ISO 
HINDOOSTAN. 
wifhed, nor produce fo plentiful a harveft as there is every 
reafon to expert would ultimately be reaped; ftill, by the 
aid of well-drawn and judicious admonitions, a ftop might 
in fome meafure be put to thofe religious filicides, and 
cruel facrifices of innocent babes, which more or lefs pre¬ 
vail in every part of Hindooftan. All thofe mothers who 
bring forth twins, facrifice one of them to the goddels of 
fecundity; and an infinite number of others are annually 
deftroyed by various facrifices, too fhocking to relate. 
The marquis of Wellefley, fo recently as June 1809, com¬ 
municated .to the compiler of this article, a plan which 
he had begun to fet on foot for the fuppreffion of thefe 
horrid rites, towards the termination of his government 
in India, when he had happily reftored peace to every 
part of the country, and was turning his mind to the re¬ 
gulation of the police. His lordfhip inftituted an enquiry 
throughout Bengal, for the purpofe of afcertaining, if 
pollible, the extent of thefe unnatural practices; and 
amongft other information, he had it well authenticated, 
that great numbers of young children were every year 
facrificed to the (harks that infelt the Hoogly river, near 
its entrance into the Bay of Bengal, and round the ifland 
of Saugur. The enquiry was condufted w'ith the greateft 
caution, in order not to interfere with any of the legitimate 
tenets of the Hindoo religion ; but, his lordfhip finding that 
this praftice was not warranted by the Vedas or Shaltras, 
an order of the government was iffued at Calcutta, for 
the total fuppreffion of all fuch arts of cruelty; and every 
perfon who fhould in future be guilty of fuch a prartice, 
/ would be confidered as having committed the crime of 
murder, and be made amenable to the laws. This had the 
defined effeft, and the praftice was difcontinued without 
a murmur. 
His lordfhip then directed his attention to an enquiry re- 
fpefting the number of the Hindoo women who fuperlliti- 
oufly burn themfelves on the funeral pile of their deceafed 
hufbands ; and whether any mode could fojely be adopted 
for the abolition of fuch a cuftom, without irritating the 
mafs of the people on the fcore of their religion. The 
event of this enquiry fhowed, that upwards of four 
thousand fuch facrifices were made every year through¬ 
out the whole of the Hindoo provinces ; and that, upon 
an average calculation, about two hundred put a period 
to their lives in this unnatural manner every year in the 
fingle province of Bengal. But his lordfhip being recal¬ 
led to England, the further profecution of this laudable 
defign fell to the ground ; and thus it has ever fince re¬ 
mained. 
PRESENT STATE. 
With refpeft to the prefent ftate of Hindooftan, 
no fmajl difficulty occurs in our attempts to define it. 
So indecifive and unftable were the fanguinary contefts 
for empire in this devoted country, after the declenfioa 
of the Mogul power, that limits and bouhdaries have 
known no fixed iaw, but were for a long time at variance. 
The country now, however, feems to be permanently di¬ 
vided between thofe more fuccefsfui princes or poten¬ 
tates, who, to ufe the foldier’s phrafe, “ have made the 
beft ufe of the fword.” At the head of thefe, we are juf- 
tified in placing the king of Great Britain ; fince the Eng- 
lifh now tmqueftionably form the moft powerful ftate in 
India. 
Next to the Englifh, are the Mahrattas., who are infi¬ 
nitely more numerous, but confiderably weaker, inaf- 
much as they are. oufted of the ftrong-holds, and are 
greatly inferior in the fcience of taftics. The right of 
collefting the chout, being fecured to the Mahrattas, ap¬ 
pears to have been the grand means of letting them at 
reft. The origin of this tax is of no very ancient date. 
Aurungzebe, when far advanced in life, being tired of a 
war which he law no prolpert of bringing to a favourable 
ififue, was glad to come to an accommodation with this 
troublefome enemy on their own terms : for this purpofe 
he gave them a coule, or written agreement, by which he 
granted, to them and their fuccelfors, the chout, being a 
certain tax per centum on all the royal revenues in the 
Deccan; but in no other part of the Mogul emrure. 
The Nizam of the Deccan ftands next after the Mah¬ 
rattas in point of dominion and power'; then the Seiks, in 
northern Hindooftan ; the JautSj who difpofTefled the Mo¬ 
guls of the provinces round Agra;, and the Afghans, Pa- 
tans, Rohillas, and other hardy tribes, who inhabit the 
mountains. Moft of thefe are mercenaries, being always 
ready to fight for any prince who will pay them beft. It 
appears uielefs to add to this lift the prefent rCprefenta- 
tive of the fallen houfe of Timour, Akbar Shah, in the 
city of Delhi ; fince, comparatively fpeaking, all power 
and real dominion feem departed from him; and he exifts 
under proteftion of the king of Great Britain. Yet he 
continues the nominal emperor of Hindooftan, and receives 
an annual tribute or payment from thofe powers who have 
divided amongft them his vaft territories; and hence they 
found a claim of hereditary right to thofe pofteffions; 
which, if dilputed, they maintain by the fword, and with¬ 
hold the tribute, at once involving the rightful fovereign 
in poverty and diftrefs. 
The Britiih pofteffions prior to the fall of Tippoo Sul- 
taun in 1799, were fuppofed to contain 197,496 fquare 
Britifh miles, being about 60,000 more than are com- 
prifed in the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ire¬ 
land ; the number of native and mixed inhabitants was 
then computed at ten millions. The acquifition of Co- 
imbitore and other territory in 1799, probably makes an 
addition of 15,000 fquare miles; and the population fub- 
jeft to Great Britain was fuppofed to be at lead 14,000,000. 
The net revenue exceeded three millions in 1793; but 
in 1799 it far furpafled that fum ; and by the addition of 
territory in 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, both the revenue 
and population became wonderfully increafed. This 
great power and revenue of fo diftant a country, main¬ 
tained in the midft of a highly-civilized foreign nation, 
is perhaps unexampled in ancient or modern liiftory. 
The Mahrattas are divided into two ftates or empires, 
that of Poonaii or the, weftern, and Berar or the eaftern; 
each ruled by feveral chiefs, or princes, who pay a nomi¬ 
nal obedience to the Paifhwa, as ftated in the former part 
of this article. 
Modern geographers, for the purpofe of bringing this 
extend ve country more within the reach of common com- 
prehenfion, have formed it into four of the moft natural 
divifions it could poffibly admit of. There are : Sindetic 
Hindooftan, containing the diftrifts or provinces fituated 
on the river Sind, or Indus. Central Hindooftan, or the 
Middle Provinces. Southern Hindooftan, or the Deccan. 
Gangetic Hindooftan, or the provinces bordering on the 
Ganges. 
The firft divifion, or Sindetic Hindoostan, extends 
from the northern mountains of Cachemire, and the Hin¬ 
doo Koh, or Indian Caucafus, in the north of Cabul, to 
the mouth of the Indus ; forming the weftern boundary 
of Hindooftan, towards' Perfia ; being in length about 
nine hundred Britiih miles, and about three hundred and 
fifty in medial breadth. Belides part of the provinces of 
Delhi and Agimere, it contains the extenfivje province of 
Moultan, with Lahore, Cachemire, Cabul, the frontier-re¬ 
gion of Candahar, and that of Sindi, at the mouth of the 
Indus. Thefe provinces are thofe through which all the 
invaders of Hindooftan, from the time of Alexander to 
the eftablilhment of the Mogul empire, uniformly made 
their way; the confequence of which .is, that they par¬ 
take more of the Mohammedan faith, and abound more 
in mol'ques and minarets, and buildings in the Saracenic 
ltyle of architerture, than in any other part of India. It 
is hence callqd by the natives “ the country of the Moors 
a name which the Hindoos give to all the Mohammedans, 
come from where they will. 
The chief cities which occur in this extenfive region 
are Lahore, Cachemire, Cabul, Ghizni or Gafnah, Can¬ 
dahar, Attock, Moultan, and Tatta,-in the Sindean Delta. 
On the eaft of the Indus, or in the Punjab* the Seiks now 
form 
