POSITION AND ASPECT OF THE ISLAND-GALLE AND COLOMBO-NEWERA ELLIA 38 MOUNT ABU-UDAIPUR AND CHITTORE-ADJMERE—JAIPUR—ALWAR—GWALIOR JABALPUR, AJANTA, AND ELURA-BOMBAY—CAVES OF ELEPHANTA, KENNERY, I NDIA, together with CEYLON, stretches two thousand miles from the Himalayas southwards into the ocean; and its extreme width, measured across its northern boundary, is nineteen hundred miles. It is as large as Europe less Russia. Physically it divides itself into three parts: (1) the Himâlayas, "the abode of snow," as the name means, where are the treasures of the rain, and the bracing mountain air, forming a double mountain wall against the north; (2) the River Plains, with the Brahmaputra in the east, the Indus in the west, and the mighty Ganges, "Mother Ganga" adored by the people, across the centre; (3) the three-sided table land of the Deccan, separated from the river plains by the Vindhya mountains, with the Eastern and Western Ghats running along either coast and meeting at Cape Comorin. Thus this vast country is naturally isolated, with the sea on either side, the Himalayan range scimitar-like across the north, its spurs in the east making a natural wall, and the Sulaiman range along the Indus in the west, forming a boundary equally secure. Of this vast triangle of earth the population is two hundred and forty millions. As to its Ethnology and Languages we find: I. The EARLY NON-ARYAN RACES, divided into three great groups: the ThibetoBurmans, the Kolarians, and the Dravidians. (a) The THIBETO-BURMANS occupy the Himalayas, and include many mountain. tribes akin in feature and in tongue to the Chinese. (b) The KOLARIANS, supposed to have come in through the mountain passes, are now scattered on the rugged mountains, in the wide jungles and pathless forests, scattered remains of a primitive population, fierce, black, undersized, muscular, with no written literature-their only monuments stone slabs, flints, and mounds. Of these the chief tribes are the Sontals, and the Khands. They were called by their conquerors Dyasus "foes," and Dosas "slaves." (c) The DRAVIDIANS, who also came through the mountain passes, forced their way on in a compact phalanx till they found a secure and permanent resting-place in the south. They attained a high state of civilisation long before the Aryan invasion. Their chief languages, polished and cultivated, are the Telugu--melodious as Italianthe Tamil, rich in its literature, the Canarese, and the Malayalam. II. The ARYANS, "nobles," as the word means, the wide-spread Indo-European race, whose western branch extends over Greece, Rome, Germany, and England. They, in turn, entered India by the north-west passes, speaking the stately Sanscrit, driving the inferior hordes before them, and finding à permanent home in the great River Plains. The very name of their great works, the Vedas, links them on with ourselves ;-Veda, oida, videre, wit and wisdom. They soon asserted their supremacy over the carlier peoples; as Brahmans and as Rajputs they established Caste, and gave to the East the two giant religious systems of Brahmanism and Buddhism. Their languages were the Sanscrit and Pali, with their branches, Panjabi, Sindhi, Hindi, Bengali, Marhatti and Singalese. (a) Panjabi is spoken by the Sikhs, who occupy the northern basin of the Indus, and who were among the first Aryan settlers. |