17 

 INDIA. 



India. IN this article we mean, in the first place, to give an 

 x - , ' abstract of the history of India from the earliest period 

 till the year 1760, when the Mogul dynasty was in fact 

 reduced to insignificance, and the Europeans, particu- 

 larly the English, began to assume the greatest in- 

 fluence in Hindostan: in the second place, We shall 

 give a sketch of the rise and progress of the European 

 settlement* in India ; and this will lead us to a conti- 

 nuation of the history of Hindoitan from the year 1760 

 to the present time : and, lastly, We shall give the sta- 

 tistic* of India. 



. I. HISTORT. When the Greek and Roman writers 



to dJ* IDent ' on India, in the most extensive acceptation of the 

 term, they include a space almost a* large a* the whole 

 of Europe, comprising an area of 40 degree* of latitude 

 and longitude. They regarded it a* bounded on the 

 west by the Arachosian mountain*, which divided it 

 from Persia ; on the east, by the Chinese part of the 

 peninsula beyond the Ganges ; on the north, by the 

 desert* of Tartary; and on the south, by the line. 



i these boundaries lay the hill* of Tibet ; the val- 

 ley of Cashmere ; all the territories in which the an- 

 cients pawed the Indo-Scythism, Nepaul, BooUn, As- 

 sam. Camroop, Siam, Ava, Aracan, and the adjacent 

 kingdom* as far as the China of the Hindoos, and the 

 Sin of the Arabian geographer* ; the entire western 

 peninsula of Hindostan ; and the island of Ceylon. 



In the acceptation of the term Hindostan, aa Mod by 

 the UahnmeAn writer., the territory in immediate 

 ubiection to the awieifua of Delhi was 

 This waa divided, in the year 1589, by the 

 Acber, into eleven oobohi or prov luces, >ia. 

 Multtti in which Sinde wa* included, Ajmeer, Delhi, 

 Agra, Allahabad, Bahar. Oude. Bengal. Malwah, and 

 Gnaerat; Cabal, and the countriea lyrng to the west of 

 the Indie*, formed a twelfth soubah; and when the 

 Decan was conquered, three new soubahs were added, 

 via. Berar, lfharirt*h, and Aurungabad. 



It is evident, that the limit* assigned to Hindostan 

 by the Greek and Roman writer* are not only much 

 too extensive, but they are also very vague and indefi- 



>nd that those assigned by the Mahomedan 

 writer*, being derived from and varying with the ex- 

 tent of tot conqaaat* of their sovereign*, are on that 

 account unsatisfactory. The limit* assigned by the 

 original Hindoo* are, on the contrary, extremely well 

 defined. According to them, Hindostan is bounded on 

 the north by the Himaleh mountains, which commence 

 near the Indus, in about the Uth degree of north lati- 

 tude, and extend from Cashmere without interruption 

 beyond the eastern UMciuiU of Hmdostan ; this limit 

 on the north include* the hilly diitrict* of Nrpaul, and 

 the country belonging to the Deb Rajah of Bootan : 

 on the west, the river Indus is the natural boundary ; 

 and on the south, the ocean : on the east, the Hindoos 

 point out the eastern hills and forests of Tipperah and 



irong a* the boundaries of Hmdostan ; these will 

 carry their country nearly a* far a* the yU degree of 

 east longitude. Hindostan is thus defined by natural 

 *""H. **d it* extent and boundaries are pointed out 

 almost M accurately and clearly by another circum- 

 stance; for within the natural limits the primitive 



VOL. XII. FART I. 



India. 



Ancieir. 



M 



n 



Brahminical religion and languages prevail, with the 

 exception of Bootan ; nor are they found beyond these 

 limits, except in Assam and Cassay. It was called 

 Bharat-veeresh, or Bharata, by its ancient inhabitants, nuile 

 from Bharat, one. of the nine brothers, whose father, 

 according to the Brahmins, ruled the whole earth, and 

 to whom this portion of the globe was assigned. To 

 these names they sometimes prefixed the epithets of Med- 

 hyama, or central, and Punyabhumi, or the land of vir- 

 tues. The word Hindostan, by which the Persians de- 

 signated all that part of the empire that lies between 

 the Indus and the Ganges, and the latitudes of 21 and 

 SO N. is derived from the words Hindoo, black, and 

 ttan, place ; and the word Decan, which they applied 

 indiscriminately to the whole of the southern peninsu- 

 la, is derived from the Persian word decan, south. 



Hindostan, fixing to it the limits assigned by the 

 Hindoos, is divided into four large district*. 1st, North- 

 ern Hindostan. This comprizes Cashmere on the west, 

 and llootan on the east ; on the south, it is bounded by 

 the first ridge of mountains that rise from the plains of 

 Delhi, Oude, Bahar, and Bengal ; and on the north by 

 the Himaleh ridge, which divides it from Tibet. '2(1, 

 Hindostan proper comprehends the eleven provinces 

 formed by the Emperor Acber already mentioned. 

 The Nerbuddah river divides it on the south from the 

 Decan. 3d, Decan is bounded on the north by the Ner- 

 buddah, and by a line drawn from its source to the 

 oath of the Hooghly. The Krishna and Malpurba 

 are the boundaries on the south. This division com- 

 the province* of Aurungabad, Khandesh, Be- 



, Hyderabad, Nandere. the northern Circars, Berar, 

 Gundwana, Oricsa, and great part of Bejapoor. 4th, 

 The south of India extend* from the Krishna to the 

 ocean, and comprizes a small part of Bejapoor ; the Ba- 

 laghaut ceded districts ; the three Carnal ic*. northern, 

 central, and southern ; Mysore, Canara, Malabar, Bar- 

 *T"*iifnf. Coimbetoor, Dindigul, Salem, Kutnagherry, 

 Cochin, and Travancore. 



In the present article, we shall confine ourselves, both The present 

 in the history and statistic*, to the second, third, and "' cl < d e* 

 fourth division* of Hindostan, referring our readers to not <MBM> 

 the article* CASHMERE, NEFAL-L, and TIBET, for infor- 

 mation respecting the first division ; and to BENGAL, t n.' 

 CANARA, CARNATIC, MALABAR, MYSORE, and TRAVAN- 

 CORE, for more particular information respecting the 

 principal province* in those parts of Hindostan of which 

 we shall here treat. 



The trace* of the ancient chronology and history of Original in. 

 India are very faint and imperfect, and are nearly quite 

 loat in remote antiquity. It i* supposed by those Euro- 

 peans who have made the most elaborate and careful 

 researches on these points, and who have investigated, 

 and compared on the spot, the feature*, manners, lan- 

 guages and religions of the various tribes who inhabit 

 this vast territory, that a few only of the aboriginal in- 

 habitant* are to be found scattered in the hilly coun- 

 tries ; and it is certain, that the Brahmins have tradi- 

 tions that their ancestor* came from the north, and 

 having conquered Hindostan, established there their 

 customs, religion, and language*. According to them, 

 Bharata comprehended ten kingdoms or states, each _ 

 speaking a different language ; five of these were called Hindoiun. 



