INDIA ANCIENT AND MODERN. GEOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, SOCIAL, until 1850-52 AND RELIGIOUS; 2855353 WITH A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE STATE AND BY DAVID O. ALLEN, D.D. MISSIONARY OF THE AMERICAN BOARD FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN INDIA; notes by Shurls, BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. CLEVELAND, OHIO: JEWETT, PROCTOR AND WORTHINGTON. NEW YORK: SHELDON, LAMPORT AND BLAKEMAN. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. PREFACE. Amirien THE writer, on returning to this country after his long residence in the East, observed in the frequent inquiries made concerning India, much desire for information, and a great want of accurate knowledge concerning that country and its inhabitants. And when asked what work he could recommend as containing the information which so many were desirous to obtain, he was constrained to reply that he knew of no such work suited to the people of the United States. Many works on India have been published in England, where the political relation of the two countries naturally creates a strong and general desire for information. But some of these works contain only the History of British India, and others contain only one period of history, or describe only one part of the country; all perhaps well suited to the class of people for whom they were designed in England, but not adapted for general reading in the United States; while no one work contains such a summary of general and particular information as to make it suitable for importation in any considerable number, or for republication in this country. The English Journals, reprinted in the United States, contain many well written articles upon India, but they were designed for England, and though well suited to the knowledge which the people there generally have concerning India and its inhabitants, they are not so well suited to the limited views of that country which people generally have in the United States. The religious journals in this country since the origin of Christian Missions to |