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SIR ANDREW WINGATE, K.C I.E., ON INDIA. 



rose inside the sacred area. The waters fertilize their lands, 

 and make life possible and pleasant. Viewing the things which 

 are seen, they turned them into gods. They lost sight of the 

 elemental fact proclaimed by Isaiah (xlv, 18), which they might 

 have deduced from a study of the geography of India, God 

 " formed the earth to be inhabited." The vast reservoirs of the 

 Himalayas, the plains spread out from their feet, the tilt of the 

 Deccan plateau, the accessibility of the ocean, the monsoon 

 rain-laden winds, teach that India was prepared by loving 

 hands under the direction of one master mind. We may expect 

 to find the same provision for the spiritual welfare of its inhabi- 

 tants. They have been disciplined by judgments, light has 

 broken through from time to time, and finally they have been 

 entrusted to the British people to be trained and guided into 

 that true Liberty which is the bond slave of Righteousness. 



The line of the Narbada demarcates the history of India into 

 two parts. Very little is known about the Pensinsula before 

 A.D. 600, whereas in Hindustan some events become definite 

 as far back as 600 B.C. — a difference of twelve centuries. 



Cut off from Hindustan by the broad belt of hill country 

 occupied by fearsome jungle tribes, the Peninsula dwelt in 

 isolation. Especially was this true of the far south, where the 

 Dravidian languages resisted the penetration of the Sanskrit of 

 the Brahmans, so evident in the languages of the Deccan farther 

 north. But the Dravidians exported much valuable produce 

 by sea, and it was to develop this trade that King Solomon, 

 with the assistance of the skilled navigators of Tyre, organized 

 a fleet of larger vessels. Unfortunately, the seamen brought 

 back no accounts of the lands they visited, unless such may some 

 day be discovered in Arabia. 



This paper may help us to understand why the Bombay 

 and Madras Presidencies are so sharply differentiated from North 

 India, and why the present policy of decentralization is so 

 true to history and to existing facts. 



The fuller knowledge of the condition of Hindustan is due 

 mainly to the inclusion from time to time of part of North- 

 Western India within the far eastern limits of the Persian and 

 Grecian Empires. Thus, Darius Hystaspes (521-485 B.C.) sent 

 an expedition to ascertain the feasibility of a sea passage between 

 Persia and the Indus — that river being then the recognized 

 eastern boundary of Persia. Darius then annexed a portion of 

 tiie Pan jab, constituting it his twentieth satrapy, one of the 



