HINDOOSTAN. 



745 



entirely the use pf flesh ; the fourth is allowed to eat 

 all kinds, except beef; but only the lowest classes of 

 the fifth caste are allowed every kind of food, with- 

 out restriction. Thus the lower the rank of a Hin 

 doo, the less he is restricted in his food and drink; 

 but, on the other hand, the other burdensome restric- 

 tions increase with the inferiority of rank. 



The first and noblest caste is called Brahmana, 

 and is the class of the Bramines, or Brahmanes, who 

 are priests, scholars, teachers in schools and acade- 

 mies, lawyers, and state officers. (See Bramins.) 

 The second noble order is called Cshatriyas, or Cheh- 

 teree, and is composed of the Cshatriyas, or Raja- 

 putras, the kings ami warriors. They preserve the 

 name Raj-puts, Raja-putras, by way of distinction, 

 in their old hereditary dominions in Hindostan. The 

 third noble caste is called Bise, or faisyas ; it is 

 composed of husbandmen and merchants. The mer- 

 chants are called Banians, or fVannians. The fourth 

 noble caste is that of the Soodras, or Shuder, and 

 comprehends the artisans and labourers. Besides 

 these four castes, with their subdivisions, there are 

 numerous mixed castes, or spurious classes, called 

 Burrun Shunker, which have sprung from the un- 

 authorized unions of individuals of different castes. 

 These mixed races form a transition to the degraded 

 outcasts, the Farias, (q. v.) Chaclys and Peleya, that 

 is, contemptible, vile, unclean men. These consist 

 of those unhappy wretches who are obliged to do 

 whatever no one else can do without pollution. 

 They are not only considered unclean themselves, 

 but they render unclean every thing they touch. 

 They are deprived of all civil privileges, and stigma- 

 tized by particular laws, regulating their mode of 

 life, their houses, and their furniture ; they are not 

 allowed to visit the pagodas, or temples, of the other 

 castes, but have their own pagodas and religious 

 exercises; they are not suffered to enter the houses 

 of the other castes (if it is done incautiously, or from 

 necessity, such a place is purified by religious cere- 

 monies) ; they must not appear in public markets, 

 are confined to the use of particular wells, which 

 they are obliged to surround with bones of animals, 

 to warn others against using them ; they dwell in 

 miserable hovels, distant from cities and villages, 

 and are under no restrictions in regard to food. To 

 the Hindoos belong the Seiks, Jats, Rajapoots, Mah- 

 rattas, the Singalese, &c., of whom some have gone 

 over to the Mohammedan religion ; others, like the 

 Seiks, have a religion of their own. (See Bengal, 

 Hindoostan, India, Indian Literature, Indian My- 

 thology and Religion, and Indian Languages) The 

 abbe' Dubois, who lived in the East Indies for thirty 

 years, has described the Hindoos, in a faithful, com- 

 plete, and lively manner, in his work Moeurs, Institu- 

 tions et Ceremonies des Peuples d'Inde (Paris, 1825, 

 2 vols.) 



HINDOOSTAN, or HINDOSTAN, or INDIA THIS SIDE 

 THE GANGES ; an extensive region in the south of 

 Asia, between lat. 1 56' and 36 N., and Ion. 67 

 and 92 5(X E. It is bounded on the north by the 

 Himalaya mountains, on the east by the Birman 

 empire and the bay of Bengal, on the south and 

 south-west by the Indian ocean, and on the west by 

 Beloochistan and Afghanistan. Its greatest length, 

 from north to south, is about 1800 miles ; its greatest 

 breadth, 1500 miles. Its superficial area is estimated 

 by Mr Hamilton at 1,280,000 square miles. Some 

 writers divide it into four great divisions, Northern 

 Hindoostan, Hindoostan Proper, the Deccan, and the 

 country south of the Krishna ; others comprise the 

 two last under the Deccan, and call the two first 

 Hindoostan. The mountains are the Himalaya in 

 the north, and the Ghauts in the Deccan. The latter 

 are divided into two ridges, the Eastern and Western. 



The Western Ghauts, the longest ridge, extend from 

 cape Comorin to the Taptee or Surat river, including 

 about thirteen degrees of latitude, with a single 

 opening of sixteen miles, which admits the Paniany. 

 Their distance from the coast is usually about forty 

 miles seldom more than seventy ; their height com- 

 puted from 3000 to 4000 feet. - The Eastern Ghauts 

 extend from the north of the Cauvery, lat. 11 20' 

 N., to the banks of the Krishna, lat. 16 N. The 

 word ghaut signifies a pass through the mountains, 

 and the high land is called balaghaut (that is, above 

 the passes), and the low land payeen-ghaut (that is, 

 below the. passes). The country between the ridges 

 is generally table land, and some of it very fertile. 

 These mountains are generally composed of granite, 

 and on the western side are extensive forests of teak 

 timber. The principal rivers are the Indus, the 

 Ganges, and the Burrampooter. Beside these are 

 the Nerbudda, the Godavery, the Krishna, and other 

 considerable streams. In a country of such extent 

 and diversity of surface, the climate must of course 

 be very various. In the north it is mild ; in Sind 

 and the neighbouring provinces, and on the coasts, 

 the heat is excessive. The prevailing winds are 

 the monsoons. The soil of the country is, in gene- 

 ral, remarkably fertile, and the vegetation is ex- 

 tremely rapid. There are two crops a year, one in 

 September and October, and the other in March and 

 April. Among the vegetable productions may be 

 mentioned corn, rice, maize, sugar-cane, betel, gin- 

 ger, cocoa, coffee, mulberries, cotton, indigo, saffron, 

 the different fruit trees of Europe, palms, bananas, 

 teak, benzoin, camphor, bamboo, &c. The mineral 

 kingdom is also extremely rich. Gold, silver, cop- 

 per, iron, and other metals, porcelain earth, porphyry, 

 saltpetre, borax, diamonds, &c., are among its pro- 

 ductions. Among the animals are found the gibbon, 

 the ourang-outang, and a great variety of monkeys, 

 bears, tigers, buffaloes, gazelles, wild boars, elephants, 

 rhinoceroses, jackals, &c. The immense serpents 

 sometimes reach the size of twenty feet. Among th<; 

 birds are pelicans, cassowaries, parrots, swans, &c. 



The mass of the Hindoo and Mohammedan popula- 

 tion is at about the same degree of civilization, but 

 there are some tribes which are in a state of bar- 

 barism. Besides the Hindoos the inhabitants are 

 Afghans, dispersed about the country under a feudal 

 government; Parsees or Guebres, (infidels), who are 

 found principally on the western coast, and speak a 

 Persian dialect; Arabians, also on the western coast, 

 descendants of merchants formerly established in 

 Hindoostan, who differ from the other inhabitants in 

 language, complexion, features, and manners ; Mo- 

 guls or Monguls, who established themselves in the 

 eighth century, and founded the Mogul empire in 

 the sixteenth century ; Belootches in the north-west. 

 Among so many nations, there is a great variety of 

 religious systems, but the principal religion is Bram- 

 anism (see Indian Mythology), much modified in 

 some parts of the country (see Seiks); that of th 

 Nepalese is Buddhism (see Buddha); that of the 

 Afghans, Belootches, Arabs, and some Hindoo na- 

 tives, is Islamism. The number of the inhabitants 

 is very uncertain. Hamilton estimated that of the 

 continental part at 132,000,000; others have carried 

 the estimate to 180,000,000, and some have reckoned 

 if at 110,000,000. The Sanscrit (q. v.), the original 

 language of the country, is so ancient that neither 

 history nor tradition makes mention of it as a spoken 

 language. The oldest languages derived from it are 

 the Pracrit, the Bali, and the Zend, which are the 

 sacred languages of different sects. The modern 

 dialects have nine-tenths of the words in common, 

 but, except the Hindoostanee, which is spoken every 

 where, and the Gujerattee, which is the general Ian- 



