Sentiments engendered by the contemplation of the city of Benares-Its history, the history of India.-Principles of pro- gress at work in the city. -- Changes visible in native society. The Brahmo Samáj.-Diminished study of Sanskrit. -Diminished faith in Idolatry in Benares and Northern India generally.-Influence of education on Hindu youths.-A Martin Luther for India.—Influence and spread of Christianity.— Gungá-putras, or sons of the Ganges.-Literary and Religious Societies amongst the natives.-The Benares Institute-Nature of its discussions.-Lecture of Pandit Lakshmají-His account of the consequences of Hinduism.-Effect of Missions and Education on Benares and on India.-Religious agitation in India.—What is the destiny of Idolatry and of Christianity in India?—The Future in respect of Benares.-Remarks of the Rev. Dr. Thomson, a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, on the religious and social condition and Narrative of Fă Hian, concerning his visit to Benares and Narrative of Hiouen Thsang. Translated by the author from the " Mémoires sur les Contrées Occidentales de Hiouen ERRATA. Page 68.-For Purņas'ubhakaran, read Purṇas'ubhakaraṇí. Page 320.-In line 21, and also line 26, in place of No. X., read No. IX. INTRODUCTION. ALIKE as to limits and as to influence, the Indian kingdoms of former times were, with few exceptions, inconsiderable; such of them as lay conterminous were often at open feud; and their cities, or fortified towns, constituted, in fact, their only stable boundaries. It was, probably, with the dominion of the Kâsis as it was with other seats of Hindu power. Deriving its origin from some city, as Pratishthâna,' or Vârâņasî, it must have acquired extent and consideration by very gradual development. 2 At least since a hundred and twenty years before our era, Vârâņasî, as denoting a city, has been a name 1 Vide infra, p. xxv., note 1. 2 Also called Varâṇasî and Varanasî, according to the Haima-kośa and the Sabdaratnávali, respectively. The latter of these vocabularies is of small authority. A rational system of Romanized spelling would give us, instead of Benares, Banâras. The form was the work, perhaps, of the Muhammadans. It should appear that the metathesis of r and ṇ, in the original word, must be later than the times of Fă Hian and Hiouen Thsang. Vide infra, p. xxviii., notes 1 and 2. In the ordinary belief of the vulgar of Benares, the name of their city is connected with Raja Banâr,-a mythical magnate, of whom mention is associated with that of the reformer Kabîr, of the beginning of the fifteenth century. Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVI., p. 57. "According to some of the Muhammadan accounts," says Mr. James b familiar to Brahmanical literature.' The word is crudely referred, by modern inventiveness, to a combination of Varanâ and Asi; and all the other explanations that we have of its source are equally questionable. 66 2 Prinsep, but without naming his voucher for the statement, Benares was governed by a Raja Banâr, at the time of one of Mahmûd's invasions, or in A.D. 1017, when one of his generals penetrated to the province, and defeated the Raja."--Benares Illustrated, p. 9. General Cunningham states that Raja Banâr is traditionally believed to have rebuilt Benares about eight hundred years ago. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for 1863, Supplementary Number, p. xcvi. 1 Vârânasî is specified more than once in Patanjali's Mahábháshya. On the age of that work, see my edition of Professor Wilson's translation of the Vishnu-purána, Vol. II., p. 189, ad calcem. ± So allege the Pandits of the present day; repeating, no doubt, a long-current conceit of their predecessors: see the Asiatic Researches, Vol. III., pp. 409, 410. This notion, though it has found expression in the Araish-i-mahfil and other recent Muhammadan books, is, I believe, only implied in the Puranas. It is said, for instance, in the third chapter of the Vâmana-purâṇa, that Vârâṇasî lies between the Varanâ and the Asi: हरिरुवाच । महेश्वर शृणुष्वेमां मम वाचं कलखनाम् । |