HINDOOSTAN. 69 



authenticity, and of greater antiquity, than the latter. The Arabian 

 writers have been generally so much prejudiced against the Hindoosj 

 that their accounts of them are by no means to be implicitly relied 

 on. 



Mr. Dow observes, that the small progress which correctness and 

 elegance of sentiment' and diction have made in the East, did not 

 proceed from a want of encouragement to literature. On the contra- 

 ry, it appears that no princes in the world patronised men of letters 

 with more generosity and respect than the Mahommedan emperors 

 of Hindoostan. A literary genius was not only the certain means to 

 acquire a degree of wealth, which must astonish Europeans, but an 

 infallible roact for rising to the first offices of the state The charac- 

 ter of the learned was at the same time so sacred, that tyrants, who 

 made a pastime of embruing their hands in the blood of their other 

 subjects, not only abstained from offering violence to men of genius s 

 but stood in fear of their pens. 



Universities.. .The great seat of Brahminical learning, as has 

 already been mentioned, is Benares ; besides which there is an aca- 

 demy of the same kind at Triciur, on the Malabar coast, that is in 

 great repute ; and a celebrated Brahmin school at Cangiburam, in 

 Carnate, which appears, from the testimony of Ptolemy, to have ex- 

 isted in the first century of the Christian aera, and the members of 

 which are equal in celebrity to the Brahmins of Benares. 



Language.,. The Sanscrit, or sacred language of the Brahmins, 

 is an original and extremely artificial language, compared by Sir 

 William Jones to the Greek and Latin; it is written with fifty-two 

 characters, and abounds in compound words. The languages in com- 

 mon use within the wide extent of this great country, are various: 

 Persian was generally spoken at the court of Delhi ; the Devanga- 

 ric, or Hincioostanic, is spoken at Benares, and has fifty-two charac- 

 ters, with which the Sanscrit may be written. Irs mode of writing 

 has been introduced into all the northern parts of India. The Ben-» 

 galese, or common language of Bengal, is a wretched and corrupt 

 dialect, spoken at Calcutta. The Guzeratic is spoken in the province 

 Guzerat and Sinde. The Marashda, or language of the MahrattaSj, 

 is prevalent through all the country of the Mahrattas. The Talenga, 

 an harmonious, nervous, and learned language, which, like the San- 

 scrit, has fifty-two characters, is spoken on the coast of Orissa, in 

 Golcouda, on the river Kistna, and as far as the mountains of Balangat. 

 The Tnmulac is spoken in the Deccan, Mysore, Madura, and some 

 parts of the Malabar coasts, though there the Malabar principally 

 prevails. The Canarese, or language of Canara, extends to Goa. To 

 these may be added the Nepalic, spoken in the kingdom of Nipaul, 

 on the borders of Tibet, which has a great similarity to the Devan- 

 garic. Almost all these languages have their distinct alphabets. 



Antiquities.. ..Near Bombay are several other islands, one of 

 which, called Elephanta, contains the most inexplicable antiquity per- 

 haps in the world. A figure of an elephant, of the natural size, cut 

 coarsely in stone, presents itself on the landing-place, near the bottom 

 of a mountain. An easy slope then leads to a stupendous temple, 

 hewn out of the solid rock, eighty or ninety feet long, and forty broad. 

 The roof, which is cut flat, is supported by regular rows of pillars, 

 about ten feet high, with capitals, resembling round cushions, as if 

 pressed by the weight of the incumbent mountain, At the farther 



