Letters on India; with etchings and a map

Preface

. The indulgence with which the Public received the " Journal of a Residence in India," induced the writer to hope, that the curiosity concerning our oriental possessions was still sufficiently alive to promise a favourable reception to the following little work. It is written solely with the design of being useful to such as are called upon to go at an early period of life, to India, and who therefore cannot have had time to make themselves acquainted with even the general outline of the history, religion, or science of that country ; and though the execution must necessarily have fallen far short of the design, yet it is hoped that the general

PREFACE.

. sketch here presented may not be found uninteresting or uninstructive. The sources from which the information contained in the following pages is chiefly drawn, are, the papers of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Cole brooke, and Major Wilford in the Asiatic Researches; and where these guides have failed, those who could, in the writer's humble judgment, be best relied on, were chosen. Colonel Wilks's admirable His tory of Mysore, Orme, Scott, Dow, Mal colm, Buchanan, have all been referred to ; and if on every occasion where the au thor has made use of their works she has neglected to name them, it is because such references would have been too numerous at the bottom of her pages. For the etchings which accompany the letters, the writer is indebted to her in genious young friend and relation Mr. J. D. Glennie, of Dulwich, who kindly in terrupted his higher and more interesting

PREFACE.

. V pursuits to give her the advantage of pre senting, without embellishment or carica ture, the subjects of the Hindu chissel, which she had been fortunate enough to preserve, when many other drawings were lost on her passage homeward from the East. With much diffidence she takes leave of her little book to send it forth to the world, certain that it requires much indul gence, but trusting that the motives of the undertaking will cancel some of its many faults. CONTENTS. Letter i. General Introduction Page 1 Letter ii. Languages of India 11 Letter hi. Prosody — Poetry — Poems — Mahabarat Ramayuna — Sisupola bad'ha — Ciratarjunya Naishad'hiya — Cumara — Raghu — Megadata — Dramatic Writings — Sacontala — Malah'Mad'hava — Mystic Drama 22 Letter iv. Lyric Poetry — Amatory Poems — Mixed Writings — Bards of India — Music and Musical Instruments — Ancient Hindu Music — Mythology of Music — Fine Arts, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Civil, Religious, and Military... 42 Letter v. Calligraphy — Ancient Taste for Literature in India — Vedas — Theology — Philosophy — Sects of the Vedantas, Sanc'hyas, and Nyayas 67 Letter vi.

Morals — Laws — Government — Usages 84 Letter vn. Astronomy — Astrology — Algebra — Divisions of Civil Time 109 Letter vm. Ancient Systems of Geography — India as known to the Western Ancients — Ten Native Kingdoms — Twelve Soubas of Hindostan Proper, according to the Ayeen Akbery 125 Letter ix. Deccan or South Country — British Dominions 158 Letter x. Hindu Chronology — Æra of Vicramaditya — History — Menu and his Descendants — Wars of the Mahabarat — Reign of Chandragupta — And'hra Kings — Kingdom of Vejeyanuggur, called also Videanuggur and Bisnuggur — Mysore — Mahrattas — Nepaul CONTENTS. Letter xi. Mussulmans in India — Mahomed Sebectaghin and the Gaznavides — Mahomed Seif edien and Gaurides — Mahomed Shah and Khouaresmians — Invasion of Genghis Khan — Patans — Invasion of Tamerlane — -Foundation of the Kingdom of Bejapoor — Establishment of the Moguls 191 Letter xn.

Babershah — Houmaioun — Akbar Jehanghire — Shah Jehan Aurengzebe — Successors of Aurengzebe till Mr. Hastings' Government 228 Letter xm. Division of Castes — Missionaries 271 Letter xiv. Manners and Customs — Women — Ceremonies — Eating — Prayers — Ablutions — Oblations — Sacrificial Fire — Rites of Hospitality — Marriage — Obsequies 288 Letter xv. Tombs — Singular Festivals — Amusements- Gambling — Martial Exercises — Sacrifices 318 Letter xvi. Mythology 339 Letter xvii. Various Sects and Tribes inhabiting India, Conclusion MY DEAR SIR, Allow me to congratulate you on your recent appointment ; and on the accomplish ment of the wish you have so often expressed to visit the East. I feel highly flattered by your applying to me for information concerning the country y6u are so soon to see, and to judge of for yourself; but conscious of my inability to satisfy you as I could wish, on many subjects relating to it, I had once thoughts of referring you to such books as contain the best accounts of the country, its customs, and its inhabitants.

However, on reflecting that your time must be too fully occupied in preparations for your voy age, to allow you to engage in the perusal of very voluminous works, I have, though with considerable diffidence, determined to send you the abstract you request, of the notes made for my own use. I perfectly agree with you that many of the evils complained of in the intercourse between the European residents and the native inhabit- B ants of India, are owing to the want of mutual understanding, and of mutual knowledge. The happiness of so many millions of our fellow creatures, now brought still nearer as our fellow-subjects, cannot be a matter of indifference. But we can scarcely be interested for those whom we do not know, and I have, therefore, always thought, that it would be an acceptable service to collect from the more elaborate works on India such a popular view of the history, literature, science and manners of that coun try, as should excite an interest in its inhabit ants ; and by exhibiting a sketch of its former grandeur and refinement, restore it to that place in the scale of ancient nations, which European historians have in general unaccountably neg lected to assign to it.

This idea induced me to collect the notes in question j I shall send you a portion of them from time to time, and if you have not leisure to read them before your departure, they may, perhaps, serve to amuse you in your passage to " India and the Golden Chersonese and farthest Indian Isle Taprobane." On looking over the map of modern India, one is astonished at the immense tract of country contained within the fines which mark the British possessions, nor is the wonder les sened by the consideration, that the territory nominally under the government of the Nizam ul Muluc, or Soubadar of the Dec can, and that subject to the Peishwa of Poonah, are guarded and garrisoned by Bri tish subsidiary forces, while these princes, not less than the shadow of the Great Mogul, are prisoners in their palaces, to troops paid by themselves.

Thus the whole of the immense region from the frontiers of Cabul to Cape Co morin north and south, and from the Indus to the Ganges east and west, is virtually under the British dominion ; while the very few really in dependant chiefs and princes preserve that inde pendance merely by sufferance, as you may convince yourself by an inspection of their geographical positions relatively to the British ter ritory. But after all, it is chiefly the empire of opinion that supports us in our possessions, for the natives outnumber us in such a proportion as must make us tremble, if ever injuries offered to them, or interference in those points of religion or custom to which they are attached, shall rouse them to the exercise of the physical su periority they undoubtedly possess, and to shake off the timid and humble peacefulness which has hitherto distinguished them.

Long before the Mahomedan conquest of Hindostan the great monarchies of that coun try had been torn by internal commotions, and b divided into many smaller kingdoms, which like their parent states contained in themselves the seeds of destruction, from the vicious principles on which they were founded. Though it might be true, that if angels could descend to rule over men, absolute monarchy would be the best form of government, yet as we are constituted, such a government can scarcely possess stability. And the slight traces of Indian history which remain to us, would confirm, if it were needful, this well known truth. If in one picture we are presented with a Hindoo monarch reigning with justice, or extending his conquests over the whole Peninsula, in the next we see an insigni ficant race of successors at first governed, and afterwards dethroned, by their more enterprising servants, who, in founding new dynasties, only prepared for their descendants the same train of miseries they had themselves inflicted on their unfortunate masters.

The better authenticated history of the Ma homedan kingdoms of Hindostan presents us with the same scenes ; and as the Mussulman sovereigns and usurpers were even more absolute than those of the Hindus, on whom the sacerdotal class was always a considerable check, the changes were still more sudden and violent ; so that, before the arrival of the Europeans in India, the Mahomedan monarchy was already weakened by the detachment of some of its richest provinces. And although Aureng Zebe succeeded in re-uniting them to the crown of Dehli, and even in extending his dominions be yond the former conquests, his successors were gradually spoiled of province after province, till his throne was filled by a mere shadow of royalty, placed and upheld there by the army of a com pany of western merchants.

But I must defer entering into the history of Mussulman India at present, as I think I should but ill perform your wishes if I neglected to preface it with that of the most ancient posses sors of the soil that we are acquainted with, and there are besides some interesting topics on which it would not perhaps be amiss previously to enter. Nature seems to have taken pleasure in em bellishing and enriching the favoured country of Hindostan with every choicest gift. Under a pure sky and brilliant sun the soil produces the most exquisite fruits, and the most abund ant harvests j the rocks are rich in gems, the mountains teem with gold, and the fleecy pod of the cotton furnishes in profusion the light garment fitted to the climate. In travelling in the interior your eyes will often be enchanted with the most delicious landscapes.

Amidst stupendous forests you will not unfrequently be charmed with a cultivated spot, where, if ever, you might realize the dreams of the poets, and indulge in that impassioned indolence which is the parent of poetry and of the fine arts. One would imagine Milton had mused in ori ental groves when he describes " Insuperable heights of loftiest shade, Cedar and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm. Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, If true, here only, and of delicious taste : Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Grazing the tender herb were interposed On palmy hillock; or the flowery lap Of some irriguous valley spread her store, Flow'rs of all hues, and without thorn the rose.

I might go on to quote all his descriptions of Paradise and all its bowers, before I could ex haust the resemblances. But, alas ! it is not the natural riches of the country, nor the exquisite beauty of its sylvan scenery, that will most attract your attention. Vast cities now too large for their diminished inhabitants, towns embellished with temples and with tombs now falling to decay, and absolutely unpeopled, and stupendous monuments of art, which have not served to transmit even the names of their founders down to our times, will frequently arrest your steps ; but while these are hastening to decay, the customs and habits of the natives seem immortal, and present us now with the same traits under which they are painted by the Greeks who visited them two thousand years ago. Perhaps in their moral character the Hindus are worse than their ancestors, but before we absolutely condemn them we shall do well to consider the causes of their depravity.

The poet has said, " Whatever day, makes man a slave, takes half his worth away," and in out measure of censure against the falsehood and perjury we meet with in India, we should remember that for many centuries they have been slaves to hard masters, and that if by subterfuge they could not conceal their property, they had only to expect robbery and violence ; thus falsehood became the only defence of the weak against the strong, and lost something, at least, of its criminal character. Yet that it is not the peculiar character of the Hindus, or encouraged by their laws or their faith, we may convince ourselves by referring to those sublime passages in their Sastras, where truth is identified with the Almighty mind, and described at once in the most awful and the most enchanting colours; and though in the modern Hindus every generous feeling seems broken down, and replaced by an almost brute apathy, yet the spark though smothered is not extinguished, but ready to blaze forth if properly awakened, into all that genius and fancy can hope ; or, if aroused by ill timed or ill directed interference with principles, which through loss of liberty, of empire, of riches, have clung closely round every heart and entwined them selves with every fibre, into vengeance, before which, ordinary means of safety will be vain, and ordinary courage subdued.

But I trust, that as we have hitherto used our power soberly, and on the whole, have made our government beneficial to the inhabitants of India, so we shall continue in the same wise mo deration, and conduct the innovations necessary for their permanent improvement and our own security, in such a manner as that the hand of authority be never seen, but in the punishment of crimes, and her voice never heard, but in the dispensing of justice. Into whatever part of the country you travel, or wherever you may be stationed, you will find much to examine ; and if it be your good for tune to see various and distant parts of India, you will find a considerable variety of character, and sufficient difference of customsand of faith, to interest you ; but in order to derive every possible advantage from your change of situation, you should seriously apply yourself to the study of some of the native languages.

The Hindostanee is the most widely diffused, though should you be stationed in Bengal, the Bengalee or ancient language of Gaur will be most useful, as it is spoken over a pretty extensive district. However if you wish to travel much, learn Persian, which may be called the French of the East ; for you will not find a village where at least one person cannot speak it. Besides, it will gain respect from the natives, who consider a knowledge of various languages as the mark of a superior education, not to mention the great importance it must be of to an officer to understand the language of those whom he is to command. It was not perhaps the least part of the policy of the Romans, to plant their language in every conquest, in order to attach their new subjects ; and the emperor Akbar increased the number of schools in Hindostan, and caused the Persian and Hindostanee to be publicly taught, together with the Sanscrit, and encouraged the translation of poems and scientific works from the ancient language of the Bramins into the vernacular tongues, by which means they became more popular.

Perhaps if some thing of the same kind were done by the English, if translations of their own books were given to them, it would induce them to learn the lan guage more generally, and thus open to them the road to all those improvements of which we hear so much said, but which I fear our countrymen do not go the right way to introduce. I think if I were a powerful person, I should propose a reward to the little Hindu boys who should read or repeat most fluently a tale from Mr. Wilkins's Heetopadesa. I am sure the boy would read English much sooner by giving him the ideas he was accustomed to in his own country, clothed in our language, than by imposing upon him the double difficulty of a new language and new ideas also ; and I am equally sure, that when the boy grew up and found that by his know ledge of English, he could carry on his trade without the intervention of an interpreting clerk to make out his English accounts, he would prize the language the more, and be the more anxious that his children should be instructed in it ; thus interest would tend to diffuse know ledge if it were once put within the reach of the people.

But I must have already tired you with this long letter, and I dare say we -shall have occasion to return to this very important subject in our future correspondence. Mean time adieu, and receive my best wishes. M. G.

Letter II

I thank you for your very kind though very short letter, and in reply to your question about the Sanscrit, I have only to say that I do not think it would be worth your while to begin to study it, unless you had a prospect of a much longer residence in the East, than I trust you look forward to. But that your curiosity re specting it may not be wholly unsatisfied, I shall give you a short account of that venerable tongue, and of some of the languages derived from it, which I have taken from Mr. Cole brooke's interesting essay on the subject. Were all other monuments swept away from the face of Hindostan, were its inhabitants de stroyed, and its name forgotten, the existence of the Sanscrit language would prove that it once contained a race who had reached a high degree of refinement, and who must have been blest with many rare advantages before such a language could have been formed and polished.

Amidst the wreck of the nations where it flourish ed, and superior to the havoc of war and of conquest, it remains a venerable monument of the splendor of other times, as the solid pyra mid in the deserts of Egypt attests, that where now the whirlwind drives the overwhelming sand-wave, and plows up the loose and barren dust, a numerous population once enlivened the plain, and the voice of industry once gladdened the woods. The languages of India are usually reckoned to be four. The Sanscrit or language of the gods. The Pracrit or spoken language. The Paisachi or language of the demons. The Magad'hi. Some writers however substitute for the two latter the Apabhransa or Jargon, and the Misra or mixed language. The word Sansciit literally means adorned, and that language is indeed highly polished ; it is cultivated throughout India as the language of science and literature, of laws and religion ; and of its great antiquity some comparative idea may be formed from the time in which most of the elegant poets flourished, which was about the century preceding the Christian æra.

Now, many ages must have elapsed, before so rich, so perfect a language could have been framed, and its rules so accurately fixed. " It evidently draws its origin (says Mr. Colebrooke) from a primeval tongue which was gradually refined in different climates, and became Sanscrit in India,. Pelavi in Persia, and Greek on the shores of the Mediterranean." Although the Sanscrit is now a dead language, it was probably at one period the spoken language of most parts of India, and the objections which might be made to this opinion, such as the inordinate length of the compound words, and the strict rules for the permutation of letters in these compounds, are obviated by the fluency with which those persons deliver themselves who still speak the language. I think that, from the fragments of the history and literature of the Bramins which have been translated — and from these only I can judge — we are authorized to conclude, that excepting in times of great civil commotion or religious wars, the Bramins lived a life of retired indo lence ; not, indeed, like the western monks, withdrawn from domestic cares within the walls of a monastery, but in sacred groves and ca verned rocks, where, surrounded by their pupils and their slaves, they cultivated poetry, music, and astronomy ; and only deigned to appear in the active world to receive the homage of a court, and direct its monarchs ; or sometimes to pronounce on them the malediction, which was almost sure to be followed by the desertion of their servants and the rebellion of their subjects.

It was in these retirements that, given up to study, the Bramins perfected their sacred lan guage, and composed those numerous and profound treatises of grammar, which have since employed so many commentators, whose works have been considered as of such high conse quence, that the writers are said to have been inspired. Of the original treatises, the grammar of Panini is the most ancient that remains to us, and of the highest authority : but its great antiquity and studied brevity have required and received numerous scholiæ, all esteemed divine. The Amera-cosha, the most esteemed of all the vocabularies, was composed by Amera Sinha, one of the nine poets who adorned the court of Vrcramaditya*, and who was either a Jaina or a Baud'ha: his work has passed through the hands of numerous commentators, and many vocabu laries have been formed to supply its deficiences, besides various nomenclatures, and the Nighanti of the Vedas, which explains obsolete words and unusual acceptations.

The Prdcrit language formerly included all the written dialects used in the common inter course of life, and cultivated by men of letters ; but the term Pracrit is now commonly restricted to the language spoken on the banks of the Seraswattee. There appear to have been ten polished dia- * It is doubted whether this is the Vrcramaditya, King of Onjein, who gave name to the chronological æra, and who flourished 56 years before Christ, or a later monarch, some times called Raja Bhoja. lects in India, prevailing in as many different civilized nations, who occupied the provinces of Hindoostan and the Deckan. The Saraswati was a people which occupied the banks of the river Seraswattee, and the Bra mins of that nation now inhabit the Panjab. Their language may have prevailed over the southern and western parts of Hindoostan Proper, and is probably the idiom called Pracrit.

It is a cultivated language, and great part of most dramas, and many poems, are written in it. . The Canyacubjas possessed a great empire, the capital of which was Cannoge. Their language seems to be the groundwork of the mo dern Hindustani or Hindwi, of which there are two dialects, in the most refined of which there are numerous poems, and both abound in songs, or rather ballads, and odes. Well educated people in Hindustan and the Deckan, use this language, and there is scarcely a village where some of the inhabitants do not understand it ; which I beg you to observe, is the reason I particularly advised you to study it, that you may not be among those speakers of jargon, whom one hears violating all the rules of grammar and good sense, at our settlements in India, till they have actually produced a tongue that I am persuaded no Hindu, fresh from the interior, would understand.

The Gaura, or Bengali, is spoken in the pro vinces of which the ancient city of Gaur was once the capital, and of which nothing remains but widely spread ruins. The language contains some original poems, besides many transitions from the Sanscrit : it appeared to me, when I heard it spoken, to be a soft agree able language, though less pleasing to the ear than the Hindustani. The MaiVhila, or Tirhuctya, is used in the Circar of Tirhut and the adjoining districts, and appears not to have been much cultivated. The language and alphabet called Uriga are used in the Suba of Orissa, whose ancient names are Utcala and Odradesa. These five countries are called the five Gaurs, and occupy the northern and eastern parts of India, though Orissa seems more properly to belong to the five Draviras which occupy the Peninsula as far as Cape Comorin ; and Guzerat, which is sometimes reckoned among the Dra viras, would find a more natural place among the Gaurs.

The language of Guzerat or Gurjera is nearly allied to the Hindwi, and, like it, is. commonly written in an imperfect form of the LETTERS ON INDLA 17 Devanagari character, in which the Sanscrit is expressed. Dravira is the southern extremity of India, and extends from Cape Comorin to twelve or thirteen degrees of north latitude. The language is the Tamel, called by the Europeans Malabars. I have seen translations from some Tamel songs, both of love and of war : and one I recollect of a humourous description, pur porting to be the quarrel between a man's two wives, one of whom was a Tamel and the other a Tailinga lady ; but as it appeared that one was much younger and handsomer than the other, the quarrel was naturally enough decided in her favour ; though I own that, to me, the other seemed to have the right side of the argument.

The Malmrashtra, or Mahratta, is a nation which has in the two last centuries greatly en larged its boundaries ; but it anciently compre hended only a mountainous district south of the Nermada, and extending to the Cocan. The language boasts of some treatises of logic and philosophy, besides many original poems, chiefly in honour of Rama and Crishna, and some translations from the Sanscrit. Carnata, or Canara, is the ancient language of Carnataca, a province which has given names to districts on both coasts of the Peninsula ; the e dialect still prevails in the intermediate mountainous tract. Tailangana must formerly have comprehended not only the province of that name, but those on the banks of the Crishna and Godavery. Its language ( Telinga ) has been cultivated by poets, if not by prose writers.

Besides these ten polished dialects, there are some others, derived, like them, from the Sanscrit, and, like them, written in a character more or less corrupted from the Deva Nagari, There are also some spoken by the mountaineers, who are probably the aborigines of India, and which have certainly no affinity with the Sanscrit. Some of these tongues are divided into local and provincial dialects, and many beautiful pastorals are written in the two most remarkable — the Panjabi, spoken in the Panjab or country of the five rivers, and the Vraja Bhasha, spoken in the neighbourhood of Mathura, which derives its name from the cow-pens, Vraja, of the forests of Vrindha. Translations of at least part of two Sanscrit Grammars appeared in English in the year 1808; the first from Saraswata, by Mr. Cole brooke, and the second, by Mr. Carey, is partly a translation, partly original, from the Gram mars used in Bengal, where the teachers have unfortunately accommodated the sacred language to the vernacular idiom and pronuncia tion.

A Sanscrit Grammar, by Mr. Wilkins, appeared in the same year, which has the cha racter, among the learned, of accuracy, pre ciseness, and perspicuity, notwithstanding its great length, which the multitude of rules and exceptions in the language has swelled to 656 pages. The author of the able article upon this Grammar, in the thirteenth volume of the Edinburgh Review, has given a very interesting table of the analogy of the Sanscrit with some other languages, which certainly goes far to confirm the opinion of Mr. Colebrooke and of Sir William Jones, concerning the primeval tongue from which these languages may have been derived, and which I quoted in the early part of this Letter. The first part of the analogy consists of words expressing the names of different parts of the body, and the relations of consanguinity, thus — Sanscrit.

Latin. Persian. German. English: pitara pater ■ pider vater father matara mater mader muder mother bhratara frater brader bruder brother In this last word, there is an example of the manner in which the Sanscrit double letters are c changed intoletters of the West, — a transposition not accidental but constant, the bh into f, the ch into qu, as in chator, quator (four), and many others. The second point is the analogy in the struc ture of some of these languages, perceived in the distinctions of the feminine and neuter genders; the declensions of nouns ; the signs of comparison ; the infinitives and declensions of verbs, which goes so far as the irregularity and defectiveness of the substantive verb. The eight cases render the use of prepositions superfluous ; they are, therefore, exclusively prefixed to verbs, being without signification alone.

But I shall venture no farther on this subject, which, I fear, I can hardly render as interesting as I should wish ; for I intend, in my next Letter, to notice some of the principal writers in the languages I have been mentioning : and I hope to present you with rather an agreeable picture of ancient Hindostan, when I lay before you the amusements of King Vicra maditya's court, and introduce you — if you have not already introduced yourself — to the elegant Calidas, and the pious and venerable Valmiki. The Indian poetry is rich, high, and varied, abounding in luxuriant descriptions, and occa sionally displaying both grandeur and tenderness : but it must be confessed, that it is often rendered dull by repetition and bombast, and deformed by an indelicacy unknown to Euro pean writers. " They loudest sing " The vices of their deities, and their own " In fable, hymn, or song, so personating " Their gods ridiculous, themselves past shame !