A brief history of the Indian peoples

Front matter

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

A brief history of the .Indian Pe°PJ<j|> /

3 1924 023 968 401

Preface

In this book I try to exhibit the growth of the Indian peoples, to show what part they have played in the world's progress, and what sufferings they have endured from other nations. Short Indian histories, as written by Englishmen, usually dismiss the first two thousand years of their narrative in a few pages, and start by disclosing India as a conquered country. This plan is not good, either for Europeans in India or for the Indians themselves ; nor does it accord with the facts. As long as Indian history is presented to the Indian youth as nothing but a dreary record of disunion and subjection, our Anglo-Indian Schools can scarcely become the nurseries of a self-respecting nation. I have therefore tried to' put together, from original sources, a brief narrative of what I believe to be the true history of the peoples of India. These sources have been carefully examined in my larger works. This little book merely states, without discussing, the results arrived at by the labour of thirty years.

I have tried to show how an early gifted race, ethnically akin to our own, welded the primitive forest tribes into settled communities. How the nobler stock, set free from the severer struggle for life by the bounty of the Indian soil, created a language, a literature and a religion, of rare stateliness and beauty. How the very absence of that strenuous striving with nature, which is so necessary a discipline for nations, unfitted them for the great conflicts which await all races. How,

6 PREFACE.

among the most intellectual class, the spiritual and contemplative aspects of life overpowered the practical and the political. How Hinduism, while sufficing to organize the Indian communities into social and religious confederacies, failed to knit them together into a coherent nation.

India was destined, by her position, to receive the human overflow from the ancient breeding-grounds of Central Asia. Waves of conquest from the north were as inevitable in early times as are the tidal waves from the ocean at the present day. But such conquests, although rapid, were seldom enduring ; and although widespread, were never complete. The religious and social organization of Hinduism never succumbed. The greatest of India's conquerors, the Mughals, were being hemmed in by Hindu confederacies before their supremacy had lasted if centuries. So far as can now be estimated, the advance of the British alone saved the Delhi Empire from dismemberment by three Hindu military powers, the Marathas, Rajputs, and Sikhs. The British Rule has endured, because it is wielded in the joint interest of the Indian races.

But while these thoughts have long been present in my mind, I have not obtruded them on my pages. For I hope that this little book will reach the hands of many who look on history as a record of events, rather than as a compendium of philosophy. The greatest service which an Indian historian can at present render to India, is to state the facts accurately and in such a way that they will be read. If my story is found to combine truth with simplicity, it will have attained all that I aimed at. If it teaches young Englishmen and young Natives of India to think more kindly of each other, I shall esteem myself richly rewarded.

Preface To The Twenty-first Edition

I AM grateful to my critics in many countries for the reception which they have given to this book. It has been translated into five languages, including a literal rendering in Burmese, and a poetical version in Urdu. The English issue alone has reached its eighty-second thousandth copy, and from 1886 onwards for many years the Calcutta University prescribed the work as a text-book for its Entrance Examination. The present edition incorporates suggestions kindly forwarded to me by Directors of Public Instruction, and other educational authorities in India. To Mr. Griffith, formerly Director of Public Instruction in the North-Western Provinces, and to Professor A. A. Macdonell, Deputy Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, I am specially indebted for a revision of the earlier chapters. The whole proofsheets have been kindly revised for me by Mr. Morse Stephens, B.A., Lecturer on Indian History to the University of Cambridge.

On my own part, no pains have been spared to render this edition an improvement on its predecessors. Although compressed into a small size, it essays to embody the latest results of Indian historical research, and of that more critical examination of the Indian Records which forms so important a feature of recent Indian

8 PREFACE.

work. My endeavour has been to present the history of India in an attractive and accurate narrative, yet within a compass which will place it within reach of the ordinary English and American reader, and render it available as a text-book for English and Indian colleges or schools. The Twenty-first Edition includes the population returns of the latest Indian Census in 1891, and brings down the chronicle of events to the Chitral Expedition of 1895.

W. W. HUNTER.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-THIRD EDITION

In preparing the revised edition which has become necessary, I have altered nothing in Sir William Hunter's work but what time has rendered incorrect. The figures of the Census of 1901 have been inserted, and the last chapter has been revised where this was necessary, and brought up to the Coronation Darbar of 1903. Where it was possible, I have adopted the words of distinguished public servants in describing the events of the last few years. What it has been my privilege to do is only what the accomplished and deeply regretted author would himself have done. I trust that, touching it with reverence, I have not damaged his work.

W. H. HUTTON.

St. John's College, Oxford, May, 1903.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER L

PAGE

Situation and size of India, 17, 18 ; the four regions of which it is composed, 18 ; first region — the Himalayas, 18-21 ; Himalayan river system — Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, GaDges and Jumna, 21, 22 ; second region — river plains of India, 22, 23; work done by the rivers — the Bengal Delta, 23-26 ; crops and scenery of the northern river plains, 26, 27; third region — the southern table-land, its scenery, rivers and products, 37-30; fourth region — Burma, 30, 31 j materials for reference, 31.

Chapter II

General survey of the people, 32, 33 ; population statistics in British and Native India, 33-35 ; density of population, 36 ; scarcity of large towns, 36 ; overcrowded and under-peopled Districts, 36, 37 ; distribution of the people, 37 j nomadic system of husbandry, 37 ; rise in rents, 37, 38 ; abolition of serfdom, 38 ; four-fold division of the people, 38, 39 ; the two chief races of pre-historic India, 39 j materials for reference, 39.

Chapter III

The non- Aryans or ' Aborigines,' 40 ; as described in the Veda, 40, 41 ; the non-Aryans at the present day, 41, 42 ; the Andaman islanders, 42 ; hill tribes in Madras, 42, 43 ; in the Vindhya ranges, 43 ; in the Central Provinces, 44 ; leaf-wearing tribe in Orissa, 44 ; Himalayan tribes, 44, 45 ; the Santals of Lower Bengal, their system of government history, &c, 45-47; the Kandhs of Orissa,

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their customs, human sacrifices, &c, 47-49 ; the three great non- Aryan stocks, 49 ; character and future of the non-Aryans, 50 ; materials for reference, 51.

CHAPTER IV. The Aryans in India a 52-73

The Aryan stock, 52 ; early Aryan conquests in Europe and Asia, 52 ; the Aryans in their primitive home in Western Asia, 53 ; the common origin of European and Indian religions, 53 ; and of the Indo-European languages, 53 ; Indo-Aryans on the march, 53, 54 ; the Rig-Veda, 54, 55 ; Aryan civilization in Veda, 55 ; Vedic gods, 55—57 ; a Vedic hymn, 57; Vedic literature, 58; the Brahmanas, 58, 59 ; the four castes formed, 59, 60 ; establishment of Brahman supremacy, 60 ; four stages of a Brahman's life, 60, 61 ; the modern Brahmans, 61, 62 ; Brahman theology — the Hindu Trinity, 62, 63 ; Brahman philosophy, literature, astronomy, medicine, music, law, poetry, 63-67 ; the epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, 67-71 ; later Sanskrit epics, 71 ; the Sanskrit drama and lyric poetry, 71, 72 ; materials for reference, 73.

CHAPTER V. Buddhism in India (543 b.c. to 1000 a.d.) . . . 74-84

Rise of Buddhism, 74 ; life of Gautama Buddha, 74-76 ; Buddha's doctrines, 76, 77 ; missionary aspects of Buddhism, 77, 78 ; early Buddhist councils, 78 ; Asoka's conversion to Buddhism, and its establishment as a State religion, 78, 79 ; his rock edicts, 79 ; Kanishka's council, 79, 80; rivalry of Buddhism and Brahmanism, 80, 81 ; Siladitya's council (634 A.D.), 81 ; great Buddhist monastery of Nalanda, 82; victory of Brahmanism (700 to 900 A.D.), 82; Buddhism an exiled religion from India (900 a.d.), 82, 83; the Jains the modern successors of the ancient Buddhists, 83 ; influence of Buddhism on modern Hinduism, 83, 84; materials for reference, 84.

CHAPTER VI. The Greeks in India (327-161 b.c.) . . . . 85-S9

Early Greek references to India, 85 ; Alexander the Great's campaign in the Punjab and Sind, 85-87 ; his successors, 87 ; Chandra Gupta's kingdom in Northern India, 87, 88 ; Megasthenes' description of India (300 B.C.), 88, 89; later Greek invasions, 89, materials for reference, 89.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. II

Chapter VII. Fagb

Scythic Inroads (about ioo b.c. to 500 a. d.) . . . 90-93

The Scythians in Central Asia, 90 ; Scythic kingdoms in Northern India, 90, 91 ; Scythic races still in India, 91 ; wars of Vikramaditya against the Scythians (57 B. a), and of Salivahana (78 A.D.), 91, 92 ; later opponents of the Scythians, the Sah, Gupta, and Valabhi dynasties, 92, 93 ; materials for reference, 93.

CHAPTER VIII. Growth of Hinduism (700 to 1500 a. d.) . . . 94-108

The three sources of the Indian people — the Aryans, non-Aryans, and Scythians, 94, 95 ; Aryan work of civilization, 95 ; the Brahmans, 95, 96 ; two-fold basis of Hinduism, caste and religion, 96-99 ; Buddhist influences on Hinduism, 99 ; non-Aryan influences on Hinduism, 99; the Hindu Book of Saints, 99, 100; Sankara Acharya, the Sivaite religious reformer of the ninth century, 100; two-fold aspects of Siva-worship, 100, 101 ; the thirteen Sivaite sects, 101, 102 ; Vishnu-worship, 102, 103 ; the Vishnu Purana (1045 A.D.), 103 ; Vishnuite apostles — Ramanuja (1150 A. D.), Ramanand (1300- 1400 A. D.), Kabir (1380-1420 A.D.), Chaitanya ((485-1527 A.D.), Vallabha-Swami (1520 A.D.), 103-106; Krishna-worship, 106, 107 ; religious bond of Hinduism, 107 ; materials for reference, 107, 108.

CHAPTER IX. Early Muhammadan Conquerors (714-1526 a.d.) . . 109-131

Muhammadan influence on Hinduism, 109 ; chronological summary of Muhammadan dynasties, 109, no; Arab invasions of Sind (647-828 A.D.), no, in; India on the eve of the Muhammadan conquest, ill, 112 ; Muhammadan conquests only partial and temporary, 112, 113; first Tiirki invasions — Subuktigin (977 A. D.), 113; Mahmud of Ghazni (1001-1030), his seventeen invasions of India and sack of Somnath, 113-116; house of Ghor (1152-1186), 116; Muhammad of Ghor, 116-119; defeat of the Rajput clans, 117, 118 ; conquest of Bengal (1203), 118 ; the Slave kings (1206- 1290) — Kutab-ud-din, 119; Altamsh, 119, 120; Empress Raziya, 120 ; Mughal irruptions and Rajput revolts, 120; Balban, 120, 121; house of Khilji (1290-1320), 121-124; Jalal-ud-din, 121, 122 ; Ala-ud-din's conquest of Southern India, 122 ; extent of the Muhammadan power in India (1306), 122, 123; Khusru, the renegade Hindu emperor, 123, 124; the Tughlak dynasty (1320-1414), 124-

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126; Muhammad Tughlak, his cruelties, revenue exactions, 124- u6; FIraz Shah Tughlak, his canals, 126; Timiir's invasion (1398), 126; the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, 127 ; Hindu kingdoms of the south — Vijayanagar, 127, 128 ; the Muhammadan States in the Deccan, 128; the Bahmani dynasty, 128, 129; the five Muhammadan States of the Deccan (1489-1688), 129; downfall of Vijayanagar, 129, 130 ; independence of the Muhammadan Provinces, 130; weakness of the early Delhi empire, 130, 131; materials for reference, 131.

Chapter X

The Mughal Dynasty (1526-1761) .... 132-155 Babar's invasion of India and overthrow of the Lodi dynasty at Panipat (1526), 132; Humayiln's reign (1530-1556), 132, 133; his defeat by Sher Shah, the Afghan, 133 ; he flies to Persia, but regains India as the result of the second battle of Panipat (1556), 133; Akbar the Great (1556-1605), chronological summary of his reign, '33< '34! tne regent Bairam, 134; Akbar's work in India, reduction of Muhammadan States and the Rajput clans, 134-136; his policy of conciliation towards the Hindus, 135, 136 ; his conquests in Southern India, 136, 137; his religious faith, 137, 138; Akbar's organization of the Empire, 138, 139; his revenue survey of India, 139 j his ministers, 140; Jahangfr (1605-1627), his wars and conquests, 140 ; the Empress Niir Jahan, 140, 141 ; Jahangir's personal character, 141, 142 ; Shah Jahan (1628-1658), his administration and wars, 142, 143; his great architectural works at Agra and Delhi, 143 ; his revenues, 143, 144 ; deposed by his rebellious son, Aurangzeb, 144; Aurangzeb's reign (1658-1707), 144-150; chronological summary of his reign, 144, 145 ; he murders his brothers, 145, 146; his great campaign in Southern India, 146, 147; his war with the Marathas, and death, 147, 148 ; Mir Jumla's unsuccessful expedition to Assam, 148; Aurangzeb's bigoted policy and oppression of the Hindus, 148, 149; revenue of the empire, 149, 150; character of Aurangzeb, 150 ; decline of the Mughal power under the succeeding nominal Emperors, 150, 151 ; independence of the Deccan and of Oudh, 151 ; Maratha, Sikh, and Rajput revolts, 151 ; the invasions of Nadir Shah the Persian, and Ahmad Shah the Afghan, 151, 152 ; misery of the country, 152, 153 ; decline and downfall of the Empire, 153 ; India conquered by the British, not from the Mughals, but from the Hindus, 154; chronological summary of principal events from the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, till the banishment of Bahadur Shah, the last Mughal Emperor, for complicity in the Mutiny of 1857, 154, '551 materials for reference, 155.

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Chapter XI. Page

Rise of the Marathas, and the growth of their power in the Deccan, l 5&i 157 ; Sivaji's guerilla warfare with Aurangzeb, 157 j the house of Sivaji, 158; the Peshwas and the Maratha confederacy, 158, 159; the five Maratha houses, viz. the Peshwa, Sindhia, Holkar, the Nagpur Bhonslas, and the Gaekwir of Baroda, 160-162; the three Maratha wars with the British, 162, 163 ; materials for reference, 163.

Chapter XII

Europe and the East before 1500 A. D., 164; Vasco daGama, 164; early Portuguese governors and their oppressions, 165, 166; downfall of the Portuguese power, and extent of its present possessions in India, 166; the Dutch in India, and their supremacy in the Eastern seas, 166-168; early English adventurers (1496-1596), 168, 169 ; English East India Companies, 169, 170 ; first voyages of the English Company, 170; massacre of Amboyna (1623), 170, 171; early English settlements in Madras, 171 ; in Bombay, 171, 172 ; in Bengal, 172; other East India Companies, 173,174; materials for reference 175.

CHAPTER XIII. The Foundation op British Rule in India . 176-199

Table of Governors, Governors- General, and Viceroys of India (1758-1892), 176, 177; French and English in the south, 177; state of Southern India after the death of Aurangzeb (1707), 177, 178; wars in the Karnatik — Dupleix and Clive, 178, 179; battle of Wandiwash, 179; Native rulers of Bengal (1707-1756), 179, 180; capture of Calcutta by the Nawab Siraj-ud-daula, and the ' Black Hole ' tragedy, 180; Clive recaptures Calcutta, 180; his victory at Plassey (1757), 180, 181 ; installation of Mir Jafar, as Nawab of Bengal, 181, 182; Clive's jdglr, 182, 183; Clive, first Governor of Bengal (1758), 183; dethronement of Mir Jafar, and substitution of Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, 184: Mir Kasim's revolt, and the massacre of Patna, 184; reconquest ot Bengal, battle of Baxar, 184, 185 ; Clive's second governorship, and the acquisition of the Diwani or financial administration of Bengal by the Company, 185, 186; Clive's reorganization of the Bengal service (1766), 186; dual system of administration, 186, 187; Warren Hastings (1772-1785), his

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TAGS

administrative work, 187, 188 ; policy to Native chiefs, i88;Hastings makes Bengal pay, 188, 189; sells Allahabad and Kora to the Wazir of Oudh, 189; the Rohilla war (1773-1774), 189; fines on Chait Singh and the Oudh Begam, 1 90 ; Hastings' impeachment and trial in England, 190; first Maratha war (1779-1781), 190, 191; war with Mysore (1780-1784), 191, 192; Lord Cornwallis (1786- 1793), 192, 193; Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 192, 193; second Mysore war (1790-1792), 193; Marqness Wellesley (1798- 1805), 193-198; French influence in India (1798- 1 800), 194; India before Lord Wellesley (1798), 194, 195 ; Lord Wellesley's policy, 195; treaty with the Nizam (1798), 195, 196; third Mysore war (1799), 196; second Maratha war (1802-1804), 197, 198; India after Lord Wellesley (1805), 198 ; materials for reference, 199.

CHAPTER XIV. The Consolidation op British India . . . 200-221

Marqness Cornwallis' second administration (1805), 200; Sir George Barlow (1805), 200 ; Earl of Minto (1807-1813), 200, 201 ; Lord Moira (Marquess of Hastings), 1814-1823, 201-204; the Gurkha war (1814-1815), 201, 202; Pindari war (1817), 202, 203; last Maratha war (1817-1818), and annexation of the Peshwa's territory, 203, 204; Lord Amherst (1823-1828), 204-206; Burma in ancient times, 204, 205 ; first Burmese war, 205, 206 ; capture of Bhartpur, 206; Lord William Bentinck (1828-1835), 206-208; Bentinck's financial reforms, 207 ; abolition of Sat{ and suppression of Thagl, 207, 208; renewal of Company's charter (1833), 208; Mysore protected and Coorg annexed, 208 ; Lord Metcalfe (1835- 1836), 208; Lord Auckland (1836-1842), 208-211 ; the first Afghan campaign and our dealings with Kabul, 209 ; restoration of Shah Shuja by the British (1839), 20 9> 2IO » military occupation of Afghanistan by the British (1840-1841), 210; rising of the Afghans, and massacre of the British force on its winter retreat to India, 210, 211 ; Lord Ellenborough (1842-1844), 211, 212; the army of retribution (1842), 211, 212; Lord Ellenborough's proclamation, the gates of Somnath, 212 ; conquest of Sind (1843), 212; Lord Hardinge (1844-1848), 212-214; history of the Sikhs and of their rise into a power under Ranjit Singh, 212,213; first Sikh war ( 1 845), battles of Mudki, Firozshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon, 214; Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856), 214-220; his administrative reforms, the Indian railway system, 214, 215 ; second Sikh war (1848-1849), battles of Chilianwala and Gujrat, 215 ; pacification of the Punjab, 215, 216 ; second Burmese war (1852), 216; prosperity of Burma, 216; Dal-

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 15

PAGE

housie's policy towards the Native States, 217 ; the doctrine of lapse, 217, 218; lapsed Native States, 218, 219; annexation of Oudh (1856), 219, 220 ; Lord Dalhousie's work in India, 220 ; Lord Canning in India before the Mutiny (1856-1857), 220; materials for reference, 221.

CHAPTER XV. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 . ... 223-229

Causes of the Mutiny, 222, 223; the 'greased cartridges,' 223; the army drained of its talent, 223, 224 ; the outbreak in May 1857, 324; spread of the rebellion, 224, 225 ; Cawnpur, 225, 226; Lucknow, 226 ; siege of Delhi, 226, 227 ; reduction of Oudh by Lord Clyde, 227 ; of Central India by Sir Hugh Rose, 227 j summary of the history of the Company's charters, 227, 228 ; India transferred to the Crown (1858), 228, 229; materials for reference, 229.

Chapter XVI

The Queen's Proclamation of 1st November, 1858, 230; the cost of the Mutiny, 230 ; Mr. Wilson's financial reforms, 230, 231 ; legal reforms, 231 ; Lord Elgin (1862-1863), 231 ; Lord Lawrence (1864- 1869), the Bhutan war, Orissa famine of 1866, 231; Lord Mayo (1869-1872), the Ambala darb&r, visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, establishment of Agricultural Department, reform of internal customs lines, Lord Mayo assassinated at the Andamans, 231, 232 ; Lord Northbrook (1872-1876), dethronement of the Gaekwar of Baroda, visit of the Prince of Wales to India, 232, 233 ; Lord Lytton (1876-1880), Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India, the great famine of 1876-1877, 233; Afghan affairs (1878-1880), 233, 234; Marquess of Ripon (1880-1883), 234, 235; conclusion of the Afghan war, 234 ; Education Commission, 234 ; Sir Evelyn Baring, 234, 235 ; Native troops in Egypt, 235; Marquess of Dufferin (1884- 1888), 235, 236; conquest and annexation of Upper Burma (1886), 235 ; Jubilee-year of the Queen- Empress (1887), 236 ; Marquess of Lansdowne (1888-1892), 236, 237; progress of self-government, 236, 237; fall in the rupee, 237, 238; religious riots (1893), 238; Lord Elgin, Viceroy (1894), 238, 239; The Opium Commission, 239 ; settlement of Indian Frontier lines, 239 ; Chitral Expedition (1895), 240; Lord Curzon of Kedleston,Viceroy, (1898), 240; military reforms, 240 ; Agrarian policy, 241 ; The Bubonic Plague, 241 ; The Famine, 1899-1900, 241 ; North-west Frontier Province, 242 ; Afghanistan and the Frontier, 243 ; Death of Victoria, Empress of India, 242 ; The Coronation darb&r (1903), 243.

NOTE.

The orthography of proper names follows my system adopted by the Indian Government for the Imperial Gazetteer of India. That system, while adhering to the popular spelling of very well-known places, such as Punjab, Lucknow, &c, employs in all other cases the vowels with the following uniform sounds : —

a, as in woman : d, as in father: i, as in pj'n: /, as in intrigue : o, as iD cold : «, as in ball : ti, as in rwral : e, as in gr«y.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES.

CHAPTER I. The Country

Situation and Size. — India is a great three-cornered country, stretching southward from mid- Asia into the ocean. Its northern base rests upon the Himalaya ranges; the chief part of its western side is washed by the Arabian Sea, and the chief part of its eastern side by the Bay of Bengal. But while thus guarded along the whole length of its boundaries by nature's defences, the mountains and the ocean, it has on its north-eastern and on its north-western frontiers two opposite sets of gateways which connect it with the rest of Asia. On the north-east it is bounded by the wild hill-regions between Burma and the Chinese Empire or Tibet; on the north-west by the Muhammadan States of Afghanistan and Baluchistan ; and two streams of population of widely diverse types have poured into India by the passes at these north-eastern and north-western corners.

India extends from the eighth to the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude, — that is, from the hot regions near the equator to far within the temperate zone. The capital, Calcutta, lies in 88 degrees of E. longitude ; so that, when the sun sets at six o'clock there, it is just past mid-day in England. The length of India from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east to west, are both about 1900 miles; but it tapers with a pearshaped curve to a point at Cape Comorin, its southern extremity. To this compact dominion the English have added Burma, or the country on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. The whole territory thus described contains over i \ millions of square miles, and 288 millions of inhabitants. India, therefore, has an area almost equal to, and a population in excess of, the area and population of all Europe, less Russia.

The Four Regions. — This noble empire is rich in varieties of scenery and climate, from the highest mountains in the world to vast river-deltas, raised only a few inches above the level of the sea. It teems with the products of nature, from the fierce beasts and tangled jungles of the tropics, to the stunted barley crop which the hillman rears, and the small furred animal which he traps, within sight of the eternal snow. But if we could look down on the whole from a balloon, we should find that India is made up of four well-defined tracts. The first includes the Him&layan mountains, which shut India out from the rest of Asia on the north ; the second stretches southwards from their foot, and comprises the plains of the great rivers which issue from the Himalayas ; the third tract slopes upwards again from the southern edge of the river-plains, and consists of a high, three-sided tableland, dotted with peaks, and covering the southern half of India ; the fourth is Burma on the east of the Bay of Bengal.

First Region : The Himalayas. — The first of these four regions is composed of the Himalayas and their offshoots to the southward. The Himalayas (meaning, in Sanskrit, the Abode of Snow) form two irregular mountain walls, running nearly parallel to each other east and west, with a hollow trough or valley beyond. The southernmost of these walls rises steeply from the plains of India to over 20,000 feet, or four miles in height. It culminates in Mount Everest, 29,002 feet, the highest peak in the world. The crests then subside on the northward into a series of dips, lying about 13,000 feet above the sea. Behind these dips rises the inner range of the Himalayas, a second wall of mountains and snow. Beyond the double wall thus formed, is the great trough or line of valleys in which the Indus, the Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra gather their waters. From the northern side of these valleys rises the tableland of Tibet, 16,000 feet above the sea. The Himalayas shut

THE HIMALAYAS. 19

out India from the rest of Asia. Their heights between Tibet and India are crowned with eternal snow ; while vast glaciers, one of which is known to be sixty miles in length, slowly move their masses of ice downwards to the valleys. This wild region is in many parts impenetrable to man, and nowhere yields a route for an army. But bold parties of traders, wrapped in sheepskins, force their way across its passes, 18,000 feet high. The bones of worn-out mules and ponies mark their path. The little yak cow, whose bushy tail is manufactured in Europe into lace, is employed in the Himalayas as a beast of burden, and patiently toils up the steepest gorges with a heavy load on her back. The sheep are also used to carry bags of borax to markets near the plains. They are then shorn of their fleeces and eaten as mutton. A few return into the inner mountains laden with sugar and cloth.

Offshoots of the Himalayas. — The Himalayas not only form a double wall along the north of India, but at both ends send out hilly offshoots southwards, which protect its north-eastern and north-western boundaries. On the north-east, these offshoots, under the name of the Naga and Patkoi mountains, form a barrier between the civilized British Districts and the wild tribes of Upper Burma. But the barrier is pierced, just at the corner where it strikes southwards from the Himalayas, by a passage through which the Brahmaputra river rushes into the Assam valley. On the opposite or north-western frontier of India, the hilly offshoots run down the entire length of the British boundary from the Himalayas to the sea. As they proceed southwards, they are in turn known as the Safed Koh, the Sulaiman range, and the Hala mountains. This western barrier has peaks over 11,000 feet in height; but it is pierced at the corner where it strikes southwards from the Himalayas by an opening, the Kh&ibar pass, near which the Kabul river flows into India. The Khdibar pass, with the Kuram pass to the south of it, the Gwalarf pass near Dera IsmaMl Khan, and the famous Bolan pass, still further south, form the gateways from India to Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

Himalayan Water -Supply. — The rugged Himalayas, while thus keeping out enemies, are a source of food and wealth to the Indian people. They collect and store up water for the hot plains below. Throughout the summer, vast quantities of moisture are exhaled from the distant tropical seas. This moisture gathers into vapour, and is carried northward by the monsoon, or regular wind, which sets in from the south in the month of June. The monsoon drives the masses of vapour northwards before it across the length and breadth of India, — sometimes in the form of long processions of clouds, which a native poet has likened to flights of great white birds ; sometimes in the shape of rain-storms, which crash through the forests, and leave a line of unroofed villages and flooded fields on their track. The moisture which does not fall as rain on its aerial voyage over India, is at length dashed against the Himalayas. These stop its further progress northwards, and the moisture descends as rain on their outer slopes, or is frozen into snow in its attempts to cross their inner heights. Very little moisture passes beyond them, so that while their southern sides receive the heaviest rainfall in the world, and pour it down in torrents to the Indian rivers, the great plain of Tibet on the north gets scarcely any rain. At Cherra Punji, where the monsoon first strikes the hills in Assam, 523 inches of rain fall annually ; while in one year (1861) as many as 805 inches are reported to have poured down, of which 366 inches fell in the single month of June. While, therefore, the yearly rainfall in London is about two feet, and that of the plains of India from one to seven, the usual rainfall at Cherra Punjf is thirty feet, or enough to float the largest manof-war ; while in one year sixty-seven feet of water fell from the sky, or sufficient to drown a high three-storeyed house.

Himalayan Products and Scenery. — This heavy rainfall renders the southern slopes of the Himalayas very fertile. Their upper ranges form bare grey masses, but wherever there is any depth of soil a forest springs up ; and the damp belt of lowland at their foot, called the Tar&i, is covered with dense feverbreeding jungle, habitable only by a few rude tribes and wild beasts. Thickets of tree-ferns and bamboos adorn their eastern ranges ; tracts of rhododendron, which here grows into a forest tree, blaze red and pink in the spring ; the deodar, or Himalayan cedar, rises in dark stately masses. The branches