740 



HINDOOSTAN. 



puage of the markets, they are all local. (See Indian 

 Languages.) The privileged castes alone are per- 

 mitted to cultivate the sciences. The lower castes, 

 however, are allowed to study rhetoric, moral philo- 

 sophy, and poetry, but literature and science are no 

 longer encouraged as formerly. The English lan- 

 guage is becoming more general, and the dialects of 

 Hindoostan seem destined to become dead languages. 

 (See Indian Litcralure.) The English government 

 Has, indeed, acquired such a preponderance, that 

 123,000,000 of the inhabitants of Hindoostan are 

 dependent on it, either as subjects, tributaries, or 

 allies. The nizam of Hyderabad, the rajahs of 

 Mysore and Travancore, the Mahratta prince Hoi- 

 car, the Mahratta rajah of Nagpour, the rajah Gui- 

 cowar, the nabob of Oude, and some others, are 

 bound to pay a tribute, furnish aid in war, and are 

 forbidden to admit European officers into their 

 armies, or to receive foreign ambassadors. The 

 Mahratta prince Sindia, the rajah of Nepaul, and the 

 Seiks, are allies of the English East India company, 

 but, excepting the Seiks, have only a precarious 

 independence. In all parts of the country, the form 

 of government is a pure despotism. 



Hindoostan was divided by Aureng-zebe into num- 

 erous provinces, which continue to form political divi- 

 sions in the English possessions, but they have been 

 discontinued in the Indian states. The following 

 table contains a view of these provinces, with the 

 corresponding presidencies or states of the present 

 day : 



Prmineei. Prftidendes or Indian States. 



Agimere, Bombay Presidency, Kajapoots. 



Agra, Bengal, state of Siiulia, ,-tates of the Rajapnots. 



v. u j ) Bengal, elates of the Buiidelcuud. nabob of 

 Allahabad, | ggj 



Oude, Bengal, nabob of Oude. 



Aurungabad, Bombay, state of the Nizam. 



Bahar, Bengal. 



Balapat, Madras. 



Bengal, Bengal. 



Berar, State of the Nizam. 



Bider, State of the Nizam. 



Bejapoor, Bombay, rajah of Setara, state of the Nizam. 



Cashmere, State of the Seiks. 



Coimbetore, Madras. 



Cochin, Madras, rajah of Travancore. 



Delhi, Bengal, ieiks. 



Gondwana, Bengal, rajah of Nagpour 



Gorval, Bengal. 



Guzerat, Bombay, state of Guicowar, state of Holcar. 



Hyderabad, State of the Nizam. 



Canara, Madras. 



Carnatir, Madras. 



Candei.sh, Bombay, state of Holcar. 



Cutch, Bombay, state of Guicowar. 



Lahore or ) ., 



Punjah, | Selk8 ' 

 Mysore, Rajah of Mysore. 



Malabar, Madras. 



Mahva, Bengal, states of Sindia, Holcar. 



Nepaul, Nepaul. 



Orissa, Bengal. 



Salem and \ M A , 



Bararaal. } Madra8 ' 



Northern Cir- J Madrag 



Sindy, State of Sindy. 



Travancore, Rajah of Travancore. 



We have already mentioned the states of Hindoos- 

 tan which preserve an appearance of independence. 

 The rest of the country belongs to Britain, ex- 

 cept the territories in the possession of continen- 

 tal powers. These are Goa, Damaun, and Diu, 

 belonging to Portugal (see India, Portuguese) ; 

 Pondicherry, Karikal, Mahe, Chandernagore, and 

 the factories of Calicut, Surat, and Masulipatam, 

 belonging to France (see India, French), and Tran- 

 quebar and Serampore, belonging to Denmark. 

 See India, Danish; see also the articles East India 

 Companies, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, &c. 



The name of Hindoostan, as before stated, is of 

 foreign origin, the Bramins liaving no general name 

 for the country over whicli their doctrines liave been 



disseminated. When they spoke of it as a whole, 

 they designated it by the epithets Medhyamu, 01 

 central ; Ponyabhoumi, or land of righteousness ; or 

 Bharat-K/tande, country of Bharat, one of nine 

 brothers, whose father governed the whole world. 

 The early annals of the Hindoos are so fabulous, that 

 it is difficult to separate the truth from fiction. 

 Their own opinion of their antiquity is wholly 

 chimerical ; yet the astronomical knowledge of the 

 Bramins, and the monuments of Hindoo architecture 

 and sculpture, prove the great antiquity of this 

 people, whose country was little known to the 

 Greeks previous to the conquests of Alexander. 

 That conqueror carried his arms beyond the Indus, 

 and Seleucus Nicator, one of his successors, ad- 

 vanced as far as the Ganges. Arsaces, king of the 

 Parthians, and some of the Bactrian kings, also made 

 extensive conquests. About two centuries before 

 the Christian era, the Parthians and Scythians over- 

 ran all Northern India, or Indo-Scythia, as Ptolemy 

 calls it. In the middle of the seventh century, the 

 Chinese penetrated to the countries on the Ganges. 

 At the beginning of the next century, the followers 

 of Mohammed invaded Hindoostan, subjected nearly 

 the whole of the Moultan, and established themselves 

 in Northern India. One of the governors of the con- 

 quered provinces, Mahmoud, becoming independent 

 master of Ghiznih (Gazna), was the first modern con- 

 queror of Hindoostan, and founded the Mussulman dy- 

 nasty of the Ghaznevides, which lasted from 797 to the 

 middle of the twelfth century ; he is said to have 

 pushed his conquests as far as Goa. The last prince 

 of this dynasty was deposed in 1152, by Kassim 

 Ghauri, founder of the Ghauride dynasty, which 

 derived its name from the country of Ghaur, and 

 resided in Lahore ; the Ghaurides subdued Kanara 

 and the kingdom of Bisnagor, the Moultan, Delhi, 

 and the country as far as Benares. In the beginning 

 of the thirteenth century, the empire of the Ghaurides 

 was divided, and Kutub, who received, for his share, 

 the conquests in India, founded the Patan dynasty 

 (or, as some call it, the Iletmishi dynasty), and made 

 Delhi the seat of his empire. The reigns of the 

 Patan emperors were disturbed by the invasions of 

 Gengis Khan and Tamerlane. In 1525, the Mogul 

 dynasty was placed on the throne of Hindoostan by 

 the successes of Babur. (See Moguls.) Akbar, his 

 grandson, confirmed and extended his power in the 

 northern part of Hindoostan, and reduced Bengal. 

 The history of this part of the country is very con- 

 fused and uncertain, till the thirteenth century. 

 Towards the end of the fourteenth century, Tamer- 

 lane had taken possession of it, and it had subse- 

 quently been subject to native princes, or to the 

 Mohammedan emperors of Delhi. Akbar (died 1604) 

 also reduced Cabul and Cashmere. He divided his 

 empire into sixteen subahs (governments), which 

 were subdivided into provinces ; the latter were 

 administered by governors, called nabobs. One of 

 his descendants, Aureng-Zebe, ascended the throne, 

 after having poisoned his father, and put to death his 

 two brothers. He carried the Mogul empire to its 

 highest pitch of power and glory. The Mahrattas, 

 a warlike people from the Ghauts, were joined by 

 several of the Hindoo princes, and, under the com- 

 mand of Sevajee, conquered an extensive territory. 

 Aureng-Zebe was obliged to treat with them, and to 

 yield them one quarter of the revenue of the pro- 

 vinces in the Deccan, which they had overrun. 

 After the death of Aureng-Zebe, his empire con- 

 tinually declined, and became the prey to revolt and 

 anarchy. The power of the Mahrattas, in the mean 

 time, was rapidly extending, and, in the middle of 

 the eighteenth century, the possessions of the Mogul 

 emperors., although their persons continued to Iw 



