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now in good repair. Great attention has been paid to the roads. All extravagant expenditure has been curtailed. Not a single complaint of oppression has reached the Political Agent or Government. Under these circumstances, a salute of eleven guns has been sanctioned as a hereditary distinction, and the title of Highness, which is higher than his former title of Excellency, has been conferred on the Rajah. The general tendency of the reforms which have been carried out in Pudukota has hitherto been in the direction of assimilating the system of administration to that which prevails in British India. Thus, Regulation II. of 1882 declares that the Indian Penal Code, the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure, the Indian Evidence Act, the Indian Contract Act, and several other important Acts, shall be applied mutatis mutandis to Pudukóta, with due regard, however, to the customs, special circumstances, and constitution of the State, and subject to such modifications, reservations, and rules as may be laid down by the Huzzoor Adawlat Court. The decisions of the Indian High Courts are to be quoted, and, although not absolutely binding, are to be followed as far as possible. It often happens that one reform almost necessitates another, and it seems quite clear that some great change must be soon made in the Huzzoor Adawlat Court. At present the Tondaman himself presides, aided by his Minister and one professional judge. The objections to this patriarchal system, under which the law is expounded by untrained judges, and civil suits by and against Government are carried on before the Rajah and the Sirkele, who are thus constituted judges in their own cause, are very clearly pointed by the Civil Judge, V. Subbier B.A., B.L. The Sirkele quite admits the force of his arguments; but this and some other measures, the drafts of which the Minister has in his portfolio, have still to be matured. Among the improvements which have been commenced during the period under review may be mentioned the establishment of a British Post Office at Pudukóta, the opening of a telegraph line from Trichinopoly to Pudukóta, the establishment of an experimental plantation of Casuarina trees on the banks of the Vellar, and a vigorous campaign against the Prickly Pear, which was threatening to overrun the whole country. All connection of the Government with the temples has long ceased in British India, but it, of course, still continues in

native states. It appears that in Pudukóta the expenses of the Pagodas were for six years placed on a reduced scale in consequence of the great famine, which desolated Southern India; but the expenditure has now been raised again from Rs. 90,980 to Rs. 105,330. This measure is said to have given great satisfaction, and "set the administration right with the people, who were only too ready to ascribe every little contretemps of season to the anger of the starved gods." It may be remarked that the Devasthanam, or Pagoda Funds, are not devoted entirely to the maintenance of the temples. The cost of certain pensions, of the Hospital and of the State schools, is defrayed from this source; and although the proportion set aside for these purposes is comparatively small, the fact itself is sufficiently suggestive. How much might be done for education in British India if even a small part of the vast endowments of the Pagodas could be annually obtained for such purposes, as is now done in Pudukota! The systematic fraud and peculation which go on in these establishments have long been a public scandal in the Madras Presidency. The cry of "the starved gods" is often heard; but the question is beset with great difficulties, which time alone can solve. In Madras there was a fund, originally called the General Education Fund, formed from the surplus balance of the old Devasthanam Funds. This amount was set apart for educational buildings, under the orders of the Court of Directors, and was subsequently largely augmented by transfers of sums from other sources, so that the capital invested amounted at one time to Rs. 10,00,000. For many years the interest sufficed for the demands made on it; but in course of time the expenditure on buildings for Government and aided colleges and schools increased far beyond the small sum needed at first, and the capital gradually dwindled down, until it was at last announced in the Report for 1882-83 that the Education Building Fund was to be wound up.

The cost of the Maharajah's College, Pudukóta, in 1883-84, was Rs. 9,510, of which Rs. 6,617 was paid from Devasthanam Funds, and the balance was met from school fees. The attendance had risen on the 30th June, 1884, from 384 to 406 pupils, and the institution had for the first time sent up sixteen youths to the First Examination in Arts, of whom eight passed, three in the first class, and one standing fifth

in that class.

These excellent results have been obtained with a staff consisting entirely of Hindu graduates, aided by a Sanscrit and a Tamil Pandit. Twenty-six boys went up for the Matriculation Examinations, and nine passed, two in the first class. The school also did well in the Middle School and Comparative Examinations, and Mr. A. Monro, the British Inspector of Schools, was satisfied with the state in which he found the institution when he visited it. A Girls' School has also been started this year at Pudukóta, and it already contains sixty-two girls, who acquitted themselves very well at their first public examination.

The weak point of this State was a few years ago its finance. The great change which has been effected by the present Sirkele may be gathered from the following passage:

"For the first time in the history of Pudukóta, there was literally no room in the Treasury for the money that had accumulated in it, and it was thought advisable, rather than so much money should lie idle, to invest the surplus in Government Securities, not only as a source of some profit, but generally as an Insurance Fund against future years of adversity."

It may be hoped that in this prosperous state of things some measure may be devised for promoting the education of the masses. At present the only expenditure incurred under this head is a grant of Rs. 5 a month to the Town Elementary School.

R. M. MACDONALD.

REVIEWS.

CYCLOPEDIA OF INDIA, AND OF EASTERN AND SOUTHERN ASIA. By Surgeon-General EDWARD BALFOUR. Third Edition. 3 vols., 8vo. London B. Quaritch.

When a work of this comprehensive character reaches a third edition, it may generally be regarded as beyond the pale of criticism or review. We feel, however, that we should be guilty of injustice both to the author and to our readers, if we were to allow the issue of the third edition of so important a work as Balfour's Cyclopædia of India to pass without notice in these pages, which are devoted to the interests of our great Eastern Empire.

It is seven and twenty years since the first edition of this work was published at Madras: it was in a great measure the outcome of the Great Exhibition movement, which, then in its infancy, had aroused throughout the length and breadth of the land a mighty and laudable spirit of enquiry into the products, arts, and manufactures of the vast Indian continent. The materials forwarded for exhibition from all sources, European as well as Native, were in most instances accompanied by more or less elaborate and valuable Reports, and these, as a matter of course, passed into the hands of Dr. Balfour, who acted as the local Honorary Secretary to the Great Exhibition of London in 1851, to that of Paris in 1855, and to those of Madras in 1855 and 1857. To analyse these Reports, to separate the wheat from the chaff, to classify their contents, and to incorporate the information thus obtained with that pre-existing in the various scientific and other journals of India, as well as in monographs, books of travel, &c., was a truly Herculean labour. Nothing daunted, however, by the magnitude of the task, Dr. Balfour undertook it with an energy and ability deserving of the highest commendation, and the result was, that in 1858 he presented to the world the first edition of his Cyclopædia of India. Its great value, incomplete and defective as it was in some respects, was speedily recognised, and it at once took its well-earned position as a standard work of reference on all matters pertaining to the East, a position rendered still more assured by the publication, in 1873, of a second edition, into which was introduced a large amount of new and important matter, the whole contained in five thick volumes, representing an immensity of good honest literary labour.

The Cyclopædia, as it now makes its third appearance, consists of three goodly-sized handsome volumes, having an aggregate of 3,610 double-columned pages, 35,000 articles, and 16,000 index headings. The information contained in it is, from the very nature of the work, diversified in the extreme; indeed, it may be said that there is scarcely a subject relating to India and Eastern and Southern Asia which has escaped more or less extended notice. There is no other work in the English language in which is brought together an equal amount of information on everything connected with India, her people, arts, manufactures, and products. To the merchant and agriculturist, to the man of

science, whether botanist, zoologist, geologist, or meteorologist, no less than to the Oriental scholar, the historian and literary student, it cannot fail to prove of the highest service as a work of reference. It is well deserving of a place in the library of every one interested in or connected with India.

Some of the articles are very elaborate and exhaustive; of these, the most extended is "India," which occupies upwards of 180 pages. This, as well as some of the longer articles, is furnished with a separate or subsidiary index, which certainly greatly facilitates reference. Amongst the other more erudite articles may be mentioned "British India," "Languages," "Hindu" and "Hindustan," " Mammalia," "Birds," "Reptiles," "Insects," "Fish" and "Fisheries," "Fibrous Materials," "Dyes," "Weights and Measures," &c. Much curious information will be found in articles: "Caste," "Marriage," "Divorce," "Polyandry," "Burial Customs," "Suttee," "Sacrifice," "Superstitions," "Witchcraft," "Ordeal," and "Divination;" whilst many important historical data are furnished by articles: "Battles of India," "Earthquakes," "Famines," "Floods," and "East India Company." The brief biographical notices of Indian Celebrities will, doubtless, be acceptable to many: they might be improved by being given somewhat more in extenso. From an examination. of the articles, Wheat, Cinchona, Quinine, Opium, &c., Dr. Balfour has, we observe, availed himself of the latest official returns. With regard to the names of places, Dr. Balfour has exercised a wise discretion in retaining the traditional and historical spelling; to have introduced the new, though probably more correct and scientific, renderings could not have failed to have been a source of embarrassment to the student, who, for example, in the name "Kumbatúr," would have had no little difficulty in recognising the well-known district of Coimbatore! To have adopted the new orthography would have necessitated a complete system of cross references, which, to the student, is highly objectionable, as it consumes valuable time.

The "get up" of the book is on a par with its intrinsic merits, and reflects much credit on the printer: the paper good, the type clear, and the typographical errata very fewremarkably so, indeed, considering the nature of the work. We should be rejoiced to hear that the Indian Government had adopted towards Balfour's Cyclopædia of India the course

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