 1838, and his young widow went home to England 
 very desolate. She had buried her infant a few months 
 before. 
 
 So the two younger brothers passed away, full of youth- 
 ful promise, and Brian was left as the sole surviving son. 
 He had during nearly twenty years been the mainstay 
 of the Canterbury home, and he now devoted the whole 
 powers of his gentle and chivalrous nature to comfort his 
 bereaved parents. Brian could give them the satisfaction 
 of knowing that both his brothers were cared for in their 
 last hours by his friend [Sir] Robert Hamilton. He had 
 soon to calm his mother's anxieties for his own safety 
 amid the crisis in Nepal brought on by the Kabul war. 
 
 Throughout that expedition, and after the annihilation 
 of the British army with which it closed, his position was 
 one of extreme peril. Indeed at certain junctures it seemed 
 as if the best that could be hoped for the Nepalese Resident 
 was that he would not get murdered until it became 
 convenient to the Indian Government to avenge his death. 
 His letters home ridicule the idea of personal danger. It 
 is doubtful whether he himself ever gave it a thought, 
 although " the force " to which he refers lay too far off 
 within our own provinces to be any safeguard against a 
 massacre at the Residency in Nepal. He makes the whole 
 situation appear to his parents as merely an occasion for 
 
 > General Order dated May 22nd, 1835. 
 - General Order dated June nth, 1838.
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HKART. 89 
 
 pleasant things being said of him by the authorities in 
 India. 
 
 "My dearest Mother," he wrote in 1840, "don't let the 
 nonsense of the papers alarm you. 'Tis all stuff and ever 
 has been. Before, I was unarmed as it were ; whereas I 
 have now a force close at hand consisting of five regiments, 
 with guns, etc." He then quotes from .some letters which 
 he had just received. " I cordially congratulate you," 
 the Secretary of the Government had lately written to him, 
 *' on your important successes. The credit will remain with 
 you in Indian history." "You have been placed in a situa- 
 tion very delicate and trying," wrote our Resident with the 
 neighbouring King of Oudh, " and you have done your 
 work with wisdom, nerve, and promptitude." 
 
 And so on throughout those trying years, the tone in 
 his letters growing more and more reassuring in regard to 
 himself, as our blunders in Afghanistan culminated towards 
 the extermination of a British army in the snows, 
 
 " My dearest Father," he writes in 1841, " I have just gut 
 my mother's welcome letter of January, and truly rejoice 
 to hear from such dear lips the echo of the public applauses 
 you speak of, and of which I have received yet more since 
 then. I have had another negotiation, another struggle, 
 another victory. Yet all is unsettled, and my ambition is 
 bounded just now to keeping things anyhow together until 
 the return of the season of action in November, when 1 
 .sadly fear it will be indispensable to inflict the long-merited 
 and long-provcjked punishment. 
 
 " I have now temporised successfully for three eventful 
 years during which Government's hands were full, as they 
 are, alas ! still. Alack, alack, all is going wrong again in 
 and beyond the Punjab. The Sikhs in anarchic rebellion, 
 Kandahar afresh disturbed, and the I'ersians moving on 
 Herat which the virtual ruler there has tendered to them, 
 having expelled our luivoy and caused him to flee. All 
 these untoward events are glad tidings to the insolent and 
 restless faction of our Rani or Queen of Nepal, who is my
 
 90 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 great opponent, and only effective one indeed, the Raja 
 being but a poltroon who fights behind her petticoat. 
 Enough of politics, however. As for personals, I am pretty 
 well and gradually growing stronger since the attack of 
 1837, but after all a poor creature as to health, though I 
 live the life of a literal hermit. You must remember, 
 however, that I never was strong, and therefore have no 
 right to expect to be so now. 
 
 " My boy and girl are well and growing up fast. I must 
 send them to school in the Western Hills ere long, unless 
 you will take charge of them, but I may not put you to 
 that trouble. It is long since you told me aught of the 
 Cheshire folks, or of my boyhood friends C. Hutton, 
 J. Davenport, the Nassaus, etc. My tenderest love to 
 Fanny and Ellen, and to my mother, to whom I am sending 
 a pair of shawls. Your ever affectionate son, 
 
 "B. H. Hodgson." 
 
 The final catastrophe in Afghanistan arrived, and on 
 February 28th, 1842, Lord Auckland made over the 
 Governor-Generalship of India to the Earl of Ellenborough. 
 Hodgson had, as we saw, wished to take furlough in 1840, 
 with a view to retiring from the service on the completion 
 of his covenanted period of twenty-five years in 1843. 
 But the critical situation in Nepal rendered it impossible 
 that he should be spared. Indeed, on the approach of the 
 dangers which our Afghan policy brought about, from 
 1840 onward to the annihilation of our army in 1842, 
 Hodgson gave up any idea of quitting his post. Until 
 March 1842 everything seemed to promise him an 
 honoured close to his career. But the new Governor- 
 General, Lord Ellenborough, came out with a strong 
 predisposition against the measures and the men of his 
 predecessor. It will be necessary, in the chapter dealing 
 with Hodgson's public career, to refer fully to Lord 
 Ellenborough's action in regard to Nepal. It must there- 
 fore suffice to say that Hodgson, like other trusted agents
 
 VI.] A SOLITARY HEART. pi 
 
 of Lord Auckland, speedily found his position slippin^j 
 from under his feet. 
 
 " My dearest Fan," he wrote ' to his sister not five months 
 after he had received the public and private thanks of 
 Lord Auckland for the masterly firmness with which he 
 had tided Nepal over the crisis, " I am ashamed of having 
 neglected you so much. But, dearest, I have been over- 
 whelmed in a sea of troubles political, owing to the 
 misapprehension of the new head of my Government, as 
 well as to the knavery of this State. I am still struggling 
 and striving, and heartily hope I shall be able to open the 
 new Governor-General's eyes in time to prevent mischief 
 to the public interests, owing to his promptness going 
 too far ahead of his necessarily limited knowledge. I 
 cannot say more, intelligibly nor even properly, but may 
 add that for a month past I have been deprived of my 
 secretary, whom I found it expedient to send to the 
 Governor-General in lieu of self, when feeble health inca- 
 pacitated me for such a journey. I have therefore only 
 with me my surgeon Dr. Burnley ; but he is a very 
 amiable person, and I am used to small society. If 1 can 
 disentangle myself from Nepalese affairs by December, I 
 purpose to hasten home to our beloved parents. . . . 
 
 " I am still ailing as usual, but better than I was last year 
 or the year before at this season, and if it please God I 
 shall gradually master the fierce attack of 1837. My 
 children are well, and their sweet prattle and infant arts 
 soften my heart and amuse my leisure, I shall take them 
 home with me, for I have no idea of putting off the highest 
 duties of our nature at the suggestion of mere vanity or 
 convenience. I wish I could hear that you had a prattler 
 or two ; but if not, by-and-by I shall borrow your help to 
 train mine. All your details of your domestic establi.sh- 
 ment and visits to England interest me greatly. Vou can 
 never be too minute on such topics, nor indeed on an>' that 
 interest you, for detail is the soul of correspondence. I 
 ' Letter dated August 2nd, 1842.
 
 92 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. vi. 
 
 hear from all quarters the praises of your excellent husband, 
 to whom give my love, and believe me, dear Fan, your 
 most affectionate brother, 
 
 "B. H. H." 
 
 The opening paragraph of this letter shows the good 
 temper with which Hodgson endeavoured to meet the 
 change in his position. But that position soon became 
 untenable. Lord Ellenborough had resolved on a new 
 policy towards Nepal. Before the end of Lord Ellen- 
 borough's first year of office, Hodgson began sadly to 
 realise that his power for usefulness had departed. "Oh 
 that the Governor-General had not tied my hands!" In 
 the same year his long tenure of office as Resident in Nepal 
 came to a close, and in February 1844 he retired from the 
 Indian Service. 
 
 The object of this chapter has not been to record his 
 official labours, or his achievements in literature or scholar- 
 ship. His many-sided public labours will be dealt with 
 in due course. But I have thought it right first of all to 
 try to show the man apart from his work — very solitary, 
 perhaps unduly sensitive, of strong family affections, the 
 mainstay of the distant parental home, and asking with 
 a pathetic insistence, not for gratitude, but only for a little 
 sisterly love.
 
 [93] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL. 
 1S25-1S33. 
 
 T RETURN now to the public aspects of his career. 
 
 1 In 1824 Hodgson went back to Nepal with a heavy 
 heart. " Sensible that by remaining there," runs one of 
 his brief notes, " I might indeed acquire a special qualifica- 
 tion for the embassy, but must disqualify myself for any- 
 thing elsewhere ; while owing to my youth the chance of 
 obtaining, on a vacancy occurring, so desiderated a post 
 as that of Minister at the Court of Nepal was next to 
 nothing "—he sought the counsel of an experienced friend 
 Mr. William Butterworth Bayley had been one of the 
 group of talented young civilians whom Lord Wclleslcy 
 formed around him.self( 1798- 1805) with a view to trainin- 
 up an Indian diplomatic service. Lord Wellcslc>- not only 
 reorganised the Native States on the basis of subsidiary 
 alliances or Protectorates, which remains to this day • he 
 also determined to create under his own eye a school of 
 officers who should perpetuate his foreign and feudatory 
 policy. Some of these young " Politicals," as they were 
 called, became in due time ambassadors ; others controlled 
 great Native States; others, after taking part in the 
 annexation of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces were 
 recalled to the higher branches of thegeneral,administration 
 Among the most distinguished of this last class was 
 William lUitterworth Bayley. the only Bengal, civilian 'who 
 has ever held the position of Acting Governor-General of 
 India, and also that of Chairman of the Court.of Directors
 
 94 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 at home. It is a curious instance of the longevity of some 
 Anglo-Indian families that the son' of Lord Wellcslcy's 
 young Political in the first years of the century now holds, 
 during its last decade, the office of chief Political Secretary 
 at the India Office — after an Indian service of his own 
 extending over thirty-four years and ending as Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Bengal. 
 
 Mr. Butterworth Bayley was a member of the Governor- 
 General's Council when Ilodg.son came to him for advice. 
 " Having listened attentively to my statement," writes 
 Hodgson, " Bayley replied : ' True, Nepal is in every sense 
 peculiar, and in the present quiet times you can learn 
 little there. But we have had one fierce struggle with 
 Nepal, and we shall yet have another. When that event 
 occurs there will be very special need for local experience. 
 Go back and master the subject in all its phases, and then, 
 •despite your youth and the many men your seniors in 
 the service who will try to get the embassy, you will have 
 a fair chance of succeeding.' " " 
 
 ' Sir Steuart Colvin Bayley, K.C.S.I. This was written in 1895, 
 Sir Steuart Bayley has since tiien been appointed a Member of the 
 Council of the Secretary of State for India. 
 
 ' Mr. William Butterworth Bayley's life, and that of his father the 
 philanthropist, are given in the Dictionary of National Biography , 
 Vol. VII. As Mr. W. B. Bayley was an important influence on 
 Hodgson's career, I subjoin the list of his ser\ices from the India 
 Office MS. Records. Bayley, William Butterworth : 1799, 
 arrived November 6th, as Writer; 1803, Assistant in Governor- 
 General's Office and to Persian Translator; 1S05, Deputy Registrar 
 to Sadr Diwani and Nizamat Adalat ; Assistant to Registrar and 
 Translator of the same Court; 1807, Persian and Hindustani Trans- 
 lator to Commissioners of Settlements in the Ceded and Conquered 
 Provinces ; Registrar to the Sadr Diwani and Nizamat Adalat ; 
 1808, Member of Committee of the General Post Office; 1809, Judge 
 and Magistrate of Dacca Jclalpur; 1810, Judge and Magistrate of 
 Burdwan ; 18 14, Fourth Judge of Provincial Court of Appeal at 
 Bareilly, aftenvards at Dacca ; Officiating Secretary, Revenue and 
 Judicial Departments; 1815, Secretary, Revenue and Judicial Depart- 
 ments; 181 7, Acting Chief Secretary ; 1 8 19, Cliief Secretary to Govern- 
 ment ; 1820, Member of Council of the College of Fort William ; 1821, 
 Member of the Presidency Records Committee; 1822, Acting Member
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. 95 
 
 " I did as I was advised," adds Hodgson, and subsequent 
 events fully justified Mr. Baylcy's advice. Hodgson not 
 only succeeded to the Residency, but his supreme know- 
 ledge of Nepalese affairs enabled him to carry the interests 
 of the Government of India through a crisis which, under 
 less experienced guidance, must have forced on us a 
 campaign. " Fortunately," writes the learned and im- 
 partial historian of Nepal, "by the skilful management 
 of the Resident, Mr. Hodgson, war was averted."' 
 
 Meanwhile Hodgson, on being finally reappointed 
 Assistant in 1825, discovered that the little world in which 
 he was to be isolated for the next nineteen years (1824 — 
 1843) was an extremely curious one. Its three central 
 figures were the Queen-Regent, the Prime Minister, and 
 the British Resident : the two former, personages with 
 romantic histories and strong wills of their own ; the third, 
 a man of unwearied patience and tact 
 
 The story of the Princess Tripuri,- Queen-Regent of 
 Nepal, reads like an Eastern tale. When Hodgson was 
 reappointed Assistant Resident in 1S25, she had been 
 a widow for twenty-one years. Her husband — a bad, 
 weak, and cruel youth — had " shared the fate which has 
 attended every Gurkha Raja of Nepal," says the official 
 narrative,' almost since the date of the Gurkha conquest. 
 
 of the Supreme Council of the Govcriior-Cfeiioral ; 1823. President of 
 the Council of the College of Kort William ; Member of General Com- 
 mittee of Public Instruction ; 1825, Head Member of the Supreme 
 Council i 1828, Provisional Governor-General of India (appoittUd 
 March 13///); President of tlie Board of Trade; 1S30, Vice-President 
 and Deputy Governor; on furlough to Europe December 26th; 1834, 
 retired from Service May 1st on an annuity ; 1S33, elected a Director 
 of the E. I. Company July 23rd ; scr\-ed on the Direction till 1858 ; 
 Deputy Chairman in 1839; Chairman in 1840; died May 29th, i860, 
 at St. Lconards-on-Sea. 
 
 ' History of Kepal, by Daniel Wright, M.A., M.D., p. 55 (Cambridge 
 University Press, 1877). 
 
 ' Her Highness tlie Maharani Lalit-Tripur-Sundari Devi. 
 
 * Report dated Kathmandu, July 24th, 1837, written by Officiating 
 Assistant to the Resident, Nepal (Dr. A. Campbell), under Mr.
 
 g6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 During three generations/ from 1777 onwards, that fate 
 had been to succeed as a child to a distracted sovereignty, 
 to be debauched during a long minority by Ministers 
 ambitious of retaining their power, and to reach young 
 manhood designedly unfit to rule, and half insane from 
 premature vices. The unfortunate prince ' who succeeded 
 as an infant in 1777^ grew up a slave to fits of "un- 
 controlled ferocity and passion."'' 
 
 He married three wives. The first was the Princess 
 Tripuri, daughter of a Raja — " a virtuous and high-minded 
 lady,"* but childless. The second was the daughter of a 
 middle-class landholder. The third was a beautiful Brah- 
 man girl whom the young prince kidnapped and forcibly 
 seduced. The avenging gods smote her with small-pox, 
 and she died, or poisoned herself, after the birth of a child. 
 The young king in his first fury shot down the images of 
 the gods with cannon charged to the muzzle. Then con- 
 Hodgson's direction, and forwarded with marginal notes by Mr. Hodg- 
 son to the Government of India. Tlie copy which I have used is in 
 the Secret and Political Department of the India Office, and has never 
 been made public. It consists of three parts. The first or introductory 
 part I uniformly cite for the sake of brevity as Repoii. of 1837, the 
 other two as Principal Ti-ansactioiis, according to tlieir official headings 
 in the India Office Records. 
 
 ' The Gurkha dynasty of Nepal, from its foundation, 1765, to the end 
 of the period dealt with in this book, 1843, was as follows: (i) Prithi 
 Narayan, founder of the Gurkha dynasty in Nepal, conquered that 
 countr>* between 1765 and 1769 ; died 1774 (Wright's Native Genealogy, 
 p. 290). (2) Singh Pratab, his son, added further conquests and died 
 1777 (Wright's Genealogy, p. 290). (3) Ran Bahadur Sah, his son, 
 succeeded as an infant; abdicated 1799; murdered 1804; was the 
 husband of Queen Tripuri. (4) Sri Girbhan Yuddha Vikram Sah, his 
 son, succeeded as an infant; died 1816. (5) Sri Rajendra Vikram 
 Sah, his son, succeeded when two years old ; was nominally king 
 during Hodgson's whole residence in Nepal; deposed 1847. I follow 
 the dates in the Court Genealogy translated in Wright's History of 
 JNepal, p. 290. 
 
 - Ran Bahadur Sah. 
 
 ' Wrights Genealog)', p. 290. A marginal note to Campbell's 
 Report, p. 4, gives 1775. 
 
 ^ Report of \2>2,7, p. 8. * Idem.
 
 vii.] ASSISTANT RKSIDKNT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. 97 
 
 scicncc-strickcn b\* her death, .'uul urged on by the public 
 horror at the " seduction or ravishment of a Hrahman's 
 daughter," ' he resigned the throne in favour of her son, and 
 in or about the year 1S02 retired to a reh'gious h'fc at 
 Benares. 
 
 The high-born Princess Tripuri, in spite of much cruel 
 treatment by her husband, accompanied him into exile. 
 The more worldly second wife, of middle-class origin, 
 remained in Nepal and became regent for the infant 
 king — the son of the Brahman girl. But the besotted 
 father, although he gave up his royal title and assumed 
 a new religious name, continued to be the brutish madman 
 under a devotee's dress at Benares that he had been on 
 the throne of Nepal. His faithful high-born wife, at length 
 wearied out by his insults and outraged in every feeling as a 
 woman and a princess, found herself compelled to abandon 
 him to his vices, and went back to Nepal. The second 
 wife, fearing the loss of her position as regent, .sent a force 
 to capture the Senior Queen on the road. But the Princess 
 Tripuri declared that " as every kind of outrage had been 
 already committed on her, there was nothing but loss of 
 life to fear, and that would not prevent her making her 
 way good." The troops, struck by her courage, declared 
 in her favour, and conducted her in triumph to the capital, 
 contending " with each other for the honour of carrying 
 her palankeen." '•' 
 
 She speedily ousted the .second queen, and established 
 herself in the government. Her husband determined to 
 profit by her success, gave up his religious garb at Benares, 
 and returned to Nepal to claim his own. The faithful 
 Tripuri received him back, but in 1S04 he was assassinated 
 in open Court by an ofTicer whom he had in a rage ordered 
 for execution. The Prime Minister arranged for the second 
 queen to immolate herself on the funeral pile, while the 
 Princess Tripuri retained the regency and held it for 
 twenty-eight years. On the death of the boy-king, the 
 ' lu/torl 0/ i%y7 , p. S. * Iiirm., p. 21. 
 
 7
 
 98 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 son of the Brahman girl, in 1816, Queen Tripuri still 
 remained regent on behalf of his infant son and successor 
 until her own death in 1832. 
 
 It was this remarkable woman, faithful as a wife, politic 
 and patriotic as a princess, who ruled Nepal as Queen- 
 Regent during the whole period covered by the present 
 chapter. The actual government was in the hands of the 
 Prime Minister, Bhim Sen — the most famous of the line 
 of soldier-statesmen who have de facto governed Nepal 
 from the Gurkha conquest in 1768' to Sir Jang Bahadur 
 in our own times. Bhim Sen, while still a youth, had 
 followed the exiled king and Queen Tripuri into their 
 exile at Benares, and had helped in the short-lived restora- 
 tion of his royal master. On the assassination of the latter 
 in 1804, Bhim Sen became Prime Minister, and retained 
 the office with an iron grip for thirty years, until it came 
 to his turn to perish miserably in 1839. 
 
 The secret of his long rule was that he thoroughly under- 
 stood both the fears and the aspirations of the military 
 tribes of Nepal. The fear of these brave mountaineers 
 was the establishment of a British ascendency ; their 
 aspiration was to extend their conquests at the expense 
 of our Indian frontier. To the British he appeared to be 
 a " vigorous, ambitious, and unprincipled opponent." '■ To 
 the Nepalese he seemed to be a stern master, whose yoke, 
 though grievous to bear, was better than the evils which 
 
 ' This year is taken as tlie official date of tiie conquest in the royal 
 genealogy of Nepal. — Wright, p. 290. 
 
 - Captain Hamilton, quoted in para. 17 of a memorandum by 
 Dr. A. Campbell, Officiating Assistant to the Resident in Nepal, on 
 the relations of the British Government and Nepal down to 1834, in two 
 parts, headed " Principal Transactions and Early Intercourse." This 
 valuable State paper was drawn up in 1837 under the instructions of 
 Mr. Hodgson as Resident, and embodies his matured views on our 
 relations with Nepal. I quote from the copy in the Political and 
 Secret Department of the India Office, and for the sake of brevity, 
 as already mentioned, I refer uniformly to it as Principal Transactions. 
 It formed Parts II. and III. of the Report of 1837, described ante, p. 95, 
 footnote.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT RKSIDKNT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. 99 
 
 it averted, lihim Sen was the first Nepalcsc statesman 
 who grasped the meaning of the system of Protectorates 
 which Lord W'ellcslcy had carried out in India. He .saw 
 one Native State after another come within the net of 
 Briti.sh subsidiary alliances, and his policy was steadily 
 directed to save Nepal from a similar fate. He also per- 
 ceived that the Gurkha race, having conquered Nepal and 
 the hill valleys eastwards and westwards at the foot of the 
 great Himalayan wall on the north, had no further outlet 
 for its warlike energy except southwards on the Indian 
 plains. How to meet these two conditions, to stealthily 
 encroach upon British territory and yet to prevent liritish 
 reprisals which might bring Nepal under the British ascend- 
 ency, were the almost irreconcilable tasks which Bhim Sen 
 set before him. 
 
 During the first ten years of his Prime- Ministership he 
 did not quite appreciate its difficulties. Judging from the 
 ineffective interferences of the East India Company in 
 Nepalese affairs from 1765 to 1801, he failed to realise 
 the strength which it could now put forth. Between 
 1804 and 1813 he accordingly allowed a long scries of 
 raids and encroachments on the Indian plains, the .seizure 
 of British territory and the carr)'ing into captivity of 
 British .subjects. In .so doing he merely continued and 
 improved upon the old predatory policy of Nepal. In 
 a single British district the magistrate had to report that 
 "between 17S7 and 181 3 upwards of two hundred villages 
 had been seized by the Nepale.se on one or other un- 
 justifiable pretext." ' 
 
 Nepal was somewhat rudely awakened to the change 
 which had taken place in the power of the British 
 Company by Lord Hastings' demand in 181 3 for the 
 evacuation of the most recently seized districts " within 
 twenty-five days." liut lihim Sen could not bring 
 himself to believe in the change, and declared for war. 
 
 ' Report of the Magistrate of Tirlioot, quoted in Principal TrattS' 
 actions, para. 17.
 
 100 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 " Through the influence of your i^ood fortune and that 
 of your ancestors," he thus solemnly addressed the boy 
 Raja in full darbar, " no one has yet been able to cope 
 with the State of Nepal. The Chinese once made war 
 on us, but were reduced to seek peace.^ How then will 
 the English be able to penetrate into our hills ? . . . The 
 small fort of Bhartpur" (which Lord Combermere had 
 failed to take in 1805) "was the work of man, yet the 
 English, being worsted before it, desisted from the attempt 
 to conquer it. Our hills and fastnesses are formed by 
 the hand of God, and are impregnable." - 
 
 The war which followed in 18 14 — 18 16 convinced 
 Bhim Sen, once and for ever, as to the reality of the 
 British power — " a power," he declared, " that crushed 
 thrones like potsherds." ^ He resolved that, whoever might 
 henceforth go to war with the Company, it should not 
 be Bhim Sen. But, as we shall see, he had no objection 
 to sympathetic correspondence with other Native States 
 at war, or on the brink of war, with the British. His 
 own efforts were henceforth confined to rendering our 
 victory over Nepal as little productive as possible of 
 results. 
 
 This was by no means easy. Lord Hastings perfectly 
 understood the situation, and insisted, as the price of peace, 
 on conditions which should effectually curb Nepal. The 
 richest part of that State, and the part which furnished 
 it with the sinews of war, was the lush, unhealthy border- 
 land at the foot of the hills — the Tarai. Lord Hastings 
 declared that the cession of the Tarai was the first con- 
 dition of a truce. " Nepal will never consent to give you up 
 
 ' A ludicrous reversal of the facts, but one which still figures in tlie 
 Court Chronicle of Nepal. — Wright, p. 2S2. 
 
 - Speech of Bhim Sen " as First Chief of the State " to the Nepalese 
 Council, March 18 14. — Principal Transactions, para. 20, footnote. 
 
 ^ Quoted in Dr. H. A. Oldfield's Sketches from Nepal, Vol. I., p. 299 
 (2 vols., London, 1880). Dr. Oldfield had access to the Residency 
 Records, and, notwithstanding such slips as Gardiner constantly for 
 Gardner the first Resident, he made a good use of them.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825-1833. 101 
 
 the Tarai," the Nepalcse replied to our envoy, Mr. Gardner. 
 *' Take the Tarai and you will leave us without the means 
 of subsistence, for the hills without it are worth nothing." ' 
 It wa.s precisely because Lord Hastings knew that the 
 loss of the Tarai would disable Nepal for further aggres- 
 sions that he determined to have it. " Mr. Gardner's 
 orders were peremptory," and after another struggle Nepal 
 gave up the Tarai by the Treaty of Segauli in i8i6.- 
 
 Then Bhim Sen's turn came. He first, by skilful 
 diplomacy, obtained a retrocession of part of the eastern 
 Tarai as a special favour from Lord Hastings to the young 
 Raja, and in return for relieving us of certain pecuniary 
 obligations.' He then, by even more skilful obstructions, 
 endeavoured to render nugatory our demarcation of the 
 frontier. By 1819 these delays amounted to a contuma- 
 cious disregard of the treaty, and nearly led to chastisement 
 by a British force. I^him Sen next changed his tactics 
 from open obstruction to covert frustration. Boundary 
 pillars were erected, but unsurveyed gaps were left for 
 future encroachments, and for endless annoyance to the 
 British officers. The rugged hills and dense jungles, in 
 the ab.sence of a scientific survey, favoured uncertainty. 
 Dr. Oldfield states that the boundary between Nepal and 
 Oudh was not finally adjusted until 1830, and that between 
 Nepal and the British territories not for some years later.* 
 It was reserved for Hodgson as Resident to wring a com- 
 plete settlement from Bhim Sen.^ For many years after 
 we impo.sed our conditions of peace upon Nepal in 18 16, 
 
 ' Principal Transactions, para. 25. 
 
 * " From the river Kali on the west to tlic river Tista on the east, 
 with the exception of Birtwal Khas, and of such portions of the Tarai 
 lying between tiie Gaiidak and the Kasi, into which the British 
 authority had not been introduced, or was not in actual course of 
 introduction." — Principal Transai:tions, a.d. 1S16, para. 33. 
 
 ' Vide ante, p. 62. Campbell described this retrocedcd tract in 
 1837 "as the mine from which they (the Nepalese) drew tlieir chief 
 net monicd resources." — Principal Transcutions, para. 44. 
 
 ' Sketches from AV/rt/, Vol. I., p. 306 (London, 1880). 
 
 * Principal Transactions, para. 38.
 
 102 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 the spirited Queen-Regent and the astute Prime Minister 
 prevented some of the most important of them from 
 becoming operative. 
 
 The third figure at the Nepalese Court was the British 
 Resident, the Honourable Edward Gardner, with whom we 
 are already acquainted.^ Lord Hastings' fixed idea was 
 that in 1816 he had broken the military force of Nepal for 
 ever. The vast wars on which he found himself in the 
 following year forced to embark against the Pindaris and 
 Marathas made him disinclined to give heed to any symp- 
 toms that might interfere with this preconceived view. It 
 was the business of the Resident in Nepal to keep things 
 quiet. Mr. Gardner was precisely the man to accomplish 
 the task. 
 
 But in accomplishing it he was constrained to a degree 
 of self-effacement which encouraged the Queen-Regent 
 and Prime Minister in their policy of dexterous frustra- 
 tion. The traditional attitude of Nepal had been " to 
 keep us totally in the dark as to whatever transpired 
 within the mountains ; to refuse all effectual explanations 
 of differences ; and to find and make opportunities of 
 aggression, too small individually to kindle into actual 
 flame our anger." ^ One of the chief objects of our cam- 
 paign in 181 5-16 was to put an end to this state of things 
 by establishing a British Resident in Kathmandu. Lord 
 Hastings' ultimatum to the defeated Nepalese when they 
 tardily sought peace was " that they must take the Resident 
 or war." ^ No sooner was a Resident accepted than the 
 Queen-Regent and the Prime Minister began to try to 
 isolate him as effectually as if he were non-existent. At 
 first, indeed, a force of Nepalese soldiers was planted 
 between the Residency and the capital to prevent any 
 communication, and it was " given out in the city that 
 any one so offending shall be punished."* Throughout 
 
 Vide ante, pp. 37, 57, 58, 59. ^ Idetn., para. 52. 
 
 Principal T?-ansactions, para. 52, * Idetn., para. 55.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825— 1833. IO3 
 
 Mr. Gardner's tenure of office, the Prime Minister impressed 
 on the Nepalese chiefs " that intercourse with the Resi- 
 dency must inevitably lead to the formation of a discon- 
 tented faction in the State, and that treaties expressly 
 forbade such intercourse. Whilst under these pretexts 
 he debarred one and all from the privilege of personal 
 intercourse with us, he had little difficulty in persuading 
 the Nepalese vulgar, great and small, that he alone was fit 
 to cope with us in politics." ^ 
 
 Although Gardner acquiesced in these frustrations, he 
 winced under them. Before long he perceived that Lord 
 Hastings had by no means broken the military power 
 of Nepal. As a matter of fact the Nepalese army was 
 graduall)- raised in numbers and efficiency to a point 
 unknown before the war. At the same time the mercantile 
 arrangements between Nepal and India were reduced 
 almost to a dead letter by skilful obstructions, and by the 
 Prime Minister's denial of justice to merchants who engaged 
 in the trade. 
 
 Gardner's assistant, Hodgson, also realised the situation, 
 and after some years of experience grew restive under it. 
 Gardner, although not caring himself to change the passive 
 policy to which he had been so long accustomed, does not 
 seem to have objected to the efforts of his junior to prepare 
 the way for a stricter enforcement of our treaty-rights. 
 With his sanction Hodgson collected the materials for 
 placing the British Government in possession of the com- 
 plete facts regarding the military, commercial, and judicial 
 problems involved. 
 
 " The ordinary round of duties devolving on an assistant 
 in an Indian embassy," writes the learned native com- 
 mentator on the Hodgson Sanskrit manuscripts,-' " is 
 limited enough. But an officer in a foreign Court has 
 many opportunities of collecting and digesting valuable 
 
 ^ Prbicipal Transactions, para. 58. 
 
 ' The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, by Rajendra Lala 
 Mitra, LL.D., C.I.E., p. v. (Calcutta, 1882).
 
 104 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 information, and Mr. Hodgson utilised them to the utmost. 
 While working as assistant to the Resident, his attention 
 was first directed to the military organisation of Nepal, 
 and his studies resulted in two memoirs giving details 
 regarding the then existing force of the Nepal Darbar, 
 the military tribes and races from which it was drawn, 
 their tribal names and classification, their physical and 
 moral qualities as soldiers, their pay and discipline, as also 
 the manufacture of their arms and ammunitions. . . . Mr. 
 Hodgson next turned his attention to the commerce of 
 Nepal with the people of the plains on this [Indian] side, 
 and with those of Central Asia and China on the other. 
 For some time before the first Nepal war this commerce 
 was extensive, and Mr. Hodgson's object in the papers he 
 wrote on the subject was to furnish practical directions, 
 routes, and details about travelling and customs-house 
 charges, with a view to revive that commerce, and divert 
 the people from their warlike propensities. . . . The legal 
 administration of the country also found in him an able 
 and most faithful historiographer." 
 
 I have quoted the above sentences from Rajendra Lala 
 Mitra, because he was in personal communication with 
 Hodgson, and they serve to fix the period to which the 
 three classes of inquiry belong. The results were after- 
 wards published in different forms, and at various dates : 
 in the Asiatic Researches and Transactions of the Bengal 
 Asiatic Society; as State papers in Volume XX VH. of 
 Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal; 
 again in Professor Summers' Phtrnix, a monthly magazine 
 for Eastern Asia ; and finally in Hodgson's collected works 
 and essays.^ But whatever shape they ultimately took, 
 Hodgson commenced the collection of the materials for 
 them when Assistant Resident, as part of a systematic 
 scheme for bringing Nepal within the knowledge of the 
 British Government. 
 
 He soon perceived that, in a country without trade- 
 ' Triibner & Co., one volume, 1874; two volumes, 1880.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT KESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. 105 
 
 outlets, the natural and inevitable occupation of the people 
 is war. Military service was the only means by which 
 the classes above the .servile tillers of the soil could find 
 scope for their energies. The Queen-Regent and the 
 Prime Minister knew that their own tenure of office 
 depended in the long run on their fulfilling this funda- 
 mental condition of providing a career of arms for the 
 chiefs and high-spirited castes in Nepal. As the years of 
 enforced peace went on, and those castes suffered no 
 depletion from war, the standing army had to be con- 
 stantly increased. In 18 16 Gardner estimated it at 
 10,000 men. By 1819 it had been raised to 12,000, and 
 in 1831 it reached 15,000. The last figure, however, was 
 the " peace establishment which is in constant pay and 
 under regular discipline, and is only one-third of the force 
 that Nepal could, at a very short notice, call into the field ; 
 and that in a most efficient condition, well drilled, well 
 armed v/ith muskets and bayonets, and tolerabl)' well 
 accoutred." ^ 
 
 This was the first problem, the problem of finding some 
 safe outlet for the activities of the military castes, which 
 Hodgson set himself to solve. It was complicated by two 
 difficulties — the Nepalese .system of service by rotation, 
 and the increased means of supporting it which we our- 
 selves, by the rendition of part of the Tarai, had given to 
 Nepal. " The .system of army enlistment," says the Report 
 afterwards drawn up under his instruction when Resident, 
 " is one of annual rotation, the usage of the [Nepalese] 
 Government requiring an entire change of the whole army 
 every year from full pay to no pay. And supposing this 
 usage to be kept up as it has hitherto been, the Govern- 
 ment has always in its power to treble the amount of its 
 force without much loss of its eflRciency. For the quickly 
 recurring periods at which the men are restored to pay 
 and di.scipline, and the abhorrence of the military tribes in 
 Nepal to engaging in other pursuits than that of arms, 
 ' Principal Transactions^ para. 62.
 
 I06 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 ensures the return of the Dhakcriah (or soldier off the 
 roll) but little wanting in his proper accomplishments as 
 an efficient soldier." ' Hodgson's first difficulty, therefore, 
 was that the whole upper classes in Nepal were organised 
 into a hereditary force, whose sole career in life was 
 military service. 
 
 His second was that by the retrocession of part of the 
 Tarai after the war of i8 15-16, " as an earnest of our good- 
 will," Lord Hastings had himself supplied the means for 
 maintaining and developing this system. The Tarai, or 
 rich malarial borderland at the foot of the hills, " from 
 being a tract nearly depopulated previous to the war," had 
 become under the security of possession guaranteed by 
 Lord Hastings to Nepal " a source of net revenue to the 
 amount of ten lakhs a year " (then over ;^ 100,000). " What 
 we regarded as not worth retaining in 1816 now yields 
 a noble revenue, and has capabilities of affording three 
 times the amount." - 
 
 The solution of the difficulty which Hodgson urged 
 upon the British Government was to draft a considerable 
 number of the surplus soldiery of Nepal into our own 
 army. The idea was not altogether a new one. General 
 Ochterlony had noted the fighting qualities of the Gurkhas 
 during the war, and in 181 5 the Governor-General enlisted 
 four Gurkha corps from the disbanded Ncpalcsc troops.' 
 Their strength having been subsequently reduced, the 
 Commander-in-Chief, Sir Edward Paget, proposed in 1825 
 to augment them by recruits from the Nepal dominions. 
 But Mr. Gardner as Resident, while cordially acknow- 
 
 ' Principal Transactions, para. 63. 
 
 '^ Idem., para. 64. (Written in 1837.) 
 
 ' Namely, the Sirmur Battalion at Nahun, the ist and 2nd Nasiri 
 battalions at Subathu, and a fourth local corps in Kumaun from troops 
 who came over at the close of the campaign. — Record of the Services 
 of the 2nd Gurkha (the Sirmur Rifle) Regiment in the Military 
 Department. I am indebted to General Sir Oliver Neumarch, Military 
 Secretary in the India Office, for access to this and other papers bearing 
 upon the history of the British Gurkha Regiments.
 
 vii.] ASSISTAXT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. IO7 
 
 lodging their merits as soldiers, " believed that even on 
 entering our service the Gurkhas would not separate 
 themselves entirely from their native country, as they 
 could not remove their families from Nepal, and he opined 
 that, however faithfully they might conduct themselves on 
 general occasions, in the event of any future rupture with 
 Nepal they possessed that feeling of patriotism which 
 would induce the greater part of them to adhere decidedly 
 to their natural allegiance." ' He conceived a better plan 
 would be to negotiate " with Nepal for the service of a 
 portion of her organised troops as mercenaries." Nepal 
 was quite ready to fall into the latter arrangement, and it 
 was perhaps under the Prime Minister's prompting that 
 Mr. Gardner suggested it. Hut the employment of .separate 
 bodies of foreign mercenaries was opposed to the militar\- 
 policy of the British Government of India, and nothing 
 came of the proposal. 
 
 It was at this point that Hodgson took up the question 
 and placed it on a broader basis. " Mr. Hodgson," says 
 the Report drawn up under his instructions, " is in favour of 
 our opening the ranks of our army to the surplus soldiery 
 of Nepal." -' One of his la.st acts as Assistant Resident 
 was to submit to the Government of India the conclusions 
 at which he had .slowly arrived and his plan for giving effect 
 to them. Mr. Gardner had then been succeeded as Resi- 
 dent by Sir Herbert Maddock, who.se vigorous understand- 
 ing clearly grasped the importance of Hodgson's views. 
 It must be remembered, in reading the following extract, 
 that Hodgson was comparing the Gurkhas not with the 
 military races of the Punjab now in our service, but with 
 the Company's regiments as then recruited in the Gangetic 
 valley. That his comparison was nui unjust may be 
 gathered from independent military witnesses. In 1S15 
 General Ochtcrlony had "confidentially" informed the 
 Governor-General " that thi- Company's .sepoys could not 
 
 ' Principal Transactions, para. 64. 
 • Idem., para. 64.
 
 I08 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 be brought to match the Gurkhas." ' Shortly after the 
 formation of the Sirmur battalion in 1815, Colonel Nicolls, 
 in command of the forces assembled at Sitapur, reported 
 the Gurkhas to be " the only corps with the army properly 
 equipped for hill service." ^ Hodgson thus sums up his 
 Report^ to the Government in 1832 : — 
 
 "These Highland soldiers, who despatch their meal in 
 half an hour, and satisfy the ceremonial law^ by merely 
 washing their hands and face and taking off their turbans 
 before cooking, laugh at the pharisaical rigour of our sepoys 
 who must bathe from head to foot and make Puja ere they 
 begin to dress their dinner, must cat nearly naked in the 
 coldest weather, and cannot be in marching trim again in 
 less than three hours — the best part of the day. In war 
 the former [t.e. the Gurkhas] carry several days' provisions 
 on their backs ; the latter [the Company's old sepoys] 
 would deem such an act intolerably degrading. The former 
 see in foreign service nothing but the prospect of gain and 
 glory ; the latter can discover in it nothing but pollution 
 and peril from unclean men, and terrible wizards and 
 goblins and evil spirits. 
 
 "In masses, the former [the Gurkhas] have that indomit- 
 able confidence, each in all, which grows out of national 
 integrity and success ; the latter [the Company's sepoys] 
 can have no idea of this sentiment, which however maintains 
 the union and resolution of multitudes in peril better than 
 all other human bonds whatever. 
 
 ' rrituipal Transactions, para. 64. 
 
 - Record of the Sen-ices of the 2nd Gurkha Regiment in the Military 
 Department of the India Office. 
 
 ' Dated October 1832. This Report was, by permission of the 
 Government, placed before the Asiatic .Society at its meeting of 
 January 9th, 1833, and has been frequently printed : e.g. in i\\e Joicrnal 
 of the Bengal Asiatic Socict\\Vo\. II., 1833; Selections from the Records 
 of the Government of Bengal, No. XXVII. (Calcutta, 1857); Hodgson's 
 Collected Essays, Part II. (Triibner, London, 1874) ; and in various State 
 papers. I quote from its final official form, as reproduced in the Report 
 for the Government of India drawn up under Mr. Hodgson's instructions 
 when Resident in 1837.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT RKSIDENT IN NKPAL : 1825— 1833. 109 
 
 " I calculate that there arc at this time in Nepal no less 
 than 30,000 Dhakeriahs, or soldiers off the roll by rotation, 
 belonging to the Khas, Muggurs, and Gurung tribes (three 
 chief military tribes in Nepal). I am not sure that there 
 exists any insuperable obstacle to our obtaining in one form 
 or other the services of a large body of these men ; and 
 such are their cncrg\- of character, love of enterpri.sc, and 
 freedom from the shackles of caste, that I am well assured 
 their services, if obtained, would soon come to be most 
 highly prized. In my humble opinion they arc by far the 
 best soldiers in India, and if they are made participators of 
 our renown in arms, I concci\e that their gallant spirit and 
 unadulterated military habits might be relied on for fidelity; 
 and that our good and regular pa>', and noble pension 
 establishment, would serve to counterpoise the influence of 
 nationalit)'." 
 
 This Report by Hodgson in 1832. although it won the 
 thanks of the Government and probably decided Lord 
 William Bcntinck to appoint him as Resident of Nepal, 
 resulted in no immediate action. It came in the midst 
 of the twelve years' peace between the fall of Bhartpur in 
 1827 and the first Kabul war in 1839. It was in vain that 
 one military expert after another called attention to the 
 importance of providing some counterpoise to the pampered 
 sepoys of the Gangetic valley, and urged the recruitment 
 of the Gurkhas as a new element of strength and safety. 
 Lord Dalhou-sic's prescient mind did, indeed, realise the 
 necessity. He reorganised the local Gurkha battalions 
 into regiments in 1850, and one of his last acts in 1S56 
 was to urge the increase of this force as essential to our 
 security in India. He urged in vain.' A \ear later, w lien 
 the Mutin\' of 1S57 broke upon Northern huiia, the 
 authorities fell back when too late on Hodgson's scheme, 
 which would, humanly speaking, have rcndereil such a 
 catastrophe impossible. 
 
 ' For refcrcnrcs to tlic (jucstion in its general Ijoarinp iipon the Mutiny, 
 see my IJfc oj Dalliousic, pp. z\x, zzz (The Clarendon I'rcss, Kd. 1S90)
 
 no LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Hodgson himself, by his close intimacy with Sir Jang 
 Bahadur, exercised at the height of the crisis an important 
 influence on the decision of the Nepalcse Minister to place 
 at our disposal the Gurkha force which did such good 
 service. We shall see the part which Hodgson played in 
 persuading Lord Canning to accept the proffered Gurkha 
 troops. As usual Hodgson sank his personality and only 
 lamented, not that his own counsels, but that those of 
 acknowledged military authorities had been so long and 
 fatally neglected. "It is infinitely to be regretted," he 
 wrote in 1857, "that the opinions of Sir H. Fane, of Sir 
 Charles Napier, and of Sir H. Lawrence, as to the high 
 expediency of recruiting largely from this source, were not 
 acted upon long ago." ' 
 
 Hodgson's scheme for relieving the growing pressure of 
 the military castes in Nepal was not confined to recruit- 
 ing alone. He believed that until some peaceful outlet 
 could be provided for the productions and commercial 
 capabilities of Nepal there would be chronic unrest. " By 
 depriving her of a third of her territory," says the Report 
 drawn up under his instructions at a later period when 
 Resident, " and girding her on all sides by our own 
 Provinces, we imagined that of necessity she would gradu- 
 ally abandon her thirst for arms and conquest, turn her 
 thoughts and resources to the peaceful arts of commerce 
 and agriculture, and ere long be changed from a hostile 
 power which skirted our dominions for about eight hundred 
 miles, to a less powerful, quiet, and peaceable neighbour 
 and ally. The reverse of this is the case, and at this 
 moment [1837] Nepal holds a station of offensive power 
 to the full as great as she did in 1814." The Report goes 
 on to urge that " the second means " {i.e. in addition to 
 enlistment of the Gurkhas in our regiments) " for quieting 
 
 ' This passage has been quoted by Captain Eden Vansittart, 5th 
 Gurkhas, in his Notes 07i the Gufkhas, p. 32. — Superintendent of 
 Government Printing, Calcutta (Calcutta, 1890). Military Department, 
 India Office.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT KESIDKNT IN NKI'AL: 1825—1833. Ill 
 
 the pas.sitjn for arms ainong the military tribes of Nepal 
 i.s a due attention on our part to the encouragement and 
 increase of commerce." ' 
 
 Hodgson, in regard to his tradc-proixj.sals, found the 
 initial task of obtaining the necessary data a protracted 
 one. It occupied him during many years while A.ssistant 
 Resident, and it was not until acting temporarily as 
 Resident, in i<S39-3i, that he thought it safe to submit 
 his conclusions to Government in a complete form. Mean- 
 while, as his official reports state, he searched the records 
 of the past generally in vain, and gradually accumulated 
 data as to the present. " I have secretly and carefully 
 applied," he writes, " to some of the oldest and most respect- 
 able merchants of Kathmandu and other chief towns of 
 the valley. ... In the absence of statistical documents 
 these are the only accessible data." 
 
 The results were at length embodied in two despatches 
 from him dated March 8th, 1830, and December 1st, 1831. 
 Taken together they form the most interesting account 
 of Himalayan and Central Asian trade in the records of 
 the Government of India. His final report of 1831 was 
 published by authority,' and has been more than once 
 reprinted.' In his despatch of 1830 he had explained the 
 causes " why that great commerce which naturally ought 
 to, and formerly did, subsist between the Cis- and Trans- 
 Himalayan regions should seek the channel of Nepal rather 
 than that of Bhutan on the one hand or of Kumaun on 
 the other." In his Report of 1831 he .set forth the available 
 means for resuscitating and developing this trade under 
 three main heads. He first gave " a preci.se practical 
 account of the commercial route to Kathmandu, and thence 
 to the marts on the Hhote or Tibetan frontier, with the 
 
 * Principal Transactions, para. 64. 
 
 * As Paper No. II. of tlie Selections from the Records of the Gox'ern- 
 vtcnt of Bengal, Vol. XXVII. 
 
 ' For example, under the title of '• ( )n the Commerce of Nepal," in 
 Part II. of Hodgson's Essays, pp. 91-121 (Trilbner, 1S74).
 
 112 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 manner and expense of conveying goods, the amount and 
 nature of the duties levied thereon by the Nepal Govern- 
 ment, and the places where they are levied." He next 
 furnished " lists of imports and exports with remarks." He 
 concluded with " catalogues showing the number of native 
 and Indian merchants residing at Kathmandu and the 
 other chief towns of the valley of Nepal, with the supposed 
 amount of the trading capital of each." 
 
 Hodgson pointed out that the competition for the Central 
 Asian commerce lay between the trade route from Pckin 
 to St. Petersburg on the north, and that from Pekin to 
 India z'iu the Nepal passes on the south. The former 
 route he estimates, upon data which he gives, at 5,500 miles ; 
 the latter at 2,880, or deducting the river-section from our 
 frontier to Calcutta, at only 2,340. The Russian route, 
 moreover, was subject to heavier and more numerous 
 transit duties than the Indian one. Yet the commerce via 
 the Indian route had dwindled, while that of the Russian 
 route flourished. One main cause was the attitude of 
 isolation assumed by the intervening State of Nepal, and 
 our consequent absence of information as to the conditions 
 and requirements of the inner-Asia trade. Hodgson's aim 
 was to convert Nepal from an interposing obstacle into a 
 common mart where the merchants from Hindustan might 
 interchange their commodities with the traders from inner- 
 Asia. 
 
 He showed that it was exactly the products in which 
 Great Britain excelled, especially warm woollen stuffs and 
 cutlery, and for which Calcutta formed the natural inlet, 
 that were in demand for the trans-Himalayan trade. 
 Even the Russian caravans in Central Asia had to depend 
 on Manchester for their finer goods. " Of the cotton and 
 woollen cloths the coarse only are Russian-made," wrote Mr. 
 Hodg.son,' " the fine come chiefly from England ; and the 
 like is true of the glassware and hardware." Indeed Russia 
 
 ' Letter to tlie Political Secretary to Government, dated December 
 1st, 1831.
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT RKSIDKNT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. II3 
 
 went even farther afield, to our colonies. " From Canada 
 Russia seeks through Kngland our peltry," or fur-skins, he 
 continues, " to convey it to the Chinese across the endless 
 sava'^c wastes of Siberia. What should hinder our Indian 
 subjects and the Nepalesc from procuring these same furs 
 at Calcutta, and conveying them through Nepal and Tibet 
 to these same Chinese? . . . What, again, should hinder 
 the same merchants from underselling the Russian in the 
 articles of English woollens, hardware, and glassware, by 
 conveying them to Setchuen from Calcutta by the same 
 route? . . . The Nepalese have used the Chinese com- 
 merce z't'd Tibet for ages, and our Indian subjects might 
 deal in concert with the Nepalese by joint firms at 
 Kathmandu." 
 
 But while Western China formed the ultimate goal 
 of such commerce, Hodgson urged that, even without 
 reaching that goal, important openings for trade lay along 
 the route. In Nepal's nearest neighbour, Tibet, he pointed 
 out that there was " an immense country, tolerably 
 well peopled, possessed of a temperate climate, rich in 
 natural productions, and inhabited by no rude nomads, 
 but by a settled, peaceful, lettered, and commercially dis- 
 posed race, to whom our broad cloths arc needful, since, 
 whilst all ranks and ages and both sexes wear woollen 
 cloths, the native manufactures arc most wretched, and 
 China has none of a superior sort and at a moderate price 
 wherewith to supply the Tibetans. With her [Tibet's] 
 musk, her rhubarb, her borax, her splendid wools, her 
 mineral and animal we.ilth, her universal neetl of good 
 woollens, and her incapacity to provide herself or to obtain 
 suj)plies from any of her neighbours, Tibet ma\' well 
 be believed capable of maintaining a large and valuable 
 exchange of commodities with Great Hritain, through the 
 medium of our Indian subjects and the people of Nepal, 
 to which latter the oditus, closed to all others by China, 
 is freely open." 
 
 Hodgson explained in detail the existing nucleus from 
 
 8
 
 114 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 which such a trade mif^ht be developed. '' It appears that 
 at this present time," he wrote in 1831, "there are in the 
 great towns in the valley of Nepal fifty-two native and 
 thirty-four Indian merchants engaged in foreign commerce 
 both with the south and the north, and that the trading 
 capital of the former is considered to be not less than 
 Rs. 5,018,000, nor that of the latter less than Rs. 2,305,000." 
 In a comment on this passage Hodgson first reduced his 
 estimates by a third, and finally in a pencil note to one 
 half, which would give the aggregate capital of the 
 merchants then engaged in the Nepal foreign trade at 
 about Rs. 3,500,000. He found it extremely difficult to 
 obtain data as to the volume of business done by them ; 
 but he ultimately estimated the total Nepalese exports 
 and imports at over Rs. 3,000,000 a year. There was there- 
 fore a definite nucleus both of capital and of acquired 
 experience from which a Central Asian trade through 
 Nepal might be developed. " Let the native merchants 
 of Calcutta and Nepal, separately or in concert," he said, 
 "take up this commerce." 
 
 Hodgson went into a degree of detail which may now 
 seem curious, but which at the time was eminently practical, 
 as to the means for rendering such commerce profitable. 
 Not only the length of each stage and the amount of 
 customs duties at each station, but the estimated buying 
 price in Calcutta of over a hundred articles of Central 
 Asian trade, from cottons, carpets, and corals to gun-flints, 
 needles, and betel-nuts, their selling price in Nepal, the 
 total import of each into Nepal, and the total consumed 
 within Nepalese limits, are set forth in tabulated statements. 
 
 His Report forms a handbook as to the articles of 
 Himalayan trade, the qualities most profitable and the 
 colours most in demand, in the first third of the nineteenth 
 century. He gives minute suggestions even as to the 
 packing of the goods in transit. " The merchants' wares 
 should be made up at Calcutta into secure packages, 
 adapted for carriage on a man's back, of the full weight of
 
 vii.] ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825-1833. I15 
 
 two Calcutta ba/.aar mauiuls each.' Because, if the wares 
 be so made up, a siiv^lc mountaineer will carry that 
 surprising weight over the huge mountains of Nepal ; 
 whereas two men not being able to unite their strength 
 with effect in the conveyance of goods, packages heavier 
 than two maunds arc of necessity taken to pieces on the 
 road at great hazard and inconvenience. . . . Let every 
 merchant, therefore," he quaintly concludes his dis.sertation 
 on packing, " make up his goods into parcels of two full 
 bazaar maunds each, and let him have with him apparatus 
 for fixing two of such parcels across a bullock's saddle." 
 
 Hodgson's plans for the commercial development of 
 Nepal had a different fate from his project for the British 
 enlistment of the Gurkhas. Both were designed with the 
 same political view, to find an outlet for the energy of the 
 surplus population of Nepal. But as his military scheme 
 was pigeon-holed owing to the long twelve years' peace, 
 so for the .same reason his trade-proposals won the imme- 
 diate approval of Government. It was his pleasant duty 
 while Resident from 1S33 to 1S43 to aid in extending the 
 intercourse between British India and Nepal on the lines 
 which he had sketched, and to give effect to the trade- 
 policy on which he had .so long pondered when an Assistant. 
 An immen.se development of our commercial relations 
 with Nepal dates from his RejxDrts. The Rs. 3,ooo,cxx) 
 of Nepalese imports and exports in 1831 had grown 
 into a Nepalese trade with British India alone of over 
 Rs. 33,ooo,cxx) in 1.S91.- 
 
 Ilodgson fores. iw that such a development would only 
 be possible when the legal position of British- Indian 
 merchants in Nepal should be placed on a satisfactory 
 footing. His third series of efforts were accordingly 
 directed to exploring the judicial .sy.stcm of Nepal, and 
 to drawing up an accurate account of it for the British 
 
 ' About 160 pomuls avoirdiii)ois. 
 
 * StiUistical Abstrtut relatinf^ to lititisf: India, presented to both 
 Houses of Parliament, pp. 226-7 (»895). Ketum for 1890-91.
 
 Il6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Government. Nothing of the kind had previously been 
 attempted, but the habit of inquiry which Hodgson learned 
 under his first master Traill in Kumaun, and especially of 
 inquiry into the judicial practice of what had up to that 
 time formed a Nepalese province, now served him in good 
 stead in Nepal itself. " The administration was purely 
 Hindu," writes Rajendra Lala Mitra,* " absolutely untouched 
 by foreign influence for several centuries." 
 
 Hodgson started with no preconceived notions, but 
 simply with the idea of acquiring such a practical know- 
 ledge of the native judicial system as would enable him to 
 secure justice in cases which the British Residency had to 
 settle conjointly with the courts of Nepal. Such cases 
 were numerous, and at times formed an important part 
 of the Resident's and Assistant Resident's work. For the 
 Nepalese Darbar, finding itself unable to maintain its isola- 
 tion, threw legal obstacles in the way of merchants from the 
 Indian plains — obstacles which rendered it difficult for 
 British-Indian subjects to collect their debts, and sometimes 
 involved them in the meshes of a judicial procedure which 
 they did not understand. As it was difficult for them to 
 obtain redress from the Nepalese tribunals, Hodgson deter- 
 mined to ascertain exactly the number and constitution of 
 those tribunals and the law which they were bound to 
 administer. 
 
 He accordingly drew up a series of ninety-three questions 
 and placed them before the Brahmans learned in the law 
 whom he maintained to assist him in his philological and 
 Buddhist researches. The statements thus collected he 
 tested by secret inquiries from Nepalese pandits and 
 officers " who were judged most capable of replying to 
 them in a full and satisfactory manner." He embodied 
 the results in two official reports, " On the Law and 
 Police of Nepal " and " On the Law and Legal Practice 
 of Nepal ; " with a third in the Asiatic Researches. 
 
 " This subject," wrote the Government, " is one which 
 
 ' T/ie Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, p. v. (Calcutta, 1882).
 
 vii.] ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825— 1833. II7 
 
 possesses much interest, whether for the legislator, the 
 historian, or the philosopher. In Hindustan we look in 
 vain for any traces of Hindu legislation or government. 
 The Moslem conquerors have everywhere swept them away. 
 And if we wish to inquire what are the features of the 
 Hindu system of jurisprudence and judicature, it is in 
 Nepal we must seek for the answer. Mr. Hodgson is the 
 first who has enabled us to obtain a precise and definitive 
 view of the subject. His information was transmitted to 
 the Governor-General, and the Governor-General deemed 
 it of sufficient importance to authorise its publication." ^ 
 
 The two papers were accordingly placed before the 
 Asiatic Society," and subsequently reprinted in Vol. XX VH 
 of the Selections from the Records of tJie Govcrnvictit of 
 Bengal. They start with simple questions as to the number, 
 territorial jurisdiction, and terms or sittings of the courts, and 
 the names and functions of their officers. They proceed to 
 more complicated inquiries in regard to the law of evidence 
 current in Nepal, the judicial consequence of confession, 
 the police establishment, the ultimate sources of the law 
 (whether written or customary), crimes and their punish- 
 ments, the rules of inheritance, and the practice in mercan- 
 tile cases. The law for the recovery of debt — a matter 
 constantly arising between our Residency and the Nepalesc 
 Court — is stated as follows : " The creditor may attach 
 duns to the debtor, to follow and dun him wherever he 
 goes. The creditor may also stop the debtor wherever 
 he finds him ; take him home, confine, beat, and abuse 
 him ; so that he does him no serious injury in health or 
 limbs. Another answer states that the creditor ma)* seize 
 upon the debtor, confine him in his own house, place him 
 
 * Quoted in The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature 0/ Nepal, by Rajendra 
 Lala Mitra, p. vi. (Calcutta, 1882). 
 
 ' The second paper was read before tbc Bengal Asiatic Society on 
 December 7th, 1833. The two were finally reprinted as Some Account 
 of the Systems of Law and Police as rcco<^niscd in the State of Nepal 
 in Vol. II. of Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 211-250 (TrQbneri 
 1880).
 
 Il8 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 under the spout that discharfjes the filthy wash of the 
 house, and suchlike ; but he lias no further power over 
 him." ' 
 
 The thoroughness with which Ilodg.son went into the 
 subject may be seen from the answers to two single ques- 
 tions. I quote them in full, for they disclose the actual 
 administration of justice in a Hindu State undisturbed by 
 foreign influences. I know of no other record so trust- 
 worthy, because obtained from witnesses on the spot while 
 the system was still in full vigour, as to the procedure by 
 ordeal and torture which the British system had to super- 
 sede and eradicate in old-fashioned parts of India. Readers 
 who are afraid of native words may skip it, but to those 
 who can overcome their aversion to unfamiliar terms, it 
 will present a realistic picture not devoid of pathos. I 
 have tried to make the task as light as possible by giving 
 the English equivalents. 
 
 " Question XXXII. — Describe the forms of procedure in 
 a civil cause, step by step. 
 
 " Answer. — If a person comes into court and states that 
 another person owes him a certain sum of money, which he 
 refuses to pay, the hicJiari [or examining officer] of the 
 court immediately asks him for the particulars of the debt, 
 which he accordingly furnishes. The examining officer 
 then commands the jauiadar [head bailiff] of the court to 
 send one of his sepoys to fetch the debtor. The creditor 
 accompanies the sepoy to point out the debtor, and pays 
 him two annas per diem (then about threepence), until he 
 has arrested the latter and brought him into court. When 
 he is there produced, the ditlia [judge] - and examining 
 officers interrogate the parties face to face. The debtor is 
 asked if he acknowledges the debt alleged against him, and 
 
 ' Selections from the Records of tJic Govcrnmait of Bengal, Vol. 
 XXVII. ; Answer to Mr. Hodgson's Question No. XCIII., p. 227. 
 
 ' The dit'lia, or judge, decided; the bicharis, or examining officers, of 
 whom there were two to each court, conducted the preliminary proce- 
 dure. — Answer to Question XV.
 
 vii] ASSISTANT RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1825-1833 I 19 
 
 will immediately discharge it. The debtor may answer by 
 acknowledging the debt, and stating his willingness to pay 
 it as soon as he can collect the means, which he hopes to 
 do in a few days. 
 
 " In this case, the examining nftlccr will desire the 
 creditor to wait a few da>'s. The creditor may reply that 
 he cannot wait, having immediate need of the money ; 
 and if so, one of the chaprassis [orderlies] of the court 
 is attached to the debtor, with directions to see to the 
 producing of the mone)' in court by any means. The 
 debtor must then produce money or goods, or whatever 
 properly he has, and bring it into court. The judge and 
 examining officers, calling to their assistance three or 
 four merchants, proceed to appraise the goods produced 
 in satisfaction of the debt, and immctliately discharge it ; 
 nor can the creditor object to their appraisement of the 
 debtor's goods and chattels. In matters thus arranged, 
 that is, where the defendant admits the cause of action 
 to be valid, 5 per cent of the property litigated is taken 
 from the one party, and 10 per cent from the other, 
 and no more [as court-fees]. 
 
 " If the defendant, when produced in court in the 
 manner above described, denies instead of confessing 
 the debt, then the plaintiff's proofs are called for ; and 
 if he has only a simple note of hand unattested, or an 
 attested acknowledgment the witnesses to which are 
 dead, then the judge and examining officers interrogate 
 the plaintiff thus: 'This paper is of no use as evidence; 
 how do you propose to establish your claim ? ' The 
 plaintiff may answer : ' I lent the money to the father 
 of the defendant ; the note produced is in his handwriting, 
 and my claim is a just claiin.' Hereu{X)n the plaintilT is 
 required to pledge him.self formally to prasecute his claim 
 in the court in which he is, and in no other. The words 
 enjoining the plaintiff thus to gage himself arc AVr/" Vhapo ; 
 and the mode is by the plaintiff's taking a rupee in his 
 hand, which he closes, and strikes the ground, exclaiming
 
 120 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 at the same time, ' My claim is just, and I gage myself 
 to prove it so.' 
 
 " The defendant is then commanded to take up the 
 gage of the plaintiff, or to pledge himself in a similar 
 manner to attend the court duly to the conclusion of the 
 trial, which he does by formally denying the authenticity 
 of the document i)ruduccd against him, as well as the 
 validity of the debt ; and upon this denial he likewise 
 strikes the earth with his hand closed on a rupee. The 
 rupee of the plaintiff and that of the defendant, which are 
 called beri, are now deposited in court. The next step is 
 for the court to take the fee called karpan, or five rupees 
 from each party. The amount of both beri and karpan 
 is the perquisite of the various officers of the court, and 
 does not go to the Government. The giving of karpan by 
 the parties implies their desire to refer the dispute to the 
 decision of the ordeal ; and accordingly, as soon as the 
 karpan is paid down, the judge acquaints the Government 
 that the parties in a certain cause wish to undergo the 
 ordeal. The necessary order is thereupon issued from 
 the Darbar ; but when it has reached the court, the judge 
 and examining officers first of all exhort the parties to 
 come to an understanding and effect a settlement of their 
 dispute by some other means. If, however, they will not 
 consent, the trial is directed to proceed. 
 
 " The ordeal is called nyaya, and the form of it is as 
 follows : The names of the respective parties are inscribed 
 on two pieces of paper, which arc rolled up into balls, and 
 then have puja offered to them. From each party a fine 
 or fee of one rupee is taken : the balls are then affixed to 
 staffs of reed, and two annas more are taken from each 
 party. The reeds are then entrusted to two of the 
 Jiavildars [beadles] of the court to take to the Queen's 
 Tank ; and with the havildars, an examining officer of 
 the court, a Brahman, and the parties proceed thither, as 
 also two men of the C/iaviakhalak (or Chamara) caste.* 
 
 ' A low aboriginal caste, in India skinners and leather-workers. The
 
 VII.] ASSISTANT KESIDKNT IN NEPAL: 1825—1833. 121 
 
 " On arriving at the tank, the examining officer again 
 exhorts the parties to avoid the ordeal by adopting some 
 other mode of settling the business, the merits of which arc 
 only known to themselves. If they continue to insist on 
 the ordeal, the two havildars [beadles], each holding one of 
 the reeds, go, one to the east and the other to the west 
 side of the tank, entering the water about knee-deep. The 
 Brahman, the parties, and the CJiauiakhalaks, all at this 
 moment enter the water a little way ; and the Brahman 
 performs worship to Varuna in the name of the parties, 
 and repeats a sacred text, the meaning of which is that 
 mankind knows not what passes in the minds of each 
 other, but that all inward thoughts and past acts are 
 known to the gods Surya, Chandra, Varuna, and Yama ; 
 and that they will do justice between the parties in this 
 cause. 
 
 " When the piija is over, the Brahman gives the tilak ' 
 to the two Chainakhalaks, and says to them, ' Let the 
 champion of truth win, and let the false one's champion 
 lose ! ' This being said, the Brahman and the parties come 
 out of the water, and the CJuxviaklialaks separate, one 
 going to each place where the reed is erected. They then 
 enter the deep water, and at a signal given, both immerse 
 themselves in the water at the same instant. Whichever 
 of them first rises from the water, the reed nearest to him 
 is instantly destroyed, together with the scroll attached 
 to it. The other reed is carried back to the court, where 
 the ball of paper is opened, and the name read. If the 
 scroll bear the plaintiff's name, he wins the cause ; if it be 
 that of the defendant, the latter is victorious. 
 
 " The fine calledy//7/<?///7 is then paid by the winner, and 
 that called harhonrihy the loser; besides which, five rupees 
 
 presence of low castes at the ordeal was probably connected with the 
 idea of making the aboriginal gods witnesses to Uic ceremony, as the 
 Brahman represented the Hindu gods. 
 
 ' That is to say, he solemnly puts the sacred mark on their fore- 
 heads.
 
 122 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 arc demanded from tlic winner in return for a turban 
 which he gets, and the same sum, under the name of 
 sabhasiidd'ha (or purification of the court), from the loser. 
 The above four demands on the parties, viz. jtt'houriy 
 harhouri^pagri, and sabhasudd'ha, are Government taxes ; 
 and, exclusive of these, eight annas must be paid to the 
 viahafiias of the court, eight annas more to the kotwal, 
 eight more to the kuinJialnaikias, and, lastly, eight more 
 to the khardar, or registrar. In this manner multitudes 
 of causes are decided by nyo.ya (ordeal), when the parties 
 cannot be brought to agree upon the subject-matter of 
 dispute, and have neither documentary nor verbal evidence 
 to adduce." 
 
 "Question XXXIII. — Describe the forms of procedure 
 in a criminal cause, step by step. 
 
 " Answer. — If any one comes into court, and states that 
 such an one has killed such another by poison, sword, 
 dagger, or otherwise, the informant is instantly interro- 
 gated by the court thus : How ? Who ? When ? Before 
 whom? The Corpus delicti, where? etc., etc. He answers 
 by stating all these particulars according to his knowledge 
 of the facts ; adducing the names of the witnesses, or 
 saying that, though he has no other witnesses than himself 
 to the fact of murder, he pledges himself to prove it, or 
 abide the consequences of failure in the proof. This last 
 engagement, when tendered by the accuser, is immediately 
 reduced to writing, to bind him more effectually ; after 
 which, one or more sepoys of the court are sent with the 
 informant to secure the murderer, and produce him and 
 the testimony of the deed in court, which, when produced 
 accordingly, is followed by an interrogation of the accused. 
 
 " If the accused confesses the murder, there is no neces- 
 sity to call for evidence. But if he denies it, evidence is 
 then gone into ; and if the witnesses depose positively to 
 their having seen the accused commit the murder, the 
 latter is again asked what he has to say ; and if he still 
 refuses to confess, he is whipped until he does ; the con-
 
 vn.] ASSISTANT KESIDKNT IN NKI'AL : 1825—1833 1 23 
 
 fcssion, when obtained, is reduced to writing and attested 
 by the murderer, who is then put in irons and sent to 
 jail. 
 
 " Cases of theft, robbery, incest, etc., are also dealt with 
 in Nepal, and the convicts sent to prison. When the 
 number amounts to twenty or thirty, the dit'lia [judge] 
 makes out a calendar of their crimes, to which he appends 
 their confession, and a specification of the puni.shment 
 usually inflicted in such cases. This list the judge carries 
 to the Bhaiadar Sablui (Council of State), whence it is taken 
 by the Premier to the Prince, after the judge's allotment of 
 puni.shment to each convict has been ratified, or .some other 
 punishment substituted. 
 
 " The list, so altered or confirmed in the Council of State, 
 and referred by the Premier to the Prince, is as a matter 
 of form sanctioned by the latter, after which it is re- 
 delivered to the judge, who makes it over to the araz-bcgi. 
 The latter, taking the prisoners, the uiaha-iiaikias, and some 
 of the men of the Porya caste with him, proceeds to the 
 banks of the Bis/wn-mafi, where the sentence of the law is 
 inflicted by the hands of the poryas, and in the presence 
 of the araz-hci^ and the molm-iuxikias. Grave ofTcnces, 
 involving the penalty of life or limb, are thus treated. 
 With respect to mutual reviling and quarrels, false evi- 
 dence, false accu.sation of moral delinquency, and such- 
 like minor crimes and offences, punishment is apportioned 
 with reference to the caste of the offender or offenders." 
 
 Hodgson's work soon began to attract the attention of 
 the Foreign Office in Calcutta. In a letter to his sister we 
 have heard of one of his reports being handeil about with 
 approval by the Governor-General and the liishop. In 
 another he sends home " the Court of Directors' jiublic 
 thanks" for his papers on the laws anil institutions of 
 Nepal. I have dwelt on his labours as A.ssistant Resident 
 between 1825 and 1S33, because it was those labours which 
 gave him his strong grasp of Xcpalcsc affairs during his 
 next ten years as Resident. They show the spirit in which
 
 124 LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Hodgson carried out Mr. Buttcrworth Bayley's advice of 
 •" Go back to Nepal and master the subject in all its 
 phases." The reward which, when that advice was given, 
 Hodgson had not dared to look forward to, now fell to 
 him. At the age of thirt\-thrcc he became full Resident 
 in Nepal. 
 
 At one time, indeed, it seemed as if his good fortune 
 might have come even earlier. When the Honourable 
 Edward Gardner retired from the service in 1829, the 
 Governor-General appears to have considered the possi- 
 bility of appointing Hodgson as Gardner's immediate 
 successor. Hodgson had already distinguished himself 
 both by his official reports and by his contributions to 
 learned societies. Gardner recognised his capacity, although 
 he possibly thought his abilities greater than his experience. 
 Nor would the good word of distinguished officers at hcad- 
 quartcns — of Buttcrworth Bayley, Herbert Maddock, and 
 D'Oyly — be wanting, while the Governor-General's decision 
 hung in the balance. 
 
 Lord William Bentinck took a course which was both 
 wise and kind. He realised that Hodgson could not live 
 on the Indian plains, and that Nepal was almost his only 
 chance of a career in India. But Hodgson at twenty-nine 
 was too young to be appointed permanent Resident in 
 Nepal. Lord William Bentinck knew that, if he chose a 
 middle-aged political of the ordinary type for the post, the 
 officer would stay in it till the end of his service, and practi- 
 cally put an end to Hodgson's prospects. So he gave 
 Hodgson a chance of proving his fitness for the eventual 
 succession by allowing him to officiate for about eighteen 
 months, and then appointed a Resident whose stay in 
 Nepal would be almost necessarily a short one. 
 
 Sir Herbert Maddock was at that time midway in his 
 brilliant career. He had been Governor-General's Agent 
 for the Sagar and Narbada Territories, and in 1829 rose 
 to the supremely important post of Resident with the 
 King of Oudh at Lucknow. liut his health had been
 
 vii.] ASSISTANT KESIDKNT IN NKPAL : 1825—1833. I25 
 
 severely strained, and in 1S31 he accepted for a time the less 
 onerous duties and more healthy climate of the Residency in 
 Nepal. Lord William Bentinck foresaw that that position 
 could be only a brief rcstint^-placc in Maddock's upward 
 flight. As a matter of fact Maddock, havini; satisfied him- 
 self that Hodgson might be safely trusted with the political 
 management of Nepal, took furlough to Kurope on January 
 2 1st, 1S33, antl M(jtl;^'son succeeded him as Rcsi(!v-nt.
 
 [126] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RESIDENT IN KEPAL. 
 1S33 TO THE FALL OF BHIM SEN IN 1839. 
 
 HODGSON brought to his duties as Resident the 
 convictions which he had slowly formed during 
 the preceding twelve years in regard to our policy towards 
 Nepal. He was now to labour throughout the remaining 
 ten years of his Indian service to give effect to those 
 convictions. He believed that if wc wished to convert 
 Nepal from a sulky and somewhat dangerous neighbour 
 into a useful, even if not very cordial, ally, four distinct 
 lines of action ought to be adopted and steadily pursued. 
 Let me for a moment recapitulate. 
 
 In the first place, he held that an outlet should be found 
 for the surplus military population of Nepal by enlisting 
 the fighting castes into the Company's forces. Hodgson 
 was thus the projector of the modern system of Gurkha 
 regiments, as distinguished from the old local corps — the 
 system of regular recruitment from the Nepalese high- 
 landers which has received so important a development 
 in our own times, and which now supplies very valuable 
 materials to our Indian army. 
 
 In the second place, he believed that a new and healthy 
 direction might be given to the energies of the people at 
 large by fostering a Central Asian trade with India. He 
 hoped, as I have mentioned, that Nepal, instead of con- 
 tinuing a barrier between India and High Asia, might 
 become the meeting-ground for the merchants from both 
 sides. He perceived that the commercial predominance
 
 CHAP. VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. 1 27 
 
 of Russia in inner Asia depended on her command of 
 the caravan route ; and he was the first British diplomatist 
 who worked out a detailed plan for cutting; the Russian 
 route in the middle, and for diverting the Chinese and 
 Tibetan land-trade by the shorter road to our Indian 
 frontier, I'id Nepal. 
 
 With a view to effecting this he sought, in the third 
 place, to come to clear understanding with the Nepalesc 
 Court as to the conditions under which commerce might 
 enter and pass through the country. He also endeavoured 
 to procure a definite legal status for British- Indian traders, 
 and some security for their obtaining redress from the 
 Ncpalese tribunals. In the fourth place, he tried by a 
 fair settlement of frontier questions, and by the completion 
 and maintenance of a well-marked line of boundary pillars, 
 to get rid of a chronic cause of umbrage in our relations 
 with Nepal. 
 
 These objects Hodgson never lost sight of We also 
 must bear them in minil if wc arc to understand his 
 attitude throughout the long period of palace intrigues, 
 revolutions, and massacres on which Nepal was about 
 to enter. The Queen-Regent, who had ruled conjointly 
 with Bhim Sen, the Prime Minister, since 1805, died in 
 1832. The young King was only eighteen years old when 
 his grandmother pas.sed from the scene, and he was back- 
 ward for his age.* I ler death seemed for a time to leave 
 the Prime Minister completely master of the situation, 
 lihim Sen's ambition, to which her ro)'al prestige had 
 acted as a counterpoise if not always as a check, now 
 acknowledged no control. 
 
 It was at this juncture that Hodgson in the beginning 
 of the following year, 1S33, became full Resident of Nepal. 
 
 ' In the Secret Consultations of the Govemmcnt of India he is 
 spoken of as sixteen. But the Nepalesc chronology shows that he 
 was two years old at the death of his father and his own nominal 
 accession in November 1S16. - Native records of Nepal, translated from 
 an MS., and printed in Dr. Wright's His'oty of .Wpa!, p. 284. Ed. 
 1877.
 
 128 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 The Prime Minister had for loni; studied the character 
 and aims of the new British representative, and seemed 
 anxious to concih'ate Ilodj^son's goodwill by con- 
 cessions which did not affect his own undivided power 
 within Nepal, but which he knew that Hodgson had at 
 heart. One of these objects was the final settlement of 
 the long-standing boundary disputes. After the war in 
 1816 we had made over the Western Tarai or Xepalese 
 borderland to the King of Oudh, but all efforts during 
 the following fourteen years had failed to procure a 
 demarcation of the frontier. When Hodgson was Acting 
 Resident of Nepal in 1830, the Prime Minister yielded 
 to the pressure which he brought to bear for a final adjust- 
 ment, and the boundary line of the Western Tarai was at 
 length completely marked out by a British officer in the 
 presence of deputies from both States.' 
 
 The Eastern Tarai wc partly kept in our own hands 
 after the war of 1816, and partly restored to Nepal. But 
 here again Bhim Sen had managed to defeat all efforts for 
 a complete demarcation ; and here also he displayed a 
 willingness to meet what he knew to be one of Hodgson's 
 special aim.s. Soon after Hodg.son became full Resident 
 in 1833, the Prime Minister concluded a final agreement, 
 and this old source of frontier quarrels was clo.sed. 
 
 The official records had noted, during Hodgson's Acting 
 Rcsidentship ( 1 829 — 1 83 1 ), " a gradual cessation of su.spicion 
 and distrust between the Nepalese and the people of the 
 plains of India, and the increase of commerce, especially 
 in the importation of Indian and European articles, to the 
 exclusion of those from Bhutan and China." The Nepalese 
 chiefs and Bhim Sen himself began to show " a growing in- 
 clination " " for British luxuries and customs." ^ The Prime 
 
 ' Secret Consultations, No. 74, of January i8th, 1841. — htdia Office 
 MSS. 
 
 * Secret Consultations (MSS.) of the Government of India, No. 74, 
 of January i8th, 1841. These papers, under the title of Excerpts 
 from the Letters 0/ the Resident at Kathntandu to Government from
 
 viii.] KKSIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. 129 
 
 Minister also disclosed a willingness to meet Hodgson's 
 wish for some international arrangement which would 
 really ensure the delivering up of offenders and eventu- 
 ally lead to a legal status for British traders in Nepal. 
 An unfortunate incident during Sir Herbert Madd(x:k's 
 tenure of office in 1832 ".suspended for a time the ne- 
 gotiations," and it was not until some years after Hodg- 
 son became full Resident in 1833 tli.it anything practical 
 was effected. 
 
 But while the Prime Minister was willing to conciliate 
 Hodgson's known desire for the extension of trade and for 
 the settlement of btjuiulary disputes, he used his undivided 
 power after the death of the Queen-Regent to isolate the 
 Briti.sh Residency even more rigidly than before. Shortl}' 
 after becoming Resident Hodgson thought it his duty to 
 lay the situation plainly before the Government of India- 
 He him.self somewhat sadly acknowledges that he is 
 " bound to Nepal by choice and necessit\', by my feeble 
 health and my peculiar pursuits, and [by] having neither 
 a wish nor a hof)c beyond what I |>ossess." * Yet he firmly 
 tells his Government that a British Residency in Nepal 
 was little more than a sham under the conditions which 
 had for years been imposed upon it. " I am decidedly of 
 opinion that it were better to put an end to the ludicrous 
 mockery of Chinese foreign polity which the Minister has 
 endeavoured to play off against the Residency since its 
 establishment here."' On a recent occasion, when Mr. 
 Maddock sent the Residency Munshi on a message of 
 courtesy to the Raja, the Munshi was refused admi.ssion 
 to the Prince's presence. " He was ke|)t." says the official 
 
 1830/9 1840. by Mr. J. K. Tickcll. the Assistant Kcsidcnt. uxre aftcr- 
 ward.s printed for the use of the Foreign I)epartm«-nt. But I had not 
 se«n this printed m'-morandum when I examined t)ie .\!S. Cunsullatiotvs 
 in the India Offirc. 
 
 ' Resident of Nepal to Politiral Se«Tctar)' to Government of India, 
 dated Jimc 3rd, t^y—/nJta Office A/SS. 
 
 » /dVw. 
 
 9
 
 130 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 narrative, " in a remote part of the palace, and required to 
 give his message to some people of no condition." * 
 
 Among other means of isolation, the Prime Minister 
 increased the restrictions always placed on the officers of 
 the Residency as regards excursions in the neighbourhood. 
 This was carried so far as to incite the peasants to give 
 trouble to the Resident or members of his staff while out 
 shooting. Hodgson did not condescend to officially 
 remonstrate for such petty annoyances, but he hit upon 
 a rather ingenious device, and one which struck the 
 Oriental imagination. " I sent my two last and best setters 
 to the Minister's young son with a message that, as I had 
 given up shooting in the fields, he was welcome to the 
 dogs and would find them excellent ones." The Minister 
 sent to say how sorry he was that his friend was no longer 
 enjoying his usual sport, and asked the reason. Hodgson 
 gently let the grounds of his annoyance appear in the 
 conversation which followed, without laying stress upon 
 them. The Prime Minister, who had a hill-man's sense 
 of humour, saw that if he was to render the new Resident's 
 position isolated it must be by some less paltry plan, and 
 for the moment all was geniality and goodwill. The 
 Governor-General, however, on hearing of these insolent 
 restrictions, directed the Resident to make reprisals by 
 refusing passports to Nepalese subjects proceeding to the 
 Indian plains. 
 
 Meanwhile the Prime Minister began to discover that 
 the death of his old ally and mistress, the Queen-Regent, 
 was not an unmixed gain. Official appointments in Nepal, 
 from the highest downwards, were nominally for twelve 
 months only. The theory was that all public offices were, 
 ipso facto, vacated each year and had to be formally re- 
 newed. This meant a change of the whole official body, 
 or of as many of the officials as the ruling authority chose, 
 at the annual ceremony of the Panjani, to exclude. Bhim 
 Sen, being the ruling authority, had had his Prime- 
 
 ' Secret Consultations, No. 24, of March 5th, 1833. — India Office MSS.
 
 i 
 
 BH.M StN THAPPA- PREMIER or N , p ;, , 
 /tTAT 62 .
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT I.\ NEPAL: 1S33— 1839. 131 
 
 Ministership renewed as a matter of course during the 
 previous twenty-eight years from 1.S05. But he took 
 advantage of the custom to render the civil and mihtary 
 services entirely dependent on his favour, ;ind removable 
 at his will. There was, however, a d)'nastic party of 
 "royal kinsmen"' in Nepal whose claims the Queen- 
 Regent had wisely respected. Her death .set free the 
 Prime Minister from this restraint, and he promptly used 
 his freedom. " So heavy a hand has Bhim Sen for the 
 last thirty years laid - on the Nepalese chiefs," says the 
 official record for 1833, "that, palpable and shameful as is 
 his usurpation for years past of their rights, and now of the 
 Raja's also, not one of them dares confront him openly."^ 
 
 It had not occurred to Bhim Sen that the custom of 
 annually vacating all offices at the Fanjani could be ap- 
 plied to his own. He was now to find that the death of 
 the clear-headed old Queen was allowing new forces to 
 spring into existence with which he would have to reckon. 
 
 Hodgson saw the change coming, and at once realised 
 what it meant alike to the Prime Minister and to the 
 British position at Kathmandu. He firmly but courteously- 
 insisted on his Munshi being admitted to the Raja's pre- 
 sence, when sent on business from the Residency direct to 
 the Prince. Without the right of direct audience it was 
 impossible to know whether the communications of the 
 British Government ever reached the Raja's ears. Within 
 a month after he became Resident he submitted a confi- 
 dential letter in his own handwriting to the Governor- 
 General on "the .state of parties in Nepal." Having 
 described the relations of the Resident to the Raja 
 with whom our treaty was made in 1816, he proceeds as 
 follows : — ' 
 
 ' Generally but somewhat loosely spoken of as "tlie Ciiauntrias,' of 
 whom we shall presently hear more. 
 
 ' Tlie word is written Uvi'd in the MS. Consultations. 
 
 ' Resident of Nepal to Political Secretary to Government of India, 
 December 19th, 1833. — India Offict- MSS. 
 
 * The Resident to the Political Secrctarj- to Government, dated
 
 132 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 " A long minority followed his death, which minority 
 has just expired, and durini]^ it all our intercourse has been 
 with the Minister who, it seems, has grown so great by 
 virtue of two minorities (with but a short interval between 
 them), and thirty years of almost uninterrupted sovereign 
 sway, that he cannot now subside into a subject and is 
 determined to keep the Raja a cypher, as in his nonage, 
 both with respect to power and to observance also as far 
 as possible. Almost every office is filled with Bhim Sen's 
 creatures ; he and his family monopolise all the loaves and 
 fishes. Mere children ' of his kindred hold high commands. 
 The ancient families of the Pandis and others who, by the 
 constitution of this State, are entitled to share its counsels 
 and exercise its highest offices, are excluded almost wholly 
 from the one and other, besides being treated with habitual 
 contumely by Matabar Singh, Bhim Sen's overbearing and 
 heedless nephew. 
 
 " The Raja is hemmed into his palace, beyond which he 
 cannot stir unaccompanied by the Minister, and then only 
 to the extent of a short ride or drive. Even within the 
 walls of his palace, the Minister and his brother both 
 reside, the latter in the especial capacity of 'dry nurse ' to 
 His Highness. 
 
 "Last year the Raja desired to make an excursion into 
 the lower hills to shoot. He was prevented by all sorts of 
 idle tales and obstructions. This year he proposed visit- 
 ing his palace at Nayakot, the winter residence of his 
 fathers ; again he was prevented as before. Of power he 
 has not a particle, nor seems to wish it. Of patronage he 
 has not a fraction ; and is naturally galled at this, as well 
 as at being sentinelled all round by Bhim Sen's creatures 
 even within his own abode, at being debarred from almost 
 
 February l8th, 1833. The letter is too long for quotation in full, and I 
 omit passages and proper names not essential to understanding the 
 general situation. — hidia Office MSS. 
 
 ' E.^^. Colonel Shamsher Singh, aged 13, and Colonel Bahadur Jang, 
 aged 12 years.
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833— 1839. 133 
 
 all liberty of locomotion, and of intercourse with the 
 Sirdars and gentry of the country. 
 
 " In segregating him from his own gentry very plain and 
 gross means arc used ; in segregating him from us, it is 
 necessary to be more decorous and indirect!)- to effect thi: 
 object. Non-intercourse is called the established etiquette 
 of the Court. All sorts of idle rumours and fictions are 
 employed to alarm him in respect both to our personal 
 qualities and public designs. If he would go into the 
 Tarai, he is told that the l^'eringhis will .seize the oppor- 
 tunity of taking the valley whilst the troops are in 
 honorary attendance upon him. Docs he propose visitin" 
 Nayakot? He is informed that the Resident in his com- 
 pany will spy out the nakedness of the land. 
 
 " The Feringhis (it is eternally rung into his ear) have 
 seized and conquered all [India] : they are the ablest and 
 most designing of men ; they have been kept eighteen 
 years from devouring Nepal .solely by the unparalleled 
 vigilance and energy of Bhim Sen. All pleasant com- 
 munications from and with the Residency are studiou^^ly 
 thrown into the shade. All unpleasant ones, however 
 trivial, are studiously glared upon the eyes of the Raja 
 and of the other chiefs, not a soul among whom nor any 
 attendant of theirs or of the Raja's being suffered to come 
 near the Residency and learn the simple verity. And in 
 this state of things any fiction, however gross, relative to 
 our characters or views ma\' be made to tell more or less 
 with the naturally proud and suspicious Sirdars, and with 
 the hopeless little recluse who occupies the throne. 
 
 " The Raja has been purposely so trained as to possess 
 little energy of body or mind, so that had not his wife 
 turned out an ambilious woman he would probably have 
 submitted quietly to political nonentity, or but for her 
 vigilance have been spirited into his grave .as soon as he 
 had begot a succes.sor. 
 
 "Hut his wife is both spirited and clever, and she is 
 incessantly upbraiding him for suffering himself to be
 
 134 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 incwcd up in his palace and rendered a mere idol {inatcr 
 kodeota) for occasional exposure to the worship of the 
 multitude. The Raja has alrcad\- learnt from her to feci 
 indignant at his personal insignificance and at this state of 
 surveillance and restraint, and it .seems probable that the 
 continued operation of these expostulations, backed by 
 hints from his nobles and chiefs, will ere long make his 
 political nonentity especially in respect to patronage 
 equally galling to him. Perhaps from prudence, much 
 more likely from habitual dependence, the Raja has as yet 
 most charily and slowly manifested signs of disgust, and 
 his wife, irritated by his slowness, has, it is said, avowed to 
 his friends her resolution to claim the rule of the kingdom 
 in his name as the mother of two male children, in case he 
 cannot soon be moved to assert either his personal or 
 political liberty. 
 
 " During the Panjani just terminated, there was however 
 a sort of pause, and the I^emier was reinvested with 
 the ensigns of his office. Other trivial indications have 
 appeared within the last twelve months, and if they could 
 be relied on as evidence of a deliberate design to strip 
 Bhim Sen of his power, the counsels which dictated this 
 cautious mode of procedure must be acknowledged to be 
 consummately prudent. P'or Bhim Sen and his family 
 monopolise the whole military command of the kingdom 
 with the exception of the province of Sali. Almost every 
 office is filled with the Minister's creatures ; and his long 
 and exclusive direction of affairs has denuded the opposite 
 party of all experience as well as all power and patronage. 
 
 '• Nevertheless no one knows better than Bhim Sen 
 that, though the soldiery have been taught to look to 
 him alone for pay and employ, they arc too national not 
 to abandon him at once for their Prince, if the Raja 
 (as his grandfather in similar circumstances actually did) 
 possessed the nerve to make a direct appeal to them 
 against the Minister. And however Bhim Sen may have 
 fortified himself by alliances, he cannot but be sensible
 
 viii] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. I3S 
 
 that the Gurkhali olif^archy possess a weight of adverse 
 right which needs only to be put in motion by the sovereign 
 himself to crush him and his family to pieces. 
 
 " Lastly, the members of Bhim Sen's family are not 
 cordially united with him, except Matabar Singh and 
 he is too headstrong to be trusted. 
 
 " All these circumstances have combined to render 
 Hhiin Sen of late provokingly captious and suspicious 
 towards us ; lest, 1 suppose, the Raja should perchance 
 be undeceived as to the figments palmed on him relative 
 to our personal impracticability and political dishonesty. 
 The Minister, in defiance of custom alike and of decency, 
 would now restrict still further the very little direct 
 commerce ever maintained between the Resident and 
 the Maharaja. 
 
 " The Minister is a great man and an able one, whose 
 talents and energy constitute our best stay. Kver>'thing 
 consistent with rectitude and the maintenance of a neutral 
 policy .should be willingly conceded to him. Hut there 
 is too little justice in his monopoly of all power and all 
 observance on the one hand, and on the other too much 
 fraud in the use he makes of the utter ignorance of us 
 to which he has reduced the opposite party, including 
 the Prince and the mass of the gentry, to suffer us either 
 in equity or in policy to allow him just now to raise fresh 
 obstacles in the wa\' of the very trivi.il intercour.se we 
 have ever maintained directly with the Court. With 
 prudence and tact we may gradually and noiselessly recur 
 to the model of Mr. Gardner's and the late Raja's inter- 
 course, at least in matters of form, and must leave its 
 adoption in matters (if business to events and the pleasure 
 of the Uarbar. 
 
 " Distressing indeed it may be to witness the subordinate 
 condition of the sovereign and the almost degraded lot of 
 the gentry ; but the aff.iir is their own, not ours. \Vc 
 can but follow their movements, and are only concerned 
 not quietly to acquiesce in a yet more restricted intercourse
 
 l}6 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 with ourselves, because usa<;c is against the further 
 restriction, and because an unfair use would be made of 
 it to our injury. 
 
 " The spirit of the Royal and Ministerial parties may 
 be conceived from the fact that the Raja, having fallen ill 
 last rains, resolutely and against all possible exertions of 
 influence refused to employ the Court physician, from an 
 avowed fear of being poisoned or otherwi.sc made away 
 with, as he said his father and grandfather had been, by 
 Bhim Sen's procurement. The quarrels of the faculty and 
 the disgrace of the Court physician made the matter 
 public ; and I am sorry to say the general opinion was 
 that the Raja's allegation was true in all its parts both 
 as respected himself and his father. The physician is a 
 creature of the Minister's, and has now held the office of 
 Raj Vaidya for thirty yeans. 
 
 " Parties animated by such sentiments towards each 
 other as the above anecdote reveals must be warily 
 avoided. Whilst we maintain a cordial intercourse with 
 Bhim Sen so long as he can keep his seat propria vi^^ore, 
 we must endeavour to act so as, despite the non-intercourse 
 chicane, to convince all parties that we are sincerely and 
 utterly indifferent and impartial, and arc disposed to 
 cultivate equally friendly relations with all or any which 
 may stand forth as the constituted authority. 
 
 " I have, etc. 
 
 " (Signed) B. H. HODGSON, Resident. 
 
 "Nepal Residency, February i8//r, 1S33. 
 
 " P.S. — This letter has been copied for obvious reasons 
 with my own hand, and I need hardly say it .should be 
 placed for some time in special deposit, out of the reach of 
 all clerks and office people. — (Signed) B. H. H., Resident." 
 
 I have quoted from this confidential report at some 
 length, for it not only sets forth with clearness the political 
 situation with which Hodg.son had to deal, but also the 
 principles which from the beginning and throughout the
 
 VIII.] KESIDKNT IN NKPAL: 1833—1839. 1 37 
 
 whole ten years of his Residenlship regulated his own 
 conduct. His aim was to secure that the communications 
 of his Government should reach in an ungarbled form the 
 responsible head of the Nepalcsc State. As the Raja had 
 now entered on his twentieth year (1S33-34J, he was held 
 to have attained his majority, and however he miijht be 
 kept under the influence of the Prime Minister it was with 
 the Raja himself that the British Government claimed the 
 right to deal. 
 
 Before the year 1S33 passed Hodgson's estimate of the 
 situation was justified by the event. The Raja, bac!<id 
 by his chief wife, began to assert his authority, and an 
 opposition to Bhim Sen organised within the palace was 
 eagerly joined by the nobility outside. The elder of the 
 Raja's two wives made advances to 1 lodgson with a view 
 to obtaining the support of the Residency again.st the 
 Minister ; but to all such overtures, fruvn whatever side, 
 Hodgson turned a deaf ear. The Raja in vain urged the 
 Prime Minister to give up some of his offices as sops to 
 the opposition. The l\injani of 1833, or annual vacating 
 of offices which Bhim Sen had used so long and so 
 effectively against his opponents, was now turned against 
 himself The Raja let the festival go past without re- 
 appointing him, but also without nominating any one in 
 his place. All public business remained in abeyance, and 
 although after a time the Raja reluctantly reappointed 
 Bhim Sen as I'rime Minister, it was felt that a new era 
 had begun in Nepalcsc politics and in the Nepalesc 
 relations with the British power. 
 
 Kach party in the State commenced to intrigue for 
 support from without. At the end of 1833 Hodgson hatl 
 to report the arrival of a .secret letter from the Sikh ruler 
 Ranjit Singh "which was deemed to be too important to 
 be entrusted to the perusal of the Court Munshi." ' Ncw> 
 also reached Nepal of .1 projected invasion of India by 
 
 ' Tho Kcsidcnt to the I'olitical Secretary to Govenimcnt, dated 
 Dcccmhrr i itli, iK;v -fmiii il-tur \fSS.
 
 138 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Persia and Russia. Forthwith the Nepalese Court des- 
 patched "an experienced spy" to Lahore and Teheran, 
 and opened up clandestine negotiations with several of the 
 great landholders within our own frontier. The rumoured 
 Russian invasion of India proved to be merely a rumour ; 
 but a confederacy between Nepal and the Sikhs — the two 
 Hindu powers who retained their independence on our 
 north and north-western frontier — opened up a vista of 
 dangerous contingencies. 
 
 In 1834 a fresh outburst of military aggressiveness took 
 place in Nepal on the report of " our having marched the 
 whole of our available force to the westward against Man 
 Singh of Jodhpur, and thereby having left our territories 
 on the Nepal frontier unprotected." " The Darbar," 
 Hodgson reported, " as far as Bhim Sen could influence 
 its sentiments, would hail the demonstration with joy, and 
 would be ready to second it the moment such a course 
 could be taken with any degree of prudence." ^ " This 
 feeling, however, was quickly crushed by the news of the 
 capitulation of Jodhpur." The barometer of Nepalese 
 hostility against us, as he pithily puts it, rises or falls with 
 each rumour of our being in trouble with other States. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the war party was 
 the one permanent party in Nepal. As I have already 
 explained, all the non-servile population (except the 
 Brahmans) were hereditary soldiers whose only career was 
 arms. An appeal to the military instincts of the Nepalese 
 was, therefore, always a popular appeal. From 18 16 to 
 1832 Bhim Sen supported by the old Queen-Regent 
 had held undisputed sway, and he had made only such 
 moderate concessions to the national military proclivities 
 as might keep him on fair terms with his countrymen while 
 pursuing his own ends. But in the struggle for the Prime- 
 Ministership which began to develop after the death of the 
 Queen-Regent in 1832, not only he but every one of his 
 
 ' The Resident to the Political Secretarj' to the Government of India, 
 dated December 19th, 1833. — India Office MSS.
 
 viii.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. I39 
 
 rivals had to court the aid of the military c.istcs. The 
 British Residency was the centre of the opposite or peace 
 influences. Hhim Sen had experienced a British war, and 
 as long as he was left to himself he was resolved not to 
 repeat the experience. lie had therefore, while .secured 
 by the prestige of the old Queen-Regent, only used the 
 war party as a convenience. He now found that his rivals 
 were bidding for the support of the war party in eager 
 earnest. 
 
 It .soon became a race as to who should gratify with 
 most disregard to ulterior consequences the war instincts 
 of the ruling castes. This state of things lasted, amid 
 revolutions and massacres, from the death of the Queen- 
 Regent in 1832 down to the establi-shment of Jang Baha- 
 dur's power in 1845, when, by a crowning butchery, Nepal 
 started once again under the rule of an absolute Prime 
 Minister. During the intermediate thirteen years the 
 war party was the supreme part>' in Xcpal. Throughout 
 the first ten and most aggressive years it fell to Hodgson's 
 lot to maintain peace. 
 
 Bhim Sen's appeal to the martial spirit of the chiefs for 
 a time brought him fresh strength. In spite of the Raja's 
 failing support and of the open hostility of his principal 
 queen, the commencement of 1834 disclosed "Bhim Sen 
 and his family in the possession of every provincial 
 command throughout Nepal, with the exception of the 
 government of Doti, which was held by a Chauntria or 
 collateral member of the Royal I'amily." ' The Prime 
 Minister accordingly began the year in no mood for 
 arrangements with a view to promote commerce with 
 India or to secure a legal status to British subjects trading 
 in Nepal. Negotiations went on nevertheless, for Bhim 
 
 • Secret Consultations, No. 74, of Jiitniary iSth, 1841. ///<//// Office 
 AfSS. Exccrpls from the lu-ttcrs of the Resident at Ktithrtumdu to 
 Gvx'tmmcnt from 1830 to 1S40, compiled by the Assistant Resident 
 Mr. J. R. Tickcll, and forwartlcd by tlie Resident R. H. Hodgson, to 
 T. H. Maddock, Secretary to tlic Government of India.
 
 140 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Sen shrewdly .surmised that he might ultimately have to 
 look to British support. Xor was Hodgson without hope 
 that he on his side might utilise this incipient sense of 
 weakness to secure better terms for Indians trading in 
 Nepal. 
 
 The discussions as to the British boundary line pro- 
 gressed. But negotiations for delivering up robbers who 
 had fled from our districts into Nepal proved fruitless, 
 while those for an international judicial procedure remained 
 at a dead-lock. The Nepalese did not object to British 
 subjects being tried according to our procedure, but they 
 insisted that in certain cases the punishment should be 
 according to theirs. Thus a Gurkha soldier " should take 
 the same vengeance on a British subject as he was per- 
 mitted by the laws of his country [to take] on a Nepalese, 
 if convicted of adulterous intercourse with his wife ; i.e. 
 cut his head off on the earliest opportunity. The incom- 
 patibility of this clause with our ideas of retributive justice," 
 adds the report somewhat magniloqucntly, " suspended for 
 a time the negotiation." 
 
 Hodgson was more successful in his attempts to arrange 
 a commercial treaty with Nepal. As the year 1834 went 
 on, Bhim Sen received another hint that his supremacy 
 was on the wane, and he began to realise more clearly that 
 he might need the Resident's support. The balance 
 accordingly swung back in favour of Hodgson's projects 
 of a closer union of interests between India and Nepal. 
 In November the Nepalese Court finally agreed to the draft 
 of a commercial treaty with the British Government 
 which, although not all that Hodgson desired, marked an 
 important step towards it. A moderate customs tariff 
 WcLs to be established, Nepal with characteristic haughti- 
 ness claiming a difference in her favour. Speedy justice 
 was to be rendered to merchants in ca.se of fiscal extor- 
 tions. Above all, appeals in such cases were to be referred 
 through the Resident.^ Hodgson was able to forward the 
 
 ' The Nepalese proposals ran as follows: ist. The produce and
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. I4I 
 
 treaty for consideration by liis Government in March 1835. 
 and althour^h not then accepted, it furnished a basis for a 
 somewhat improved modus vivi'fuii between the Resident 
 and the Nepalesc Court. 
 
 Hodg.son also took advantat^e of the Prime Minister's 
 oscillation towards a better understanding; with the British 
 to seek redress for a long-standing currency grievance. 
 Till then Nepal had refused to allow the re-export of any 
 British-Indian coin that once cro.ssed its frontier. Our 
 high-standard rupees, when paid in Nepal, were swept 
 into the mint and recast in the Nepalese coinage, which 
 contained so much alloy as to preclude its passing current 
 even in the British districts close to the border. The 
 Nepalesc merchants had therefore no currency in \\hich 
 they could pay for Ikitish imports, and such imports had 
 cither to be bartered for Nepalese products, or adjusted 
 by the secret illegal conveyance of British rupees out of 
 Nepal. This impediment to international commerce 
 Hodgson now tried to remove, but had yet to bide his 
 time. Nepal still refused to j>ermit the re-export of any 
 
 manufactures of Nepal and Tibet to pay a duty of 4 per cent 
 Kuldar, lui valorem, in the British provinces ; and British and Hindustan 
 produce, an im[Hirt duty at Nepal of 5 per cent .Muhindra Mulli 
 rupees, ad valorem, accordiiiK to the market rates in Nepal. 2nd. No 
 other or further duty to be paid in cither Slate on any conditions. 
 3rd. The entire duty above-mentioned to l)e levied and paid at once. 
 4th. Proposes a limited number of Custom-Houses in either State, of 
 which a list is given, seventeen in Britisli India and twenty-one in 
 Nepal. 5th. Provides for the punishment of any Customs Officers 
 infringing the provisions of Clause 2. 6tli. .Speedy justice to be 
 available to merclianls of either .State on any ground of complaint 
 arising from extortion, etc., of Customs OfHcers in British India or 
 Nepal. 7th. Appeals from the decisions of tiie cnUectors ot Customs 
 in either Stale to be referred through the Resident. 8th. Lists of the 
 produce of either State to Iw prepared and authenticated by the 
 CfOvemor-Gencral and Raja of Nepal, ami goods hitherto free of dut)- 
 to remain so. 9th. The treaties of 1792 and 1801 A.n. to be considcreu 
 rescinded. — Excerpts from the letters of the Resuient aS Kathmatuiu to 
 the Goi'eniment of India, from 1830 to 1840, compiled by Mr. J. R 
 TickcU, para. 18.
 
 142 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chak 
 
 British- Indian coinage that once passed its Customs' 
 line. 
 
 While these negotiations were going on, Bhim Sen 
 received the first unmistakable warning of his coming 
 downfall. lie represented the great Nepalesc house of 
 the Thappas, which he had raised to supremacy on the 
 ruins of another powerful family the Kala Pandis. The 
 Pandis had been all-powerful at the beginning of the 
 century, and it was with Damodar Pandi as Prime Minister 
 that our envoy Captain Knox treated in 1801. Knox 
 described Damodar Pandi as a man " possessing a plain 
 sober understanding, moderation with great firmness, void 
 of artifice, and as a soldier unrivalled in Nepal for 
 gallantry and conduct." ' He and his house were soon 
 afterwards destroyed by Bhim Sen. The murder of the 
 King in 1805 left the Oucen-Rcgent and Bhim Sen in 
 absolute power, and the Pandis broken by beheadings, 
 exile, and confiscation. During thirty years the latter did 
 not dare to reassert themselves, and the chief rivals of 
 Bhim Sen since the Queen-Regent's death in 1832 had been 
 those of his own household. His younger brother Ranbir 
 Singh ingratiated himself with the boy-King, says Hodg- 
 son, as " the constant attendant on his childhood," and 
 on the death of the Queen-Regent he became General 
 Commandant of the Nepal Army. Not content with this 
 important office, he incited the young King to join with 
 him in ousting his elder brother Bhim Sen from the Prime- 
 Ministership, in the hope of securing the reversion for 
 himself. 
 
 Two years of family intrigue followed, in which a 
 nephew of the Prime Minister, Matabar Singh, also came 
 to the front as a staunch supporter of the Prime Minister 
 in his efforts to curb Ranbir's ambition. If Ranbir enjoyed 
 the secret favour of the King, Matabar had the enthusiastic 
 support of the troops, with whom his youth and gallant 
 
 ' Quoted in Campbell's official memorandum drawn up under 
 Hodgson's supervision in 1837, pp. 9, 17, etc.
 
 VIII.] RKSIDKNT IN NKPAL: 1833— 1839. '43 
 
 bcarini; made him a favourite. In 1834 he received a 
 check through the influence of Ranbir. liut "such was the 
 popularity he enjoyed among the Gurkha soldiery that on 
 his resigning the command of the two battalions formerly 
 under him, the whole of them with the exception of two 
 hundred men laid down their arms, refusing to serve under 
 any other leader." ' The King became afraid, tried to con- 
 ciliate Matabar, and in November 1834 appointed him 
 General Commanding the Eastern Districts with 3,000 
 troop.s. So far the old Prime Minister and his loyal 
 nephew had held their own in the family intrigue. 
 
 The year 1S34 was not to close, however, without reveal- 
 ing that the Prime Minister had enemies very different 
 from those of his own house. The heir of the Pandis, 
 whom Bhim Sen had ruined and exiled in the early years 
 of the century, suddenly came forward, and petitioned the 
 King for the restitution of the family honours and estates. 
 " This sudden revival of claims nearly extinct for thirty- 
 one years, and after so complete an extirpation as the Kala 
 Pandis had undergone through means of the very man 
 now paramount in the State, struck all with astoni.shmcnt.""^ 
 The bt)ldness of the measure, together with the favourable 
 manner in which the Raja received the petition, seemed to 
 the Resident to indicate .some .secret influence in the 
 palace. As a matter of fact the Pandis had secured the 
 support of the Raja's senior or princip.d wife. " l*"rom this 
 date may be reckoned the commencement of a counter- 
 revolution and of those intrigues of the Kala I'andis which 
 eventually succeeded .so well in the overthrow of their rival 
 [Bhim Sen], and in repaying the cruelties which they had 
 ihem.selvcs suffered at his hands." ^ 
 
 l^y the beginning of 1S35 .seven factions had develojxd 
 
 ' Excerpts from Ihf I^tUrs 0/ the Residtnt at KathmaHiiu, para. 20. 
 Ranbir's corps, when their commandcT had met with a temporary 
 check in his intrigurs in December 1S33, had done the same thing. 
 
 * Excerpts frotn the I.ttters of tJte Resident at Kathmandu, para. l\. 
 Secret Consultations.— /«///</ Office MSS. * Idem.
 
 144 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 at the Court of Nepal, all requiring to be carefully 
 watched by the Resident, each from time to time 
 coquetting for his support, and from time to time making 
 appeals to the popular warlike sentiment in Nepal against 
 the presence of a foreign representative at their capital. 
 Hodgson had the delicate task of maintaining an attitude 
 of dignified non-interference towards them all, which 
 should not improperly pledge his Government on the 
 one hand, nor give offence on the other. The principal 
 dramatis persona; in the series of tragedies that followed 
 may be briefly enumerated. 
 
 I'^irst, the faiut^aiit King ambitious of becoming actual 
 ruler, at first with the help of Ranbir Singh the brother 
 and rival of the Prime Minister, subsequently with the aid 
 of the Pandi faction hostile to the Prime Minister's whole 
 clan. After suffering many degradations, the poor King 
 was finally deposed in 1847, and died a State prisoner. 
 
 Second, the King's chief wife, known as the Senior 
 Queen, who tried to assert her authority by the help of the 
 Pandis. After furious outbursts in which she more than 
 once quitted the palace in a rage, she died on her way into 
 exile, as rumoured at the time from poison, but apparently 
 from jungle- fever caught on her flight towards the Indian 
 plains in 1841. 
 
 Third, the King's second wife, known as the Junior 
 Queen, who hoped to rise to power by supporting the 
 Thappas (the clan of the Prime Minister Bhim Sen), and 
 by opposing the Pandis. After a long struggle she ob- 
 tained her full political rights as Queen in January 1843, 
 restored the Thappas with the gallant Matabar as Prime 
 Minister, lost her power on his assassination in 1845, ^"d 
 was afterwards exiled to the Indian plains. 
 
 P^'ourth, the Chauntrias, or collateral branches of the 
 royal race with hereditary claims to high office. Kept 
 down during the long supremacy of Bhim Sen, they re- 
 asserted their rights as his power waned, and secured the 
 Prime-Ministership for their clan more than once after his
 
 VIM.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833— 1839. I45 
 
 fall, but lost their leaders by exile and assassination, and 
 finalh' went down in the great massacre of 1846. 
 
 Fifth, the Thappa family, headed by the Prime Minister 
 Bhim Sen who after a six years' struggle to maintain his 
 |X)wer since the death of the old Quccn-Regcnt was 
 degraded in 1837, and cut his throat in prison to avoid 
 torture in 1839. His rival brother Ranbir became a fakir, 
 or wandering mendicant, to save his life. His gallant 
 nephew Matabar, after long exile, obtained the Prime- 
 Ministcrship through the influence of the Junior Queen in 
 December 1S43, and was murdered in 1845. 
 
 Sixth, the rival family of the Pandis, v.ho had been 
 crushed for thirty years by Bhim Sen. I leaded by 
 Ranjang, the son of the Prime Minister murdered at the 
 beginning of the century, they began to reclaim their rights 
 in 1834. By the palace intrigues of the Senior Queen, 
 Ranjang obtained more than once the Prime-Ministership. 
 and after many murders perished himself in the general 
 slaughter and exile of the Pandis in 1843. His principal 
 kinsmen were beheaded. The aged Ranjang " was brought 
 to the place of execution, but being in a dying state, he 
 was merely shown to the people and then removed to his own 
 house, where he died naturally a few hours afterwards." 
 
 Seventh, the Brahman party, in turn allied and opposed 
 to all the foregoing factions of the military castes. Un- 
 justly kept out of their hereditary apjxjintments, the 
 Brahmans emerged with Raghunath Pandit as their leader 
 on the downf ill of Bhim Sen. During the confusion which 
 followed, the hostile factions allowed Raghunath Pandit 
 to obtain the Primc-Mini.stership till each could gather 
 its own forces. The Brahman, however, discovered the 
 times to be too perilous for a man of peace, and finding 
 him.self unsupjxirted evcrn by the poor King .soon resigned 
 the premiership. He reappeared from time to time, 
 especially as chief of a coalition ministry in 1840 ; always 
 keeping out of harm's way, and content to retire to the 
 safe seclusion of a religious life whenever danger threatened 
 
 10
 
 146 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 All these factions came in their turn to the front amid 
 palace intrigues and massacres during Hodgson's Resident- 
 ship from 1833 to 1843. Each did its best to establish its 
 power by destroying its rivals, and, with the exception of 
 the Brahman party, each when its time arrived shared the 
 common fate of slaughter and ruin. The ablest and most 
 confident of the rival ministers Matabar Singh, when he 
 finally established his supremacy, told the Resident that 
 since the foundation of the Ncpalese dynasty every Prime 
 Minister had met with a violent death, but that, for his 
 own part, " he hoped he would escape." One dark night, 
 less than three months later, his mangled corpse was let 
 down by a rope into the street from a window of the 
 palace.^ 
 
 While these homicidal politicians were struggling up to 
 power, murdering each other and in their turn getting 
 murdered, a youth was silently watching the blood-stained 
 arena, Jang Bahadur, a grand-nephew of Bhim Sen, 
 managed to elude the Pandi sleuth-hounds on the destruc- 
 tion of his grand-uncle in 1839. He obtained the judicial 
 office of Kaji, but led a life of self-contained retirement. 
 He accompanied his long-exiled uncle Matabar Singh on 
 his triumphant return to Nepal in February 1843, Hodgson's 
 last year of office, and plunged on his own account into 
 the game of intrigue and massacre. After the slaughter 
 of the Pandis in that year, the murder of Matabar Singh 
 in 1845, the dethronement of the King in 1847, and other 
 assassinations and exiles too numerous to recount, Jang 
 Bahadur emerged the final winner, and retained to the 
 end of his life as Prime Minister the almost supreme 
 authority which his grand-uncle Bhim Sen had exercised 
 for a third of a century. 
 
 I have explained the factions and intrigues which made 
 up Nepalese politics between the decline of Bhim Sen's 
 power in 1835 and the ascendency of Jang Bahadur in 
 
 ' Oldfield's Sketches from Nepal, pp. 343-346, Vol. I. Ed. 1880. 
 This was in 1845, ^f^^"" Hodgson left Kathmandu.
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL; 1833—1839. I47 
 
 1847, a.s it fell to Hodgson to deal with them in their most 
 acute stage.s. His cheery letters home made light of the 
 difficulties and dangers of his position. But the official 
 records of the Government of India prove how real tho.sc 
 difficulties and dangers were. Meanwhile the rise of the 
 rival faction of the Pandis in 1834 led Bhim Sen to realise 
 yet more clearly that the Resident, who represented the 
 interests of external peace and of the royal authority 
 within Nepal, might be used as a prop for his tottering 
 power. Accordingly the spring of 1835 witnessed a new 
 inclination on the part of the Nepalese Court, still under 
 Bhim Sen's Primc-Ministership, to agree to the commercial 
 and judicial arrangements which Hodgson had so long 
 urged as the surest means of arriving at an understanding 
 between Nepal and the British Government. 
 
 In May 1835 Hodgson wrote jubilantly to his steadfast 
 correspondent Lady D'Oyly, who had been urging him to 
 seek a more conspicuous career than he could hope for 
 in Nepal. He may be forgiven if he mistook the 
 rapprocJicvioit of the moment for a permanent improve- 
 ment in the attitude of the Nepalese Court. " The Darbar 
 is growing exceedingly civil, and I have now at last a 
 prospect of seeing the realisation of those hopes which 
 have buoyed me up these ten years. I think I have by 
 unwearied kindness and confidence melted the rock of 
 Gurkha alienation and jealousy ; and if so, I shall bo, 
 ere long, able to turn the Darbar away from its suicidal 
 prosecution of the old policy of wars of aggression, and 
 to induce it gradually to accommodate its institutions to 
 its circumstances, as fixed by the late war with us. Let 
 me succeed in this ; and I shall have the pleasure of 
 reflecting hereafter that, in my public career, I did a real 
 and great service to my Government, and one which ncj 
 other officer could have done. For my influence is the 
 result of very long intimacy with the people, backed by 
 untiring forbearance and kindness, despite of numberless 
 absurd demonstrations o{ ficrti' ow their part.
 
 148 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 " Government little understand the matter, and my 
 anticipations of applause from that quarter arc too 
 feeble to admit of disappointment. My own conscience 
 and judgment, however, will richly reward me, and whilst 
 I live I shall reflect with delight that I saved a gallant 
 and ignorant people from the precipice on which they 
 were rushing by force of national habits and incapacity 
 to survey comprehensively their relative situation. You 
 would ' as soon be a cabbage as live in Nepal.' EJi lueu, 
 Eliza ! there is no disputing about tastes. To me the 
 possible realisation of the aim and object I have just 
 named affords a stimulus too high for words to convey. 
 
 " The other day when an amiable old chief answered 
 me with tears, whilst I explained the friendly purpose of 
 some of my past earnest and even stern warnings, rejoicing 
 that at last they seemed to have taken effect — when the 
 good old man embraced me and told me that I should 
 long be remembered as the saviour of Nepal — I felt that 
 those words and expressions of his were indeed (in Scott's 
 language) ' worth living for.' Eliza ! I have seen your eye 
 kindle and beam with the energy of the immortal spirit 
 within at a fictitious tale of generous devotion : have you 
 no sympathy for the reality? 
 
 " But this strain is somewhat too high. I quit it to 
 allude to other respects in which Nepal has real and 
 rational charms for me — for any one of cultivated mind 
 and self-resource. What say you to its delicious climate, 
 its glorious scenery, with the enduring, accessible, and 
 healthful gratifications inseparable from them? What 
 say you to the possession of leisure by a servant of the 
 public ? what to duties free from all tedious and petty 
 routine-labour? 
 
 " I waive the commonplaces on retirement — but there 
 is truth in them, or they had never been commonplace ! 
 And, for my part, as I sit at this moment in my study 
 with my cheek fanned by the most temperate of breezes, 
 and my eye filled with the splendid garniture of Mount
 
 viii.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833-1839. I49 
 
 ArJLin, I could almost consent to live and die here and 
 should never cast a longing look towards the third-rate 
 society of all our Indian stations, Calcutta excepted. I 
 am naturally of too eager a temperament for either the 
 fiery clime or the killing labours of office below ; and 
 many a time have I blessed God that He was pleased to 
 cast my official lot in Nepal. Adieu ; cheri.sh my brother 
 William for my sake, and believe that whilst I live I never 
 cease to love and honour you. Yours most affectionately, 
 
 "B. H. HODG-SON." 
 
 During the cour.se of this year 1835 Bhim Sen .seemed 
 resolved to conciliate the British Resident by acts as well 
 as by words. The Nepal Court issued an order under the 
 Red Seal of the King, commanding its warden of the 
 marches to deliver up to our authorities a famous leader 
 of banditti who had long committed depredations in the 
 Company's territories with the connivance of the Nepalese 
 frontier officers. Certain of the higher and military castes 
 had hitherto been exempted by Nepalese law from suffer- 
 ing death for capital crimes. This privilege enabled them 
 to plunder with impunity on the border. Hodgson's 
 remonstrances were at length successful in obtaining the 
 abolition of an immunity which acted as a direct incentive to 
 crime. The Prime Minister published a royal proclamation 
 warning all Nepalese subjects residing on the frontier that 
 they should hereafter be punished according to the gravity 
 of their offences, without regard to their rank or caste. 
 
 The King, under Bhim Sen's prompting, even proposed 
 to send the Prime Minister's nephew on a conciliatory 
 mission to England — " as a traveller desirous of .seeing all 
 the wonders reported of that country, and to manifest the 
 entire confidence placed on British faith in thus throwing 
 into their hands the life and honour of one of their 
 principal chiefs." ' 
 
 ' Excerpts from the Letters of the Residatt at Kathmatuiu to Gmieru- 
 ment. Tickell's Memorandum.— ^r^r.^/ CotisutteUioHS, India Office.
 
 ISO LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Pending the permission of the British Government, the 
 said nephew, Matabar Singh, was despatched with presents 
 to the Governor-General in Calcutta and letters for the 
 King of England. Me started in November 1835 for the 
 Indian plains with a splendid retinue of 650 picked troops, 
 a little army of followers, and forty elephants. The idea 
 of a visit to England faded away when he was informed 
 that he could be permitted to go only as a private traveller, 
 and that all public communications with the British sove- 
 reign must pass through the Resident and the Government 
 of India. But he returned to Nepal in March 1836 de- 
 lighted with the courtesies shown to him in Calcutta. 
 
 It seemed as if Hodgson had at length succeeded in 
 making the Nepalcse Court sincerely desirous of our 
 friendship. At that time the Acting Governor-General 
 Lord Metcalfe was urging on measures for the extirpation 
 of the gangs of Thugs, or professional stranglers and 
 robbers, who had for half a century infested the trade- 
 routes of India. The campaign against this widespread 
 organisation of murder was chiefly conducted by means 
 of captured Thugs who turned informers against their 
 brethren. Numbers of the criminal fraternity sought 
 refuge beyond the Nepal frontier, but the Nepalese officials 
 had hitherto refused to give them up on the evidence of 
 informers. In 1836 the King and Prime Minister con- 
 sented to accept that evidence as sufficient to warrant the 
 surrender of such refugees, provided that the charge was 
 corroborated by local testimony in the places where the 
 Thug had found shelter. The Nepalese Court saved the 
 appearance of making a concession by stipulating for a 
 reciprocal surrender by our magistrates of refugee Thugs 
 from Nepal — a condition little likely to ever come into 
 effect, and to which Hodgson agreed with a smile. 
 
 Beyond this sign of amity, however, the Nepalese Court 
 declined to go. The proposed treaty of commerce ^ with 
 India broke down, as Nepal still insisted on an insolent 
 ' Vide ante, pp. 140, 147.
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. 151 
 
 preference to herself in rates of tariff between the two 
 countries. Unsuccessful also were the negotiations to 
 secure an equal punishment and reciprocity in juri.sdiction 
 for offenders bclonL^ini; to cither State. 
 
 Before the year 1836 clo.sed, the Prime Minister received 
 yet another warning of downfall. The rival faction of the 
 Pandis procured the public arraignment of his nephew 
 Matabar Singh on the charge of cohabiting with his late 
 brother's widow. The inquiry did not proceed, but the 
 accuser escaped scathles.s. The pecuniary necessities of 
 the royal family also began to bear heavily on the Prime 
 Minister. The King had now six children, one of them 
 nearly marriageable, and the growing expenses of the 
 palace involved retrenchments in the public service. The 
 established custom was to pay many of the officials and 
 military commanders by grants of land. These grants 
 had been allotted about half a century previously. With 
 the increase of the population their money value had 
 nearly doubled. The King felt a personal interest in their 
 reduction, and Bhim Sen found that, to maintain his 
 influence in the palace, he must embark on a policy of 
 resumption which the military castes resented as confisca- 
 tion. A sum of ;ir 140,000 was thus brought into the 
 treasury. But the relief to the royal finances did not 
 prove so great as had been expected, for the King used 
 the money to raise a body-guard which ho intended to 
 ultimately number 1,700 men. 
 
 Hodgson had sufficient money troubles of his own at 
 this period. The steady drain on his income to sup|X)rt 
 his parents' establishment at Canterbury had of late years 
 been increased by fitting out his civilian brother Kdw.ird, 
 helping from time to time his artillery brother William, 
 and furnishing the marriage expenses of his sisters. 
 Edward's death in July 1835 and William's marriage laid 
 further burdens on the bread-winner of the family in Nepal, 
 and Hodgson found himself compelled for the first time to 
 ask for a respite in the matter of home-remittances. He
 
 152 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 feels his solitude and separation the more keenly as the 
 communications from England take more and more a 
 business tone on the question of supplies. The following 
 letter, dated August i6th, 1836, will serve to remind us 
 that, amid the dangers and incessant labours entailed on 
 him by Nepalese intrigues, he had private as well as public 
 cares : — 
 
 " Mv DEARE.ST FATHER, — I have several letters to ac- 
 knowledge, but of late my pens and almost my fingers have 
 been worn to stumps with incessant scribbling. So business 
 first ! Some time ago I sent you ;i^200, and I have desired 
 the Asiatic Society to pay a debt due to me of £60 into 
 Coutts' hands, who have been ordered to make over the 
 amount to you. It will pay for Edward's gun which 
 William took. He got the fishing-tackle akso, but the hats, 
 etc., were seized by the Registrar of the Supreme Court 
 and sold as assets of the estate, the proceeds of which are 
 Rs. 1,500 and the debts Rs. 5,500. I have been called on 
 to pay the balance of Rs. 4,500 {szc)^ or ;^450, and I must 
 pay Palmer's share of it, which alone is Rs. 3,500, or £'^S^- 
 
 " May I hope, then, to be excused making you a remit- 
 tance this year ? My pension period is approaching and 
 I shall have to pay half its value, or Rs. 50,000, ere I 
 can get it. But whence obtain the money, if I never begin 
 to save ? And what will country and kin be to mc, if 
 I stay above twenty-three years at one stretch in this land ? 
 I have, I hope, still a warm heart and a true, but Nature 
 will assert her authority ; and as you so beautifully say in 
 reference to poor Ned as compared with me, the golden 
 links which bind us are not proof against the vile solvent 
 power of Time, and absolute non-community of ideas and 
 pursuits. 
 
 " Try it how wc will, we cannot keep up a community 
 of that sort for years unnumbered ; and gradually all images 
 
 ' The calculation probably allowed Rs. 500 for the Registrar's fees 
 and legal expenses.
 
 viii.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833— 1839. I 53 
 
 of affection become shadows of shades. If then we are to 
 know each other arjain in this world, I must hasten to you 
 in 1840. Xor will I fail, should impccuniosity not inter- 
 pose. Meanwhile do, if you can, keep the idea of mc 
 distinct ; for it was not with a dry eye that I read your 
 unintentional declaration to the contrary. I remember you 
 and my mother as freshly as though we had parted yester- 
 day. Yet it is true that the details of the image wax- 
 fainter and fainter. God's will be done." 
 
 Next year, 1837, was one of revolution and counter- 
 revolution in Nepal. It commenced with a palace-affront 
 to Bhini Sen, which made the aged Minister again hesitate 
 whether it would not be safest for him to end all con- 
 ciliatory dealings with the British, and once and for all 
 throw in his lot with the war party in Nepal, lihim Sen 
 had hitherto managed to have a dependent of his own 
 appointed as head of the quinquennial embassies which 
 Nepal was bound in homage to send to Pckin. His 
 enemies the Pandis now obtained the nomination for one 
 of themselves, and although the King's courage failed in 
 carrying out their design, the office was withdrawn from 
 the faction of Hhim Sen and given to a collateral member ' 
 of the royal family. These royal collaterals, or Chauntrias, 
 henceforth come to the front as a rival faction in the State. 
 At the annual change of offices ■ in February 1837 they 
 obtained the office held by the Prime Minister's nephew, 
 Matabar, who only last year had returned triumphant from 
 his mission to Calcutta, but who was now ousted from his 
 military command as he would not submit to the recent 
 reduction in its allowances. 
 
 The Brahman party, finding the time ripe for safe actidii, 
 also struck in. Their political leader Raghunath Pandit 
 had been a moderate supporter of l^him Sen. But he now 
 discerned that the old Minister was no longer cither to be 
 courted or to be feared, and he had his own score to settle 
 
 ' I'uskar Shah Chauntria. * The Panjani.
 
 154 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 with him. As far back as 1816, just after the war, he had 
 been an unsuccessful rival of Bhim Sen for the Prime- 
 Ministership. Moreover all judicial offices, the hereditary 
 monopoly of the Brahmans, had for some time been given 
 to soldiers. Even the Chief-Justiceship was held by a 
 captain or lieutenant in the army.* About the middle of 
 1837 Raghunath, backed by the Brahmans, joined in the 
 general scramble for office and secured the Chief-Justice- 
 ship, not without rumours of his aspiring to the Premiership 
 itself. 
 
 Such was the situation in June 1837, when Hodgson, at 
 the desire of the new Governor-General, Lord Auckland," 
 drew up a confidential account of the Gurkhas or Nepalese. 
 He wrote it according to his custom with his own hand, 
 and the original now in my possession makes sixteen 
 closely covered pages of large paper. Space compels mc 
 to quote only a few paragraphs.^ 
 
 " His Lordship is already aware that the Gurkhas are 
 eminently national and united ; that their union is recent> 
 illustrated by splendid success in arms, and supported by 
 the unsophisticated simplicity of the Highland character. 
 They have neither arts nor literature, nor commerce, nor 
 a rich soil to draw off their attention from arms ; and they 
 have that lusty hardihood of character and contempt of 
 drudgery which make war especially congenial. 
 
 " I have often said, and now repeat, that when in 18 16 
 we drew a line round the territory of these men, leaving 
 them no outlet save upon ourselves, we should either have 
 crippled them effectually or have insisted on a change in 
 their institutions, giving the surplus soldiery employment 
 in our own armies. We did neither : we did nothing then 
 or subsequently; and we now see the fruits of our mistakes 
 
 • Excerpts ffom the Letters 0/ the Resident at Kathmandu. Tickell's 
 Memorandum, para. 36. 
 
 * Succeeded Lord Metcalfe in 1836. 
 
 ^ Letter from B. H. Hodgson to J. R Colvin, Esq., Private .Secretary 
 to the Governor-General, dated June 24th, 1837.
 
 vm.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1S33— 1839. I5> 
 
 or indifference. Rulers are too apt to fancy that, when 
 they make a great effort, the crowning work has been 
 achieved once and for all ; and calmly and justly as Lord 
 Hastings characterised the people and the war before 
 and pending its progress, no sooner was it over than he 
 insensibly stole to that conclusion. 
 
 " In the twenty years that we have been here since the 
 war, we have seen nothing but drills and parades, heard 
 nothing but the roar of cannon or the clink of the hammer 
 in arsenal or magazine. Soldiers have been and are heads 
 of the law and finance at Kathmandu, and administrators 
 of the interior : soldiers have been and are everything, and 
 they are and have been headed by a plenary viceroy (Rhim 
 Sen) of that old stamp which must support its habitual 
 aggression at home by pandering to the soldiery, and 
 teaching them to look to aggression abroad. 
 
 " It is a remarkable fact, moreover, that since we had 
 first to do with this Darbar in 1792, we have had to deal 
 exclusively with a military mayor of the palace — in other 
 words with a man having, by the essential tenure of his 
 .=tation, one hand against his prince and the other against 
 his neighbours. 
 
 " The Raja or head of the Outs is young himself, has 
 two young wives and seven young children. Reasonable 
 indulgence and addiction to pleasure of various kinds may 
 be expected from them, though not from their old and 
 iron-minded opponent. And if a young Court once gave 
 way to recreation, there would soon be a diversion of funds 
 inconsistent with the past and existing sacrifice of all things 
 to an incjrdinate and useless army." 
 
 After describing the various factions in Nepal, he pro- 
 ceeds : " But is there no probability of a contest between 
 the parties, and would not their cutting each other's throats 
 in a civil war be a sufficient security of us? I do not 
 expect any strife in the shape of civil war, though the 
 chiefs may, more inojonim, draw their swords on each 
 other. Nor do I deem it a .safe presumption that a civil
 
 156 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Avar, if it occurred, would benefit us. Civil wars have 
 rather a tendency to feed than to quench martial spirit 
 and poAver ; and if one broke out here, I should expect it 
 to be diverted />iy' /as ct nefas upon us before it had raged 
 three months. But there is no probability of its occurrence. 
 The unsophisticated character and eminent nationality of 
 the Nepalesc soldiery, as they have ever stayed domestic 
 war in past times, so they doubtless will in the future. 
 There is no instance of it in the turbulent history of the 
 people ; and, cypher as the Raja has been and still seems 
 to be, and omnipotent as the Minister has been and still 
 seems to be, no one here doubts that if the former willed 
 the death of the latter, the Minister's head would be as 
 speedily off as was that of Damodar (the Bhim Sen of 
 his day) in 1802. I, therefore, neither expect civil war, 
 nor think it could possibly advantage us if it occurred. 
 In all human probability it would speedily afford occasion 
 for the turbulent and reckless to assault us, come what 
 might of the struggle. 
 
 " So long as order prevails so long I think we could, if 
 wc deemed it expedient, by coming forward distinctly to 
 countenance the weaker party at present, give it the pre- 
 ponderance. But I would not advise such a proceeding 
 unless the Minister were clearl}' seeking to drive things to 
 extremity with us, because he felt that quiet must undo 
 him at home. This sort of crisis excepted, I would con- 
 tinue looking on merely as heretofore until the expected 
 change occur ; or, until having occurred, it produce no 
 amendment or promise of amendment. If the change 
 come not soon or come without improvement, I would take 
 the first fair occasion of a reckoning with Nepal. If the 
 change seems to tremble in the balance, wanting but a 
 simple manifestation on our part in favour of the legitimate 
 head of the State, that manifestation should be made by- 
 and-by, and under a distincter probability of quiet efficacy 
 than now exists. In the mode there need be no inter- 
 ference so called. For we are certainly entitled to have our
 
 viii.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833-1839. ^57 
 
 crencral views and purposes fairly stated in Darbar, and 
 a civil letter from the Governor-General to the Raja, say- 
 in- that his Lordship had for some time past expected 
 the agreeable news of his Highncss's majority, would, under 
 many probable phases of party, suffice." 
 
 lIod<^sons prediction that the feuds of the chiefs, how- 
 ever deadly to themselves, would not lead to civil war m 
 Nepal proved correct. Throughout the military revolutions 
 and massacres of the next eight years there was not one 
 popular rising. The people let the rival nobles kill each 
 other and obeyed whichever faction for the time being 
 spoke in the name of royalty. Hodgson also diagnosed 
 the situation aright when he declared that the best way of 
 maintaining our influence in Nepal was to insist on our 
 claim for direct communication with the Raja, who alone 
 had a permanent stake in the maintenance of the dynasty. 
 The Resident urged this view not only on the new 
 Governor-General Lord Auckland, but also on the great 
 Indian statesman who, after acting as Governor-General for 
 a year, had been appointed Governor of Agra. 
 
 M cannot help thinking," he wrote to b.r Charles 
 Metcalfe > on July 15th, 1837. "that unless we mean to 
 wait upon Providence, and passively expect another war, 
 we ou-ht if need be to insist on effectual access to the 
 le.ritim'iitc head of the State, who has for many reasons by 
 far the -reatest interest in peace and quiet. All others, 
 scrambling for distinction and advancement, must gain 
 them by a°nd through the army, which is the beginning, the 
 middle, the end. Hence the perpetual interested striving 
 of these soldier-ministers to strengthen and increase the 
 army The Raja has suffered as much as wc by this 
 system • and the Raja is obviously the only man here who 
 has enough of his own. if he can hold it, and has con- 
 sequently no interested perpetual craving for personal 
 advancement. All others arc cupidi novarnm rcrum : the 
 Raja alone may rest as he is." 
 
 ' Altjrwards Lord Metcalfe.
 
 158 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Lord Auckland adopted these views. In a cordial letter 
 through his Private Secretary ^ he thanked Hodgson for his 
 exposition of Nepalcse affairs, and declared that " the 
 Government is desirous that you should do all that you 
 prudently can to acquire and maintain a free personal 
 intercourse with the Raja on all matters in which we are 
 concerned. It will be a great point gained to win his con- 
 fidence, and to give him, by courting frequent and direct 
 communication with him, confidence in himself To seek 
 immediate access to him on occasions in which we arc 
 closely interested is a legitimate object, our measures for 
 securing which cannot involve us in the evils which might 
 follow, sooner or later, were we to be exposed to any 
 suspicion of sharing in the party conflicts by which the 
 Darbar is likely to be divided. It will be enough if your 
 sentiments on internal affairs be asked for, to aid the Raja 
 in keeping the control of the Government in his own 
 hands, and in selecting prudent, impartial, and honest 
 counsellors." 
 
 Before this confirmation of his views could be received, 
 Hodgson's policy of steadily looking to the Raja as the 
 responsible head of the State (by whatever faction he was 
 for the moment controlled) had borne a severe test. In 
 July 1837 Ranjang Pandi was publicly reinstated in his 
 ancestral possessions, and the nominees to whom Bhim 
 Sen had granted them were turned out. Ranjang now 
 boldly stood forth as the accuser of the Prime Minister's 
 nephew in the charge of incest which had been hushed up 
 last year. At the same time the Raja, fearing that the 
 army would side with Bhim Sen's family, put a stop to 
 the practice of the chiefs moving about with their usual 
 military retinues. The Prime Minister's party having thus 
 been weakened by partial deprivation of office and stripped 
 of their armed followers, an occasion was sought for 
 striking the long-meditated blow. 
 
 ' MS. letter from J. R. Colvin, Esq., Private Secretary to tlie Governor- 
 General, dated August 31st, 1837, to B. H. Hodgson, Esq.
 
 viii.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: ICS33— 1839. 1 59 
 
 Chance soon gave the opportunity. On July 24th, 1S37, 
 the Raja's youngest son died suddenly, and a rumour was 
 spread that the child had fallen a victim to poison designed 
 by Bhim Sen for its mother, the Senior Queen, who was 
 the mainstay of the rival Pandi faction. In the panic, 
 Ranjang Pandi was appointed Prime Mini.ster. Bhim Sen 
 was "seized, ironed, and thrown into prison, while the whole 
 of his family were placed under close arrest ; Matabar 
 Singh being shortly after ironed in the same manner as 
 his uncle." ' The doctor who attended the child was 
 subjected to excruciating agonies till he denounced Bhim 
 Sen's party ; he was then crucified." The chief royal 
 physicians and the whole kindred of Bhim Sen were in- 
 carcerated, " proclaimed outcasts, and their property con- 
 fiscated. They were fearfully tortured to induce them to 
 confess, but not a syllable to criminate any one was 
 elicited." ^ As a matter of fact the whole charge was an 
 invention trumped up by the Pandis to secure Bhim Sen's 
 overthrow, as they themselves confessed six years latcr.^ 
 
 The revolution was no sooner completed than the 
 conspirators feared they had gone too far. The dynastic 
 party of " royal collaterals " ^ remonstrated with the King. 
 Ranjang the Pandi was forced to make over the Prime- 
 Ministership to Raghunath the Brahman. The chief royal 
 physician, who had been branded with a hot iron and out- 
 casted, was restored to favour. Bhim Sen and his nephew 
 Matabar were released. But the aged Minister's .spirit 
 
 ' Excerpts from the Letters of the Resident at Kathmmuiu to 
 Government. Tickell's Memorandum, para. 38. 
 
 * This is the word used in Tickell's Memorandum, para. 42, when 
 referring back in 1839 to the transaction, both in the original MS. and 
 in the printed office copj*. The piiysician is merely said to have been 
 " tortured to death " in para. 38 of the same manuscript report. 
 
 " Oldfield's Sketches fmm Nepal, Vol. I., p. 310. Ed. iSSo. 1 
 have not found documentary evidence at the India Ollice that torture 
 was on this occasion applied to Bhim Sen or his relatives. But Dr. 
 Oldfieid, as Resident Surgeon at Kathmandu, had access to the local 
 records. 
 
 * Idem., p. 336. ' The Chauntrias.
 
 l60 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 was broken. On his being brought into the Darbar " the 
 old man fell on his face at the Raja's feet and was forgiven, 
 with the restoration to him of his garden house, which had 
 been confiscated during the late commotion, and the settle- 
 ment of a pension of Rs. 3,000." ' A few days later he 
 had another audience from the Raja and even from his 
 inveterate enemy the Senior Queen. He received a dress 
 of honour and a caparisoned horse, and " returned to his 
 garden house followed by crowds of soldiers and by the 
 people of the city." ' 
 
 The new Brahman Prime Minister astutely used the 
 fallen statesman as a support against the Pandis, now his 
 chief rivals for power. The ruined relatives of Bhim Sen 
 were honourably received at Court, and attended through 
 the city by enthusiastic crowds " cheering them to their 
 thresholds."^ It almost seemed as if the violence of the 
 Pandi was to be checkmated by the craft of the Brahman. 
 Ranjang Pandi, alarmed by the popular demonstrations in 
 favour of Bhim Sen, asked leave from the Raja to retire 
 to a religious life at Benares. But the Raja, apprehensive 
 that the complete withdrawal of the Pandi would leave 
 the other factions too powerful, refused, and accused 
 Ranjang of veiling under a pretended pilgrimage to 
 Benares his intention to seek service with the Sikh ruler 
 at Lahore. His Highness hinted at another turn of 
 fortune's wheel, and so kept the Pandi faction in reserve 
 for any occasion which might arise. 
 
 One of the first acts of the Brahman Prime Minister 
 was to remodel the military organisation on which Bhim 
 Sen had rested his power. The masses of troops hitherto 
 concentrated in the capital were dispersed throughout the 
 countrv. Large numbers were sent to strengthen the 
 frontier garrisons ; 3,000 infantry with artillery were 
 marched off to stations in the interior. But military inno- 
 
 ' Excerpts frotn the Ixttcrs of the Resident at Kathmandu. Tickell's 
 Memorandum, para. 39. 
 » Id<;m., para. 40. ^ Idem.
 
 viii] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833— 1839. 161 
 
 vations arc apt to be unpopular, and the politic Brahman 
 shifted to the shoulders of the Raja whatever odium mi^ht 
 attach to the reform. 1 Ic modestly presented himself as 
 chief of the civil administration, while the King stood forth 
 as its military head. 
 
 Meanwhile the national pride was flattered by missions 
 to the Sikh Government at Lahore and to the Court of 
 Persia. The army also was maintained at its overgrown 
 strength of 19,000 men actually under arms, with twice 
 that number of an effective reserve. Hodgson had to 
 keep an anxious eye on the frontier now alive with 
 2,500 additional soldiers, chiefly old praetorians from the 
 capital full of ignorant swagger and contempt for their 
 British neighbours. In September 1837 he wrote to his 
 father that the revolution in Nepal has " at last alarmed 
 the British Government into alacrity and interest ; and 
 I find myself holding by general admission a highly 
 important trust." 
 
 The year 1837 had proved one of incessant labour to 
 the Resident. In March Hodgson wrote to Lady D'Oyly 
 rejoicing in his good health, and hoping to be able to 
 retire in 1841.' But his liver complaint returned with new 
 aggravations in the autumn, and in a hurried letter to his 
 father on December ist, 1837, he says that it "has forced 
 a sea-voyage on mc. I shall go to the Cape with the 
 D'Oylys who arc bound for England, and I shall, I hope, 
 be able to come back to my post here next cold weather." 
 He made a will leaving to his father his valuable collec- 
 tions, or rather those which he had not already presented 
 to learned and .scientific societies. That was all he had 
 to bequeath, except some small savings in cash to his 
 children. " Alas, 1 have no money to speak of, and what 
 I have, therefore, must go to my poor children, who will 
 probably be kept in India to save you trouble and to 
 better them as natives of this land." Amid his public 
 cares and ill-health he finds consol.ition in his little ones. 
 ' Letter to Lady D'Oyly dated .March 5th, 1837. 
 
 II
 
 l62 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 " A bit of music or my boy's voice," he writes to Lady 
 D'Oyly, " melts me to gentleness." 
 
 The ferment in Nepal did not, however, allow him the 
 much-needed year of rest. Hodgson had to recover from 
 his illness as best he could by a change to Calcutta, and 
 then returned to his post. Next year, 1838, was one of 
 palace intrigues. The Senior Queen violently supported 
 the Pandis ; their leader received the general command of 
 the troops, while his brothers and relatives crowded into the 
 highest offices around the person of the Raja and through- 
 out the provinces. The Junior Queen less effectively urged 
 the restoration of Bhim Sen who " continued at large " 
 amid the plaudits of the soldiery, and was still allowed to 
 present himself at Court. 
 
 In February the disputes of the two ladies flamed up 
 beyond control upon the Senior Queen demanding the 
 Prime-Ministership for her favourite Ranjang, the head of 
 the Pandis. As the poor Raja shuffled according to his 
 wont, " she furiously left the palace, declaring she would 
 never return unless her will was obeyed, and repaired to 
 Pushpali-nath, about three miles from the city, attended 
 by Ranjang." ^ So completely did she dominate her feeble 
 husband that, in spite of the scandal, " during her stay 
 there the Court attended daily with the Raja himself on 
 her. This," adds the official report in 1 840, " is the first- 
 mentioned of similar vagaries with which this headstrong 
 woman has up to this day continued to be the torment of 
 the whole Court." 
 
 Bhim Sen's gallant nephew Matabar, under pretext of 
 a hunting party to catch elephants in the Tarai, slipped 
 off to the holy city of Benares on the British plains, and 
 thence to the Sikh capital in the Punjab. The Brahman 
 Prime Minister began to spin a web of intrigue for the 
 union of the two great Hindu powers on our northern 
 frontier, the Nepalese and Sikhs, against us. Even the 
 
 ' Excerpts from the Letters of the Resident. Tickell's Memorandum, 
 para. 42.
 
 vin.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833— 1839. 163 
 
 Raja plucked up spirit to declare that, " as the English 
 and Musalmans have united, it was time for the Hindus 
 to look to themselves." But another outburst of his wife's 
 fury left him little leisure for distant diplomacy. No 
 longer content with demanding the Prime-Ministership 
 for her favourite Pandi, she began to plot for the deposition 
 of the Raja, the placing of her young son on the throne 
 and the expulsion of the British representative. 
 
 By July 1838 she would have forced the Raja's consent 
 but for the Brahman Prime Minister's remonstrances. He 
 pointed out that so disgraceful a surrender to the Pandis 
 would alienate the army, and drive many of the chiefs to 
 seek protection from the English. The Senior Queen again 
 quitted the capital in a rage, declaring " that she would 
 never return unless the throne was abdicated in favour of 
 her son, and Ranjang made Prime Minister." The miser- 
 able Raja knew not whither to turn. The whole body of 
 nobles held sulkily aloof from the henpecked husband ; 
 his Brahman Prime Minister resigned, and waited in 
 religious retirement until the feminine tyranny should be 
 overpast. The despised and deserted King sought for 
 comfort in superstitious auguries. Mis timorous soul had 
 long been accustomed to consult omens ; indeed earth- 
 quakes and portents form a large part of the Court 
 chronicle of his reign.' The impostors whom he now con- 
 sulted foretold, probably on the prompting of the Queen, 
 "fearful reverses, the downfall of Nepal, and the triumph of 
 the English ; and so effectually wrought on his fears as to 
 compel him to quit the palace."- He at last got his wife 
 back by appointing her favourite Pandi to the Primc- 
 Ministership. 
 
 ' See the very curi(Mis enumeration in Chapter IX. of the translation 
 from the Parbatiya in Dr. Wright's History of Nepal, pp. 2^18-271 
 (Cambridge University Press, 1877). 
 
 ' Excerpts from the Letters of the Resident. Tickcll's Memorandum. 
 I quote from my extracts from the original Secret Consultations in the 
 India Office MS. Records.
 
 l64 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Bhim Sen now saw that his only chance lay in the 
 protection of the British. Me unfolded to the Resident the 
 conspiracy against our power, unaware that Hodgson had 
 silently watched each mesh as it was being woven. In 
 January 1838 three messengers disguised as religious 
 mendicants brought a rumour to Nepal of a rupture be- 
 tween the British and the Court of Ava. Forthwith 
 Nepal despatched an emissary to Burma, taking Sikkim 
 and Assam by the way. As the year advanced, negotia- 
 tions which the Nepalese believed to be profound secrets, 
 but each move in which Hodgson recorded with an im- 
 perturbable face, were carried on with the great Native 
 States of India, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Sindhia, 
 Haidarabad, the Marathas and the Sikhs ; while communi- 
 cations were opened with China, Afghanistan, and Persia. 
 Three thousand additional rounds of powder and cannon- 
 shot were served out from the central arsenals to the 
 garrisons along the British frontier of Nepal. 
 
 At length Bhim Sen " privately sent secret information 
 to the Resident that the Darbar were prepared for hostili- 
 ties in October, should the accounts received from Ava, 
 Pekin, and Lahore be favourable by that time."* As 
 rumours thickened of our being in trouble with Burma, 
 Afghanistan, and Persia, the Darbar became impatient, 
 " and the Raja was formally petitioned by a body of Chiefs 
 in Council to expel the Resident at once — a proposition to 
 which he tacitly listened." '■ The expulsion would probably 
 be accompanied with massacre, and fears were felt in 
 Calcutta lest the furious Queen's favourite, now become 
 Prime Minister, might murder Hodgson and his staff to 
 win popularity with the army, and to commit the King 
 irrevocably to war. 
 
 Hodgson maintained an attitude of calm which almost 
 seemed indifference, and kept up his polite intercourse with 
 the Court as if nothing were happening which could not 
 
 • Excerpts from the Letters of the Resident, ut supra, p. 81, 
 
 * Idetn.
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. 165 
 
 be adjusted in the ordinary course of diplomacy. On his 
 remonstrance the King issued royal mandates in September 
 recalling several of the secret emissaries to the Native 
 States. At the same time he still more secretly sent forth 
 new ones. His Highness even went so far as to address 
 a complimentary letter to Lord Auckland " professing the 
 most amiable views towards the British Government." 
 Amid these courtly hypocrisies the unhealthy months 
 slipped by during which Nepal might have struck her blow ; 
 and with the commencement of the cold weather came the 
 news that a British force was ordered to assemble on the 
 Nepal frontier. 
 
 Hodgson well knew how little was to be expected from 
 this order. The Governor-General, Lord Auckland, had 
 asked him in the summer of 1838 for a confidential report 
 on the military resources of Nepal ' and her intrigues with 
 the Indian feudatory States." But he had also warned 
 Hodgson that actual hostilities against Nepal must be 
 deferred till the Afghan expedition was concluded.' In 
 September Lord Auckland informed him that there was 
 no present intention of dealing with Nepal further than by 
 strengthening our line of communications on the Ganges.' 
 Subsequent letters made this still more clear. But for- 
 tunately they were private ones. Hodgson kept his own 
 counsel, but allowed the rumours of an as.sembling force to 
 freely reach the Ncpalese Court. 
 
 The opportunity for an attack on our frontier had for 
 the time passed and the Nepalese Court changed its tone. 
 
 ' Letters from John Kusscll C'olvin, I'rivate Secretary to Governor- 
 General (marked " Private "), to B. H. Hodgson, dated Simla, June 14th, 
 1838. These and all otlier letters from Mr. J. R. Colvin are quoted 
 from the M.S. volume.s kindly placed at my disposal by his son, Sir 
 Auckland Colvin, K.C.S.I. 
 
 '' The same to the same, dated July 2nd, 1838. 
 
 ^ The same to the same, dated August 28th, 1838. 
 
 * The same to the same, dated September 28th, 183S. In the task 
 of copying tliese Colvin letters, nr of making excerpts, Mrs. Hodgson 
 has given valuable aid.
 
 1 66 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 The complaints by the British frontier magistrates which 
 had accumulated throus^hout the year 1838 were inquired 
 into ; refugee criminals were given up ; a just settlement 
 was even volunteered by Nepal in regard to the Sikkim 
 boundary. Hodgson's brave and skilful policy received its 
 crowning triumph on November 28th, when " the Darbar 
 sent a written promise to the Resident, insuring in future 
 the administration of impartial justice to British subjects 
 trading in Nepal." His absolute unconcern while his life 
 lay at the mercy of any palace-prompted tumult, and the 
 silent completeness with which he had outwitted their 
 machinations, won the admiration of the Chiefs and at the 
 same time tickled their Highland sense of humour. It 
 also frightened the King. The Darbar now granted, as 
 a pleasantry of the moment, the judicial rights to British 
 subjects which Hodgson had failed to wring from it by 
 years of laborious diplomacy. 
 
 Hodgson had meanwhile not only to calm the fears of 
 his parents at home, but also to mourn the death of his 
 last surviving brother the Horse Artillery Captain, and to 
 find money to pay his debts and to send the young widow 
 to England. 
 
 " My dear Parents," he wrote in an undated scrap of a 
 letter, but which appears to belong to the Christmas season 
 of 1H38, " I steal a moment from official writing to tell you 
 I am well, and that you need entertain no fears for me 
 though war ensue with Nepal, as it probably will imme- 
 diately. I have striven heartily and affectionately to save 
 Nepal. . . . Oh that I had more health and strength to meet 
 the crisis, but He will support me upon whom is my main 
 reliance, even God Almighty. Love to Fanny and Ellen, 
 and believe me ever your devotedly affectionate son. God 
 ever bless you both and give you many happy returns of 
 this season." 
 
 Captain William Hodgson died on June 12th, 1838. 
 " In every requisite of a Horse Artillery officer," his 
 colonel commandant had written in the previous year on
 
 viii.] KESIDExNT IN NEPAL: 1833-1839. 167 
 
 Lord Auckland's withdrawing Captain Hodgson to a staff 
 appointment, " I know of few to equal, none to surpass 
 him."' His transfer to the Horse Artillery and recent 
 marriage had been a drain on Brian's purse : his death 
 now left behind a legacy of money troubles. " I have been 
 obliged," he writes to his father on August 12th, 1838, "to / 
 send Mary some money (Rs. 1,000), and I fear I shall be ^ 
 called on for more — not that I love money, but that I fear 
 poverty and India on account of my health." This was only 
 the commencement of fresh claims upon him. Among 
 other items Brian became responsible for a loan of ;^ 1,000 
 borrowed by his brother. The widow begged him to repay 
 himself in part from some money which came in ; " but," 
 adds Hodgson, " I have not the heart to take it." ' I 
 mention these matters, not because Hodgson attached 
 importance to them, but because they enable us to 
 understand the private worries which aggravated his ill- 
 health, and made his public anxieties more difficult to 
 bear. 
 
 The necessity of paying up the Rs. 50,000 towards his 
 pension to enable him to retire at the end of his service 
 began to haunt him. His full twenty-five years would ex- 
 pire in 1843, and his period of actual residence in 1S41. 
 He feared that his ailment would not allow him to go on 
 working longer than the earlier date. Vet the constant 
 demands on his purse by his parents and brothers had 
 prevented him from laying by a sufficient sum to purchase 
 his pension. " I must calculate on every sous before- 
 hand," he wrote to his father early in 1839, "and know 
 what I have to rest on. I am but in weakly health, and 
 should retire as soon as my time is out." 
 
 The year 1838 closed with a full recognition by the 
 British Government of the gravity of the situation in 
 Nepal. The corps of observation to be assembled under 
 Colonel Oglander on the frontier could not be got together 
 
 ' Letter from Colonel Boileau, ilaled February 9th, 1S37 
 * Letter to liis latlier, dated Kebruarj' 1st, 1S39.
 
 I68 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 in an effective form,^ as Lord Auckland was then engrossed 
 with preparations for his Afghan war.- In September 1838 
 the Governor-General plainly said that it was not possible 
 for him to do more than strengthen our troops along the 
 line of the Ganges.^ 
 
 Hodgson was informed, however, that in event 
 of an outbreak the forces in our provinces bordering 
 Nepal would be at his disposal. In a letter to his father, 
 dated September 1838, he had written : " The Gurkhas are 
 behaving as childishly as hostilely, and I fear I shall be 
 Vinable to keep the peace, though I have now discretionary 
 power over three divisions of the army, amounting to 
 nearly 20,000 men, with which we are to make a cordon 
 sanitain to endure pending the absence of the Kabul 
 force from India. I fear the cordon may be broken, 
 despite my cares to preserve it ; since it must be seven 
 hundred miles long and liable to attack at any point 
 by an active and enterprising enemy." Such a cordon, 
 if it merits that name, might be useful to avenge his 
 death, but was too far off to prevent a massacre. The 
 truth is that the Afghan war proved as much as Lord 
 Auckland could manage at one time, and the best he 
 could hope for Nepal was that the Resident would keep 
 things quiet till the storm in Afghanistan blew over. 
 
 This is precisely what Hodgson did during the four 
 eventful years which followed, from the establishment of 
 our forces in Afghanistan in 1839 till the annihilation of 
 the Kabul garrison in 1842. But the inability of the 
 Government to make an effective display of force, or even 
 to maintain a firm attitude, seriously weakened his hands. 
 He by no means mistook the momentary good-humour 
 
 ' I make this statement on the authority of a marginal note by 
 Hodgson on p. 314 of Oldfield's Sketches fro7n Nepal, Vol. I. (1880). 
 
 2 Lord Auckland decided to send a British force to Kabul in July 
 1838. — John Russell Colvin, by Sir Auckland Colvin, p. 116 (Clarendon 
 Press, 1895). 
 
 ' Letter from Lord Auckland's Private Secretary to B. H. Hodgson, 
 dated Simla, September 28th, 1838.
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1835—1839. 169 
 
 of the Darbar towards the close of 1838 for a permanent 
 amendment of its ways. '* We have narrowh' escaped a 
 war with Nepal," he wrote to his father h\'bruary ist, 
 i^39. "and now I see many symptoms that the escape 
 was but temporary, and that unless our Governor-General 
 make up his mind to more resolute remonstrance than 
 heretofore, Gurkha presumption and duplicity will speedily 
 enforce our taking up arms against Nepal." 
 
 The Nepalcse Court had by this time discovered that our 
 threatened demonstration on its frontier was only a threat 
 — not to be realised while Lord Auckland had Afghanistan 
 on his hands. Accordingly it began the year 1839 by 
 " publishing prophecies predicting our downfall through- 
 out the plains." ' At home it got ready again for war. 
 Throughout the year the arsenals and military workshops 
 resounded with preparation. Sixty-four new cannon 
 were cast, while by April two hundred cannon " of brass 
 and leather " were under manufacture, and 800,000 pounds 
 of powder with 100,000 round shot and 1,200,000 musket 
 balls were ordered. Muskets were to be turned out at the 
 rate of five a day. Two experienced captains were deputed 
 to stockade the hills on the border, and a war-census was 
 taken. It returned the population fit to bear arms — that 
 is, from twelve to sixty years of age — at 400,000 persons. 
 
 All this was very popular with the chiefs, but Ranjang 
 I'andi, who now made himself sole Minister with the help 
 of the Senior Queen, found that it cost mone)-. It was 
 in vain that he retrenched the public expenditure. " The 
 strictest parsimony " failed to yield the needful supplies. 
 " As high in favour at Court as he was feared and detested 
 by the people," he devised a scheme of resumptions, 
 
 ' Excerpts J nnn tJit' Lifters 0/ tJir Resiclr/tt at Kathmandit to Govcrn- 
 mcnt. TickeU'b Memorandum. For tliis year 1839 1 quote invariably 
 from the original MS. copy in the India Office, countersigned 
 by Hodgson. As I follow its text closely, it is not needful to 
 constantly refer to it in footnotes. It and the letters separately quoted 
 are the aiitlioi ities for all statements in the following pages dealing 
 with this evcrtful year 1839.
 
 I/O LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 forced benevolences, and forfeitures " falling little short 
 of open robbery. He commenced operations by ostenta- 
 tiously giving up to the State his own lands which he 
 had held on rent-free tenure," and then called on the 
 other chiefs to do likewise. All rent-free grants since 
 the downfall of his father in 1802 were to be resumed. 
 The chiefs were at the same time subjected to a system 
 of money contributions ; from a single one of them a 
 forced loan of ;£^30,ooo was demanded. Fines also were 
 " mercilessly levied on the most frivolous pretences for 
 acts so long past as to have been almost forgotten." One 
 noble family found itself suddenly called upon for ;^8o,ooo^ 
 another for ^20,000 ; while ^^2,500 were extorted from 
 a poorer man on the plea of his having instigated a friend 
 " to intercede for Bhim Sen and his family when in chains." 
 " Soldiers were scattered over the country enforcing these 
 exactions," and the acclamations of the new Prime 
 Minister's war promises speedily turned into an outcry 
 against the extortions of his war finance. 
 
 Ranjang Pandi tried to stem the public hatred by clutch- 
 ing more strenuously at the supreme power. The leader 
 of the Brahman party was compelled to give up his last 
 pretence of joint authority, and to retire in real earnest 
 to his devotions. The King's collaterals had indignantly 
 declared " that they who are of the royal race will not be 
 subjected to any one but the Raja, and that to obey a Khas 
 (Ranjang's tribe) is intolerable degradation." ^ Ranjang 
 retorted by calling them " royal menials," who have no 
 title to discharge the noble duties of war and of politics.^ 
 He elected, in fact, to trust solely to his influence over the 
 Senior Queen, and disdained alike the wrath of the chiefs 
 and the detestation of the people. The poor King, with 
 his usual feeble craft, thought that he himself might 
 perhaps come to the top in the turmoil. So he kept 
 
 ' Letter from B. H. Hodgson to the Officiating Secretary with the 
 Governor-General, dated April 14th, 1839. — India Office MSS. 
 * Idem.
 
 VIII.] KESIDKNT IN NEPAL: 1833—1839. I71 
 
 RanjiUij^ in suspcn.sc as to his formal confirmation in the 
 Prime-^Ministcrship, while allo\vin<^ him to discharge its 
 duties and to bear its odium. 
 
 Ranjang's ministry was one of spoliation, and the chiefs, 
 as Bhim Sen had predicted, began to turn their eyes to 
 the British. The following paragraphs in a secret despatch 
 from Hodgson to Herbert Maddock,* who had preceded 
 him as Resident in Nepal and was now the Secretary to 
 Government in attendance on the Governor-General, shows 
 the gradual development of the drama, then drawing to its 
 bloody close. 
 
 '■ Even now, though Ranjang is not yet confirmed in 
 the Premiership, and perhaps may not, after all, be so, yet 
 under his predominate secret influence many severities arc 
 inflicted and more apprehended, and the great body of 
 the Chiefs is extremely disgusted and discontented. The 
 Senior Rani's irregular and violent ambition is said to find 
 a ready tool in Ranjang for the accomplishment of her 
 particular purposes, on condition she prove herself (as she 
 professes to be) equally pliant in regard to his particular 
 ends. She wants the Raja to resign in favour of her son ; 
 Ranjang wants revenge on his numerous enemies ; and 
 the Raja, though he dreads with reason both the one and 
 the other, and thus continues to withhold the [confirma- 
 tion in the] Premiership from Ranjang, yet gradually gives 
 way to his imperious spouse, seduced by extravagant 
 promises of the mighty things which Ranjang is to achieve 
 against the Company, when once he has the complete 
 direction of affairs. Meanwhile every step he makes to 
 power is marked by actual or threatened retaliation and 
 severity at home, and by secret instigations of every 
 species of covert hostility abroad. 
 
 " He appears not in any matter, but he really guides all 
 
 through the Senior Rani, and he it is who so often marred 
 
 the Raja's better purpose when his Highness was ready 
 
 to lay aside severities at home and intrigues on the plains. 
 
 ' Dated Nepal Residency, April 14th, 1839.
 
 172 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 " All persons of mark now look to the Company's 
 Government, and earnestly hope that the Governor-General 
 will ere long be led to address the Raja in such terms as may 
 frighten him into justice at home and abroad, and redeem 
 him from the toils of the Rani and [Ranjang] Pandi, whose 
 unjust and irregular ambition threatens equal mischief to 
 the State in its domestic and in its foreign relations. 
 
 " Several times the Raja has been made to hesitate 
 and draw back from his meditated injustice. . . . The 
 Junior Rani dreads that her children will be sacrificed to 
 the jealousy of the Senior Rani, their eyes being put out 
 or their lives made away with by foul practices, and she 
 is meditating some possible means of appeal to the 
 Resident. 
 
 " The Court physicians have destroyed themselves be- 
 cause banishment proved no protection to them, and they 
 were loaded with irons and otherwise oppressed after they 
 had been again spared and even sent to their destination. 
 The Court has therefore the blood of these Brahmans upon 
 its head, and all persons anticipate misfortunes to the 
 kingdom therefrom. Bhim Sen's brother has turned /rtX-zV 
 to escape from perpetually renewed alarms, and Bhim Sen 
 considers himself safe only because his nephew Matabar is 
 beyond the Darbar's power, and would join the English 
 and open the way to their armies to Kathmandu if Bhim 
 Sen were presently made away with. The Darbar earnestly 
 desires to get back Matabar Singh and also Ranudat Sah 
 to Nepal, and the Governor-General should take good care 
 that neither of them yet returns, for whilst they are below, 
 the Darbar will never dare to come to extremities with the 
 Company. 
 
 " The Raja's temper is spoilt and soured, so that the 
 most respectable chiefs are repeatedly subjected to coarse 
 abuse or to actual or threatened extortions, upon pretence 
 of bribery and malversation in office under the long ad- 
 ministration of the Thappas. Meanwhile secret intrigues 
 with the plains with a view to excite discontent among
 
 VIII.] RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833-1839- ^73 
 
 the Company's subjects and conspiracy amongst its de- 
 pendent allies are going on as actively as ever. 
 
 " There are now at Kathmandu secret envoys from all 
 the following States: Gwalior, Satara, Baroda Jodhpur 
 Jaipur, Kotah, Bundi. Rewa, Panna, and the i unjab 
 Dhyan Singh); and the intercourse thus set afoot the 
 Darbar is determined to maintain. Meanwhile, partly from 
 dread of the consequences of such perverseness and partly 
 in order to be ready fully to meet the expected opportunity 
 of open rupture, hostile preparations of all sorts continue 
 
 to be actively made. 
 
 " Between fear and hate the Darbar suffers not itsclt 
 to have a moment's rest, but so little is it governed by 
 prudence in its proceedings that, at the very moment when 
 it would fain break with the Company, it scruples not to 
 misuse and alarm in an extreme degree the great majority 
 of those Chiefs who alone could second its wishes in the 
 event of war. A rash and violent woman aiming at 
 uncontrolled sway governs the Darbar, and all men of 
 experience anticipate the worst that can happen unless 
 renewed dread of the Company should speedily recall the 
 Raja to safer counsels and more resolution in abiding by 
 
 them. I have, etc. -j^^^.. 
 
 " B. H. Hodgson, Resident 
 
 Ranjang Pandi perfectly understood the situation. A 
 coalition of the Chiefs led by Bhim Sen, and enjoying the 
 goodwill of the British Resident, would frighten the feeble 
 Raja into a spasm of independence which might sweep 
 the Pandi faction out of Nepal. Ranjang did not yet 
 dare to attack the British Resident. He also feared to 
 murder Bhim Sen lest the gallant Matabar. who was now 
 safe at the Sikh Court, should return on the flood-tide of 
 popular indignation and avenge his uncle's death. lo 
 get rid of this stumbling-block it was reported > about thi. 
 
 « Excerpts from the Utters of the Resident at Kathmandu for 1839. 
 ut supra. India Oflke MS. Secret Consultations.
 
 174 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 time that the Darbar had hired secret agents to poison 
 Matabar Singh, who were shortly to set out with that 
 intent to the Punjab." 
 
 At the same moment a fresh charge of poisoning was 
 trumped up against Bhim Sen in the palace. The Court 
 physician was instigated, under threats of torture, to 
 implicate the ex-minister in an imaginary attempt to poison 
 the Senior Queen — an attempt alleged to have taken place 
 six months before ! The aged Bhim Sen, " in whose favour 
 none dared now to lift a voice, was reduced to the most 
 abject and affecting appeals to the Resident." But the 
 Raja still hesitated to take the plunge into the infamy of 
 a judicial murder of the old Minister. The King, 
 accompanied by one of the royal collaterals who was for 
 a time joint Prime Minister with Ranjang, came in person 
 to the Residency and laid the accusation before Hodgson. 
 The Resident calmly but firmly pointed out the insufficiency 
 of the evidence, " and with a view to the physician's life 
 being spared, recommended his banishment from the city, 
 as securing future peace within the palace." Even this 
 failed to satisfy the furious Senior Queen and her favourite 
 Pandi. The Court physicians committed suicide to escape 
 torture. The younger Queen, as we have heard, went in 
 hourly dread for her children's lives ; and Bhim Sen's 
 brother^ sought safety under the garb of a wandering 
 religious mendicant. 
 
 The iirst batch of victims were already in their graves, 
 but their kindred remained. " The family and relations, 
 male and female, of the physician who was crucified last 
 year were seized ; five had their noses cut off, and eleven, 
 after being tortured in hopes of extorting confessions 
 criminating certain chiefs, were given to perpetual slavery 
 as outcasts." ^ Two of the Court physicians who had not 
 
 • Ranbir Singh, who had only a few years ago been intriguing against 
 his elder brother for the Prime-Ministership. 
 
 * These and all other quotations without a separate reference are 
 from the Excerpts from the Letters of the Resident, as before mentioned.
 
 viii.J RESIDENT IN NEPAL: 1833 -1839. 17$ 
 
 killed themselves were horribly mutilated. One of them, 
 "a Brahman and whose life was therefore sacred, was 
 burned on the forehead and cheeks till his brain and jaws 
 were exposed." ' The other was impaled alive, and his 
 heart torn out while he was still living. The Prince looked 
 on as these horrors were perpetrated, but no word could 
 be wrung out of the victims to incriminate Bhim Sen. The 
 Senior Queen " almost publicly avowed her determination 
 to procure the Raja's abdication in favour of her eldest 
 son." Every effort was made to lure back Matabar Singh 
 to Nepal (the secret emissaries having failed to poison 
 him), in order that " both he and Bhim Sen might be 
 decapitated." 
 
 The last scene in the tragedy opened with a new set of 
 accusations against Bhim Sen — accusations to which his 
 persecutors no longer took the trouble to give even a show 
 of probability. He was first charged with poisoning the 
 widow of the Raja who died as far back as 18 16, then 
 with poisoning that long-deceased Raja himself " The old 
 man thus beset," says the official narrative,-' " courageously 
 defended himself, demanding why, if such charges had been 
 really made, they had not been produced against him on 
 his first arrest in 1837 ; denounced the papers as forgeries, 
 and called for confrontation with his accusers. But his 
 defence and his appeals were alike unheeded ; not a voice 
 was raised in his behalf throughout the Darbar. The 
 Chiefs sat by in dejected silence, and the Raja giving way 
 to, or feigning, a burst of indignation, denounced him as a 
 traitor and had him hurried off in chains to a prison. 
 
 "It is needless to trace further his cruel persecutions. 
 Like a convicted felon, he lingered in his dungeon during 
 his few remaining days ; his ears were assailed from day 
 to day with threats of renewed torments — with being 
 
 ' Oldfield, Vol. I., p. 316 (Ed. 1880), apparently writing from local 
 records which have not come under my notice in the Secret Consultations 
 preserved at the India Office. 
 
 * Excerpts from the LctUrs of the Resident at Kathnuindu, nt supra.
 
 1/6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. viii. 
 
 exposed plunged up to the neck in a heap of human 
 ordure and filth, with having his wife paraded naked through 
 the city — till, totally worn out by accumulated torments, the 
 wretched man anticipated further malice by committing 
 suicide. On July 20th he inflicted a wound in his throat, 
 with a kukri, of which he died nine days after. His corpse 
 was refused funeral rites, but dismembered and exposed 
 about the city, after which the mangled remains were 
 thrown away on the river-side, where none but the dog 
 and vulture dared further heed them." 
 
 No sooner was the outrage complete than the terror- 
 stricken Raja hastened to excuse himself to the Resident. 
 Hodgson listened, then coldly replied "that the whole of 
 the transaction was foreign to the duties of my station, 
 and that I could only express my acknowledgments for 
 the official communication made to me by the Darbar."^ 
 But he laid a full account of the proceedings before the 
 Governor-General. " Thus has perished," he concludes in 
 words not unsuited to the tragical moment, " the great and 
 able statesman who for more than thirty years had ruled 
 this kingdom with more than regal sway, just two years 
 after his sudden fall from power in 1837 — prior to which 
 event the uniform success of nearly all his measures had 
 been no less remarkable than the energy and sagacity 
 which so much promoted that success. He was indeed a 
 man born to exercise dominion over his fellows alike by the 
 means of command and of persuasion. Nor am I aware 
 of any native statesman of recent times, except Ranjit 
 Singh, who is, all things considered, worthy to be compared 
 with the late General Bhim Sen of Nepal." ' 
 
 ' Report from the Resident to the Deputy Secretary with the 
 Governor-General, dated July 30th, 1839, para. 4. — India Office MSS. 
 * Idem., para. 6.
 
 z^;?^-^^^^^^^- 
 
 I e-»*- - -CTAT 44-.
 
 ^77] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LAST FOUR YEARS OF RESIDENTSHI!' IN NEPAL. 
 1839 1843. 
 
 THE Queen and her favourite Pandi now breathed 
 more freely. But they felt that, as long as a British 
 Resident watched their proceedings, the game of hostility 
 to the British Government was a dangerous one. They 
 vented their wrath on the kindred of the dead Prime 
 Minister, declared his whole clan incapable of holding any 
 State employment for seven generations, and drove forth 
 his relatives, who had already been banished to the moun- 
 tains, still farther into the snows. All grants of lands 
 made by him or by the late Queen-Regent from 1804 
 onwards were confiscated, and their holders, many of 
 whom had received them as payment for public services, 
 were without mercy turned adrift. 
 
 Hodgson's air of indifference to the intrigues against the 
 Residency, intrigues which the Queen knew he was well 
 informed of, nonplussed her. She thought he must cer- 
 tainly have some power of destruction in reserve. His 
 health improved and his spirits rose as he realised that 
 Lord Auckland was too busy with Afghanistan to spare 
 any force for Nepal, and that the Resident must depend 
 entirely on his own courage and resource. They " are 
 ready to break forth," he wrote to his father in July 1S39, 
 " or at least to break the treaty and expel the envoy, /.»•. 
 myself. There is great pleasure to me in the excitement 
 and in the responsibility, and now Government readily 
 admits that I was a prophet when I Umg ago told Lord 
 Bentinck to beware of the future, assuring him that what 
 
 12
 
 1/8 LIFE or BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 he then called a sinecure would by-and-by come to be 
 considered the most important diplomatic office in India. 
 So it has proved. My health is pretty c^ood, and I am 
 ever mindful of you all." 
 
 The Governor-General saw clearly that the death of 
 Bhim Sen left the war party supreme in Nepal, but he 
 could only take notice of it in empty words. There is 
 indeed a feeble magniloquence about Lord Auckland's 
 reply which the presence of his Afghan complications can 
 alone excuse. " I am directed to state," wrote his secre- 
 tary,' " that the measures of indignity, insult, and cruelty 
 which the Government of Nepal has adopted towards the 
 late and able Minister of that State, have been viewed by 
 the Governor-General with feelings of extreme disgust and 
 abhorrence. They pourtray a spirit of vindictive hatred 
 towards the late General Bhim Sen, venting itself on its 
 unfortunate victim by outrages so atrocious and unmanly 
 as to lead to the belief that the moral feeling of the Court 
 has been much vitiated since the deposition of Bhim Sen, 
 and that, under the present system and the present Govern- 
 ment, the manners of the people will rapidly sink into a 
 state of barbarity from which they were being gradually 
 weaned by a long course of pacific rule, under an able and 
 comparatively enlightened administration." 
 
 Hodgson did what he could with this weak-kneed back- 
 ing, lie made the Raja understand the danger to his 
 dynasty which the resentment of the Governor-General 
 implied. The poor Prince again drew away from the war 
 party. In the summer of 1S39 he had begun "to talk of 
 the fate of the Company being in his hands,"- and had 
 been interdicted by the Queen from intercourse with the 
 Residency. Before autumn was over Hodgson brought 
 
 ' Letter from T. H. Maddock, Secretary to the Government of India 
 with the Governor-General, to the Resident in Nepal, dated Simla, 
 August 15th, 1839. — India Office MSS. 
 
 ■ Excerpts from Letters of the Resident. Tickell's Memorandum, 
 lit supra. Secret Consultations, India Office MSS.
 
 IX.] LAST FOLK YEAKS IN NKPAL : 1839—1843. 1/9 
 
 him to reason, dexterously usinj; the Raja's necessity for 
 finding a wife or wives from India for the heir-apparent. 
 This plea had enabled the Xepalese Darbar to send its 
 emissaries to the Native Courts throughout Northern India 
 " under the old pretence of seeking for brides." ' The age 
 of the heir-apparent nc^w rendered it a necessity in sober 
 earnest, and Hodgson politely informed the Raja that his 
 envoys would receive passports through the British pro- 
 vinces only if he acted justly by the Hritish- Indian traders 
 in Nepal. 
 
 The negotiations dragged themselves on through various 
 phases of duplicity, but b\' October 1839 Hodgson had 
 once more checkmated the war party left rampant by 
 Bhim Sen's death in July. He wrote to Mr. Thoby 
 Prinsep on October iSth, 1839, that he had for the present 
 stopped Nepal in her perilous course." " I have been 
 debating with her for three months to exact from her an 
 honest and practical atonement in place of the dishonest 
 and idle phrases and compliments with which she .sought 
 to cover the past and to shift for the future. She offered 
 me, at the beginning of that {)eriod, a Kharita(or letter) for 
 the Governor-General full of all excellent discourse, rounded 
 off with a tender of her troops to us to fight be\ond the 
 Indus and elsewhere. She conceived, or rather proposcci 
 and wished, that this magnificent piece of humbug should 
 procure her a pardon for all ill-deeds and .schemes of the 
 last two years, besides obtaining present leave for her to 
 .send a gorgeous and numerous mi.ssion through the Rajput 
 States under pretence of marriage, but really to bravado 
 away the shame of her ejection from those parts eighteen 
 months ago, and to come to some .sort of untlerstanding 
 with their rulers. 
 
 ' Idem. 
 
 • In lliis and in other letters I give only the paragraphs directly 
 bearing on the political situation. Henry Thoby I'rinscp was then 
 Officiating Secretary to the Government of huli;i in the Secret and 
 I'olitical Dcpartmrtit.
 
 l8o LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 " I was obliged to be wary at first and to temporise. 
 But gradually I have grown bolder, and I have at last 
 compelled the Darbar to admit, by the silent abandonment 
 ■of it, that this mission to the Rajputs was a fraud ; whilst 
 I have refused either to forward the Kharita to the 
 Governor-General or even to let a real marriage mission go 
 to the districts on this side the Ganges, until the Darbar 
 has, verily and in deed, done me right and justice in those 
 several special instances wherein she has admitted my 
 claim and pledged herself to redress o\'er and over again. 
 
 " These reforms 1 have now, I think, nearly carried, after 
 such delays and evasions and tricks to tire patience as 
 I never saw nor dreamt of before. I have been on the 
 verge of success apparently twenty times during the debate, 
 when the Darbar has gone off again at a tangent. 
 
 " The points I have gained from the Darbar are of some 
 value, and if the greater politics of India go well for some 
 time to come, I may be able to keep the Darbar to the 
 new course which those points will define for her. But at 
 present she consents and signs with the worst will to the 
 work, and she will bolt if temptation again arise. Yours 
 ever, 
 
 " B. H. Hodgson." 
 
 The agreement which Hodgson thus wrung from Nepal 
 in the teeth of the war party now forms No. LVI. of Sir 
 Charles Aitchison's Treaties and Engagciiioits. It bears 
 date November 6th, 1839, and the translation runs as 
 follows : " According to your (J.e. the Resident's) request 
 and for the purpo.se of perpetuating the friendship of the 
 two States, as well as to promote the effectual di.scharge of 
 current business, the following items are fixed : 1st. All 
 secret intrigues whatever, by mes.sengers or letters, shall 
 totally cease. 2nd. The Nepal Government engages to 
 have no further intercourse with the dependent allies of 
 the Company beyond the Ganges, who are by treaty 
 precluded from such intercourse, except with the Resident's
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NKPAL : 1839— 1843. I Si 
 
 sanction and under his passports. 3rd. Witli the land- 
 holders and men of position on this side of the Ganges, 
 who arc connected by marriage with the royal fimily of 
 Nepal, intercourse of letters and persons shall remain open 
 to the Nepal Government as heretofore. 4th. It is a<;reed 
 to, as a rule for the 'guidance of both Governments, that 
 in judicial matters, where civil causes arise, there they shall 
 be heard and decided ; and the Nepal Government engages 
 that for the future British subjects shall not be compelled 
 to plead in the Courts of Nepal to civil actions having 
 exclusive reference to their dealings in the plains. 5th. The 
 Nepal Government engages that British subjects shall 
 hereafter be regarded as her own subjects in regard to 
 access to the Courts of Law, and that the causes of the 
 former shall be heard and decided without denial or delay, 
 according to the usages of Nepal. 6th. The Nepal Govern- 
 ment engages that an authentic statement of all duties 
 leviable in Nepal shall be delivered to the Resident, and 
 that hereafter unauthorised imposts not entered in this list 
 shall not be levied on liritish subjects." 
 
 For the moment the war party in Nepal was cowed. 
 Hodgson permitted the complimentary letter to the 
 Governor-General to be despatched along with the treaty, 
 and the Court even begged to be allowed to send an equally 
 complimentary mission to wait on his E.xcellency — with 
 the most violent of the war party at its head ! Suddenly, 
 on a rumour that Lord Auckland had been recalled for 
 harshness towards the .Amir of Afghanistan," the projected 
 mission was dropped " in a manner wantonly disrespectful 
 towards his Lordship."- When the rumour turned out to 
 be false the proposal was ostentatiously revived in the hope 
 that the Nepalcse envoy " would be able by a personal 
 interview with the Governor-General to obtain his Lord- 
 ship's sanction to the numerous deputations which Nepal 
 
 ' Dost Muhammad. 
 
 ' Secret Letter from the Kesideiit to the Secretary with the Govenior- 
 Gencral, dated November 25th, 1839.
 
 1 82 LIFE OY BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 wished to send forth all over India, under pretext of the 
 heir-apparent's approaching marriage, to select brides or 
 to issue invitations for the ceremony."' 
 
 Hodgson's letters at this period disclose a hopelessness 
 of keeping the Nepalese Court to any engagements what- 
 ever, but also a resolve to constantly occupy its attention 
 with minor matters until Lord Auckland should be set free 
 from Afghanistan to deal seriously with the situation in 
 Nepal. The violence of the war party helped Hodgson's 
 design. For it established such a reign of terror inside the 
 palace and throughout the country that the Raja's family 
 as well as the chiefs began to look to the Residency as 
 their one source of security. The Senior Queen and her 
 favourite Pandi, carried their persecution of the Junior 
 Queen so far as to accuse her of criminal conversation 
 with a captain in the Gurkha army. The Raja saw 
 the malevolence of the charge, and it fell to the ground. 
 Presently they renewed the attack by an accusation " of 
 misprision of treason." This, although also foiled, threw 
 the younger Queen " into the greatest distress and fear for 
 her life and children, and induced her to appeal secretly 
 to the Resident to procure for her the protection of the 
 British Government." - 
 
 The year 1840 thus opened with the war party again 
 supreme in Nepal, headed by the Senior Queen and her 
 favourite Pandi, but with the Court in the meshes of its 
 late engagements to Hodgson, and with the Junior Queen 
 and the royal collaterals looking for support to the 
 Residency. The Governor-General, notwithstanding his 
 entanglements in Afghanistan, began to feel that a war 
 with Nepal could not much longer be staved off. On 
 
 ' Excerpts from Letters of the Resident, ut supra. 
 
 - Excerpts frotn Letters of the Resident at Kathtna7idu, Tickell's 
 Memorandum, ict supra. In making my final reference to these 
 " Excerpts," which conclude with the year 1839, I beg to e.vpress my 
 obligation to Mr. H. W. Garrett, of the Political Department, India 
 Office, under whose supervision copies were made for me from the 
 Secret Consultations (MSS.).
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEP.\L : jS3.;— 1843. 183 
 
 January 9th, 1840, his Private Secretary wrote strongly to 
 Hodt^son about " the idle vapourin-^^s and futile intrii^ucs 
 by which the Nepal Darbar Ivas been bringing upon itself 
 present ridicule and laying the seeds of its future punish- 
 ment." ' Hodgson meanwhile occupied the Ncpile-e 
 Government with perpetual discussions about carrying 
 out its agreement to deliver up Thugs and the bandit- 
 leaders sheltered within ils frontier, and he procured the 
 issue of stringent orders for their surrender. The truth is 
 that the Queen and her favourite were preparing their 
 grand coup^ and were as anxious to gain time as Hodgson 
 himself. 
 
 Meanwhile they laboured to render the British Govern- 
 ment odious in every way to the chiefs and people. They 
 first tried to draw Hodgson into a palace scandal. On 
 May 5th, 1840, the marriage of the heir-apparent simul- 
 taneously to two ladies was celebrated. Shortly after the 
 ceremony the Briti-sh Resident was summoned to a private 
 interview with the Senior Oueen and the Raja. The Queen 
 declared with affected consternation that certain ill-omened 
 marks had been discovered on the bodies of the brides, and 
 that the marriages must at once be dis.solved. Hodgson 
 carefully abstained from giving any opinion, for he knew 
 it was certain to be mi.srepresented. The Queen, indeeil, 
 had got up the .story partly to entrap the Resident, partly 
 as a move in her policy of keeping the King in perpetual 
 distresses in order to disgust him with the cares of royalty, 
 and to induce his resignation in favour of her son with 
 herself as regent. Foiled by Hodgson's reticence, she 
 presently di.scovered that the marks were only temporary 
 and of no significance. 
 
 She next tried to win popular favour by a romantic 
 outrage upon the British frontier. On April I2th, 1840, 
 half a hundred Gurkha braves suddenly appeared at the 
 great fair held in Ramnagar Forest, eight miles within 
 
 • J. R. Colvin to n. H. HocIrsoi). dated Camp bt-yoiid Dholpiir, 
 January 9th, 1840.— Vol. VIII., p. 217, of the Avicklaiid MSS.
 
 1 84 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON- [chap. 
 
 our provinces. After forcibly levying the bazaar dues, 
 they established their permanent headquarters in the 
 neighbourhood, called on the inhabitants of ninety-one 
 iiritish villages to come in, and told them that their terri- 
 tories were henceforth part of Nepal, to whose Government 
 alone the revenues must be paid. They then stationed 
 Gurkha soldiers in each of the villages thus seized, and 
 threatened to deport to Nepal for punishment any local 
 official who dared to convey information of the transaction 
 to the British authorities. " In fact a large tract of country, 
 eight or nine miles broad, by twenty or twenty-five in 
 length [say 200 square miles], had been entirely cut off 
 from the British dominions." ' 
 
 Hodgson promptly demanded the withdrawal of the 
 Gurkha soldiers, the punishment of the authors of the 
 aggression, compensation to the villagers, and an ample 
 apology to our Government. But the Queen and her 
 favourite Pandi, being now almost ready to strike their 
 long-meditated blow, protracted the negotiations and 
 meanwhile denied redress. As Hodgson had no force 
 behind him, he had to keep his temper and do what he 
 could by remonstrances. The Queen and her favourite, 
 elated by impunity, resolved to at once raise a war- fund 
 b>' cutting down the pay of the troops, pretending that 
 the reduction was being carried out by the Raja under 
 orders from the British Government. Having thus pre- 
 pared the way, they awaited with calmness the military 
 rising which they knew would follow, and hoped that in 
 the confusion the Raja would be deposed and the Residency 
 burnt to the ground. 
 
 They had not to wait long. Early on the morning of 
 June 2 1 St, 1840, the Nepalese army at the capital, 
 6,000 strong, broke into revolt at a general parade, at 
 which the reduction of their pay was to be officially 
 
 ' Narrative of events in Nepal in 1840, prepared by Lieutenant 
 C. H. Niclioletts, Assistant Resident, dated September 30th, 1853, 
 para. 7. — India Office Records.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NKPAL: 1839— 1843. 185 
 
 announced. On the preceding evening the Queen cleverly 
 .secured the pcr.son.s of the British Resident and his staff. 
 " I was called," writes Hodgson in a private note, '* to the 
 Darbar ostensibly for a mere formal visit. I went as usual 
 with the gentlemen of the Residency at 7 p.m. At 10 o'clock 
 I rose to go, but the Raja begged ine to stay awhile, and 
 so again at i i o'clock, and again I think at midnight. 
 Still something was always urged by the Court to keep us, 
 and though no adequate cause was a.ssigned, I assented 
 in order if possible to discover the real cau.se of our deten- 
 tion. I felt there was .some cau.se, and possibl\- a serious 
 one, as I whispered to Dr. Campbell,* and I wanted to 
 fathom the mystery. 
 
 " Soon after midnight, at a sign from one of the Raja's 
 attendants, his Highness asked mc to go to the Queen's 
 apartments. 1 went. Her Highness received me with 
 scant civility, and presently grew angry and offensive with 
 reference to business. I replied at first seriously," and 
 then pa.sscd to compliments ending in a jest. " This made 
 her laugh, and under cover of the momentary good-humour 
 the Raja carried mc off, apparently only too happy to 
 have thus easily got me through an interview demanded 
 by his virago of a wife, who wiis the prime mover in all the 
 mischief then brewing. It was daylight when I and the 
 gentlemen left the palace, and shortly after came rumours 
 of an uproar in the Nepal cantonments. It was reported 
 to me that the troops at the cai)ital were in a mutinous 
 state, and were threatening mischief to the Residency, they 
 having been told that the Resident had been all night 
 insisting on a reduction of the Gurkha army by in- 
 structions from his Government. 
 
 " Ere long the report of the mutiny was confirmed by 
 the appearance of a large body (A soldiers in arms moving 
 on the Residency. Arrived at an o[x:n space two hundred 
 yards from the embassy-house, the troops called a halt 
 and helil a palaver. The men objected to perpetrate so 
 ' The Residency Surgeon and Honorary Assistant KcsidciU
 
 1 86 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 cowardly an act as the destruction of the Resident, ' he 
 being a good 'gentleman long known to them, and ahvays 
 kind and courteous to them and their families.' The 
 palaver ended in a deputation of a select body of them 
 to the Darbar to say that, if they were to do such a deed, 
 they must have a Lal-mo/iar (a formal order under the 
 royal seal) to that effect." 
 
 Hodgson contrived to inform the Raja that the object 
 of the strange detention of himself and staff during the 
 night had been seen through, and that measures were 
 already taken to secure vengeance, if needful, for their 
 deaths. The Queen, believing her arrangements for a rising 
 complete, withdrew in the early morning from the capital, 
 so that, whatever happened, the Raja would have to bear 
 the consequences alone. " Just as the deputies of the 
 soldiers reached the palace and made their statement, the 
 Resident's Head Munshi arrived there and acquainted 
 the Darbar that the pretence of mutiny to cover violence 
 was transparent, that intelligence to that effect had been 
 transmitted to the Governor-General by two different 
 channels, and that the messengers had already got clear 
 off towards the plains. The effect of this double move 
 by the soldiers and by the Resident was to put a quiet 
 extinguisher on a ruse of the Darbar which might easily 
 have resulted in a scene of bloodshed, furens quid femina 
 possit being an old truth." ^ 
 
 Meanwhile horrors were taking place in the city which 
 prove that, throughout that night and forenoon, the lives 
 of the British officers had hung by a thread. Hodgson's 
 easy good-humour with the Queen probably saved himself 
 and his staff from murder in the palace or at the moment 
 of quitting it. His calmness next morning in resting his 
 safety on his character as ambassador, and disdaining 
 any contemptible show of self-defence, certainly saved the 
 Residency from the troops. If a single shot had been 
 fired from the Residency walls, the mutineers would not 
 ' Private note written by Mr. Hodgson, without date.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUK YEARS IM NEPAL: 1S39-1843. 187 
 
 have halted but would have carried the ijatc with a rush. 
 Hodgson kept his escort of two hundred men perfectly 
 quiet, he kept his officers perfectly quiet, he swiftly took 
 measures for acquainting his Government with the facts, 
 and then he threw the responsibility for his safety as an 
 ambassador upon the Raja and his Ministers. If we 
 admire the gallantry, or even the gallant futility, with 
 which Indian envoys have defended themselves by paltry 
 escorts to the last living man, we must yield a yet higher 
 respect to the unmoved civil courage with which Hodgson 
 faced the storm and weathered it. 
 
 For meanwhile the mutinous troops had sacked the 
 palace of the royal collateral who posed as nominal Prime 
 Minister, gutted the houses of five other chiefs, members 
 of the Ministry, and loudly demanded that the Raja should 
 himself come forth and redress their grievances. Next 
 day, the 22nd, the Raja summoned up courage to harangue 
 them ; and the troops, with the habitual loyalty to the 
 person of their sovereign .so characteristic of the Gurkhas, 
 ceased from further outrages, liut the excitement con- 
 tinued in their quarters, and on June 23rd, 1S40, the 
 following message was conveyed to the army from the 
 Raja and his Senior Queen : -' 
 
 *' The English Government is powerful, abounding in 
 wealth and in all other resources for war. I have kept 
 well with the English .so long, because I am unable to cope 
 with them. Besides, I am bound by a treaty of amity, 
 and have now no excu.se to break it ; nor have I money 
 to support a war. Troops I have, and arms and ammuni- 
 tion in plenty, but no money. This is the reason why I 
 have reduced your pay. I want treasure to fight the 
 English. Take lower pay for a year or two, and when 1 
 have some money in hand, then I will throw off the mask 
 and indulge you in war." 
 
 To this the troops replied by their deputies at a parade 
 
 ' I repiodiice this frank proclamation aiul tlic reply of tiic troops 
 Irom Oldlic'ld, Vol. I., pp. 3i.S, 319. Ed. ibSo.
 
 1 88 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 which the Maharaja attended in person. " True the 
 English Government is great ; but care the wild dogs of 
 Nepal how large is the herd they attack ? They arc sure 
 to get their bellies filled. You want no money for making 
 war ; for the war shall support itself. We will plunder 
 Lucknow and Patna. But first we must get rid of the 
 Resident, who sees and forestalls all. We must be able, 
 unseen, to watch the moment of attack. It will soon 
 come ; it is come. Give the word and we will destroy the 
 Resident," " and we will soon make the Ganges your 
 boundary. Or if the English, as they say, are your friends 
 and want peace, why do they keep possession of half your 
 dominions? Ixt them restore Kumaun and Sikkim. These 
 are yours ; demand them back ; and if they refuse, drive 
 out the Resident, and let us have war." ^ 
 
 The Raja asked time for deliberation. But the secret 
 hopes of the Queen that the Residency would be sacked in 
 the tumult had been disappointed, and she hesitated to 
 ofificially authorise the outrage. The grievances of the 
 army were accordingly redressed, and the reduction of pay 
 was not insisted on. She contented herself with having 
 placards posted outside the palace exaggerating our diffi- 
 culties and reverses in Afghanistan. The arsenals and gun 
 factories were kept in full activity ; the military spirit was 
 fanned throughout the country by the old device of a war- 
 census, which returned the fighting population at 400,000 
 men.-' 
 
 Lord Auckland had awakened to the fact that, what- 
 ever his embarrassments in Afghanistan, the situation in 
 Nepal brooked no further delay. He instructed his Private 
 Secretary to write at once to Hodgson that there would 
 be no hesitation as to moving troops to the Nepal frontier 
 if necessary." He also forwarded a public despatch, " with 
 
 ' Oldfield, Vol. I., pp. 31S, 319. Ed. i88o. 
 
 2 Idem., p. 321. 
 
 3 J. R. Colvin to Brian Hodgson, dated July iStli, 1840.— Vol. XI. of 
 the Auckland MSS., p. 252.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEAKS IN NEPAL: 1839— 1843. 189 
 
 regard to the forcible occupation of our territory at 
 Ramnagar " (the ninety-one villages). He instructed 
 Hodgson to intimate to the Nepal Darbar " that your 
 Government has viewed the continued usurpation of 
 British territory with extreme displeasure," and to demand, 
 immediate redress. Hodgson was to declare "that the 
 Government of India will speedily feel itself compelled, if 
 such satisfaction be not fully afforded, to march its troops 
 to the frontier to vindicate its honour, and to relieve its 
 subjects from the intolerable violence to which they arc 
 exposed." ^ 
 
 Armed with the knowledge that his threats would be 
 backed by troops " if necessary," Hodgson took up so 
 strong an attitude as to obtain the redress without the 
 actual employment of force. Ample satisfaction wa.s 
 obtained for the seizure of the ninety-one villages and tract 
 of two hundred square miles within our frontier, and the 
 money-compensation for the villages was deposited in the 
 Residency treasury.'- A .series of direct representations 
 were also forced on the Raja which convinced him that 
 the safety of his dynasty depended on the dismissal of 
 the Queen's favourite Pandi from the Ministry. " The 
 Governor-General in Council in reviewing these trans- 
 actions," Lord Auckland wrote to Hodgson,^ " has to thank 
 you for the marked ability, firmness, and judgment with 
 which you have met a long course of adver.se and evasive 
 negotiation on the part of the Nepal Government, and he 
 begs you to accept his cordial acknowledgment of your 
 sei-vice on the occasion." 
 
 Lord Auckland, in the stern mood brought on by the 
 peril of the Residency on July 2ist. 1S40, had asked 
 Hodgson to advise him whether the object of the antici- 
 
 ' (Juotfd frf)m the (irall ciespatcli enclosed in the Private Secretary's 
 letter jnst referred to. 
 
 ■' From Ufticiating Secretary to the Government of India, dated 
 October 26th, 1S40, para. 5, to the Resident at Kathmand\i. 
 
 * Despatch from the Government of India to the Resident, dated 
 October 20th, 1S40, para. 9. — Hodgson Private Papers.
 
 IQO LIFE or BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 patcd war with Nepal " shall be the entire subjugation of the 
 country, or the raising up of another Gurkha Government 
 or administration " ' on terms favourable to our interests. 
 Hodgson leaned to mercy, and he soon found that Lord 
 Auckland's entanglements in Afghanistan rendered it im- 
 possible to spare a force for Nepal in any respect equal to 
 " the entire subjugation of the country." Early in October 
 1840 he was, with compliments on his "ability and tem- 
 perate perseverance," warned that troops were not then 
 available, and that " when they may be moved into camp 
 is uncertain."'" Later in the month this warning was 
 officially repeated." Hodgson was again made to realise 
 that he must still depend on himself. He accordingly^ 
 directed all his efforts to accomplish the change of Ministry 
 by negotiations, and to secure by peaceful means what 
 Lord Auckland had in August only hoped to obtain by 
 a war. 
 
 Throughout the whole year he wrote home in high 
 spirits and with a perfect confidence in his own resources. 
 " Don't be alarmed," he reassured his father — " don't be 
 alarmed at the stuff you see in the papers as to my situation 
 here." " I hope Brian docs not make too light of his 
 situation," is his father's docket on this letter, " but I wish 
 he was well out of it." " Our Government," Hodgson goes 
 on to explain, " wants to get rid of * other affairs ' before 
 it takes Nepal in hand ; and ' other affairs ' have arisen 
 successively fresh and fresh during the last three years, 
 while Nepal's insolence has thus been stimulated. All our 
 temporary devices have been used up, so that the Gurkhas 
 are now 'laughing in our beards.' They are very insolent 
 and faithless, experimenting perpetually on the limits of 
 
 ' Letter from the Private Secretary (J. R. Colvin), dated August 28tli, 
 1840, toB. H. Hodgson.— Auckland MSS., Vol. XIII. 
 
 ' The same to the same, dated October loth, 1840. — Auckland MSS., 
 Vol. XIIL 
 
 ^ Secretary to Government of India, dated October 26th, 1840, para. 12, 
 to the Resident at Kathmandu.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEPAL: 1839-1843. IQI 
 
 our forbearance with(jut open war." ' " M\- health is pretty 
 good, and I am prudent and careful of it fur your sakcs, 
 feeding and drinking hke a hermit, and casting research 
 and mental labour aside, as soon as my office duties are 
 discharged." ■ 
 
 By the end of October Lord Auckland said plainly that 
 an expedition against Nepal was for that year impossible. 
 He applauded Hodgson's efforts U) obtain b)' diplomacy 
 the change of Ministry which he had anticipated as the 
 result of a war. At the beginning of November he officially 
 authorised the Resident " to promote to the utmost degree, 
 consistent with prudence, the object of procuring the 
 removal of the present Ministers of Nepal, and the appoint- 
 ment of a friendly and honest administration in their 
 place." ' 
 
 The day before this despatch w:'.s written in Calcutta 
 Hodgson had secured the desired result at Kathmandu, 
 and a change in the Nepalese Ministry had been quietly 
 carried out. On November 1st, 1840, the Queen's favourite 
 Tandi was dismissed, and one of tlie royal collaterals " was 
 nominated to the Premiership."* This meant the i)ublic 
 abandonment of the war party bj- the Raja, and congratu- 
 lations poured in upon the Resident. "' I congratulate 
 you," wrote Mr. Thob\' Trinsep, now a member of the 
 Governor-Generars Council, " on the i.ssues of your late 
 troublesome negotiations. They are all you could wish, 
 and will gain you great and justly earned credit here and 
 in Europe." Colonel Caulfield, the Resident at Lucknow, 
 and as such the British representative nearest to the 
 Nepalese frontier, e.xpressed a soldier's hearty admiration. 
 " You have been placed in a situation ver)' delicate and 
 trying, and you have done your work with wisdom, nerve, 
 
 ' Letter to his lather, dated May 20tli, 1.S40. 
 
 ' To the same, dated July 8tli, 1840. 
 
 ' Letter Irom the .Secretary tf) the Government of India (confidential), 
 dated November 2nd, ICS40. 
 
 * Narrative ol events in Nepal, su/> anno 1840, by Lieutenant Niclio- 
 letts, Assistant Ke.;ident, para. 13. — India Office Records.
 
 192 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 and promptitude, meriting the approbation of Government 
 and the encomiums of all." ^ " I congratulate you on your 
 important successes at Kathmandu," wrote the Secretary 
 to the supreme Government. " The credit will .stick to 
 you in Indian history." - 
 
 It was felt, indeed, that Hodgson had single-handed 
 saved the necessity of a war at a time when war would have 
 been an impo.ssibility for the British Government. His 
 skilful diplomacy was compared with the miserable entangle- 
 ments into which we were being enmeshed in Afghanis- 
 tan. " We entirely concur," wrote the Court of Directors 
 to the Governor-General, " in the praises which you have 
 bestowed on Mr. Hodgson."^ He had performed his diffi- 
 cult task without even a show of force. " Actual military 
 operations," the Governor-General's Private Secretary wrote 
 to him at the beginning of December, " cannot be thought 
 of for this season, and you will remark that any violence 
 or injury to you will be the greatest possible embarrass- 
 ment to your Government I " * 
 
 " The military demonstration," as that Government had 
 truly called it,' turned out to be only a demonstration. 
 It consisted of a camp under Colonel Oliver at some dis- 
 tance within our own border.*' " The notion of defending 
 500 miles of frontier by a fixed camp of 3,000 bayonets," 
 wrote Hodgson in a private memorandum, " needs but to 
 
 ' Letter dated November i6th, 1840. In citations from the Hodgson 
 Private Papers, I am sometimes (although seldom) unable to verify from 
 tiie official despatches, and have to quote from extracts or copies. 
 
 - George Bushby, Secretary to the Government of India, dated 
 November 14th, 1840. — Hodgson Private Papers. 
 
 ' Despatch from the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, 
 dated January 29th, 1841, para. 7. — Hodgson Private Papers. 
 
 * J. R. Colvin t© B. H. Hodgson, dated Calcutta, December 2nd, 
 1840.— Auckland MSS., Vol. XIII. 
 
 * Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India, dated 
 February 15th, 1 841, para. 2, to the Resident. 
 
 ^ The force consisted of one squadron, 6th Light Cavalry ; the 12th, 
 40th, and 56th Native Infantry ; a detail of Artillery ; and a detach- 
 ment of Irregular Cavalry. — Oldlield, I. 322.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUK YEARS IN NEPAL: 1S39— 1843. 193 
 
 be clearly st;itcd to show its absurdity. Vov myself, I 
 have always carefully endeavoured to ^uard atjainst any 
 such supposition when I have advised the movement of 
 British [/>. Indian] troops, and have expressly stated that 
 the object of such movement was merely to impress this 
 Darbar with a conviction of the serious li|j[ht in which its 
 conduct was regarded." 
 
 Long before the camp could be formed Hodgson secured 
 the objects for which the demonstration had been designed. 
 Encouraged by the approval of the Governor-General, he 
 followed up the dismissal of the Queen's favourite Pandi 
 on November ist, 1840, by obtaining the appointment of a 
 coalition Ministry composed of the royal collaterals who 
 were always on the side of dynastic safety, and of the 
 Brahman Raghunath who had proved himself a man of 
 peace. The Senior Queen stood aside, watchful and 
 vindictive, but powerless for the present. 
 
 The Raja commenced the year 1841 by presenting a 
 remarkable document to the Resident, in which he recounts 
 the changes just made and his reasons for making them. 
 " The Governor-General, Lord Auckland," .so runs this 
 royal missive,' " has written stating that it was necessar}- 
 and proper to dismiss from office the individuals who had 
 disturbed the friendly feeling existing between the Hriti.sh 
 and Nepal Governments, and to appoint in their places 
 others who had the good of the two Governments at heart, 
 and that until the individuals who had .so behaved have 
 been dismissed, there could be no real friendship on the 
 part of my Government. 
 
 " According therefore to the note received from you, I 
 have inquired into the matter, and have decided upon 
 dismissing those persons who have disturbetl the gocKl 
 understanding existing between the two ("lovernments, a*^ 
 shown in the subjoined list." 
 
 ' "Translation of a Yaddasht from the Maharaja ol .Nipal to the 
 address of the Resident, dated Saturday, January 2nd. 1841." — Hodgson 
 Private Papers. 
 
 >3
 
 194 I-ll-'E OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 The document goes on to say that " whatever the Prime 
 Minister and his colleagues now appointed may see fit to 
 do in order to strengthen the bonds of real friendship be- 
 tween the two Governments will meet with my approval." 
 It quaintly concludes with lists of the " Individuals 
 Appointed" and "Individuals Discharged" in parallel 
 columns. 
 
 The nobles, particularly the royal collaterals and the 
 Brahmans, rallied round the Raja and hailed with acclama- 
 tion the change. Thanks to the British Resident, the 
 reign of terror under the Queen's favourite was at an end. 
 • The spiritual leaders, royal kinsmen, and chiefs of Nepal " 
 joined together to the number of ninety-four, and signed 
 a declaration friendly to our Government, taking on them- 
 selves the responsibility for the safety of the British 
 Resident in event of another mutiny or tumult such as 
 occurred in the previous July. The document forms a 
 curious proof of the personal esteem which Hodgson, with 
 his firmness in public and his Brahman-like abstemiousness 
 in private life, had won from the Ncpalese nobility. The 
 British Government considered it of such importance as 
 to give it a permanent place in its Treaties and Engage- 
 ments with Native States.^ 
 
 " We the undersigned Gurus, Chauntrias, Chiefs, etc., of 
 Nepal, fully agree to uphold the sentiments as written 
 below, viz. — That it is most desirable and proper that a 
 firm and steady friendship should exist and be daily 
 increased between the British and Nepal Governments ; 
 that to this end every means should be taken to increase 
 the friendly relations with the Company, and the welfare 
 of the Nepal Government ; that the Resident should ever 
 and always be treated in an honourable and friendly 
 manner ; that if, nevertheless, any unforeseen circumstance 
 
 ' " Translation of an Ikrar-namah, signed by the Gurus, Chauntrias, 
 Chiefs, etc., of Nepal, dated Saturday, Poos Soodi 9th, 1897, or January 
 2nd, 1841." — Aitchison's Treaties, Engagements, and i^anads, Vol. II., 
 pp. 178, 179. Ed. 1876.
 
 uc.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEPAL: 1839—1843. 195 
 
 or unjust or senseless proceeding should at any time arise 
 to shake the friendly undcrstandint; which ought to exbt 
 between the two Governments, or to cause uproar or 
 mischief at Kathniandu, we should be responsible for it." 
 Signed by the ninety-four chiefs. 
 
 Lord Auckland, full of his embarrassments in .Afghan- 
 istan, had scarcely ilared to hupe for success from 
 Hodgson's unaided efforts in Nejjal. Onl\' twelve days 
 before the above documents were signed, he wrote des- 
 pondently to Hodgson, lamenting " that the expectations 
 of effectual assistance from the well-disposed chiefs of 
 Nepal, on which you had in the first instance been led 
 to rely, have not been realised." ' All the Governor- 
 General could urge on I lodgson was to avoid a " direct 
 collision" "at a moment when it might be impossible to 
 render to you vigorous protection and support."'" It was 
 thercfuie with the greater sense of relief that Lord 
 Auckland received the Raja's missive of January 2nd, 
 1841, and the "agreement entered into by .several influential 
 chiefs and other individuals to maintain the alliance 
 between the two Governments." " The Governor-General 
 in Council, I have the honour to inform you," .says the official 
 despatch, " has been pleased to express his entire approval 
 of your procecdinL,^s during the anxious jioriod of tliese 
 negotiations." ' 
 
 Hodgson was now master of the situation. The Senior 
 Oueen, frantic at the discomfiture of her favourite, resolved 
 to quit the country, and in February 1841 set off on a 
 pilgrimage to Benares. The poor Raja once more lost 
 heart, and followed her with intent to bring her back or 
 to bear her company. Lord Auckland declared that this 
 attempt " to enter the British territories without a pass- 
 
 ' Thr Sc'crcfan' tr) the Govtrninrnt of Iiuiia, dated IVcrmlKT J 1st, 
 1840 (scerrt), to the Resident at Kathmandti. — Auckland MSS. 
 
 ' tiUm., para. 6. 
 
 * Letter from thr Secretary' to the Government of India, dated January 
 25th, 1S41, para, z (secret), to the Resident at Kallimandu. — Auck- 
 Jand MSS.
 
 19^ LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 port must, in the actual state of the communications between 
 the two Governments, be regarded as in the highest degree 
 indecorous and unwarrantable." ' On Hodgson fell the 
 delicate task of persuading the royal party to come back. 
 The Queen, imagining from the British Resident's efforts 
 to procure her return that he must regard her as a very 
 important personage, celebrated her re-entry into the 
 capital by at once summoning her favourite Pandi to her 
 presence ! -' The city walls were placarded with denuncia- 
 tions of the coalition cabinet, and with threats against the 
 life of the new Prime Minister.^ I'A'ery thing .seemed once 
 more to point to a counter-revolution. 
 
 In these intrigues the Senior Queen found a new ally. 
 Her eldest son, the heir-apparent, although only about 
 twelve years old,^ had acquired considerable importance 
 since his marriage, and his mother played upon his jealousy 
 of the Junior Queen's children to make him her tool. 
 " This young prince," writes the historian of Nepal, " who 
 appeared to have a most ungovernable temper, as well as a 
 most inhuman disposition, amused his leisure hours by acts 
 of the grossest cruelty performed not only upon animals 
 but upon men, who were tortured and mutilated in his 
 presence upon the slightest and often most unjust grounds, 
 for no other object than to gratify his brutal passions. 
 The Raja, instead of exercising any restraint upon these 
 excesses of his son, constantly tried to evade all responsi- 
 bility for his own acts under cover of pretended coercion 
 on the part of the prince, of whose violence he professed 
 to be afraid." "■ 
 
 ^ Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India, dated 
 March 3rd, 1841, to the Resident at Kathmandu. 
 
 -' Assistant Resident Nicholetts' Memorandum, sub anno 1841, para. 
 17. — India Office Records. ^ Idem., para. 26. 
 
 ^ Sri Surendra Vikram Sah, born 1829. — Native Chronicle, quoted by 
 Wright, p. 284. Ed. 1877. 
 
 * Oldfield, Vol. I., p. 326. Ed. 1880. Dr. Oldfield was Residency 
 Surgeon at Kathmandu from 1850 to 1863, and Honorary Assistant 
 Resident during the last four years of that period.
 
 IX.T LAST FOUR YKAKS IX NEPAL: 1839—1843. 197 
 
 The Quccn-Mothcr, still intent on deposing her husband 
 and ruling as regent during the minority of her son, 
 managed to put the young prince to the front on all public 
 occasions. In May 1S41 the British Resident and the 
 officers of his suite attended the marriage of the Raja's 
 second son. At this :;rcat ceremonial, says the official 
 report, " it was generally noticed as strange that the heir- 
 apparent preceded his Highness the Maharaja in the 
 cortege." ' The Raja as usual succumbed to the influence 
 of the Senior Queen, and the Coalition Ministry found their 
 good intentions towards the British Government stultified 
 by her palace intrigues. In January 1841 the Raja, when 
 appointing that Ministry, had written to the Governor- 
 General a letter of frank repentance. " I beg to inform your 
 Lordship that I take shame to myself for the various mis- 
 understandings which have taken place, owing to the wicked 
 advice of my late counsellors, and that I am determined 
 to adopt measures for the prevention of such a state of 
 things in future. 1 therefore hope and trust that your 
 Lordship will kindly pardon and overlook the i)ast." " Be- 
 fore three months jiassed, the new Ministers were trembling 
 for their heads ; all redress was denied for fresh wrongs 
 on British subjects ; fugitives from British justice were 
 harboured within the Nepalese frontier ; and a counter- 
 revolution had been .secretly accomplished, leaving the 
 Coalition Ministry nominally responsible for the vindictive 
 policy of the Senior Queen. 
 
 In April 1S41 the (iovernor-General had to face the 
 possibility of the Coalition Ministry, ajipointed in January 
 under British auspices, being subjected to the horrors 
 perpetrated on I^him Sen and his supporters two years 
 previou.sly. .All he could do was to instruct Hodg.son " to 
 
 ' As.sistnnt Kcsidciit Nicliolctts' 'S.nr:iU\c, suf> an/iv iS4i,para. 21. — 
 /n(//n Office Records. 
 
 * Translation of a Kh<in/a from the Kaja of Nepal to the Right 
 Honourabl«! the Govemor-Cirneral, dated January 4th, 1S41. — Hodgson 
 Private Papers.
 
 198 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 use the lani^uagc of earnest expostulation or of firm but 
 temperate remonstrance," as the occasion might demand.' 
 So Hodgson was left to encounter what threatened to be 
 another sanguinary crisis, and to out-manccuvrc the furious 
 Queen, with the knowledge that no force was available to 
 back him, and merely with orders to do what he could. 
 
 The months which followed were among the most anxious 
 in his life. But whatever he himself felt, he made the 
 Queen and her war party also feel that he was too danger- 
 ous to be openly attacked. He never showed his hand, 
 and the Queen could not free herself from the apprehension 
 that so much confidence was a confidence conscious of 
 strength. Once more the Raja feebly oscillated back to 
 the British alliance ; the Queen did not dare to deliver her 
 blow at the Coalition Ministry, and that Ministry, under 
 Hodgson's support, was reconstituted on a firmer basis. 
 
 Before the end of the summer of 1841, Hodgson could 
 report that the crisis was over, and that the Queen was 
 spending her wrath in wall-placards. In August the 
 Governor-General congratulated him " that the arrogant 
 and furious spirit of the Queen and her faction is giving 
 wa)' to a milder vein, and that the present Ministry will be 
 enabled to resume their functions under more favourable 
 auspices." " His Lordship in Council will be much gratified 
 to hear of any arrangement of affairs in Nepal which you 
 shall consider likely to be favourable and stable, and which 
 sh all secure to your Government its legitimate influence in 
 the coun.scls of that State, without a resort to measures of 
 actual hostility." " 
 
 " Lord Auckland," the Secretary wrote privately,'' " in a 
 note just come from him says: 'Mr. Hodgson has done 
 extremely well again, so that I would not interfere with him 
 
 ' Letter from .Secretary to Government of India, Secret Dejjartment 
 dated April 26th, 1841. -Auckland MSS. 
 
 - Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India, Secret 
 Department, dated August i6th, 1841. — Auckland MSS. 
 
 ' T. H. Maddock to B. H. Hodgson, dated August 12th, 1841.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YKAKS IN NEPAL: 1839—1843. 199 
 
 by any peremptory instructions, but leave him to follow 
 his own sound judi^mcnt. Me is quite ri^ht in assuming 
 that I am not desirous of a war with Nepal.' " 
 
 The victory over the war party being a^Min won, tiic 
 usu.d results followed. The long-delayed redress was 
 granted to British subjects and merchants ; refugee Thugs 
 and robber-chiefs were surrendered by the Nepalcse frontier 
 authorities ; and the Queen quitted the capital in a ra;^c. 
 She felt that this defeat was her final one, and, in spite of 
 the deadly .season in the Tarai jungles, she .set off for 
 Benares, resolved to spend the rest of her days in religious 
 solitude. Her feeble-minded husband would as usual have 
 followed her, and might perhaps have persuaded her to 
 return. But the poor pa.ssionatc lady caught jungle fever, 
 and on October 6th, 1S41, she died on her way to the 
 plains. The peace Miiiistr)', as reconstituted under Briti-^h 
 auspices, at once became supreme in Nepal. Then at 
 length the Governor-General felt that the danger from 
 Nepal was for tlie time being at an end. " I congratulate 
 you," he wrote with his own hand to Hodgson, " upon 
 the honourable results of your well-directed and most per- 
 severing labours. I heartily congratulate you," Lord 
 
 Auckland again wrote with his own hand a few weeks 
 later, as the good working of his peace Ministry develoi^cd, 
 ** upon the results of your diplomatic labours." - 
 
 The Government of India in its collective capacity was 
 not tardy to tender its thanks. It left the removal or 
 retention of the troops near the frontier entirely to 
 Hodgson's discretion. *' In conclusion," runs one despatch, 
 " I am desired to convey to you the high approbation of 
 Government of the great ability, judgment, and persever- 
 ance which you have manifested in your late tedious 
 and difficult negotiations."^ How narrow had been the 
 
 ' Lord Aiuklaiid to B. M. Hodgson, dated Calcutta. November I4tli, 
 1841,— Auckland MSS. 
 
 * The same to the same, dated December I2th, 1 84 1. 
 
 * Letter from Government of India to Resident at Kathmandu, 
 dated December 22nd. 1S41, para. 3. -Hodgson Private Papers.
 
 200 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 escape from a Ncpalesc war effected by those negotiations, 
 and how eagerly it was welcomed by sensible men in the 
 Government of India, may be judged from the following 
 facts. 
 
 During the summer of 1841, a member of the Governor- 
 General's Council wrote to Hodgson that he had long fixed 
 that autumn for going home, but a war with Nepal seemed 
 so impossible to avoid that he could not in honour leave 
 his post. By December 1841 our envoy in Afghanistan 
 knew that his last hope from the British garrison there was 
 gone, and that it only remained to face ruin. In January 
 1 842 the British forces in Afghanistan, " a crouching, 
 drooping, dispirited army" of 4,500 men with 12,000 
 camp-followers stumbling along " as they best could 
 through the snow and slush," started on the ghastly retreat 
 through the passes. Of those doomed thousands, " one man 
 only, fainting from wounds, hunger, and exhaustion, was 
 borne on by his jaded pony to the walls of Jalalabad." ' If 
 I have not dwelt on the anxieties which were eating the 
 heart of the Government of India during the years of 
 Hodgson's single-handed struggle to maintain peace with 
 honour in Nepal, it is because his work was in itself so 
 good that it needs no adventitious circumstances to enhance 
 its value. Before the end of January 1842 Lord Auckland 
 learned that the Kabul force had been annihilated in the 
 snows. 
 
 Hodgson's success formed indeed almost the one break 
 of light amid the general gloom. The Nepalese Raja, set 
 free from the influence of his furious wife and not yet 
 subjected to that of her equally furious son, showed a 
 genuine desire to stand well with the I^ritish Government. 
 At the end of 1841 he placed at our disposal the Nepal 
 forces for war employment. " I have been highly grati- 
 fied," Lord Auckland wrote to the Raja shortly before tlie 
 news of the final catastrophe amid the Afghan snows 
 
 ' The Earl of Auckland, by Captain L. J. Trotter (Rulers of India 
 Series), p. 163. Ed. 1893.
 
 I.X.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEPAL: 1839—1843. 20I 
 
 reached Calcutta, *' by your friendly letter tendering for 
 the use of my Government in Ava or Afi^hanistan the 
 services of your liighncss'.s army. For this friendly offer 
 accept my warm acknowledgments, I'or I must regard it 
 as a proof of your amiable feeling and desire to promote 
 the interests of the British Government." Lord Auckland 
 goes on to explain the circumstances which prevented 
 him at that time from accepting his Highness's proposal. 
 Mindful, however, of Hodgson's often-urged scheme for 
 the incorporation of a Gurkha element into the Company's 
 forces, he thus concludes : — 
 
 '■ Under these circumstances I should have no immediate 
 means of availing myself of the services of the Gurkha 
 army. But I duly appreciate their value as brave and 
 well-disciplined soldiers, and if any future occasion should 
 arise when they might co-operate with the British forces it 
 would afford me the greatest satisfaction to see the Gurkha 
 and the British soldier marching side by side as friends and 
 allies to the attack of a cc^mmon enemy." ' Lord .Auckland 
 did not live to witness this idea realised. But Hodgson re- 
 mained to urge it successfully on another Governor-General 
 in a still greater crisis of the British fortunes in India, and 
 to see it permanently worked out in the Gurkha regiments 
 which now form so distinguished a part of the British- 
 Indian army. 
 
 With his usual candour he made Lord Auckland clearly 
 understand the limitations which rendered it unsafe to 
 regard his diplomatic success as complete. The death of 
 the Senior Queen had for the time deprived the war party 
 in Nepal of its head. But it only opened the way to the 
 ambitious designs of her eldest son. The heir-apparent 
 fell under the influence of the Pandis, and in spite of his 
 youth was pushed forward by them into the political leader- 
 ship formerly heltl by his mother. The Junior Queen, as 
 now chief wife t)f the Raja, began to intrigue for her own 
 
 ' Letter from the Ciovertior-Gciieral to 1 1. H. the Maharaja of Nepal, 
 dated January 22nd, 1S42. — Auckland MSS.
 
 202 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 two sons. Accordingly the year 1842 opened with three 
 distinct parties in Nepal : first, the feeble Raja, supported 
 by the peace Ministry of royal collaterals and the spiritual 
 chiefs, which had been formed under Hodgson's auspices ; 
 second, the heir-apparent, who, at the head of the Pandis 
 and war party, was working for the deposition of the Raja 
 in his own favour ; third, the surviving Queen, who was 
 working for the supersession of the heir-apparent on the 
 plea of his insanity, in favour of her eldest son. 
 
 A fantastical incident showed the explosive state which 
 these parties quickly reached. The Senior Queen's death 
 had, as usual in Nepal, been ascribed to poison, and the 
 rumour to that effect was noticed in an Anglo- Indian 
 newspaper. The Raja, ablaze with indignation, demanded 
 an interview from the Resident. " Mr. Hodgson started 
 for the palace, but much to his astonishment," says the 
 official narrative, " he had scarcely reached the Residency 
 gate, when he saw the Maharaja and heir-apparent stand- 
 ing on the road attended by several chiefs." ^ Hodgson 
 tried to calm his Highness by assurances that " every 
 exertion would be made by the Governor-General to 
 discover the author of the slanderous tale." " Tell the 
 Governor-General," the Raja exclaimed in a fury, " that he 
 must and shall give him up. I will have him and flay him 
 alive, and rub him with salt and lemon until he die. Further, 
 tell the Governor-General that if this infamous calumniator 
 is not delivered up, there shall be war between us." " Upon 
 this the heir-apparent stopped his father with insulting 
 epithets and blows, striking him again and again. After 
 re-enacting the miserable scene of violence in his Spiritual 
 Director's garden, the hot fit passed off, and the Raja made 
 a humble apology to the British Resident. 
 
 A month after the news of the annihilation of our Kabul 
 force reached Calcutta, Lord Auckland was succeeded by 
 Lord EUenborough on February 28th, 1842. Lord 
 
 • Assistant Resident Nicholetts' Memorandum, sub mmo 1842, para. 
 27. — India Office Records. ^ Idem.
 
 IX] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NKPAL : 1S39— 1843. 203 
 
 Auckland's lont^ Governor-Generalship of six years ended 
 amid a gloom such as had never overshadowed British 
 rule in India since the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756. 
 During its last dismal week, not only Lord Auckland but 
 the provincial chiefs in Northern India looked anxiously 
 to Hodgson to prevent their flank being turned by an 
 outbreak from Nepal, " If you can continue," wrote the 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces to 
 Hodgson on February 24th, 1842, "with the same success 
 as heretofore to divert the Darbar from war, you will 
 indeed have accomplished a most important diversion in 
 our favour." 
 
 Hodgson, as I have mentioned, was scrupulous to explain 
 the limitations imposed by the temper of the heir-apparent 
 and military party in Nepal upon any diplomatic success. 
 But in the view of the Governor-General that success was 
 ample, for it kept Nepal from striking in at the moment of 
 our weakness and defeat. During his last four days of 
 office Lord Auckland congratulated Hodgson both publicly 
 and privately upon the results actually achieved. " Once 
 more I congratulate you on the successful results of your 
 negotiations," he wrote to Hodgson on February 24th, 
 1842.' On his final day as Governor-General he sent a 
 formal despatch to Hodgson, stating that " the issue of 
 your late proceedings has been so successful as to prove 
 that you have acted throughcnit these transactions with 
 a thorough knowledge of the native character, and with a 
 degree of skill, prudence, and forbearance that is highly 
 creditable to you. His Lordship begs to congratulate you 
 on the favourable issue of your last struggle." "■' 
 
 The Farl of h'llenborough had been appointed by the 
 Court of Directors in October 1S41, when the advices from 
 India were still comparatively favourable. But his arrival 
 at the climax of our disasters in Afghanistan made the 
 
 ' Auckland MSS. 
 
 ^ Secretary to Government of India to Resident in Nciial, Kebriiary 
 28th, 1842. — Hodgson Private Papers.
 
 204 LI^'E OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 change of rulers appear almost an act of recall, althoui^h 
 Lord Auckland had already been retained as Governor- 
 General ' for a year beyond the usual term. Lord Ellen- 
 borough's incautious talk gave countenance to this idea, 
 and he very soon showed that he believed his mission to 
 be a reversal of his predecessor's measures and the supc:r- 
 scssion of his predecessor's men. Perhaps it was with this 
 foreboding in his mind that Lord Auckland penned his 
 last letter to Hodgson from the Sandheads as his ship was 
 standing off to sea. 
 
 " I write these few hasty lines to you, to take leave of 
 you, and to wish you such good health as may enable you 
 to complete your labours in Nepal, and afterwards to enjoy 
 many years of comfort in England. It is most satisfactory 
 to me on the eve of my departure from India, and when 
 there is so much of gloom and danger in one quarter of 
 our political horizon, that the prospects in regard to Nepal 
 arc better and more promising than they have long been. 
 Once more I thank you for all you have done, and I wish 
 you well."- 
 
 Of the remarkable man who succeeded Lord Auckland 
 on February 28th, 1842, it is even now difficult to 
 speak. Endowed with his father's gifts of forensic skill 
 and eloquence. Lord EUcnborough's oratory won for him 
 a reputation in Parliament which was never altogether 
 lost by his mingled vacillation and rashness in action. 
 History whites of his brief Indian career in the language of 
 indignation. Its verdict may in several respects require to 
 be reconsidered and in certain details to be modified. My 
 purview is here restricted to his connection with Nepal. 
 There as everywhere he determined from the outset to 
 make his personality felt. In order, however, to under- 
 stand his action in Nepal, it is necessary to have some 
 idea of the general tcnour of his administration and of the 
 
 ' March 4th, 1836, to February 28th, 1842. 
 
 - Letter marked " private " from Lord Auckland to B. H. Hodgson, 
 dated March 7th, 1842, from the .Sandheads. — Hodgson Private Papers.
 
 ix.l LAST FOUR YP:AKS I\ NKPAL : 1839— 1843. 205 
 
 character of the man. For the present I prefer to quote 
 the summitiij up of the most smooth-voiced of IncUan 
 historians rather than to myself prcjncjuncc on the idiosyn- 
 crasies which led to Lord I'llenborough's recall at the end 
 of two years. 
 
 " He went to India the avowed champion of jxacc, and 
 he was incessantly engaged in war. For the Afghan war 
 he was not, indeed, accountable — he found it on his hands ; 
 and in the mode in which he proposed to conclude it, and 
 in which he would have concluded it but for tlie remon- 
 strances of his military advisers, he certainly displayed no 
 departure from the ultra-pacific po!ic\' which he had professed 
 in England. The triumphs with which the perseverance 
 of the generals commanding in Afghanistan graced his 
 administration seem completely to have altered his views ; 
 and the desire of military glory thenceforward supplanted 
 every other feeling in his breast. He would have shunned 
 war in Afghanistan by a cour.se which the majority of his 
 countrymen would pronounce dishonourable. He might 
 without dishonour have avoided war in Sind, and jx)ssibly 
 have averted hostilities at Gwalior : but he did not. For 
 the internal improvement of India he did nothing. Hi- 
 had, indeed, little time to do anything. 
 
 " War, and preparation for war, absorbed most oi his 
 hours, and in a theatrical display of childish pomp many 
 more were consumed. With an extravagant confidence in 
 his own judgment, even on ix)ints which he had nevei 
 studied, he united no portion of steadiness or constancy. 
 Mis purposes were formed and abandoned with a levit> 
 which accorded little with the offensive tone which he 
 manifested in their defence, so long as they were enter- 
 tained. His administration was not an illustration of 
 any marked and consistent cour.se of policy ; it was an 
 aggregation of isolated facts. It resembled an ill con- 
 structed drama, in which no one incident is the result of 
 that by which it was preceded, nor a just and natural 
 preparation for that which is to follow. Everything in it
 
 206 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Stands alone and unconnected. His influence shot across 
 the Asiatic world like a meteor, and, but for the indelible 
 brand of shame indented in Sind, like a meteor its memory 
 would pass from the mind with its disappearance."^ 
 
 On his arrival in Calcutta Lord Ellenboroutrh found the 
 Government of India rallying from the Kabul disaster. 
 On March 15th, 1842, that Government, with the new 
 Governor-General at its head, laid down a programme to 
 retrieve its honour.- All garrisons in Afghanistan then 
 surrounded by the enemy were to be relieved. A strong 
 point was made of re-occupying Kabul " even for a week," 
 so that " we should retire as a conquering, not as a de- 
 feated power." 
 
 Unfortunately Lord Ellenborough proceeded shortly 
 afterwards to the interior, unattended by his Council. 
 On receiving further bad news from the North- Western 
 frontier his courage failed, and in April he ordered the 
 withdrawal of our forces from Afghanistan — the southern 
 force to Sukkur on the Indus, the northern force " into 
 positions within the Khaibar." 
 
 The British generals hesitated to accept what they 
 deemed a disgraceful and disastrous change. By the 
 middle of May the Governor-General began to veer round 
 to a bolder policy, and acquiesced in their postponement 
 of the withdrawal. As they made their force felt in 
 Afghanistan, Lord Ellenborough gradually regained con- 
 fidence, and sanctioned their advance on Kabul. But he 
 had not the courage to boldly avow the fact of his 
 vacillation. On July 8th, 1842, he even wrote to the 
 Secret Committee that his instructions had induced Major- 
 General Pollock to contemplate a forward movement ! 
 Only two days previously he had penned a remarkable 
 
 ' The History of the British Empire in India^ by Edward Thornton, 
 Vol. VI., pp. 548, 549. Ed. 1841-45. 
 
 - The two following .sentences are condensed from the instructions 
 of the Government of India to Sir Jasper Nicolls, the Commander-in- 
 Chief, dated March 15th, 1842.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YKAKS IN NEPAL: 1839— 1S43. 20J 
 
 letter to the Oucen, apparently with a view to c^loss over 
 his change of mind. He represented to her Majesty that 
 what was in reality an advance of an army of retribution 
 upon Kabul was mercl)' an option given to Cieneral Nott 
 " of retiring by the route of Ghazni and Kabul, instead of 
 that of Ouettah and Sukkur, to the Indus." ' 
 
 It is not needful here to inquire how far this vacillation 
 was justified. It suffices to state that, taken along with 
 the moral cowardice of the attempt to gloss it over, it 
 caused dismay to the British administrators throughout 
 India, and an outburst of jubilation among the disaffected 
 of the Native Chiefs. 
 
 In Nepal, which lay adjacent for si.x hundred miles to 
 our main line of communication through Northern India 
 and could cut it at half a dozen points, the effect was 
 startling. To the war party it seemed that, not only the 
 time had come, but also the man. It appeared incredible that 
 the British fortunes in India would ever again be entrusted 
 to such feeble hands. They got the Court astrologers to 
 declare that the heir-apparent was an "Incarnation" 
 destined to " extirpate the Fcringhis."- Our military demon- 
 stration towards the Nepalese frontier was forgotten upon 
 the withdrawal of the standing camp in February 1842, 
 and the Pandi faction " was daily amusing the young 
 prince with mock fights between the English and Gurk- 
 has. The English were represented by a .set of low- 
 caste ragamuffins drcs.sed in Briti.sh uniform and with 
 faces painted white, antl under the command of some pariah 
 who was attired in full-dress uniform of an English general. 
 The Gurkhas were commanded by a .son of the late Premier 
 and by Kulraj Pandi him.self Of course these actions 
 were all made to end in the ignominious defeat of the 
 
 ' Letter from Lord KlIenborouKli to tlic yuecn, dated Allahabad, July 
 6th, 1842. — The Indian Administration of Lord Eili-nborou^/t, being 
 his letters edited by Lord Colchester, p. 39. Ed. 1874. 
 
 * Assistant Resident Nicholetts' Memorandnm, stit> anno 1842, para. 
 29, etc.
 
 2o8 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 supposed British forces ; and the poor devils who repre- 
 sented them were in the end often seriously, and even 
 cruelly, maltreated by the victorious Gurkhas in order to 
 add a little more life and piquancy to the burlesque. A 
 little real blood being shed would be sure to make the 
 exhibition more attractive to his Royal Highness." ' 
 
 Two months after the news of the annihilation of our 
 Kabul force, the war excitement in Nepal exploded in 
 an outrage on the Residency. The Raja, finding himself 
 powerless to control his son, announced his intention of 
 abdicating in the prince's favour. The peace Ministry of 
 the royal collaterals found themselves equally powerless to 
 control the war party, and could only give a trembling 
 support to the Resident by secret warnings. A lawsuit 
 with a British-Indian subject trading with Nepal was made 
 the pretext for an outbreak. This man, Kasinath by name, 
 the representative of a mercantile house at Benares, had 
 during two years ^ been living within the Residency bounds 
 under medical treatment for a painful disease, while prose- 
 cuting his claims and defending counter-claims in the 
 dilatory courts of Kathmandu.^ Suddenly on the morning 
 of April 23rd, 1842, writes Hodgson in one of his 
 private notes, " my people hurried into my room with the 
 intelligence that the Raja attended by a large train was 
 approaching the Embassy, and that in rear of him but in 
 sight was a regiment of soldiers with loaded arms. 
 
 " The news came from the friendly Ministers, who, taken 
 by surprise, could only send me a word of caution and 
 hurry after the Raja to the Residency. Accompanied by 
 Dr. Christie, who happened to be with me at the moment, 
 I hastened to the entrance gate, at the .same time sending 
 
 1 Oldfield, Vol. I., p. 327. Ed. 1880. 
 
 - Statement by Lieutenant F. .Smith, in command of the Resident's 
 Escort (Appendix VII., Secret Consultations of the Government of India, 
 August 3rd, 1 842, No. 66). — India Office MSS. 
 
 ^ The case is stated at great length in the Petition of Kasinatli Mull 
 of Benares to the Resident at Kathmandu, dated February 27th, 1842. 
 — Secret Consultations of August 3rd, 1842, No. 51.
 
 IX. 
 
 LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEPAL: 1839— 1843. 209 
 
 word to the commanding officer of my escort to bring his 
 men quickly for the ostensible purpose of making the usual 
 salute to the sovereign. I thought that, in case of contem- 
 plated violence, the presence of the escort for the purpose 
 of salute might prove a deterrent, though of course no 
 efifectual protection if the worst came to the worst. When 
 I got to the gate the Raja had already arrived with his son 
 and a huge posse of retainers and chiefs, among the latter 
 the friendly Ministers. 
 
 " With little preface the Raja said to me he had come to 
 demand and to insist on the surrender of the merchant. 1 
 explained that he could not be given up, because the case 
 was not one of disputed jurisdiction but of strong-handed 
 interference with all legal proceedings." ' " Kasinath then, 
 at Mr. Hodgson's request," says the official narrative," 
 " made his obeisance to the Raja and declared he had no 
 wish or intention of opposing him, and that all he wanted 
 was justice. The Raja then ordered him to be .seized." 
 
 " Notwithstanding the Raja's vehemence of demand," 
 to resume from Hodgson's own note, " I steadfastly but 
 courteously continued to refuse compliance. His High- 
 ness at length rushed at the poor merchant and attempted 
 to bear him off. I threw my arm round the merchant 
 and said sternly to the Raja, * You take both of us or 
 neither.' This was more than the Raja could screw up his 
 resolution to do, although his hot-headed son urged him to 
 do it with abu.sc and even blow.s. Seizing the moment, I 
 made an appeal to the Raja's better feeling (I had known 
 him from his boyhood), and thus at length I cast the 
 balance against the mischief-makers. But it was not until 
 
 ' Hodgson's liabitual moderation when speaking of an opponent 
 appears here. The scene is described by the Escort Ofliccr in his 
 official narrative as follows : " I found the Kaja in a great passion and 
 insisting that Kasinath slioiild be given up to him. The Resident 
 remonstrated, saying he was a British subject and could not. The 
 Raja then became ver>- violent. ' Lieutenant F. Smiths Statement, «/ 
 supra (India Office MSS.). 
 
 * Lieutenant F. Smiths Statement, ut supra. 
 
 14
 
 2IO LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 a full hour of imminent risk had elapsed, during which the 
 friendly chiefs, as they passed and repassed me in the 
 surging crowd, dropped in my ear the words : ' Be patient 
 and firm ; all depends on you. We cannot act now, but 
 we can and will exact an apology when the Raja's fit of 
 violence has abated, and we have got him away.' " 
 
 Later in the day, the Raja and his heir-apparent made a 
 second attempt in person to seize the man — an attempt 
 again frustrated by Hodgson's calm determination that 
 they must take himself as prisoner as well as the merchant, 
 or neither. Eventually they calmed down and sent 
 the friendly Ministers to negotiate with the Resident, 
 Hodgson declared " that he could only be guided by the 
 rules of his office ; but if they would prepare a statement 
 of the case and their decision, he would submit it to the 
 Governor-General in Council for his orders." ^ In the end 
 the merchant of his own accord went with the friendly 
 Ministers and made his obeisance to the Raja, the Prime 
 Minister and chief spiritual head of the State "being 
 security for his safety and return to the Residency." 
 
 Hodgson reported the occurrence to his Government, 
 and received in answer a letter dated May 8th, 1842, 
 which disclosed the change of attitude towards him that 
 had accompanied the change of Governor-Generals, Lord 
 EUcnborough " had been led to indulge the hope that the 
 communications between the two States would henceforth 
 have been of the most amicable and courteous character." ^ 
 It is scarcely needful to repeat that neither his predecessor 
 Lord Auckland, nor his Council in Calcutta from whom 
 the new Governor-General was then separated by six 
 hundred miles, nor Hodgson himself, had ever indulged in 
 any such hope of permanent cordiality. 
 
 • Lieutenant F. Smith's " Statement of what occurred on Saturday, 
 April 23rd, 1842." — India Office MSS. 
 
 - Secret Consultations of the Government of India of August 3rd, 
 1842, No. 67, Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India 
 with the Governor-General to the Resident in Nepal, dated Allahabad, 
 May 8th, 1842, para. ■}>.— India Office MSS.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NKPAL: 1S39— 1843. 211 
 
 Lord Ellcnborough, therefore, heard of the recent affair 
 " with much disappointment and regret." He was good 
 enough, however, to say that " his Lordship cannot believe 
 that you would act in a manner so entirely contrary to 
 the known views and wishes of your Government as to 
 attempt to extend the privileges of British subjects or your 
 own authority beyond the just limits which the laws of 
 nations and a solemn Treaty assign to them ; still less that 
 you would evince a want of personal consideration for a 
 friendly and independent sovereign. Nor could his 
 Lordship believe, on the other hand, that that sovereign 
 could so far forget his personal dignity and the obligations 
 of the public law and Treaty as to offer an intentional insult 
 to the Representative at his Court of a sincerely friendly 
 Power and to place under prosecution a British subject." 
 
 Meanwhile his Lordship thinks that the State presents 
 on their way from Nepal, in honour of his accession to the 
 Governor-Generalship, " at a moment when the cloud of 
 misunderstanding has passed over the sun of friendship," 
 *' should await the period when that sun shall burst forth 
 in all its former effulgence to give light and splendour and 
 prosperity to two great and friendly States." 
 
 Hodgson did not know exactly what to make of this 
 letter in Lord Ellenborough's finest vein. He felt that 
 somehow he was placed on his defence by a Governor- 
 General absolutely ignorant of the situation. The letter 
 was to be communicated to the Raja — a letter not only 
 full of pompous inanities, but one which would, in 
 Hodg.son's judgment, untlo the good results of Lord 
 Auckland's policy in Nepal and endanger the lives of the 
 friendly Ministers. He therefore determined to take ujx)n 
 himself the respojisibility of not delivering it. He com- 
 municated, however, a modification of its views to the 
 Raja in less injudicious terms, reported his action to the 
 Governor-General, and hoped for his Lordship's approval 
 when the facts were fully laid before him. The Governor- 
 General replied, after some intermediate rebukes, that "the
 
 212 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 step you have taken is not only in direct disobedience of 
 the instructions you received, but it may tend to produce 
 serious embarrassment to the Government, by compeUing 
 it to adopt an extreme course with respect to the Raja 
 of Nepal at a time when it is certainly not desirable 
 to create a division of the British forces and to impose 
 new burdens on the finances." His Lordship directed, 
 therefore, that " you will be relieved in your situation of 
 Resident at the Court of Nepal at the earliest period at 
 which the season and the exigencies of the public service 
 may permit such relief to take place." ' 
 
 There were circumstances which rendered this decision 
 peculiarly harsh. It was the decision of the Governor- 
 General alone, without a single member of his Council to 
 advise him — of a Governor-General who had only been a 
 few months in the country, and who was so completely 
 ignorant of our relations with Nepal that he asked 
 Hodgson during the same summer for a return of the 
 Nepalese troops which he imagined to be at the Resident's 
 disposal ! Lord Ellenborough possibly thought that 
 Hodgson had not taken advantage of the opportunity 
 afforded to him for explaining matters in person to his 
 Lordship. In his letter of May 8th the Governor-General 
 expressed his desire for a personal conference, and directed 
 Hodgson " to join his camp as soon as the season will 
 permit you to do so." Lord Ellenborough was not aware 
 that, for a man in Hodgson's state of health, the journey 
 through the Tarai for some months to come meant probable 
 death. Hodgson deputed his secretary to the Governor- 
 General's camp, with excuses for his personal attendance 
 until the malarious months should be pa.st. But this only 
 gave further offence." 
 
 ' Letter from the Secretary with Governor-General to the Resident of 
 Nepal, dated Allahabad, June 2ist, 1842. — Hodgson Papers. 
 
 " Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India with the 
 Governor-General to the Resident at Kathmandu, dated June 12th,. 
 1842, para. 2. — India Office Records.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEPAL: 1839— 1843. 21 3 
 
 The essential point was that Hodgson had declined, at 
 his own risk and pending further instructions, to carry out 
 orders which in his opinion would have frustrated the 
 policy that Lord Auckland and his Council had built up 
 in Nepal, and which would have imperilled the lives of the 
 peace Ministers whom that policy had raised to office. " I 
 believed," he at once wrote to the Government on receipt 
 of his dismissal, " that the literal execution of your orders 
 of the 8th ult. threatened immediately and suddenly to 
 destroy the whole fabric of that policy ; perhaps also to 
 bury in its ruins numerous di.stingui.shed chiefs, whose 
 pledges of co-operation had been as solemnly tendered to 
 as accepted by my Government, and the services of the 
 principal of whom in the capacity of Ministers of this State 
 had just received the highest applause from the Governor- 
 General in Council ; and lastly to precipitate that very 
 crisis which Lord Ellenborough sought to avoid, as well as 
 to strip us of all the means to meet it when it came. 
 
 " I believed, moreover, that these far-reaching effects, 
 enveloped as to their sources and quality in the transac- 
 tions of the four years just past, could scarcely have been at 
 all present to the mind of the Governor-General, by reason 
 of his Lordship's so recent arrival, when the instructions in 
 question were is.sued ; and that it was my duty, therefore, to 
 pause and explain them ; carefully in the meantime studying 
 to ward off all risk of crisis during his Lordship's delibera- 
 tion, and endeavouring, if possible, to accomplish the end 
 and object of his orders, so that it might be done in sure 
 exemption from that risk. Whilst intent upon the realisa- 
 tion of these es.sential points, I considered myself as 
 virtually accomplishing my instructions." ' 
 
 It is not needful to weigh nicely the arguments for and 
 against the line of action which Modg.son adoptcil. In 
 failing to carry out the orders of the Governor-General he 
 
 ' Letter from the Resident in Nopal to T. H. Maddock, Esq.. Secretary 
 to tlie Govcriinienl of Iiuli.i with the Guvornor-Gencral, dated June 
 30th, 1842, paras. 4, 5, 6. — Hodgson Papers.
 
 214 LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 took on himself a vcrj- serious responsibility, and he was 
 ready to abide by the consequences. Such a case could 
 scarcely arise at the present day. The more rapid means 
 of communication by railway, post, and telegraph have 
 placed the British Agents at Native Courts in daily, or if 
 necessary in hourly, touch with the Governor-General in 
 Council. All the facts and arguments known to a Political 
 Resident may now within a few minutes be laid before the 
 central Government, and his action in any crisis embodies 
 the decision of that Government with the whole circum- 
 stances before it The constitution of the Government of 
 India has also undergone alterations which would have 
 saved Lord Ellenborough from this and similar exhibitions 
 of impetuous temper. The reversal of our policy towards a 
 Native State could not now be the act of the Governor- 
 General alone, but must be the outcome of the joint 
 deliberations of the Viceroy and his Council. 
 
 But while changes in the constitution of the Government 
 of India give a somewhat academic character to criticism 
 of the course adopted by Hodgson, it is right to under- 
 stand the view which then prevailed. The British Agents 
 at Native Courts were frequently compelled by their 
 remoteness to act independently of the central Govern- 
 ment, and sometimes to disregard instructions which they 
 knew to be based on insufficient information. Sir John 
 Malcolm, perhaps the greatest of all the great Indian 
 " Politicals," clearly stated the duties and responsibilities 
 of such a position. At a critical juncture in his own career 
 he declared that the considerations which must regulate 
 his conduct were different from those which should guide 
 an officer at headquarters. 
 
 " Your station and mine," he wrote to Political Secretary 
 P'dmonstone, " are widely different. As an officer of 
 Government acting immediately under the Governor- 
 General you have, in fact, only to obey orders, and are 
 never left to the exercise of your discretion and judgment, 
 as you have a ready reference in all cases that can occur
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YKAKS IN NKI'AL : 1839—1843. 21 5 
 
 to the suj)crior authority, with whom, of course, ever)' 
 re.spon.sibihty rests. Under such circumstances, a secretar)' 
 that chooses to be of a different opinion — that is to say, 
 to maintain different opinions — from a Governor-General, 
 has, in my opinion, no option but to resign ; and his non- 
 resignation ' would, on such occasion, appear extraordinary 
 to every person acquainted with the nature of his office, 
 which is obviously one of an executive, not of a delibera- 
 tive nature. 
 
 " Now look at my situation. Placed at a great distance 
 from the Governor-General, and acting upon instructions 
 of a general nature — obliged constantly to determine points 
 upon my own judgment, as there is no time for reference — 
 liable to be called upon by extraordinary exigencies to act 
 in a most decided manner to save the public interests from 
 injury, it is indispensable that the sentiments of my mind 
 should be in some unison with the dictates of my duty ; 
 and if they unfortunatcl\' are contrar)' to it I am not fit 
 to be employed, for I have seen enough of these scenes 
 to be satisfied that a mere principle of obedience will never 
 carry a man through a charge where such large discretionary 
 powers must be given, with either honour to himself or 
 advantage to the public." ' 
 
 This was the view of the highest class of Indian Poli- 
 ticals in Hodgson's time, and his early training had been 
 under a man who held that view very strongly. His first 
 master George Traill, the" King of Kumaun,'" inculcated 
 it both by precept and example. It is a view which, as 
 I have shown, has ceased to be applicable to the modern 
 conditions of Indian government, and which need not be 
 discussed here. Lord Ellenborough thought he had to 
 deal with a Political Resident who. in Malcolm's emphatic 
 
 ' The word in the originul is " resignation," probably an error in 
 copying. The word inaintain is in itahcs in the original. 
 
 ' Lives of Indian Officers, by Sir Jolin William Kayc, Vol. I., pp. 164-5. 
 London, 1.S67. 
 
 * Vide ante, p. 38.
 
 2l6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 words, seemed disposed " to maintain different opinions " 
 from himself, and he dealt with him in a fit of temper.^ 
 
 Forty years afterwards, Hodgson with the calm of old 
 age recorded his view of the transaction. The new 
 Governor-General, he wrote, although away from his 
 Council and in opposition to his Foreign Secretary, who 
 was the only responsible officer with him, summarily con- 
 demned " the tried and successful policy of his predecessor," 
 and ordered a dangerous communication to be made to the 
 Raja of Nepal. " It seemed to me impossible to follow 
 such a course, and, as his Lordship declared that his object 
 was peace, I ventured to disobey orders which I thought 
 would certainly imperil it." ' 
 
 The Secretary to the Government in Calcutta, when he 
 heard of the matter, wrote privately to Hodgson, con- 
 gratulating him on his wise and courageous action. " You 
 have taken a judicious course, and I make no doubt that 
 Lord Ellenborough (since his first instructions having 
 learnt and reflected more of what had passed under his 
 predecessor's rule) will approve your proceeding, and com- 
 mend the tact and judgment with which you have adapted 
 the orders received to the situation of things and parties at 
 Kathmandu."^ 
 
 This letter was written three days before Lord Ellen- 
 borough's brusque removal of Hodgson from his post on 
 June 2 1 St, 1842. But its forecast seemed to be promptly 
 realised. For Lord Ellenborough himself, after a night's 
 reflection, began to have misgivings as to his impetuous 
 act, and the same Foreign Secretary who had been ordered 
 to write with his own hand the official letter of the 21st 
 
 ' On June 3rd and June 12th Lord Ellenborough, without con- 
 descending to notice Hodgson's plea for further deliberation, practically 
 reiterated the order to deliver a translation of the letter to the Raja 
 in extcnso. 
 
 - Autobiographical Memoranda written by Mr. Hodgson in 188 1. — 
 Hodgson MSS. 
 
 ^ Letter from G. A. Bushby to B. H. Hodgson, dated Calcutta, 
 June 18th, 1842.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YKARS IN NKPAL: 1839— 1843. 217 
 
 superseding Hodgson, wrote on the 22nd, and again with 
 his own hand, the following confidential letter to the man 
 whom he had yesterday recalled in disgrace : — 
 
 " Mv DKAR Hodgson,' — Lord Kllenborough has been 
 speaking to-day about you, expressing in the kindest terms 
 his sense of your merits, services, and abilities ; saying that 
 he hoi)cd an opportunity would occur of employing ycu 
 to your liking in some other field, and suggesting that the 
 letter of yesterday being kept a profound secret, you should 
 act on the former summons,-' and consider yourself as only 
 waiting for a favourable season to obey it, and to come and 
 pay your respects to his Lordship, and explain to him the 
 state of affairs in Nepal. 
 
 " I am awaiting a further report from you before dis- 
 posing of Kurbeer and his presents. I fancy Smith ^ will 
 be dismissed soon. 
 
 " We shall have a pretty strong force ready to move on 
 your frontier in the cold season, unless the present clouds 
 arc in the meantime entirely cleared away. Be of go<>cl 
 cheer, and believe me, etc., 
 
 "T. H. Maddock." 
 
 Meanwhile, long before either the letter of dismissal 
 of June 2 1 St or the soothing epistle of the 22nd could 
 reach Nepal, Hodgson had addressed an official despatch 
 to the Government which still further modified Lord 
 Ellenborough's views. On June 21st, the very day when 
 his recall was being passionately penned at Allahabad, 
 Hodgson was calmly pointing out the measures by which 
 a change of policy, if insisted on by the new Governor- 
 General, could be safely accomplished. liy this time 
 Hodgson saw that what Lord Ellcnborough really wanted 
 
 » Letter from T. H. Maddock, Kscj.. to B. H. Hodgson, dated Alla- 
 habad, June 22nd, 1842. — Hodgson Papers. 
 
 * I.e. the summons to come in i>crson to the Governor-General's camp. 
 
 ' Lifiitcnant Smith, the Assistant Krsident, whom Hodgson l.ad 
 deputed to tlie Governor-Generals camp as his substitute.
 
 2l8 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 was to put an end to the active support which Lord Auck- 
 land had given to the peace party in Nepal, and to the 
 Ministers (appointed with Lord Auckland's direct approval 
 at the beginning of the year) who were pledged to a peace 
 programme. Hodgson felt it his duty once more to set 
 forth the disad\antages of such a change — a change which 
 must throw Nepal into the hands of the war faction and 
 bring a war Ministry into power. At the same time he 
 showed that if time were allowed, and if arrangements 
 were made for giving shelter to the peace Ministers within 
 our provinces, the change could be effected without any 
 immediate rupture. His letter, with its somewhat feeble 
 parentheses and modifying clauses, is written in a very 
 different tone from his plain-spoken despatches to the 
 previous Governor-General of whose confidence and 
 support he felt sure. 
 
 If the change of policy were determined on, he wrote 
 on June 2ist,^ " it is difficult to contemplate the character 
 of the present ruler of Nepal and his son, and entertain 
 a hope that satisfactory relations with Nepal will be 
 maintainable in their time upon the present footing ; for, 
 if relieved from their present councillors, they will speedily 
 fall back into the arms of the Kala Pandis whose views 
 and sentiments, as already explained, cannot, it will be 
 seen, well admit of change, pledged as they are to the 
 ancient polity of the kingdom, a policy more grievous to 
 us than any ordinary war, and necessarily, too, leading 
 to one. 
 
 " We should therefore, I apprehend, be still prepared for 
 the worst by upholding our friends here, who, besides, in 
 quieter times abroad might possibly successfully inoculate 
 their sovereign or his son with their own just opinions as 
 to the ruinous unsuitablcncss to the new position of Nepal, 
 since the war, of her ancient and cherished maxims of polity. 
 
 ' Despatch from Resident in Nepal to the Secretary to Government 
 of India with the Governor-General, dated June 22nd, 1842, paras. 23 
 to 27. — Hodgson Papers.
 
 IX.] LAST rnUR YEARS IN NKPAL: 1839—1843. 219 
 
 " At all events, it is most desirable that the chanj^c 
 from our existing policy towards Nepal to another should, 
 if possible, be quiet and gradual, and be deferred until 
 our affairs arc adjusted with Afghanistan and China, but 
 especially the latter, where, if we be finally and effectively 
 victorious, I should not wholly despair of seeing the 
 Maharaja [of Nepal] eventually subside into a preference 
 for the maxims of the new school and contentedly acquiesce 
 in the future guidance (for guided he must be) of his 
 present councillors. 
 
 " Otherwise those councillors should be allowed, on their 
 resignation, an asylum if need be in our provinces ; but, 
 short of this, their resignation, if voluntary and not too 
 long deferred, may probably suffice for their protection 
 here. And, indeed, if it be the Governor-General's decided 
 determination that their peculiar connection with me do 
 forthwith cease, I think I could so communicate that 
 intelligence to them as to lead to their safe resignation, 
 retaining at the same time their goodwill and voluntary 
 unofficial good offices. . . . 
 
 " In the foregone despatch I trust I have satisfied the 
 Right Honourable the Governor-General that there has 
 been nothing whatever in my recent proceedings more 
 than the natural, and necessary, and consistent sequel of 
 what had gone before, under the direct repeated sanction 
 and instructions of the Governor-General in Council, to 
 whom every step of my proceedings was submitted at the 
 moment it was made, and from whose wisdom, therefore, 
 I might have expected the correction of any ujiintentional 
 error." 
 
 The receipt of this despatch appears to have made Lord 
 l^Uenborough reflect. On Jul\' r)th he wrote a frientlK' 
 private letter to 1 Iod.;son, speaking of the change of policy 
 in the hypothetical mood, but sensibly enough remarking 
 that " if a change of system should be adoptetl in treating 
 with the Nepal Government," it had better be carried out 
 by new men. " No testimony is, I assure you, required
 
 220 L?FE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 to sati'^fy mc that you arc a most zealous and a very able 
 servant of the Government ; but I am certainly of opinion 
 that, if a change of system should be adopted in treating 
 with the Nepal Government, you are so mixed up with 
 a party there that you would be unable to act efficiently 
 in carrying out such new system. It would succeed better 
 in other, even if much less able, hands." ^ 
 
 After further consideration Lord Ellenborough decided, 
 however, that Hodgson's intimate knowledge of Nepal, 
 and his hold on the affections of the people, made him 
 the safest man for carrying out " the change." On 
 July 26th he wrote an appreciative letter in his own hand 
 to Hodgson, and a fortnight later he followed it up by a 
 public despatch in which he expressly left it to Hodgson 
 to take such measures as he (Hodgson) thought best to 
 introduce the new policy. 
 
 The private letter of July 26th runs thus : " I have 
 much reliance upon your ability and upon the extensive 
 knowledge you possess of the Maharaja and his people ; 
 and I can have no doubt that you will, to the utmost, exert 
 your ability and use your knowledge for the purpose of 
 maintaining the existing relations of amity between the 
 British Government and Nepal." ^ 
 
 The public despatch of August 8th maintains in temper- 
 ate terms Lord Ellenborough's instructions for a change 
 of policy, but leaves Hodgson to dissolve what seemed to 
 his Excellency to be a too close connection of the British 
 Government with the Nepal Ministry at his (Hodgson's) 
 own time and in his own way. 
 
 " SlR,^ — The Governor-General has again had under his 
 
 * Lord Ellenborough to B. H. Hodgson, dated Allahabad, July 6th, 
 1842. — Hodgson Papers. 
 
 - Lord Ellenborough to B. H. Hodgson, dated Allahabad, July 26th, 
 1842. — Hodgson Papers. 
 
 ^ Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India with the 
 Governor-General to the Resident in Nepal (Secret Department, 
 No. 661), dated Allahabad, August 8th, 1842. — Hodgson Papers.
 
 IX. I LAST FOUK YEARS IX NEPAL: 1839—1843. 221 
 
 consideration your letter of June 22nd, and your several 
 other letters respectincj the existing connection between 
 you as the British Minister at the Court of Nepal and the 
 Ministers of that State. 
 
 " 2. His Lord.ship cannot doubt that, however temporar)- 
 circumstances may liavc seemed to render expedient that 
 connection, it is frauL;ht with future evil, ;ind should at the 
 earliest practicable period be suffered to expire. 
 
 " 3. You have been already made acquainted with the 
 Governor-General's sentiments upon the subject. 
 
 " 4. The Governor-General leaves it to your discretion 
 to decide in what manner your conduct should be regulated 
 .so as gradually to withdraw the liritish Government from 
 a false position without injury to the persons who may 
 rely upon its support, asupj^ort really inefficacious for their 
 protection, although its open and abrupt withdrawal might 
 possibly involve them in new and serious danger. 
 
 "5. It is obviously impossible to give from hence precise 
 and absolute directions as to the conduct which should be 
 pursued with respect to a Sovereign who has more of 
 insanity than of reason, and an Heir-apparent who is alto- 
 gether insane. You must be guided by your own judg- 
 ment, a.ssisted by your long and intimate knowledge of 
 the people of Nepal, in gradually bringing back the policy 
 of your mission to the only safe and legitimate course, or 
 that of abstaining from interference in the internal affairs 
 of the State to which you are deputed, and relying for the 
 due protection of Briti.sh interests upon the knowledge 
 entertained of British power. 1 have the hontnu' to be, 
 etc., etc. (Signed) 1". II. I\I.\i)i)OrK, Secretary to Govern- 
 ment of India." 
 
 Hodgson had got all he could reasonably hope for. His 
 resistance to the new Governor-General's haste after a 
 change of policy in Nepal ended in Lord KUcnborough 
 leaving it to Hodgson himself to gratluall)' and safely 
 effect the change at the time and in the manner which 
 Hodgson thought best. We shall presently sec that
 
 222 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Hodgson skilfully carried out the uncongenial task thus 
 entrusted to him. But meanwhile the governors of the 
 British provinces in Northern India and the Supreme 
 Council in Calcutta had not looked on unmoved at the 
 spectacle of an experienced and a valued Representative 
 at a Native Court being recalled in a moment of heat by 
 the new Governor-General. Lord Ellenborough inflicted 
 this disgrace on the man to whom his predecessor had, 
 almost with his last words, expressed his deep obligation 
 for the security of the Northern Indian frontier and the 
 main line of communication during the disasters of the 
 Afghan war. To Lord Auckland, the dexterous manage- 
 ment of Nepal by Hodgson seemed the bright spot in the 
 political horizon. Lord Ellenborough, as one of his first 
 acts after he got beyond the reach of his Council, recalled 
 Hodgson without the knowledge of his Council, and he 
 attempted to conceal his action from his Council. He 
 abstained from sending a copy of Hodgson's recall to the 
 Supreme Government in Calcutta.^ A private letter from 
 the Foreign Secretary announcing the intended conceal- 
 ment is docketed in Hodgson's handwriting as follows : 
 " 1 answered, July loth, that I cared not whether Lord 
 Ellenborough cancelled his despatch of June 21st (ejecting 
 me) or not ; but expected if that despatch were recorded, 
 my answer to it should be so likewise." A diligent search 
 in the India Office Records proves that that despatch, 
 recalling Hodgson, was never brought upon the Consulta- 
 tions of the Government of India, nor reached the Court 
 of Directors at home. 
 
 If such a proceeding attracted the grave disapproval of 
 Lord Ellenborough's colleagues in Council, it excited the 
 indignation of the governors of the British provinces and 
 of the British representatives at Native Courts. For not 
 one of them could be sure that his turn might not come 
 next. Had Lord Ellenborough officially withdrawn his 
 
 ' Letter from the Honourable Thoby Prinsep, then a Member of the 
 Governor-General's Council, to B. H. Hodgson, dated July i8th, 1842.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NEPAL: 1S39— 1843. 223 
 
 public despatch of June 21st recallin;^ Hodgson, he would 
 have earned the praise of magnanimity for retricvin<^ a 
 hasty error when placed in possession of the complete 
 facts. Had he communicated that despatch to his col- 
 leagues in Council, it would have given them the oppor- 
 tunity of discussing the whole question of Xcpalese policy 
 with the new Governor-General. But instead of officially 
 recalling his public despatch or of giving his colleagues the 
 possibility of expressing their sentiments upon it, he dis- 
 armed Hodgson's fears by a series of private letters asking 
 him to keep the public despatch " a profound secret," and 
 assuring Hodgson of his Excellency's high opinion as to his 
 ability and capacity for dealing with the situation in Nepal. 
 
 Hodgson was in fact neither officially recalled nor was 
 his resistance officially condoned. Among many letters 
 of sympathy which he received, one of the most sensible 
 came from the sober-minded administrator who then 
 governed Northern India, and who had had the nearest 
 opportunities of watching Hodg.son's work. To this saga- 
 cious and responsible ruler of the British provinces adjoin- 
 ing Nepal, it seemed impossible that Lord Ellenborough 
 had not clearly realised his mistake, and he advi.ses 
 Hodgson to treat the whole matter as a piece of petulance 
 on the part of a new and an inexperienced Governor- 
 General. 
 
 " Believe me," the Lieutenant-Governor of the North- 
 western Provinces wrote to Hodgson on July 22nd, 1842, 
 " that you attach more weight and importance to the 
 pettish effusion that has caused you .so much uneasiness 
 than it deserves. One of the mo.st unpleasant rellections 
 to those who, like myself, really long to see the Governor- 
 General commence his administration well, is that he has 
 contrived at starting to make men careless of his praise 
 and heedless of his censure. Hand incxpcrtus loquor, for 
 I too have come in for my share of his rebuffs; and if 
 I were much in love with dignity, I should feel very much 
 out of humour. As it is, though the absurdity irritates
 
 224 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 me for a moment, it always amuses ; and I find myself 
 often constrained to laut;h, even when persuaded that I 
 ought to be angry. I am satisfied that he tiow sees that 
 he was on the verge of falling into the tremendous blunder 
 of provoking a war with Nepal, and will be glad enough to 
 find that nothing more is said of the despatch intimating his 
 displeasure at your course of policy, although his stubborn 
 pride will not admit of his acknowledging any mistake. 
 His prepossessions against our service are intense, and lead 
 him into much that is unfair and foolish." ' 
 
 This mild if contemptuous view of Lord Ellenborough's 
 conduct was not generally adopted. It seemed to many 
 that Lord Ellenborough had committed himself to the 
 same devices against a high Political Officer as he had 
 practised upon his military chiefs.- In regard to those 
 devices I shall only quote the words of the politest of 
 Indian historians in summing up Lord Ellenborough's too 
 subtle instructions to the Commander of the army then 
 struggling to retrieve the British honour in Afghanistan. 
 " It is not to be believed that the Governor-General pur- 
 posely framed his orders so as to screen himself in any 
 case from blame, while he might secure some share of the 
 praise due to successful enterprise, if enterprise should be 
 determined on. This is not even to be imagined ; but if 
 the existence of such an intention could be credited, he 
 might have been expected to issue instructions precisely 
 like those which were actually transmitted by him to 
 General Xott."^ 
 
 ' Letter from tlie Honourable J. C, Robertson, Lieutenant-Governor 
 of the North-Western Provinces, to B. H. Hodgson, dated July 22nd, 
 1842. — Hodgson Papers. 
 
 -' Even Sir Jasper Nicolls, the sagacious Commander-in-Chief whose 
 advice, if followed, would have averted the Kabul disaster, was deprived 
 " of the power of influencing affairs." — See Colonel W. W. Knollys' 
 admirable memoir of Sir Jasper Nicolls, based on MS. and other 
 contemporary sources, in the Dictionary of National Biography, 
 Vol. XLI. 
 
 3 History of the BritishEmpirc in India, by Edward Thornton, Esq., 
 Vol.VI., p. 366(1845).
 
 IX.] LAST F(JLk YKAkS IN NEPAL: 1839—1843. 22$ 
 
 Meanwhile Lord Kllcnborough was quite willing to take 
 any credit to himself for Hodgson's judicious treatment of 
 the Nepalese imbroglio, although that treatment was based 
 on the policy of the preceding Governor-General. On 
 July 6th, 1842, the very day on which Lord Kllenborough 
 in his letter to Hodgson had relegated his hastily ordered 
 change of policy in Nepal to the hypothetical mood (" if a 
 change of system should be adopted "),' his Excellency 
 also wrote with his own hand to the Queen : " The Raja 
 of Nepal has made an ample apology for his disrespectful 
 conduct towards the Briti.sh Resident at Kathmandu, and 
 there is every present appearance of continued peace with 
 that State."-' In Lord EUcnborough's privately expressed 
 opinion, therefore. Hodgson had successfully dealt with the 
 situation upon the lines laid down by Lord Auckland ; and 
 he had so dealt with it a month before Lord Kllenborough 
 finally determined, by his despatch of August Sth,^ to 
 abolish Lord Auckland's policy and to introduce a new 
 policy of his own. 
 
 To the high officials around Lord Kllenborough it 
 seemed, indeed, that his Kxcellcncy had sufficiently re- 
 tracted his impetuous despatch to Hodgson of June 21st. 
 " I would take the overtures now made b>' Lord Kllen- 
 borough," wrote a Member of his Council * to Hodgson 
 on July loth, 1S42, " as earnest of a desire to make amends 
 for past brusqueries, and perhaps as evidence of a growing 
 opinion in favour of the particular course followed by you 
 which has been so successful." From the Foreign Secretary 
 in attendance on Lord Kllenborough and the Lieutenant- 
 Ciovernor of the North-West letters f(jllowed in a similar 
 .strain." " Your conduct is vindicated in the amplest manner." 
 
 ' yit//' antt, p. 219. 
 
 * History of thf Indian Adminisltation of lj>td ElUiifforou^h, by 
 I^rd Colchester, p. 37. Kd. 1S74. 
 
 ' Vidt anif, pp. 220, 221. 
 
 * The Honnurablf Thnhy I'rinsep. 
 
 ^ Lrttcrs from T. H. M.nldock. datrd July iith, 1S42. aiul from the 
 Honourable j. C. Kobcrtsoii. dated July 16th, 1842.— ^n«>dgs<>n MSS.
 
 226 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap 
 
 wrote Mr. Secretary Bushby on August 23rd, " and I con- 
 gratulate you on this issue." l^A'ery one who knew of the 
 matter now advised Hodgson to let it drop. 
 
 Bright times appeared to be before him. For as the 
 army of retribution went on with its work in Afghanistan, 
 Hodg.son's difficulties in Nepal disappeared. Those diffi- 
 culties had mainly arisen from the fact that the Nepalese 
 Court well knew, during the past three years, that our 
 whole available forces were occupied beyond the north- 
 western frontier. The crowning successes of the Briti.sh 
 arms at Ghazni and Kabul in the summer and early autumn 
 of 1842 set free our victorious troops for any complication 
 in Nepal. The Nepalese war party had, moreover, been 
 discredited by the failure of their predictions of the down- 
 fall of the British power in China and Afghanistan. 
 Hodgson, therefore, found it possible to disengage himself 
 from the peace Ministry in Nepal without the risk of the 
 war party usurping the control of the King. He made the 
 Maharaja understand that henceforth his Highness must 
 manage his own affairs without the active support of the 
 British Resident accorded under Lord Auckland's policy. 
 That support had been absolutely necessary to prevent 
 the war party in Nepal forcing a war upon the East 
 India Company while its armies were locked up in 
 Afghanistan. The reason for the exceptional support by 
 the British Resident to the Maharaja and to the peace 
 Ministry in Nepal having ceased, that exceptional support 
 was, during the autumn of 1842, quietly withdrawn. 
 
 Hodgson succeeded in giving a simple and natural 
 appearance to the change ; yet the Maharaja felt that 
 it imperilled not only the peace Ministry but also his 
 personal safety. Conscious of his inability to control the 
 insane turbulence of his son, he desired to evade the 
 responsibility for it by an informal abdication of the throne. 
 He wished in fact to retain the pomp of majesty without 
 its risks and cares. The Chiefs came to Hodgson as usual 
 for advice ; so also did the Maharaja ; but Hodgson would
 
 ix.J LAST FOUR YKARS IN NKPAL: 1S39— 1843. 22; 
 
 only cxcrci-sc liis influence so far as to persuade both 
 parties to a peaceable settlement amoni,^ themselves. The 
 King, findini; it impossible to lean any further upon the 
 strong arm of the Resident, and finding it equally imposs- 
 ible to do without the support of a firmer nature than 
 his own, placed himself unreservedly in the hands of his 
 wife, formerly known as the Junior Queen, but who. since 
 the death of the Senior Rani in 1841, had become sole 
 Queen.' 
 
 Meanwhile the I Icir-apparent, emboldened by Hodgson's 
 withdrawal from the sphere of influence, launched out 
 on his atrocities with a free hand. The King showed 
 himself powerless to control his son ; and his subjects, in 
 December 1 842, began to hold tumultuous assemblies and 
 took the matter into their own hands. " The people 
 complained," says the official record of this revolution, 
 "that they could not obey two masters, adducing numerous 
 instances in which the Raja had allowed them to be 
 punished by his son for obedience to his own com- 
 mands, whilst for all the murders, maimings, beatings, and 
 insults perpetrated by the Heir-apparent, the Maharaja 
 had evaded authorising prevention, or making atonemeni 
 in a single instance. At one of these meetings, when 
 about eight thousand persons were present, a committee 
 was named to draw up a petition for presentation to the 
 Maharaja for the due protection of the legitimate rights, 
 public and personal, of all his subjects. This petition 
 being approved of by the country was sanctioned and 
 ratified by the Maharaja on December 7th, amidst the 
 kiUil applause of the assembled multitude." - 
 
 Hodgst)n's counsels contributed in no small measure to 
 the i)eaceful result of this revolution. Within si.x months 
 he had tarried out Lortl KUenborough's policy of uith- 
 
 ' Kor tlu- sakf oi rkarnc^s I shall continue to S|H-ak of Iut as the 
 Junior yufcn. 
 
 ' Ofticial Narrativ.' of Kvcnts in Nepal, su/> (inno 184J, by Assistant 
 Resident LieuttMiant Nicholctts, para. yz. India Dff'ur Rfcoriii.
 
 228 LIKE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 drawal, and he had carried it out in such a way as to 
 avoid danger either to the Maharaja or to the peace 
 Ministers who trusted to his support. As a matter of 
 fact the, change left the Maharaja in a stronger position 
 than his Highness had held since the death of the old 
 Prime Minister, Bhim Sen, in 1839, for it left him in 
 the first flush of a good understanding between himself 
 and his people, with the peace Ministry re-established in 
 power, and with the strong arm of the Junior Queen to 
 lean on. 
 
 Had Hodgson thought of his personal interests he 
 would now have quitted the scene. He had long ago 
 fixed 1 84 1, or at the latest 1842, as the date of his retire- 
 ment from Kathmandu. But the incessant labours and 
 anxieties of the past three years, since the British armies 
 entered Afghanistan, rendered it impossible for him to 
 complete the private researches on which he was engaged 
 for his great treatise on Nepal. He therefore desired to 
 remain for one year more, now that the quiet of the times 
 allowed him to resume the studies on which the fruition 
 of his life's work depended. Lord Elllcnborough seemed 
 so satisfied with Hodgson's diplomatic successes that 
 Hodgson could, without loss of self-respect, express his 
 wish. He did so, and received in good faith the Governor- 
 General's consent, unmindful of a warning conveyed by one 
 of Lord Ellenborough's own colleagues in Council. " Lord 
 Ellenborough," Mr. Thoby Prinsep wrote to Hodg.son, 
 " cannot but approve what you have done. But he will 
 do so dryly, because he will like you none the better." 
 
 The Junior Queen no sooner felt herself in authority 
 than she resolved to make her authority absolute. The 
 year 1843 opened with the announcement to the Resident 
 that she had been invested with political powers. Forth- 
 with she began to intrigue for the supersession of the 
 two sur\'iving sons of the deceased Senior Queen in 
 favour of her own children. How to get rid of these two 
 lives between her eldest son and the throne became the
 
 IX.] LAST rOL'K YKAKS IN NEPAL: 1839— 1845. 229 
 
 one object of licr life. The bloody intrii^ucs which fill 
 the Ncpalcsc annals during; the next four years reached 
 their acute sta^e after Hodgson left in 1843, and they 
 form no part of this biography. Hodgson's succcs.sor 
 had to stand by and see the tragical drama drag itself to 
 its close. I pause for a moment to summarise the chief 
 events from 1843 to 1847. 
 
 The Queen found that the peace Ministry, consisting of 
 the royal collattrals and Hrahmans — the spiritual advisers 
 of the kingdom were no tools for the work she had in 
 hand. l**or they represented the legitimist party in Nepal, 
 and notwithstanding the Senior Queen's hatred of them to 
 the day of her death, they could not be seduced into 
 setting aside the rights of her .sons. The Junior Queen 
 accordingly brought back to power Matabar Singh, nephew 
 of the late Prime Minister l^him Sen. That free-lance hail 
 for some lime .settled down to C(imfortablc e.xilc at Simla, 
 on an allowance of Rs. I.OCX) a month from the British 
 Government. Th<,' Queen took advantage of his somewhat 
 hesitating return, in 1843, to slaughter the Pandi leaders 
 who, four years previously, had supported the Senior 
 Queen in procuring the ruin of Hhim Sen and his house. 
 The official records for 1844 arc a dreary narrative of 
 commotions and decapitations.' Tho.se for 1845 open 
 with the murder of Matabar Singh, recently appointetl 
 Prime Minister for life amid thi- treacherous cajoleries of 
 the King who afterwards claimed credit for firing the first 
 .shot point-blank into his body. The wountled Minister 
 fell at his master's feet " and begged for mercy for his 
 mother and children. But as he spoke some one struck 
 him from behind, and as his hands were stretched out in 
 supplication one of the attendants cut him with a sword 
 across the wrists."' Next year, 1846, pnKluccil a still 
 bloodier list of assassinations and massacres, planned by 
 the Queen and the menial of the palace whom she had 
 
 ' Assistant Resident Nicholctts' Confidential Summary, paras. 43 to 
 48. — Imiia Office Records. ' Idem., sub ohmo 1845, para. 50.
 
 230 LIKK OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 raised to favour. ' The poor Raja quitted his kingdom 
 under the decent pretext of expiating these murders by 
 a joint pilgrimage with the Queen to Benares, leaving the 
 Heir-apparent to govern as best he could. ^ The end 
 came in 1847. The Heir-apparent seized the throne. 
 The Queen was banished, and eventuall}' died in exile. 
 The Raja was deposed, and for a time shut up. He spent 
 his remaining years as a State prisoner, while Jang 
 Bahadur (the nephew of Matabar murdered in 1845, and 
 grand-nephew of the great Minister Bhim Sen done to 
 death in 1839) established himself as Prime Minister and 
 Mayor of the Palace for life. 
 
 Such were the results of Lord EUenborough's policy 
 in Nepal. They bore bitter fruits for >ears after Lord 
 EUcnborough had himself been recalled. In almost his 
 last letter to the Resident whom he appointed in super- 
 session of Hodgson, Lord EUenborough still insisted upon 
 that policy, and ordered the new Resident to gloss over 
 the fact of his (Lord EUenborough's) own recall: "My 
 successor will do all I should have done. You may tell the 
 Court that he has been selected, among other reasons, be- 
 cause he is my brother-in-law and most confidential friend." ^ 
 
 Hodgson had, happily for his own peace of mind, left 
 long before the last acts of the tragedy. I therefore 
 confine myself to quoting the parting words of the Heir- 
 apparent to the King his father, when deposing him from 
 the throne. " Your Highness, uniting with the Kaia 
 Pandis, caused General Bhim Sen Thappa to be murdered ; 
 then joining the party of the Thappas, you had the Pandis 
 put to death. Afterwards, in conjunction with the Rani, 
 you caused the death of Matabar Singh ; again, contrary 
 to all precedent in your dynasty of fourteen generations, 
 you gave absolute power to the Maharani, and so caused 
 
 ' Assistant Resident Nicholetts' Confidential Summary, si(/> auiio 
 1846, paras. 61 to 70. * /dcm., paras. 68, 69, 73, 74. 
 
 ' Lord EUenborough to Major Lawrence, dated Calcutta, June I7tli, 
 1844. Merivales Lt/e of Sir Henry Lawrence, Vol. II., p. 5. Ed. 1872.
 
 IX.] LAST KOUk YEARS IN NKrAI. 1839—1843. 23 1 
 
 the massacre at the Kot ; and now, lastly, you arc scndinjj 
 orders for the murder of the present Minister, for no 
 offence whatever." ' 
 
 Kxactly four years before this remarkable piece of filial 
 frankness, Lord KUenborou^h dismissed Hodgson from 
 the post of Resident. His Excellency was quite willing 
 to take credit for the skilful treatment of Nepal, in the 
 second half of 1842 .ind first months of 1843, by the man 
 whom he had recalled by a public despatch and then 
 privately made friends with by demi-official letters. Hut 
 Lord Kllenborough, finding that no one felt disposed to 
 tjive the Governor-General any credit for the success, began 
 to nourish feelings towards Hodgson of which more than 
 one warning was conveyed by friendly hands. In March 
 1843 Secretary Maddock found himself set free from the 
 distasteful duty of acting as the mouihjiiece <jf Lord Ellen- 
 borough's duplicities, by his appointment to the Supreme 
 Council. Next month, with reference to Hodgson's growing 
 uneasiness as to the value of Lord Ellenborough's private 
 ameruL' for the public letter of recall. .^Laddock wrote to 
 him as follows :-- 
 
 ' I cannot pretcnil to accciunt for the actions or policy 
 of my late master, Lord Ellenborough. His course is too 
 .self-willed and eccentric to bo guided, or explained, or 
 reasoned with. His own way he will have as long as he 
 rules over this country, and no other human being will be 
 responsible for the acts of his government, for he will allow 
 no one to share the responsibility in any degree with him. 
 Political Officers are the objects of his special aversion, 
 and they can only do as they are bid, and that is the only 
 way in which they can avoid hi^ displeasure. However, 
 I cannot bring myself to lx;lievc that his reign over us will 
 be of much longer duration, for all the Ministers, except 
 the Duke of Wellington, arc said to be perfectly disgusted 
 with his arrogance and alarmed at his insanity." ' 
 
 « Oldficlds AV-/ri/. V(.l. I., pp. 375. 376. Kd. 1880. 
 
 » T. H. Maddock to IJ. H. Hodgson, dated Calcutta. April 4th. 1843
 
 232 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Three months later Lord Ellenborough dispelled every 
 doubt as to the value to be attached to his private amende 
 for the public letter of recall. I Iodi:json determined to bring 
 the matter to the touch by asking the Governor-General 
 if he might remain in Nepal during the following cold 
 weather to finish certain researches, on the completion 
 of which he propo.scd to retire from the service. Lord 
 Ellenborough not only refused, but he based his refusal on 
 the public letter of recall. That letter, it will be remem- 
 bered, bore date June 21st, 1842.' It was practically with- 
 drawn by a confidential communication from the Secretary 
 to Government in attendance on the Governor-General the 
 very next day, and Hodgson was counselled to keep it " a 
 profound secret." ^ Nor had the Governor-General ever 
 ventured to place the letter before his own Council. Yet Lord 
 Ellenborough, with one of those strange lapses of memory 
 which characterised his dealings with his subordinates, 
 could now write as if the suppression of the public letter 
 had been made against his own judgment, and apparently 
 at the persuasion of Hodgson — of Hodgson who knew not 
 of its existence until eight or ten days after its confidential 
 retractation on the 22 nd by the same Secretary who wrote 
 the official letter of the 21st. 
 
 On June 2nd, 1843, Lord Ellenborough delivered the 
 final blow. " Sir," he wrote to Hodgson, " I received your 
 letter of the 22nd ult, intimating your wish to remain still 
 longer at Kathmandu. 
 
 '' I have already twice, against my own better judgment, 
 acquiesced in your remaining there : first, when I consented 
 that the public letter of animadversion upon your conduct 
 should not be placed upon the public records, it being then 
 distinctly understood by me that you would retire during 
 the last cold weather ; secondly, when I was further induced 
 to consent to your remaining till the ensuing cold weather. 
 " I do not think it desirable that you should remain 
 beyond that period, and I .shall then appoint your successor. 
 ' Vide ante, pp. 21 1, 212. ^ Vide ante, p. 217.
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YEARS IN NKI'AL : 1839-1843. 233 
 
 If you desire to remain on service in India, I will endeavour 
 to find some other fit situation for you ; but you ought to 
 leave Nepal. I remain, Sir, your faithful servant, 
 
 *' KLLEN BOROUGH."' 
 
 Within six weeks after Lord micnborough thus addressed 
 a tried public servant, whom he had repeatedly a.ssured of 
 his confidence and esteem, it became publicly known that 
 Lord Kllenborough was him.self recalled by the Court of 
 Directors.'' His Excellency's successor did not, however, 
 assume char^^e till 1-^44. Meanwhile during the autumn 
 of 1843 Lord Kllenborough suddenly gazetted Major 
 Henry Lawrence (Sir Henry) as Resident in Nepal, and 
 appointed Hodgson to the petty post of " Assistant Sub- 
 Commissioner at Simla."' Hodgson resented the insult, 
 and in spite of the .'sympathising remonstrances of his 
 friends, he resigned the service. His successor [Sir] Henrv* 
 I^wrence liked the business as little as Hodgson did, and 
 t<jld a high officer of Lord l\llcnborough's Government 
 " that he would ratlicr have been appointed here {i.e. ' Sub- 
 Commissioner of .Siinii parish ') than Resident in Nepal."* 
 Some of Hodgson's best friends thought that he h.id acted 
 as befitted his honour. '* I am glad," wrote Sir George 
 Clerk in the letter just quoted, " to see a civilian leave the 
 country : I used for the people's sake to regret it. For I 
 feel that he, his untiring zeal and his honest application. 
 arc no longer known or appreciated." 
 
 This was the opinion of one of the ablest Indian adniinis- 
 Irators of the nineteenth century, wh(j shortly afterwards 
 rose to the Governor-General's Council and the Lieutenant- 
 Governorship of the North-West, rendered great services as 
 
 ' Letter from Lord K.llfiiboroiigh to B. H. Hodgson, Ksq., dated 
 June 2nd, 1843. - Hodgson Private Papers. 
 
 * Thp date is given as July 15th, 1844. — Thornton's History of India, 
 Vol. VI.. p. 547 0«45)- 
 
 ' India Olfice MS. Records. 
 
 * Sir CicorRc Russell Cirrk to IV H. Hodgson, dated Simla, October 
 8th, i84^v— Hodgson Private Papers.
 
 234 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Governor of Bombay twice over, and completed a brilliant 
 career as a Member of the Council of the Secretary of State, 
 a K.C.B. and G.C.S.I. Sir George Clerk remained on the 
 closest terms of affection with Hodgson to the end of their 
 long lives. His words express the sense of discouragement 
 which Lord Ellcnborough's conduct produced among those 
 who saw that conduct nearest at hand. 
 
 Hodgson's leave-taking with the prince and people 
 among whom he had so long represented the British 
 power, and whose esteem and affection he had won to a 
 degree which they have accorded to no other Englishman, 
 was pathetic. The Raja wrote to Lord Ellen borough, 
 begging his Excellency not to deprive him of the adviser 
 to whom he had all his life looked for support against the 
 war party in Nepal. Hodgson very properly declined to 
 tn.nsmit the letter. On its being secretly smuggled into 
 British territory, disguised as a parcel of merchandise, 
 Lord Ellenborough, wdth less propriety, declined to take 
 notice of it. 
 
 At Hodgson's final audience with the Darbar the Raja 
 burst into tears, and, referring to the exertions by w^iich 
 Hodgson had so often averted a war, called him " the 
 Saviour of Nepal." " Then taking a jewel from his turban, 
 he turned to Major Lawrence [who had just received over 
 charge] and said, ' I know that it is your custom for 
 Residents not to accept presents, but I owe so much to 
 Mr. Hodgson's prudence and patience under many and 
 great provocations, that I beg you will make my earnest 
 request to the Governor-General to the effect that he 
 may be permitted to accept this hereditary jewel of mine 
 to become an heirloom in his own family.' " This request 
 could not of course be complied with. But no official 
 repression could prevent the affectionate farewells of the 
 chiefs and people which made Hodgson's march to the 
 frontier one long triumphal progress. 
 
 Hodgson's arrival in Calcutta was the signal for demon- 
 strations of respect scarcely less enthusiastic, and still more
 
 IX.] LAST FOUR YKARS IN NEl'AL: 1839-1843- -35 
 
 inconvcnicnt.considering his relations towards the Governor- 
 General. One of the Members of Council urtjed him " to 
 withdraw his resignation, and we will with one voice 
 demand from Lord Ellenborough for you the Residency 
 at Indore as a just reward for your services." Hodgson 
 with difficulty prevented the Council from taking action, 
 by pleading that his resignation was an accomplished 
 fact and his " want of health for serving on the plains." ' 
 In response to all such expressions of sympathy, both 
 public and pri\ate, he let it be known that they were 
 to him sources of embarrassment rather than of pleasure. 
 He could not, however, escape a great meeting which 
 the Asiatic Society held in his honour. And with the 
 words of the Honourable the President on thai occasion, 
 when bidding Hodgson farewell and conveying to him the 
 request of the Society " to sit to some first-rate artist for 
 his bust to be placed in" its Hall, I close this official 
 section of this Life." 
 
 "Mr. Hodgson sails to-morrow, and 1 am sure that 
 
 there is not a member here present who would not have 
 
 regretted the loss of the only opportunity wc shall ever 
 
 ha've of seeing him in this place, and of testifying, as far 
 
 as we are able, how highly we are .sensible of the credit 
 
 \Nhich his labours and researches have rellectcd on the 
 
 Society. I am aware that in alluding to them 1 am 
 
 causing to the distinguished individual of whom I am 
 
 .speaking more pain than pleasure, but I hope he will 
 
 forgive me, for I feel that you would all consider mc as 
 
 ill discharging the duties of the situation in which I have 
 
 the honour to be placed, were I to allow such an occasion 
 
 as this to pass without referring to those labours and those 
 
 researches in terms of suitable acknowledgment. 
 
 " I confess, however, that I am quite unable to speak of 
 
 ' Hodgson Private Papers. . 
 
 » PrcsidiMUial Address to the Asiatic Society of B.njial at a " special 
 meeting n, honour of B. H. Hodgson. Esq.. held at Calcutta on Tuesday. 
 I'ebruarv 6th. i)a\\.—l'rocccditiiis 0/ the SocUly, Nu. 62, NS.
 
 236 LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. ix. 
 
 them as they ouL^ht to be spoken of. l^ut of their variety 
 and extent you may yourselve.s be able to form .some 
 judgment when you hear that Mr. Hodg-son's contributions 
 to the Transactions and Journal of this Society alone 
 amount to eighty-nine distinct papers. . . . 
 
 " I will only further observe that the high reputation 
 which Mr. Hodgson has conferred on the Society is not 
 merely a local and an Indian one. His name, widely 
 spread with his discoveries among the Scientific Societies 
 of Europe, has carried with it corresponding credit to our 
 body, as a member of which he has laboured." 
 
 So, amid the public sympathy of his brethren of the 
 Service, the praises of his fellow-workers in the fields of 
 private research, and the hearty good wishes of many 
 friends, Hodgson retired from the Indian Service at the 
 age of forty-three.
 
 [.237] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THK nARJIUN(; recluse: 1845-1858. 
 
 T T ODGSONS reception by the Court of Directors at 
 I 1 home was equally cordial. On his arrival .n the 
 spring of 1844, he waited, as in duty bound, on the 
 Chairman The India House was at that moment sccthmg 
 with indit^mation against Lord Ellenborough ; and Hodgson 
 who Imd^no wish to be made a hero of. found himself upon 
 the ttp of the wave. " Why, we will carry you back on 
 our shoulders." was the Chairman's greeting to hnn. " Lord 
 Ellenborough has been dismis.sed." 
 
 Hodgson explained that he had retired from the service, 
 and although he was induced to draft a statement of h.s 
 case for the Court of Directors. I find it docketed with the 
 ^vords "Not sent." But he had some of the ongmal 
 letters privatelv printed for his family and nearest fnends 
 The Court could only show its regard for h.m by social 
 civilities It asked him to a public dinner given m honour 
 of its most distinguished Indian servants shortly after h.s 
 return to London. " and drank his health amid the accla- 
 mations of some two hundred gentlemen, includrng the 
 Mini.ster for India.'" 
 
 1 have refrained from offering an opinion as to the 
 wisdom or unwisdom of Hodgson in resigning the service. 
 Hut there can be no question as to the judiciousness of the 
 attitude which he now adoiUed. Any young gentleman 
 in the Secretariat could hav. found a way out of a 
 difficulty with a Governor-General so impetuous as Lord 
 . Tl.e I'rrsickMU of tlic Board of Control. -Hcnlgsoi. MSS.
 
 238 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Ellcnborough with his unbalanced mind yet by no means 
 ungenerous heart— and lived to smile at the little episode 
 from the heights of future success. More than one of 
 Hodgson's friends urged him to take a year's furlough 
 and let Lord Ellenborough run out his brief course. But 
 Hodgson had not the adroitness of headquarters. Twenty- 
 four years of isolation had made his high-strung and some- 
 what haughty nature still more sensitive. When wounded 
 by what he regarded as injustice and ingratitude, he could 
 not help showing that he felt it. Nor did he under- 
 stand the light foil-play of the Secretariat school-of-arms. 
 In resigning the service he made a somewhat needlessly 
 emphatic protest against a piece of unfairness in high 
 places which a defter official would have taken as a by 
 no means extraordinary incident in even a prosperous 
 career. But a man is what he is by having a nature. 
 Hodgson acted in a way consonant with his nature, and 
 from a conviction, perhaps the exaggerated conviction of 
 a too solitary man, that the protest was due to his own 
 honour and to the honourable .service to which he belonged. 
 It may be doubted, moreover, if a man who could bend to 
 a storm would have achieved what the combined sim- 
 plicity and firmness of Hodgson accomplished in Nepal. 
 
 But whether he acted wi.sely or unwisely for himself, 
 the world was the clear gainer. There are always a score 
 of men in the India Civil Service who make excellent 
 Residents at Native Courts. But there was then only one 
 man in India who could do the work which Hodgson was 
 destined, during the next fifteen years, to accompli.sh for 
 Oriental literature and science. I do not think he at any 
 moment seriously regretted that, while still in the prime of 
 manhood, he gave up his whole life to the studies which 
 bore so rich a fruitage. From lime to time, usually at the 
 prompting of some enthusiastic or too zealous admirer, he 
 felt a little hurt at the non-recognition of his work by 
 the English Government, as compared with the honours 
 showered upon him by foreign countries. But as, even
 
 X.] THE DAKJILING KECLUSK : .:i45-i858. 239 
 
 in the first bitter moments, he got rid of his indignation 
 against Lord Mllcnborough by writing a statement of his 
 case and then locking it up in his desk, so he shrank from 
 giving public expression to any sense of neglect during 
 his long subsequent life of fifty years. 
 
 Meanwhile he had ample consolations of the kind dearest 
 to his heart in his welcome home. Hodgson had the rare 
 good fortune to find, at the end of his quarter of a century 
 of Indian service, both his parents alive. After a happy 
 time with his father and mother in their Canterbury house, 
 he paid a visit to his beloved sister Fanny, now the 
 Baroness Nahuys. She and her husband who, as I have 
 mentioned, became Governor of one of the Seven Provinces 
 of Holland, were living at Arnhcm. In this pleasant 
 Rhine town, with its traces of the ancient Roman sway, 
 its fortTncations then surviving from mediaval times, and 
 its more recent memories of the siege of 1813, Hodgson 
 became a living reality to the sister whom he had left as 
 a child of eight. Tlie admiration which she had long given 
 him was now warmed into the love for which he craved, 
 and .'=ettlcd down into a deep and enthusiastic affection. 
 
 But before the first year of his retirement pa.ssed, 
 Hodgson began to feel that idleness was for him imposs- 
 ible. He could not rest from labour, and he began to 
 turn wistful eyes to the land in which alone he could 
 complete his life's work. A project for buying the small 
 estate of Swiscoe as a home for himself and his parents fell 
 through, partly from the insufficiency of his means, and 
 partly because of the necessity which he felt to finish his 
 Himalayan researches. That constraining necessity told 
 on his powers of enjoying his present surroundings, and 
 urged him forth once more to the scene of hjs labours in 
 the East. 
 
 In October 1844, even amid the hospitalities of Arnhcm. 
 he wrote to his father ' : " This will never do, and I had far 
 better return to India than continue thus a st)urce of pain 
 ' Letter dated Arnhcm, October i7tli, 1.S44.
 
 240 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 to those I lo\e best as well as to myself. Accordingly I 
 have nearly decided to return, and the sooner, 1 think, the 
 better. . . . The mere going the round of Scientific Societies 
 could never satisfy me. Indeed I look with a sort of 
 disgust on that kind of thing." He feels the necessity of 
 plunging again into the study of nature at first hand, and 
 proposes " to keep up the requisite intercourse with the 
 scientific bodies in Europe " by presents of specimens and 
 drawings as before. 
 
 Meanwhile he entrusted to his father the task of having 
 his zoological collections arranged by a skilled sorter. 
 The father set a man to work on the skins and bones, but 
 with a heavy heart, and a deep sense of the solitude which 
 his son's departure would bring into his life. " My dearest 
 Father," Hodgson tries to comfort him a few weeks later, 
 " I cannot think of your being alone and in low spirits 
 without a fresh pang, sad as my heart is, and the more .so 
 because its sadness is necessarily communicated to you. 
 Now if you say the word, I shall at once hurry to Canter- 
 bury. I must rid you of the heap of trash wherewith I 
 have burdened the barracks, and if I do no more, that will 
 be well done." ^ 
 
 The result may be gathered from a letter to Hodgson 
 from the Trustees of the British Museum in the following 
 month, expressing themselves " deeply obliged for the 
 valuable series of skins and drawings which you have 
 already presented to the Museum, as well as for the liberal 
 offer now made of completing the series. This offer the 
 Trustees will thankfully accept, and will instruct the 
 proper officer to proceed to Canterbury whenever it may 
 be convenient to you for the purpose of making the selec- 
 tion for the Museum, and of giving you such aid as he can, 
 consistently with his other public duties, in sorting the 
 specimens to be distributed to other public institutions."" 
 
 ' Dated Arnliem, November 24th, 1844. 
 
 - Letter from J. Forshall, Secretarj' to the Trustees, dated British 
 Museum, December 20th, 1844.
 
 x] THE DAKJII.ING KKCLUSE : 1845—1858. 34I 
 
 Professor Owen also came down to Canterbury to make 
 a selection from Hodjjson's presentations to the Coiiej^e 
 of Surfjcons. 
 
 Having thus disposed of his collections, it only remained 
 for Hodt^son to present his departure in a hopeful light to 
 the loved ones whom he must leave behind. " My dearest 
 I'^ather," he wrote, inviting his father to join him during a 
 few days' absence in London while arranging with the 
 Trustees of the British Museum, "Thanks for your affec- 
 tionate letter. It is almost worth while being away from 
 you in order to get such truly kind letters. God ever bless 
 you, and believe mc that I would not willingly give you 
 pain for the world. It was and is because my invincible 
 depression afflicted all your kind hearts that it seemed to 
 me nec«fcsary to put an end to it. You know I can soon 
 be back [from India], and probably shall be so. You 
 speak as if my going were not only evil but irremediable : 
 not so, my dearest father ; two months will at any time 
 bring me back." ' 
 
 He had partly won over his sister I'^anny to the project, 
 and she seems to have helped him in winning his parents' 
 assent. " Dearest Fan," he wrote to her three da\s later, • 
 " I am right proud to think I have won the entire esteem 
 and love of so good and sensible a person as you are. 
 Amid a thousand griefs and disappointments that press 
 me to the earth, this idea alone elevates and consoles me. 
 God ever bless you, my darling sister, and believe mc that 
 all your kindly feelings towards me are fully reciprocated 
 by me towards you. I bless you and ever shall while I 
 live, wherever my lot is cast. 
 
 " I must away to resume and complete my researches 
 where alone the\- can be satisfactorily completed. I'or 
 my hurried departure [from Nepal] amid overjxnvering 
 vexations caused all my papers and other materials to be 
 dissipated and dislocated, and I can collect the fragments 
 
 ' Lrtlcr clatnl I)rceml>cr iStli. 1844. 
 ' Datcil iJcccmbcT 21 at, 1S44. 
 
 16
 
 242 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap 
 
 in India alone. It will cost me but a couple of years. 
 Even if I fail I may be quieted by the reflection that 
 failure came not till every effort had been made to avert it. 
 If I succeed I shall come back comforted and strcn<jthened 
 to encounter the new life of Europe." 
 
 Why multipl)' these touching mementos of his last days 
 at home ? I have ventured to reproduce one or two 
 of them, as they show the deep and untarnished affection 
 of the man of forty-five for the loved ones from whom 
 he had been severed during a quarter of a century. In 
 1845 the parting came, and I shall only quote his farewell 
 words to his sister Fanny, dated " On Board " from Cork 
 Harbour : — 
 
 " Words cannot tell what I owe you. In my dark hour 
 you were my guardian angel, and in subsequent hours 
 your sweet words and looks gave me to taste the only 
 pleasure I have known for years. Whilst I breathe I 
 shall cherish the memory of your tenderness. What a 
 sweet and holy thing is true affection ! There is nothing 
 else worth living for, and would to God I could dedicate 
 the remainder of my life to winning and repaying it in 
 a home of my own. Dear, dear Fanny, I owe you much 
 for having opened my heart to a full sense of the love- 
 liness of the heart's best emotions ; and even if mine 
 must now again be locked up as they had been, the very 
 memory of their momentary indulgence will cast a sacred 
 halo around my future life. I do not think I .shall be 
 able to exist as heretofore, and if this necessity of being 
 beloved should draw me home again, to you my return 
 will be owing. ... I sigh to think what a luxury it must be 
 to love and be loved. Nothing like the hand of Woman 
 for binding up a stricken heart ; and as for me, I never 
 hear a tone that is soft and sounds like affection but it 
 seems to me a voice from Heaven — yes, literally a voice 
 from Heaven." 
 
 So Hodgson returned as a private student to India in 
 1845. His first idea was to complete his researches in
 
 X.] THK DARJILING RECLUSK : 1845— 1858. 243 
 
 the regions in which they had been begun. Hut the 
 Indian authorities did not sec their way to permit him 
 to return as a private person to Nepal, where he had so 
 long Hved in a pubUc capacity. There can be no question 
 that the decision was a wise one, and Hodgson, although 
 disapiK^intcd, soon recognised its wisdom. He fixed his 
 abode in a part of the Himalayas which had come under 
 British influence, but which closely resembled Nepal in 
 regard to its climate, its physical conditions, and animal 
 and plant life. 
 
 During the next thirteen years the hill-station of Darji- 
 ling was Hodgson's self-appointed home. The fruitful 
 labours of those years will occupy the concluding chapters 
 of this book. But as I endeavoured, before entering on 
 his official services in Nepal, to exhibit the man as apart 
 from his work, so now I should like to briefly show what 
 manner of life he led at Darjiling ere I embark upon 
 its results to the world. 
 
 The narrative must be a brief one. But before recurring 
 to Hodgson's priv.itc letters, perhaps 1 ought to show how 
 his life and work at Darjiling appeared to a calm and 
 competent eye-witness. Sir Joseph Hooker, then a \oung 
 naturalist in the first enthusiasm of the scientific travels 
 which have given him a unique place among Knglishmen 
 of our day, thus speaks of Hodgson in his Himalayan 
 Journals ' : — 
 
 " Mr. Hodgson's high position as a man of science 
 requires no mention here. But the difficulties he overcame, 
 and the sacrifices he made, in attaining that position, arc 
 known to few. He entered the wilds of Nepal when very 
 young and in indifferent health, ami finding time to spare, 
 cast about for the best method of employing it. He had 
 no one to recommentl or direct a pursuit, no example 
 to follow, no rival to ecjual or surpass. He had never 
 
 ' Himalayan Jimmals, or \offS of a Saturalist, by .Sir Joseph 
 D.iUon Hookrr. K.C.S.I., C.B., K.R.S., p xi, f»l. 1S54, ami p xiii. 
 MiiicHM Kdition of 1891.
 
 244 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 been acquainted with a scientific man, and knew nothing 
 of science except the name. The natural history of men 
 and animals, in its most comprehensive sense, attracted 
 his attention ; he sent to Europe for books, and commenced 
 the study of ethnology and zoology. His labours have 
 now extended over upwards of twenty-five years' residence 
 in the Himalaya. During this period he has seldom 
 had a staff of less than from ten to twenty persons 
 (often many more), of various tongues and races, em- 
 ployed as translators and collectors, artists, shooters, and 
 stuffers. 
 
 " By unceasing exertions and a princely liberality, Mr. 
 Hodgson has unveiled the mysteries of the BuddhLst 
 religion, chronicled the affinities, languages, customs, and 
 faiths of the Himalayan tribes, and completed a natural 
 history of the animals and birds of these regions. His 
 collections of specimens are immense, and are illustrated 
 by drawings and descriptions taken from life, with remarks 
 on the anatomy, habits, and localities of the animals them- 
 selves. Twenty volumes of the Journals and the Museum 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal teem with the proofs of 
 his indefatigable zeal ; and throughout the cabinets of the 
 birds and quadruped departments of our national Museum, 
 Mr. Hodgson's name stands pre-eminent. A seat in the 
 Institute of France, and the cross of the Legion of Honour, 
 prove the estimation in which his Buddhist studies are 
 held on the Continent of Europe. To be welcomed to the 
 Himalaya by such a person, and to be allowed the most 
 unreserved intercourse, and the advantage of all his in- 
 formation and library, exercised a material influence on 
 the progress I made in my studies, and on my travels. 
 When I add that many of the subjects treated of in these 
 volumes were discussed between us, it will be evident that 
 it is impossible for me to divest much of the information 
 thus insensibly obtained of the appearance of being the 
 fruits of my own research." 
 
 The earlier years of Hodgson's life at Darjiling were
 
 X.] THE DARjILING RECLUSE: 1845—1858. 245 
 
 very solitary ones. " I read and read," he says in a letter ' 
 to his sister Fanny, " and write and read. My subjects are 
 Ethnology and Zoology and Education — all ample fields 
 and yet enough untrodden to render intelligent truthful 
 labours permanently valuable. And such I trust will be 
 mine. I will send you a copy of my work on Education, 
 and also one of the .several Essays on the Aborigines. 
 But of Zoology you will not care to hear, though even 
 that can be made rational and pleasant, and for my part, 
 in the study of nature I find an extreme comfort and 
 pleasure. The thing is so truthful, calm, and real, as I 
 pursue it not in books but in actual subjects." 
 
 In these first years at Darjiling he again suffered from a 
 recurremte of the maladies which had distressed him in 
 Nepal. Against these maladies he bore up with unshaken 
 courage, eking out the powers of a fever-shaken constitu- 
 tion by the most abstemious diet, and by an almost abso- 
 lute retirement from the world. In the spring of 1848 he 
 had the great happiness of being joined by Dr. Hooker, 
 who was then engaged on the researches embodied in his 
 Himalayan Journals. In the autumn he gave his sister 
 Fanny a graphic description of his home and its sur- 
 round ing.s.- 
 
 " I have still my accomplished and amiable guest, Dr. 
 Hooker, with me, and am even thinking of accompanying 
 him on an excursion to the foot of the snows. Our glorious 
 peak Kinchinjinga proves to be the loftiest in the range 
 and consequently in the world, being 28,178 feet above the 
 sea.' Dr. Hooker and I wish to make the nearer acquaint- 
 ance of this king of mountains, and we propose, if we can, 
 to slip over one of the passes into Tibet in order to mciisure 
 the height of that no less unique plateau, and al.so to 
 examine the distribution of plants antl animals in these 
 
 ' Dated Darjiling, Dfccmlx-r 5th, 1847. 
 '' LcttLT dated Darjiling, Scpti-mb«T 25th, 1848. 
 
 ' Written before Mount Everest was finally ascertained to be 29,003 
 feet above sea-level.
 
 246 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 remarkable mountains which ascend from nearly the sea- 
 level, by still increasing heights and corresponding changes 
 of climate, to the unparalleled elevation above spoken of. 
 
 " Dr. Hooker i.s young in years but old in knowledge, 
 has been at the Antarctic Pole with Ross, and is the friend 
 and correspondent of the veteran Humboldt. He says our 
 Darjiling botany is a wondrous mixture of tropical and 
 northern forms, even more so than in Nepal and the 
 western parts of the Himalayan ranges ; for wc have 
 several palms and tree-ferns and Cycascs and Musas (wild 
 plantain), whereas to the westward there are few or none 
 of these. Cryptogamous plants abound yet more here 
 than there, especially fungi. Every old tree is loaded with 
 them and with masses of lichens, and is twined round by 
 climbing plants as big as itself, whilst OrcliidecB or air 
 plants put forth their luscious blossoms from every part 
 of it. 
 
 " Dr. Hooker has procured ten new species of rhododen- 
 drons, one of which is an epiphyte, and five palms and 
 three Musas and three tree-ferns and two Cycases. These 
 are closely juxtaposed to oaks, chestnuts, birches, alders, 
 magnolias, Michelias, Oleas, all of enormous size. To 
 them I must add rhododendrons, including the glorious 
 epidendric species abov^e spoken of, and whose large white 
 blossoms depend from the highest branches of the highest 
 oaks and chestnuts. Laurels too abound with me as 
 forest trees, and a little to the north are the whole coni- 
 ferous family, Pinus, Ficea, Abies, with larch and cedar 
 and cypress and juniper, all represented by several species 
 and nearly all first-rate for size and beauty. Then my 
 shrubs are Camclias and Daphnes and Polygonums and 
 dwarf bamboos ; and my herbaceous things, or flowers 
 and grasses, bluebells, geraniums, Cynoglossum, Myriactis, 
 Gnaphalium, with nettles, docks, chickweeds, and such 
 household weeds. 
 
 " I wish. Fan, you were here to botanise with Dr. 
 Hooker ; for I am unworthy, having never heeded this
 
 X.] THF: DARJILING RKCLUSE: 1845—1858. 247 
 
 branch of science, and he is such a cheerful, well-bred 
 youthful philosopher that you would derive as much 
 pleasure as profit from intercourse with him. Go and see 
 his father Sir William Hooker at the Ro)-al Gardens at 
 Kew." 
 
 " I am living here," wrote Sir James Colvile when on 
 a visit to Hodgson in 1847, "in a Babel of tribes and 
 nations, and, to make them more interesting, I am living 
 with an eminent ethnologist, who for more than twenty- 
 five years has had, and profited by, peculiar opportunities 
 of studying the varieties of men that inhabit the Sub- 
 Himalaya. He is Mr. Hodgson (better known to the 
 world in general as a naturalist), who for many years was 
 our Resident in Nepal, and then occupied his leisure in 
 these researches. He was, notwithstanding, an excellent 
 public servant." After referring to Lord Ellenborough's 
 supersession of Hodgson as " one of the most wanton acts 
 of his capricious tyranny," Sir James Colvile goes on to 
 say : " Hodgson in disgust, unfortunately for himself, 
 resigned the service. Had he not done so he would pro- 
 bably by this time have found his way back to Nepal. 
 As it is, not feeling comfortable in Europe, he has returned 
 to these hills and continues, but with crippled means, his 
 scientific labours as a private gentleman. ... I have 
 learned more about India from him in these few weeks 
 than I have learned at Calcutta in nearly two years." ' 
 
 These quiet years at Darjiling enabled Hodgson to save 
 money. His comparative poverty during his first brief 
 visit h(jme, he wrote to his sister Fanny,'- was " to the full 
 as much owing to my early and continued aids to members 
 of my family as to the sudden and unlooked for tennin.i- 
 tion of a brilliant career, which could not have been run 
 at all on parsimonious principles, and which was run so 
 
 ' Lettrr from Sir Jamos Colvili", Chief Justice of Bengal, to Moiiktun 
 Milnes. dated Darjiliiij^, October nth, 1847. — Life of Ijoni Houghton, 
 l)y T. VVemyss Kcid, \'<il. 1., p. 382. Kd. 1890 
 ' Letter dated Durjiliiig, August lolh, 1848.
 
 24S LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 successfully as to keep us all afloat from the second year 
 of my service. My brothers consumed a great deal of my 
 money, so much that William grew actually remorseful at 
 last, and would have Edward only and not me to sign that 
 bond for ;^ 1,000, which, however, as usual it fell on me to 
 pay. Personally, I have ever been all simplicity in my 
 habits." 
 
 Now his poor brothers lay in Indian graveyards, and he 
 had only his parents to help. His own hermit life at Dar- 
 jiling could not have cost above a few hundred pounds a 
 year, and another few hundred would maintain a score of 
 bird-stuff ers, hunters, and native assistants for his zoologi- 
 cal collections. So the process of accumulation at last 
 began. 
 
 How simple and unworldly was that life, with its 
 intensity of isolated devotion to noble pursuits in spite of 
 ill-health, may be realised from some reminiscences which 
 Sir Joseph Hooker has kindly written out for me. Seldom 
 has one great naturalist seen another thus eye-to-eye, or 
 spoken of him so directly from the heart. Any attempt 
 to put his impressions into my words would lessen their 
 interest. In the following pages, therefore, I leave his 
 manuscript narrative to speak for itself as 
 
 Sir Joseph Hooker's Recollections of 
 Hodgson's Darjiling Days. 
 
 I owed my introduction to Mr. Hodgson to the good 
 offices of our mutual friend the late Sir James Colvile, 
 then Advocate-General, Calcutta, and President of the 
 Bengal Asiatic Society. 
 
 I arrived at Darjiling in the spring of 1848. Hodgson 
 received me cordially, and invited me to make his house 
 my headquarters ; to share his table and make every use 
 of his valuable library, which was rich in works relating 
 to the Himalaya, Nepal, and Tibet. Thus I had the 
 advantage, at the outset of my explorations, of the counsel
 
 X.] SIR JOSEPH HOOKKRS HKCOLLECTIONS. 249 
 
 and hospitality of the man wlio was facile />riticeps in 
 respect of knowledc^e of the Eastern Himalaya, its peoples, 
 products, and natural history. From the above date till 
 early in 1850, when I left Sikkim, my intercourse with 
 Mr. Hodg.son was uninterrupted. 
 
 Hodgson was then in his forty-ninth year. After re- 
 tiring from the .service and visiting England, he returned 
 to India with the view of continuing his researches in the 
 Ethnography and Zoology of Northern India. He se- 
 lected as his residence Darjiling, then a little-known 
 locality in an unknown countr}'. He had three good 
 reasons for his choice. It promised him absolute freedom 
 from the trammels of society. It was in a central position 
 in respect of the field of his future labour. His old friend 
 and medical attendant, Dr. Campbell, who had been also 
 his assistant at the Nepal Residency, had lately been 
 appointed Superintendent of Darjiling and to the political 
 charge of our relations with the State of Sikkim. 
 
 Hodg.son's dwelling was in a narrow clearing of the 
 majestic forest that then clothed the mountains of Sikkim 
 on every side, and crept up to the very walls of the few 
 houses of which the station consisted. It was a modest 
 bungalow afterwards called Bryanstone, ' of the ordinary- 
 Anglo-Indian type, with two rooms (dining-room and 
 sitting-room) in front ; two bedrooms with bath-room 
 behind ; a verandah in front and on the sides ; and 
 supplementary sleeping apartments and offices in the rear. 
 Occupying the slope of a ridge over 8,000 feet high, facing 
 the north at an elevation of 7,500 feet, it commanded a 
 view of the snowy Himalaya unrivalled for grandeur and 
 extent. Immediately in front at abtjul forty-seven miles 
 distant, Kinchinjiiiga, one of the three loftiest mountains 
 in the globe, rears itself to 28,178 feet above the .sea-level, 
 and 20,000 feet above that of Hryanstone. From its vast 
 
 ' At Krst named Herbert Hill, after Sir Herlx-rt Maddock who had 
 built it as a residence for lumself, and iVom wliom Hodgson bought it 
 in 1847.— VV. \V. H.
 
 2 so LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 shoulders the perpetually snowed range is continued east 
 and west for about seventy miles, without the smallest 
 break of the snow-line even in the height of summer. It 
 is a wonderful panorama, startling in its effect when first 
 revealed by the rising mists on a cloudless morning. The 
 eye spans the intervening gulf of interlacing ranges, 
 divided by rushing streams and clothed with tropical 
 forests, until it is arrested by the dazzling amphitheatre of 
 silvery crests. 
 
 During the whole of my two years' stay at Sikkim, 
 Nepal, and Himalaya, Hodgson was an inv^alid, suffering 
 from the effects of fevers contracted in Nepal and from 
 incurable sleeplessness. He often told me that he did not 
 know what sleep was, so active was his mind and so brief 
 were the snatches of repose which nature must have 
 demanded, and which no doubt she obtained, however 
 little the patient was conscious of it. He slept in one of 
 the supplementary apartments alluded to above, and not 
 unfrequcntly passed days and even weeks there, during 
 which I never saw him except to give some simple 
 remedies for his distressing ailment. 
 
 Ever since his arrival at Darjiling he had lived the life 
 of a hermit. With the exception of a short visit from Sir 
 James Colvile and his sister, he had received no visitor 
 until my advent. Nor had he admitted to his house any 
 one in the station except his old friend Dr. Campbell. 
 The latter informed me that his Nepal life would have 
 been almost equally one of solitude but for the society of 
 the most intellectual of the high-caste Nepalese of the 
 Court, and of the learned Lamas of Kathmandu and 
 especially of Tibet, the latter of whom made frequent 
 visits to him in Nepal. 
 
 During the rainy season of 1848 we were very much 
 together, and I remember no more delightful hours of my 
 life than the evenings we spent chatting over our cheroots 
 by the light of the wood fire, with the pile of logs for fuel 
 alongside, gleaming with lambent light from the presence
 
 X.] SIR JOSEPH HOOKKKS KKCOLLECTIONS. 251 
 
 of a phosphorescent fundus in the tlcc.iyin- b«'irk — to us 
 a constant source of wonderment and speculation. This 
 may not now be so frequent a phenomenon in the forests 
 of Sikkim as it was half a century ago, before the reckless 
 clearances took place which have resulted in the modifica- 
 tion of the climate. At the period referred to, it was often 
 difficult to get one's pony to pass the piles of logs stacked 
 by the wayside, so bright was the light the\' emitted. 
 
 There was no " skating over thin ice " in our discussions 
 and controversies. He encouraged me to dispute his 
 theories, especially on the structure and geology and glacia- 
 tion of the Himalaya and Tibet. He viewed these from 
 his wide reading and his experience in the Valley of Nepal ; 
 I, from what I had seen in the Antarctic regions and else- 
 where. We kept early hours, though what they were I 
 do not clearly recollect. Breakfast was I think at eight, 
 dinner about three, and tea at eight, with nothing between. 
 The forenoon was devoted to study, and we rode for a 
 couple of hours late in the afternoon. Except when he 
 went down to the plains for a few months in winter to 
 escape the cold and damp of Darjiling, he never once to 
 my knowledge walked a yard from his home. 
 
 On leaving Nepal 1 lodg.son gave up his studies in 
 Buddhist Literature, and confined his attention to the four 
 subjects which he pursued with ardour at Darjiling. Those 
 were the furtherance of Vernacular I'-ducation in India ; 
 the study of the Races of Northern India and their lan- 
 guages ; the physical geography of the Himalaya and 
 Tibet ; and the zoology, especially the ornithoK)gy, of 
 .Sikkim. Of these subjects the last was probably the least 
 prolific in results. I'or in the first place the zoology of 
 Sikkim is not materially different from that of Nepal, 
 which he had for twenty years so diligenth' and succcs.s- 
 fully explored. In the .second place the ubicjuity and 
 density of the Sikkim forest, the spar.scne.ss of its popula- 
 tion and the humidity of its climate, are obstacles to the 
 collection and preservation of specimens. In the third
 
 2 C2 
 
 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 place ihc religion of the country being Buddhist, the 
 Lamas taught, and the as yet unsophisticated people 
 believed, that the taking of life would be followed by 
 disasters to their flocks and crops. 
 
 During my travels in the interior I was accompanied 
 by a couple of Hodgson's trained huntsmen for the pur- 
 pose of procuring specimens for him, and it was a source 
 of vexation to me that I could do so little for a friend who 
 did so much for me. But what could I do but comply 
 when, on arriving at a village with good sporting ground 
 around, I was met by a troop of Lamas from the Buddhist 
 monastery bringing presents, with the request that my 
 attendants should not shoot or even fish within the range 
 of their spiritual functions ? 
 
 Returning to the chimney-corner of Bryanstone, an in- 
 exhaustible source of conversation was provided by the 
 volumes of the Asiatic Society s Transactions, \hc Gleanings 
 in Sciejice, and the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal. I 
 made a point of reading every article that I could at all 
 understand. These repertories of half a century of Oriental 
 literature and science Hodgson was ever ready to talk 
 over with me, thus adding tenfold to their interest and in- 
 structiveness. It was delightful to find him .so thoroughly 
 acquainted with the writings of his predecessors and so 
 enthusiastic an admirer of them. As regards the Gleanings 
 in Science, established in 1829 by his friend the lamented 
 James Prinsep (one of the most brilliant geniuses that 
 India ever knew, but cut off after a brief career), and the 
 Bengal Asiatic Society s Journal, no one contributed so 
 largely to their contents as Hodgson ; no fewer than a 
 hundred and eighty papers, the latest dated 1858, bearing 
 his name as author. 
 
 It was, however, towards extending the benefits of 
 Vernacular Education to the natives of India that Hodgson's 
 energies were principally directed during my stay in 
 Sikkim. To that end, amongst other of his projects, a 
 leading one was the construction of an Atlas of Physical
 
 X.] SIK JOSEPH HOOKKKS RECOLLECTIONS. 253 
 
 Geography suited for schools. In this I had the gratifica- 
 tion of co-operating with him, and man)- and long were 
 our discussions upon the nature and extent of the work. 
 They resulted in his asking me to ccnnmunicate his views 
 to Baron Humboldt, with the request that, if he approved 
 of the plan proposed, he would indicate an author com- 
 petent to suppU' an elementary treati.se on the physics of 
 the globe with maps. At the same time he offered a 
 liberal gratuity in advance for authorship out of his own 
 pocket, and procured .subscriptions among his friends to 
 provide for its translation into the vernacular. Baron 
 Humboldt recommended as author a man distinguished for 
 his knowledge of the subject, and who accepted the com- 
 mission, but never completed the work. One half was 
 supplied : it was long and learned enough, but totally 
 unsuited to the requirements ; and as a further gratuity 
 was demanded for its completion, the project in the con- 
 templated form had to be abandoned. 
 
 This leads me to the subject of the Physical Geography 
 of the Himalaya, upon which our discussions were long 
 and often animated, for we differed considerably in our 
 conceptions of the structure of the chain and its relations 
 to the geography of the countries adjacent to it. His 
 own conclusions were communicated to X.\\q Journal of the 
 Bengal Asiatic Society whilst I was still in Sikkim, in a 
 very remarkable and learned cs.say. wherein the whole 
 subject of the mountain and its river-systems, peoples, 
 and productions is treated with a fulness of knowledge 
 of which I had not a fracticjn. 
 
 In the early spring of iS.iQ, I spent a fortnight with 
 Hodgson in the 1 arai and plains at the foot (if the Sikkim 
 Himalaya. It was the only excursion we took together, 
 and a very enjoyable one it was. The Tarai at that 
 time formetl a belt t)f jungle about ti-n miles in breadth, 
 virulently malarious in summer, and always swarming 
 with wild animals. It was in this tract that Lady Canning 
 was struck down in i8$i by the fever which carried her
 
 2 54 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 off, brought on by a few hours' halt in the forest for the 
 purpose of sketching. It has since been opened up and 
 much of its forest is replaced by tea-plantations. Having 
 horses and tents,, we passed the time most agreeably in 
 shooting, botanising, and zoologising. Except a violent 
 earthquake at Titalya, a delightful sail in double canoes 
 down the rapids of the Tista river in the gorge where it 
 leaves the mountains, and the cheering fact that Hodgson 
 threw off most of his ailments for the time, there were no 
 incidents of the trip of any moment to record. 
 
 It remains to say that I cannot convey any adequate 
 idea of the amount of active interest which Hodgson took 
 in the success of my Sikkim explorations, of his .solicitude 
 for my welfare, health, and comfort during the many 
 months that I was cut off from intercourse with any but 
 natives. I owe it entirely to his personal influence with 
 the late Sir Jang Bahadur that I was permitted in 1848-9 
 to travel in Eastern Nepal, over ground never before or 
 since traversed by any European, and to visit the jealously 
 guarded passes of the Nepalese Tibet frontier. He further 
 exhausted every effort to persuade the same potentate to 
 allow me to spend the season of 1850 in going through the 
 Himalaya from Sikkim to Kathmandu. In this Hodgson 
 supplemented the strong representations in my favour 
 made by Lord Dalhousie. Their joint efforts would, I 
 believe, have been successful, were it not that Jang 
 Bahadur urged that he was about to visit England, and 
 could not be responsible during his absence for my per- 
 sonal safety in a kingdom where jealousy of Europeans 
 was a universal feeling, and where his own tenure of power 
 was precarious. 
 
 Nor were Hodgson's good offices confined to helping 
 me in my work alone. During my travels in Sikkim I 
 was dependent on Darjiling for food-supplies for myself 
 and my people, as the Sikkim Raja had issued orders that 
 neither grain nor flesh was to be sold to me. Thanks to 
 the energy of Dr. Campbell (the Superintendent), parties
 
 X.J THE DARJILING RECLUSE: 1845— 1858. 255 
 
 of coolies were orgcinisLcl to carry food to mc from Darji- 
 ling with more or less of regularity — a most difficult task 
 during the rains when the unbridged torrents and malarious 
 valleys rendered transport tedious and dangerous. Never 
 one such party arrived without letters, newspajiers, and 
 often books from Hodgson, and a liberal addition to 
 my commissariat of good things from his cellar and 
 larder. 
 
 With these recollections of Sir Joseph Hooker, I close 
 the personal aspects of Hodgson's life at Darjiling. In 
 1853 Hodgson made a short visit to his relatives in England 
 and Holland, and became attached to Miss Anne Scott, 
 daughter of General Henry Alexander Scott, R.A. Her 
 family had during several generations rendered valuable 
 service to their country, and the early death of her brother 
 Robert closed prematurely what promised to he a distin- 
 guished public career. Hodgson married Miss Scott at the 
 British Embassy at the Hague, both families being then 
 abroad. A few weeks later he started again for Darjiling 
 with his wife. The four years which followed were the 
 happiest he ever spent in India. He found at length that 
 companionship and sympathy for which he had .so long 
 pined. 
 
 During his later years at Darjiling he had the gratifica- 
 tion of being invited by Sir Jang Bahadur, the all-powerful 
 Minister in Nepal, to direct the education of his son-in- 
 law, then heir-apparent to the throne. The young prince 
 was sent to Darjiling to be under Hodgson's eye. The 
 friendly relations thus maintained by Hodgson with the 
 Nepalese Court bore good fruit during the Mutiny of 1857. 
 Hodgson accompanied his wife, when in ill-hcallh, to 
 Calcutta and availed himself of his personal intercourse 
 with Lord Canning to advocate the acceptance of a 
 Gurkha contingent from Nepal. The task was a some- 
 what delicate one. Hodgson knew well that any open
 
 256 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 action taken by him as a private person might give offence 
 to our Resident at Kathmandu. He also found a strong 
 feeling in Government House against trusting the Nepalesc 
 proffers of aid. " You praise these Gurkhas like your 
 husband," said Lady Canning to Mrs. Hodgson, " but I 
 can assure you that they are looked on here as being little 
 better than the rebels." 
 
 In May 1857 Jang Bahadur, on hearing of the outbreak 
 of the Mutiny, placed the whole' military resources of Nepal 
 at the disposal of the British Government. Lord Canning 
 after some hesitation accepted a contingent of 3,000 
 Gurkhas in June, but his acceptance was a half-hearted 
 one and left a feeling of disappointment on Jang Baha- 
 dur's mind. Some correspondence took place between 
 him and Hodgson, partly through the medium of his 
 son-in-law, the heir-apparent and Hodgson's late pupil 
 whom Jang Bahadur had charged Hodgson " to treat as 
 your own son." In the end Jang Bahadur arranged that 
 his son-in-law should meet Hodgson in Calcutta in the 
 autumn, when the Jang was determined to again press his 
 army and his personal service on the Governor-General. 
 Owing to new complications the meeting did not take 
 place, but Hodgson proceeded to Calcutta in October 
 1857 and urged on Lord Canning a frank acceptance of 
 Jang Bahadur's offer. 
 
 The friendship of the Chief Justice of Bengal, with 
 whom Hodgson was staying, afforded him frequent access 
 to the Governor-General and we get a pleasant glimpse 
 of more than one interview with Lady Canning. " Aunt 
 Caledon's ' friends, the Hodgsons, came to see me," Lady 
 Canning writes on November 4th, 1857. "^ ^vas de- 
 lighted with Mr. H. He is clever and amusing and very 
 quaint. He has the highest opinion of Gurkhas, and 
 considers thern the best soldiers in the world in all ways, 
 
 ' The Countess of Caledon, to whose family Mrs. Hodgson was 
 related.
 
 X.] THE DARJILING RECLUSE: 1845— 1858. 257 
 
 especially for discipline, provided no one interferes with 
 their domestic concerns." ' 
 
 " I urged," Hodgson wrote in one of his private papers, 
 " the great value, negative and positive, of the proffered 
 aid of Nepal for putting down the Mutiny. I said that I 
 was not unaware of the suspicions generally entertained 
 of the [Ncpalese] Darbar, but that I nevertheless felt 
 convinced, if the Jang were fairly trusted and put into the 
 hands of a representative of his Lordship having tact, 
 experience and a liking for the Gurkhas, good faith would 
 be kept with us, sonae useful military service done for us, 
 and above all in importance at such a moment, the 
 spectacle exhibited of the Hindu State pay excellence in 
 alliance and co-operation with us. 
 
 " I then pointed to the great ability of the Jang, as 
 demonstrated by that wonderful career which had made 
 him the virtual ruler of his country, and to the oppor- 
 tunities for rightly estimating our power which the Jang 
 had enjoyed during his visit to England. Such ability 
 concurring with such opportunity, I continued, could 
 hardly be at fault, and the exigencies of the Jang's position 
 must make a personal connection with us of value to him. 
 That, further, a man of the Jang's talents could not have 
 noted in vain the risks his country had run in times past 
 from collision with a Power which again and again he hail 
 seen rise superior to every difficulty. Lastly, I pointed 
 out to Lord Canning that Nepal most eagerly coveted 
 the restoration of the Western Tarai. Recent events had 
 placed it at our disposal ; and the prospect of the grant of 
 it to Nepal, while it might form a tie on the Jang, would 
 offer to us the means of most conveniently rewarding the 
 Darbar for faithful .service." ■ 
 
 Lord Canning, after a careful official incjuiry, accepted 
 this view. He gratified Hodgson by telling him that Ik- 
 
 ' Lady Canning's Journal, November 4tli, 1857 : quoted in Thr Story 
 of Two Noble IJves.hy Augustus J. C. Hare, Vol. II., p. 339. Ed. 1893. 
 - Hodgson Papers. 
 
 17
 
 258 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 had selected one of Hodgson's personal friends, Sir George 
 MacGregor, as the British officer to be attached to Jang 
 Bahadur during the joint military operations. Indeed Sir 
 George himself wrote to Hodgson that he believed not 
 only his own appointment but the whole scheme practically 
 resulted from Hodgson's insistence with Lord Canning. 
 A new arrangement* was come to with Jang Bahadur 
 under which he himself marched into our disaffected 
 territories with a force that ultimately formed a complete 
 little army of 17,000 men. The valuable work done by 
 that force under Jang Bahadur's leadership is recorded in 
 history." It suffices here to note that Lord Canning's 
 orders to Brigadier MacGregor to join Jang Bahadur's army, 
 as representative of the Government of India during the 
 joint operations, were dated December 4th, 1857, exactly 
 one month after Lady Canning's entiy in her journal. 
 
 The development of the Gurkha regiments in the British 
 service after the Mutiny, on the lines so long urged by 
 Hodgson, forms one of the most remarkable chapters in 
 the history of our Indian army. I have dwelt on the 
 earlier stages of that development in a previous chapter.^ 
 The old local battalions constructed out of the conquered 
 or disbanded Nepalesc troops after the war of 181 5 had 
 been embodied into three Gurkha regiments by Lord 
 Dalhousie in 1850. Hodgson's representations backed by 
 the opinions of Lord Canning's military advisers led to the 
 formation of the 4th Gurkha Regiment in 1857.* The 
 battalion which afterwards became the 5th Gurkha Regi- 
 ment was raised in the following year. Our whole Gurkha 
 
 ' Colonel Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny, pp. 321 et scq., 
 Vol. II. Ed. 1879. I thank Colonel Malleson for kind aid in this part 
 ot my work. 
 
 - Letter from the Right Honourable the Governor-General to 
 Colonel MacGregor, C.B., dated Calcutta, December 4th, 1857. 
 
 ^ Vide ante, pp. 106- no, etc. 
 
 * It appears from the Hodgson Papers that he was also in Calcutta 
 in June 1857, and it seems probable that he began at once to urge the 
 capabilities of the Gurkhas on Lord Canning.
 
 X.] THE DARJILING RECLUSE: 1845—1858. 259 
 
 force was rcor^^aniscci on a permanent regimental basis in 
 1861 as a result of the lesson learned in 1857. With 
 subsequent additions it now numbers fifteen regiments, 
 nearly 14,000 strong, of whom about 13,000 are Gurkhas 
 and the remainder hillmen from ncij^hbouring tribes.' 
 
 At the end of the chapter I shall give a note showing in 
 detail the growth of the Gurkha regiments in the army of 
 British India. Hodgson's idea, which he had urged in vain 
 in 1832,- and for which he obtained a partial acceptance 
 in 1850 and 1857, has borne abundant fruit. Throughout 
 the past quarter of a century wherever there has been hard 
 fighting to be done by our Indian trcjops, or wherever 
 honour could be earned, the Gurkha regiments have been to 
 the front, conspicuous for their gallantry and light-hearted 
 endurance of the perils and privations (jf the campaign. 
 
 During his last years in Bengal Hodgson had the pleasure 
 of seeing the practical realisation of another of his cherished 
 schemes. In 1S54-55 the views which he had long advo- 
 cated in regard to vernacular education were adopted as 
 the basis of public instruction in India. Unfortunately 
 in 1857 his wife's health gave wa\', and she had to leave 
 for Europe. As the doctors could hold out no ho{)e of her 
 ever again being able to bear the climate, Hodgson gave 
 up iiis life's work at Darjiling and returned to England 
 for good and all in the summer "f 1858. 
 
 Note on the Growth of the Gurkha Recimknts 
 
 IN THE BkITISH-INDIAN ARMY.' 
 
 1ST Gurkha Regimknt. — The Nusserec Battalion was raised 011 
 April 24th, 1815, and was in iS^o designated tlie 66lh Gurkha Regiment 
 of Bengal Liglit Infantry, taking the place of the (>6tli Bengal Infantr\', 
 
 ' A return kindly supplied to me by General Sir Oliver Ncwmarch, 
 K.C.S.I., Military Secretary at the India Oflice, gives the exact total 
 of the Gurkha regiments at 13,734 in February 1895. 
 
 * Vidf ante, p. icx;. 
 
 ' From information furnished by the Military Department in the 
 India Office, 1895.
 
 26o 
 
 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. 
 
 [chap. X. 
 
 whicli was disbanded for mutiny. This became the ist Gurkha 
 Regiment in 1861, and a 2nd Battalion was added in 1886. A new 
 Nusseree Battalion was formed in 1850, and disbanded on the reduction 
 of the army in 1861. 
 
 2ND Gurkha Regiment. — The Sirmoor Rifle Regiment was raised 
 on April 24th, 181 5, and was made a Gurkha regiment in 1850. It was 
 called the 2nd Gurkha Regiment in 1861, and a 2nd Battalion was 
 added in 1886. 
 
 3RD Gurkha Regiment. — The Kemaoon Regiment, which was raised 
 on April 24th, 1815, was reserved for Gurkhas in 1850. It was desig- 
 nated the 3rd Gurkha Regiment in 1861, and a 2nd Battalion was added 
 in 1887. 
 
 4TH Gurkha Regiment. — This regiment was raised in 1857. It 
 became the 4th Gurkha Regiment in 1861, and a 2nd Battalion was 
 added in 1886. 
 
 5TH Gurkha Regiment. — The Huzara Gurkha Battalion was raised 
 in 1858, and was designated the 5th Gurkha Regiment in 1861. A 
 2nd Battalion was added in 1886. These two battalions of the 5th 
 Gurkhas belong to the Punjab Frontier Force. 
 
 In addition to these there are the three Assam Corps, now called the 
 42nd, 43rd, and 44th Gurkha (Rifle) Regiments of Bengal Infantry, the 
 9th Gurkha (Rifle) Regiment of Bengal Infantr)', and the 39th (The 
 Garhwal Rifle) Regiment of Bengal Infantry, altogether fifteen regi- 
 ments of Gurkhas and hillmen. 
 
 In round numbers nearly 14,000 men, each regiment being 912 strong.
 
 [ 26. ] 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 
 
 HODGSON'S contributions to scholarship were of 
 three kinds. lie was the largest and most muni- 
 ficent collector of manuscripts, ancient texts, and vernacular 
 tracts that ever went to India.' He was also an erudite 
 student of the new materials which he thus collected, nor 
 did the originality of his conclusions less impress his 
 contemporaries than the stores of buried learning which 
 he brought to light. Having gathered together his data 
 and used them so far as his hard-earned leisure allowed, 
 he handed them over to the learned Societies of India and 
 Europe in tru.st for scholars who could bring to their 
 investigation the final processes of modern research. His 
 magnificent liberality enriched not only the British 
 Museum, the India Office Library, and the Asiatic 
 Societies in Great Britain and in India, but also the 
 Institute of France and the Societc' Asiatique de Paris 
 with treasures which have not even yet been completely 
 explored. 
 
 Hodgson had a passion for collecting. By rare good 
 fortune he found himself set down in a part of Asia 
 isolated from European scholarship and as a ficUl for 
 the collector absolutely untouched. \\ ithin a few months 
 of his definite return to Nepal in 1824 a stream of 
 manuscripts, specimens, and antiquarian curios of many 
 
 ' Catalogue' 0/ the liuddhist Sanskrit AfSS. in the Unrvrrsity Uhrary, 
 Catn/>rid<^f (Eel. 1S83), Preface, p. vii, byMr. Cecil Bendall. .MA .whom 
 I have to thank lur much kind aid.
 
 262 LIFK OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 sorts began to flow into the Asiatic Society in Calcutta 
 fronn the \oung Assistant Resident at Kathmandu. 
 
 Hodgson had. however, not only a virgin field as a 
 collector ; he also appeared on the scene at the precise 
 moment when a collector in that field obtained for the 
 first time the facilities which made it possible for others 
 to use his collections. In the very year that Hodgson 
 returned to Nepal, Dr. Carey was preparing his Grammar 
 and Dictionary of the Tibetan Language — the language 
 of the suzerain power of Nepal and the one great language 
 of culture in Central A.sia. Hodgson saw his opportunity) 
 and in December 1824 he submitted a memorandum to 
 the Bengal Asiatic Society setting forth the prospects of 
 new discovery thus opened up. It is a remarkable pro- 
 duction for a young enthusiast in his twenty-fourth year.^ 
 
 " The stores of Tibetan literature need no longer remain 
 a sealed fountain to us for want of a knowledge of the 
 language in which they are recorded. All therefore that 
 remains to be done is to procure these works, and to this 
 object I will cheerfully address myself It must be satis- 
 factory to scholars to learn that in acquiring this new 
 instrument [the Tibetan language] they will not meet with 
 any great difficult>^ For although the vernacular tongue of 
 Tibet may be radically distinct from Sanskrit, its learned 
 language certainly bears the closest affinity (sic)." He then 
 refers to the collection of over sixty manuscripts and texts 
 which he is despatching to the Society, and hopes they " will 
 be found as intrinsically valuable as they are bulky. I pro- 
 cured them from the archives of [the Buddhist monastery 
 of] Svayambhu-nath, and from the poor traffickers and 
 
 ' Memorandum by B. H. Hodgson, dated December 5th, 1824. 
 Space compels me to condense. I am only able to give extracts, and 
 I change the word " Bliotiya " to its modern equivalent " Tibetan." — 
 MS. Records of the Bengal Asiatic Society. I take this opportunity to 
 express my obligations to Sir Charles Elliott, K.C.S.I., as President of 
 the Society, and to Mr. C. R. Wilson as its Secretary (1894), for their 
 generous response to my numerous applications for materials preserved 
 in the Society's manuscript archives.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 263 
 
 monks who annu.illy vi-it Nepal. Many of the works 
 arc mere fra;4mciits, and partialU' destroyed by time 
 or dirt — popular tracts suited to the capacity and wants 
 of the humbler classes of .socict)', amonj^ whom they 
 were found by me not without frequent surprise that 
 literature of any kind should be so common in such a 
 region as Tibet ; and that it should be so widely diffused 
 as to reach persons covered with filth and posses.sed of 
 not one of those thousand luxuries which, at least in our 
 ideas, go before the great iuxur)- of books. 
 
 " Printini^ is probably the chief cause of this great 
 diffusion of books [in Tibet], nor can I account for it unless 
 by supposing that the hordes of priests, secular and 
 regular, with which the country swarms have been driven 
 by the tedium of their life to these admirable uses of their 
 time. The invention of printing the Tibetans no doubt 
 got from China. But the universal use they make of it 
 is a merit of their own. The poorest fellow who visits 
 this valley is seldom without his religious tract,' and from 
 every part of his dress dangle charms - made up in slight 
 cases whose interior exhibits the neatest workmanship in 
 print." 
 
 Referring to the abundance of manuscripts, specimens 
 of which he then forwarded, Hodgson comments on the 
 universal use of writing in Tibet as scarcely less remarkable 
 than the wide diffusion of printed books. These manu- 
 scripts he had obtained " from the humblest individuals" ; 
 " their numbers and variety " are worthy of note. " The 
 printing of Tibet is performed by wooden block presses, 
 \\hich however are often beautifully engraved. Their 
 writing exhibits fine specimens of very graceful penman- 
 ship." 
 
 In this vast unexplored field Hodgson found treiisure- 
 
 ' I'oti in the origiii.il. 
 
 ' Mantras, given as jantras in my ropy of Hodgson's MS. memor- 
 andum. This memorandum was partly utilised in Hodgson's Essay 
 ot" 1828 ; p. 35, etc., of Trilbncr's reprint of 1S74.
 
 264 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 troves on every side. He only regretted the inadequacy 
 of his private means to the task before him. " Nepal," 
 he wrote privately,' " has many old valuables going fast 
 to oblivion, and Tibet probably has many more. But 
 these things are very expensive. What I have already 
 sent have cost mc sundry rupees too numerous to be 
 mentioned — yet given most cheerfully.'- I saw the other 
 day a house full of manuscripts, hardly one legible, and 
 the instance I am told is not a solitary one in this valley. 
 Do look at the first five numbers on my list. That is, look 
 at the great work so indicated, and tell mc if in so large 
 a body some soul of Tibetan literature must not needs 
 be found." 
 
 The task to which Hodgson thus devoted himself as a 
 young man, he steadily carried out during his whole 
 Indian career. "He collected," says Burnouf, "a larger 
 body of original documents on Buddhism than had up to 
 that time been ever gathered together either in Asia or in 
 Europe." ^ Yet Burnouf had examined not a sixth part 
 of the enormous mass of materials with which Hodgson 
 endowed the libraries of Europe and India, when death 
 cut short the French scholar's design of completely ex- 
 ploring the Hodgson manuscripts as the basis of a 
 monumental work on Northern Buddhism. Fifteen years 
 ago I printed catalogues of 399 Sanskrit manuscripts * 
 and Buddhist works thus presented by Hodgson. It is 
 .scarcely too much to .say that, with the exception of 
 
 ' Letter to Mr. Bayley, dated Kathmandu, December 5th, 1824. 
 
 ^ Hodgson's successor in the collection of MSS.in Nepal, Dr. Wright, 
 offered as much as ^150 for an MS. of the Mahavastu, and failed to 
 get it. — Mr. Cecil Bendall in the Abhandlun^ dcs FUnftcn Inter- 
 nationalen Orictitalistcn Congresses gehalten zu Berlin im September, 
 1881, p. 201. 
 
 ^ Introduction a I'llisioire du Buddhisme Itidie7i, par E. Burnouf 
 (quarto, Paris, 1844; 2nd Ed. 1876), p. i. 
 
 * Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts Collected in Nepal by Brian 
 Houghton Hodgson, Esq., F.R.S. Compiled by Sir William Hunter, 
 K.C.S.I., LL.D. Triibner, 1881.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHui.AK. 265 
 
 Mr. Bcndall's researches into the Sanskrit MS. texts at 
 Cambridj^c, and Prof, Ninacr's contributions, almost all 
 the oriijinal work among northern liuddhist manuscripts in 
 France, Great Britain, and India has during the past half- 
 century been based upon materials collected by Hodgson. 
 
 Some of these manuscripts are of extreme age. The 
 dry climate of Nepal is admirably adapted for the preser- 
 vation of documents. Its isolated position saved it from 
 the havoc of the Musalman invasions, amid which so many 
 of the literary treasures of ancient India perished. The 
 very early use of paper in Tibet supplied an alternative 
 .substance more enduring than the brittle palm-leaves 
 employed for the purpose in India, and to some extent 
 also in Nepal.* Even the decline of learning in Nepal 
 tended to conserve the memorials of its ancient scholarship. 
 Many of the old Nepalcsc manuscripts survivetl for 
 centuries forgotten and unrtad. In certain of them, dating 
 as far back as the eleventh ccntur\', the powder-chalk is as 
 fresh as when it was put in by the scribe to keep the 
 leaves from sticking. But if not read, these old manu- 
 scripts were guarded in their wrappings of fine silk as 
 sacred heirlooms, " with all the superstitious care that an 
 ignorant people can sometimes give to the monuments of 
 an unknown learning."* 
 
 The Ncpalesc annals of the twelfth century A.I>. relate 
 how, when a village was in flames, a Brahman widow fled 
 from her burning house with only her infant son, a little 
 model of her Buddhist shrine, and a holy text written in 
 letters of gold in her arms. It was to this same twelfth 
 century that the oldest manu.script sent by Hodgson to 
 
 • As an example of IIocIrsoii's minute iiuiuiries into cverythinj; con- 
 nerted with the pahroKra|)hy and manuscripl.s of Nepal, see his curious 
 note written in 1831 " C)n the Native Method of making the Paper 
 denominated in Hindustan, Nepalcsc." Reprinted, with a post- 
 script by Dr. Campbell, in Hodgson's Kssays (TrUbncr, 1880), Vol. II.. 
 pp. 251-254. 
 
 ' Mr. C'ecil HendaU's paper in the Al'hantHiim; dfs Fiinften Inter- 
 nalionaUn OrU-tttalisUn Cotij^resscs (18S1), p. uifo. Hcrlin, ivSSj.
 
 266 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 England belongs.* It holds a place of honour among the 
 treasures of the Royal Asiatic Society in London and 
 bears a date corresponding to 1165 A.D. A somewhat 
 older manuscript of 1141 A.D. was forwarded by Hodgson 
 to the Societc Asiatique de Paris, and he presented one 
 still more ancient to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, dated 
 1 07 1 A.D.- 
 
 The results arrived at by Hodgson from his personal 
 study of the materials which he collected form the subject 
 of the concluding part of this chapter. Those results 
 amounted to a new revelation to the Western world of 
 scholarship, and earned for Hodgson the title given to him 
 by Eugene Burnouf as " The Founder of the true study of 
 Buddhism on the basis of the texts and original remains." 
 After himself investigating his materials, Hodgson at once 
 distributed them among the great Oriental Societies for 
 the use of other scholars. This distribution will be detailed 
 in Appendix A. A very brief summary must here 
 suffice, and I fear that even the briefest summary may 
 tax the patience of readers not specially interested in the 
 subject. 
 
 Hodgson selected six famous libraries as the depositories 
 of his Buddhist texts. To the Asiatic Society of Bengal 
 in Calcutta he presented, from 1824 onwards, 94 Sanskrit 
 Buddhist manuscripts ; to the College of Fort William, 66 ; 
 to the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 79 ; to the India 
 Office Library, London, 30 ; and to the Bodleian Library, 
 Oxford, 7. Having thus placed at the disposal of J^ritish 
 scholars a munificent endowment of manuscripts, he en- 
 riched French Orientalists with a scarcely less splendid 
 donation of 147 — transmitted to Burnouf and the Societe 
 
 • The Ashtasaliasrika Prajnaparaniita, No. i in my List of 1881. 
 
 * I make tliis statement on the authority of a letter from Mr. Cecil 
 Bendall to me, dated December i6th, 1895. Mr. Bendall noted on this 
 manuscript when passing through Calcutta. It is tlie Prajnaparamita 
 Ashtasahasrika, No. A 1 5 of Rajendra Lala Mitra's catalogue, where, by 
 an obvious error in converting the dates, it is dated 1231 a.d.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 267 
 
 Asiatiquc de Paris.' Each one of these six collections, with 
 the exception of the small one presented to Oxford, suffices 
 for an encyclop.x'dic treatment of Northern Buddhism. 
 The collection in the Bengal Asiatic Society at Calcutta 
 supplied the materials for Dr. Rajcndra Lala Mitra's 
 monumental work on The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature 
 of Nepal"^ — perhaps the hiijhest achievement of Hindu 
 scholarship in this century. That in the Royal Asiatic 
 Society's Library, London, has been catalogued by two 
 of the most eminent Sanskritists of our day — Professor 
 Cowell of Cambridge and Professor Eggcling of Kdinburgh."' 
 The Hodgson manuscripts at the India Office. London, 
 and in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, are enumerated in 
 the lists of my Appendix A. 
 
 The 147 manuscripts which Hodgson sent to Paris had 
 a more distinguished destiny. They at once attracted 
 the attention of the brilliant orientalist Eugene Burnouf. 
 To France belongs the glory of having founded the first 
 professorial chair for Sanskrit in P^uropc, and to Burnouf 
 the honour of first placing the study of Buddhism on a 
 scientific Western basis. This he accomplished from 
 the materials supplied by Hodgson. His great work 
 on the History of Buddhism was, as he tells us, con- 
 structed from the manuscripts presented by Hodgson to 
 the Paris Asiatic Society in 1S37. Not onl)- in that 
 
 ' Some of them were copied by Hodgson's pandits at the expense 
 of the Soci6t6 Asiatique de Paris. — Burnouf. InlrodMCtion a P llistoirc 
 du Budd/iismc, p. 4. Ed. 1876. 
 
 » Published by tlic Asiatic Society of Bengal, large 8vo. 1882. 
 Rajendra also publislied the Lalita-Vistara and the Ashtasahasrika 
 Prajna-paramita from the MS.S. presented by Hodgson to the liengal 
 Asiatic Society. In regard to another copy of the Lalita-Vistara 
 MS. sent by Hodgson to Paris, M. Burnouf wrote: "Ce beau 
 manuscrit, qui a etd- i-crit avec le dcvanagari du Nepal. m"a *t6 
 envoy6 dc Kathmandu par M. Hodgson en Avril 1836.'" Sec also 
 Rajendra Lala Mitras Descriptivf Catalogue of Sansknt AfSS. in the 
 Librarj- of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Part L Calcutta, l!i77- 
 
 ' Vol. VUL of \.\\c Journal of the Royal Asiatic Socif/v. New Scries. 
 1876.
 
 268 LIFE OV HRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 work,' but also in his final one, l^urnouf acknowledged 
 Hodgson as the original discoverer of the materials out of 
 which his genius reared so splendid a structure. Burnouf's 
 letters attest his personal admiration for the solitary scholar 
 in Nepal, and he addresses Hodgson as his " illustrious 
 friend." ' He gave the impulse to that enthusiasm for 
 Hodgson among Continental savants which induced the 
 French King to send the Legion of Honour to the Hima- 
 layan recluse, the Institut de France to appoint him a 
 Corresponding Member, and the Soci(jte Asiatique de Paris 
 to commemorate his services by a gold medal. The 
 crowning work of liurnouf's life, published after his death 
 and forming as it were his literary testament, bears the 
 following dedication : " A Monsieur Brian Houghton Hodg- 
 son, membre du service civil de la Compagnie des Indes, 
 comme au fondateur de la veritable etude du 13uddhisme 
 par les textes et Ics monuments."^ 
 
 The six collections of the Hodgson manuscripts referred 
 to in preceding pages have all been catalogued, and each 
 of them has to a larger or smaller extent been utilised. 
 But, besides these, Hodgson presented two collections to 
 France and England which yet await the scrutiny of the 
 European scholar. In 1858 he sent a mass of Sanskrit 
 manuscripts and Buddhist drawings to the Institute of 
 France, in whose library they now repose. In 1864 he 
 presented to the Secretary of State for India another 
 large collection of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Persian, and 
 Newari. The distinguished scholar who was then Librarian 
 to the India Office recorded the collection to be of 
 " eminent importance, if only [as] embracing materials 
 
 ' Introduction a I' Histoirc du nudd/iis>nc ludicn (Psivis, 1844; 2nd Ed. 
 1876), pp. I, 5, etc. See also A. Weber in the Litcrarischcs Ccntral- 
 blatt^ No. 17, April 24tli, 1875. 
 
 - Choix de Lettrcs d'Eugcnc BiirnouJ, 1825 — 1852, No. CLXI., 
 pp. 441, 444. Paris, 1 89 1. 
 
 ^ Dedication of Le I^tus dc la Bontic Loi (quarto, Paris, 1852), being 
 a translation of the MS. of the Saddharma-pundarika, presented by 
 Hodgson (No. 27 in my published list of the Hodgson MSS.) to Burnouf.
 
 XI.] HODCSON AS A SrU()l,Als 269 
 
 from which fcjr the first time the histor)-. political, religious, 
 and linguistic, of Nepal might be digested by a com- 
 petent scholar." ' This statement I can personally confirm, 
 as I examined the collection while on sick-leave from 
 India in 1867.- They originally filled three trunks, and 
 have not yet been completely utilised." I give a list of 
 their contents in Appendix H, in the hope that .some 
 competent student will undertake the task. 
 
 The collections heretofore dealt with consist of manu- 
 scripts in the San.skrit language.* Hodgson, however, 
 rendered a service of scarcely less importance to European 
 scholarship by his collections of the Tibetan classics. 
 These classics arc embodied in two vast encyclopardias of 
 sacred learning and philosophy aggregating 345 or 367 
 volumes, known as the Kahgyur and Stangyur. The\' are 
 Tibetan versions of Sanskrit texts, printed fr(jm wooden 
 blocks after the Chinese manner. The KahgNur forms an 
 encyclopa;dia of 123 volumes, containing the doctrine and 
 moral precepts of Huddha as arranged b}' his chief disciples 
 after his death.' The Stangyur is a still vaster collection 
 of 224 volumes aggregating 76409 leaves, each about 
 two feet long." It forms a cycle of Tibetan learning, 
 
 ' Report by tlie Librarian, Dr. FitzEdward Hall, to the Sccretar>- of 
 State for India, dated August 9th, 1864. 
 
 * When collecting the materials for my Comptv\itivt' Dutionan' of 
 the LMtti^uai^es of India ami Hii^h Asia, based on the Hodgson MSS. 
 (Trilbnrr, cjuarto, 186S) — a work for whicli my opportunities and my 
 knowledge were then inadequate. 
 
 ' This collection is now preser\'ed at the India Oftice Library in 
 wooden boxes and brown-paper parcels. Professor Somers borroweti 
 a packet in 1870; Dr. Burgess borrowed anotlier in 1877, and the 
 catalogue in 1882; Professor n<'noldi borrowed two parcels in 1882. 
 But tile Librarian writes to me, December iSth, iS<)5, that these M.SS. 
 " have not been really worked up." 
 
 * K.xccpting the miscellaneous papers in tlie three trunks presentci. 
 to the India Oftice, and the Buddhist drawings presented to the 
 Institute of France. 
 
 * Its " three Repositories "correspond to the so-called Buddhist Tripi- 
 tika of China and Japan, although differing in arrangement .ind contents. 
 
 ' Life of AlexiituU-r Csottui de KOrOs, by Theodore Duka, M.D. (Trtib-
 
 2/0 LIFE OF l^KIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 apparently the joint compilation of Indian pandits and 
 Chinese or Tibetan literati, and includes commentaries 
 on the Kahgyur, with ori'^inal treatises on religious rites, 
 ceremonies, philosophy, arts, and sciences. 
 
 Hodgson obtained two sets of these encyclopaedias of 
 Tibetan literature. The first set he transmitted to the 
 College of Fort William, whence it passed in 1829 to the 
 Bengal Asiatic Society, of whose library it still forms a 
 chief ornament.* Whether this first set was altogether a 
 gift from Hodgson, or paid for in part, I am unable to deter- 
 mine." The second set was presented to Hodgson about 
 nine years later by the Grand Lama of Tibet himself, as 
 the highest possible mark of honour to a learned foreigner 
 — an iionour unprecedented in the annals of Tibet. It was 
 a costly work, first printed in 1731 from blocks still used 
 at a famous Buddhist monastery of Central Asia.^ The 
 Russian Government lately paid £2,000 for a copy of one 
 half the series. Hodgson with his usual munificence pre- 
 sented this set to the Court of Directors in 1838. It forms 
 345 magnificent folios which bear his name in the India 
 Office Library, part of them still in their curious Tibetan 
 wrappers, the remainder bound in calf and morocco. 
 They arc unique in Europe. Seven years later Hodgson 
 endowed the British Museum, in 1845, with the Tibetan 
 
 ner, 1885), p. 49; letter from Csoma de Koros, dated May 25th, 1825. 
 I take this opportunity of expressing my many obligations to 
 Dr. Duka in regard to Hodgson's Tibetan researches. The Stangyur 
 (which I have personally examined) makes 222 volumes in the India 
 Office set. 
 
 ' The present Secretary to the Bengal Asiatic Society (Mr. C. R 
 Wilson), in forwarding to me copies of the correspondence of July 
 1829, adds: "It shows that the Kahgyur MSS. were presented by 
 Hodgson to the College of Fort William, and hence were transferred 
 to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1 have tried to find out when 
 Hodgson presented the MSS. to Fort William College, but hitherto 
 without result." 
 
 ^ Rajendra Lala Mitra, who examined the Hodgson collection in 
 Calcutta, merely says : " The first set is now preserved in the library 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal." ^ Near Tashilumpo.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAK. 271 
 
 translation of the rrajna-paramita — a vast work in five 
 volumes and 100,000 vcrst\s.' The enormous extent of 
 these Tibetan collections may be realised from Burnoufs 
 statement that while Hodijson sent between 1824 and 1829 
 fifty volumes of Sanskrit to the Calcutta Asiatic Society, 
 he sent four times as many in Tibetan. 
 
 The materials which Hodgson thus accumulated he 
 utilised by a process of his own. His methods were by 
 no means rapid ones. " Soon after my arrival in Nepal 
 (1821)," he wrote, " I bc,i:jan to devise means of procuring 
 some accurate information relative to Buddhism."' At 
 first he met with serious difficulties, " arising out of the 
 jealousy of the people in regard to any profanation of their 
 sacred things by a European. I nevertheless persevered." 
 With the aid of a venerable pandit he obtained a list of 
 Buddhist sacred texts hidden away in the monasteries of 
 Nepal. Having won the old man's confidence, he persuaded 
 him to gradually procure copies of the most important of 
 the manuscripts. He then drew up a series uf (}uestioiis 
 on the religion and philosophy of Buddhism as actually 
 existing in Nepal. The answers which he (jbt;uned he 
 tested from the original manuscripts, with a result generally 
 confirmative, but not always satisfactory in respect to th*. 
 relative age and authority of the texts cited. " Thus one 
 step led tf) another, until I conceived the idea of drawing 
 up, with the aid of my old friend and his books, a sketch " 
 of " Buddhism." 
 
 " When, however, I conceivetl that design, lie says vcr>' 
 simply, " I little suspected where it would lead me. I 
 began ere long to feel m\' want <<( languages, and to 
 confess the truth of patience, and almost looked back with 
 a sigh to the tolerably full and accurate account of 
 
 ' CorrrspoiuliuR to the Sanskrit MS. I'rajiia-paraniita, .*<jita-sah;is- 
 rika, presented by Modgson to the* Asiatic Society ol Hcngal , No. 53 
 in my publislwd List of Ou llod^^son Sanskrit MSS. (1881). 
 
 ' Essays on tht Ijin^ua^fSy /JtrriUurf, and RfUgion of NfP<tI ami 
 Tibet, by B. H. Ho<lgson, Ks<|. (Trflbncrs reprint of 1874), p. 35.
 
 272 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Buddhism which I had obtained so long ago, and with 
 Httle comparative labour, from my old friend's answers to 
 my queries." ^ 
 
 His materials accumulated so as almost to threaten to 
 bury him under their mass. Hodgson found himself a sort 
 of literary Crusoe who in his solitude had built a ship 
 beyond his powers to launch. Many years of severe labour 
 elapsed before he produced his preliminary sketch, and the 
 process of development went on during a period of nearly 
 thirty years." His first articles on Buddhism were con- 
 tributed to the Bengal Asiatic Society in the years preceding 
 1828, and appeared in the Asiatic Researches and Transac- 
 tions of the Royal Asiatic Society in that year. They were 
 supplemented by numerous communications, and embodied 
 as a whole in 1841 in his Illustration of the Literature and 
 Religion of the Buddhists!' Reprinted in 1870,* they were 
 finally issued as the opening section of Hodgson's first set 
 of Collected Essays in 1 874."^ 
 
 Of so vast a mass of original work the very slightest 
 sketch must here suffice. To render even that sketch 
 bearable to the general reader I shall deal with Hodgson's 
 views as finally condensed in the volume of 1874. 
 Hodgson frankly admitted that it would be impossible 
 for him to digest the mountains of manuscripts which he 
 had collected." Such a task was beyond the reach of any 
 one man or any dozen men. What he could do was to 
 clearly present to European scholars the living Buddhism 
 which he saw around him in Nepal, together with a com- 
 prehensive review of the materials for studying its transi- 
 tion stages from the ancient Buddhism of India. 
 
 ' Hodgson's Essays, ut supra, 1874, p. 36 (originally printed 1828). 
 
 * Preface to Essays, ut supra, p. v (1874). 
 
 ^ Printed at the Serampur Press, near Calcutta, 1841. 
 
 * By Professor J. Summers in the Phoenix, a monthly magazine for 
 subjects connected with China, Japan, and Eastern Asia, started in 
 July 1870. 
 
 * They form pp. i to 145 of the volume of Hodgson's Essays 
 reprinted by Triibner in 1874. ^ Idem., pp. 13, 22, etc.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 273 
 
 Starting with an account of the spoken dialects of Nepal 
 and passing thence to its Uterature, he gives an elaborate 
 account of the Buddhist texts both in the Sanskrit and 
 in the Tibetan languages. A masterly disquisition follows 
 on the practical and speculative aspects of Buddhism in 
 Tibet. He discloses the existence of four distinct systems 
 of opinion respecting the origin of the world, the nature of 
 a first cause, and the nature and destiny of the soul. I"2ach 
 of these systems he examines in detail, glancing also at 
 their subdivisions and at the various reconciling theories 
 put forth by later Buddhist teachers. He shows how these 
 four schools develop the various hypotheses, materialistic 
 and immaterial, of the origin of God, the universe, and 
 man. 
 
 "In regard to the destiny of the soul," he writes, " I can 
 find no essential difference of opinion between the Buddhist 
 and the Brahmanical sages. By all, metempsychosis and 
 absorption are accepted. But absorbed into what ? Into 
 Brahma, say the Brahmans ; into " diver.se psychical states 
 ranging from divinity to nothingness, " say the various sects 
 of the Buddhists." ' Hodgson arrived at his materials for 
 this part of his work by a prolonged process of inquiry 
 from learned Brahmans and Buddhist priests. He had the 
 good fortune to attract the friendship of the greatest pandit 
 in Nepal — a friendship which grew into a reverential 
 affection on both sides. 
 
 This erudite Buddhist, Amrita Nanda by name, was 
 himself the author of several treatises in Sanskrit and of 
 one in the Ncpalcsc dialect.' He presented the highest 
 type of the ancient native scholar, courteous, dignified, a well 
 of learning, and with a memory so capacious and so perfectly 
 trained as almost to do away with the need of manuscripts. 
 The questions which Hodgson put to him, and 1 lodg.son's 
 commentaries on his replies, opened U[) unknown regions 
 
 ' Hodgson's Essays, p. 26 ( 1874). 
 
 - Newari. Sec preface to the Buddha-Carita of Asvaghoslia, by 
 Professor E. B. Cowell, p. .\i. Clarendon Press, 1894. 
 
 18
 
 274 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 of research to the Western world. " Mow and when was 
 the world created ? What was the origin of mankind ? Is 
 matter an independent existence or derived from God ? 
 What arc the attributes of God ? Who is Buddha ? is 
 he God or the Creator or a Prophet or Saint? born of 
 heaven or of a woman ? Did God ever submit to incarna- 
 tion or make a descent to earth ? What is the cause of 
 good and evil ? What is the motive for your acts — the 
 love of God, the fear of God, or the desire of prospering in 
 the world ? " These are a few of the comprehensive 
 questions by which Hodgson laid bare the Buddhist expla- 
 nations of the great problems of divine and human 
 existence, and of the ways of God to man. 
 
 In the Eastern systems religion forms a department of 
 philosophy, and Hodgson's dissertation merges insensibly 
 from the religious into the philosophic aspects of Buddhism. 
 " Buddhist Philosophy," indeed, is the heading of by far 
 the larger portion of his earliest work.* But the specula- 
 tions are so abstruse, and involve a terminology so novel 
 to Engli.sh readers, as to render them unsusceptible of 
 popular treatment. Hodgson's account of the philosophic 
 schools of Buddhism and their many subdivisions, of 
 the attributes assigned by them to the Deity and semi- 
 divine beings, his elaborate enumeration of the objects 
 of Buddha worship, and his realistic exposition of the 
 Buddhist religious orders, form a monument of patient 
 research. 
 
 Scarcely less interesting, although not always so search- 
 ing, are the side-lights which he throws on many collateral 
 questions, such as the comparative antiquity of Northern 
 and Southern Buddhism, the dialect in which they were 
 originally preached, the literary languages in which their 
 doctrines were first embodied, and the curious develop- 
 ments of Buddhist ritual which he discovered in Sivaite 
 worship. Space constrains me to restrict my comments 
 to a single one of them, his " Disputation respecting 
 ' From pp. 45 to 145, Essays (1874 reprint).
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR 275 
 
 Caste." ' It consists of a keenly argumentative attack by a 
 Buddhi.st on the cardinal caste-doctrine of the Hrahmans, 
 and derives pun<^ency from the fact that it .i.ssumes the truth 
 of their sacred texts, and derives its weapons exclusively 
 from them. Hodgson's private pandit, a Benares Brah- 
 man,* who was associated with him in copying the original 
 tract, .soon broke away from tiic task, " full of indignation 
 at the author and his work." With a cruel subtilty the 
 Buddhist inquirer analyses all the possible causes of 
 Brahmanhood, and proves each in turn to be untenable. 
 The conclusion is skilfully conveyed in the answer given 
 by a Vedic sage of the highest authority to the question, 
 " Whom do you call a Brahman, and what are the signs 
 of Brahmanhood ? " The reply is worth reproducing, for 
 although Hodgson translated it half a century ago, the 
 basis of morality underlying the whole Hindu system of 
 caste is still imperfectly recognised by European, and espe- 
 cially by missionary, critics of Brahmanism. 
 
 " The first sign of a Brahman," replied the Vedic sage,^ 
 " is that he possesses long-suffering and the rest of the 
 virtues, and never is guilty of violence and wrong-doing ; 
 that he never eats flesh, and never hurts a sentient thing. 
 The second sign is, that he never takes that which belongs 
 to another without the owner's consent, even though he 
 find it on the road. The third sign, that he masters all 
 worldly affections and desires, and is ab.solutely indifferent 
 to earthly considerations. The fourth, that whether he is 
 born a man, or a god, or a beast, he never yields to sexual 
 desires. The fifth, that he possesses the following five 
 
 ' Hodgson's Essays, pp. 126-133 (1874 reprint). 
 
 » To be carefully distinRuishcd from the great Nepalcse pandit 
 Amrita Nanda who brought to Hodgson the Buddhist treatise on 
 Hindu raste in (juestioii. 
 
 * Vaisampayana, the original teaciicr or giver forth of the Black 
 Yajur-Veda, and also, according to Hindu tradition, of the Hari-\'ansa. 
 He was a pupil of the great " Vyasa," the mythical " arranger" of the 
 Mahabharata — or perhaps of the equally mythical " Vyasa " of the 
 Vedas.
 
 276 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 pure qualities : truth, mercy, command of the senses, 
 universal benevolence, and penance. 
 
 " Whoever possesses these five signs of Brahmanhood 
 I acknowledge to be a Brahman ; and, if he possess them 
 not, he is a low caste. Brahmanhood depends not on 
 race or birth, nor on the performance of certain ceremonies. 
 If a man of low caste is virtuous, and possesses the signs 
 above noted, he is a Brahman. Formerly, in this world 
 of ours there was but one caste. The division into four 
 castes originated with diversity of rites and of avocations. 
 ... If a low caste be superior to the allurements of the 
 five senses, to give him charity is a virtue that will be 
 rewarded in heaven. Heed not his caste ; but only mark 
 his qualities." ^ Thus said the Brahman sage. 
 
 The publication of Hodgson's first essays produced an 
 extraordinary sensation in Europe. They came at a time 
 when scholars had grown tired of polite speculations about 
 Buddhism, and wanted to know what it really was. 
 Burnouf hailed Hodgson's contribution of 1828 to the 
 Bengal Asiatic Society s Journal as "full of entirely new 
 ideas on the languages, literature, and religion of the 
 Buddhists of Nepal and Tibet. This first essay already 
 contained an exposition of the various philosophical schools 
 of the Buddhism of that country which has never since then 
 been surpassed or even equalled." - It " brought to light, 
 among other important discoveries, the capital fact hitherto 
 unknown that there existed large collections of Sanskrit 
 manuscripts in the monasteries of Nepal," " the existence 
 of which had never even been suspected before." With 
 regard to the contribution of 1828 to the Royal Asiatic 
 Society of Great Britain, Burnouf speaks in the warmest 
 terms of the " disinterested zeal and perseverance " of the 
 
 ' Essays on the Languages, Literature, and Rcligi07i of Nepal and 
 Tide t, hy B. H. Hodgson, pp. 132-3. Reprint : Tnibner, 1874. I have 
 put Sanskrit terms into their English equivalents. 
 
 ^ Introduction a I'Histoire du Bnddhisttie Indie^i (1876 Ed.), pp. 2, 3, 
 from which also the following quotations are taken.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 2/7 
 
 author, and emphasises the new departure accomplished by 
 his labours. Burnouf lays stress on Hodgson's discovery 
 that the ancient Sanskrit scribes appended to their copies 
 of manuscripts a list of the sacred books known to them. 
 This discovery Hodgson utilised with admirable effect for 
 collecting the whole cycle of the l^uddhist texts in Nepal. 
 " You have laid out in a manner equally courageous and 
 complete," Burnouf wrote privately to Hodgson, " the 
 ground-plan of the edifice of Buddhism." ' The Asiatic 
 Society of Paris set its official stamp on the value of 
 Hodgson's first essays by conferring on him the rare dis- 
 tinction of its honorary membership, and the gold medal 
 already mentioned " A Monsieur Hodgson la Soci^tc 
 A siatique reconnaissante." 
 
 Burnouf's encomiums were published in 1844 ; they have 
 been amply confirmed by later writers. Albrecht Weber 
 declares that by Hodgson's essays of 1828 "a wholly new 
 field was opened, and the philosophical doctrines of the 
 Buddhists were for the first time elucidated from their old 
 original texts. They presented to us a draught out of a 
 full cup. From the point of view specially dealt with, and 
 for knowledge of the four philosophic systems of the 
 Ncpalese Buddhists, those articles remain even after 
 Burnoufs researches a unique source down to this day." 
 Weber speaks with enthusiasm of " the fresh well-springs 
 sparkling before our e>'es " which Hodgson opened up. 
 He expresses his astonishment and the general admiration 
 of scholars at " the perfect clearness with which Hodgson 
 unravelled so extremely intricate a web." What had until 
 Hodgson's appearance on the scene been " so many riddles," 
 
 ' Letter from Eugene Burnouf to Hodgson, dated August 28th, 1837. 
 The Hodgson Private Papers contain several extremely interesting 
 letters from Burnouf, Jaquet, and Jules Mohl, the Secretary of the 
 Soci6te Asiatique dc Paris. I have to thank Mrs. Brian Hodgson for 
 the extreme lucidity with wliich these letters and other manuscript 
 materials have been arranged. If the present volume siiould be so 
 fortunate as to awaken an interest in the subject, I liope tliat a 
 collection from the Hodgson Papers may be subsequently issued.
 
 278 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 guessed at from second-hand sources, were answered by 
 Hodgson once and for all from the original texts.^ 
 
 " Mr. Hodgson's illustrations of the literature and origin 
 of the Buddhists," wrote Csoma do Koros, the generous 
 Hungarian scholar who stands out as the sole rival of 
 Hodgson in the field of Himalayan research, " form a 
 wonderful combination of knowledge on a new subject with 
 the deepest philosophical speculations, and will astonish 
 the people of Europe." ^ 
 
 If the debt of Continental scholarship to Hodgson was 
 great, it is not too much to say that the original materials 
 which he collected, and the conclusions which he derived 
 from them, formed during half a century the basis of 
 the study of Northern Buddhism in our own country.^ 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone records in his History of India 
 that even his general " account of the Bauddha tenets is 
 chiefly derived from the complete and distinct view of that 
 religion given by Mr. Hodgson." •* A .specialist like General 
 Sir Alexander Cunningham^ wrote to Hodgson, " I found 
 in your work the only clear and intelligible account of 
 Buddhism." The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, 
 in its memoir of Hodgson after his death in 1894, sums 
 up his services in a sentence borrowed from The Times 
 obituary : " To him the world still owes the materials for 
 a knowledge of the great proselytising faith which was the 
 one civilising influence in Central Asia." 
 
 Hodgson had quite unconsciously achieved a masterpiece 
 of research. He tells us somewhat pathetically that until 
 
 ' Condensed from Albrecht Weber's remarkable article in the 
 Liter arischcs Centralblait^ No. 27, April 24tli, 1875. I thank Professor 
 Thomas Miller, formerly of Gottingen, now of Strasburg, for a transla- 
 tion of this article which he kindly forwarded to me. 
 
 ^ Csoma de Koros in the Bengal Asiatic Society s Journal, July 1842. 
 
 ' I do not of course include the Chinese or Japanese Buddhism of 
 the Far East, nor the Southern Buddhism of Burma and Ceylon. 
 
 ^ History of India, by the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone. 
 Footnote 53, p. 114. Ed. 1874. 
 
 ^ Afterwards Director-General of the Archaeological Survey in India. 
 Letter to Hodgson, dated Gwalior, April 15th, 1851
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 279 
 
 after the publication of his first essays " he had never seen 
 one line of" "any Continental writer's lucubrations on 
 Buddhism." But in his researches, as throughout his 
 official career, he converted his very disadvantages into 
 elements of greatness ; and his isolation gave to his views 
 that stamp of originality which is the highest form of 
 genius in scholarship. Needless to say that such origi- 
 nality gave rise to some controversy in Europe. His first 
 critic was Abel Remusat. But Remusat, although a dis- 
 tinguished Sinologist, editor of the Journal des Savants, and 
 the founder and first secretary of the Paris Asiatic Society, 
 had the old imperfect knowledge of Buddhism derived 
 from secondary texts and Chinese or Mongolian transla- 
 tions. Dying in 1832, before he had time to grasp the 
 full significance of Hodgson's discoveries, his criticisms 
 only served to mark the vast stride which Hodgson's work 
 rendered possible in Buddhist research. " In dealing with 
 Abel Remusat," says Weber briefly, " Hodgson had an 
 easy task." 
 
 Another and more prolonged controversy arose with 
 Tumour, the representative of the Southern or Pali school 
 of Buddhism. This controversy bifurcated into two sets 
 of conflicting theories. In the first of them, that liuddhism 
 issued out of ancient forms of the Brahmanical faith and 
 to a certain extent in hostility to Brahman institutions, 
 Hodgson was correct.' In his second theory, which claimed 
 for the Sanskrit texts of Northern Buddhism priority 
 over the Pali sacred writings at least in the region of 
 philosophic doctrine, Hodgson went too far. 1 le himself, 
 with characteristic honesty, afterwards recognised " that 
 the honours of Ceylonese literature and of the Pali language 
 are no longer disputable." - " ]?ut," writes Albrecht Weber 
 in summing up the discussion," if Hodgson went at first 
 
 ' I coiiline myself to Weber's broad dictum, without referring to the 
 nicer modiHcatious rendered necessary by recent results of scholarship. 
 
 * Postscript to dissertation on " The I'ravrajya V'ratra," Essays. 
 p. 145 (1874).
 
 28o LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 too far, his grounds almost throughout were perfectly 
 reasonable, and it is still a great treat to read the papers 
 connected with this controversy — a controversy which at 
 the time mightily stirred the friends and representatives 
 of Indian studies." * In the little temporary controversy 
 between the friends of Hodgson and Csoma de Koros as to 
 the dates of their work, Burnouf assigned to Hodg.son the 
 honours of priority. But, as we now know, the two solitary 
 workers were both making similar discoveries in far 
 separated regions of the Himalayas, unknown to each 
 other, during the very same years.- 
 
 Since Hodgson's time there have been several .students 
 of the first class in the field of Northern Buddhism in its 
 wider sense, as including the Buddhism of all Central Asia, 
 China, and Japan. The indefatigable patience of Samuel 
 Beal, the scholarly grasp of the American diplomatist 
 Woodvillc Rockhill, the fine touch of Cecil Bendall, and 
 the minute local scrutiny of Austine Waddell, to mention 
 only a few of those best known in this country,^ have 
 carried Buddhist research into regions into which Hodgson 
 did not penetrate. But by the common consent of these 
 scholars their work started from the basis supplied by 
 Hodgson, and, while amplifying, have not superseded it. 
 
 His work fails of course in several respects to fulfil 
 the punctilious demands of modern scholarship. The 
 accounts of the original texts which he discovered were 
 derived from a number of separate pandits, and they do 
 not always harmonise. Nor did he realise the necessity 
 
 ' Literarischcs Centralblait, No. 17, April 24th, 1875. Burnouf's 
 earlier views may be studied in Section VII. of his Histoire die Bnd- 
 dhisme Indten, pp. 512-524, particularly 517, 2nd Ed. 
 
 '' Burnouf, ut supra, pp. 6, 7. The letters of Csoma de Kciros, 
 published in Dr. Duka's Life, prove that the discoveries of the two 
 Himalayan scholars were contemporaneous, although Hodgson had the 
 good fortune to communicate his first to the world. 
 
 '* But not forgetting Jaeschke the Danish missionary, I. J. Schmidt 
 the St. Petersburg lexicographer, the German brothers Schlangint- 
 weit, that unwearied Indian worker Sarat Chandra Das, and the Bengal 
 palaeographer Rajendra Lala Mitra.
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 3Sl 
 
 for that exactitude in quotation which is now i i'^^oroush- 
 enforced from bibliographers. Even when Sanskrit 
 authorities are cited, the chapter and stanza arc seldom 
 indicated. Further stumbling-blocks arise from references 
 to section.*-- of texts without giving the name of the whole 
 work. The explanation is that Hodgson laboured in 
 solitude and to satisfy his own craving for research, un- 
 acquainted with the rules of the European technique of 
 his study, and calmly unconscious of the little annoyances 
 which that unacquaintance might cau.se to Western 
 scholars. His methods of quotation must be regarded as 
 rnetnoruc tcchnicic for his own well-stored mind, rather than 
 as an example for imitation by other student.s. 
 
 But the most exacting of European scholars have been 
 the most ready to acknowledge the slightness of these de- 
 fects compared with the magnitude of the work achieved. 
 The rooms containing the Hodgson manuscripts in the 
 great public libraries of India, I'Ingland, and I'Vancc still 
 form places of pilgrimage for the modern students of 
 JUiddhism. " You may be sure," wrote Albrecht Weber to 
 I lodg.son ' in referring to " the path you have opened," 
 " that its importance will be more and more acknowledged 
 every year. This summer that splendid collection of 
 pictorial, sculptural, and architectural illustrations which 
 you presented to the Institute of France in memory of the 
 illustrious scholar l''ugene lUirnouf, will form the object 
 of a visit to Paris of a scholar most eminently qualified to 
 make a right use of it, I mean A. Schiefner, a member of 
 the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg." The same 
 scholarly pilgrimages go on to this hour. When the 
 brilliant palaeographer of the Cambridge L'niversity 
 and the British Museum, Mr. Cecil Bendall, made his 
 journey to Northern India in 1S85, the Hodgson col- 
 lection at Calcutta was almost the first shrine which he 
 visited. 
 
 ' Lcltrr from Professor Albrecht Weber to IV \\. Hodgson, dated 
 April 24th, i860.
 
 283 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 It would be difficult to name a modern expert more 
 careful to avoid undue praise than Professor Bcndall 
 Before starting on his archaiological travels, he repaired to 
 Mr. Hodgson in his Gloucestershire retirement for inspira- 
 tion and counsel. He has now favoured me with his final 
 views on the man whom he publicly described as " the 
 greatest and least thanked of our Indian Residents." ' In 
 spite of paLtographic imperfections, which Professor 
 Bcndall is strict to mark, he declares that Hodgson's works 
 " form the most important contribution to the bibliography 
 of the literature " of Buddhism.' He points out that 
 masses of the original materials collected by Hodgson are 
 still unutilised, and expresses a conviction that, as more of 
 his manuscripts come to be published, the details furnished 
 in even the earliest essays of Hodgson will prove valuable 
 " in deciphering the often difficult texts." 
 
 I have cited Professor Bcndall because, sooner or later, 
 a man's place in scholarship must depend on the verdict 
 of specialists. But Hodgson's work was many-sided, and 
 while one set of modern students have been specialising 
 in the bibliographical branch of his labours, another set 
 have also been specialising in his local and antiquarian 
 researches. Hodgson supplied the original materials for 
 both. Among local experts Avho have followed on Hodg- 
 son's foot-tracks, Mr. Austine Waddell holds a unique 
 position. He is the first European who, with a scientific 
 training and equipped with the resources of modern scholar- 
 ship, has penetrated the esoteric Buddhism of Tibet. He 
 broke through the reserve of the priests by himself 
 purchasing a Lamaist temple in full working order, and 
 carrying on its daily ritual at his own cost. The officiants 
 conceived the idea that he must be a reflex of the Western 
 
 ' A Journey of Literary and Ardiaoloirical Research in Nepal and 
 No7-thcrn India ( 1 884— 1 885), by Cecil Bendall, M. A., Fellow of Gonville 
 and Caius College, Cambridge, and Professor of Sanskrit in University 
 College, London, p. 11. Cambridge University Press, 1886. 
 
 - MS. " Note on Mr. B. H. Hodgson's Essays," forwarded to me 
 by Professor Bendall, October 1 89.:!^ 
 
 I
 
 XI.] HODGSON AS A SCHOLAR. 283 
 
 Buddha, Amitabha himself, and so "overcame their con- 
 scientious scruples and imparted information freely." ' 
 
 Mr. Austinc Waddell tjratefully recognises Hodgson 
 as " the father of modern critical study of Buddhist 
 doctrine."- Before starting afresh for India in 1S95, Mr. 
 Waddell heard that I was engaged on a Life of Hodgson 
 and wrote to me as follows : ^ " A somewhat intimate 
 acquaintance with the south-west frontiers of Tibet brought 
 me into contact with the almost cncyclopajdic scientific 
 work which had been performed there by Mr. Hodgson, 
 and more detailed exainination deepened the sense of our 
 indebtedness to him. His Buddhist researches mark ri 
 distinct epoch in the advance of our knowledge of this 
 many-sided system. His masterly inquiries furnished a 
 vast array of new facts which disclosed the true structure 
 and developments of the faith, and .soon dissipated the 
 fantastic theories prevalent in Europe which had till then 
 done duty for original investigation. With admirable skill 
 he struck the keynote to the study of Indian Buddhism. 
 This may be heard even in his earliest papers. And the 
 salient points which he singled out still serve as stepping 
 stones across many a dreary waste of Indian histor)'. 
 
 " Of scarcely less importance arc his detailed studies of 
 specific dogmas and developments. Many of these, belong- 
 ing to Ncpalese liuddhism, remain our only authorities 
 on the subject. So very full, indeed, are his writings that 
 .several of the so-called discoveries of later scholars arc 
 to be found in his condensed text or teeming footnotes." 
 
 To these appreciations by the two great living expcrt.s, 
 the one on the bibliographical and the other on the his- 
 torical and philosophical sides of I lodgson's Buddhist 
 work, it would be rash for a biographer to add a single 
 sentence. 
 
 ' The DndiUtism of Tibcl or Lumatsm, by L. Aiibtii.c- \N aUaoll 
 M.B. Preface, p. i.\-. Allen dv Co., 1895. ' Idem., p. .\ii. 
 
 ' Under date Kcbruary i ith, 1895. Space restricts mc to a few 
 e.xtracts from Mr. Anstine Waddells communication.
 
 [284] 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HODGSON AND THE HILL RACES. 
 
 HODGSON'S work among the Sanskrit texts and his 
 collaboration with Sanskrit pandits brought him to 
 the core of the Aryan civilisation of India. To whatever 
 race Buddha belonged, there can be no question that 
 Buddhism developed into the national religion of India 
 under Aryan influences, and that its original Scriptures 
 were written in one form or other of Aryan speech. But 
 the Aryans in India, as in Europe, form only a top-dressing 
 to thick layers of earlier races. Those remnants of primi- 
 tive humanity have in Europe been almost crushed out of 
 sight by the superincumbent mass, or were amalgamated 
 with it. In India they may be studied as distinct types 
 of man. 
 
 The mountains which wall out the Indian peninsula 
 from Asia, and the dense forests of the table-land and 
 ranges in the heart of India itself, furnished asylums for 
 these human survivals of a prehistoric age. India thus 
 forms a vast museum of races — of races not in a fossil 
 state, but warm and breathing, living apart in their own 
 communities, amid a world of suggestive links with a 
 past that has elsewhere disappeared. The aboriginal 
 peoples of India have, as it were, been hidden away in hill- 
 caves, until the great ethnical movements subsided beneath 
 which they would otherwise have been buried. 
 
 The outer ranges of the Himalayas, amid which Hodgson 
 passed his whole Indian career, supply an unrivalled field 
 for the study of such tribes. In this branch of knowledge 
 also Hodgson found himself a pioneer. The English have
 
 CMAP. XII.] HODGSON AND THK HILL RACES. 285 
 
 .studied, and they understand, the Aryan populations of 
 India as no conquerors ever studied or understood a sub- 
 ject race. The East India Company grudged neither 
 honours nor solid rewards to any meritorious effort to 
 ilkistrate the people whom it ruled. Those efforts led to 
 a .series of discoveries which rolled back the horizon of 
 human knowledge. They proved that the higher races 
 of India derive their civilisation from that Aryan or noble 
 stock which has radiated to Kuropc, America, and .Austral- 
 asia, and which is now almost co-extensive with civilised 
 mankind. 
 
 At an early period it became known that another element 
 had entered into the composition of the Indian people ; 
 but an ignoble element, destitute of literature, and, for the 
 most part, now huddled away in forests fatal to European 
 life. The very lu.stre of the Aryan discoveries threw the 
 non-Aryan peoples of India into a deeper shade. Practical 
 usefulness and the gloss of fashion were for once on the 
 same side. Indian scholars crowded into a field in which 
 every honest seeker might hope to find ore, and kept aloof 
 from a study in which they could look for little sympathy 
 and from which they expected small results. 
 
 To this neglected study of the non- Aryan races of India 
 Hodgson devoted himself in the full maturity of his powers. 
 His lUiddhistic researches and his marvellous collections 
 of Sanskrit manuscripts formed the work of the earlier 
 portion of his career in Nepal. The essays on the abori- 
 gines of India were chiefl)' issued during his thirteen years' 
 retirement in Darjiling(iS45 — 1858), freed from the burdens 
 of official life. The.se ethnological contributions to learned 
 societies greatly exceed in number and bulk his Buddhistic 
 essays. They occupy nearly a half of the volume of his 
 collected works issued in 1874, the whole of one volume 
 issued in 1880, ant! tht greater part of the other volume 
 published in the same year. With some l.uropcan scholars, 
 indeed, Hodgson's ethnological work ranked as the chief 
 service which he rendered to the world. Latham, Schleicher,
 
 286 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Lassen, Max Mliller, Professor Owen, Dr. Barnard Davis, 
 and others welcomed his discoveries as a new revelation. 
 He thus for a second time stepped forward in the enviable 
 position of a man who has new knowledge to impart to the 
 world. The admiration which he enjoyed from Aryan 
 scholars in Europe during the thirties, he again won from 
 non-Aryan scholars during the fifties. In 1854 Bunsen 
 declared him to be " our highest living authority and best 
 informant on the ethnology of the native races of India." 
 
 Hodgson approached this part of his life's work by 
 deliberate advances. He first made a complete study 
 of the habitat of the Himalayan aboriginal tribes. His 
 essay "On the Physical Geography of the Himalaya" 
 appeared in the fonrnal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 
 in 1849, and was reprinted by the Bengal Government as 
 a State Paper in 1857. It attracted the attention of Baron 
 von Humboldt, who wrote of Hodgson in high terms to the 
 President of the Bengal Asiatic Society.^ Hodgson's very 
 first page arrests the attention of the reader. " I had been 
 for several years a traveller in the Himalayas, before I could 
 get rid of that tyranny of the senses which so strongly 
 impresses all beholders of this stupendous scenery with the 
 conviction that the mighty maze is quite without a plan. 
 My first step towards freedom from this overpowering 
 obtrusiveness of impressions of sense was obtained by 
 steady attention to the fact that the vast volume of the 
 Himalayan waters flows more or less at right angles to the 
 general direction of the Himalaya, but so that the number- 
 less streams of the mountains are directed into a few grand 
 rivers of the plains." 
 
 Hodgson then relates how he began to investigate the 
 phenomena of the convergence of these innumerable trans- 
 verse streams. His final step was achieved when he 
 brought into causal relation the angles of the outer ranges 
 and inner snowy peaks with the radiating points of the 
 
 ' Baron von Humboldt to Sir J. Colvile, President of the Bengal 
 Asiatic Society, March 1855.
 
 xii.] HODGSON AND THK HILL KACES. 287 
 
 feeders of each ^rcat river. These ideas had occurred to 
 him many years before in Nepal, but it was during his 
 retirement in Darjiling that he worked them into a 
 complete system. Sir Jo.scph Hooker, who had the oppor- 
 tunity of testing Hodg.son's facts by observations of his own 
 on the spot, thus formuhites Hodgson's results.' From the 
 central axis of the Himalayas a succession of secondar)- 
 chains take their origin, separating the great rivers which 
 flow into the plains of India. " Here also," wrote Max 
 Miillcr in Hunscn's Pliilosopliy of Utiiversal History; 
 " wc owe much to Hodgson's genius. His map of the 
 natural divisions of the Himalaya is in truth a ^aimnairi 
 raisonn(fe of this irregular mountain-utterance " — five peaks 
 constituting four river basins, and three transverse climatic 
 divisions. 
 
 Hodg.son had also the good fortune to supply materials 
 for the solution of the river problems of Northern India 
 itself. It is known that tiic three might}' river systems of 
 the Indus, the Sutlej, and the Ikahmaputra take their rise 
 near to each other, not on the Indian side of the Hima- 
 layas but on the northern or Tibetan side. During the 
 first eight hundred miles of their course the Indus and 
 Hrahmaputra are es.sentially rivers of Central Asia, with 
 the vast ranges of the Himalayas between them and India. 
 But while thus rising on opposite sides of the same sacred 
 mountain, the Indus turns westward and forces a passage 
 through the Western Himalayas into the Punjab, and so 
 eventually to the Arabian Sea. The Brahmaputra, on the 
 other hand, turns eastward from its source, and eventually 
 bursts through a gorge of the Kastern Himalayas into 
 Assam, and so reaches the Bay of Bengal on the opposite 
 side of India. 
 
 Its course of eight hundred miles along the Tibetan or 
 Central Asian trough on the north of tlu- Himalayas still 
 
 ' Hooker and Tliompson's Flora Indica, Vol. I., pp. 167-185: con- 
 densed too much for inverted commas. 
 
 ' Vol. I., 359. Kd. 1S54. lVoI. III. of Christianity and MaHkimi.']
 
 288 
 
 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 remained unexplored when Hodgson wrote. It was only 
 known that a great river called the Sanpu flowed eastwards 
 along the Central Asian trough, while a great river called 
 the Brahmaputra burst through the Eastern Himalayas into 
 Assam. Indications that these two rivers formed different 
 sections of the same stream were not wanting. But they 
 were not complete. Hodgson's inferences while in Nepal, 
 and the geographical details which he supplied, raised 
 these indications almost into proof. The evidences of the 
 Sanpu and the Brahmaputra being one and the same river, 
 wrote Pemberton in 1839, " are greatly strengthened by Mr. 
 Hodgson's MS. map forwarded to the Surveyor-General. I 
 consider this so satisfactory that nothing but ocular demon- 
 stration to the contrary could now shake my conviction." ' 
 Hodgson thus based his study of the aboriginal tribes 
 of the Himalayas upon the foundation of their physical 
 surroundings. But as we shall see he was also a zoologist, 
 and he did not overlook the important data supplied by 
 the anatomical structure of the tribes themselves. After 
 long and patient labour he collected the materials for the 
 study of that structure, and especially for the craniology of 
 the aboriginal races. With his usual generosity he placed 
 his materials, including one hundred carefully verified 
 skulls, at the disposal of European men of science. " Mr. 
 Hodgson early felt," says Dr. Barnard Davis, the learned 
 author of the Crania Britaiinica, " that the most interesting 
 object of natural history is man himself, and he devoted 
 his unremitting attention to the study of the many curious 
 tribes with whom his long residence in India brought him 
 in contact."" "In European museums these crania are 
 very rare," wrote Sir F. Mowat, " owing to the difficulty 
 of procuring them amongst races practising cremation." " 
 Professor Owen, then and perhaps still the greatest master 
 
 ' Pemberton's Report on Bhutan, 1839. 
 
 - Paper read by Dr. Barnard Davis before the British Association, 
 May 1863. 
 ^ Paper read before the Etlmological Society in 1867.
 
 XII.] HODGSON AND THE HILL RACES. 289 
 
 of ethnological anatomy whom the world has seen, reported 
 in grateful terms on the collection which Mr. Hodgson 
 supplied.' Anthropometric measurements of non-Aryan 
 types of man form a valuable feature of his essays. The 
 Ethnological Society elected him an Honorary Fellow, 
 then a rare distinction — Darwin, Layard, and Rawlinson 
 being at that time, I am informed, almo.st the only other 
 Englishmen thus honoured by the Society. 
 
 The physical structure of the Himalayan aborigines, and 
 the geographical conditions amid which they lived, formed, 
 however, only the basis of Hodgson's ethnological work. 
 He recognised that, apart from all written records, man 
 creates his own history in his customs, his religion, and 
 his speech. We shall presently see how he applied this 
 principle to a comprehensive study of the whole aborigines 
 of India. But Hodgson was essentially a worker who 
 built up from the facts around him. Before entering on 
 the more general aspects of his ethnographical studies, I 
 propo.se to summarise one of his earliest papers on three 
 tribes who came within his immediate observation in the 
 Sub-Himalayan tracts. 
 
 Hodgson's es.say " On the Kocch, Bodo, and Dhimal 
 Tribes" was published in Calcutta in 1847, ^"^ forms the 
 first half of one of the volumes of his collected works 
 issued in 1880. Latham, the leading British ethnologist 
 of the middle of this century, pronounced it to be "a model 
 of an ethnological monograph." - Its structure is simple 
 almost to sternness. Disdaining a word of introduction, it 
 starts with the vocabularies which Hodgson had for the 
 first time collected among the hill races. It then evolves, 
 also for the first time, a grammar of their speech. Finally, 
 it sets forth in a learned disquisition the origin, location, 
 numbers, religion, customs, character, and condition of the 
 tribes. 
 
 The vocabulary was constructed by 1 lodgson ujxjn a 
 
 ' Report of I'rofessor Owen to tlie British Association, May 1863. 
 * Ethnology of the British Colonies, p. 114.. 
 
 19
 
 290 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [char 
 
 plan which he believed would illustrate not only the origin 
 of the tribes, but also the stages of mental and moral 
 development through which they had passed. He secures 
 his first aim by a complete list of terms for the simple 
 natural objects and conceptions which form the common 
 property of primitive races, and by which he afterwards 
 traced back their relationship to other prehistoric peoples 
 using allied words. lie effects his second purpose, and 
 arrives at a clear view of the stage of development that 
 the tribes had reached, by a collection of terms dealing 
 with the employments, appliances, and concepts of rising 
 grades of civilisation. 
 
 His dictionary of the speech of these three tribes occupies 
 seventy-one closely printed pages. It starts with names 
 of things and beings : the terms connected with the earth, 
 water, air, fire, and their products. The parts of the human 
 body are exhaustively enumerated in the three languages, 
 followed by terms for the appetites, affections, and various 
 kinds of food. The higher physical wants of man are 
 exhibited by the words for his dress, ornaments, and 
 games. The vocabulary then enters into the terms deal- 
 ing with animal life, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fish, and 
 insects. The vegetable creation is next passed under 
 review. A long and careful list supplies the words in 
 the three languages for grains, fibres, oils, greens, tubers, 
 spices, dyes, drugs, trees, and fruits, together with the 
 various parts of plant structure. 
 
 Having thus furnished the words common to primitive 
 laces and susceptible of linguistic comparison with other 
 branches of the same stock, Hodgson entered on the pro- 
 cess of differentiation by means of lists of words dealing 
 with the more advanced stages of human progress. He 
 collected a complete dictionary of the natural and political 
 ties of the family and the race. The names of occupations 
 follow, from those of the primeval hunter, herdsman, and 
 fisherman, through the builder and metal-worker up to the 
 lawyer, finance minister, banker, and bankrupt. The two
 
 XII.] HODGSON AND THE HILL RACES 291 
 
 last terms were only found in one of the three languages. 
 In a similar way the more abstract forms of nouns arc 
 exhibited, together with copious lists of words illustrative 
 of trade, relij^ion, learning, literature, and the fine arts. 
 The particles, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs arc then 
 .ct forth upon a carefully thought out system and in full 
 detail. 
 
 Hodgson notes .several unexpected phenomena in the 
 vocabularies of these tribes. " What can be more striking, 
 {i)T example," he says, " than ' agriculture ' being expressed 
 by the term ' felling ' or ' clearing the forest ' ; than the 
 total absence of any term for ' village,' for ' plough,' for 
 horse,' for ' monej',' of any kind ; for nearly every opera- 
 tion of the intellect or will, whether virtuous or vicious ; 
 md lastly, for almost every abstract idea, whether material 
 or immaterial." ' 
 
 The second part of the essay is devoted to the grammar 
 of two of the tribes, the Bodos and Dhimals. The original 
 structure of the language of the Kocch had been .so com- 
 pletely overlaid by Aryan forms that it was merged into 
 a corrupt Bengali. Few pieces of philological work have 
 more human interest than this effort to compel a living 
 speech never before reduced to writing to yield up its 
 ^iruclural laws. Hudg.son starts by inventing an^'ortho- 
 graphy for the two languages, neither of which " {kjsscsscs, 
 nor ever did |X)ssess, an)' alphabet or books." - The gram- 
 matical forms of substantives, their genders, casc.s, and 
 numbers, are carefull)' explained. The adjective is then 
 leak with, followed b\- the various classes of pronouns, 
 the system of numerati(jn, and the verb. As one of the 
 many curious facts brcuight to light, Hodgson jx)ints out 
 that the cardinal numbers extend to only seven in Boilo 
 and to ten in Dhimal. I'or higher quantities the tribes 
 hail to imix)rt terms frc^m the Indian plains. 
 
 The grammar concludes with comments uixin the multi- 
 
 ' Hodgson's MiscellttHfOMs Essays, Vol. I., p. 103. TrUbncr, 1880. 
 ' ItUm.y p. 7c.
 
 292 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 tude of languages among the Himalayan tribes, or of 
 dialects not mutually intelligible. After a catalogue of 
 such dialects within a comparatively small area, Hodgson 
 remarks : " What a wonderful superfluity of speech, and 
 what a demonstration of the impediments to general inter- 
 course characterising the earlier stages of our social pro- 
 gression. How far these languages, though now mutually 
 unintelligible to those who use them, be really distinct ; 
 how far any common link may exist between them and 
 the rest of the aboriginal tongues of India — so as to justify 
 the application of the single name Tamulian to them all 
 — are questions which I hope to suppl}^ large means of 
 answering, when I have gone through the hill and Tarai 
 tongues of this frontier." ^ We shall presently see how 
 thoroughly Hodgson carried out this project. 
 
 Having reduced the unwritten speech of the tribes to 
 a written language and set forth its structure and com- 
 ponent parts, Hodgson devotes the third section of his 
 essay to a systematic survey of their customs, status, and 
 religion. For while he clearly understood the value of 
 words and grammatical forms, as the revealers of the 
 ethnical affinities and social transitions of the race, he 
 understood not less clearly the evidence which can be 
 derived from their traditions, habits, and creeds. " The 
 condition or status of the Bodo and Dhimal people," he 
 says, " is that of erratic cultivators of the wilds. For ages 
 transcending memory or tradition, they have passed 
 beyond the savage or hunter state and the nomadic or 
 herdsman's estate, and have advanced to the third or 
 agricultural grade of social progres.s, but so as to indicate 
 a not entirely broken connection with the precedent con- 
 dition of things. For, though cultivators all and ex- 
 clusively, they are nomadic cultivators so little connected 
 with any one spot that neither the Bodo nor Dhimal 
 language possesses a name for village." - 
 
 ^ Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I., p. 103. Trubner, 1880. 
 * Idem.^ p. 117.
 
 XII.] HODGSON AND THE HILL RACES. 293 
 
 The practice of nomadic cultivation Hodgson found 
 to be characteristic of many non-Aryan races scattered 
 throughout India. To him indeed we owe the first accu- 
 rate study of this curious link between the hunting or 
 pastoral stage and that of settled agriculture. At^zui in 
 annos mutant et snpcn'St Hirer. The Himalayan tribes 
 whom Hodgson first observed do not cultivate the same 
 field or remain in the same collection of huts beyond the 
 fourth or sixth year. After the jungle has grown again 
 they sooner or later work back to their former clearings, 
 burn down the forest afresh, and again raise crops for 
 a few years from the thus richly fertilised soil. 
 
 As no permanent rights grow up there is no possibility 
 of raising a continuous rent. They accordingly pay tribute 
 to the local Rajas by a capitation tax of so many rupees 
 for each household ; or by a corvee of forced labour ; or by 
 an annual payment of one rupee per " agricultural imple- 
 ment." The term " agricultural implement " really repre- 
 sents " as much land as thej- can cultivate therewith," for 
 there is no land measure. They reckon that the\' can raise 
 thirty or forty rupees' worth of produce with one iinple- 
 ment, so that the impost of one rupee on it forms but a 
 light land-tax. " There is no separate calling of herdsman 
 or shepherd, or tradesman or shopkeeper, or manufacturer 
 or handicraft, alien or native, in these primitive societies 
 which admit no strangers among them, though they live \^ 
 
 on perfectly amicable terms with their neighbours, and 
 thus can always procure, by purchase or barter, the very 
 few things which they require and do not produce them- 
 selves." ' 
 
 Hodgson thus marked out in bold and simple lines tlie 
 four great differences between the status of the non-Aryan 
 races in the Indian hill countries and that of the Aryan 
 dwellers on the plains. Their nomadic tillage and migra- 
 tory hamlets stand forth in contrast with the settled 
 agriculture and permanent villages of the Ar)'an low- 
 ' WoAgson's MisccLUxiteou^ Essays, Vol. I., p. 119. Ed. 1S80.
 
 294 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 landers. Their taxation on the basis of the household or 
 of the agricultural implement contrasts with the universal 
 land-tax of the Indo-Ar}'an pale. The absence of any 
 differentiation of employment equally contrasts them with 
 the strict subdivision of labour on which the Aryan caste 
 system in India is to a large extent based. Even more 
 important is the non-admittance of strangers among them 
 compared with thehelot craftsmen such as low-caste potters, 
 leather-workers, barbers, and village menials whom the 
 Aryans throughout India incorporated as the substratum 
 of their social organisation. 
 
 The non-Aryan hillmcn whom Hodgson first studied 
 had neither servants nor ^slaves nor aliens of any kind 
 among them. A perfect equality prevailed under the 
 elected or semi-hereditary head of the hamlet. They 
 do not marry beyond the limits of their own people. 
 " Chastity is prized in man and woman, married and un- 
 married." Although divorce is simple it is .seldom resorted 
 to. The wife has freedom of movement and on the whole is 
 well treated. Female infanticide is unknown. " Daughters, 
 on the contrary, are cherished and deemed a source of 
 wealth, not poverty ; for every man must buy his wife 
 with coin or labour, and it is very seldom that the price 
 comes to be redemanded by the wronged and unfor- 
 giving husband. There is no bar to remarriage, and 
 widow-burning is a rite held in abhorrence." ' The Bodos 
 and Dhimals bury their dead with simple yet decent 
 reverence, instead of adopting the Hindu custom of cre- 
 mation. But fixed graveyards or permanent tombs are 
 precluded by their migratory habits. 
 
 Having thus described the social status of the non- 
 Aryan tribes, Hodgson proceeds to examine the ties of 
 blood and customary law which bind together their com- 
 munities. He then enters at very great length into their 
 religion, or rather into their rites and festivals, and the 
 attributes of the numerous deities who make up their 
 ' Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I., i). 123. Ed. 1880. 
 
 1
 
 Ml] HODGSON AND THK HILL RACES. 295 
 
 pantheon. " Language and mytholog)-," he wrote on his 
 title-page, "constitute the internal, true, and only history 
 of primitive races, and are by far the be.st exponents of 
 their real condition as thinking and acting beings." This 
 thought he expresses again and again, and some of his 
 most interesting work is merely an expansion of it. 
 Space precludes me, however, from entering on the 
 complex questions to which it gives rise. I must con- 
 fine myself to the remark that for the first time the 
 materials were brought together for an intelligent study 
 of the gods many and rites still more numerous which 
 make up the religion of the non-Aryan tribes in the 
 Himalaya. 
 
 It is not surprising that such an essay, bearing on every 
 page the stamp of original research, should have attracted 
 attention from scholars both in India and Europe. Dr. 
 Latham referred with admiration to its " bold yet cautious 
 criticism and varied observation." ' " I have again and 
 again ransacked the Asiatic Rcseafc/ies and other 
 authorities for information on the ancient history of 
 Bengal,"- wrote a more exacting specialist, Mr. Logan, 
 " but I am convinced that in India history must be 
 the slight superstructure and ethnology the solid basis. 
 Hodgson will do more to clear away the rubbish and to 
 restore the lost annals of the Gangetic valley than Lassen 
 with all his erudition and talent for historic research." 
 Lassen himself was a student of Hodgson's work and ex- 
 pressed his " high sen.se of admiration " kn the .services 
 which Hodgson had rendered.^ 
 
 But while Hodgson thus started, as was his wont, from 
 the facts immediately under his observation, he discerned 
 that they were capable of wide uses. He conceived the 
 idea of a complete and systematic survey of the whole 
 
 ' Varieties of Man, preface, p. S. 
 
 * Journal of the huiian Archipela;^o lor J;imiar)' and February 1854. 
 
 * Letter from Professor Clir. Lassen to \\. W. IkxJgson, dated 
 November aoth, iSGo.
 
 296 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 non- Aryan races in India, with a view to working out 
 their mutual affinities and of fixing their position among 
 the great families of mankind. He accordingly solicited 
 the aid of fellow-workers throughout every province of 
 India in which the non-Aryan tribes still maintained their 
 identity. 
 
 His essay on the Kocch, Bodo, and Dhimal served as 
 a model for the facts which he sought to obtain in regard 
 to each one of the far-scattered tribes. Finding, however, 
 that that model involved a minute study and a continuity 
 of research beyond the possibilities of Indian officials 
 burdened with the daily duties of administration, he wisely 
 curtailed his demands. He issued a shorter vocabulary of 
 words for which the equivalents were to be obtained in 
 every non- Aryan language in India. " So powerful a 
 stimulus and so successful an example," ' to use the words 
 of Professor Max Miiller, created a whole school of fellow- 
 labourers in this field of research, and the most distin- 
 guished members of that school have recorded the inspiration 
 under which they worked. 
 
 " My investigations," wrote Laidlaw, the great student of 
 the Karen tongue, " were originally undertaken to assist, 
 however humbly, those researches on the aborigines of 
 our own and the neighbouring countries \shich Mr. 
 Hodgson is prosecuting with such admirable zeal and 
 success." ' Hodgson's list of words was adopted as a 
 standard not only by private scholars, but by scientific 
 departments of the Government of India. " The following 
 vocabulary," observes Dr. Oldham, founder of the syste- 
 matic geology of India, " is framed upon that given by 
 Mr. Hodgson, and by him applied to so many Indian races 
 and borderers." ^ 
 
 ' Bunsen's Philosophy of Universal History applied to language and 
 religion, I. 353. Ed. 1854. 
 
 * Jourtial of the Royal Asiatic Society, Part I., 1854. 
 
 ^ On the Geological Stnccturc of the Khasi Hills, with Observations 
 on the Meteorology and Ethnology of that District. Quarto. Calcutta, 
 1854.
 
 XII.] HOUGSOX AND TlIK HILL RACES. 297 
 
 With unwearied patience Hodgson worked up the results 
 thus obtained by himself and others. 1 have said that 
 his ethnological papers form by far the largest part of his 
 collected works. Indeed they would of themselves suffice 
 for the sole labour of an industrious life. 1 heir main result 
 was to explore the ethnical affinities of the non-Ar>an 
 races in India, and to establish the common origin of 
 many of these widely dispersed remnants of primeval man. 
 He classed them as the Tamulian family of tlie colossal 
 Turanian division of the human race. Some of his con- 
 clusions went too far. Some have been modified by 
 the light of more recent research. With him philology 
 was the handmaid of ethnology, and Turanian philology 
 was then in its infancy. He was aware of the insufficiency 
 of his standard li.st of words, and of the objections which 
 might be raised alike to its contents and to their arrange- 
 ment.' But those who have brought the most complete 
 knowledge to the scrutiny of his work are the most 
 appreciative of its merits. 
 
 To Professor Conrady 1 am indebted for a manuscript 
 review extending over thirty-si.\ pages, and dealing ex- 
 haustively with what Hodgson accomplished and with the 
 points in which he fell short of success. A striking feature 
 of this monograph, as of those kindly furnished to me by 
 Professor Bendall and Dr. Austine Waddell on Hodgst)n's 
 Buddhist researches, is the personal warmth of affection 
 which they express to a man whose work was done nearly 
 half a century ago. " Gratitude is due to him from all 
 who, like myself," Professor Conrady writes to me, "arc 
 labourers in the field of Indo-Chinese comparative 
 philolog)*. Other branches of Indian learning ma>' praise 
 him for the untiring activity which has ojiened man>- new 
 fields of labour ; but lndo-Chine.se i)hilology must honour 
 
 ' He took as its contractt'd basis the collection of words which Dr. 
 Brown (the learned author of Gramtnatical Notufi of thf Assamese 
 iMti^uage, printed at Sibsagar in 1848) had adopted for the dialects of 
 Kwrthcr India.
 
 29S LIKK OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 in him a past master, I mii^ht even say its real founder. 
 He was the bold pioneer wlio not only gathered in rich 
 linr^uistic materials from rcL^ions hitherto scarcel)' known 
 b)- name, but who also sifted the chaotic mass, and with 
 a creative hand combined it into a family of many 
 members." 
 
 He showed that the languages of Further India and of 
 the Himalaya and Tibet (whose relationship he had 
 intuitively divined as far back as 1827) formed with 
 Chinese one closely related family. He maintained that 
 the monosyllabic, the isolating, and polysyllabic agglu- 
 tinating languages differed only in their degree of 
 development and not essentially. He was the first 
 discoverer of a connection between the tone accents 
 and the auxiliaries. His proofs of a Turanian unity of 
 language by a simple comparison of lists of words cannot 
 hold its ground, and although he studied profoundly the 
 grammatical structure of the languages, his materials in 
 some cases fell short of scientific proof Yet his materials 
 led him also to brilliant discoveries in structure by which it 
 has been established that the Indo-Chinese languages are 
 based upon an original agglutinating form, such as is still 
 possessed in rich varieties of development by the Ural- 
 Altaic, Dravidian, and Kolarian tongues.^ 
 
 Science does not forget the pathfinder. Professor 
 Conrady thus concludes : " What is still more admirable 
 than the glance of genius over spaces yet unsurveyed is 
 the unselfish search after truth. I cannot, therefore, better 
 close my review than with some words of Hodgson himself 
 — words characteristic of his plan of work and of the 
 strenuous fidelity of the worker : ' I trust that the whole 
 tenour and substance of my essay on the Kocch, etc., will 
 suffice to assure all candid persons that I am no advocate 
 for sweeping conclusions from insufficient premisses ; and 
 
 ' The foregoing statements are condensed from Professor Conrady's 
 elaborate MS. note, which will, I hope, be published hereafter in its 
 complete German form.
 
 XII] HODGSON AND THK HILL RACES. 299 
 
 that I desire to see the ethnology of India conducted 
 upon the most extended scale, with careful weighing cA 
 every available item of evidence that is calculated to 
 demonstrate the unity or otherwise of the Tamulian 
 race' " ' 
 
 Kach honest worker adds something, more or less, to the 
 sum of knowledge. But the more of yesterday dwindles 
 into the less of to-day, and the discoveries of one genera- 
 tion become the axioms of the ne.xt. The spirit abidcth. 
 At the end of this biography will be found a sufficient 
 list of Hodgson's writings* — some two hundred erudite 
 papers, four books, and three volumes of Collected Ivssa>'s. 
 It was a vast contribution from a single worker to human 
 learning. Yet it is not the bulk of Hodgson's writings 
 that makes the strongest impression on one who, like 
 myself, has examined them as a whole. It is rather the 
 original character of the materials which they furnish 
 and of the sources whence they were drawn. There is, 
 moreover, about them a quality which exercises a more 
 enduring influence upon generous students of succeeding 
 times than originality itself. It is the personality of the 
 man. Ever)'where we are struck by what Professor 
 Conrady calls " the glance of genius " ; by the freshness of 
 a powerful intelligence ; and by that single-minded search 
 after truth which, even more than the quest of knowledge, 
 forms the highest qualit}' of a great investigator. 
 
 To Hodgson the Himalayan borders and their dwellers 
 were not merely subjects for abstract research. He saw in 
 those cool uplands a possible field for European colonisa- 
 tion which might become a new source of strength to the 
 British Empire in India. This view he had early formed, 
 and it grew upon him during his long retirement at 
 Darjiling. In 1S56 he urged it with .so much force that 
 the Bengal Government rcprintetl his paper as the first of 
 
 ' Last paragraph of Dr. Conrady's MS. monograph. I thank I'ro- 
 fessor T. MilU-r of Strasburg for his kind aid in thr translation of 
 Dr. Conrady's manuscript. ' Appendices C and D, pp. y^^>1•}^S
 
 300 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON [chap. 
 
 its Selections from the Public Records in 1857.* He 
 arrayed all the arguments furnished by the gradation of 
 climates from the plains to the snows ; by the robustness 
 of European child-life in the hill station of Darjiling ; and 
 by the varied possibilities for farming afforded by the 
 different degrees of moisture and the fertility of the soil. 
 
 Hodgson looked forward not only to the rearing of the 
 more costly of sub-tropical products under European 
 supervision in the Himalayas, but also to agricultural 
 settlements by the British race. With " fifty to one 
 hundred thousand loyal hearts and stalwart bodies of 
 Saxon mould " on the Himalayas, he says, " our Empire 
 in India might safely defy the world in arms against it." ^ 
 This last expectation has not been fulfilled, nor docs it 
 seem likely that the European agriculturist will ever be 
 able to compete with the cheap labour of the native hill- 
 men in raising cereals and the ordinary class of crops. But 
 Hodgson's other expectation has been abundantly accom- 
 plished. Tea-planting, which he singled out as the most 
 suitable of the sub-tropical products for the Himalayas, has 
 been developed with a success and upon a scale which not 
 even he ventured to anticipate. When Hodgson wrote there 
 seemed indeed to be little hope of such a development. 
 But he himself had proved the possibility of growing tea 
 when Resident in Nepal, and he persisted in calling atten- 
 tion to the field for European enterprise thus opened up in 
 our own Himalayan districts. 
 
 " How much iteration is needed may be illustrated by 
 the simple mention of the fact that the fitness of the 
 Himalayas for tea-growing was fully ascertained twenty- 
 five years ago in the valley of Nepal, a normal character- 
 
 ' Selections from the Records of the Govcrnmetit of Bengal, pub- 
 lished by authority, No. XXVII. (Calcutta, 1857). This paper was after- 
 wards reprinted in the volume of Hodgson's Collected Essays, pp. 83 
 et seq. Triibner, 1874. 
 
 - Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal, No. 
 XXVII., pp.9, 10(1857).
 
 xil.j HODGSON AND THK HILL KACES. 3OI 
 
 istic region as well in regard to position as to elevation. 
 Tea seeds aiid plants were procured from China through 
 the medium of the Cashmere merchants then located at 
 Kathmandu. They were sown and planted in the Resi- 
 dency i^arden, where they flourished greatly, flowering and 
 seeding as usual, and, moreover, grafts ad /ibifutn were 
 multiplied by means of the nearly allied Eury'a {Camellia) 
 kisi which, in the valley of Nepal as elsewhere through- 
 out the Himalaya, is an indigenous and most abundant 
 species. These favourable results were dul>' announced 
 at the time to Dr. Abel, Physician to the Governor- 
 General, an accomplished person with special qualifica- 
 tions for their just apprcc'ation. And yet, in spite of 
 all this, twenty years were suffered to elapse before an\- 
 effective notice of so important an experiment could be 
 obtained." ' 
 
 The four hundred tea-plantations now (1896) established 
 in Darjiling and along the outskirts of the hills, with the five 
 millions sterling invested in them, besides the great area 
 under tea in the neighbouring provinces of Assam and 
 Cachar, form the best commentary on Hodgson's forecast. 
 He saw, with a clearness of vision not given to any other 
 man of his time, the opening which the Himalayan spurs 
 and sub-montane tracts afforded for a new British industry 
 in India.^ 
 
 ' Written in 1856. Hodgson's Collected Essays, pp. 87, 88 (1874). 
 
 - Tea-planting was experimentally conducted in Assam from 1834 
 onward, and rapidly developed after 1851. But the capabilities of 
 Darjiling and tiie Duars, i.e. of the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan 
 districts, were first brouglit conspicuously before the Government and 
 the public by Mr. Hodgson. The experimental tea-cultivation in the 
 Residency garden in Nepal, that is to say, the first attempt to grow 
 tea in a Himalayan district, was made by Hodgson himself.
 
 [ 302 ] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HODGSON AS A NATURALIST. 
 
 SAINTE-BEUVE quotes with approval the limits 
 which Lord Jeffrey placed upon excursions by a man 
 of letters into the domain of science. Hodgson's physical 
 researches were so highly specialised that any such 
 excursions into them by me would be unsafe and pre- 
 sumptuous. His zoological contributions to the Asiatic 
 Society date from February 1824, when as a young 
 Assistant Resident in Nepal he began to forward speci- 
 mens of animals characteristic of the Himala}'as — the wild 
 dog of Tibet, the shawl goat, the four-horned sheep, and 
 the yak-cow.^ During the next seven years he made a 
 careful study of the types around him,^ and embodied 
 the results in a paper on "The Mammalia of Nepal" for 
 the Bengal Asiatic Society in 1831. This he followed up 
 in 1836 by a synoptical resume oi the Mammalia of Tibet, 
 and, after intermediate revisions, by a "Catalogue of the 
 Mammals of Nepal and Tibet brought down to 1843," the 
 last year of his residence in Nepal.^ 
 
 Perhaps, however, his most valuable work for this 
 department of zoology consisted of contributions on 
 individual animals. His observations were made at first 
 
 ' Letter from B. H. Hodgson to the Secretary of the Bengal Asiatic 
 Society, dated February 29th, 1824. — Asiatic Society's MS. Records. 
 
 - His first article on birds, published in tlie Gleatiings in Science, 
 appeared in 1829 ; but on mammals a paper of his appeared as early as 
 1826, in TillocKs Magazine, on the Chiru {Pantholops Hodgsofii), a new 
 species of antelope, which was by him first made known, and a speci- 
 men sent to Dr. Abel, who described it and called it after Mr. Hodgson. 
 
 3 Calcutta Journal of Natural History, Vol. IV., 1844, p. 284.
 
 CHAP.xni.] HODGSON AS A NATURALIST. 303 
 
 hand in the forests and mountains amid which they 
 roamed, and which had never been explored b\' a Fluropcan 
 naturalist. He developed a faculty of accurate description 
 and of anatomical drawing rarely acquired by a solitary 
 self-taught worker, which made his contributions highly 
 prized by the museums and Zoological Societies of 
 Europe. Besides discovering thirty-nine new genera and 
 species^— including the Budorcas Taxicolor, a new j^oius 
 of bovine antelopes— he contributed no fewer than fifty- 
 one separate papers on the Himalayan mammals to 
 scientific bodies between the years 1830 and 1843, chiefly 
 to \\iz Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
 
 On returning to India in 1845 he resumed work on the 
 Himalayan mammals in his new Darjiling home. Twenty- 
 nine papers on their species, habits, and structure con- 
 tributed to scientific journals attest his activity in this 
 department during the following period of his life, an 
 activity continued down to 1S58, the very last year of his 
 stay in Bengal. A list of eighty of his papers on the 
 Mammalia, from 1830 to 1858, will be found in Appen- 
 dix D to this book. Charles Darwin in his Variation of 
 Animals and Plants under Domestication, when discussing 
 the origin of the domestic dog, mentions that Hodgson 
 succeeded in taming the young of the Canis primar.uts, an 
 Indian wild dog, and in making them as fond of him and 
 as intelligent as ordinar>- dogs. Darwin was also indebted 
 to Hodgson's writings for information on the occurrence 
 of dew-claws in the Tibetan mastiff, and for other details 
 of variations which he observed in the cattle, sheep, and 
 goats of India. 
 
 Hodgson's special work as an Indian naturalist wiis 
 done, however, not in the domain of mammal life, but as 
 an ornithologist. A magnificent .series of contributions 
 
 ' I present his original discoveries in the department ol m.imnials 
 (39 genera or species) in the form of a list kindly drawn up by Mr. 
 Lydckker and supplied for this book by Sir WilHam Klowcr. K.C.H. 
 (Appendix U).
 
 304 HODGSON AS A NATURALIST. [chap 
 
 to scientific journals, of which I am able to enumerate 
 forty-two/ from 1827''^ to the last years of his residence in 
 Bengal, gradually elevated him to the highest rank of 
 original ornithologists of his day. Instead of myself 
 attempting to form an estimate of his services to this 
 branch of science, I shall confine myself to an appreciation 
 of them kindly drawn up for me by the greatest of Indian 
 ornithologists now living, Allan Octavian Hume, C.B. 
 
 Mr. a. O. Hume on Hodgson's Ornithological 
 
 Work. 
 
 " Mr. Hodgson's mind was many-sided, and his work 
 extended into many fields of which I have little knowledge. 
 Indeed of all the many subjects which, at various times, 
 engaged his attention, there is only one with which I am 
 well acquainted and in regard to his researches in which I 
 am at all competent to speak. I refer of course to Indian 
 Ornithology, and extensive as were his labours in this field, 
 they absorbed, I believe, only a minor portion of his 
 intellectual activities. Moreover his opportunities in this 
 direction were somewhat circumscribed, for Nepal and 
 Sikkim were the only provinces in our vast empire whose 
 birds he was able to study in life for any considerable 
 period. Yet from these two comparatively small provinces 
 he added fully a hundred and fifty good new species to the 
 Avi-fauna of the British Asian Empire, and few and far 
 between have been the new species subsequently dis- 
 covered within the limits he explored. 
 
 But this detection and description of previously un- 
 known species was only the smaller portion of his con- 
 tributions to Indian Ornithology. He trained Indian 
 
 ' Given in Appendix D. I have reason to infer that this list is 
 incomplete. 
 
 - Letter from B. H. Hodgson to the Bengal Asiatic Society, dated 
 March 8th, 1827, forwarding a nev^^ species of snipe and stating in 
 what it differs from the common kind. There may perhaps be earlier 
 communications from Hodgson on Himalayan birds in the Society's 
 MS. Records.
 
 xiii.] MR. HUMES NOTE. 305 
 
 artists to paint birds w itli extreme accuracy from a 
 scientific point of view, and under his careful supervision 
 admirable large-scale pictures were produced, not only of 
 all the new species above referred to, but also of several 
 hundred other already recorded ones, and in many cases 
 of their nests and eggs also. These were continually 
 accompanied by exact, life-size, pencil drawings of the 
 bills, nasal orifices, legs, feet, and claws (the scutellation of 
 the tarsi and toes being reproduced with photographic 
 accuracy and minuteness), and of the arrangement of the 
 feathers in crests, wings, and tails. Then on the backs of 
 the plates was preserved an elaborate record of the colours 
 of the irides, bare facial skin, wattles, legs, and feet, as well 
 as detailed measurements, all taken from fresh and 
 numerous specimens, of males, females, and young of each 
 species, and over and above all this, invaluable notes as 
 to food (ascertained by dissection), nidification and eggs, 
 station, habits, constituting as a whole materials for a life- 
 history of many hundred species such as I believe no one 
 ornithologist had ever previously garnered. 
 
 His numerous papers in the Journal of the Asiatic 
 Society of Bengal, and elsewhere, gave to the scientific 
 world some portions of the information thus collected, 
 information which has been freely utilised by subsequent 
 writers. A good deal more was reproduced from his notes 
 in my Game Birds of India and Nests and Eggs of Indian 
 Birds, but I fear that a still larger portion remains which, 
 owing to changes in numbers, dislocation of sheets, fading 
 ink, and half-obliterated pencil writing, only he himself 
 could have utilised as it merited. 
 
 Without overlooking the good work of Horsfield, Sykes, 
 Raffles, Walden, Tickcll, Hutton, and others of the past 
 generation in the F,ast, or of Boddaert, Latham, Shaw, 
 Temminck, Gould, Jardine, and many others in the West, 
 we may yet safely affirm that the great advance made in 
 our knowledge of the birds of British India during the last 
 fifty years has been more directly due to the labours of 
 
 20
 
 3o6 HODGSON AS A NATURALIST. [chap. 
 
 three men — Blyth, Hodgson, Jerdon — than to those of any 
 six others, if not of all others put together. 
 
 Of these three, Blyth, from the force of circumstances, 
 was in India mainly a cabinet naturalist ; his chief work 
 being to stir up others to collect and observe, to name new 
 species coming to the Museum, and lay the foundations of 
 a comprehensive synthesis of our Indian birds. Several 
 of his monographs in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic 
 Society show how thoroughly qualified he would, under 
 more favourable conditions, have become to write a 
 scientifically satisfactory history of our Avi-fauna ; but ill- 
 health and domestic troubles, and the relentless pressure of 
 the almost mechanical work of the Museum in a damp hot 
 climate inimical to Natural History collections, combined 
 to bar Blyth's path, and he passed away leaving perhaps 
 less tangible records of his great work than Jerdon who 
 was in many respects his disciple. 
 
 Jerdon on the other hand was a field naturalist pur 
 sang, who had himself shot and watched in a wild state 
 more than half of the species that he included in his book. 
 He was an ornithologist first and last, and though he 
 dabbled with mammals and reptiles in later life, he gave all 
 his best days and thoughts to birds. Jerdon had great 
 perseverance, and defective as it may now appear to us, he 
 produced the first comprehensive work on India's birds. 
 But how much of this is really Blyth's, with whom he 
 worked morning, noon, and night whilst writing the work 
 and passing it through the press, I doubt whether either he 
 or Blyth himself had any idea. 
 
 Hodgson combined much of Blyth's talent for classifica- 
 tion with much of Jerdon's habit of persevering personal 
 observation, and excelled the latter in literary gifts and 
 minute and exact research. But with Hodgson ornithology 
 was only a pastime or at best a parergon, and humble a 
 branch of science as is ornithology, it is yet like all other 
 branches a jealous mistress demanding an undivided alle- 
 giance ; and hence with, I think, on the whole, higher
 
 xni.] MR. HUME'S NOTE, 307 
 
 qualifications, he exercised practically somewhat less in- 
 fluence on ornithological evolution than either of his great 
 contemporaries. 
 
 But I need not seek to discriminate too nicely between 
 this illustrious trio who all three, directly and indirectly, 
 powerfully influenced their own and next succeeding 
 generation, and by their words and works raised up 
 scores of followers to complete and perfect the work the)' 
 had so effectively inaugurated. Enough that there is no 
 Indian ornithologist living to whom the memories of these 
 three great pioneers are not dear and sacred, and that so 
 long as this fascinating study has any votaries in our 
 Indian Empire, so long will the names of Blyth, Hodgson, 
 and Jerdon be remembered, cherished, and revered." 
 
 Thus far Mr. Hume. It remains for me to present in 
 the fewest words a summary of Hodgson's zoological 
 contributions as a whole. " As a collector, ' writes Mr. 
 W. T. Blanford, " he was at the time unrivalled." ' Besides 
 the numerous specimens shot, skinned, and stuffed or pre- 
 served by himself, and given by him to the Asiatic Society 
 and other public institutions between 1827 and 1843, 
 he made two magnificent donations aggregating 10499 
 specimens to the British Museum. The first of the.sc 
 collections, as we saw at a previous page,- was arranged 
 at Canterbury on his visit to England and made over to 
 the British Museum in 1844. The second was presented 
 to the Museum on his final return from India in 1858. 
 
 The two collections placed at the disposal of the British 
 Museum, and from which it made its selections, included 
 9,512 specimens of birds, 903 of mammals, and 84 of 
 reptiles : total 10,499. 
 
 " In the List of the Specimens of Maiinnalia in the 
 Collection of the British Museum published in 1 843," 
 
 ' Natural Science, a Monthly Rtvicw, No. 30, August 1894, p. 152. 
 * Vide antt\ p. 240,
 
 308 LIKE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 writes Mr. VV. T. Blanford, " Mr. Hodgson's name is 
 attached, in the ' Index of Donations,' to a larger number 
 of references than any other donor's, and at this time only 
 his first contribution to the national collection had been 
 received. Subsequently two separate catalogues of his 
 presented collections were published, one in 1846, the 
 other in 1863." 
 
 The large selections thus made by the British Museum 
 did not, however, exhaust Hodgson's collections. The 
 Museums of Paris, Leyden, Edinburgh, Dublin, and other 
 national or university institutions of the kind in Europe, 
 America, and India, were enriched by his munificent 
 donations. The distinctions showered upon him by the 
 Zoological Societies of man>- countries attest their grateful 
 sense of his scientific work. 
 
 It was as a draughtsman and accurate describer of new 
 varieties and species that Hodgson rendered his crowning 
 service to ornithology. His drawings, done by himself or 
 by paid assistants whom he trained, cover about 2,000 folio 
 sheets,^ many of them containing several subjects. This 
 magnificent collection was also placed by Hodgson at the 
 disposal of the British Museum, which retained a certain 
 number, including 55 sheets of reptiles. The remainder, 
 comprising 1,241 sheets of birds and 567 of mammals, he 
 presented to the Zoological Society of London in 1874." 
 
 Of these donations Mr. W. T. Blanford writes : " A 
 better idea of Mr. Hodgson's energy than any that can be 
 derived from lists of specimens or even from a perusal of 
 his papers is afforded by the drawings presented by him 
 to the British Museum, or, still better, by the original 
 copies that have found an appropriate resting-place in the 
 Library of the Zoological Society of London. These 
 
 ' I have details of 1,863 sheets, namely Birds 1,241 sheets, Mammals 
 567 sheets, Reptiles 55 sheets. 
 
 - " Of these so given, 1,115 sheets of birds were lent in 1870 to A. O. 
 Hume, C.B., for his projected work, conditioned that they be delivered 
 to the Zoological Society when done with."— Note by Hodgson in his 
 Private Papers.
 
 xiii.J HODGSON AS A NATURALIST. 3^9 
 
 drawings represent many hundreds of mammals and birds, 
 and fill several large folio volumes, the same species being 
 sometimes drawn three or four times. Each sheet, besides 
 the figure of the whole animal, generally contains drawings 
 of details of the external and internal structure, and the 
 paper is crowded with manuscript notes on the localities, 
 habits of life, breeding, nidification, and measurements. 
 
 " In some respects he was in advance of the >cience of 
 the day. He was fully alive to the importance of geo- 
 graphical distribution, and was the first to attempt a 
 demarcation of the zones of life, resulting from differences 
 of elevation, in the Himalayas."^ 
 
 With the.se words I close the present chapter. I have 
 tried to show from Hodgson's Private Papers the quantity 
 or volume of his zoological work. Its quality can be 
 judged of only by experts. " His papers," wrote his illus- 
 trious fellow-worker Jerdon, " are distinguished by a deep 
 research and great acumen." - " No wonder," says the 
 Hungarian record of his .services, " that the great .scientific 
 institutions of Europe have overwhelmed him with 
 honours."^ 
 
 ' Natural Science^ August 1894, p. 152. 
 
 ' Preface to The Birds of India, by Dr. T. C. Jerdoii. Calcutta. 
 1862—1864, 3 vols. ; and 1877, 2 vols. 
 
 ^ Obituary notice in the Vasarnapi Ujsa;j[ of Budapest, August 1 ith. 
 1895.
 
 [ 3IO ] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CHAMPION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 HODGSON was best known to the Indian world of 
 his day as the champion of popular education in 
 the mother-tongues of the people. During the first twenty 
 years of his service a controversy gradually waxed fierce 
 as to whether the vehicle for higher instruction in Bengal 
 should be the English language or the classical languages 
 of India. The dispute reached its height in 1835, the 
 English party being chiefly represented by Lord Macaulay 
 and Sir Charles Trevelyan, the Orientalists by Horace 
 Hayman Wilson, Henry Thoby Prinsep, and John Russell 
 Colvin. The necessity of developing a system of State 
 education for India on a great scale had become im- 
 perative, but the equal balance and incompatible demands 
 of these two parties brought about a dead-lock. 
 
 " All educational action had been at a standstill for 
 some time back," writes the son of Sir Charles Trevelyan 
 and nephew of Lord Macaulay, " on account of an irrecon- 
 cilable difference of opinion in the Committee of Public 
 Instruction : which was divided five against five on either 
 side of a controversy, vital, inevitable, admitting of neither 
 postponement nor compromise, and conducted by both 
 parties with a pertinacity and a warmth that was nothing 
 but honourable to those concerned." ^ 
 
 At this point Hodgson struck into the controversy. He 
 declared that if the education of the Indian peoples were 
 
 * The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by Sir George Otto 
 Trevelyan, M.P., Vol. I., p. 400. Ed. 1876.
 
 CHAP, xiv] CHAMTION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 31 I 
 
 to become a reality it must be conducted neither in Enc;lish 
 nor in the classical langua^^cs of India, but in the living 
 vernaculars of each province. To the heated disputants 
 Hodgson seemed to be proposing " a middle course." The 
 great Sanskrit scholar of Bengal in our day described it 
 as a " via media " which failed at the moment to obtain 
 adoption.^ But, in point of fact, Hodgson raised the whole 
 previous question as to the proper aim and scope of State 
 instruction in Bengal. His two letters in 1835 "On the 
 Education of the People of India" lifted the subject out 
 of the arena of academic controversy, and relegated the 
 wranglings of Anglicists and Orientalists to the somewhat 
 comical place which they now occupy in Indian history. 
 Hodgson's proposals became the basis of Indian Public 
 Instruction through the medium of the vernacular tongues, 
 as adopted by the Court of Directors' Despatch of 1S54 
 and as finally reorganised by the Education Commission 
 of 1882. In order to understand the permanent effects 
 of his labours in this field, it is needful to glance back 
 at the state of opinion when he emerged upon the 
 scene. 
 
 The Indians have always enjoyed the reputation of 
 being a learned people.- Mcgasthencs, the Greek Ambas- 
 sador to the Gangetic Court about 300 15.C., found a grave 
 and polished society ; and the rich stores of Sanskrit 
 literature surviving to the present day confirm his descrip- 
 tion. The education of a Brahman, according to the four 
 prescribed stages of his life, extended over at least twelve 
 years. The Buddhist supremacy in India placed instruc- 
 tion on a more popular basis. The vast monastery of 
 Nalanda in the seventh century A.D. compares, as to the 
 number and zeal of its students, with the much later 
 universities of media,n'al Europe. After the Muhammadan 
 
 ' Rajctidra Lala Mitra, LL.D., CLE., in the preface to his Sanskrit 
 Buddhist Literature o/i\'epal, pp. \\\, viii. Calcutta, 18S2. 
 
 ' 1 condense this and the next paragraph from tlie Report of the 
 Indian Education Commission of \'6'i>2, paras. 19 and 20.
 
 312 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 conquest of India in the eleventh century the Mosque also 
 became a centre of instruction and literary activity. Alike 
 among the Musalmans and the Hindus the promotion of 
 education on the basis of the classical languages of India 
 formed a recognised duty of the State. 
 
 The East India Company, on succeeding to the sove- 
 reignty of Hindustan, aimed only at discharging the duties 
 fulfilled by the previous Ruling Powers. It respected 
 educational endowments, and for a time confined its own 
 educational activity to the foundation of Hindu and 
 Muhammadan seats of learning of the ancient type. But 
 by degrees the need of training native officers in the 
 language of the conquerors called into existence schools of 
 a new type. The Parliamentary Charter of 1813 provided a 
 yearly sum of Rs. 100,000 from the revenues for education. 
 In 1823 the Indian Government appointed a Committee 
 of Public Instruction to superintend the expenditure. 
 This body was guided by two fundamental principle}?. 
 First, to discharge the traditional duty of the Ruling 
 Power by encouraging the instruction which the learned 
 classes really desired — that is to say, instruction in the 
 sacred or classical languages of India. Second, as its school- 
 fund was inadequate for any system of general education, 
 to apply it to the instruction of the higher classes, in 
 the hope that education might filter down through them 
 to the people. 
 
 It was in the application of these principles that an 
 irreconcilable difference arose. The learned section of the 
 upper classes clung to their old types of education in 
 Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic. The other desired an 
 education in the English tongue which would fit their 
 sons for professional and official careers. In 1834 [Lord] 
 Macaulay who had newly arrived as Law Member of 
 Council, was appointed President to the Committee of 
 Public Instruction. On February 2nd, 1835, he penned 
 as Member of Council the famous minute which practically 
 decided the subject.
 
 xiv] CHAMPION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 3^3 
 
 " How stands the case ? " he wrote,' " \Vc have to 
 educate a people who cannot at present be educated by 
 means of their mother-ton^mc. We must teach them some 
 foreign language " — that is to say either English, or the 
 classical languages of India such as Sanskrit, Arabic, or 
 Persian, which were equally " foreign " to the common 
 people. "The question now before us is simply whether, 
 when it is in our power to teach this [English] language, 
 we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, 
 there are no books on any subject which deserve to be 
 compared to our own ; whether, when we can teach 
 European science, we shall teach systems which, by uni- 
 versal confession, whenever they differ from those of 
 Europe, differ for the worse ; and whether, when wc can 
 patronise sound philosophy and true history, we shall 
 countenance, at the public expense, medical doctrines 
 which would disgrace an English farrier, astronomy which 
 would move laughter in the girls at an English boarding- 
 school, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and 
 reigns thirty thousand years long, and geography made 
 up of seas of treacle and seas of butter." 
 
 Macaulay's powerful advocacy, with its mingled argu- 
 ment and sarcasm, carried the day with the Governor- 
 General. Lord William Bentinck issued a Resolution 
 declaring that the medium of higher State education in 
 India should be the English language. Hut Hodgson, in 
 his quiet retreat in Nepal, was neither convinced by the 
 arguments nor frightened by the wit of the brilliant new 
 Member of Council. To Macaulay's clear-cut conclusions, 
 formed after a few months' residence in Bengal, Hodgson 
 modestly but firmly opposed the views which he had 
 arrived at after nearly twenty years of Indian study and 
 experience. He published two letters in the Fncnd of 
 India, then the leading newspaper in Bengal, in which he 
 
 ' Minute in C<nincil, dated Kebniary 2nd, 1IS35, quoted in Sir George 
 Trevelyans Life and Letters of Miuauhiy, V'ol. I., pp. 401 and 40.:. 
 Ed. 1876.
 
 314 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 traversed the major premiss on which Macaulay's whole 
 argument rested.' Macaulay started by assuming that 
 " we have to educate a people who cannot at present be 
 educated by means of their mother-tongue," and he pre- 
 supposed the impossibility of giving sound instruction in 
 the classical languages of India. 
 
 " These assumptions," replied Hodgson, " appear to me 
 somewhat hasty and unfounded." He declared that the 
 true issue had not been stated. That issue, he maintained, 
 was not as between English and the ancient classical 
 languages of India, but as between English and the living 
 vernacular languages of India. Taking Bengali as an 
 example, " the language of thirty-seven millions," he pointed 
 out that it had already good dictionaries and grammars, 
 and possessed an adequate " precision and compass," while 
 its close relationship to Sanskrit afforded " means of 
 enrichment by new terms competent to express any 
 imaginable modification of thought.""" If any scheme of 
 public instruction were really to reach the Indian peoples, 
 it must take as its basis their mother-tongues. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply quotations. But these 
 words state so clearly the principle for which Hodgson 
 contended during the next twenty years, and which at 
 the end of those twenty years finally triumphed, that 
 amplification seems uncalled for. He was careful, however, 
 not to deny the possibility of English eventually becoming 
 the language of education in India. But he urged that 
 
 ' Two Letters on the Education of the People of India, by B. H. 
 Hodgson, dated August and September 1835 ; republished, with 
 further material, at the Serampur Press in 1837; again amplified and 
 republished as four letters in 1843; ^gain as seven letters in 1848; 
 and finally edited with additions in Hodgson's Collected Works 
 {Miscellaneous Essays Relating to hidian Subjects, Vol. II., 1888, 
 pp. 255 to 348). 
 
 - Letter No. I., dated August 1835. — YioAg^oxvs Miscellaneous Essays, 
 Vol. II., p. 264 (Triibner, 1880). I give references to this edition as it is 
 the one most available to the British public. But in each case I quote 
 from the original Indian edition of the letters.
 
 XIV.] CHAMPION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 315 
 
 SO great a revolution demanded an expenditure of money 
 and of force altogether beyond the powers of the Indian 
 Education Department at that time. " No one asserts," ' 
 he said, " that it is impossible to change the speech of 
 this vast continent. It is only contended that the attempt 
 is of all others the most difficult, and one for which your 
 means arc enormously disproportionate to the end. You 
 are a drop literally in the ocean ; and a drop, too, separated 
 from the mass of waters by the strongest antipathy." 
 
 As to the alleged " eagerness of the people of India to 
 drink our knowledge undiluted from the fountain-head of 
 English," Hodgson answered : " They cannot and they may 
 not so drink. They have neither the means, nor the will, 
 nor the permission to do so. The English language is 
 too costly for them. Let it be granted," which Hodgson 
 himself by no means granted, " that the first object is to 
 disenchant the popular mind of India. Do you propose 
 to break the spell which now binds it by the facilities and 
 attractions of the English language ? Or do you imagine 
 that those magicians to whom the spell is power and 
 wealth and honour unbounded, and whose vigilance has 
 maintained its unabated influence for three thousand years, 
 have, merely to serve your ends, been suddenly stricken 
 with infatuation ? To them belong the parents' minds ; 
 to the parents, the minds of the children." - 
 
 Hodgson further maintained that such a sudden awaken- 
 ing, even if possible, was not to be desired. He insisted 
 on the danger of artificially forcing on the education of 
 the higher classes, while the people at large vrerc left out 
 in the dark. So one-sided a .system, he urged, would arm 
 the few with a new power over the many. It would also, 
 at the cost of Government, rear up a vast class of English - 
 educated young men who would look to political or 
 official careers which the Government would be unable 
 
 ' Letter No. I. of 1S35. — Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II., p. 275. 
 Ed. 1880. 
 * Letter No. II. i^Vc^i'^).— Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II., pp. 291, 292.
 
 3l6 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 to provide for them. " For my part, I cannot help 
 thinking that the dilettante as well as exotic character 
 of the steps we have taken in the Educational Department 
 could not have had any other result than that of sending 
 forth a host of grandiloquent grumblers, as able to clamour 
 as unable to work." ' These words, be it remembered, he 
 wrote half a century ago. He maintained that not only 
 justice but expediency demanded that with this hot-house 
 education of the ambitious clerkly classes in India, the 
 instruction of the people should go hand-in-hand. For 
 such popular instruction he urged that the vernacular 
 languages formed the only possible instrument. 
 
 Hodgson clearly realised the difficulties of the scheme 
 which he thus propounded. He knew that an improved 
 vernacular education for India involved an improvement 
 alike in the methods and in the textbooks of the vernacular 
 schools. But he maintained that such improvements had 
 a claim at least equal to the claims of higher instruction 
 in English on " the small educational fund in the hands 
 of Government." " Though I give the mother-tongues of 
 the people the first and second place, I give English the 
 third ; and in my Normal College, which is not so much 
 an educational establishment as an indirect means of 
 making all such establishments efficient, I would have 
 the alumni equally versed in both tongues — their own 
 and ours." ^ 
 
 Finally, Hodgson maintained that not only justice and 
 political expediency but also the actual needs of the 
 Administration required the recognition of vernacular in- 
 struction. A leading object of English teaching was to 
 supply a " superior class of subordinate native function- 
 aries " who would conduct their duties in the English 
 language. " That notion," said Hodgson, " is founded 
 
 1 Letter No. V. (1848). — Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II., pp. 328, 329. 
 Ed. 1880. 
 
 - Letter No. IV. (1843). — Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II., p. 321. 
 Ed. 1880.
 
 xiv] CHAMPION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 317 
 
 upon a want of intimate information of the interior economy 
 of this country." The actual administration of India at 
 that time, and for many years to come, could only be 
 conducted in the languapjes of the people. " Whilst the 
 old class " of officials, wrote Hodgson, " are toiling in their 
 vocation from youth upwards, and thus slowly attaining 
 that cxqui.site skill in details which needs only the general 
 knowledge of Europeans for purposes of superintendence, 
 the new class are learning Shakespeare and Milton, Bacon 
 and Newton ; and with that sort of training only they are 
 despatched into the interior to become officials, possessed 
 of but a poor and mimicked semblance of our own peculiar 
 knowledge, though purchased at the expense of all their 
 own. Yet it is expected that grave men, responsible for 
 the weal of the country, should prefer the claims to office 
 of one of these young parrots to the claims of persons 
 growing grey in the constant discharge of the complex 
 peculiar duties of that all-important body of functionaries, 
 the professional scribes of the East, upon whose shoulders 
 from time immemorial has ever rested the real burden of 
 administration. If justice did not forbid such supersession, 
 expedience would. The Europeans cannot possibly dis- 
 pense with the old class of functionaries ; cannot possibly 
 get through the work with the help of the new class : and 
 thus the scheme which looks so well at Calcutta, finds no 
 serious approver or adopter in the interior." ' 
 
 The means by which Hodgson hoped to give effect to his 
 scheme were threefold. First, the recognition of the claims 
 of vernacular education along with those of English and 
 Sanskrit to State encouragement, and as far as the funds 
 permitted to State sui)port. Second, the production of 
 improved textbooks in the vernaculars which should impart 
 a sound instruction on the subjects with which they dealt. 
 Third, the training of vernacular teachers by Normal 
 Schools and " a Normal Vernacular College for .school- 
 
 ' Letter No. V. (1848). — Miscellaneous Essays, Vo!. 11., p. 328. 
 Ed. 1880.
 
 3l8 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 masters and translators." In short Hodgson advocated 
 popular education for India as opposed to a .system of 
 Engli.sh and Sanskrit education. He opposed the " infiltra- 
 tion theory " of Macaulay and Lord William Bcntinck by 
 which they hoped to see high education trickle downwards 
 from the favoured classes to the neglected ones. He 
 combatted the then dominant view that the duty of 
 Government was to create new institutions on its own 
 models rather than to develop the existing ones of native 
 growth. He powerfully opposed the accepted thesis " that 
 reconstruction and not improvement was the business of" 
 State education in Bengal.' 
 
 " You have an indigenous system of vernacular instruc- 
 tion," he urged again and again, " which has slowly and 
 naturally grown out of the wants of the people. Build 
 upon it." 
 
 In this view Hodgson received support from an un- 
 expected source. Up to 1835 it was but vaguely under- 
 stood that such a system of indigenous education did exist. 
 In 1835 the wide ramifications of that .system began for 
 the first time to be carefully explored. Mr. John Adam, 
 originally a missionary, issued the first of his three reports 
 containing the results of his inquiries in the Bengal districts 
 as to the number and the working of the indigenous 
 schools. The system which he advocated was based 
 essentially on the old village organisation of the Hindus." 
 Under that system each village had not only its head 
 and its accountant, but its carpenter, smith, potter, barber, 
 washerwoman, and last, although not least, its school- 
 master.^ Mr. Adam estimated that a hundred thousand 
 such schools existed in the Lower Provinces of Bengal 
 alone, and he earnestly pleaded for their recognition and 
 
 ' Mr. A. P. Howell's Note on Education in India, quoted Report of 
 hidiafi Educatio?t Commissimi of 1882, para. 32. 
 
 - The Rev. James Long's preface to the reprint of Mr. John Adam's 
 Reports, p. g. Home Secretariat Press, Calcutta, 1868. 
 
 ' The Guru Mahashay. 
 
 I
 
 XIV.] CHAMPION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 3 19 
 
 improvement.' He failed, however, at the time to secure 
 the support of the Government, which had then just 
 pledged itself to Macaulay's more ambitious scheme of 
 English education. " No general cflTort was, however, made 
 to assist or improve the indigenous schools until 1855."*'' 
 
 But although Mr. Adam failed in his immediate object, 
 the clear recognition that a widespread system of in- 
 digenous education existed by its own vitalit)' in Bengal 
 gave weight to Hodgson's pleadings in favour of vernacular 
 education. Hodgson's idea was to develop vernacular 
 instruction to a higher standard than that of the village 
 hedge-schools. Attempts had already been made in this 
 direction. At the beginning of the century Mr. Ellerton 
 established certain vernacular schools at Malda, and 
 devoted the leisure hours of his Indigo- Factory life to com- 
 posing Bengali books for the use of the pupils. In 18 14 
 Mr. May, a missionary, started a vernacular school in the 
 old Dutch fort of Chinsura, and at his too early death in 
 1 818 he left behind him thirty-six such schools with three 
 thousand pupils. 
 
 Other missionaries established a number of vernacular 
 schools in the rural districts. "Crowds attended the 
 schools. But their efforts, through not having suitable 
 successors, were not followed up."'' Captain Stewart, how- 
 ever, threw himself into the breach, and between 18 16 and 
 
 18 1 8 introduced printed books into the vernacular .schools, 
 notwithstanding the first alarms that the use of anything 
 save manuscript might destroy the children's caste. In 
 
 1 819 the Calcutta School Book Society* took up the work 
 with larger resources. 
 
 This promising period was soon overshadowed b}' the 
 all-absorbing controversy between the Anglicists and 
 
 ' Report of the Indian Education Commission 0/1882, para. 32. 
 
 » Idem. 
 
 ^ The Rev. James Long's preface to Mr. Jolin Adam's Reports, p. 2. 
 
 * Originally lounded in 1817. Several other philanthropists and 
 philanthropic societies contributed to the good work, conspicuously tlie 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge from about 1S22 onwards.
 
 320 LIFE OK BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 Orientalists. High English education and the "downward 
 infiltration theory " carried the day. The Council of 
 Education reiterated its decision " that our efforts should 
 be at first concentrated to the chief towns " " in the expec- 
 tation that through the agency of these scholars an edu- 
 cational reform will descend to the rural vernacular 
 schools." ' 
 
 But it was no longer with humble-minded missionaries 
 that the Department of State Education had now to con- 
 tend. Hodgson's distinguished services as a high political 
 officer and his European reputation as a scholar com- 
 pelled it to reconsider the views for which he so earnestly 
 and so persistently pleaded. By 1838 it began to be recog- 
 nised, not merely in Bengal but throughout all India, that 
 a new force was at work. The great missionary scholar 
 of Bombay, Dr. John Wilson, wrote in 1838 as follows: 
 " Mr. Hodgson's advocacy of the vernaculars is most 
 powerful and convincing. They must be the medium of 
 the regeneration of India, as they have been in every 
 country on the face of the globe." - 
 
 The Bengal authorities, although they shrank from so 
 complete a change of front, acknowledged the weight of 
 authority which was being arrayed against them. " No 
 one has more earnestly urged," says their Education 
 Report of 1838, "the duty of communicating European 
 knowledge to the natives than Mr. Hodgson ; no one has 
 more powerfully shown the importance of employing the 
 vernacular languages for accomplishing that object ; no 
 one has more eloquently illustrated the necessity of 
 conciliating the learned and of making them our coadjutors 
 in the great work of a nation's regeneration." ^ 
 
 Hodgson steadily went on with his work, and three 
 
 ' Quoted in the Rev. James Long's preface to Mr. John Adams 
 Reports, p. 12. 
 
 * Letter from Dr. John Wilson of Bombay to L. Wilkinson, Esq., 
 Political Agent at Bhopal, dated October 26th, 1838. 
 
 3 Third Report on Education in Bengal, p. 200 (1838).
 
 XIV.] CHAMPION OF VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 32 1 
 
 years later the victory was practically won. " The pro- 
 gress of the principles of Normal and vernacular education 
 cannot now be checked," Sir VV. O'Shaughncssy publicly 
 declared in 1841.' The actual facts "have deprived the 
 anti-vernacular party of even a pretext for advocating the 
 exclusive use cither of English or of the learned native 
 tongues. Let those who wish well to India, and desire 
 to see its inhabitants flourish in knowledge, visit the 
 secondary .schools of the New Medical College, and they 
 will sec the firstfruits of the Normal system. I have 
 felt it an imperative duty to publish these important facts. 
 It is the only contribution I can offer to the measures of 
 the eminent and wise philanthropist [Hodgson] under 
 whose auspices Normal instruction is now claiming public 
 support." 
 
 By this time Hodgson had definitely formulated his 
 demands for a Normal Vernacular College and for the 
 issue of improved vernacular textbooks by trained trans- 
 lators. The Anglo- Indian press, which had for some 
 time hesitated, struck in vigorously on his side. " It is a 
 plan," wrote the Calcutta Englishman in 1841,- "which 
 calls loudly for the support of Government, and we cannot 
 doubt that it will meet with the hearty concurrence of 
 the Home authorities and the Home public." Indeed the 
 Indian press now began to regard the tardiness of the 
 Committee of Public Instruction to carry out Hodgson's 
 views as a sign that it had got out of touch with the 
 times and required reformation. " The publication of Mr. 
 Hodgson's proposals," wrote the other leading journal of 
 Bengal in 1842, "to found a Normal College for training 
 translators and schoolmasters, and the noble support he 
 offers from his own purse (Rs. 5,0CXD), arc calculated to 
 give a new impulse to the flagging cause of Vernacular 
 Education, and to inspire the hope that a successful tfTort 
 
 ' Professor Sir VV. O'Shaughncssy 's Address to the Medical College, 
 Calcutta, November 17th, 1S41. 
 * October 30th. 
 
 21
 
 322 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 may yet be made, without waiting for the renovation of 
 the Committee of Public Instruction. If his plan can be 
 carried into execution, a beginning will have been made, 
 a very great point gained, and the introduction of 
 Vernacular Education before the lapse of another century 
 will be put beyond doubt." ^ 
 
 This result was destined to be accomplished long before 
 " the lapse of another century." The feeling that the then 
 existing system of public instruction was inadequate to 
 the needs of the people became a fixed conviction. The 
 reference by the EngHshman to the Home authorities was 
 founded upon a perception that the reform required a 
 stronger hand than was likely to be applied to it in India. 
 At length in 1854, after years of inquiry and consideration, 
 the Court of Directors spoke out in language which could 
 admit of no mistake. Its famous Despatch of that year 
 set forth, in the words of Lord Dalhousie, " a scheme of 
 education for all India, far wider and more comprehensive 
 than the Supreme or any Local Government could ever 
 have ventured to suggest."'^ While recognising the im- 
 portance of English instruction, it declared vernacular 
 education to be the basis of State education in India. 
 
 The Despatch of 1854 called the special attention of the 
 Indian Government to the question " how useful and prac- 
 tical knowledge, suited to every station in life, might be 
 best conveyed to the great mass of the people who are 
 utterly incapable of obtaining any education worthy of 
 the name by their own unaided efforts," and it desired 
 that "the active measures of Government should be more 
 specially directed for the future to this object." These 
 instructions were reiterated again and again by the Home 
 authorities from 1854 onwards, just as Hodgson had again 
 and again reiterated the arguments on which they were 
 founded during the preceding twenty years. " The resources 
 
 ' The Friend of India, October 7th, 1842. 
 
 * Proceedings of the Government of India in the Home Department, 
 dated February 3rd, 1882.
 
 XIV.] 
 
 of the State," runs a Despatch of 1864, "ought to be so 
 applied as to assist those who cannot be expected to help 
 themselves ; and the richer classes of the people should 
 gradually be induced to provide for their own education." ' 
 
 But a change takes place slowly in India ; and however 
 urL^ent we may be for our own individual reforms, it is well 
 for India and for its British Government that chani^e does 
 very slowly take place The traditions of the Public 
 In.^truction authorities were in favour of the higher luv^lish 
 instruction, and vernacular education for a time remained 
 a step-child of the Department. " Thirty years ago," said 
 the President of the Bengal Asiatic Society in 1866, " Mr. 
 Hodgson most ably advocated the pre-eminence of the 
 vernaculars in a series of letters, the arguments of which 
 still remain unanswered."" Four years later a petition 
 from certain nobles and gentlemen of Bengal to the 
 Governor-General found it again necessary to insist on 
 this view. " We have no resource but to adopt the ver- 
 nacular as the medium for the communication to the 
 people generally of European learning, and we would do 
 well to bear in mind the observations of Mr. Hodgson on " 
 " the diffusion of knowledge in India. " ^ 
 
 It was not, however, till 1883 that Mr. Hodgson's views 
 received their full development at the hands of the Govern- 
 ment of India. Mr. Hodgson was by that time an old 
 man in his eighty-fourth year. But I can personally 
 testify, as President of the Commission which then made 
 broad the foundations of State education in India, that his 
 interest in the question was unabated. Our instructions 
 from the Supreme Government were to so reorgani.sc 
 education in India that "the different branches of public 
 instruction should if possible move forward together, 
 and with more equal step than hitherto. The principal 
 
 ' Despatch from the Secretary of State to the Govoninient of India, 
 No. 13, dated April 25th, 1864. 
 
 * President's Address at the Meeting of May i86(>. 
 
 ^ Education Return to the House of Commons, July 1870, p. 319.
 
 324 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. xiv. 
 
 object therefore of the inquiry of the Commission should 
 be the present state of elementary education throughout 
 the [Indian] Empire, and the means by which this can 
 everywhere be extended and improved." ^ 
 
 It is not needful to detail the steps by which effect was 
 given to these instructions. It must suffice to say that, 
 after visiting each of the great provinces of India, examin- 
 ing a hundred and ninety-three witnesses, and consider- 
 ing three hundred and twenty-three memorials signed 
 by over a quarter of a million of persons, a plan was 
 carefully worked out. The vernacular languages were 
 definitely recognised as the medium of instruction, not 
 only in the indigenous and primary schools, but also in 
 a great part of the curriculum of secondary education. 
 Hodgson's views received a precision and an extension 
 which, when he began his advocacy of popular education 
 fifty years previously, he had not dared to hope for. The 
 primary schools ceased to be regarded as mere nurseries 
 for forcing up little boys into English-teaching institutions. 
 The Commission definitely declared " that primary educa- 
 tion be regarded as the instruction of the masses, through 
 the vernacular, in such subjects as will best fit them for 
 their position in life, and be not necessarily regarded as a 
 portion of instruction leading up to the University." ^ 
 
 Of the four million pupils in Indian schools and colleges 
 recognised by the State in the last year of Hodgson's life, 
 three and a half millions ' were receiving education entirely 
 in the vernacular, and the remainder partly in the ver- 
 nacular and partly in the English language. This was the 
 result for which Hodgson began to labour as a young man 
 of thirty-five, and which he saw accomplished at the age of 
 ninety-four. 
 
 ' Resolution of the Government of India, dated February 3rd, 1882, 
 para. 8. 
 
 ' Indian Education Commission's Report of 1883, para. 676. 
 
 3 Parliamentary Statistical Abstract Relating to British India, for 
 
 1893-4.
 
 [ 3^5 ] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CONCLUSION : LAST YEARS. 
 
 WE have seen that his wife's failing health induced 
 Hodgson to quit India for good in 1858. But an- 
 other reason also weighed heavily with him. His mother 
 had died in 1851, and his father, old and solitary, pined for 
 the companionship of his only remaining son. Such 
 pleadings from a father of ninety-two are difficult to 
 resist : with a devoted son like Hodgson they were 
 irresistible. He had intended to complete the materials 
 for his History of Nepal during another year in Darjiling, 
 and, having sent home Mrs. Hodgson in 1857, to follow her 
 at the end of 1858 or early in 1859. But on receiving 
 the news of his father's illness he resolved to sail for 
 Europe at once. 
 
 " The General ^ and Ellen's letters just to hand," he 
 wrote to his wife at the end of 1857, "speak most 
 despondently of my father's state, and of the ardent hopes 
 he has of my speedy presence. So 1 must cast away my 
 long-cherished ambition of writing that History of Nepal 
 for which I have been collecting materials during half my 
 life, and ha.sten to do my duty to those most dear to me. 
 I shall hardly have a month at Darjiling, and must then 
 hurry down to Calcutta to prepare for my voyage." 
 
 Hodg.son knew well that this sudden departure meant 
 the frustration of his life's work. The manu.scripts which 
 he had already collected for the History of Nepal tilled 
 three large boxes and arc .set forth in Appendix B. I^ut 
 
 ' General the Baron Huibert Gerard Nahuys, wlio married Hodgson's 
 sister Ellen.
 
 326 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 although copious they were not yet complete, and they 
 failed to furnish a continuous narrative. Hodgson had 
 however the satisfaction of knowing that, although too late 
 to sec his father alive, he had done his utmost to gratify 
 his last wish. The old man died in January 1858, at the 
 age of ninety-two. 
 
 Hodgson had counted the cost, and he paid it without a 
 murmur. He had already distributed his other collections, 
 manuscripts and zoological specimens and drawings, to 
 the great libraries and museums of England and the 
 Continent. On his return to Europe he found a new 
 generation of scholars at work on them, and he deemed it 
 unfitting to reappear as a competitor in a field on which he 
 had won triumphs forty years before. The same con- 
 siderations influenced his decision in regard to the History 
 of Nepal. Dr. Oldfield, appointed Residency Surgeon in 
 Nepal in 1850, seven years after Hodgson had completed 
 his long term as Resident and retired from the public 
 service, was already amassing materials for the two post- 
 humous volumes which bear his name.^ Before long an 
 investigator more laborious and more exact, Dr. Daniel 
 Wright, was appointed to the same post as Surgeon to 
 the Resident at Kathmandu." Other inquirers into the 
 Nepalesc annals also began to appear on the scene. 
 Hodgson felt that it would be alike undignified and un- 
 generous for him to enter the lists against these younger 
 men. He accordingly, as we have seen,^ made over his 
 collections for a History of Nepal to the India Office 
 Library in 1864, for the use of all workers in the field of 
 Nepalese research. In this act as in every other, his single 
 thought was not to win fame for himself, but to render his 
 original collections available to the world of scholars. 
 
 ' Sketches from Ncpal^ Historical and Descriptive^ by the late Henry 
 Ambrose Oldfield, M.D. 2 Vols., London, 1880. 
 
 - His work, a History of Nepal from the Parbataya and other native 
 chronicles, is still the standard account of the Nepalese dynasties. 
 Cambridge University Press, 1877. ^ Ante, pp. 268, 269.
 
 XV.] CONCLUSION. 32/ 
 
 With this gift to the India Office in 1864, Hodgson's 
 life as a public worker comes to an end. It is only with 
 his life as a worker that the present volume deals. In 
 regard to the thirty years of private happiness that still 
 lay before him, he himself would have desired me to be 
 brief. For he felt strongly that a man's claim to recogni- 
 tion from the world is the work which he does for the 
 world. 
 
 The fewest words, therefore, are best. On his arrival 
 in England in 1858, he had the reward of seeing his wife 
 recover her strength, and of himself starting on a new life 
 of robust health such as he had never before known. The 
 truth seems to be that the Hodgson constitution was 
 peculiarly liable to the complaints incident to the Indian 
 climate. His two brothers died young of Indian fever on 
 the plains ; he only managed to keep himself alive through 
 a life-long struggle with fever and liver by residence in 
 the hills. On the other hand, the family constitution had 
 unusual powers of resistance to the ailments which shorten 
 human life in the temperate zone. His si.x immediate 
 progenitors, male and female, averaged the great age of 
 eighty-five years, the youngest among them dying at 
 seventy-five. When set free from the unfavourable con- 
 ditions in India which had killed his two brothers, his 
 constitution reasserted its hereditary vigour, and he ex- 
 ceeded even the family term of longevity, by living in 
 perfect health and with all his faculties complete to the 
 age of ninety-four. 
 
 On his return to England he took up his abode at The 
 Rangers, Dursley, in Gloucestershire ; partly to be near 
 his wife's parents who lived at Cheltenham. In 1867 he 
 migrated to the beautiful Grange at Alderley under the 
 Cotswold Hills, and there he spent the remainder of his 
 days. In January 1868 he underwent a great sorrow — the 
 loss of his wife. Her father and mother, General and Mrs. 
 Scott, had formed a vcr)' united family with the Hodgsons
 
 328 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 since the return of the latter from India, and both the 
 father and mother died in his house.^ In the second year 
 of his widowerhood he married Susan, daughter of the 
 Rev. Chambre Tovvnshend of Derry, County Cork, and 
 granddaughter of General Oliver, R.A. Twenty-five years 
 of married life still lay before him — a life of unclouded 
 happiness with a wife capable of sharing his interests, 
 much younger than himself, yet devoted to him with 
 the perfect affection which noble natures inspire and 
 feel. 
 
 It was in 1868 that I became acquainted with Hodgson. 
 I was then a young Indian civilian at home on sick-leave, 
 and writing a book on the non-Aryan races of Bengal. 
 I can never forget the first impression which he made 
 upon me. His tall spare figure, finely cut features, 
 ruddy cheeks, abundant grey hair, military moustache, 
 and a certain air of distinction with which he held him- 
 self erect as he stood welcoming me on his door-step, 
 by no means suggested the venerable scholar whom I 
 had always associated with his name. He might have 
 been a famous general, or an ambassador in retreat, or a 
 country gentleman of the courtly school who had kept 
 his figure at its best by field-sports — in fact anything 
 rather than the learned recluse who had made a European 
 reputation long before I was born. 
 
 As I came to know him better I found that his charm 
 of manner concealed a wealth of erudition which, living 
 as he did among country neighbours, he was shy of dis- 
 
 ' The Family Tablet of the Scotts in Londonderry Cathedral thus 
 records their deaths : — 
 
 " Sacred to the Memory of Anne, the beloved Wife of Lient.-General 
 H. A. Scott, Royal Artillery, Daughter of Robert Alexander, Esq., of 
 Boomhall near this city, died at The Rangers, Dursley, Sept. i8th, 1865, 
 aged 85. 
 
 "And of the aforesaid General H. A. Scott, R.A., who died at the 
 Grange, Alderley, Gloucestershire, August ist, 1868, aged 89. 
 
 "And of Annie his daughter, Wife of B. H. Hodgson, Esq., Retired 
 List of the Bengal Civil Service, who died also at the Grange, Jan. 3rd, 
 1868, aged 52."
 
 A7i^^^
 
 XV.] CONCLUSION. 329 
 
 closing. His memory was singularly retentive, full of the 
 incidents of a period which to me seemed already historical, 
 yet keenly alive to every new interest, scholarly, political, 
 and artistic, of the hour. He formed a most attractive 
 link between the present and the past. At times he poured 
 out recollections of the heroic days of the East India 
 Company ; at others he would discuss the last new book, 
 or the Volunteer movement, of which he was a generous 
 supporter from its commencement, or the most recent 
 phase in home and Continental politics. Often the only 
 liberal in the company of strongly conservative squires, 
 whenever Gladstone's name was mentioned at his table, he 
 would lift his glass with a courteous smile to his opponents 
 around him, and say in a gentle voice, " Here's to 
 Gladstone ! God bless him : the greatest statesman of the 
 day." 
 
 His politics and his scholarship he kept, as a rule, for 
 his friends. His courtesy was for all men. Whether 
 people differed from him or not, they could not help 
 admiring him. He was popular in the hunting field, and 
 rode with two packs of hounds until the last of several 
 accidents at the age of sixty-eight — a concussion of the 
 brain. He lived the pleasant life of a country gentleman 
 with a good stable, an annual visit to London, and during 
 his later years the Riviera in spring. In 1 883 he and Mrs. 
 Hodgson built for themselves a permanent home for the 
 winter months at Mentone— the " Villa Himalaya" nestled 
 among flowers and lemon-groves, and commanding a noble 
 view of mountains and sea. 
 
 His public appearances were rare. In 1874 he took 
 part in a deputation, on the opening up of trade with 
 Tibet, to the Duke of Argyll, then Secretary of State for 
 India. But his true life lay in his Gloucestershire home. 
 Its fine old gardens were a constant delight to him, and 
 he seldom returned from his morning's ramble without 
 an armful of flowers. He lived in the open air. Many 
 an hour of quiet reading he spent under the shade of a
 
 330 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 noble mulberry tree, enriching the margins of his books 
 with erudite notes on a little table by his armchair. 
 Although he did not hunt after the age of sixty-eight, he 
 continued a vigorous horseman until eighty. He rode 
 up to eighty-six, familiar with every gate and bridle-path 
 of the lovely country along the edge and spurs of the 
 Cotswolds. He was happy in his neighbours, his nearest 
 ones being the old Gloucestershire family of Hale, dis- 
 tinguished in the army and the Church and descended 
 from the famous Sir Matthew Hale. The eminent lawyer, 
 Attorney-General Sir John Rolt, lived at Ozleworth not 
 far off. Miss North, whose collection of flower-paintings 
 occupy a special house at Kew built at her own expense, 
 passed her closing years in a home and garden filled 
 with her favourite exotics, a few minutes' walk from the 
 Grange. 
 
 To the Grange itself came many visitors famous in 
 their own paths of life. Sir Joseph Hooker, President of 
 the Royal Society, Sir Henry Yule, the finest Indian 
 historical scholar of our day, Sir Donald McLeod who had 
 splendidly governed the Punjab, Sir Walter Elliot from 
 the Scottish border. Professor Max Miiller from Oxford, 
 Professor Cowell from Cambridge, Dr. Needham Cust, Sir 
 James Colvile, President of the Bengal Asiatic Society, 
 and Arthur Grote, President of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
 were a few of the men of note who made Alderley Grange 
 unique in its way among English country homes. Hodgson 
 had the rare gift of attaching to himself young men. As 
 his older friends dropped off a new generation of scholars 
 seemed to spring up in their places — Professor Bendall of 
 the British Museum, Professor T. Miller of Strasburg, 
 Professor Tawney, and many others. 
 
 The summer months spent in London, or at a charming 
 residence at Wimbledon, kept Hodgson abreast with the 
 outside world. His winters on the Riviera were made 
 bright by groups of friends, some of them the sons or 
 grandsons of the men who had welcomed him into the
 
 XV.] CONCLUSION. 33 ^ 
 
 world of European scholarship more than half a century 
 before. Renan, one of his latest visitors, used to say that 
 it was from his great master Burnouf that he had learned 
 to reverence the name of Brian Hodgson. Gcorg von 
 Bunsen maintained unbroken the friendship which his 
 father had bequeathed to him with the Darjiling recluse. 
 The more distinguished of the English colony on the 
 Riviera also flocked around the picturesque old scholar : 
 soldiers like General Chamberlain and General Sir Montagu 
 McMurdo ; diplomatists and famous frontier officers like 
 Sir Lewis Pelly and Sir Donald MacNabb ; philologcrs, 
 historians, and political economists like Sir Monier Williams, 
 Lord Acton, and Sir Louis Mallet. 
 
 To the very last he had the faculty of making new 
 friends. Count Angelo di Gubernatis, after meeting 
 Hodgson at Florence in 1883, wrote: "It was a real 
 festa to us all to make the acquaintance of such a man, 
 so eminent, so simple, and so good." The eager interest 
 which he took in everything on his travels was very 
 striking. At eighty-two he went on a pilgrimage to 
 Horace's Farm in the Sabine Hills, and made many-sided 
 notes on the historical and classical associations of ancient 
 and mediiEval Rome. 
 
 Scarcely less striking was his intense love of nature. 
 The wooded clefts of the Cotswolds or the rich expanse 
 of the golden valley of the Severn in summer, and the 
 daily drive in the perfect winter climate of Mentone, were 
 to him a constant delight. When over ninety he would 
 never fail to watch the sun setting across the Mediter- 
 ranean, softly repeating to himself Byron's lines : — 
 
 " Parting day 
 Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues 
 With a new colour as it gasps away, 
 The last still loveliest, till — 'tis gone — and all is gray." ' 
 
 In home-life he was a pattern of courtesy. His servants 
 ' Childe Harold, Canto IV., stanza xxix.
 
 332 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 both in India and in England were devoted to him, and 
 scarcely ever left him except in the case of marriages or 
 deaths. If anything occurred to fret him he never allowed 
 himself to utter a hasty word, but went quietly to his own 
 room and remained there. " It is good," he used to say on 
 such occasions, " to commune with your own heart and be 
 still." He was not inclined to discuss religious subjects, 
 and would sometimes repress unwarranted attempts to 
 draw him out by quietly observing, " I do not care to talk 
 about the unknowable." The assumption of exclusive 
 salvation sometimes put forward by British Christians 
 made him indignant. Almost the only retort he ever made 
 was to the sneer of a worthy Dean who questioned whether 
 there was anything in Buddhism. " Sir," replied Hodgson, 
 *' Buddhism is simply the creed most widely spread over 
 the face of the earth. It has more followers than any other 
 religion in the world, and it is older than our own. It has 
 a vast and learned literature. Perhaps you might find it 
 not unworthy of the attention of an educated man or even 
 of a dignitary of the Church." 
 
 During the whole period that I knew him, the last 
 twenty-five years of his life, he had reached a calm beyond 
 the perturbations of worldly ambitions and honours. It 
 was only by accident that one would have discovered that 
 the genial and dignified host at Alderley was an honoured 
 member of the most exclusive Societies of Europe. I 
 doubt, indeed, whether any Englishman of our century 
 received distinctions from so many learned bodies repre- 
 senting both the scientific and the scholarly sides of 
 research. Certainly no Englishman who spent his life in 
 India has ever done so. Those who knew Hodgson best 
 thought of the man himself, and very little of the rewards 
 that might have come to him. But to those who did not 
 know him, this Life would be incomplete without a reference 
 to the recognitions conferred on him — from the Member- 
 ship of the Institute of France, and the Fellowship of the 
 Royal Society in England, to the Honorary Membership
 
 ! HodosnDPiiu- 
 
 169 I - /ETAT 9 I
 
 XV.] CONCLUSION. 333 
 
 of the great Societies of Italy, Germany, America, and 
 India.' 
 
 It was a reputation not confined, however, to the 
 honours' lists of learned bodies. Hodgson had a living 
 existence in the world of younger scholars and naturalists 
 as remarkable as his own personal vitality in old age. In 
 the animal kingdom many species and genera of mammals 
 and birds bear his name.-' In the vegetable kingdom he 
 is remembered by the genus Hod<:;sonia Jieteroclita and 
 by the beautiful rhododendron which Sir Joseph Hooker 
 dedicated to him. Almost every work on Indian Buddhism. 
 Indian ethnology, or the non- Aryan languages of India 
 written during the past three-quarters of a century begins 
 by grateful acknowledgments of his labours. The re- 
 ferences to him in the writings of Professor Max MuUer 
 —the Orientalist of genius of our age — would make a 
 little index by themselves. The epoch-making Buddhist 
 treatise of the first half of the century— Burnoufs Lotus 
 
 ' The following is a list of some of them, arranged in order of 
 
 time : — 
 
 1828. Corresponding Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great 
 
 Britain. Vice-President of the Society 1876. 
 1832. Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society, London. 
 Received their medal 1859. 
 
 1834. Corresponding Member of the Academy of Science, Turin. 
 
 1835. Fellow of Linnean Society. 
 
 1837. Corresponding Member of the 5^a>7r'/5[j/<z/^«<'</^/'«n'S: Gold 
 
 Medal. 
 
 1838. Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 
 
 1844. Corresponding Member of the Institut dc France. 
 
 1845. Honorary Member of the Natural History Society of Frankfort. 
 
 1845. Honorary Member of the Natural History Society of Man- 
 
 chester. 
 
 1846. Honorary Fellow of the Ethnological Society, London. 
 1854. Honorary Member of the Asiatic Society, Bengal. 
 
 1858. Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society, New 
 
 York. 
 1862. Honorary Member of the German Oriental Society. 
 1877. Fellow of the Royal Society. 
 1889. Honorary D.C.L., Oxford. 
 » See Appendix D, pp. 37^-378.
 
 334 LIFE OF BRIAN HODGSON. [chap. 
 
 de la Boftne LoP — was dedicated to him. One of the 
 greatest works on Indian ornithology published in the 
 second half of the century was dedicated to him.' Twenty- 
 five years ago, at a time when his personality was .still 
 .somewhat dim to me, I dedicated my book on the Bengal 
 Musalmans to him as the Indian scholar who had "most 
 fully recognised the duty of studying the people." 
 
 His earthly honours are past. His memory and his 
 example live. He had the art of beautifully growing old, 
 and perhaps the best reward that life can give — a loved and 
 loving old age. After eighty-five his memory began to lose 
 its middle distance, but to the end he preserved his keen 
 intelligence as to the present and rich stores of recollections 
 of the more distant past. If a regret ever crossed his mind, 
 it was a self-questioning whether he had used to the end 
 his powers of labour. The publication of his Collected 
 Works in three volumes after the age of seventy-four would 
 have .satisfied the conscience of most men. When his old 
 friend Sir Joseph Hooker, on his last visit to him the day 
 but one before his death, gave a sigh over all the unfinished 
 work he, Sir Joseph, had on hand, Hodgson exclaimed, 
 " Do not complain of work ! Thank God you have got it 
 to do, and can do it. The hardest work of all is idleness." 
 On a previous occasion : " I would not like to be thought 
 an idler. I have done work in my day. It is now time 
 for me to stand aside, and leave it to younger men. I 
 have received my due, and more than my due, for anything 
 that I have done." 
 
 With these words I may fitly end this book, which is 
 only a narrative of work. The nearer and dearer relation- 
 ships of a life which has so recently closed are not for the 
 public eye. From such publicity he himself would have 
 shrunk. When asked if he would like a gathering of 
 
 ^ Published posthumously by the French Government, a I'lmprimerie 
 Nationale, in 1852. 
 
 ^ The Game liirds of India, Burma, and Ceylon, by Hume and 
 Marshall. Calcutta, 1879, and in subsequent years.
 
 XV.] CONCLUSION. 335 
 
 friends for his silver wedding, which took place about a 
 month before his death, he replied, " No, it is a festival of 
 the heart, and sacred to ourselves." She who knew him 
 best writes : " More than all that he did was what he 
 was in himself. The simplicity and nobility of his nature 
 most of all impressed me. He was one of those men with 
 whom you felt that eveiy word came from the heart." 
 Any praise of his work or congratulations on his wonderful 
 vigour in old age he always gently put aside, with Xdpirt 
 Be 0eov elfjbi 6 elfiL, " By the grace of God I am what 1 
 am." 
 
 He passed away painlessly on May 23rd, 1894, in his 
 ninety-fifth year, and lies buried in the quiet churchyard 
 of Alderley. 
 
 THE KND.
 
 [ r:>7 ] 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The manuscripts collected by Mr. B. H. Hodgson may be arranged 
 under the following four heads : — 
 
 I, Sanskrit Buddhist Works (144 Vols.).' 
 
 Discovered by Mr. Hodgson in Nepal in 1824, and distributed as 
 follows between 1827 and 1845 • — 
 
 MSS 
 VI. (rt) To Calcutta, in 1827. Given originally to Library 
 
 of Fort William (now in Bengal Asiatic Society's 
 
 Library) 66 
 
 Vn. To Calcutta. Library of Asiatic Society of Bengal 
 
 (some of these were copies made for the Society) 94 
 
 L (<i) To Royal Asiatic Society of London, 1835-36 . 79 
 
 n. {c) To India Office Library, London . . 30 
 
 IV. (</) To the Bodleian Library, Oxford .... 7 
 
 ic) To Paris— 
 
 VIII. Given to SociC'te Asiatique- . . .24 
 
 V. Copied for them 64 
 
 111. Given to Burnouf 59 
 
 The two latter collections are now in Bibliotheque N'ationalc 
 
 Total .423 
 
 Note by B. H. //0(igS(j//.—S.li.—ln 1844, on my nturn to India, I g:\ve .-\ll 
 my sasiras to Burnouf. These latter were on Uurnouf s death purchased hy the 
 French Government, and are now in the Bibliotheque Nationalr at P.ii is. 
 
 ' For the list of these works, see reprint of Mr. Hodgson's Esijys ( Irubnor, 
 1874), pages 36 to 39. Most of them are forthcoming in the lists of distributions 
 that follow. -B. II. 11. 
 
 2 Professor Cowell writes, Febru.iry, 1880, to Mr. B. li. Hodgson: " Twenty- 
 four more are mentioned ;us also received in the same Journal, Vol. HI., p. 316, 
 but no catalogue is given. I have a private list of Iheni. These arc still in the 
 library of Soci<5t<5 Asiatique." For list see page 353. 
 
 22
 
 338 APPENDIX A. 
 
 2. Tibetan Translations of the above MSS. 
 
 A. Complete Copy of the Kahgyur (Kanjiir) and Stangyur (Tanjur), 
 or Sacred Codes of Tibet (334 Vols.). 
 
 This superb edition was procured by Mr. Hodgson in 1838 from 
 the Grand Lama of Tibet, and is now deposited in the India Office 
 Library. 
 
 B. The Yum, or Tibetan Translation of the Prajna Paramita (Folio, 
 5 Vols.).' 
 
 Procured by Mr. Hodgson in Nepal, and given by him to the British 
 Museum - in 1845. 
 
 C. Various Tibetan Translations presented to Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal. 
 
 3. A Mass of MSS., mostly in Sanskrit, Explanatory of the 
 Buddhist Drawings, presented to France in 1858.^ Now in the Library 
 of the French Institute. 
 
 4. A Large Collection of MSS. in Sanskrit, Newari, Persian, 
 AND English, amassed during Mr. Hodgson's residence in Nepal, 
 for the full exposition of the history, institutions, races and tongues, 
 revenue and commerce, of that country. Presented to the Secretary 
 of State for India in 1864, and now deposited in the India Office 
 Library. 
 
 The following lists show the names of the Sanskrit manuscripts 
 distributed by Mr. Hodgson, and their places of deposit, so far as 
 can now be ascertained.' 
 
 ' A and Bare not MSS., but stereotype print, beautifully executed — the alphabet, 
 like the substance, derived from India, the printing from China. B is the large 
 version of the original or Sata-sahas-rika. — AWf by B. H. H. 
 
 * I make this statement on the authority of Mrs. Hodgson. 
 
 ^ See Journal des Sava/i/s for 1863. 
 
 ■• I have to thank Professor Max Miiller, Professor Cowell, Mr. Bendall, and 
 Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, for their kind assistance in the compilation of these lists. The 
 original transliteration is preserved in each of the lists ; but the names are rendered 
 uniformly (on the Clarendon Press system) in the alphabetical index at the end.
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN ROYAL ASIATIC LIBRARY. 339 
 
 CATALOGUES OF HODGSON COLLECTION OF 
 
 SANSKRIT MANl'SCRIPTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 Hodgson MSS. /;/ the Royal Asiatic Society's Library, catalogued 
 
 by Professors Cowell and Eggeling, and published in the 
 
 Journal of the Society, Vol. VIII., Nciu Series (1876). 
 
 The manuscripts of Buddhist works described in the following pages 
 were collected in Nepal by Mr. Brian Houghton Hodgson, and presented 
 by him to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1835 and 1836. The great im- 
 portance of a thorough examination of the Buddhist Sanskrit works of 
 Northern India, both for Prakrit philology and for Buddhist research, is 
 becoming more and more apparent ; and it seemed very desirable that 
 the contents of this collection, which, though deficient in many of the 
 standard works, is perhaps the finest of original manuscripts in Europe, 
 should become better known to scholars interested in these inquiries. 
 A detailed analysis' of the works was beyond the scope of the present 
 catalogue, as it would in many cases be extremely difficult, if not impos- 
 sible, without comparing other copies. It is hoped, however, that the 
 brief description now offered will, at least, suffice for the identification of 
 the works, and will lor that reason be acceptable to Sanskrit scholars. 
 
 The Ncwar era, in which many of these MSS. are dated, commenced 
 in October, 880 a.d. This number has accordingly to be added to 
 the Nepal date to obtain the corresponding Christian year. 
 
 The material of tlie MSS. consists of Indian paper, unless otherwise 
 stated. By modem MSS. are intended such as appear to have been 
 written within the present century. 
 
 N.B. — Mrs. Hodgson has kindly undertaken the responsibility for re- 
 vising the following Lists and the special Inde.\ to them— including their 
 orthography. They are reproduced substantially from my published 
 Catalogue of Sanskfit Manuscripts collected in Nepal by Brian Houghton 
 Hodgson, Esq., F.R.S. (Triibner, 18S1). 
 
 1. Ashtasahasrika Prajnapanimita.— Complete in thirty-two chapters. 
 
 204 palm leaves. 22i in. by 2i in. Si.\ lines in a page. Old. 
 
 2. Ganda-vyuha.— 289 palm leaves. 22A in. by 2 in. Si.x lines in 
 
 a page. 
 
 3. Dasabhumisvara.— 137 leaves (paper). 14^ in. by 3 in. Five lines 
 
 in a page. Modern MS. 
 
 4. Samadhiraja. — 219 leaves. 13I in. by 3A in. Six lines in a page. 
 
 Dated Samvat 920 (a.d. 1800). 
 
 ' This analysis has been in good part since made by K.ijcndra I^ila Milra, 
 in his Nf palest Sanskrit AfSS.
 
 340 APPENDIX A. 
 
 5. Saddharmalankavatara-Mahayanasutram. — 157 leaves. I4i in. by 
 
 3I in. Six lines in a page. Modern MS. 
 
 6. Saddharmapundarika. — 174 leaves. 17 in. by 3 in. Six lines in 
 
 a page. Modern. 
 
 7. Lalitavistara. — 320 leaves. 15] in. by 3 in. Six lines in a page. 
 
 Dated SanivatZj'^ (a,d. 1755). 
 
 8. Suvarnaprabhasa. — 86 leaves. 13 in. by 3^ in. Six lines in a page. 
 
 Dated Satnvat 942. 
 
 9. Mahavastuavadanam. — 360 leaves. 17 in. by 54 in. Eleven lines 
 
 in a page. Dated Samvat ()'},'i (a.d. 1813). 
 
 10. Ratnapariksha by Buddhabhatacharya. — 35 leaves. 13 in. by 2^ in. 
 
 Dated Satnvat 764 (a.d. 1644). 
 A treatise on gems and precious stones (Hera, vaidurya, etc.). 
 
 11. Sarvakatadanavadanani. — 20 leaves. lo.V in. b}' i\ in. Five lines 
 
 in a page. Dated Sattivat 916 (a.d. 1796). Wanting fol. 18. 
 
 12. Sugatavadanam. — In twelve chapters. 85 leaves. 12 in. by 2| in. 
 
 Five lines in a page. Modern MS. 
 
 13. Bodhicharyavatara. — In ten parichchhedas . 47 palm leaves. \i\ 
 
 in. by i| in. Five lines in a page. Old. The shape of the 
 figures and of some letters is very peculiar. 
 
 14. Asvaghosha-Nandimukha-Avadanam [? Vasudharavratam]. — 52 
 
 leaves. i\\ in. by 3^ in. Six lines in a page. Modern MS. 
 Very incorrect. 
 
 15. Uposhadhavadanam and Doshanirnayavadanam. — 22 leaves. 14A 
 
 in. by 3 in. Five to seven lines in a page. Modern Foil. 1-14, 
 16 and 22 have been supplied by a later hand. 
 
 16. Syama-Jatakam and Kinnari-Jatakam. — 39 leaves. 14^ in. by 35 
 
 in. Seven lines in a page. Modern. 
 
 17. Svayambhupuranam. — 20 leaves. 13 in. by 2| in. Six lines in a 
 
 page. Dated 5"«wz/rt/ 77 1 (a.d. 1651). 
 
 18. Mahat-Svayambhupuranam. — In eight adhyayas, corresponding with 
 
 the chapters of the preceding work. 173 leaves, numbered 1-69, 
 90-193. 13 in. by 4^ in. Six lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 19. Gunakarandavyuha. — 205 leaves. i6| in. by 3 in. Five lines in 
 
 a page. Dated Satnvat (^27 (a.d. 1807). 
 
 20. Sukhavativyuha-Mahayanasutram. — 65 leaves. loi in. by 3 in. 
 
 Five or six lines in a page. Dated Satnvat (^2)A (a.d. 1814). 
 
 21. Karunapundarika-Mahayanasutram. — 204 leaves. 14 in. by 3I in. 
 
 Six lines in a page. Dated Satnvat 916 (a.d. 1796). 
 
 22. Chaityapungava. — 12 leaves, paged 12 to 34. 13 in. by 3 in. Five 
 
 lines in a page. 
 
 23. Madiiyama-Svayambhupurana (? thus outside), or (?) Svayambhud- 
 
 desa. — In ten chapters. 107 leaves. 13^ in. by 3j in. Five 
 lines in a page. Modern writing.
 
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN' ROYAL ASIATIC LIBRARY. 34 1 
 
 24. Karandavyuha-Mahayanasutram. — 138 leaves. loi in. by 3 in 
 
 Five lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 25. Vadikavadanam and Gandharvikavadaiiam. — 31 leaves. 11^ in. by 
 
 3I in. Six lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 26. Punyaprotsalianam (?). — 24 leaves, loi in. by 4 in. .Si.x to eight 
 
 lines in a page. Dated Samva/ gOj (a.d. 1785). 
 
 27. Dvavimsati-(punyotsaha-)avadanam. — 108 leaves. 13 in. by 2^ in. 
 
 Six lines in a page. Written in the latter part of last century. 
 
 28. Lokesvarasatakam by Vajradatta. — 26 leaves, gin. by 2] in. Five 
 
 lines in a page. Dated Samvat jG^. (a.d. 1644). 
 
 29. Sragdharastotram with Tika. — Thirty-seven sections. 39 leaves. 
 
 7] in. by 3] in. Five lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 30. Stotrasangraha. — 14 leaves. 8| in. by 2| in. Five or six lines in 
 
 a page. Modern writing. 
 
 31. Bhadrakalpavadana-Stotrasangraha. — 46 leaves in one continuous 
 
 roll, the writing covering 69 pages, "k in. by 2>\ in. Six lines 
 in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 32. Ekavimsatistotram (Tarastotram). — 4 leaves. 9 in. by 3 in. Five 
 
 lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 33. Bhadracharipranidhanam. — In 56 (? 57) couplets. 7 leaves. 10 in. 
 
 by 3 in. Six or seven lines in a page. Dated Nepala-Samvat 
 942 (a.d. 1822). 
 
 34. Namasangiti-tika, entitled Gudhapada. — In fifteen chapters. 180 
 
 palm leaves. 12 in. by 2\ in. Seven lines in a page. Old. 
 Some pages are sadly defaced. 
 
 35. Namasangiti-tippani, entitled Amritakanika. — .Another commentary 
 
 on the same work ; and other treatises. 62 leaves, numbered 
 7-55, 66-78. 12 in. by 2 in. Ten lines in a page. Very minutely 
 written about the end of last centur}-. 
 
 36. Bhairavapradurbhava-natakam. — 1 15 leaves. 11 1 in. by 6 in. Ten 
 
 lines in a page. The first leaf is missing. 
 
 37. Samputodbhava. — In eleven kixlpas, &ds:\\ oi {o\\\ prakaranas. \Tj 
 
 palm leaves. I2i in. by i| in. Five lines in a page. Old. 
 
 38. Samvarodaya-mahatantram. — In 33 patalas. 94 leaves, iii in. 
 
 ty 3^ ''!• I'ive lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 39. Yogambaratantram. — 27 leaves. 10 in. by 3 in. Five lines in a 
 
 page. Modern and careless writing. 
 
 40. Dvatrimsatkalpa-mahatantraraja. — Two chapters {kalpas) only, 
 
 viz. the Ilei'ajra and the Dakinijasamvara-vtahataittram. 48 
 leaves. !2 in. by 3 in. Six lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 41. Krishnayamaritantra-tika. — In fifty-four /rtA/A?,?. 182 leaves. 13 in. 
 
 by 2A in. Five lines in a page. Modern handwriting. 
 
 42. Kriyapanjika, by Kuladatta. - In three//V7/v7/v?«rtjr. 46 leaves liin. 
 
 by 3] in. Seven lines in a page. Oldish.
 
 342 APPENDIX A. 
 
 43. Tattvajnanasamsiddhi-tippani. — Incomplete at the end. 8 palm 
 
 leaves. I2| in. by i| in. Six lines in a page. Old. 
 
 44. The Aparardha of the Guhyasamaja. — In fifteen patalas. 121 
 
 leaves, lo^ in. by 3^ in. Six or seven lines in a page. Modern 
 careless handwriting. 
 
 45. Pindapatravadanakatha. — 9 leaves. io| in. by 2|- in. Five lines 
 
 in a page. Modern. 
 
 46. Ekallaviratantram [Chandamaharoshanatantram]. — In twenty-five 
 
 patalas. 50 palm leaves. 8i in. by 3 in. Seven or eight lines 
 in a page. Old. 
 
 47. Mahakalatantram. — In ih.\riy patalas. 53 leaves. 10^ in. by 3 in. 
 
 Seven lines in a page. Dated Samvat ()2i (a.d. 1801). 
 
 48. Bhutadamaratantram. — In twenty-six patalas. 57 leaves. 13 in. 
 
 by 35 in. Five lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 49. Kalachakra-tantram. — In five patalas. 180 leaves. lo| in. by 
 
 4 in. Six lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 50. Sarvadurgatiparisodhanam. — 99 leaves. 8^ in. by 2j in. Five 
 
 lines in a page. Modern writing. 
 
 51. Durgatiparisodhani. — Apparently part of the preceding work, 
 
 though differing in the beginning. 31 leaves. 12 in. by 3 in. 
 Five lines in a page. Dated Samvat ()i() (a.d. 1799). 
 
 52. Tantraslokasangraha. — 154 slokas. 13 leaves. 16^ in. by 3 in. 
 
 Eight lines in a page. Oldish. Much worm-eaten. 
 
 53. (Gitapustakam.) — A collection of 139 vernacular hymns, without 
 
 title, the above designation being given on Mr. Hodgson's 
 slip. 76 leaves (of which i, 70, and 75 are missing). 8| in. 
 by 3 in. Five lines in a page. Dated (after hymn 133) Samvat 
 825 (a.d. 1705). 
 
 54. Kankirna-tantram. — 26 leaves (and three patrankas). io| in. by 
 
 3I in. Seven lines in a page. Dated ^a^/wa^ 944 (a.d. 1824). 
 
 55. Dharani-sangraha. — 240 leaves. 15^ in. by 4 in. Six lines in a 
 
 page. Dated Samvat gii (a.d. 1791). 
 
 56. Pancharaksha. — 152 leaves. 12 in. by 2| in. Five lines in a page. 
 
 Dated Samvat 887 (a.d. 1767). Some leaves have been supplied 
 by a more modern hand. 
 
 57. Pancharaksha. — 40 leaves. 10 in. by 2| in. Five lines in a page. 
 
 Oldish. 
 
 58. Vasudhara-dharani. — 21 leaves. 14 in. by 3 in. Five lines in a 
 
 page. Dated Samvat y^c) (a.d. 1639). 
 
 59. A collection of Dharanis, called Saptavara on the wrapper. — 26 
 
 leaves. 8^ in. by 2^ in. Five lines in a page. Oldish. 
 
 60. Grahamatrika. — Identical with the last portion of the preceding MS. 
 
 13 leaves. 9^ in. by 2| in. Five lines in a page. Dated Samvat 
 818 (a.d. 1698).
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN ROYAL ASIATIC LIBRARY. 343 
 
 61. Pratyangira-dliaraiii, — 14 leaves, gh in. by 3 in. Five lines in a 
 
 page. Written in the last century. 
 
 62. Manjusri-pratijna. — 22 leaves. 10 in. by 3 in. Six lines in a page. 
 
 Written a.d. 1835. 
 
 63. Satasahasri Prajnaparamita. — Tlie second Khanda, from the I2lh 
 
 to the 25th parivarta. 329 leaves. 15 in. by 7 in. 17-20 lines 
 in a page. Modern. 
 
 64. Meghasutram. — The 64th and 65th parivartas. 32 leaves 1 lA in. 
 
 by i\ in. Five lines in a page. Modern. 
 
 65. Adhivasanavidhi. — Partly vernacular. 200 leaves. 12^ in by 3A in. 
 
 Six lines in a page. Modern handwriting. 
 
 66. Prayogamukham. — On the philosophy of grammar. 48 leaves. 
 
 1 1 in. by 3A in. Six or seven lines in a page. Dated Samvat 
 918 (a.d. 1798). 
 
 67. Anumanakhandam. — 69 palm leaves. 12 in. by i\ in. Eight or 
 
 nine lines in a page. Old. 
 
 68. Shadangayoga-tippani. — 29 palm leaves. 12 in. by 2 in. .Si.x or 
 
 seven lines in a page. Oldish. 
 
 69. Adikarmapradipa. — 13 palm leaves (of which fol. 11 is missing). 
 
 (2A in. by 2 in. Five lines in a page. Old. The date (in the 
 reign of Dcvapala ?) is given at the end in letters. It requires 
 some familiarity with the character to make out the wxiting. 
 
 70. Poshavidhanam. — 6 palm leaves. \\\ in. by 2 in. Seven lines in 
 
 a page. Old. Apparently formulas and invocations. 
 
 71. Ahoratravratakatha. — In slokas. 8 leaves. 14 in. by 3 in. Six 
 
 lines in a page. Written in the latter part of last centur>'. 
 
 72. Balipujavidhi. — On Tantric ceremonial. Partly vernacular. 40 
 
 leaves folded into one continuous roll. 7] in. by 2^ in. Five 
 lines in a page. Dated Samvat 908 (? 808). 
 
 73. Nishpannayogambali [°yogambaratantram]. — 66 leaves. 12 in. by 
 
 3 in. Six lines in a page. Dated Samvat <^^^ (a.d. 1S24). 
 
 74. Dravyagunasangraha. — A treatise, in slokas, on various subjects 
 
 connected with cookery and eating. 30 palm leaves. 12 in. by 
 1 in. Six lines in a page. Dated Samvat 484 (a.d. 1364). 
 
 75. Kamasastram. — Vernacular. In thirteen pratic/ic/i/it'das. 19 leaves. 
 
 13I in. by 2J in. Six lines in a page. Last century. 
 
 76. Ashtamivratamahatmyam. — Vernacular (Newari). 60 leaves. Si 
 
 in. by 3 in. .Six lines in a page. 
 
 77. Mahapratyangira-mahavidyarajni-Dharani. — 21 leaves of blackened 
 
 paper. 8 in. by 2^ in. Five lines in a page, written alternately 
 in yellow and white paint, there being three of the former and 
 two of the latter. Dated Sam-vat 944 (a.d. 1824). 
 
 78. Dhvajagrakeyura-Dharani. — 3 leaves. Size, paper, and handwriting 
 
 as in the preceding MS.
 
 344 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 79. Collection of Dharanis. — 21 leaves. Size, paper, and handwriting 
 
 as in preceding MSS. Generally three white and two yellow 
 lines in a page. Cf. No. 59. 
 
 80. Satasahasrika Prajnaparamita. These liuge volumes had escaped 
 
 the notice of Messrs. Cowell and Eggeling, but were found by 
 Professor Bendall upstairs. See his letter of April loth, 1888, to 
 the Academy, 
 
 11. 
 
 Sanskrit MSS. presented to the India Office Library by 
 Mr. Hodgson. 
 
 1. Panchamaharakshasutra. 
 
 2. Sphotikavedya, by Narada. 
 
 3. Kamaratna. 
 
 4. Tattvakaumudi (commen- 
 tary on Maghakavya, by Bhava- 
 datta). 
 
 5. Suprabhastava. 
 
 6. Bhimasenanamadharani. 
 
 7. Vajraviramahakalamantra- 
 rajahridayadharani, by Vajravira. 
 
 8. Ganakamandana, by Nandi- 
 kesvara. 
 
 9. Pushyamahatmya. 
 
 10. Sarasangraha, byChanakya. 
 
 1 1 . Syamarahasya, by Purnan- 
 anda. 
 
 Haravali. 
 
 Chaurapanchasika, with a 
 commentary. 
 
 14. Lokanathasundarashtaka 
 
 12. 
 IS- 
 
 15. Sikhasamuchchaya. 
 
 16. Namashtottarasataka. 
 
 17. Durgatika, by Jagaddhara. 
 
 18. Bodhicharyavatara, by San- 
 tideva. 
 
 19. Avadanasataka (called Sata- 
 kavadanakatha). 
 
 20. Saradatilaka. 
 
 21. Dharmasangraha. 
 
 22. Vagvatitirthayatraprakasa, 
 by Gauridatta. 
 
 23. Gunakarandavyuha. 
 
 24. Sragdharastotra (2743 '^)" 
 
 25. Dasakrodhaviradhyana. 
 
 26. Padmapanika stuti. 
 
 27. Pratyangirastotra. 
 
 28. Astrology. 
 
 29. Alphabets. 
 
 30. Sragdharastotra (2473 ^)- ' 
 
 III. 
 
 Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. from Nepal, published at 
 PP- 2)2>°~2>2i^ of Burnoufs " Catalogue des Livres Imprimcs 
 et Manuscrits'' {Paris, 1854). 
 
 I. Da9abhumi9vara, I'un des 9 Dharmas (livres canoniques) des Bud- 
 dhistes. Oblong, 142 fol. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. 
 (No. in Catalogue 73.) 
 
 2 Prajna paramita ; recueil philosophique qui renferme la partie 
 speculative du Buddhisme ; I'un des neuf livres canoniques des
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN PARIS. 343 
 
 Buddhistes. 423 fol. Avec une vignette servant de frontispice. 
 —1 gros vol. oblong, belle 6criture. Caract^res Devandgaris 
 Nepalais (74). 
 
 3. Samadhiraja, k- Koi de la Contemplation. Oiwrage narratif, lun 
 
 des 9 Dharmas, ou livres canoniques des Buddliistes. Caractcres 
 Sanskrits du Nepal. — i vol. oblong (75). 
 
 4. Le mfime que le precedent. Caracteres Sanskrits duN6pal.— i vol. 
 
 oblong, 205 fol. (76). 
 
 5. Tathagata-gouhyaka, I'un des neuf Dharmas (ouvrages canoniques) 
 
 des Buddhistes.— I vol. oblong, belle 6criture sanskrite du Nd-pal, 
 
 6. Gandavyuiia. L'un des neuf Dharmas (livres canoniques) liud- 
 
 dhiques. Ouvrage narratif. Oblong. Caractere Sanskrit du 
 Nepal, 362 fol. (78). 
 
 7. Le meme que le precedent. Oblong. Caract. D6vanigaris N^pSIais, 
 
 295 fol. provenant dc la ventc de M. E. Jacquct, h. qui M. 
 Hodgson I'avait envoye en 1835 (79). 
 
 8. Le mfime que le precedent. Tres-beau manusc. oblong. Caractere 
 
 Sanskrit N6palais, 427 fol. (80). 
 
 9. Lankavatara. Dcscente a I'ile de Lanka. L'un des neuf Dharmas. 
 
 ou livres canoniques des Buddhistes. Caractcres Sanskrits du 
 Nepal, 159 fol —I petit vol. oblong (81). 
 
 10. Suvamaprabhasa, la splendeur dc I'edat de lor. Traitc philo- 
 
 sophique considere comme l'un des neuf livres canoniques des 
 Buddhistes, Caract. Sanskrits D^ivanSgaris, 120 fol.— i vol. 
 oblong {82). 
 
 11. Prajnaparamita, on la perfection dc la Sagesse. L'un des livres 
 
 fondamentaux du Buddhisme NOpalais, ouvrage ecrit en Sanskrit, 
 avec les caracteres D6vanagaris du Nepal. Ce beau et precieux 
 manuscrit m'a 6te donn6 par M. Hodgson en 1S37 (Ao/e ti^ 
 M. E. Buniouf).— \ vol. oblong, 302 fol. (83). 
 
 12. Meghasutra. Traite Buddhiciue, lun de ceux ([ui sont consideres 
 
 comme reveles par Cakyamuni lui-mOme. Caract.ire Devanagari. 
 — I petit vol. oblong, 39 fol. (84). 
 
 13. Sukhavativyuha. TraitC- Buddhique, du genre dc ceux que I'on 
 
 nomme Mahayanasutras, ser\'ant de grand vehicule ; tres viin^re 
 des Buddhistes NOpalais. (JV/- I'lntrod. a IHistoire du Bud- 
 dhisme indicMi, p. 99 et suiv.) Caract. Sanskrits Devanftgaris.— 
 I vol. oblong, 64 fol. (85). 
 
 14. Lalitavistara. Histoire de Cakyamuni, depuis sa naissancc jusqu'i 
 
 sa mort. L'un des ouvrages reputes sacrcs an Nepal. 1 1 est 
 C-crit en Sanskrit, en prose melee de vers ; les gathfts ou stances 
 portent dc nombreuscs traces de pr^krit. 
 
 Ce beau manuscrit, qui a etc ecrit avec Ic devanSgari de
 
 346 APPENDIX A. 
 
 N6pal, m'a ete envoye de Katmandu par M. Hodgson, en Avril 
 1836 i^Note de M. E. Burnouf). — i vol. oblong, 232 fol. (86). 
 
 15. Le meme que le precedent. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — 
 
 1 vol. oblong, 262 fol. (87). 
 
 16. Dipamkaravadana. Legende du Buddha futur nomme Dipamkara. 
 
 Belle ecriture ddvanagari.— i vol. oblong, 5 1 fol. (88). 
 
 17. Vasantatilaka. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. Petit traite en 
 
 I'honneur de Vadjra Sattva, le sixieme des Bnddhas surhumains, 
 selon les Nepalais. — Un petit vol. oblong, 16 fol. (89). 
 
 18. Bodhitcharyavatara. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. Legende de 
 
 Bodhitcharya ; livre buddhique. — i vol. oblong, 55 fol. (90). 
 
 19. Mahavastu. Grande Collection d'histoires. Recueil de legendes 
 
 relatives au fondateur du Buddhisme et a ses contemporains. 
 Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — i vol. oblong, 39S fol. Envoys 
 par M. Hodgson, Mai, 1841 (91). 
 
 20. Karanda Vyuha ou Gunakarandavyuha. Construction de la Cor- 
 
 beille des Qualites. Poeme a la louange d'Avalokitecvara, le 
 plus venere des Bodhisattvas. Caracteres Sanskrits du N6pal. — 
 I vol. oblong, 63 fol. (92). 
 
 21. Meme titre que le precedent, mais ecrit en prose. Parait etre le 
 
 recit primitif qui a servi de texte au poeme. ( Voir I'lntroduction 
 a I'Histoire du Buddhisme indien, pp. 220 et 221.) Caracteres 
 Sanskrits du Nepal, un peu cursifs, mais tres-soign6s. — i petit 
 vol. oblong, 92 fol. (93). 
 
 22. Mahavastu avadana. Legendes buddhiques. Caracteres Sanskrits 
 
 du Nepal. — i vol. oblong, 532 fol. (94). 
 
 23. Djatakamala " La Guirlande des Naissances." Legendes bud- 
 
 dhiques. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Oblong, 191 fol. (95). 
 
 24. Kriyasangraha " Recueil de Ceremonies " (Buddhique). Carac- 
 
 teres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Oblong, 112 fol. (96). 
 
 25. Divyavadana. Legendes buddhiques. Caracteres Sanskrits De- 
 
 vanagaris. — i vol. oblong, 447 fol. Envoye par M. Hodgson (97). 
 
 26. Divyavadana. Recueil de Legendes buddhiques. Caracteres 
 
 Devanagaris. — Oblong, 231 fol. (98). 
 
 27. Saddharmapundarika '' Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi." Caracteres 
 
 Devanagaris. — i vol. oblong, 224 fol. (99). 
 
 28. Le meme que le precedent. En caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — 
 
 Oblong, 205 fol. (100). 
 
 29. Durgati parigodhani. Traite buddhique. Caracteres Sanskrits du 
 
 devanagaris. — Oblong, loi fol. (101). 
 
 30. Vajrasana sadhana mala. Traite pliilosophique a I'usage des Bud- 
 
 dhistes. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Oblong, 153 fol. (102). 
 
 31. Bhuvanadipika. Traite buddhique. Caracteres devanagaris du 
 
 Nepal.— Oblong, 85 fol. (103).
 
 HODGSON MSS. IX PARIS. 347 
 
 32. Pancharakcha. Ouvrage buddhique. (F(9/> Introduction a I'Histoire 
 
 du Buddhisme indicn, p. 462.) Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal.-- - 
 Oblong, 140 fol. (104). 
 
 33. Nadiparikcha. Trait6 buddhique, incomplet. Caracteres San- 
 
 skrits du N6pal. — Oblong, 5 fol. (105). 
 
 34. 7 feuilles manuscrites, sur lesquelles sont ecrits en forme dc tableaux 
 
 les noms des divinit6s honorees par les Buddliistes, et quelques 
 formules de prieres. Caracteres devanagaris tres-lisibles. Deux 
 de ces feuilles sont ii deux colonnes et portent une traduction en 
 persan (106). 
 
 35. Atcharyakriya-Samutchtchaya. Traite rituelique a I'usage des 
 
 Buddhistes. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — i vol., 163 fol. (107). 
 
 36. Dharanisangraha. Recueil de formules magiques (Buddhique). 
 
 Tres-belle ecriture devanagari. — Oblong, 168 fol. (108). 
 
 37. Mahamantranusarini. Ouvrage buddhique, qui traite des Mantras 
 
 ou formules magiques. Caracteres Sanskrits devanagaris. — i vol. 
 oblong, 158 fol. ( 109). 
 
 38. Samvarodayatantra. Ouvrage qui contient des prieres, des formules 
 
 magiques, et des details des diverses ceremonies, usitees chez 
 les Buddhistes. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — i petit vol. 
 oblong (no). 
 
 39. Bhutadamara Tantra. Traite buddhique du genre des precedents. 
 
 Caractere devanagari. — Un petit vol. oblong, 47 fol. (m). 
 
 40. Samputodbhava Tantra. Traite mystique a I'usage des Bud- 
 
 dhistes. Caractere devanagari. — Un vol. oblong, 135 fol. (i 12). 
 
 41. Pratyangira Mahavidya. Petit traite relatif k la deesse Durga ou 
 
 Parvati, d'apres les idees empruntees aux Civai'stes par les 
 
 Buddhistes. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Un petit vol. 
 oblong, 28 fol. (i 13). 
 
 42. Dharmakocavyakhya. " Commentaire sur le Tresor de la Loi." 
 
 OuvTage philosophiquc qui traite des diverses sectes buddhiques. 
 Caractere devanagari. — Un vol. oblong, 583 fol. (ll4\ 
 
 43. Abhidhanottarottara. Traite buddhique. Caracteres Sanskrits du 
 
 Nepal. — Un petit vol. oblong, 215 fol. (115). 
 
 44. Le meme que le precedent. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Un 
 
 petit vol. oblong, 154 fol. (116). 
 
 45. He Vadjratantra. L'un des Tantras, ou rituels ascetiques des 
 
 Buddhistes. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Un petit vol. 
 oblong, 66 fol. (117). 
 
 46. Le mOme que le precedent. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — \1\\ 
 
 petit vol. oblong, 55 fol. (118). 
 
 47. Mahakala Tantraradja. Ouvrage ascetique qui renferme des for- 
 
 mules mysterieuses et divinatoires en usage chez les Buddhistes. 
 Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — Un petit vol. oblong, 62 fol. (1 19).
 
 34^ APPENDIX A. 
 
 48. Le meme que Ic precedent. Caractercs Sanskrits du N6pal. — i 
 
 petit vol. oblong, 47 fol. ( 120). 
 
 49. Karavira Tantra. Traite ascetique a I'usage des Buddhistes. 
 
 Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — i petit vol. oblong, 102 fol. 
 (121). 
 
 50. Krichnayamari-tantra. Traite Buddhique du mfime genre que le 
 
 precedent. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — I petit vol. oblong, 
 60 fol. (122). 
 
 51. Le m6me que le precedent. Buddhique. Caracteres Sanskrits du 
 
 N6pal. — I petit vol. oblong, no fol. (123). 
 
 52. Yogambara Tantra. Traite Buddhique du meme genre que les 
 
 precedents. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — i petit vol. oblongs 
 63 fol. (124). 
 
 53. Suprabhata Stotra. Stances en I'honneur de Buddha. Beaux 
 
 caracteres devanagaris. — i petit vol. oblong (en paravent), 32 
 plis(i25). 
 
 54. Vadjrasutchi. Traite de polemique contre la division des castes. 
 
 Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — 5 fol. oblong. Le texte de cet 
 ouvrage a ete lithographic et traduit en anglais (126). 
 
 55. Vadjrasutchi. Caracteres Sanskrits devanagaris. — i vol. oblong, 16 
 
 fol. (127). 
 
 56. Kalyana-Pantchavimcatika Stuti. Vingt-cinq stances pour in- 
 
 voquer les Divinites Buddhiques. ( Voir le Lotus de la Bonne 
 Loi, pp. 500 et 501.) Caractdres devanagaris. — i petit vol. 
 oblong, 4 fol. (128). 
 
 57. Buddliavinaya. Traite de discipline Buddhique. Caracteres de- 
 
 vanagaris du Nepal. — I petit vol. oblong, 102 fol. (129). 
 
 58. Djvalavalitantra. Traite mystique (buddhique). Caracteres San- 
 
 skrits du Nepal. — Oblong, 79 fol. (130). 
 
 59. Suvarnarprabha. La splendeur de I'eclat de I'Or. Traite mystique 
 
 a I'usage des Buddhistes. Caracteres Sanskrits du Nepal. — 
 Oblong, 120 fol. (131). 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the Bodleian Library, Oxford. 
 
 (From Printed Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. at Oxford by Prof. Aufrecht.) 
 
 I. Lit. Nepal. Folia palmarum 99. 
 
 t a. Foil. 1-68. Karandavyuha-mahayanasutra. Buddh. 
 
 t b. Foil. 69-99. Gosringaparvatasvayambhuchaityabhattara- 
 
 koddesa, libellus in octo capita (parichheda) divisus, auctore 
 
 Gayachandra. Buddh.
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN OXFORD AND PARIS. 
 
 349 
 
 2. Lit. Nepal. Charta Ind. F0II.61. 
 
 t Kallaviratantra, vel Cliandamaliaroshanatantra, in viginti quin- 
 que patala divisum. Buddli. ( Kkallasiratantra in Cowell ^ 
 Eggeliiig's list.) 
 
 3. Lit. Nepal. Charta Ind. Foil. 74. 
 
 t Sukhavati\'yuha-mahayanasutra. Buddh.' 
 
 4. 5. Lit. Nepal. Charta Ind. Vol. I., foil. 141 ; Vol. II., foil. 145. 
 
 t Prajnaparamita, capp. 1-32. Buddh. 
 
 6. Lit. Nepal. Charta Ind. Foil. 195. 
 
 t a. Foil. I 173. Dharani, invocatioiies et formulcc mystica*. 
 
 Buddh. 
 t d. Foil. 174-195. Kapisavadana, capita decern. Buddli. 
 
 7. Lit. Nepal. Charta Ind. Foil. 190. 
 
 t Lalitavistara, Sakyamunis Buddhae vita. Buddh. 
 
 V. 
 
 Catalogue des Livres Buduuiques, Lcrits en S.vnskrit, que 
 M. B. H. Hodgson a fait copier an Nepal pour k coinpte de la 
 Socieie Asialiqiic, ct qui pitl etc preseiites an Conscil dans sa 
 seance dt I i^Jnillet, 1837.* ("Journal Asiatiqnc," ///we Scrie, 
 Tome /K, 296-98 ; 1837.) 
 
 TiTRES DES OUVRACES, 
 
 «8= 
 
 
 |8§- 
 
 
 5"^ a 
 
 f- fc U S 
 
 .©•OS 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 « 5 i-Ji 
 682 
 
 25,080 
 
 I. Rakrha bhagavati Prathamakhanda . 
 
 570 
 
 44 
 
 2. Rakcha bhagavati Dvitiyakhanda 
 
 534 
 
 47 
 
 25.098 
 
 3. Rakcha bhagavati Tritiyakhanda 
 
 534 
 
 47 
 
 25.098 
 
 4. Rakcha bhagavati Tchaturthakhanda 
 
 5S2 
 
 43 
 
 25.025 
 
 5. Pantchavimcatisahasrika . 
 
 461 
 
 54i 
 
 25,015 
 
 6. Svayambhupiirana .... 
 
 •52 
 
 25 
 
 3,800 
 
 7. Samputodbiiavatantra 
 
 211 
 
 14 
 
 2.954 
 
 8. Kakchaputantra .... 
 
 57 
 
 31 
 
 1.592 
 
 9. Pantchakrama 
 
 33 
 
 18 
 
 612 
 
 10. Pantchakramatippani 
 
 14 
 
 iS 
 
 306 
 
 II. Rachtrapalavadaua .... 
 
 57 
 
 '7i 
 
 997 
 
 12. Sugatavadana ..... 
 
 75 
 
 16 
 
 1,200 
 
 13. Bodhitcharyavatara . . 
 
 56 
 
 18 
 
 1.008 
 
 14. Kapicavadana 
 
 38 
 
 15 
 
 570 
 
 15. Upochathavadana .... 
 
 2J 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 39' 
 
 16. Kathinavadana .... 
 
 «4 
 
 252 
 
 ' Principal authority for Huddhisni in Nepal, and first work issued (origin.tl 
 text) by Clarendon Press.— B. H. H. 
 
 * L'original dc ce catalogue, (kril en Sanskrit, el dai(i du 39 Scptembre, 1836, a, 
 par d6;ision du Consoil, il6 di*jX)S<i d.\ns los .irchives dc la Soci<?t(*.
 
 350 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 TlTRES DES OUVRAGES. 
 
 Id ^ 
 
 2 ^ 
 
 DiSTIQUES 
 CONTENUS 
 
 sur chaque 
 feuille. 
 
 J (U 
 < «1 3 
 H D IT 
 
 H « 
 '■B 
 
 17. Pindapatravadana . . . . 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 112 
 
 18. Lokecvaracataka 
 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 285 
 
 19. ^ringabheri 
 
 
 19 
 
 25 
 
 456 
 
 20. Lankavatara 
 
 
 106 
 
 35 
 
 3.710 
 
 21. Svayambhupurana mahat . 
 
 
 166 
 
 24 
 
 3.984 
 
 22. Mahavastu avadana . 
 
 
 415 
 
 44 
 
 18,260 
 
 23. Acokavadana . 
 
 
 332 
 
 29 
 
 9,628 
 
 24. Djatakamala 
 
 
 86 
 
 49, 
 
 4,214 
 
 25. Manitchudavadana . 
 
 
 66 
 
 13I 
 
 901 
 
 26. Tchhandomritalata . 
 
 
 36 
 
 20 
 
 720 
 
 27. Sumagadhavadana . 
 
 
 21 
 
 28 
 
 588 
 
 28. Abhidhanottarottara . 
 
 
 143 
 
 25 
 
 3.575 
 
 29. Vinayasutra 
 
 
 188 
 
 29^ 
 
 5,536 
 
 30. Avadanakalpalata 
 
 
 51 
 
 35 
 
 1,581 
 
 31. Suvarnavarnavadana 
 
 
 74 
 
 26 
 
 1,924 
 
 32. Ratnavadana . 
 
 
 369 
 
 22 
 
 8,118 
 
 33. Saptakumarikavadana 
 
 
 22 
 
 II 
 
 242 
 
 34. Buddhatcharitakavya 
 
 
 87 
 
 21 
 
 1,827 
 
 35. Satchtchakratavadana svalpa 
 
 
 74 
 
 16 
 
 238 
 
 36. Satchtchakratavadana vrihat 
 
 
 76 
 
 15 
 
 1,140 
 
 37. Bhutadamaratantra . 
 
 
 66 
 
 loi 
 
 693 
 
 38. Kriyasamutchtchayatantra 
 
 
 182 
 
 32" 
 
 5.824 
 
 39. Sahakaropadecavadana . 
 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 234 
 
 40. Dharmakocav^akhya 
 
 
 535 
 
 34 
 
 18,190 
 
 41. Bhadrakalpavadana . 
 
 
 477 
 
 24 
 
 11,448 
 
 42. Karunapundarika 
 
 
 184 
 
 24 
 
 4,416 
 
 43. Ahoratravratakatha . 
 
 
 28 
 
 I2i 
 
 350 
 
 44. ^ardulakarnavadana 
 
 
 92 
 
 24 
 
 2,208 
 
 45. Nagapudja 
 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 84 
 
 46. Dvavimcatyavadana . 
 
 
 91 
 
 24 
 
 2,184 
 
 47. Nichpannayogambaratantra 
 
 
 71 
 
 20 
 
 1,820 
 
 48. Ratnaparikcha . 
 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 360 
 
 49. Djvalavalitantra 
 
 
 83 
 
 15 
 
 1,245 
 
 50. Catavadana 
 
 
 253 
 
 29 
 
 7.337 
 
 51. Divyavadana . 
 
 
 337 
 
 40 
 
 13.480 
 
 52. Sadhanamalatantra . 
 
 
 193 
 
 36 
 
 6,948 
 
 53. Kalpadrumavadana . 
 
 
 292 
 
 34 
 
 9,928 
 
 54. Kriyasamgrahatantra 
 
 
 191 
 
 21 
 
 4,011 
 
 55. Dagabhumicvara 
 
 
 138 
 
 23 
 
 3,036 
 
 56. Mandjucriparadjika . 
 
 
 27 
 
 15 
 
 405 
 
 57. Vadjrasattvaparadjika 
 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 236 
 
 58, Lokefvaraparadjika . 
 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 160 
 
 59. Marmakalikatantra . 
 
 
 65 
 
 15 
 
 975 
 
 60. Varahikalpatantra 
 
 
 143 
 
 25 
 
 3.575 
 
 61. Buddhoktasamsaramaya . 
 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 105 
 
 62. Vasantatilakatantra . 
 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 234 
 
 63. Viraku^avadana 
 
 
 41 
 
 18 
 
 73^ 
 
 64. Vajrasutchi 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 156
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN CALCUTTA. 
 
 351 
 
 VI. 
 
 List of 66 S.\nskrit Buddhist Works obtained from the Library 
 of the College of Fort William, and forwarded thereto by 
 B. H. Hodgson, Esq., from Nepal. Some of the titles are 
 uncertain; others have been identified and corrected front the 
 manuscripts in the preceding five lists. 
 
 1. Prajnaparamita Sata Sahas- 
 rika.' 
 
 2. Prajnaparamita, in 18,000 
 verses. Pancha vingsati sahas- 
 rika. 
 
 3. Prajnaparamita, in 8,000 
 verses. Ashtasahasrika. 
 
 4. Gandavyaha. 
 
 5. Dasabhumiswara. 
 
 6. Lankavatara. 
 
 7. Saddharmapundarika. 
 
 8. Suvarnaprabha. 
 
 9. Svayanibliupurana. 
 
 10. Gunakarandavyuha. 
 
 11. Mahavastvavadana. 
 
 12. Asokavadana. 
 
 13. Bhadrakalpvadana. 
 
 14. Jatakamala. 
 
 15. Manicliudavadana. 
 
 16. Dwavinsati Avadana. 
 
 17. Nandimuklia Avadana. 
 
 18. Karunapundarika. 
 
 19. Chhandomritalata. 
 
 20. Sragdhara. 
 
 21. Dharanimantrasangraha. 
 
 22. Pratyangira. 
 Pancharaksha. 
 Pratyangira. 
 Pancharaksha. 
 Pratyangira. 
 
 27. Paranathanama. 
 
 28. Sugatavadana. 
 
 29. Snkhavativyulia. 
 
 30. Kriyasangraha. 
 
 31. Suratnaratnakara. 
 
 32. Prayogamukha. 
 
 23- 
 24. 
 
 25- 
 26. 
 
 33. Bodhicharya (Buddhichana- 
 kya ?). 
 
 34. Magadhavadana. 
 
 35. Chaityapungava. 
 
 36. Pindapatravadana. 
 
 37. Ganapati-hridaya. 
 
 38. Nagapuja. 
 
 39. Mahakalatantra. 
 
 40. Abhidharmottarottara. 
 
 41. Skandapurana. 
 
 42. V'inayasutra. 
 
 43. Kalpalatavadana. 
 
 44. Gitapustaka. 
 
 45. Stotrasangraha. 
 
 46. Divyavadana. 
 
 47. Ratnapariksha. 
 
 48. Suvarnavadana (prabha). 
 
 49. Kalyana-pancliavimsatikastuti. 
 
 50. Sringab'heri. 
 
 51. Katnamalavadan. 
 
 52. Virakusavadana. 
 
 53. Virakusavadana 
 
 54. Kavikumaravadana. 
 
 55. Suchandravadana. 
 
 56. Uposhadhavadana. 
 
 57. Durgatiparisodhana. 
 
 58. Dharmakosliavyakhya. 
 
 59. Supravarta.subha. 
 
 60. Kapisavadana. 
 
 61. Satyavadana. 
 
 62. Sapta-kumarikavadana. 
 
 63. Sardulakarnavadana. 
 
 64. Sringabherivratavadana. 
 
 65. Kalpalatavadana. 
 
 66. Vajrasuchi. 
 
 1 1 here arc redactions in 25,000, 18,000, and 8,000 resijcctivel) .
 
 352 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 VII. 
 
 List of Sanskrit Buddhist Works in the Library of the Asiatic 
 Society of Bengal Compiled by Rajendra Lala Mitra, Esq. 
 
 1. Abhidhanottara. 
 
 2. Abhidharmakosha-vyakhya. 
 
 3. Asokavadana. 
 
 4. Avadana-sataka. 
 
 5. Aparimita-dharani. 
 
 6. Bhadrakalpavadana. 
 
 7. Bodhicharyavatara. 
 
 8. Bodhisattvavadana. 
 
 9. Bodhisattavadana-kalpalata. 
 
 10. Buddha-charita. (Written 
 in the Bengali character, and 
 bound in book form. Not brought 
 from Nepal.) 
 
 11. Buddhachanaka. 
 
 12. Chhandomrita-lata. 
 
 13. Chaitya-pungava. 
 Chaitya-pungava(2nd copy). 
 
 14. Dasabhumisvara. 
 
 15. Dharani-mantra-sangraha. 
 
 16. Durgati-parisodhana. 
 
 17. Dvaviwsatyavadana. 
 
 xyb. Dhvajagra-keyura Dharawi. 
 
 18. Ga;/apatihridaya or Dhva- 
 jagra-keyura. 
 
 19. Graha-matrika. 
 
 20. Gandavyuha. 
 
 21. Grahamatrikadhara?!. 
 
 22. Guv/akarandavyuha. 
 
 23. Gita pustaka. 
 
 24. Himavat Khanda. 
 
 25. Kalyanamandira-stotra-tika. 
 
 26. Kalyana-pancha-viwsati. 
 
 27. Kapisa-avadana. 
 
 28. Kriyasangraha. 
 
 29. Kriyasangraha-pancliaka. 
 
 30. Kavikumaravadana. 
 
 31. Karandavyuha. 
 
 32. Kusajataka. 
 
 33. Kalpalatavadana. 
 
 34. Karunapundarika. 
 
 35. Kuttinj'avadana. 
 
 36. Lankavatara. 
 
 37. Lalitavistara. » 
 
 38. Lokesvara-sataka. 
 
 39. Mahavastvavadana. 
 
 40. Manichudavadana. 
 
 41. Manana Vedanta. 
 
 42. Mahakala tantra. 
 
 43. Mantravali. 
 
 44. Mahasahasrapramardini. 
 
 45. Mahamayuri. 
 
 46. Madhymaka-vritti. 
 
 47. Nagapuja. 
 
 48. Nirghantumatrika. 
 
 49. Namasangiti. 
 
 50. Pancha-raksha Mahapra- 
 tisara-kalpa. 
 
 51. Puja-paddhati, in 13 parts. 
 
 52. Prajna-pararaita, in 5 parts 
 complete. SataSahasrika 100,000.' 
 
 53. Prajna-paramita, in 3 parts. 
 (Nepalese.) 
 
 54. Do. Ashtasahasrika. 
 
 55. Prajna-paramita tika. 
 
 56. Do. Panchaviwsati. 
 
 57. Parnasavari. 
 
 58. Pindapatravadana. 
 
 59. Prasasti. 
 
 60. Pratyangira. 
 
 61. Prayogamukha. 
 
 62. Ratnamalavadana. 
 621^. Rudra-kalpavadana. 
 
 1 This is the largest version of the Prajna-pai-amita, in 100,000 verses. There 
 are three redactions, in 25,000, 18,000, and 8,000 respectively. 52, 53, and 54 
 denote them. — B. H. H.
 
 HODGSON MSS. IN PARIS. 
 
 353 
 
 63. Saddharma-pundarika. 
 
 64. Sardula-karnavadana. 
 
 65. Samadhiraja No. 816. 
 
 66. Saptakiimarikavadana. 
 
 67. Sringabheri. 
 
 68. Sringabheri-vratavadana. 
 
 69. Suchandravadana. 
 
 70. Sugatavadana. 
 
 71. Sukhavativyuha. 
 
 72. Suprabhata. (Supravarta 
 stava.) 
 
 73. Suvarna-prabha. 
 
 74. Svayamblui-puraiia. 
 
 75. Saptavara. 
 
 76. Satyavadana. 
 
 77. Sragdharavadana tika. 
 
 78. Sumagadhavadana. 
 
 79- 
 80. 
 81. 
 82. 
 
 83- 
 84. 
 85. 
 86. 
 87. 
 88. 
 89. 
 nama 
 90. 
 91. 
 92. 
 93- 
 94- 
 
 Surya-prajnapti tika. 
 
 Suvarnavarngavadana. 
 
 Svayambhu Purana. 
 
 Sapta-vara. 
 
 Satyavadana. 
 
 Tarasatanama. 
 
 Tathagata-guhyaka. 
 
 Uposhadhavadana. 
 
 Ushnisha vijaya. 
 
 Vasundhara-vrata. 
 
 Vasundhara stottara 
 
 Vajravidarana. 
 Vajrasuchi. 
 Vinayasutra. 
 Vratavadanamala. 
 Virakusa avadana. 
 
 sata- 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Cataloguk of 24 Sanskrit Buddhist Works presented by B. II. 
 Hodgson to the Asiatic Society of Paris in 1835. List in 
 handwriting of B. H. Hodgson, dated Nepal, November 1S35, 
 as per letter to Burnouf of November 25///, 1835, fowxd by 
 Mrs. Hodgson 1894. Same as mentioned by Professor 
 Cowell. See note to first page of Appendix A. 
 
 1 . Gunakaranda Vyiiha. 
 
 2. Gitapushtaka Tantra. 
 
 3. Stotra Sangralia. 
 
 4. Sumbrodaya Tantra. 
 
 5. Durgati Parisodhani. 
 
 6. Sukhavati Vyuha. 
 
 7. Tarasatanama. 
 Sragdhara. 
 Karvira Tantra. 
 Bhadra Char! Sloka. 
 Pancha Rakslia. 
 Maha Kala Tantra. 
 Pratingira-dharani. 
 
 14. Swayamblni Puran. 
 
 15. Chaitya Piingava. 
 
 16. Dharani Sangralia. 
 
 17. Karanda vyuha. 
 
 18. Ashta Sahasrika Prajna 
 Paramita. 
 
 19. Ganda Vyuha. 
 
 20. Sad Dharma Pundarika. 
 
 21. LaUta Vistara. 
 
 22. Tatliagata guliyaka. 
 
 23. Satnadhi Raja. 
 
 24. Suvarna I'rabhasa.
 
 [354] 
 
 INDEX TO THE FOREGOING LISTS OF MANU- 
 SCRIPTS. 
 
 The capital Roman numerals hi this Index refer to the individual List^; the 
 smaller figures to the number of the MS. in the List. 
 
 Abhidhanottarottara, iii. 43, 44 ; v. 
 
 28; VII. I. 
 
 Abhidharma-koshavyakhya, vii. 2. 
 Abhidharmottarottara, vi. 40. 
 Adhivasanavidhi, i. 65. 
 Adikarmapradipa, i. 69. 
 Ahoratravratakatha, i. 71 ; v. 43. 
 A,^aryal<riya-samuy6/6aya, ill. 35. 
 Alphabets, 11. 29. 
 Anumanakhawafa, i. 67. 
 Aparardha of the Guhyasaniaoa (The), 
 
 1. 44. 
 Apal■imitadhara7^i, vii. 5. 
 Ash/amivratamahatmya, i. 76. 
 Ash^asahasrika-pra§Tiaparamita, i. i ; 
 
 VIII. 18. See Pragnaparamita. 
 Ajokavadana, v. 23 ; vi. 12 ; vii. 3. 
 Astrology, 11. 28. 
 Ajrvaghosha-nandimukha-avadana, i. 
 
 14- 
 Avadanakalpalata, v. 30. 
 
 Avadanasataka, 11. 19 ; vii. 4. 
 
 Balipu^vidhi, i. 72. 
 
 Bhadra Chari Sloka, vni. 10. 
 
 Bhadrakalpavadana, v. 41 ; vii. 6. 
 
 Bhadrakalpavadanastotrasangraha, i. 
 31- 
 
 Bhadra^ariprawidhana, i. 33. 
 
 Bhadravadana, vi. 13. 
 
 Bhairavapradiirbhavana/aka, i. 36. 
 
 Bhimasenanamadharawi, 11. 6. 
 
 Bhuta^amaratantra, i. 48; 111. 39; v. 
 
 37- 
 Bhuvanadipika, iii. 31. 
 Bodhi^aryavadana, vi. 33. 
 Bodhiiaryavatara, I. 13; 11, 18; iii. 
 
 18 ; v. 13 ; VII. 7. 
 Bodhisattvavadana, vii. 8. 
 Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata, vii. 9. 
 Buddhajfeanaka, vii. ii. 
 Buddha;4aritakavya, V. 34 ; vii. 10. 
 Buddhavinaya, HI. 57. 
 Buddhoktasawisaramaya, v. 61. 
 Chaitya Pungava, i. 22 ; viii. 15. 
 
 Dajabhumuvara, i. 3 ; iii. i ; V. 55 ; 
 
 VI. 5 ; VII. 14. 
 Dayakrodhaviradhyana, 11. 25. 
 Dhara^/i, iv. (m. 
 
 Dharawi (Collection of), I. 59, 79. 
 Dhara«i-mantra-sangraha, vii. 15. 
 Dharawisangraha, i. 55 ; iii. 36 ; vi. 21 ; 
 
 viii. 16. 
 Dharmako5avyakhya, in. 42 ; v. 40. 
 Dharmakoshavyakhya, vi. 58. 
 Dharmasangraha, li. 21. 
 Dhva^grahakeyura-dhara»i, i. 78 ; vii. 
 
 171^. 
 Dipankaravadana, iii. 16. 
 Divyavadana, in. 25, 26 ; v. 51 ; vi. 46. 
 DravyagUA'asangraha, i. 74. 
 Durga/ika, n. 17. 
 Durgatipariy&/&//eda, vi. 57. 
 Durgati Parisoda, viii. 5. 
 Durgatiparijodhana, vii. i6. 
 Durgati pariiodhani, i. 51 ; iii. 29. 
 Dvatri?K.ratkalpa-mahatantrara^, i. 40. 
 Dvaviwjati-(pu«yotsaha-)avadana, i. 
 
 27 ; vn. 17. 
 Dvaviwjatyavadana, V. 46 ; VI. 16. 
 Ekallaviratantra [A'a«</aniaharosha«a- 
 
 tantra], i. 46. 
 Ekaviw.vatistotra, i. 32. 
 Ga«akama//rt'ana, il. 8. 
 Ga^iapati-h/v'daya, vi. 37 ; vii. 18. 
 Ga«(3?avyuha, i. 2 ; in. 6, 7, 8 ; vi. 4 ; 
 
 VII. 20 ; VIII. 19. 
 Gatakamala, in. 23 ; v. 24 ; vi. 14. 
 Gitapustaka, i. 53 ; vi. 44 ; vii. 23. 
 Git pushtaka Tantra, viii. 2. 
 Gojr/ngaparvatasvayambhu>feaityabha/- 
 
 /arakoddeja, IV. \b. 
 Grahamatr^ka, i. 60 ; vii. 19. 
 Grahamatrika-dharawi, vii. 21. 
 Gu»akara«fl?avyuha, i. 19 ; 11. 23 ; iii, 
 
 20, 21 ; VI. 10 ; VII. 22 ; viii. I. 
 Gvalavalitantra, in. 58 ; v. 49. 
 Haravali, 11. 12. 
 He Vajfratantra, in. 45, 46.
 
 INDEX TO LISTS OF MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 355 
 
 
 Him^val-khawda, vir. 24. 
 A'aityapungava, i. 22 ; vi. 35 ; vii. 13 ; 
 
 VIM. 15. 
 Kakshaputamra, v. 8. 
 Kala^akratanira, 1. 49. 
 Kallaviralantra, or A'Aa«</amaharosha- 
 
 «atantra, iv. 2. 
 K;ilpadruniavadana, V. 53. 
 Kalpalatavadana, vi. 43, 65; vii. 33. 
 KaIya«amandira-stotra-/ika, vii. 25. 
 Kalya«a-panXravi/«.fati, Vii. 26. 
 Kalya//a-pan^aviwjatika-stuli, iii. 56; 
 
 VI. 49. 
 Kamaratna, 11. 3. 
 Kamajastra, i. 75. 
 Kankirwatantra, i. 54. 
 K;x)ii5avadana, iv. 61'; v. 14; vi. 60 ; 
 
 VII. 27. 
 Karawrfavyuha-mahayanasutra, i. 24 ; 
 
 III. 20, 21 ; IV. xa ; vii. 31 ; viii. 17. 
 Karaviratantia, in. 49 ; viii. 9. 
 Karu«apu«i/arika-niahayanasutra, i. 
 
 21 ; V. 42; VI. 18 ; VII. 34. 
 Kathinavadana, v. 16. 
 Aaurapan-^a-fika, 11. 13. 
 Kavikumaravadana, vi. 54 ; vii. 30. 
 A7/andomWtalata, v. 26; VI. 19; vii. 
 
 12. 
 
 Kr/sh«ayamaritantra, iii. 50, 51. 
 Kr7shwayamaritantra-/ika, i. 41. 
 Kriyapan^nka, i. 42. 
 Kriyasaniu^^yatantra, v. 38. 
 Kriyasangraha, in. 24 ; vi. 30 ; vii. 28. 
 Kriyasangraha-pan^aka, vn. 29. 
 Kriyasangrahatantra, v. 54. 
 Ku^a^ataka, vn. 32. 
 Kurtinyavadana, vn. 35. 
 Lalitavistara, i. 7; in. 14, 15 ; iv. 7 ; 
 
 vn. 37 ; vni. 21. 
 Lankavatara, in. 9; v. 20; vi. 6; 
 
 vn. 36. 
 Lokanathasundarash/aka, li. 14. 
 l.,oke.tv;u"apar;i^ka, v. 58. 
 Lokejvarasataka, i. 28 ; v. 18 ; vn. 38. 
 Madhyainaka-vr/tti, vn. 46. 
 Madhyama-svayambhupurawa, or Svay- 
 
 ambhuddera, i. 23. 
 Magadhavadana, VI. 34. 
 Mahakalatantra, i. 47; vi. 39 ; vn. 42 ; 
 
 vni. 12. 
 Mahakalatantrara^fa, in. 47, 48. 
 Mahaniantranusariwi, in. 37. 
 Mahamayuri, vn. 45. 
 
 Mahapratyangira-mahavidyara^ni-dha- 
 
 rawi, I. 77. 
 Mahasahasrapramardini, vn. 44. 
 Mahat-svayambhupura//a, i. 18. 
 Mahavastu, in. 19. 
 Mahavastvavadana, i. 9 ; in. 22 ; V. 
 
 22 ; VI. II ; vn. 39. 
 Mananavedanta, VII. 41. 
 Man.^uxripaiao'ika, v. 56. 
 Matijfujriprati^ia, 1. 62. 
 Mawi^urfavadana, v. 25 ; vi. 15 ; vii. 
 
 40. 
 Mantravali, vn. 43. 
 Marmakalikatantra, v. 59. 
 Meghasutra, i. 64 ; in. 12. 
 Nadipariksha, in. 33. 
 Nagapu^, V. 45 ; vi. 38 ; vn. 47. 
 Namasangiti, vn. 49. 
 Namasangiti-rika, I. 34. 
 Namasangiti-tippani, I. 35. 
 Nama.sh/'ottarajataka, n. 16. 
 Nandimukhavadana, VI. 17. 
 NirghawAiniatrika, vn. 48. 
 Nishpannayogambali [^yogambaratan- 
 
 tra], I. 73. 
 Nishpannayogambaratantra, V. 47. 
 Padmapa/zikastuti, n. 26. 
 I'an;*akrama, V. 9. 
 Pan;<'akrama/ippa//i, v. 10. 
 I'anX-aniaharakshasutra, ll. i. 
 Pan^araksha, i. 56, 57 ; in. 32 ; vi. 23, 
 
 25 ; vn. 50; vni. 11 
 Pan>iavi»ijatisahasrika, v. 5. 
 Paranathanania, vi. 27. 
 Parwasavari, vn. 57. 
 Piwrt'apalravadana, v. 17 ; vi. 36 ; vii. 
 
 58. 
 Piwrfapatravadanakatha, I. 45. 
 Poshavidhana, I. 70. 
 Praj^naparamita, i. i, 63; in. 2, m; 
 
 IV. 4, 5 ; VI. 1, 2, 3 ; vn. 52-56 ; 
 
 vin. i8. 
 Prasasti, vn. 59. 
 
 Pratyangira, vi. 22, 24, 26 ; vii. 6a 
 Pratyangiradharawi, I. 61 ; Vlli. 13. 
 Pralyangiramahavidya, ni. 41. 
 Pratyangir:\stotra, 11. 27. 
 Prayogamukha, I. 66 ; vi. 32 ; VU. 6i. 
 Pm'n-paddliaii, vn. 51. 
 Pu//yaprotsahana, I. 26. 
 Pushyamahatmya, n. 9. 
 Rakslia-bhagavati, v. 1-4. 
 Kasli/rapalavadana, v. 11.
 
 356 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Ratnamalavadana, VII. 62. 
 Ratnapariksha, i. 10 ; V. 48 ; vi. 47. 
 Ratnavadana, v. 32 ; vi. 51. 
 Rudrakalpavadana, vii. 62b. 
 Saddharnialankavatara-mahayanasutra, 
 
 I- 5- 
 Saddharmapuwrt'arika, 1. 6 ; iii. 27, 
 
 28 ; VI. 7 ; VII. 63 ; viii. 20. 
 Sadhanamalatantra, V. 52. 
 Sahakaropadei^avadana, v. 39. 
 Sa/t/Jakratavadanasvalpa, v. 35. 
 Sai&j6akratavadanav;7hat, v. 36. 
 Samadharaja, i. 4 ; ill. 3, 4 ; vii. 65 ; 
 
 via. 23. 
 Sanipu/odbhava, i. 37. 
 Sampu/'odbhavatantra, ill. 40 ; v. 7. 
 Sa;«varodayamahatantra, 1. 38. 
 Sawvarodayatantra, iii. 38. 
 Saptakuinarikavadana, v. 33 ; vi. 62 ; 
 
 n. 65. 
 Saptavara (a collection of Dhaia7/is), i. 
 
 59 ; VII. 75, 82. 
 5aradatilaka, 11. 20. 
 Sarasangraha, II. 10. 
 5ardulakar«avadana, v. 44 ; vi. 63 ; 
 
 VII. 64. 
 Sarvadurgatiparijodhana, i. 50. 
 Sarvakatarfanavadana, i. 11. 
 iatasahasrika. See Pragnaparamita, 
 
 I. 63. 
 5atavadana, v. 50. 
 Satyavadana, vi. 61 ; vii. 76, 83. 
 Shacfangayogai'ippawi, I. 68. 
 ;5ikhasamu.^^aya, 11. 15. 
 Skandapura«a, vi. 41. 
 Spho/ikavedya, II. 2. 
 Sragdhara, VI. 20 ; viii. 8. 
 Sragdharastotra, 11. 24, 30. 
 Sragdharastotra with 7'ika, 1. 29. 
 Sragdhara vadana-/ika, vii. 77. 
 .Sringabheri, v. 19 ; vi. 50 ; vii. 67. 
 5ringabherivratavadana, vi. 64 ; vii. 
 
 68. 
 Stotrasangraha, i. 30 ; vi. 45 ; via. 3. 
 Sugatavadana, i. 12 ; v. 12 ; vi. 28 ; 
 
 VII. 70. 
 Suiandravadana, vi. 55 ; va. 69. 
 Sukhavativyuha-mahayanasutra, I. 20 ; 
 
 III. 13 ; IV. 3 ; VI. 29 ; vii. 71 ; viii. 6. 
 Sumagadhavadana, v. 27 ; vii. 78. 
 Sumbrodaya Tanlra, via. 4. 
 
 Suprabhastava, II. 5. 
 .Suprabhata, vii. 72. 
 Suprabhatastotra, III. 53. 
 .Supravarta-fiibha, VI. 59. 
 Suratnaratnakara, VI. 31. 
 Suryapr;\fiiapti-/ika, VII. 79. 
 Suvarwaprabha, III. 59 ; vi. 8 ; vii. 73. 
 Suvarwaprabhasa, i. 8 ; ai. 10. 
 Suvar«avar;?avadana, v. 31 ; vi. 48 ; 
 
 VII. 80. 
 Swarna Prabha, via. 24. 
 Swayarabhupurawa, i. 17, i8, 23 ; v. 6 ; 
 
 VI. 9 ; va. 74, 81 ; via. 14. 
 Swayambhupurawamahat, v. 21. 
 .S'yama-^'~ataka and Kinnari-gataka, 1. 
 
 16. 
 .S'yaniarahasya, a. 11. 
 Syaina Jatakam, I. 16. 
 Tantriwlokasangraha, i. 52. 
 'raia.?atanama, va. 84 ; via. 7. 
 Tathagataguhyaka, la. 5 ; va. 85 ; 
 
 via. 22. 
 Tattvajfnanasawsiddhi-tippawi, i. 43. 
 Tattvakaumudi, a. 4. 
 Uposhadhavadana, VI. 56 ; vil. 86. 
 Uposhadhavadana and Doshanirwaya- 
 
 vadana, i. 15. 
 Uposhathavadana, v. 15. 
 Ushwisha-vi^ya, vii. 87. 
 Vai^ikavadana and Gandharvikavadana, 
 
 I. 25. 
 Vajrasannasadhanamala, iii. 30. 
 Vajfrasattvapara^ka, v. 57. 
 VagrasMki, iii. 54, 55 ; v. 64 ; vi. 66 ; 
 
 VII. 91. 
 Va^navidarawa, vii. 90. 
 Va^aviramahakalamantrara^h/'jdaya- 
 
 dhara«i, a. 7. 
 Vagva/itirthayatraprakara, II. 22. 
 Varahikalpatantra, v. 60. 
 Vasantatilaka, la. 17. 
 Vasantalilakatantra, v. 62. 
 Vasudharadliarawi, i. 58. 
 Vasundhara-stottra-iatanama, vii. 89. 
 Vasundhara-vrata, vil. 88. 
 Vinayasutra, V. 29 ; VI. 42 ; VII. 92. 
 Virakiuavadana, v. 63 ; VI. 52, 53 ; 
 
 VII. 94. 
 Vratavadananiala, va. 93. 
 Yogambaratantra, 1. 39; la. 52.
 
 [357] 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 MR. HODGSON'S PRESENTATION OF HIS MSS. TO 
 THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA. 
 
 The Rangers, Durslev, Gloucestershire, 
 August 2itd, 1864. 
 
 To the RiG}n Ho.\. Sir C. Wood, G.C.B., M.P., Secretary of 
 State for India. 
 
 Sir, — Having recently submitted to the summary inspection of 
 Mr. Hall, Librarian of the India Office, a great mass of MSS., collected 
 during a long course of years by me in Nepal, when Resident at the 
 Court of Kathmandu, with a view to illustrate the natural and civil 
 history, the literature, languages, religion, institutions, and resources 
 of that little-known country, and Mr. Hall having concurred with me 
 ill opinion that these materials, how crude soever their present state, 
 are eminently calculated to subserve the ends for which they were 
 gradually amassed, and also that by being deposited in the India 
 Office Library they are most likely to be turned to fitting use, I iiereby 
 beg to tender them to your acceptance for the said Library, and to 
 acquaint you that lists m English and Hindi of the contents of the 
 MSS. are in the hands of the Librarian. I may mention, summarily, 
 that these MSS. contain int^r alia : — 
 
 1st. Twenty-three V'asavalis, or Native Chronicles, partially trans- 
 lated and chronologised by the help of coins and inscriptions. 
 
 2nd. A great mass of original documents, relative to the land rcveiuie 
 and to the custom duties. 
 
 3rd. Ditto relative to the Anny — its amount, discipline, distribution, 
 system of payment, tribes constituting the soldier>', etc., etc. 
 
 4th. Ditto, relative to the law and legal administration. 
 
 5th. Ditto, relative to the general Etluiograpiiy — its amount and 
 constituents, lingually and physically considered. 
 
 6th. Ditto, relative to the customs and manners of the population.
 
 358 APPENDIX B. 
 
 7th. Register of Barometer and Thermometer kept at Kathmandu 
 during several years, and tables of prices. 
 
 8th. Topography, being twenty-two itineraries, sketches, maps, etc., 
 etc. 
 
 9th. A large mass of papers, relative to the prevalent religion, or 
 Buddhism, in fifty-eight separate bimdles of papers. 
 
 loth. Ditto, relative to the languages and literature, being thirty-six 
 Sanskrit sastras, and seventeen Lepcha and fourteen Limbu books. 
 
 I have the honour, etc., 
 
 B. H. HODGSON. 
 
 LIST OF MSS. PRESENTED BY MR. HODGSON TO 
 THE INDIA OFFICE LIBRARY, AUGUST, 1864. 
 
 TRUNK No. I. 
 The first large bundle contains the Chronicles of the Kings of Nepal 
 in twenty-five lesser bundles, which are divided into two parcels, the 
 one containing the Vasavalis of the Newari dynasty, the other those 
 of the Gurkhali dynasty. 
 
 L — Newari Chronicles. 
 
 1st. Of Raja Pratap Mall. 
 
 2nd. Of the Shepherd Kings (Gopal) of Nepal, or the early mythic 
 history, in nine parts. 
 
 3rd. Dates of reigns of Kings of Kathmandu, Bhatgaon, and Patan, 
 from coins,' inscriptions, etc., etc. 
 
 4th. History of Raja Vishnu Mall of Patan, 
 
 5th. Chronicles of the Kings of Nepal, Newari, and Gurkhali, and 
 of the latter's connexion with Chitor, given to me by the late Sovereign 
 of Nepal. 
 
 6th. History of Raja Mahendra Mall. 
 
 7th. History of Nepal, according to the Buddhists and to the 
 Brahmans. 
 
 8th. Persian translation of 7th. 
 
 9th. Jit Mohan's (my kliardar or scribe) abstract of all the above. 
 
 loth. Sundry papers, mostly repetitions of the first eight documents 
 above. 
 
 nth. History of Raja Siddh Nar Siuh of Patan. 
 
 12th. EngUsh translations of the Vasavalis, in two volumes, with 
 some Persian addenda, — both by my office people. 
 
 1 Coins annexed.
 
 MSS. PRESENTED TO THE INDIA OFFICE. 359 
 
 II. — GuRKHALi Chronicles. 
 
 1st. A large roll given to me by the King of Nepal (Kajendra Bikram 
 Sah), containing tlie Chronicles of the Sovereigns of his (the Gurkhali) 
 dynasty. 
 
 2nd. History of the conquest of Garli (Garhwal) given to me by 
 Balbhanjan Handi (a member ol the Ministry in my time). 
 
 3rd, Royal and Thappa Vasavalis, given to me by Matabar Singh 
 Thappa Hate Prime Minister). 
 
 4th. Account of Raja Ran Bahadur Sah. 
 
 5th. Names of the successive Rajas and Chiefs of Nepal, from tlie 
 time of Raja Nar Bhupal to that of Rajendra Bikram Sah (the late 
 Sovereign). 
 
 6th. The Family Histories of the Rajas and Chiefs. 
 
 7th. Chronology of the above from coins, etc. 
 
 8th. History of Raja Prithvi Narayan Sah. 
 
 9th. Brahmanical Statement of the Early History of Nepal, from the 
 Hemvat Khand of the Skand Purana. 
 
 loth. History, from Raja Prithvi Narayan Sah to Ran Bahadur Sah. 
 
 nth. A Gurkhali Vasavali. given to me by Lakshmi Bilas (Court 
 Moonshee). 
 
 1 2th. Account of the Regent Ran Bahadur. 
 
 13th. English translations of the above, by my office people, In 
 five volumes. 
 
 TRUNK No. 1. — The second large bundle. 
 
 It contains, in five lesser bundles : — 
 
 1st. Hindu Drama on the Death of Kansa, as acted before the 
 Court and Embassy, with some English remarks on the representation. 
 
 2nd. Various Itineraries, in Nagri, in Persian, and in English, twenty- 
 two in all. 
 
 3rd. Account of the Institutions and Customs (Sthithi) of the Newars, 
 got from Nilgirvanand (one of the judges of the chief metropolitan 
 tribunal in my time). It contains an account of their annual festivals, 
 after the Almanack; nf their classification, or Jat-Mala ; and of their 
 agriculture, including a large collection of original Talpatras, or title 
 deeds, — the whole included in eight lesser bundles, and some of them 
 translated into English or Persian. 
 
 4th. Thirty-six papers relative to Buddhism, as detailed in the Nagri 
 list hereto appended. 
 
 5th. Twenty-two more papers relative to Buddiiism, as per list 
 just named.
 
 36o APPENDIX B. 
 
 TRUNK No. 2. 
 
 The first large bundle contains nine lesser ones, as follows : — 
 
 1st. Customs Revenue of Nepal, or Jagat Bhansar. 
 
 2nd. House Tax of Nepal, or Savani phagu, from River Mechi to 
 River Bheri. 
 
 3rd. Total Revenue of the District of Bhatgaon. 
 
 4th. Total Revenues and Expenses of the District of Patan. 
 
 5th. Receipts and Outgoings under the head of Tosha Khana. 
 
 6th. Alienations of Public Revenue, under the heads of Mana 
 Choul and Chap-Chapeli, or grants of land for charitable and other 
 uses. 
 
 7th. The Land Revenue (Pota) of the District of Patan. 
 
 8th. Ditto of the District of Bhatgaon. 
 
 9th. Bundle of Sundries relative to the Revenues of Nepal. 
 
 The secoftd large bundle contains thirteen papers, as follows : — 
 
 1st. Expenses on account of the Military Band of the Compu 
 (Troops stationed at the Capital). 
 
 2nd. Pay and Allowances (Khua-Khangi) of the Officers of the Army. 
 3rd. Cities and Villages assigned as Pay (Khua) to the Officers of 
 the Srinath Regiment. 
 
 4th. Pay and Allowance of one hundred and thirty-one Privates and 
 Non-commissioned Officers of the Compu. 
 
 5th. Total Expenses of the Government, including Army, Civil 
 Service, etc., etc. 
 
 6th. Total Receipts of the Chiefs or Bharadars from hereditary 
 lands (Birtha and Gut) and from salary (Khangi). 
 7th. Account of the Army. 
 
 8th. Stations of the Army ; where and in what numbers posted over 
 thf: whole kingdom. 
 
 9th. Adjustment of the Pay of the Army or Raibandi. 
 loth. Sundry Scraps in English relative to the Army, 
 llth. A Volume in EngUsh, on the Army, etc. 
 
 I2th. Three Volumes in English, on the Classification of the People 
 (thar) ; on the Judicial System ; on the Customs (Jagat-bhansar) ; and 
 o;i the Army, with some papers in Persian and in Khas (language of 
 the Gurkhalis) on the same subject. 
 
 13th. Pay and Allowances (Khet-Khua) ' of the Srinath Regiment. 
 
 ' Privates get Khet (land) only. Officers get Khet (land) and Khua (sundry 
 dues from village communities). Khet and Khua — Khangi, or total receipts.
 
 MSS. PRESENTED TO THE INDIA OFFICE. 361 
 
 The third large bundle contains six lesser ones, as follows : — 
 
 1st. Revenue of the District of Patan, as much as is realised in the 
 Tusal Court ; and tiie Land Revenue (Pota) of the District of Bhatgaon. 
 
 2nd. Questions and Answers on the Judicial .System of Nepal. 
 (Originals of the paper included in No. 12, supra.) 
 
 3rd. F'ive Volumes and some Scraps in English, on tiie Land 
 Revenue (Pota) of Nepal. 
 
 4th. Narrative in English of the Relations of the British Government 
 with Nepal. 
 
 5th. Two Volumes in English, aud Sundrj' Scraps in Hindi, on the 
 Revenue of the Nepal Tarai or Lowlands. 
 
 6th. Sundries in English. 
 
 The fourth large bundle contains twenty-seven lesser ones, all 
 relative to the Land Revenue (Pota) of the District of Bhatgaon, whereof 
 the details are given in the subjoined Hindi list. 
 
 The fifth large bundle contains twenty-one lesser bundles, all on 
 tlie Land Revenue (Pota) of the District of Kathmandu, whereof 
 particulars are given in the Hindi list. 
 
 The sixth large bundle contains, in Khas and in English, Statement 
 of the Revenue of the Province of Jumla, as per details in Hindi list. 
 
 TRUNK No. 3. 
 
 Its first large bundle contains eight lesser bundles, as follows : — 
 1st. Sketcli Map of the Valley of Nepal. 
 
 2nd. Table of Prices in Nepal during a long series of years, recorded 
 in English. 
 
 3rd. An English Volume about Nepal. 
 
 4th. Enumeration of the Population of Nepal, taken from the official 
 lists of the collectors of the ta.x (capitation) called .Sawani-Phagun. 
 
 5th. Thermometer and Barometer, as kept at Kathmandu for several 
 years for me by Captain Robinson. 
 
 Signed, 
 
 B. 11. HODGSON.
 
 [362] 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE OF B. H. HODGSON'S 
 PUBLISHED WRITINGS, 
 
 Drawn up under Mr. Hodgson^ s supervision,^ but not incUiding his zoological 
 papers, which form Appendix D to this book. The more important of 
 his still unpublished materials in the India Office Library arc shown 
 separately as Appendix B. 
 
 The following are the heads under which the papers are set 
 down : — 
 
 1. — Physical Geography of Himalaya and Tibet. 
 II. — Topography of ditto. 
 
 III. — Ethnography of Tibet, Himalaya, Western Indo-China and 
 India (Turanian or Non-Aryan). 
 IV.— Buddhism. 
 V. — Literature and Antiquities. 
 
 VI. — Hindu Law and Legal Practice, as seen in Nepal. 
 VII. — Miscellaneous. 
 
 VIII.— On National Education for the People of India. Included 
 among " Books ' (No. i). 
 
 IX. — On Trans-Himalayan Commerce, by the Line of Nepal. In- 
 cluded among "Books " (No. 4). 
 
 X.— Collected Works ; three volumes, 1874 and 1880. 
 The total number of the papers, as per following list, is 184 ; of the 
 books, 4 ; and of the volumes of collected works, 3. 
 
 Books. 
 
 1. Letters on National Education for the People of India, styled Pre- 
 
 eminence of the Vernaculars. Serampore : ist Edition, 1837 ; 
 4th Edition, 1847. 
 
 2. Literature and Religion of the Buddhists of the North. Serampore : 
 
 1 841. 
 
 » I thank Dr. Oliver Codrington for kindly checking this list from the Asiatic 
 Researches and Journals of the Bengal and the Royal Asiatic Societies.
 
 HODGSON'S PUBLISHED WRITINGS. 3^3 
 
 3. Aborigines of India. Vol. ist on the Kooch, Bodo, and Dhimal. 
 
 Calcutta: 1847. 
 
 4. No. XXVII. of Selections from the Records of the Government of 
 
 Bengal. Calcutta : 1857. 
 
 Collected Works. 
 
 1. Essays on the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal and 
 
 Tibet, together with papers on the Geography, Ethnology and 
 Commerce of those countries. Trubner : 1874. i Vol. 
 
 2. Miscellaneous Essays relating to Indian subjects, in two volumes 
 
 Triibner: 1880. 2 Vols. 
 
 The scattered papers to be next given appeared in the subjoined 
 publications, here quoted in full for the better understanding of the 
 curt style of citation below. 
 
 1. Researches of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
 
 2. Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
 
 3. Gleanings in Science, being Prinsep's Precursor of Journal of ditto. 
 
 4. Transactions and Journal of the Agri-Horticultural Society of 
 
 India. 
 
 5. Bengal Sporting Magazine. 
 
 6. Meerut's Universal Magazine. 
 
 7. Corbyn's India Review. 
 
 8. M'Clelland's Journal of Natural History. 
 
 g. Madras Asiatic Society's journal of Literature and Science. 
 
 10. Quarterly Oriental Magazine. 
 
 (Tlu abm'e 10 in India.) 
 
 1 1. Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
 
 12. Journal of ditto. 
 
 13. IVoceedings of tlie Zoological Society of London. 
 
 14. Gray's Zoological Miscellany. 
 
 15. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 
 
 ( The Inst 5 in London. ) 
 
 Now for the List as classiHcd above : — 
 
 I. — Physical Geogkapiiv. 
 
 1. Pliysical Geography of Himalaya. Joiini. As/a/. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XVIII. (1849). Reprinted in Sflnd'ons from Record.^ of 
 Gm/eriitncfit of r>cii<.^al. 
 
 2. Two Papers relating to the Himalaya and Mount Everest. Geol. 
 
 Sac. Ffoc, Vol. I. (1857), pp. 345-35'-
 
 / 
 
 364 APPENDIX C. 
 
 II.— Topography. 
 
 1. Route from Kathmandu to Tazedo. Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVI. 
 
 (1832). 
 
 2. Route from Kathmandu to Pekin, with Remarks on the Physical 
 
 Geography of Tibet. Joiirn. Asiat. Soc. Bcfig., Vol. XXV. (1856), 
 pp. 473-497- 
 
 3. Route from Kathmandu to Darjeeling. Joiirti. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XVII. (1848). 
 
 4. Measurement (Official) of the Great Military Road throughout 
 
 Nepal, from Kumaon to Sikim. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 
 
 5. Cursory Account of the Valley of Nayakote. Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng., Vol. X. (1841). 
 
 6. The Seven Cosis of Nepal. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVII. 
 
 (1848). 
 
 7. Route of two Nepalese Embassies to Pekin, with remarks on the 
 
 Watershed and Plateau of Tibet. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 Vol. XXV. (1856), pp. 473-497- 
 
 III, — Ethnography and Ethnology. 
 
 1. On the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal. Rcseaixhes 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Be7tg., Vol. XVI. (1828). 
 
 2. On the Military Tribes of Nepal. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beti^., Vol. II. 
 
 (1833)- 
 
 3. On the Newars, or People of Nepal Proper (Mythic History of, 
 
 from the Swayambhu Purana, etc.). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 Vol. III. (1834). 
 4 and 5. On the Aborigines of the Sub-Himalayas. Jotirn. Asiai. 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 1235-1244; Vol. XVII. (1848), 
 pp. 469-477, 547- 
 
 6. Comp. Vocabulary of Sub-Himalayan Dialects. Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng., Vol. XVI. (1847), p. 1245. 
 
 7. The Aborigines of Central India. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XVII. (1848), Pt. 2, pp. 550-558. 
 
 8. Ethnography and Geography of the Sub-Himalaya. Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XVII. (1848). 
 
 9. On the Chepang and Kusunda Tribes of Nepal. Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng., Vol. XVII. (1848), p. 655. 
 
 10. On the Trans-Himalayan Tribes of Hor-yeul, Sog, Yeul, and Sifan. 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVII. (1848). 
 
 11. A Brief Note on Indian Ethnology. Joitrn. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XVIII. (1849). 
 
 12. Aborigines of Southern India. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVIII. 
 
 (1849). PP- 350-359-
 
 HODGSON'S PUBLISHKD WRITINGS. 365 
 
 13. On the Tibetan Type of Mankind. Jourti. Asiat. Soc. lieng., 
 
 Vol. XVII. (1848). 
 
 14. .Aborigines of North-Eastern India. Joiini. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XVIII. (1849), pp. 451-460. 
 
 15. Ditto. Jouni. Asiat. Soc. Ben<(., Vol. XVIII., W. 2, pp. ^7-<)76. 
 
 16. On the Aborigines of the Eastern Frontier (North ol Assam). 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVIII. (1849), Vt 2, pp. <^»67-976. 
 
 17. On the Aborigines of the North-East Frontier (Assam, and South 
 
 of it). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. XIX. (1850), pp. 309-317. 
 
 18. Aborigines of the South. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XIX. 
 
 (1850), pp. 461-466. 
 
 19. On the Koch, Bodo, and Dhimal People. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XVIII. (1847). p. 702. 
 
 20. On the Mongolian Affinities of the Caucasians. Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XXII. (1853), pp. 26-76. 
 
 21. On the Indo-Chinese Borderers, and their Connexion with the 
 
 Himalayans and Tibetans. Jourti. Asiat. Soc. Beng.. Vol. XXII. 
 (1853), p. 26. 
 
 22. Sifan and Horsok Vocabularies. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. 
 
 XXII., p. 121. 
 23 and 24. On the Aborigines of the Nilgiris. Two papers. Jourtt. 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXV^ (1856), pp. 31-38, 498-522. 
 
 25. On the Broken Tribes of Nepal (Comparative Vocabularies of). 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vols. XXVI. and XXVII. (1S57-8), 
 
 P- 3I7- 
 
 26. Aborigines of the Eastern Ghauts. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. XXV. (1856), pp. 39-52. 
 
 27. On the Kiranti, Bahing, and Vagu Tribes of Nepal. Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XXVI. ^1858), pp. 372. 429. 486. 
 
 IV.— Papers on Buddhism. 
 
 1. Notices of tlic Languages, Literature, and Religion of Nepal and 
 
 Tibet. Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVI. (182S), p. 409. Reprinted 
 in Illustrations of the Literature and Religion of the Buddhists 
 (Serampore, 1841 ) ; also in Trilbner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 2. Sketch of Buddhism, derived from tlie Bauddha Scriptures ol 
 
 Nepal. Transiwtiotts of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. II. 
 (1S28), p. 222, and Appendix \'., p. ixxvii. Reprinted in Illus- 
 trations, p. 49 ; also iu Triibner's Volume of 1S74. 
 
 3. On the Extreme Resemblance between many of the Symbols of 
 
 Buddhism and Saivism. Oriental Quarterly Magazine, Vol. VII. 
 (1827), p. 218, and Vol. VIII. (1828), p. 252. Reprinted in Illus- 
 trations, p. 203 ; also ill Tnibuer s \'()lunie of 1874.
 
 l^^ APPENDIX C. 
 
 4. A Disputation respecting Caste by a Buddhist. Transactions of 
 
 the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. III. (1829), p. 160. Reprinted in 
 Illustrations ; also in Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 5. European Speculations on Buddhism. Jonm. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. III. (1834), p. 382. Reprinted in Illustrations; also in 
 Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 6. Remarks on M. Remusat'.s Review of Buddhism. Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. III. (1834), pp. 425, 499. Reprinted in Illus- 
 trations ; also in Triibner's Volume of 1 874. 
 
 7. Notice of Adi-Buddha and of the Seven Mortal Buddhas. Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. III. (1834), p. 215. Reprinted in Illus- 
 trations; also in Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 8. Note on the Inscription from Sarnath. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. IV. (1835), p. 241. Reprinted in Illustrations; also in 
 Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 9. Quotations from Original Sanskrit Authorities in Proof and Illus- 
 
 tration of the Preceding Article. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 Vol. V. (1836), pp. 29, 71. Reprinted in Illustrations; also in 
 Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 10. Note on the Primary Language of the Buddhist Writings. Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VI. (1837), p. 682. Reprinted in Illus- 
 trations ; also in Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 11. The Pravyajya Vrata, or Initiatory Rites of the Buddhists, accord- 
 
 ing to the Puja Khanda. Reprinted in Illustrations. 
 
 V. — Papers on Literature and Antiquities. 
 
 1. On Bauddha Inscriptions. Jourji. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. III. 
 
 (1834). 
 
 2. On Ancient Inscriptions in Characters of the Allahabad Column. 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. III. (1834), p. 481. 
 
 3. On Sarnath Inscriptions. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. IV. (1835), 
 
 p. 211. 
 
 4. On the Ruins of Samaran (Simroun). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. IV. (1835). 
 
 5. On Tibetan Inscriptions. Jourti. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. IV. (1835), 
 
 p. 196. 
 
 6. On the Relics of the Catholic Missions in Tibet and Nepal.' Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVII. (1848). 
 
 7. A Translation of the Naipalya Devatu Kaglana. Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XII. (1843 and 1857). 
 
 » A collection of books that had belonged to Christian missionaries who were 
 expelled from North-East Asia by the Mantcbu dynasty of China, and which 
 were given to Mr. Hodgson by the Grand Lama of Tibet and were by him pre- 
 sented to the Pope. These books filled six bo.xes.
 
 HODGSON'S PUBLISHED WRITINGS. 367 
 
 VI. — Papers on Law. 
 
 1. On the Law and Legal Practice of Nepal. Journal of the Royal 
 
 Asiatic Socidy, V'ol. 1. (1834). Reprinted in Miscellaneous Essays 
 (Triibner, 1880). 
 
 2. Some Account of the Systems of Law and Police in Nepal. Journal 
 
 of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I. (1834). Reprinted in Mis- 
 cellaneous Essays (Triibner. 1880). 
 
 3. On the Administration of Justice in Nepal. Asiatic Researches, 
 
 Vol. XX. (1836). 
 
 VII. — Miscellaneous Papers. 
 
 r. On Trans-Himalayan Commerce. Written in 1831. Published in 
 Selections from Records of Gov., No. XXVII., in 1857; also 
 reprinted in Triibners Volume of 1874. 
 
 2. On the Paper of Nepal. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. I. (1832). 
 
 3. On the Cultivation of Hemp in Nepal. Transactions of the Agri- 
 
 cultural Society of India, Vol. VIII. (1838). 
 
 4. On the Silkworms of India. Journal of the Agricultural Society 
 
 of India, Vol. IV. 
 
 5. On the Wool of Tibet. Journal of the Agricultural Society of 
 
 India, Vol. V. (1846). 
 
 6. On the Colonisation of the Himalaya by Europeans. Selections 
 
 from Records, 1857 ; also in Triibner's Volume of 1874. 
 
 Mr. Hodgson reissued tlie most important of the foregoing papers 
 in three volumes of collected Essays (one volume in 1874, and two 
 volumes in 1880), published by Triibner & Co., London.
 
 [368] 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 CATALOGUE OF PAPERS BY B. H. HODGSON ON 
 MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 
 
 Taken from Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers.^ 
 
 1. Account of the Chiru, or Unicorn of the Himalaya Mountains 
 
 (Pantholops Hodgsoni). Tilloch, Phil. Mag., Vol. LXVIIL (1826), 
 pp. 232-234. Edinb. Jou7-ti. Sci., Vol. VIL (1827), pp. 163, 164. 
 Ferussac, Bull. Sd. A^at., Vol. XV. (1828), p. 141. Froriep, 
 Notizen, Vol. XV. (1826), pp. 274-276. 
 
 2. Sur la Portee du Rhinoceros. Ferussac, Bull. Sci. Nat., Vol. VIL 
 
 (1826), pp. 436, 437. Froriep, Notizett, Vol. XIV. (1826), 
 col. 55, 56. 
 
 3. On the Growth and Habits of a Young Rhinoceros. Edinb. Joiirn. 
 
 Sci., Vol. VII. (1827), pp. 165, 166. 
 
 4. On a New Species of Buceros (B. Nepalensis). Gleanings in 
 
 Science, Vol. I. (1829), pp. 249-252. 
 
 5. On the Chiru, or Antilope Hodgsonii, Abel. Gleanings in Science, 
 
 Vol. II. (1830), pp. 348-35 1- 
 
 6. On the Bubaline Antelope (Antilope Thar). Gleanings in Science, 
 
 Vol. I. (1831), pp. 122, 123, 327. 
 
 7. Some Account of a New Species of Felis (F. Moormensis). Glean- 
 
 ings in Science, Vol. I. (1831), pp. 177, 178. 
 
 8. On some of the Scolopacidae of Nepal. Gleanings in Science, 
 
 Vol. I. (1831), pp. 233-243. 
 
 9. Contributions in Natural History (the Musk Deer and Cervus 
 
 Jarai). Gleanings in Science, Vol. I. (1831), pp. 320-324. 
 
 10. Description and Characters of the Chiru Antelope (Antilope 
 
 Hodgsonii, Abel). Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. I. (1831J, pp. 52-54. 
 
 11. Note relative to the Account of the Jarai. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. I. (1832), pp. 66, 67. 
 
 12. Further Illustrations of the Antilope Hodgsonii, Abel. Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. I. (1832), pp. 59-63 ; Zool. Soc. Proc, 
 Vol. 1.(1833), pp. no, III. 
 
 ' Those on ethnological subjects omitted, as they have aheady appeared in 
 Appendix C. Mrs. Hodgson has kindly undertakenthe responsibility for the 
 Appendices and their orthography.
 
 HODGSON'S ZOOLOGICAL PAPERS. 369 
 
 13. On the Mammalia of Nepal. Joitrn. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. I. 
 
 (1832). pp. 335-348. 
 
 14. Characters and Descriptions of New Species of Mammalia and 
 
 Birds from Nepal (Felis Moormensis, Antilope bubalina, Buceros 
 Nepalensis). Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. II. (1832), pp. 10-16; 
 Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVIII. (1833), pp. 178-186. 
 
 15. On a New Species of Buceros (B. Nepalensis), Dhanesa, Ind. 
 
 Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVIII. (1833), pp. 178-186. 
 
 1 6. On a Species of Aquila (circaetus) and Dicrurus. Asiatic Researches, 
 
 Vol. XVIII. (1833), Pt. 2, pp. 13-26. 
 
 17. On the Migration of the Natatores and Grallatores. as obser\'ed 
 
 at Kathmandu. Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVIII. (1833), Pt. 2, 
 pp. 122-128. 
 
 18. The Wild Goat (Capra Jharal) and the "Wild Sheep (Ovis Nayaur) 
 
 of Nepal. Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVIII. (1833), Pt. 2 pp. i-'q- 
 138. 
 
 19. On the Ratwa Deer of Nepal (Cervus Ratwa). Asiatic Researches, 
 
 Vol. XVIII. (1833), Pt. 2, pp. 139-149. 
 
 20. Description of the Buceros Homrai of the Himalaya ; with Ana- 
 
 tomical Observations by Dr. M. T. Bramley. Asiatic Researches, 
 Vol. XVIII. (1833), Pt. 2, pp. 168-188. 
 
 21. Description of the Wild Dog of the Himalaya (Canis primavus). 
 
 Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVIII. (1833), Pt. 2, pp. 221-237. 
 
 22. Characters of a New Species of Perdix (P. Lerwa). Zool. Soc. 
 
 Proc, Vol. I. (1833), p. 107. 
 
 23. Description and Characters of the Wild Dog of Nepal (Canis 
 
 primaevus). Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. I. (1833), PP- ii'. U-- 
 
 24. Note on the Chiru Antelope (Gazella Hodgsoni, Abel). Jouni. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beiig., Vol. I., pp. 59, 66 ; Vol. III., p. 138. 
 
 25. Letter on the Distinction between the Ghoral (Antilope goral, 
 
 Hardw.) and Thar (Antilope Thar, Hodgs.). Zool. Soc. Proc, 
 Vol. II. (1834), pp. 85-87. Oken, Isis, 1835, col. 1039. 
 
 26. On the Mammalia of Nepal. Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. II. (1834), 
 
 PP- 95-99- 
 
 27. On the Characters of the Jharal (Capra Jharal, Hodgs.), and of the 
 
 Nahoor (Ovis Naiioor, Hodgs.), with Observations on tiie Dis- 
 tinction between the Genera Capra and Ovis. Zool. Soc Proc 
 Vol. II. (1834), pp. 106-1 10. Froriep, Notizen, Vol. XLIV. (1835), 
 col. 129-134. LInstitut, Vol. III. (1835), pp. 121-123. 
 
 28. Description of the Bearded Vulture of the Himalaya (Gypaetos 
 
 [Vultur] barbatus). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. IV. (1835), 
 pp. 454-457. Bibl. Univ., Vol. VIII. (1837), p. 212. 
 
 29. Red-billed Erolia. Joimt. Asiat. Soc Beng., Vol. IV. (1835), 
 
 pp. 458-461. 
 
 24
 
 370 APPENDIX D. 
 
 30. Synopsis of tlie Thar and Ghoral Antelopes. Jonm. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng.y Vol. IV. (1835), pp. 487-489. 
 
 31. On the Wild Goat and Wild Sheep of the Himalaya, with Remarks 
 
 on the Genera Capra and Ovis. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., 
 Vol. IV. (1835), pp. 490-494, 710. A7in. Set. Nat., Vol. V. {Zool.) 
 (1836), pp. 299, 300. 
 
 32. Specific Description of a New Species of Cervus (C. elaphoides). 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. IV. (1835), pp. 648, 649; Vol. V. 
 (1836), pp. 240-242. 
 
 33. Synopsis of the Vespertilionidae of Nepal. Joitrn. Asiat. Soc. Beug., 
 
 Vol. IV. (1S35), pp.699, 7°°- 
 
 34. Note on the Red-billed Erolia, or Clorhynchus strophiatus. Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. IV. (1835), p. 701. 
 
 35. Description of the Little Musteline Animal (Putorices Kathiah) 
 
 denominated Kathiah Nyul in the Catalogue of the Nepalese 
 Mammalia. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng,, Vol. IV. (1835), pp. 702, 
 703. With Postscript to the account of the Wild Goat of Nepal. 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. IV. (1835), p. 710. 
 
 36. Indication of a New Genus of the Carnivora (Ursitaxus inauritus), 
 
 with Description of the Species on which it is founded. Asiatic 
 Researches, Vol. XIX. (1836), pp. 60-69. 
 
 37. Description of Three New Species of Paradoxurus (P. hirsutus, 
 
 P. Nepalensis, P. lanigerus). Asiatic Researches, Vol. XIX. 
 (1836), pp. 72-87. 
 
 38. Notices of the Ornithology of Nepal. Asiatic Researches, Vol. XIX. 
 
 (1836), pp. 143-192- 
 
 39. Description of a New Species of Columba (C. Nepalensis). Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. V. (1836), pp. 122, 123. 
 
 40. Summary Description of some New Species of Falconidae. Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. V. (1836), pp. 227-230. 
 
 41. Synoptical Description of Sundry New Animals enumerated in 
 
 the Catalogue of Nepalese Mammals. Jourii. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 Vol. V. (1836), pp. 231-238. 
 
 42. Notes on the Cervus Duvaucelii, Cuvier, or C. elaphoides and 
 
 Bahraiya, Hodgs. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. V. (1836), 
 pp. 240-242. Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. IV. (1836), pp. 46, 47. 
 
 43. Description of Two New Species belonging to a New Form of 
 
 the Meruline Group of Birds, with Indication of their Generic 
 Character (Cochoa purpurea, C. viridis). Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 Beng., Vol. V. (1836), pp. 358, 359. 
 
 44. On a New Genus and Species of the Meropidae (Bucia Nepalensis). 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. V. (1836), pp. 360, 361. 
 
 45. On a New Piscatory Genus of the Strigine Family (Cultrungus 
 
 flavipes). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. V. (1836), pp. 363, 364.
 
 HODGSON'S ZOOLOGICAL PAPP:RS. 37I 
 
 46. Postscript to the Account of Ursitaxus (Meles Labradorius) printed 
 
 in the XlXth Vol. of the Asiatic Researches. Jourti. Asiai. Soc. 
 Bcng., Vol. V. (1S36), p. 671. 
 
 47. Note on Zoological Nomenclature. Joiirn. Asiai. Soc. Beng., Vol. V. 
 
 (1S36), pp. 751.752. 
 
 48. Additions to the Ornithology of Nepal. Journ. Asiat. Soc. fleng., 
 
 Vol. V. (1836), pp. mo-T]\. 
 
 49. On some of the Scolopacidae of Nepal. Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. IV. 
 
 (1S36), pp. 7, 8. 
 
 50. On the Lachrymal .Sinus in Antilope Thar and Cervus Aristotelis, 
 
 Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. IV. (1836), pp. 39, 40. 
 
 5 1 . On Seven New Species of Vespertilionida; observed in the Central 
 
 Region of Nepal. Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. VI. (1836), p. 46. 
 
 52. On Three New Genera or Sub-genera of Long-legged Thrushes 
 
 (Tesia, nobis, Larvivora, Paludicola), with Descriptions of their 
 Species. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. VI. (1837), pp. 101-103. 
 
 53. Description of Three New Species of Woodpecker (Picussultaneus, 
 
 Vivia Nepalensis, Picus pyrrhotis) and of Malacolophus melano- 
 chrysos. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VI. O837), pp. 104-109. 
 
 54. Indication of a New Genus of Insessorial Birds (Cutia). Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc Beng., Vol. VI. (1837), pp. 110-112. 
 
 55. On a New Genus of the Sylviadae, with Description of Three New 
 
 Species (Yuhina gularis, Y. occipitalis, Y. flavicollis). Journ. 
 Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol VI. (1837), pp. 230-232. 
 
 56. On some New Genera of Raptores, with Remarks on the Old 
 
 Genera. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VI. (1837), pp. 361-373. 
 
 57. New Species of Scolopacidae (Indian Snipes). Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng., Vol. VI. (1837), p. 489. 
 
 58. Description of the Gauri Gau of the Nepal Forest (Bibos subhema- 
 
 chalus). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VI. (1837), p. 499. 
 Wiegmann, Archiv, Vol. VI. (1840), pp. 263-267. 
 
 59. On a New Genus of the Plantigrades (Urva cancrivora), with an 
 
 Appendi.x by A. Campbell. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VI. 
 (1837), pp. 500-565. 
 
 60. On the Hibo~, Gauri Gau, or Gaurika Gau of the Indian Forests 
 
 (Bibos cavifrons, B. classicus, W. /Vristotelis). Journ. Asiat. 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. VI. (1837), pp. 745-749. 
 
 61. Indication of a New Genus belonging to the Strigine Family, with 
 
 Description of the New Species and Type. Madras Jaunt., 
 Vol. V. (1837), pp. 23-26. 
 
 62. On Two New Genera of Rasorial Birds (Lcrva, Arborophila). 
 
 Madras Jnurn., Vol. V. (1837), pp. 30C-306. 
 
 63. On the Structure and Habits of the Klanus m<;lanopterus M,i,irti<; 
 
 Journ., Vol. VI. (1837), pp. 75-78-
 
 372 APPENDIX D. 
 
 64. On a New Species of Plieasant (Phasiaiius crossoptilon) from Tibet. 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VII. (1838), pp. 863, 864. 
 
 65. On a New Genus and Two Species of tlie Fissirostral Tribe (Raya 
 
 sericeogula, R. rubropygea). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VIII. 
 (1839), pp. 35, 36. 
 
 66. (Three) New Species of Meniline Birds (Sibia picaoides, S. nigri- 
 
 ceps, S. Nepalensis). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VIII. (1839), 
 
 p. 37. 
 
 67. On Cuculus (Pseudornis) dicruroides. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. VIII. (1839), pp. 136, 137. 
 
 68. On Three New Species of Musk (Moschus) inhabiting the Himalayan 
 
 Districts (M. chrysogaster, M. leucogaster, M. saturatus). Journ 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. VIII. (1839), p. 202. 
 
 69. Summary Description of Four New Species of Otter. Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. VIII. (1839), PP- 3'9i S^o. Ann. Nat. Hist., 
 Vol. V. (1840), p. 27. 
 
 70. On the Common Hare of the Gangetic Provinces, and of the Sub- 
 
 Himalaya ; with a Slight Notice of a Strictly Himalayan Species. 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. IX. (1840), pj). 1183-1186. Ann. 
 Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII. (1842), pp. 231-234. 
 
 71. Three New Species of Monkey (S. schistaceus, hodie Pithex 
 
 oinops, P. pelops), with Remarks on the Genera Semnopithecus 
 and Macacus (Pithex, nobis). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. IX. 
 (1840), pp. 121 1-1213. 
 
 72. Classical Terminology of Natural History. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. X. (1841), pp. 26-29. 
 
 73. On the Two Wild Species of Sheep (Ovis ammonoides, O. Nahoor) 
 
 inhabiting the Himalayan Region, with some Brief Remarks on the 
 Craniological Character of Ovis and its Allies. Journ. Asiat. 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. X. (1840), pp. 230-234. 
 
 74. Illustrations of the Genera of the Bovinae. Part I. Skeletons of 
 
 Bos, Bibos, and Bison, the Individuals examined being the 
 Common Bull of Nepal, the Gowri Gao of Nepal, and the Yak. 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. X. (1841), pp. 449-470. 
 
 75. Note on the Cervus elaplius (elaphoides ?) of the Saul Forest of 
 
 Nepal {hodie C. affinis, nodis). Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 Vol. X. (1841), pp. 721-724. 
 
 76. Notice of the Marmot (Arctomys Himalayanus) of the Himalaya 
 
 and Tibet. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. X. (1841), pp. 777, 778. 
 
 77. On a New Organ in the Genus Moschus. Joiirn. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 
 
 Vol. X. (1841J, pp. 795, 796. 
 
 78. On a New Species of Lagomys inhabiting Nepal (Lagomys Nepal- 
 
 ensis, nobis). Jotii'n. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. X. (1841) 
 pp. 854, 855. Ann. Nat. Hist., Vol. X. (1842), pp. 76, TJ.
 
 HODGSON'S ZOOLOGICAL PAPERS. 37^ 
 
 79. Notice of a New Korm of the Glaucopinsc, or Kasorial Crows, in- 
 habiting tlie Northern Region of Nepal — Conostoma ictnodius 
 (Nobis, type). Journ. Asia/. Soc. lien^.. Vol. X. ( 1841), pp. 856. 
 857. Ann. Nat. Hist., Vol. X. (1842), pp. 77-79. 
 
 So. Classified Catalogue of Mammals of Nepal fcorrected to end of 
 1841, fifst printed in 1832). Journ. Asiat. Soc. I>en^., Vol. X. 
 (1841), Pt. 2. pp. 907-<;i6. Calcutta Journ. A'at. Hist., Vol. II. 
 ( 1842), pp. 212-221 ; Vol. IV. (1844J, pp. 2S4, 285. 
 
 81. Notice of the Mammals of Tibet. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XI. 
 
 (1842), pp. 275-288. 
 
 82. On the Civet of the Continent of India, Viverra orientalis (/wdie 
 
 melanunis). Calcutta Journ. .\'at. His/., Vol. II. (i842», 
 pp. 47-56. 
 
 83. On a New Species of Prionodon (P. pardicolor). ('alcutta Journ 
 
 Nat. His/., Vol. II. (1842), pp. 57-60. 
 
 84. New Species of Rliizomys discovered in Nepal (R. badius. Bay 
 
 Bamboo Rat). Calcutta Journ. Nat. His/., Vol. II. (1842). 
 pp. 60, 61, 410, 41 1. 
 
 85. European .Notices of Indian Canines, with Kurthtr Illustrations ol 
 
 the New Genus Cuon vel Chrysicus. Caku//a Journ. Nat. Hist . 
 Vol. II. (1842), pp. 205-209. 
 
 86. On a New Species of Mustela '." known to the Ncpalese Commerce 
 
 as the Chuakhal Mustela? Calotus, nobis. Cahul/a Journ Nat. 
 Hist., Vol, n. (1S42). pp. 221-223. 
 
 87. Appendi.x to Account of Cuon primacvus, the Wild Dog, or liuansu 
 
 Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist., Vol. II. (1842), pp. 412-414. 
 
 88. Description of a New Genus of F"alconida" (Aquila pemigra) /<>ur>i 
 
 Asia/. Soc. Reng., Vol. XII. (1843), pp. 127, 128. 
 
 89. Catalogue of Nepalcse Birds. Journ. Asia/. Soc. lu-ng.. Vol .\II 
 
 (1843), pp. 301 -3 '.1. 447-450- 
 
 90. Notice of Two Marmots found in Tibet (Arctomys Himalayanus of 
 
 Catalogue, potius Tibetensis, hoilic tnihi, and A. Hemachalanus). 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., Vol. XII. (1843), pp. 409-414. 
 
 91. On a New Species of Cervus (C. dimorphe). Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 lirng.. Vol. XII. (1843), pp. 8S9-89S. 
 
 92. .Summary Description of Two New Species of Klying Squirrel 
 
 (Sciuropterus chrysotrix, Sc. senex). Journ. Asiat. So<: Heng , 
 Vol. XIII. (1844), pp. 67, 68. 
 
 93. On the Lfiotrirhaiie Birds of thr Sub-Himalayas, with some 
 
 Additions and Annotations: a Synopsis of the Indian Pari, and 
 of the Indian Kringillidfc, by K. Blyth. Journ Asiat. Sor. Beng., 
 Vol. XIII. (1844). Pt. 2, pp. 933-963- 
 
 94. On the Rats, Mice, and Shrews of the Central Region ol Nepal 
 
 Ann. Na/. His/., Vol. XV. (1845), pp. 266-270.
 
 374 APPENDIX D. 
 
 95. Characters of Six New Species of Ncpalese Birds. Ann. Nat. 
 
 Hist., Vol. XV. (1845), pp. 326, 327. 
 
 96. On Nepalese Birds. Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. XIII. (1845), pp. 22-38. 
 
 97. On the Wild Sheep of Tibet, with Plates (Ovis ammonoides, mihi). 
 
 JoiifJi. Asiai. Soc. Bcng., Vol. XV., pp. 338-343. 
 
 98. Description of a New Species of Tibetan Antelope (Procapra 
 
 picticaudata). Jourii. Asiat. Soc. Bc7i<i., Vol. XV. (1846), 
 
 PP- 334-343- 
 
 99. On a New Form of the Hog Kind or Suidae (Porcula Salvania, 
 
 Pigmy Hog). Jour?!. Asiat. Soc. Beni;., Vol. XVI. (1847), 
 
 PP- 593. 594- 
 100 On the Hispid Hare of the Saul Forest (Lepus hispidus, Pears., 
 Caprolagus hispidus, Blyth). Journ. Asiai. Soc. Bcng., Vol. XV^I. 
 (1847), pp. 572-577- 
 
 101. Postscript on the Pigmy Hog of the Saul Forest. Jortrn. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Bc7tg., Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 593, 594. 
 
 102. Various Genera of the Ruminants. Joiirn. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., 
 
 Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 685-711. 
 
 103. On the Tibetan Badger (Taxidia leucurus). Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Bcng., Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 763-771- 
 
 104. On a New Species of Porcupine (Hystrix aloplius). Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 771-774. 
 
 105. On the Charj or Otis Bengalensis. Jonrn. Asiat. Soc. Bcng., 
 
 Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 883-889. 
 
 106. The Slaty-blue Megaderme (M. schistacea). Jonrn. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng., Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 889-894. 
 
 107. On a New Species of Plecotus (PI. homochrous). Journ. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Bcng., Vol. XVI. (1847), Pt. 2, pp. S94-896. 
 
 108. On the Tame Sheep and Goats of the Sub-Himalayas and Tibet. 
 
 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVI. (1847), pp. 1003-1026. 
 
 109. On the Cat-toed Subplantigrades of the Sub-Himalayas. Journ. 
 
 Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVI. (1847), Pt. 2, pp. 1113-1129. 
 
 1 10. Description of the Wild Ass (Asinus polyodon) and Wolf of 
 
 Tibet (Lupus laniger). Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist., Vol. VH. 
 (1847), pp. 469-477- 
 
 111. On a New Genus and Species of Suidse (Porcula Salvania) and 
 
 a New Species of Taxidia (T. leucurus). Zool. Soc. Proc, 
 Vol. XV. (1847), pp. 115, 116. 
 
 112. Anatomy of Ailurus, Porcula, and Stylocerus. Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
 
 Beng., Vol. XVII. (1848), Pt. 2, pp. 475-487, 573-575- 
 
 113. Observations on the Manners and Structure of Prionodon pardi- 
 
 color. Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII. (1848), pp. 40-45. 
 
 114. On a New Genus of Insessorial Birds (Merva). Calcutta Journ. 
 
 Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII. (1848), pp. 45-48.
 
 HODGSON'S ZOOLOGICAL PAPERS. 375 
 
 115. On the Four-horned Antelopes of India. Calcutta Jount. Nat. 
 
 Hist., Vol. VIII. ( 1848). i)p. 87-.>|. 
 
 1 16. On the Buzzards of the Himalaya and Tibet. Calcutta Jount. 
 
 Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII (1848), pp. 94-97. 
 
 117. Note oil the Kiang. Calcutta Jount. Nat. Hist., Vol. \I1I. (.1848), 
 
 pp. 98-100. 
 I iS. The Polecat of Tibet, n. sf>. Jount. Asiat. Soc. Heng., Vol. XVIII. 
 (1849), pp. 446-450- 
 
 119. On the Takin (Budorcas taxicolor) of the Eastern Himalaya. 
 
 Jount. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XIX. (1850), pp. 65-75. 
 
 120. On the Shou or Tibetan Stag (Cen-us affinis). Jount. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Beng., Vol. XIX. (1850), pp. \(^(^-\(v^, 518-520. 
 
 121. On the Shou or Tibetan Stag (C. affinis, mihi). Jnurn. Asiat. 
 
 Soc. Bcng., Vol. XX. (1851), pp. 388-394. 
 
 122. Catalogue of Nepalese Birds. Jount. Asiat. .b'oc. Bcng., Vol. 
 
 XXIV. (1855), pp. 572-582. 
 
 123. On the Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia and Birds of 
 
 the Himalaya. Zool. Soc. Proc, Vol. XXIII. (1855), pp. 124-128. 
 
 124. On a Now Perdicine Bird (.Sacpha Hodgsoni;t) from Tibet. 
 
 Jount. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXV. (1856), pp. 165, 166. 
 
 125. On a New Species of Lagomys [h. Curzoniae) and a New Mustela 
 
 (M. temon) inhabiting the North of Sikhim and tlu- Proximate 
 Parts of Tibet. Jount. Asiat. Soc. Bcug., Vol. XX\T. (1857), 
 pp. 207, 208. Ann. Nat. Hist., Vol. I. (1858), p. So. 
 
 126. Description of a New Species of Himalayan Mole (Talpa macrura). 
 
 Jount. Asiat. Soc. Bcug., Vol. XXVII. (1858), p. 176. An/t. 
 Nat. Hist, Vol. II. (1858), p. 494. 
 
 127. Notes on Certain Species of Silkworms, Indigenous to India. 
 
 /ntfia Agric. Soc. Jount., Vol. VI. (1848), pp. 167-181. B. H. 
 Hodgson and K. W. S. Frith. 
 
 LIST OF MK. HODGSON'S ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 I. Zoology. 
 I. Specimens: — 
 
 Birds 9.512 
 
 Mammals .... 9^3 
 
 Reptiles, etc ^4 
 
 Total .... 
 
 10,499 
 
 All presented to the British Museum in 1843 and 1S58. A series 
 reserved by the Museum for itself, along with all the Reptiles ; and 
 the rest (duplicates) distributed to the ( hief European and American 
 Societies.
 
 376 APPENDIX D. 
 
 2. Drawings : — Sheets. 
 
 Birds 1,241 
 
 Mammals . . . . . . . -557 
 
 Reptiles 55 
 
 Total .... 
 
 1.853 
 The above drawings received back from the British Museum (less 
 the Reptilian ones, which were retained), given in 1874 to the Zoo- 
 logical Society of London. 
 
 II. Ethnography. 
 
 1. Specimens 79 
 
 2. Drawings, including duplicates 107 
 
 Specimens all given to British Museum. 
 
 Drawings given to Christie Collection, 46 sheets ; to Anthropological 
 Society of London, 61. 
 
 LIST OF NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF MAMMALS 
 FIRST DESCRIBED BY B. H. HODGSON, ESQ. 
 
 Kindly contributed by Sir William Henry Flower, K.C.B., Director 
 of the Natural History Branch of the British Museum} 
 
 Order PRIMATES. 
 
 Family Cercopithecid^. 
 
 1. Sctnnopithectis schistacctis, Hodgson. 
 
 Order INSECTIVORA. 
 Family Talpid^e. 
 
 2. Talpa micrura, Hodgson. 
 
 Family Soricid^e. 
 
 3. Soriculus caudatus (Hodgson). 
 
 4. ,, macruriis (Hodgson). 
 
 Order CHIROPTERA. 
 
 Family Rhinolophid.^. 
 
 5. Rhinolophus tragatus, Hodgson. 
 
 6. Hipposideriis armiger, Hodgsoa 
 
 Family VESPERTlLiONiDyE. 
 
 7. Synotus Darjelingensis (Hodgson). 
 
 8. Vesperiilio formosus, Hodgson. 
 
 ' I also thank Mr. Lydekker for the actual preparation of this list.
 
 HODGSON'S NEW GENERA AND SPECIES. 377 
 
 Order CARNIVOl^. 
 
 Family ViverriD/E. 
 
 9. IJnsang pardicolor (Hodgson). 
 
 10. Para(iox~itms lani<rer, Hodgson. 
 
 1 1 . Hcrpcstcs auropiinctatiis (Hodgson). 
 
 12. ,, i(n<a (Hodgson). 
 
 Family CaniD/E. 
 
 13. Canis fcrrilatus (Hodgson). 
 
 Family Mustelid^e. 
 
 14. Mustela canigula, Hodgson. 
 
 15. ,, cathia, Hodgson. 
 
 16. ,, subhemacliclana, Hodgson. 
 
 17. ,, strigUiorsa, Hodgson. 
 
 18. „ /rtrc'a/<z ( Hodgson). 
 
 19. (?) Meles Icucurus (Hodgson) 1 = M. iaxus. 
 
 20. Lutra aurobntnnca, Hodgson. 
 
 Order RODENTIA. 
 
 Family Sciurid^e. 
 
 21. Plcromys magnijiats (Hodgson). 
 
 22. Sciiiroptcrus alboniger, Hodgson. 
 
 23. Sci'urus locria, Hodgson. 
 
 24. ,, locroidcs, Hodgson. 
 
 25. Arctomys Hitnalayanus, Hodgson. 
 
 Family Murid^e. 
 
 26. Mus niveivciiter, Hodgson. 
 
 27. „ cenncolor, Hodgson. 
 
 28. Nesocia ncmorivaga (I lodgson). 
 
 29. Microtus Sikimcnsis (I lodgson). 
 
 Family Spalacid^^e. 
 
 30. Rhizo7)iys bad i us, Hodgson. 
 
 Family Leporid/E. 
 
 31. Lfpus oiostu! us, Hodgson. 
 
 Family Lagomyid/E. 
 
 32. Lagomys Cur~ouiie, Hodgson. 
 
 Order UNGULATA. 
 
 Family Bovid.e. 
 
 33. Ovis tiahura, Hodgson. 
 
 34. Ncmorhiedus bubalinus (Hodgson). 
 
 35. Budorcas Uixicolor, Hodgson. 
 
 36. Gazella pidicaudata (Hodgson)
 
 378 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Family Cekvid.k. 
 
 37. Ccfvus afflnis, Hodgson. 
 
 Family Suid^k. 
 
 38. Sus satvanws (Hodgson). 
 
 Order EDENTATA. 
 
 Family MANiDyK. 
 
 39. Manis ajiriia, Hodgson. 
 
 N.B. — Where the generic term has been changed, the name of the 
 founder of the species is bracketed. The only genus in this list 
 described by Hodgson which stands is Budorcas ; but he also named 
 CyoH, HctnitragHS, and Pantholops, which are likewise generally 
 admitted.
 
 [379] 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abel, Dr., 301. 
 
 Ac land ^ Rev. Charles, 2;. 
 
 Acton, Lord, historian, 331. 
 
 Adam, Mr. yo/!«, missionary, his 
 Report on the indigenous 
 schools of Bengal, 318-20. 
 
 ^y^7/a«/j/d:«,LordEllenborough's 
 policy in, 205-6, 224 ; our suc- 
 cesses in. 226. 
 
 Aitchison, Sir Charles, his Trea- 
 ties and Engagements, 59-63, 
 180, 194. 
 
 A mrita Nanda, a Nepalese pan- 
 dit. 2"];^. 
 
 Argyll, Duke of, Secretary of 
 State for India ; to the opening 
 up trade with Tibet, 329. 
 
 Artihcm, 239-40. 
 
 Aryan and non- Aryan races of 
 India, 284-99: Hodgson's 
 studies of, 285, 28S-99 ; customs 
 and religion of non-Arj'an tribes, 
 
 294-5- , „ . . 
 
 A shtasahasrika Prajnapara- 
 
 mita, a Nepalese MS. of the 
 
 1 2th century, 266. 
 
 Asiatic Society, of London 
 
 (Royal), 267 ; its memoir of 
 
 Hodgson, 278 ; Hodgson's gifts 
 
 to, 261, 266-7, -^/^j 3°7- S^^' '^'*° 
 
 337> 339"43' i^i- 
 
 Atkinson, E. T., his Report on 
 Kumattn, 37-9, 42-3, 45-6 ; his 
 Report on Garh7val District, 
 40. 
 
 Auckland, Lord, 90, 154. 202-3, 
 204 ; his policy in Nepal, 154- 
 226 ; his letters to Hodgson, 165, 
 168, 183, 190-2, 195 ; his thanks 
 .ind congratulations to Hodgson, 
 189, 191, 198-9. 203-4: his ap- 
 
 preciation of Gurklia soldiers, 
 201 ; his recall, 203. 
 Ajifrecht, Professor, 348. 
 
 B. 
 
 Barlovj, Sir George, 19. 
 
 Batten, Joseph Ha I let, Piincipal 
 of Haileybury College, 15, 22 ; 
 his Jxcporton the Kumaun and 
 Rohilkund Tarai, 39. 
 Bayley, Mr. William Butter- 
 wort li, 93 ; his advice to Hodg- 
 son, 94 ; his advice carried out' 
 by Hodgson, 124. 
 Bayley, Sir Steuart Colvin, 
 K.C.S.I., 94 ; his contributions 
 to Memorials of Old Hailey- 
 bury College, II. 
 Beat, Samuel, a student of Nor- 
 thern Buddhism. 280. 
 Bcndall, Cecil, M.A., 282; his 
 Catalogue of the Buddhist 
 Sanskrit MSS., 261, 265; his 
 fourney of Literary and A rch- 
 (fological Research in Nepal 
 and Northern India, 282 ; his 
 letter noting a mistaken date of 
 a Nepalese IVIS., 266 ; his higher 
 studies of Buddhism, 280; his 
 views on the bibliographic side of 
 Hodgson's Buddhist work. 282 ; 
 
 j acknowledgments of his help in 
 
 1 this book, 2O1, 338. 
 
 j Bengal Asiatic Society, its Asia- 
 
 I tic Researches, 104. 272, 363 ; its 
 
 I Transactions, 104, 236, 252 ; its 
 Journal, 108, 2^6, 252, 253, 276. 
 
 I 286, 303, 305, :^hT^ ; Proceedings 
 of the Society, No. 62, 335 ; 
 manuscript records of. 262. 302 ; 
 
 I contributions of Csoma de Koros 
 and of Blyth to its Journal, 278,
 
 :;8o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 306 ; meeting held in honour of 
 Hodgson, 235-6; its President's 
 address at the meeting of May, 
 1866, 323; its President (Sir C. 
 EUiolt, K.C.S.I.), 262; Hodgson's 
 gifts to the Society, 261, 266-7, 
 281, 337-8, 352-3 ; Hodgson as 
 Honorary Member of, ^;^^. 
 
 Befitinck, Lord William, ap- 
 points Hodgson Resident of 
 Nepal, 109, 124-5; "Sxx?, Resolu- 
 tion declaring that the State 
 education in India should be in 
 the English language, 313 ; 
 Hodgson opposes his views, 318. 
 
 Bhabar, forest track, 34, 39 ; 
 fauna of, 45. 
 
 Bhartpur, fort in Nepal, 100, 109. 
 
 Bhivi Sen llrappa, Prime Minis- 
 ter of Nepal, his relations with 
 Mr. Gardner, 63 ; Prime Minister 
 of Nepal, 98; his policy, 99 ; his 
 war against the English, 100 ; his 
 diplomacy and tactics against 
 the English, loi ; his settlement 
 with Hodgson of the boundaries 
 of Nepal, loi ; his obstruction of 
 commerce between Nepal and 
 India, 103; his ambition, 127; 
 his settlement of the Nepal boun- 
 daries, 128; his conciliatory 
 measures towards Hodgson, 
 128-9 ; ^is isolation of the British 
 Residency, 129-30; his despotic 
 administration, 131-2; his power 
 over the Raja, 133-5 ! his nego- 
 tiations with Hodgson, 139, 
 1 40-1 ; his severities to the 
 Pandis, 142 ; his downfall, 142-6, 
 151-3, 159, 174-6 ; his suicide, 
 176; his character, 176; indig- 
 nities towards his relations, 177 ; 
 result of his death, 178-9. 
 
 Bhutan, its commerce, iii. 
 
 Birds in Kumaun. See Ornitho- 
 logy. 
 
 Blanford, TV. T., his article in 
 Natural Science, 307-9. 
 
 Blyth, an ornithologist, authority 
 on Indian birds, 306-7, 2^'^^'], 348-9. 
 
 Boddaert, his ornithological work 
 in the West, 305. 
 
 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Hodg- 
 son's gifts to, 266-7, 337' 348-9. 
 
 Bodos, the, a tribe of hillmen in 
 
 India, 289-95. 
 Boileau, Colo7iel, 167. 
 BotaTiy of Darjiling and the 
 
 Himalayas, 246. 
 Bralnnan, education of a, 311. 
 Brahman party , the, in Ne;palese 
 
 Government, 145, 153-4, 229. 
 Brahffian physicians tortured in 
 
 Nepal, 172-5. 
 Brahma7iism, Hodgson's opinion 
 
 on its difference from Buddhism, 
 
 273- 
 
 Brah/naputra, the, its source on 
 the Tibetan side of the Hima- 
 layas, 287. 
 
 British Museum., Hodgson's gifts 
 to, of his zoological collections, 
 240, 307-8, 326, 375-8 ; of his orni- 
 thological collections, 308-9, 326; 
 of his Tibetan Buddhist MSB., 
 etc., 270-1, 326, 338 ; Hodgson's 
 donations quoted in the List of 
 the Specimens of Mam.m,alia in 
 the Collection of the British 
 Mttseum, 307-8. 
 
 Brown, Dr., Grammatical 
 Notices of the Assamese Lan- 
 guage, 297. 
 
 Brown, Lauretice George, 10. 
 
 Buddhis^n, Hodgson's collection 
 of original documents on, 264-5, 
 266-8, 271-2, 337-56, 359; his 
 articles on, 104, 272-6, 362-3, 
 365-6 ; his defence of, 332 ; 
 his knowledge of, 283 ; contro- 
 versies on, 279-80. 
 
 Bunsen, his Philosophy of Uni- 
 versal History, 287, 296 ; his 
 opinion of Hodgson's ethnolo- 
 gical discoveries, 286, 331. 
 
 Bunsen, Georg von, 331. 
 
 Bunyiu Nanjio, his help, 338. 
 
 Burke, Edmtmd, referred to, 25. 
 
 Burnouf, E., his Introduction a 
 r Histoire du Buddhisme In- 
 dien, 264, 267-8, 276-7, 280 ; his 
 letters in Choix de Lettres 
 d' Eugene Burnouf, 268 ; his 
 opinion of Hodgson's Sanskrit 
 and Tibetan collections on Bud- 
 dhism, 264, 266, 271, 276-7. Also 
 344-8, 337. 
 
 Bushby, George, Secretary to the
 
 INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 Government of India, his letters, 
 192, 216-26. 
 
 Calcutta, the College of Fort 
 William, 13, 24 ; Hod^-son's gifts 
 to, 266, 270-1, :^T,-], 351. 
 
 Calcutta, Life and society in, at 
 the beginning of the century, 
 24-32 ; its trade with China via 
 Nepal, 113, 114, 115. 
 
 Calcutta Englishman, the, 
 quoted, 321-2. 
 
 Calcutta Journal of Natural 
 History, Vol. IV., Hodgson's 
 contributions to, 302. 
 
 Calcutta School Book Society, 319. 
 
 Caledon, Countess of, aunt to 
 Lady Canning, 256. 
 
 Campbell, Dr. A., Officiating 
 Assistant to the Resident of 
 Nepal ; his Report, 95-107, iii, 
 142, 185 ; Superintendent of 
 Darjiling, 249. 
 
 Canning, George, 20. 
 
 Canning, Earl, Governor-Gene- 
 ral of India; Hodgson's in- 
 fluence on Lord Canning's deci- 
 sion to accept Gurkhas into the 
 British-Indian army, 110, 255-8. 
 
 Canning, Lady, her death in the 
 Tarai, 253 ; referred to, 256, 258. 
 
 Carey, Dr., Grammar and Dic- 
 tionary of the Tibetan Lan- 
 guage, 262. 
 
 Caul^eld, Colonel, 191-2. 
 
 Central Asia, Hodgson's account 
 of its trade, 111-5, 126-7. 
 
 Chamber laiti^ Ge?ieral, 331. 
 
 Chand dynasty in Kuviau7i , 38-9. 
 
 Chandra, a Hindu god, 121. 
 
 Chauntrias, the party of Royal 
 Collaterals in the Nepalese 
 Government, 131, 139, 144, 153, 
 159, 170, 174, 182, 191, 193-4, 
 208, 229. 
 
 China, its trade with India, 113, 
 127. 
 
 Christie, Dr., 208. 
 
 Clarendon, Thomas, second Earl 
 of, his influence on Hodgson, 
 7, 8. 
 
 Clerk, Sir George Russell, 
 G. C.S.I. , K.C.B., 18. 223-4. 
 
 Cloete, General Sir fosias, 31. 
 
 Codrington, Dr. Oliver, his help 
 acknowledged, 362. 
 
 Colchester, Lord, his Indian 
 Administration of Lord Ellen- 
 borough, 207, 225. 
 
 College of Fort William. See 
 Calcutta. 
 
 College of Surgeons, Hodgson's 
 zoological gifts to, 241. 
 
 Colvile, Sir James, Advocate- 
 General, Calcutta, and President 
 of the IBengal Asiatic Society, 
 247-8, 330. 
 
 Colvin, Sir Auckland, K.C.S.I., 
 1 6s ; his John Russell Colvin, 
 168. 
 
 Colvi?!, John Russell, Private 
 Secretar)' to Lord Auckland, 
 letters from and to, 154, 158, 
 165, 168, i»3, 188-90, 192, 310. 
 
 Comber mere. Lord, 100. 
 
 Conrady, Professor, his MS. re- 
 view of Hodgson's philological 
 work, 297-9. 
 
 Cortiwallis, Lord, 60. 
 
 Covcell, Professor, his Catalogue 
 of Hodgson's collection of Bud- 
 dhist Sanskrit literature, 267, 
 337. 339-43 ; his Buddha- 
 Cartta of Asvaghosha, 273 ; 
 visits Hodgson in Gloucester- 
 shire, 330 ; his help acknow- 
 ledged, 338. 
 
 Craftiology, Hodgson's studies of, 
 288-9. 
 
 Csoma de Koros, Alexander, 278; 
 his Himalayan discoveries con- 
 temporaneous with Hodgson's, 
 280 ; his letters. Life of, 280. 
 
 Cunningham, General Sir Alex- 
 ander, 278. 
 
 Currie, Sir Frederick, 18. 
 
 Cust, Dr. Needham, 330. 
 
 1). 
 Dalhousic, Lord, 18; his reorgani- 
 sation of the Gurkha battalions 
 into regiments, 109, 258 ; on 
 Indian Education, ^s'^z. 
 I Damodar, Prime Minister of 
 
 Nepal, his execution, 1^6. 
 ' Dam pier, William, 18. ' 
 I Danvers, F. C, his contributiocs
 
 :;82 
 
 L\DEX. 
 
 to Memorials of Old Hailey- 
 bury College, ii. 
 
 Darjilitig, 243-327. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 289 ; Variation 
 of Animals and Pla7its taider 
 Domestication^ 303. 
 
 Davis, Dr., his school at Maccles- 
 field, 8-9. 
 
 Davis, Dr. Barnard, 286, 288 ; 
 Crania Britannica., 288. 
 
 Dhimals, the, a tribe of hillmen 
 in India, 289 ; their nomadic 
 cultivation, 292-3 ; their burial 
 rites, 294; their religion, 295. 
 
 Dictio7iary of National Bio- 
 graphy, referred to, 58, 94, 224. 
 
 Dost Muhammad, Amir of 
 Afghanistan, 181. 
 
 D'Oyly, Sir Charles and Lady, 
 their friendship with Hodgson, 
 28-32, 73-4, 80, 124, 147-9, 
 161-2; drawings and sketches, 
 28-9. 
 
 D'Oyly, General Sir Charles 
 (9th Baronet), 30. 
 
 Duka, Theodore, M.D., his Life 
 of Alexander Csoma de Kor'ds, 
 269, 270. 
 
 Edtuardes, Sir Herbert, his 
 Life of Sir Henry Lawretzce, 
 86. 
 
 Eggeling, Professor, his Cata- 
 logue of Hodgson's collection of 
 Buddhist Sanskrit literature, 267, 
 
 339-43- 
 Ellenboroiigh, Earl of, pre- 
 disposed against Hodgson and 
 other " Politicals," 90-2, 204 ; 
 his policy and administration, 
 204-6 ; vacillation regarding Af- 
 ghanistan, 206-7 ; conduct in 
 Nepalese affairs, 210-3, 215-7, 
 219-25, 227-8, 231-4; letters to 
 Hodgson, 220, 232-3 ; recall of 
 Hodgson as Resident, 212, 222, 
 223, 231-3 ; result of Lord Ellen- 
 borough's policy in Nepal, 230; 
 recalled by the Court of Directors, 
 2},2^ ; indignation at the India 
 House against him, 237; Sir J. 
 Colvile's opinion of his conduct 
 to Hodgson, 247. 
 
 Ellerton, Mr., his vernacular 
 schools at Malda, 319. 
 
 Elliot, Sir Walter, 330. 
 
 Elliott, Sir Charles, K.C.S.I., 262. 
 
 Elliott, Sir Daniel, 19. 
 
 Elphinstone, the Hon. Mount- 
 stuart, 278. 
 
 Ethiiological Society elects Hodg- 
 son an Honorary' Fellow, 289, 
 
 Ethnology, Hodgson's study of, 
 244-5, 249, 285-99; ^^s ethnolo- 
 gical contributions to learned 
 societies, 285-6, 326, 364. 
 
 Fane, Sir H, his opinion on the 
 Gurkha soldiers, 110. 
 
 Fauna of the Hi}?talayas, 45-6 ; 
 Hodgson's studies and dis- 
 coveries in, 302-3, 308-9; his 
 collections and donations of 
 specimens, 240, 307-9, 368-75. 
 
 Ferdousi, anecdote of, 2. 
 
 Flower, Sir William, K.C.B.,303, 
 
 For shall, J., Secretary to the 
 Trustees of British Museum, 240. 
 Eraser, Charles, 18. 
 Friend of India , Mf , 3 1 3 -4 , 3 2 1 - 2 . 
 
 Gardner, Colonel William Lin- 
 nceus, 58-9, 61. 
 
 Gardner, Hon. E., Commissioner 
 of Kumaun and Resident at the 
 Court of Nepal, t,-j, 57, 58, 59, 
 61-2; first British Resident in 
 Nepal, 62-3, 102 ; resigns the 
 service, 70, 124; his peaceful 
 policy as Resident, 102-3 ; his 
 estimate of the Nepalese army, 
 105 ; his suggestion to employ 
 Nepalese soldiers as mercen- 
 aries, 107. 
 
 Garrett, H. W., \2>2. 
 
 Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, 28. 
 
 Gould, Mr., his ornithological 
 work in the West, 305. 
 
 Grote, Arthur, President of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society, 330. 
 
 Gubernatis, Cozcnt Angela di, his
 
 INDEX. 
 
 3^3 
 
 meeting with Hodgson at Flor- 
 ence, 1,331- 
 Gurkha regiments; Hodgson s 
 advocacy of the employment of 
 Gurkha soldiers, 107-9, no, 126, 
 
 255-8. 
 
 iiurkhas, the ; their oppression 
 of Kumaun, ,59, 40 ; their land- 
 assessment and revenue, 46 ; 
 driven out by the British, 46 ; 
 depopulation of Kumaun by their 
 fiscal severities, 47-8 ; their con- 
 quest of Nepal, 60 ; their con- 
 flict with China, 60 ; and with 
 the British, 60-1 ; their defeat 
 and submission, 62. For their 
 subsequent history, sec Nepal. 
 
 Guru AfaAas/tay, or Hindu school- 
 master, 318. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haileybury College, 10, 13-21 ; 
 form of certificate to students on 
 leaving, 22. 
 
 Hale, family of, 330. 
 
 Hall, Dr. FitzEdward, Report 
 on Hodgson's gift of Sanskrit, 
 Persian, and Newari MSS. to the 
 India Office, 269, 357. 
 
 Hamilton, Sir Robert, 19, 88. 
 
 Hardinge, Lord, 18, 19. 
 
 Hare, Augustus J. C, 257. 
 
 Hastings, Marquess of, 28 ; his 
 conquests and wars, 33, 36-7, 
 61,99, 100' his treaty with Nepal, 
 100, loi, 102, 155. 
 
 Hcbcr, Bishop, his Narrative of 
 a yourney through the Upper 
 Provinces of India quoted, 29. 
 
 Himalayas, trade of, 111-5; their 
 tribes, language, customs, and 
 religion, 284-6, 288-99 ; rivers, 
 287-8 ; fauna and zoology, 45-6, 
 
 244. 253, 302-3, 307-9; height, 
 
 245, 249; omitholog)', 46, 251, 
 304, 307-9 ; botany, 246, 287 ; 
 reptiles, 307-8 ; as a field for 
 Huropean colonisation, 299-300 ; 
 tile development of tea planta- 
 tions in, 300-1. 
 
 History and Topography of Ash- 
 bourne and the I alley of the 
 Dove, referred to, 4. 
 
 History of Nepal, by Daniel 
 
 Wright (.r^tf Wright). 291, 268-9, 
 326; H. A. Oldtield's Sketches 
 from Nepal {see Oldfield). 
 
 Hodgson, Sir A rthur, of Clopton, 
 4, 21. 
 
 Hodgson, Brian Houghton, his 
 life summarised, 1-6 ; his 
 mother, 6, 7, 8 , her death, 325; 
 school-days at Macclesfield and 
 Richmond, 8, 9 ; nomination to 
 India Civil .Service, 10 ; Hailey- 
 bur)'life. 13-21, 23 ; George Can- 
 ning's visit to his rooms, 20 ; 
 passes out of Haileybury, 22 ; in- 
 fluence of Professor Malthus on 
 his views, 23-4 ; first year in 
 India, 22-32 ; Sanskrit and Per- 
 sian studies, 2)2 ; Assistant to the 
 Commissioner of Kumaun, 32-6 ; 
 Traill's influence on him, 38 ; 
 mountaineering and sport in 
 Kumaun, 43-5 ; taste for natural 
 history, 46; land-assessment of 
 Kumaun, 40-56 ; appointed 
 Assistant Resident in Nepal, 
 56 ; appointed Deputy Sec- 
 retary in the Persian Depart- 
 ment of the Calcutta Foreign 
 Office, 64 ; illness in Calcutta, 
 64 ; reappointed Assistant Resi- 
 dent in Nepal, 65 ; his private life 
 in Nepal, described chietlyby his 
 letters, 66-92 ; his help to his 
 family, 67, 76, 88 ; is appointed 
 Acting Resident in Nepal. 70 ; 
 his scientific pursuits, 79, 84. 
 85 ; his domestic relations, 86 ; 
 serious illness, 87 ; his ascetic 
 life, %"] ; public career as As- 
 sistant Resident in Nepal, 93- 
 125 ; completes the settlement 
 of the boundary of Nepal. 
 101 ; collects materials for in- 
 forming the British Government 
 of the militar)', commercial, 
 and judicial strength of Nepal, 
 103-4 ; h'-'' efforts to draft the 
 Gurkhas into the British army, 
 104, 109 ; his influence during 
 the Mutiny, 110; his Report on 
 Himalayan and Central Asian 
 trade, 11 1-5; his judicial Re- 
 ports, 116-23: Resident in 
 Nepal, 125, 126-76; settlement
 
 384 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of boundaries by Hodgson and 
 Bhim Sen, 128 ; Hodgson's en- 
 couragement of trade, 129 ; re- 
 ports to the Governor-General 
 on " the state of parties in 
 Nepal," 131-6 ; insists on deal- 
 ing directly with the Raja, 137; 
 improvement in commercial in- 
 tercourse, 140-1, 180-1 ; corre- 
 spondence with Lady DOyly, 
 147-9, 161-2; his money anxieties, 
 iSi-2, 167; his confidential ac- 
 count to Lord Auckland of the 
 Gurkhas, 154-7 > ^^^ ill-health, 
 161 ; his insight into Nepalese 
 intrigues, 164 ; his dangerous 
 situation, 164, 168 ; his apparent 
 indifference, 165-6, 177; suc- 
 cess of his policy, 166; death 
 of his brother William, 166-7 ; 
 impending war in Nepal, 167, 
 169 ; Hodgson's description of 
 the Nepalese Court, 171-3 ; last 
 four years in Nepal, 177-236; 
 his negotiations with the Raja, 
 178-84, 190, 228 ; revolt of the 
 Nepalese army, 184; troops 
 promised by Lord Auckland to 
 support Hodgson, 188-9 > ^O"' 
 gratulations on having averted 
 war, 191 -2 ; obtains a coalition 
 Ministry in Nepal, 193 ; friendly 
 declaration of the Nepalese 
 towards the British, 194-5 ; Lord 
 Auckland's reliance on Hodg- 
 son's judgment, 199; final letters 
 of thanks from Lord Auckland 
 to Hodgson, 203-4 ; T-ord Ellen- 
 borough's arrival and change of 
 policy towards Nepal, 204-13 ; 
 Hodgson's review of the matter 
 forty years later, 216 ; change 
 of policy towards Nepal, 217- 
 221 ; Hodgson's difficulties in 
 Nepal disappear on our success 
 in Afghanistan, 226 ; success- 
 fully carries out Lord Ellen- 
 borough's policy, 226-8 ; predicts 
 evil result of Lord Ellen- 
 borough's policy in Nepal, 230 ; 
 Hodgson's recall by Lord 
 Ellenborough, 231-3 ; ap- 
 pointed Assistant Sub-Commis- 
 sioner at Simla, 233 ; farewell 
 
 of the Raja and Nepalese to 
 Hodgson, 234 ; his reception in 
 Calcutta, 234-5 ; retires from the 
 service, 236 ; arrival in England, 
 237 ; resolves to return to India, 
 239-40 ; disposal of his zoo- 
 logical collections, 240-1 ; his 
 life and work at Darjiling, 243- 
 327 ; marries Miss Scott, 255 ; 
 takes charge of the education of 
 the heir-presumptive to Nepal, 
 255-6 ; again advocates the em- 
 ployment of Gurkhas in the 
 Indian army, 255-60 ; his work as 
 an Oriental scholar, 261-83 > ^^^ 
 researches among the non-Aryan 
 and hill races of India, 284-301 ; 
 his work as a naturalist and 
 ornithologist, 302-9 ; the advo- 
 cate of education in the ver- 
 nacular languages of India, 
 310-24 ; final return to England 
 and last years, 325-35 ; death 
 of his mother, 325 ; illness and 
 death of his father, 325-6 ; 
 Hodgson gives his collections 
 and manuscripts for his H/s- 
 tory of Nepal to the India 
 Office Library, 326-7 ; his home 
 in Gloucestershire, 327 ; death 
 of his first wife, 328 ; second 
 marriage, 328 ; life in England 
 and winters on the Riviera, 
 328-32 ; his tolerant views on 
 religion, 332 ; his old age and 
 humble opinion of his work 
 and life, 334 ; his death, 335 ; 
 his Miscellaneous Essays re- 
 lating to Indian Subjects, 314- 
 317; his Illustrations of the 
 Literature and Religion of the 
 Buddhists, 272 ; his Disputa- 
 tion respecting Caste, 274-5 ; 
 his essay On the Physical Geo- 
 graphy of the Hifnalaya, 286 ; 
 his essay On the Kocch, Bodo, 
 and Dhimal Tribes, 289-95 ; 
 his paper on The Mammalia of 
 Nepal, 302 ; his Catalogue of 
 the Mammals of Nepal and 
 Tibet, 302 ; his paper on the 
 Pantholops Hodgsoni, 302 ; his 
 Two Letters on the Education 
 of the People of India, 311,314,
 
 INDEX 
 
 t. ,- 
 
 3«^: 
 
 315 ; his Collected^ Works, 334. 
 For full lists of Hodgson's MSS., 
 published writings, scientific 
 contributions, and donations, 
 see Appendices, pp. 337-78. 
 
 Hodgson, Mrs., 165 ; her arrange- 
 ment of Hodgson MSS., etc., 
 277 ; Dedication to, v. ; List of 
 Illustrations, ix. 
 
 Hodgson, Edward, 11, 81-2, 151. 
 
 Hodgson, Fanny, 1 1, 68-77, 80, 82, 
 85-6, 91-2, 239, 241-2, 245-8. 
 
 Hodgson, Dr. Robert, Dean of 
 Carlisle, 5, 20 ; his Life of the 
 Rt. Rev. Beilby Porteus, D.D., 
 Bishop of London, 9. 
 
 Hodgson, William, 11, 69, 70, 75, 
 80, 88, 151, 166, 167. 
 
 Hooker, Sir foseph Dalton, 
 K.C.S.I., C.B., F.R.S., his 
 Himalayan fournals, or Notes \ 
 of a Naturalist, 243-5 ; \i\s Re- 
 collections of Hodgso?i's Darji- \ 
 ling days, 248-55 ; his Flora \ 
 Indica, 287 ; his opinion of 
 Hodgson's life and researches, I 
 243-4, 253; he joins Hodgson, ] 
 245 ; last visit to Hodgson, 334. 
 
 Hooker, Sir William, father of 
 Sir Joseph Hooker, 247. 
 
 Horsfteld, ornithological work in 
 the East, 305. 
 
 Houghton, Catherine, 5. 
 
 Houghtofi, William, 5. 
 
 Howell, yl. Z'., 318. 
 
 Humboldt, Baron von, correspon- 
 dence with Hooker, 246, 253; 
 and Hodgson, 253; letter to Sir 
 J. Colvile, 286. ' 
 
 Hume, Alia?! Octavian, C.B., 
 review On Hodgsons's Ornitho- 
 logical Work, 304-7 ; his Game 
 Birds of India, Burma, and 
 Ceylon, 334. 
 
 Hunter, Sir William Wilson, 
 K.C.S.I., his Life of Dalhousie, 
 109 ; his Catalogi/e of Sanskrit 
 Manuscripts collected in Nepal 
 by Brian Houghton J/odgson, 
 264, 271 ; his Comparative Dic- 
 tionary of the Languages of 
 India and High Asia, 269 ; his 
 Bengal Alusalmans and its 
 dedication to Hodgson, 334 ; 
 
 his impression of Hodgson, 
 328-9. 
 Ilutton, ornithological work in thr 
 Kast, 305. 
 
 I. 
 
 India Ojjice Library, Hodgson's 
 gifts to, 261, 266, 270, 326-7, 
 
 m-'^. 344. 357-61. 
 
 India Office MSS., Secret Con- 
 sultations, etc., 128-31, 137-9, 
 173, 176, 178, 182, 191, 208, 210 ; 
 Lieutenant F. Smith's Statement, 
 208-10; Records, 233. 
 
 Indiafi Educatioti Commission , 
 Report of, 311, 324. 
 
 India?! Mutiny, 109, 255-6, 258. 
 
 Indus, the, its source, 287. 
 
 Institute of France, Hodgson's 
 gifts to, 261, 268, 338 ; honours 
 conferred on Hodgson by, 268, 
 332-3- 
 
 faeschkc, a Danish missionary, 
 
 280. 
 fang Bahadur, Prime Minister 
 
 of Nepal, 98, 139, 23 ) ; Hodg 
 
 son's influence on, no, 254-6; 
 
 his life summarised, 146; hr 
 
 requests Hodgson to direct the 
 
 education of his son-in-law, 255 ; 
 
 he commands the (iurkha army 
 
 for the British during the 
 
 Mutiny, 258. 
 Jaquct, his letters to Hodgson. 
 
 277. 
 Jardinc, Sir William, omitlio- 
 
 logical work, 305. 
 Jeffrey, Lord, 16, 17, 302. 
 ferdoft. Dr. J'. C, 306-7 ; his 
 
 Birds of India, 309. 
 jfodhpur, capitulation of, 138 ; 
 
 intrigues between Nepal and, 
 
 164, 173. 
 Jodrell, of Hcnbur)-, 8. 
 fournal des Savants, 279, 338. 
 
 Kabul war, its effect on Nepal. 
 8S, 164, 200 ; the Nepalese 
 threaten war, 168-9, 177, 190; 
 the warlike attitude of the 
 
 ^5
 
 386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nepalese, 181-2 ; our reverses 
 exaggerated and consequent 
 warlike preparations in Nepal, 
 188 ; Lord HUenborough's vacil- 
 lating policy in Kabul, 206-7. 
 
 Kahgyur, the, one hundred and 
 twenty-three volumes containing 
 the doctrine and moral precepts 
 of Buddha, 269 ; presented to 
 Hodgson by the Grand Lama of 
 Tibet and given by Hodgson to 
 the India House, with another 
 copy to the College of Fort 
 William, 270, 338. 
 
 KasJnath Mull, of Benares, his 
 lawsuit in the courts of Kath- 
 mandu, 208-10. 
 
 Kathtnandu, commercial routes 
 to, III ; its merchants, 112; its 
 commerce, 113 ; the British posi- 
 tion at, 131; secret envoys at, 173. 
 
 Kayc, Sir "John William, quoted, 
 215. 
 
 Ki7ichinjinga, 245, 249. 
 
 Knollys, Colonel W. W., memoir 
 of Sir Jasper Nicolls, 224. 
 
 Knox, Captain, 142. 
 
 Kocch, the, Hodgson's study of 
 their language, etc., 289-95. 
 
 Koros, Cso77ia de. See Csoma de 
 Koros. 
 
 Kumaun and Garhwal, 33-58 ; 
 effect of our conquest of Kumaun 
 on the Nepal war, 61-2 ; com- 
 merce of Kumaun, iii. 
 
 L. 
 
 Laidlaw, student of the Karen 
 tongue, 296. 
 
 Lake, Lord, 58. 
 
 Lamas, of Kathmandu and Tibet, 
 250, 252 ; their reception of Aus- 
 tine Waddell as Amitabha or the 
 Western Buddha, 282-3. 
 
 Lassen, Professor Charles, his 
 welcome of Hodgson's ethnologi- 
 cal discoveries, 286 ; his letter 
 to Hodgson, 295. 
 
 Latham, Ethnology of the British 
 Colonies, 289 ; his Varieties of 
 Man, 295 ; his ethnological work 
 in the West, 305. 
 
 Lawrejzce, Lord, his nomination 
 to Haileybury College, 14. 
 
 I Lawrence, Sir Henry, his opinion 
 ' on Gurkha soldiers, no ; Resi- 
 dent in Nepal, 233, 234. ^,,« J 
 
 Layard, 289. 
 
 Le Bas, Professor, 1 5. 
 
 LJst of honours^ etc., conferred on 
 Hodgson, 333. 
 
 Logan^ his Journal of the Lndian 
 Archipelago quoted, 295. 
 
 Long, Rev. James, his Preface 
 to Adam's Reports, 318, 320. 
 
 Lydekker, his list of Hodgson's 
 discoveries quoted, 303, 376. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, his views on 
 Education in India, 310, 318. 
 
 MacGregor, General Sir George, 
 C.B., 258. 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir Jatnes, 16. 
 
 MacNabb, Sir Donald, 331. 
 
 Maddock, Sir Herbert, Resident 
 of Nepal, 107, 125, 129; secret 
 despatch from Hodgson to, 171. 
 
 Malcolm, Sir John, his views 
 on the responsibility of British 
 Agents at Native Courts, 214, 
 215. 
 
 Ma lies on. Colonel, 258 ; his His- 
 tory of the Indian Mutiny, 
 258. 
 
 Mallet, Sir Louis, 331. 
 
 Malthus, Professor, at Hailey- 
 bury, 15, 16; his influence on 
 Hodgson, 23. 
 
 Mafnmals, Hodgson's contribu- 
 tions on, collections and dona- 
 tions of, 244-5, 302-3, 307-9, 363, 
 368-78. 
 
 Mangles, Ross Donelly.^ 19. 
 
 Manuscripts, Hodgson's collec- 
 tions and donations of, Appen- 
 dices, 337-61. 
 
 Marshall, his ornithological work 
 with Hume, The Game Birds 
 of India, Burma, and Ceylon, 
 
 334- 
 Martin, Henry, 27. 
 Martineau, Miss, 16. 
 Malabar Singh, Prime Minister 
 
 in Nepal, 132, 135, 142, 143, 145, 
 
 146, 149. 150, 151. 153. 158, J59» 
 162, 172-5, 229 ; his murder, 229.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 3^7 
 
 A/ay, Mr., a missionary, his ver- 
 nacular schools in India, 319. 
 
 McLeod, Sir Donald, 330. 
 
 AIcMurdo, General ^tr Mania- 
 gu, 331. 
 
 Megasthenes, Greek Ambassador 
 to India in 300 n.c, 311. 
 
 Memorials of Old Haileybury 
 College, II, 14. 
 
 Merivale, his Life of Sir Henry 
 Lawrence, 230. 
 
 Metcalfe, Lord, 1 50. 1 54, 1 57- 
 
 Miller, Professor Thomas, 278, 
 
 299. 330. 
 
 Mtnto, Lord, 61. 
 
 Mitra, Rajendra Lala, his San- 
 skrit Buddhist /literature of 
 Nepal, 32, 65, 103-4, 1 16-7, 267, 
 311; his Descriptive Catalogue 
 of Sanskrit MS S., 266-7; 270, 
 280, 311, 339. 
 
 Mohl, Jules, letters to Hodgson, 
 277. 
 
 Moira, Lord. See Hastings. 
 
 Monier Williams, Sir, 11, 331. 
 
 Mowat, Sir F., 288. 
 
 A/iiller, Professor Max, 286-7, 
 
 296, 330. 11?^^ 338- 
 A/useums,oi Paris, Leyden, Edin- 
 burgh, Dublin, etc., Hodgson's 
 gifts to, 308, 326 ; British, sec 
 British Museum. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nahuys, General the Baron 
 I/uibert Gerard, marriage to 
 Ellen, sister of B. H. Hodgson, 
 10 : letters to Hodgson, 325. 
 
 Nahuys, Baron Pierre, 1 1 ; mar- 
 riage with Frances, Hodgson's 
 youngest sister, 11, 80; Hodg- 
 son's visit to them, 239. 
 
 Napier, Sir Charles, his opinion 
 on Gurkha soldiers, no. 
 
 Nepal, war and treaty with, 36-7, 
 58, 62-3 ; Nepal after the war, 
 124 ; crisis in, brought on by the 
 Kabul war, 88 ; war prevented 
 by the skilful management of 
 Hodgson, 95 ctscq.; government 
 of Nepal by the Queen- Regent 
 and P>lum Sen Thappa, its Prime 
 Minister, 98-101 ; trade between 
 
 Nepal and India, 103, 104, 127, 
 199; military service, 105; Hodg- 
 son's Report on Nepal, 11 1-5, 
 126; judicial system, 115-23, 
 166; boundaries of Nepal, loi, 
 127-8 ; commerce, 128, 147, 180 ; 
 parties in Nepal, 13 1-6 ; the war 
 party, 138-9 ; commercial treaty 
 with the English, 140 ; criminal 
 extradition, 149-51, 166, 181 ; 
 military organisation remodelled 
 by Raghunath Pandit, the Brah- 
 man Prime Minister, 160-1 ; pre- 
 parations for war against the 
 British, 167-9, 177, 182, I^8, 190, 
 198 ; intrigues of the Court 
 against the Residency, 177, 183, 
 185, 188 ; marriage of the heir- 
 apparent, 179, 180, 183; nego- 
 tiations between Hodgson and 
 Nepal, 179-81, 183-4, '9°; attack 
 on the British frontier, 183-4; 
 attack on the Residency, 185-6; 
 change of ministry, 191, 193 ; 
 cruel disposition of the heir-ap- 
 parent, 196, 227 ; death of the 
 Senior Queen, 199; outrage on 
 the Residency, 208-10; British 
 support withdrawn, 226-7 ; Mata- 
 bar Singh appointed Prime Minis- 
 ter and murdered, 229; deposition 
 and imprisonment of the Raja, 
 230 ; Jang Bahadur appointed 
 Prime Minister, 230 ; Sir Henry 
 Lawrence appointed Resident, 
 
 233 ; affectionate farewell of the 
 Raja and Nepalese to Hodgson, 
 
 234 ; Nepalese soldiers during 
 the Mutiny. 258 ; ancient manu- 
 scripts of Nepal, 265-6 ; Hodg- 
 son's gifts of Nepalese MSS. to 
 learned Societies, 260-7 ; the 
 dialects and literature of Nepal, 
 
 Nciv march. General Sir Oliver, 
 K.C.S.I., 100, 259. 
 
 Nicholetts, Lieutenant C. //., 
 Assistant Resident in Nepal, his 
 Narrative of /ivents in Nepal, 
 184, 191, 196-7. 202, 207, 227, 
 229, 230. 
 
 Nicholson, fohn, of Balrath, 
 friendship with Hodgson, 8. 
 
 Nicolls, Sir Jasper, his opinion
 
 388 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 on Gurkha soldiers, io8; in- 
 structions to, when Commander- 
 in-Chief, 206 ; his advice in 
 regard to the Kabul war, 224. 
 
 Nofth, Miss, 330. 
 
 Nott, General, 207, 224. 
 
 O. 
 
 Ochterlony, General, 106-7. 
 
 Oglander, Colo7iel, 167. 
 
 Oldfield, Dr. Henry Ambrose, 
 M.D., his Sketches from Nepal, 
 Historical and Descriptive, 
 loo-i, 146, 159, 168, 175, 187-8, 
 192, 196, 208, 231, 326. 
 
 Oldham, Dr., his work Oji the 
 Geological Structure of the 
 Khasi Hills, 296. 
 
 Oliver, General., R.A., 328. 
 
 Ornithology, Hodgson's study 
 of, 46, 251-2, 303-9; Hume's 
 works on, 305, 334 ; various orni- 
 thologists quoted, 305-6 ; Hodg- 
 son's ornithological collections 
 and donations, 307-8, 326 ; cata- 
 logue of his ornithological papers, 
 
 368-75- 
 
 O' Shatighnessy, Professor Sir 
 W., his Address to the Medical 
 College, Calc2itta, 321. 
 
 Ozidh, boundary between Nepal 
 and, loi. 
 
 Owen, Professor, his selection 
 from Hodgson's presentations to 
 the College of Surgeons, 241 ; 
 his reception of Hodgson's eth- 
 nological discoveries, 286 ; his 
 Report to the British Associa- 
 tion quoted, 289. 
 
 0;^;-6?'j welcome to Hodgson, i. 
 
 Paget, Sir Edward, Commander- 
 in-Chief, 106. 
 
 Panjani, the annual vacating of 
 offices, 130, 131, 137, 153. 
 
 Pattison, Maxey and James, 6, 
 10, II, 20. 
 
 Pekin, its trade route to St. 
 Petersburg, 112; and to India 
 via Nepal, 112. 
 
 Pelly, ^;>- Z^ztzir, diplomatist, 331. 
 
 Pemberton,h\s Report on Bhutan, 
 288. 
 
 Philology, Hodgson's researches 
 and discoveries in, 289-98. 
 
 Physical geography of the Hima- 
 layas, 286-7 » Hodgson's discus- 
 sions with Sir J. Hooker on, 
 
 253- 
 
 Pollock, Major-General, 206. 
 
 Porteus, Bishop of Chester and 
 London, 5, 9. 
 
 Prinsep, Henry Thoby, 179, 
 222 ; letter of congratulation to 
 Hodgson, 191 ; informs Hodgson 
 of Lord EUenborough's intended 
 concealment of Hodgson's re- 
 call, 222 ; advises Hodgson to 
 accept the overtures made by 
 Lord Ellenborough, 225; warns 
 Hodgson of Lord EUenborough's 
 dislike, 228 ; one of the principal 
 representatives of the Oriental- 
 ists in the controversy on Ver- 
 nacular Education in India, 
 310. 
 
 Prinsep, James., 252, 302. 
 
 R. 
 
 Raffl.es., his ornithological work in 
 
 the East, 305. 
 Raghunath Pandit, 145, 153-4, 
 
 159, 160, 162-3, 170, 193. 
 Rajefidra Lata Mttra. SeeM\\.xdL. 
 Ranbir Singh, 142-4, 174. 
 Rajijang Pandi, leader of the 
 
 Pandi faction in Nepal, 145-96. 
 Ranjit Singh, 137, 176. 
 Rawlinson, 289. 
 Reid, T. We?nyss, his Life of 
 
 Lord Hozighton, 247. 
 Remus at, Abel, 279. 
 Reiian, 331. 
 Reptiles, Hodgson's collection of, 
 
 307-8, 375-6. 
 Ricketts, Sir Henry, K.C.S.L, 19. 
 Robertson, Ho7i. J. €., 223-5. 
 Rockhill, Wbodville, student of 
 
 Northern Buddhism, 280. 
 Rohillas, in Kumaun, 38-9. 
 Roll, Sir John, 330. 
 Ross-of-Bladensburg, 61-2. 
 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 4, 5. 
 Russia, its trade in Asia, 112-3, 
 
 127.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 389 
 
 Sarnie- Beuve, 302. 
 
 Salisbury, Lar/y, 19. 
 
 Sanpu, the, 288. 
 
 Sanskrit AISS., Hodgson s. Sec 
 Manuscripts and Buddhism. 
 
 Sarat Chandra Das. 280. 
 
 Schie/ner, A., 281. 
 
 Schlangintweit, 280. 
 
 Schmidt, I. J., 280. 
 
 Scott, Miss Anne, daughter of 
 General H. A. Scott, R.A., her 
 marriage with B. H. Hodgson, 
 255 ; her illness in Darjiling, 
 295, 325 ; her death, 327. 
 
 Scott, General Henry Alexander, 
 R.A., 255 ; his death, 328. 
 
 Secret Consultations. See India 
 Office MSS. 
 
 Segaiili, treaty of, 62, loi. 
 
 Selections from the Records of 
 the Government of Bengal, 
 Vol. XXVn.. 104, 108, III, 
 1 17-8, 300. 
 
 Shaw, 305. 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 7, 
 25. 
 
 Shore, Hon. Frederick, 19. 
 
 Smith, Lieutenant F., 217. 
 
 Stnith, Dr. George, 27. 
 
 Smyth, William, 7 ; his influence 
 on Hodgson's early life. 15. 
 
 Socicte Asiatitjue dc Paris, Hodg- 
 son's gifts to. 261, 266-7, 281, 
 
 337. 339-43, .149-50, 353; 
 its founder and first secretary. 
 279 ; bestows a gold medal on 
 Hodgson, 268, 27V, 333. 
 
 Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge, 319. 
 
 Stangyur, two hundred and 
 twenty-four volumes containing 
 commentaries on the Kahgyur 
 andtreatises on Tibetan religious 
 rites, ceremonies, arts, philo- 
 sophy, and sciences, 269, 270 ; 
 two sets presented by Hodgson 
 to the India House and the 
 College of Fort William, 270, 338. 
 
 Stcivart, Captain, 3U;. 
 
 Strachey, Sir John, 34-5. 
 
 Stuart, Robert, 55. 
 
 Summers, Professor J„ his 
 
 Phoenix, a monthly magazine 
 for Eastern Asia, 104, 272. 
 
 Surya, a Hindu god, 121. 
 
 Sutlej, the, its source, 2S7. 
 
 Sykes, his ornithological work in 
 the Hast quoted, 305. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tarai, the, 34. icoi, 105 ; its 
 revenue, 106; its boundaries, 
 128; its unhealthiness, 199; I^dy 
 Canning dies of fever caught in 
 passing through, 253 ; Hodgson 
 prevented from crossing, 212 ; 
 Sir J. Hooker's description of it, 
 253-4 ; the proposal to restore 
 the Western Tarai to Nepal, 
 257; language of its people, 292. 
 Taivney, Professor, 330. 
 Teign mouth. Lord, 19. 
 Temminck, 305. 
 Thackeray, IV. i1/., 25. 
 Thappas, the faction headed by 
 
 Bhim Sen. 145. 172. 
 Thompson, his Fl^ra Indica, 287. 
 Thornton, Edward, his History 
 of the British Empire in India 
 quoted, 206, 224, 233. 
 Thugs, 150. 183, 199. 
 Tibet, its commerce via Nepal, 
 113; its language and litera- 
 ture, 262-3 ; its manuscripts, 
 263-4 ; the early use of paper in. 
 265 ; Hodgson's collections of 
 Tibetan classics. 269-71, 338; 
 the Buddhism of, 273-6, 283 ; 
 the dog of, 302. 
 Tickcll, J. R., \\\s Excerpts from 
 the Letters of the Resident at 
 A'athmatidu to Goiernmcnf, 
 128-9, 139- 141. 143. '49- '54. '59. 
 160, 162-4, 169, 174-5. 17^^-9. 
 182 ; his ornithological work in 
 the East, 305. 
 Townshend, Rii: Chambrt, of 
 
 Derry, 328. 
 Townshend, Susan, 328. 
 Traill, George William, 36-56, 
 57, 116, 215; his Report on 
 Kumaun, 33-55. 
 'Jrevelyan, Sir Charles, 310. 
 Trn>elyan, Sir George Otto. M.P., 
 310. iK^-
 
 390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tripurt, the Maharani, 95-8, 102 ; 
 her death, ii-] ; its effect on 
 Nepalese affairs, 129-31, etc. 
 
 Trotter, Ca;ptai?i L. J., 200. 
 
 Turnout-, 279. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vansjttart, Captain Eden, his 
 Notes on the Gurkhas, no. 
 
 Vartma, a Hindu god, 121. 
 
 Vasarfiapi Ujsag, 309. 
 
 Verfiac7ilar Education in India, 
 Hodgson's efforts towards ex- 
 tending, 251-3, 310-24; schools 
 and colleges for, 316-9, 321-2, 
 324 ; Macaulay's view, 313 ; 
 Hodgson's opposition to that 
 view, 313-5, 318; Mr. John 
 Adam's view, 318-9. 
 
 W. 
 
 Waddell, L. A us tine, M.B., 
 
 280-97. 
 Walden, 305. 
 Walter, Henry, 15, 46. 
 
 Weber, Albrecht, 268, 277-8, 
 
 280-1. 
 Wellesley, Marquess, 13, 60 ; his 
 
 " Politicals," 93 ; his system of 
 
 Protectorates, 99. 
 Wigratn, Percy ^ 11. 
 wTlloughby, Sir John Pollard, 
 
 19. 
 Wilson, C. R., 262. 
 Wilso7i, Dr. yohn, 320. 
 Wilson, Horace Hay man, 61. 
 Wood, Sir Charles, 357. 
 TVootten Lodge, Staffordshire, 4. 
 Wright, Daniel, M.A., M.D., 
 
 95-6, 98, 100, 127, 163, 196, 326. 
 
 Yak, the Himalayan cow, 45, 302. 
 Yama, a Hindu god, 121. 
 Yule, Sir Henry, 330. 
 
 Zoology, Hodgson's papers on 
 collections, and donations, 240-1, 
 244, 302-9, 363, 368-78. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
 
 WORKS BY SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER. 
 
 THE ANNALS OF RURAL BENGAL. 
 
 Sixth Editiox. l6s. 
 
 " It is hard to over-estimate the importance of a work whose author succeeds in 
 fascinalinp: us with a subject so generally regarded as unattractive, and who on 
 questions of grave importance to the future destiny of India gives the results of wide 
 research and exceptional opportunities of personal study, in a bright, lucid, forcible 
 narrative, rising on occasion to eloauence." — Times. 
 
 " Mr. Hunter, in a word, has applied the philosophic method of writing history to a 
 new field. ... J he grace, and ease, and steady (low of the writing almost make us 
 forget, when reading, the surpassing severity and value of the author's labours." — 
 Forhiightly Review. 
 
 ORISSA: 
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF AN INDIA.V PROVINCE UNDER NATIVE 
 
 AND BRITISH RULE. 
 
 Two Vols., Map .\nd Steel Engravings. 32s. 
 
 " The mature and laborious work of a man who has devoted the whole power of his 
 mind, first to the practical duties of his profession as an Indian civilian, and next to 
 the study of ail that relates to or can illustrate it. As long as Indian civilians write 
 books like this— as long as they interest themselves so passionately in their work, 
 and feel so keenly its connexion with nearly every subject which can occupy serious 
 thought— the English rule will not only last, but will prosper, and make its subjects 
 prosper too." — Patl Mall Guzctle (1872). 
 
 "A great subject worthily handled. lie writes with great knowledge, great 
 sympathy with the Indian people, a keen and quick appreciation of all that is striking 
 and romantic in their history and character, and with a flowing and picturesque style, 
 which carries the reader lightly over ground which, in less skilful hands, might seem 
 tedious beyond endurance." — Saturday Rii'ieif. 
 
 THE INDIAN MUSALMANS. 
 
 Third Edition. 105. 6d. 
 "A masterly essay."— Z)a//v .Xeus. 
 
 A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF BENGAL AND 
 
 ASSAM. 
 
 In Twenty-two Vols., Half Morocco, S^. each, with Maps. 
 
 " Un ensemble d'efibrts digne d'une grande nation, et comme aucune autre n'en a 
 fait jiisqu'ici de semblabic pour son empire colonial."— /?ft'M<f Critique. 
 
 "Twenty volumes of material, collected under the most favourable auspices, arc 
 built up under his hands into a vast but accessible storehouse of invaluable facts. 
 Invaluable to the statesman, the administrator, and the historian, they are no less 
 inteiesting to the general reader. Mr. Hunter undoubtedl> has the faculty of making 
 the dry bones of statistics live. Hut they also contain matter which may be regarded 
 as the fountain of the yet unwritten history of Bengal. They are a guide for admini- 
 strative action now. They also seem to be the point of a new departure lor the 
 iMtwic." —Nineleenlh Century. 
 
 THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA. 
 
 Second Edition, Fourteen Vols., Half Moiiocco. £}, 5^. 
 
 " Tlic publication of the linperinl Gazetteer of India marks the compKtion of the 
 largest national enterprise in statistics which has ever been undertaken. . . . The 
 volumes before us form a complete account of the country, its geography, topography, 
 ethno.ogy, commerce, and products. ... It is one of the grandest works of adinini- 
 stnitive statistics which have ever been issued by any nation." — Times. 
 
 " Dr Hunter has rendered to the Indian Government_ and to English people 
 generally the highest service a public servant could achieve."— .-////oiwiof;. 
 
 A LIFE OF THE MARQUESS OF DALHOUSIE. 
 
 Seventh Thousand. 2s. dd. 
 
 " An interesting and exceedingly readable volume."— Tiints. 
 
 " It can be read at a sitting, yet its references — expressed or implied — suggest the 
 study and observation of half a life-lime."— Dui'/v Ntcvs. 
 
 "A brilli.Tntlv written account of the life anil work of that able ruler of men, the 
 Marouis ol I)tiU\ousic."~Asiittic Quar/er/y Review. 
 
 " Never have we been so much impressed by the great literary abilities of Sir 
 William Hunter as we have been by the perusal of ' The Marquess of Dalhousie.' "— 
 E vetting News.
 
 WORKS BY SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER— continued. 
 THE INDIAN EMPIRE: 
 
 ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, AND PRODUCTS. 
 Third Edition, 800 Pages, with Map, Seventh Thousand. i8s. 
 
 " Never before has the whole subject of Indian history been so adequately and so 
 intelligibly treated."— Pa// Mall Gasctic. 
 
 " A compact body of information, arranged and classified on correct principles." — 
 Academy. 
 
 " A model of combined luciditj', conciseness, and comprehensiveness."— £"cowo»ij's/. 
 
 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES. 
 
 21ST Edition, Eighty-second Thousand. 3s. 6d. 
 
 " Within the compass of some 250 pages \ve know of no history of the people of 
 India so concise, so interesting, and so useful for educational purposes as this." — 
 Loudon School Board Chronicle. 
 
 " Bj' fur the best manual of Indian Histor3' that has hitherto been published, and 
 quite equal to any of the Historical Series for Schools edited by Dr. Freeman." — 
 Tmies 0/ India. 
 
 "The publication of the Hon. Sir W. W. Hunter's School History of India is an 
 event in literary history."— /?t'/s c?' Rayyet. 
 
 A LIFE OF THE EARL OF MAYO, 
 
 FOURTH VICEROY OF INDIA. 
 Second Edition, Two Vols. 24s. 
 
 "The picture presented to us of the late Lord Mayo is a fair and noble one, and 
 worthy of the much lamented original." — Edinbiiri;h Revieiv. 
 
 "This masterlj' work has two great recommendations: it is the vividly and faith- 
 fully told narrative of the life of a man ; and it contains a lucid and comprehensive 
 history of recent administration in India." — World. 
 
 A SHORTER LIFE OF LORD MAYO. 
 
 Fouktii Thousand, One Vol. 2s. 6d. 
 
 " A brief but admirable biography." — Times. 
 
 "The world is indebted to the author fur a fit and attractive record of what was 
 eminently a noble life." — Academy. 
 
 FAMINE ASPECTS OF BENGAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 Second Edition. 76-. 6(i. 
 
 " One of the boldest efforts yet made by statistical science. ... In this work he has 
 laid down the basis of a system, by which he may fairly claim that scarcity in Bengal 
 has been reduced to an affair of calm administrative calculation."— Z>rtj7y News. 
 
 -- BOMBAY, 1885 TO 1890. 
 
 C. A STUDY IN INDIAN ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 One Volume: Clarendon Press. 15s. 
 "Few living writers have done so much as Sir William Hunter to make British 
 India and its government intelligible to English readers." — Times. 
 
 THE OLD MISSIONARY. 
 
 Twenty-first Thousand. Small Paper. is. Edition de Luxe, 
 Illustrated. 2s. 6(i. 
 "A tale of tender pathos which it is difficult to read without tears." — Spectator. 
 
 Jnsl Published. 
 
 A LIFE OF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, 
 
 FORMERLY BRITISH RESIDENT AT THE COURT OF NEPAL. 
 
 THE THACKERAYS IN INDIA, 
 
 AND SOME CALCUTTA GRAVES.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
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 1958 
 
 
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