BEN 



447 



BEN 



Benares, fects which must proceed from a confined atmo- 

 ' / ' sphere, there is, in the hot season, an intolerable 

 stench, arising from the many pieces of stagnated 

 water dispersed in different quarters of the town ; the 

 filth also, which is indiscriminately thrown into the 

 streets, and there left exposed, (for the Hindoos 

 possess but a small portion of general cleanliness,) 

 adds to the compound of ill smells, so offensive to 

 the European inhabitants of this city. 



The following, and most recent account of Benares, 

 is taken from Lord Valentia's Travels : " The houses 

 are built with stone, some, six stories high, close to 

 each other, with terraces on the summit. They are 

 whimsically painted, and the architecture is as extra- 

 ordinary. Bands of carved work run, in general, 

 round each story, by no means despicably executed ; 

 and the large masses of stone used in the walls, to- 

 gether with the neat manner in which they are joined, 

 show that the masons are very tolerable workmen. 

 The windows are extremely small, and probably they 

 are formed in this manner to answer two purposes ; 

 first, to prevent the opposite neighbours from over- 

 looking the apartments ; and secondly, to keep the 

 houses more cool during the winds. Our style of 

 architecture is by no means adapted to the climate, 

 and the large windows would be insufferable, were 

 it not for the tatty s, (or screens composed of the 

 roots of 6weet-scented grass, on which water is con- 

 stantly thrown to cool the air,) which are easily ap- 

 plied to a house one story high, but would be im- 

 practicable in a house of six stories, and situated in a 

 town. It is seldom that the universal custom of a 

 country is not founded on reason : though, therefore, 

 they have larger windows in their country houses, 

 which can be cooled by artificial means ; yet up 

 stairs, where that cannot he done, they reduce the 

 apertures as much as possible. The opposite sides of 

 the streets, in some places, approach so near to each 

 other, that they are united by galleries. Several 

 new houses are building on a very handsome scale, 

 and the town, in general, had an appearance of pros- 

 perity, which is by no mean- deceitful. The city of 

 Benares is so holy, that several Hindoo rajahs have 

 habitations there, in which their vakeels, or envoys, 

 reside, and perform for them the requisite sacrifices 

 and ablutions. The land is extremely valuable, and 

 law-suits respecting it most frequent. The number 

 of stone and brick buildings, from one to six 6tories 

 high, is upwards of 12,000. The mud houses up- 

 wards of 16,000. The permanent inhabitants are 



upwards of 58,000, besides the attendants on the 

 three princes, and several other foreigners, who may 

 amount to near 3000 ; but the concourse during some 

 of the festivals is beyond all calculation. The Ma- 

 hometans are not one in ten." Vol. i. p. 104. 



Such is the account which Lord Valentia gives of 

 the population of Benares. But there is evidently a 

 gross typographical error which materially affects the 

 calculation. The number of houses of all descrip- 

 tions is stated to amount to upwards of 28,000, 

 whilst the population is stated at 58,000 ; allowing 

 little more than two to each house, though there are 

 whole streets composed of houses six stories high. 

 It is evident, then, from the nature of the case, and 

 also from the appendix to which his lordship refers 



Bencoole, 



us, that the inhabitants of Benares should be estima- Benarej 

 ted at upwards of half a million. 



Benares presents a strange appearance of prospe- 

 rity and wretchedness, of the highest affluence and 

 the most abject poverty. " In going into a mosque," 

 says Tennant, " thousands crowded round us, solicit- 

 ing charity with an importunity I never before wit- 

 nessed, and which I could not then resist. Hunger, 

 wretchedness, and disease, seemed to meet the eye in 

 every direction : what increased our uneasiness, was 

 the impossibility of affording relief to such crowds, 

 whose famished multitudes pressed forward to sue-* 

 ceed such ac you had sent away with a pittance of 

 supply. It is not any scarcity, or any extraordinary 

 degree of poverty, that occasions this concourse of 

 beggars, but the number of pilgrims who come from 

 all parts for the purpose of devotion and charity." 

 Indian Recreations, vol. ii. 



Although Benares cannot now boast the glories of 

 science, it is still the grand seat of Braminical learn- 

 ing, and presents many monuments of its former 

 spiendor. There is still remaining a stupendous ob- 

 servatory, containing a great number of astronomical 

 instruments, all formed of stone, and constructed with 

 the utmost exactness. A particular description of 

 the observatory and instruments is given by Sir Ro- 

 bert Barker, in a letter to the president of the Royal 

 Society of London, which was read before the socie- 

 ty in May 1777. Students still resort, in great num- 

 bers, to Benares, where they are instructed, not, as 

 in Europe, by a number of professors, but each Bra- 

 min, Avho undertakes the instruction of youth, re- 

 ceives a limited number of pupils, from four to ten or 

 twelve, according to the celebrity of the teacher. 

 With these preceptors they spend many years in 

 studying Sanscrit, mythology, and metaphysics. 



There is a great number of Hindoo temples in 

 Benares, dedicated to their almost innumerable gods. 

 There is a spacious mosque, with lofty minarets, 

 built by Aureng-zebe, on the site of a temple sacred 

 to Mahadeva, which was destroyed to make room for 

 it. This Mahometan pile erected on this sacred spot, 

 was intended by the bigotted and intemperate zeal of 

 the tyrant to insult the religion of the Hindoos ; 

 and it has completely answered the purposes of its 

 erection ; for they consider this monument as the 

 disgraceful record of a foreign yoke, proclaiming to 

 every stranger, that their favourite city has been de- 

 based, and the worship of their gods defiled. From 

 the top of the minarets is seen the entire prospect of 

 Benares, which occupies a space of about two miles 

 and a hall along the northern bank of the Ganges, 

 and generally a mile inland from the river. See For- 

 ster's Travels, vol. i. (y) 



BENBICULA, one of the Hebrides, or Western 

 Isles of Scotland, which lies between the islands of 

 North and South Uist. From the great similarity 

 between Benbicula and these islands in their soil, 

 agriculture, production, and general management, we 

 shall re serve our historical account of this island to 

 the article Ui.sr, See Macdonald's General View of 

 the Agriculture (jJ the Hebrides, p. 779, Edinburgh, 

 1810. West Long. 7 12', North Lat. 57 25'. (w) 



BENCOOLEN, a sea port town on the south- 

 west coast of the island of Sumatra. After the En- 



