INDIA,

ANCIENT AND MODERN.

PART I.

GEOGRAPHY.

INDIA has derived its name from the Indus, one of its largest rivers and generally considered part of its western boundary, separating it from Persia. This name was given to the country by the Persians, and thus it became known to the Greeks and Romans. The name of the country in the Sanscrit language and in ancient works generally, is Bharat; it is sometimes called Bharatkhund, and also Jambhudwip. The name of Hindustan, which is often given to India in Europe and America, is never applied to the whole country by Europeans living in India, nor by natives of the country. Hindustan is properly the name of that part of India which is north of the river Nerbudda or its latitude, excepting the provinces of Bengal on the east and of Gujerat on the west, which are generally known in the history of India by their respective names.

The name Hindustan, or Hindoostan, or Hindostan, was given to India by the Persians, and is composed of two Persian words, namely, Hindu signifying black, or in the plural, the blacks, or black people; and stan signifying a place or country. So Hindustan in the Persian language signifies the country of the black people; as Afghanistan is the country of the Afghans; as in English, Negroland means the country of the negroes.

The boundary of India on the south, is the ocean; on the

west, the ocean and the Indus; on the north, the Himalaya mountains; and on the east, the river Brahmaputra and the ocean, or the part of it called the Bay of Bengal.

The extreme length of India from Cape Comorin to the mountains which form the northern boundary of Cashmere, exceeds 1,900 miles, and its breadth from the mouth of the Indus to the Brahmaputra exceeds 1,500 miles. Its area is estimated at 1,280,000 square miles. Thus it is larger than all the United States which are east of the Mississippi, and as large as all Europe which is south of Russia and the Baltic Sea.

India at some period of its history was divided into different kingdoms corresponding in some degree to the names by which the different parts or provinces are now known, though the names were somewhat different in ancient times. Some of these names were given by Europeans in their first intercourse with the country, and having become thus known in Europe they have been retained, somewhat as the names of many places originated in America and have been perpetuated. These divisions, as Malabar, Mysore, Carnatic, Deckan, Gujerat, Bengal, Bahar, etc., have not very accurately defined limits, and they are not now recognized as civil divisions or provinces by the government. The divisions which have been introduced by the East India Company for economy and convenience in the affairs of government, have been often changed, and they are liable for the same reason to be changed again. The Mohammedans in establishing their power and administering the government of the country in many instances changed the names of provinces, cities, and villages. But the English have made no such changes, and the names of the districts, cities, and towns have been continued, and they are likely to continue as they have been for two or three centuries past, and as they are known in the modern history and geography of the country. The different parts of India will therefore be referred to by their usual names and these names will be in the usual orthography.

CLIMATE AND SEASONS.

A country extending nearly 2,000 miles in length in a line nearly north and south, must necessarily have great variety of

climate and seasons. More than half of India is situated within the tropics; its northern limit is in the latitude of South Carolina, and nine tenths of it is further south than New Orleans. Thus situated, the climate of the country generally, as might be expected, is hot,-in some parts very hot. The temperature is affected by proximity to the sea-coast and elevation above the sea as well as by the latitude. In the provinces on the sea-shore on the eastern and western side of the peninsula, the heat is moderated by the sea-breezes, and the extremes of heat and cold are much less than inland places in the same latitude. In the provinces situated within the tropics or to the south of a line drawn from Calcutta to Cambay, the heat is everywhere severe in the hot months, and ice or frost is seldom seen in the cold months. The houses, whether European or native, with the exception of a few sanatory stations on the highest hills, have no chimneys or conveniences of any kind for using fire for comfort in any part of the year. In the great plains bordering on the Ganges and the Indus, which are low and remote from the sea, the heat is generally very severe in the hot months. The extremes here are greater than in the southern provinces. In the northern provinces snow and ice are frequent in the winter months.

The heat of the sun in India is more intense than in the United States when at the same altitude. The difference is also much greater there between the temperature in the sun and in the shade than it is in this country. Hence exposure to the rays of the sun is often injurious and is carefully to be avoided by all who have European constitutions, when no injury would be experienced from them in America. Europeans cannot endure the labor and continued exertion in India, which they can and do in their native climate. The injury and sufferings experienced vary according to the difference of temperature, peculiarity of constitution, habits of living, etc. But in all the hot districts such exposure, labor, and continued exertion soon produce prostration of strength, disease, and death.* This fact

* Perhaps the inquiry may occur how can this fact or opinion be reconciled with the conquest and government of the country by the English? An answer to this inquiry will be found when we come to treat of the British conquest and administration of India in another part of this work.

is as well established and as well known to all Europeans in India, as it is that they differ in complexion and personal appearance from the natives of the country. The native constitution has become adapted to the climate, and compared with Europeans they suffer but little from the heat. The lower classes will carry on their agricultural and other occupations daily, and will continue in their usual health in places and circumstances where Europeans generally would soon fail, sicken, and die.*

The sensation of cold and the suffering from it, are greater in India than in Europe and America at the same temperature. This soon becomes obvious to people on their first beginning to reside in that country, and such continues to be their experience. The native population are easily affected by the cold, and they suffer much from it. This arises in part from their peculiar constitution, adapted as it is to endure heat and enjoy a hot climate, and partly from their not having sufficient and suitable clothes, houses, etc.

The temperature of any place, as already remarked, depends upon its elevation and distance from the ocean as well as upon its latitude. This is more obvious in hot than in cold climates.

* While a change from the climate of Europe or of the United States at once to a tropical climate produces this effect on the same constitution, there can be no reasonable doubt that if the European constitution should be gradually subjected to the influence of a tropical climate through several generations, perhaps through several centuries, it would become as much adapted to the climate of India as the constitutions of the Hindus now are. Perhaps it would require as long to effect this change by each successive generation proceeding to a hotter climate, as it does to produce the complexion of the southern Asiatics. No one can proceed from England or any country in its latitude to the south cape of India or Ceylon, examining all the intermediate classes of people, without becoming satisfied that the difference in complexion is to be found in the climate and other coöperating causes. The complexion of the Jews wherever found confirms this opinion. When dispersed from Judea at the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews being of common origin and living in a small country must have been of the same complexion. But now, wherever they have lived for several centuries and followed the occupations, customs, habits, etc., of the other classes of the inhabitants, they have become of the same complexion with them. The Jews in India, whose ancestors settled there many centuries ago, have become of the same complexion as other classes of the people of similar occupations and in similar circumstances. The same is true of the Jews settled in Arabia, Egypt, and western Asia, compared with other classes of the inhabitants in those places, as I saw when I was in those countries.

The mean temperature of January in Calcutta is 67°; in Madras it is 77°, and in Bombay 78°.

The mean temperature of May, which as it precedes the rainy season, is generally the hottest month of the year, in Calcutta is 83°; in Madras it is 87°; and in Bombay 85°. In New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, the mean temperature of July does not generally exceed 70°, thus showing the difference in the hottest weather to be 15°. These facts show that the average temperature of the coldest months in some of the largest cities in India, is several degrees higher than the average temperature of the hottest month in the large cities of the United States.

In the peninsular part of India fires are not generally necessary for comfort in houses, and chimneys are seldom seen. Cooking is usually done in out-houses. Various means are used in the hot months to mitigate the heat and to make houses comfortable. The more common way is to suspend a ventilator called punka in the rooms, which are generally high. Punkas are generally small frames covered with cloth and in the form of a board or plank, its length varying with the room or part to be ventilated, and its breadth from 18 to 36 inches. Punkas are suspended by ropes so that they can be swung just over the heads of persons standing, and when swung they produce an agreeable circulation of the air. These punkas are much used in houses, offices, churches, etc. Another method is to hang curtains of bamboo and other materials before doors and windows, and these being kept constantly wet, the air passing through them is cool. Another method is to place a ventilator constructed somewhat like a winnowing machine in some central part of the house, and by working it and hanging wet curtains over the doors, the air is kept moist and cool. Some such means for cooling the atmosphere are as necessary for people in health or in sickness in India, as fires in stoves and furnaces are for comfort in the United States in the winter season.

In the valleys and plains of the interior of the peninsula, and of the Ganges and the Indus, the temperature in the hot months is often greater than it is in Calcutta, or Madras, or Bombay, and in the cool months the cold is greater. The temperature also fluctuates more in such districts in any given time, as in a