172 



GANGETIG IlINDOOSTAN. 



The Jumn'a. 



reputed antiquity, being faid by FeriJJjta, i. p. p. 9. 16, to have 

 been the capital of Hindoojlan, "nder the father of the Pona 

 who was conquered by Alexander, In the lixth century it is 

 reported to have liad thirty thoufand (liops for the famous In- 

 dian chaw the betell, and fixty thoufand bands of muficians 

 and fingers who paid tax to government. A peftilence is fup- 

 poled to have depopulated the place. It is faid to have been 

 the head of an empire. It fubmitted to Mahmood^ in 1018, in 

 his eighteenth expedition. The Indian hiftorians are full of the 

 accounts of its grandeur, extent, and populoufnefs : it is at 

 prefent a town of middhng fize. ylbulfazel^ in the Ayeen, \\. 

 Y). 47, lays no more of its ftate, than that it was in antient times 

 the capital of HindooJIan, 



I SHALL no'-' quit for a time the Ganges y and crofs north- 

 weftward the fpace between that river and the Jumna. The 

 laft was the Jomanes of ?liny^ and the fuppofed Erranaboas of 

 Arrian, Rerum Indie ^ i. p. 514. It is the firit great river that 

 contributes to augment the Ganges : it rifes in Lat..32% in the 

 RajahJJjip of Sirinagur, about eighty miles fouth-weft of Gaji- 

 goutra, and pafTes through the gorges of the mountains, in 

 about Lat. 30% near Schaiirampour. Between Lat. 29* and 

 Lat. 30% in the province of Sirhiad, near the weftern banks of 



Paniput. the Jtimna, are the famous plains of Paniput and Carnaivl, 



celebrated for the frequent battles fought on their wide ex- 

 panfe : three are on record ; the firft is related in the fublime 



Battle of the poem. The Marabbarat, which confifts of two hundred thou- 

 fand lines, compofed by the learned Brahmin, Krijlma Dmy- 

 payen Veias, painting the great deeds of the heroes of the 

 :. time. 



Barabharat. 



