54 



INDIA (EUROPEAN COMMERCIAL COLONIES.) 



Uie university of Louvain published an index, or 

 catalogue of books regarded as dangerous, of which 

 revned edition was published in 1550. Similar 

 lirtt of interdicted books appeared, nearly at the 

 f^^Vft time, at \ < m. r. 1'nris, Cologne, &c. (for an ac- 

 count ft whi'-h, see Feignot's Dictionnaire des 

 JLfcnri condamnt* an feu, tupprimes, ou censures, 

 turn. i. , pp. 256 266; and Mendham's Account of 

 tike Indices, both Prohibitory and Expurgatory, of 

 the Church of Rome, pp. 17 et seq.) Philip II. of 

 Spain having caused a catalogue of all books pro- 

 hibited by the inquisition to be printed (Venice, 

 1558), pope Paul IV. followed the example, and 

 ordered an Index Librorum prohibitorum to be pub- 

 lished by the Congregatio Sancti Officii (see Congre- 

 gation), in which not only all heretical books were 

 noted down, but also all which tended to lower the 

 Catholic hierarchy, many even written by Catholic 

 clergymen. The first part contains the names of the 

 authors whose works are altogether prohibited ; the 

 second, single prohibited works ; the third, anony- 

 mous works. A particular part contains the names 

 of forty-two booksellers, whose publications are alto- 

 gether prohibited. After this, the councils published 

 a number of such indexes, and these were followed 

 by some for single countries ; for instance, by the 

 Sorbonne for France. The indexes assumed their 

 most systematic form at the council of Trent, which, 

 at its eighteenth session, referred the consideration 

 of works to be prohibited to a select committee; and, 

 in the twenty-fifth session, what had been done by 

 that committee was referred to the pope (Cone. Trid. 

 Canones, 177, 362, Paris, edit., 1824), that it might 

 be completed and published with his authority. The 

 work was accordingly published in 1564. Besides 

 the catalogue of prohibited books, it contains general 

 rules relative to such books, drawn up by certain 

 persons deputed for that purpose by the council of 

 Trent, and sanctioned by pope Pius IV. These 

 rules, which are ten in number, are prefixed to the 

 different indexes which have been published since 

 that period. They are also contained in the Paris 

 edition of the canons of the council of Trent, already 

 cited (pp. 433 440), and a translation of them will be 

 found in Townley's Illustration of Biblical Literature 

 (vol. ii. pp. 478 485). 



The Congregation of the Index, which forms a 

 branch of the inquisition, holds its sitting at Rome, 

 and has the right of examining generally all books 

 which concern faith, morals, ecclesiastical discipline, 

 or civil society, on which it passes judgment for sup- 

 pressing them absolutely, or directing them to be 

 corrected, or allowing them to be read with precau- 

 tion, and by certain persons. Pius V. confirmed the 

 establishment of this congregation. Persons specially 

 deputed by it may give permission to Romanists 

 throughout the world to read prohibited books, and 

 the penalty denounced against those who read or 

 keep any books suspected of heresy or false doctrine 

 is the greater excommunication; and those who read 

 or keep works interdicted on any other account, be- 

 sides the mortal sin committed, are to be severely 

 punished, at the will of the bishops. (Richard and 

 Giraud, Bibliothfque Sacree, torn. viii. p. 78). The 

 latest Index Librorum prohibitorum appeared at 

 Rome, in 1819. For the preceding Indexes pub- 

 lished in Spain, Portugal, and at Rome, between the 

 years 1564 and 1806, see Mendbam's Account of the 

 Indices, &c., pp. 31 123. 



INDIA; THE INDIES. This name has been 

 very vaguely applied, at different periods, to different 

 extents of country, and is still used in different ap- 

 plications. The name is derived by us from the 

 Greeks, who seem to have borrowed it from the 

 Persians, as it is unknown to the natives. It was 



at first used by the Grecian writers to signify an 

 ndefinite t xtent of country lying beyond the Indus, 

 with which they were acquainted only through mea- 

 gre and vague accounts obtained from the Persians. 

 Darius crossed the Indus (B. C. 520), and conquered 

 Cashmere and a part of the Penjab. Alexander, 200 

 years later, pushed his conquests a little farther, and 

 the narratives given by his officers supplied Eratos- 

 thenes, Strabo, and Pliny with the materials which 

 they arranged and abridged. Ptolemy, who flourished 

 at a later period (A. D. 150), when commerce had 

 made his countrymen acquainted with the southern 

 parts of India, has given a more accurate account of 

 it. He divides India into India within and India 

 beyond the Ganges. The former was bounded on 

 the west by the people of Paropamisus, Arachosia 

 and Gedrosia; on the north by the mount Imaus, the 

 Sogdiaeans and Sacae; on the east by the Ganges, and 

 on the south by the Indian ocean. Other writers, 

 as Arrian and Pliny, make the Indus its western 

 limit. Strabo calls the southern and eastern boun- 

 dary the Atlantic ocean. Of the two great rivers, 

 the Indus and Ganges, the latter was not reached by 

 Alexander, and was seen by very few of his followers. 

 The Indus and its five great tributaries were known 

 to all of them. A more accurate acquaintance with 

 Upper India, obtained within the last thirty years, 

 has proved the general correctness of the ancient ac- 

 counts, and settled many doubtful points. Of the 

 Deccan they knew nothing but the coasts, and of 

 India beyond the Ganges they knew very little. The 

 decline of the Roman empire, the rise of the Parthian 

 empire, and particularly the extension of the Moham- 

 medan power over Western Asia, broke off all direct 

 intercourse between Europe and India. Religious 

 hatred and commercial jealousy contributed to shut 

 up the road to India against Europeans. Caravans 

 were then the medium of Indian commerce, and 

 through them the productions of the East were 

 brought to the Mediterranean shores. Not until the 

 Portuguese had doubled the cape of Good Hope 

 (1498) were the Europeans able to visit that region 

 of wealth. The islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, 

 Celebes, the Philippines, the Moluccas, &c., were 

 discovered, and have often been included under the 

 general name of India, which comprised, on the con- 

 tinent, all that vast tract of country lying south of 

 China, Thibet, and Persia. These regions have been 

 divided by modern geographers into three parts the 

 islands, or the Indian Archipelago ; India this side 

 the Ganges, or Hindoostan ; and India beyond the 

 Ganges, or, as some writers call it, Chin-India, or 

 Indo-China, including the Birman empire, Cambo- 

 dia, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Laos, Siam, and the 

 peninsula of Malacca. (See the separate articles.) 

 The islands above-mentioned are Ceylon, the Lacca- 

 dives, the Maldives, Andaman, the Nicobar isles, the 

 Sunda isles, including Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, 

 Java, &c., the Moluccas, the Philippines. (See the 

 articles.) When America was discovered, it is well 

 known that Columbus supposed it to be the eastern 

 coast of Asia, of which he was in search. These 

 regions were, therefore, at first called India, and when 

 the error was discovered, the name was retained, 

 with the distinctive appellation of IVest, the proper 

 India being called the East Indies. The Spanish 

 kings assumed the title of king of the Indies, and the 

 council for the colonies was styled the supreme coun- 

 cil of the Indies. The name of West Indies was 

 aftenvards restricted to the islands, now so called, 

 lying between North and South America. 



European Commercial Colonies in India. In an- 



| cient times, India was the principal source of the 



commerce of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and 



j Egyptians. (See Heeren's Ideas, 1st vol., 3d part, 



