Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda

Front matter

V V

^c

liY THE HINDUS:— I.'INAL BATIXli BETWEEN RAMA WITH HIS ALLIES THE APES. AND RAVANA, THE DEMON-KING OF LANKA, WITH HIS ARMY OF IlLACK RAKSHASAS (fIENDS). — FROM THE RAMAYANA.

Preface

The present volume, as originally planned, was to have included the post-vedic or Brahmanic period, and to have borne the title of Story of Vedic and Brahmanic India. The overwhelming mass of material, however, made it impossible to keep to the original plan, except at the cost of lucidity, completeness, interesting detail, and all the qualities that go to make a book with any claim to popularity. Nothing remained but to ".divide the subject-matter into the two halves into which it naturally separates, and leave the Story of BrahiHanic India to the immediately following volume, which will embrace the results attained by the study of the Atharva-Veda, the Brahmanas, the Upanishads, the Laws, and a synopsis at least of the great epics.

Z. A. R.

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

I. Page

1-47

The Wonderland of the East .

§§ i-2. General description of India. — §§ 3-4. The Himalaya. — § 5. Monsoons and rainfall. — §§ 6-7. Famines. — §8. The Vindhya.— § 9. The Ghats.— §§ lo-ii. Forests and their destruction. — § 12. The Deodar — § 13. The Ficus Indica, or Banyan. — § 14. The Ficiis Religiosa, or Pippala. — §15. Other vegetable products. — § 16. Exuberant vegetation and its causes. — § 17. Some domestic animals. — § 18. Tigers and snakes. — § 19. Insect world. — § 20. Mineral wealth. — §21. Isle of Ceylon,

II

§§ j-2. Parallelism between the Aryas of India and Eran. — § 3. Method of work. — §§ 4-7. The Aryas before the separation. — §§8-li. Words the only monuments. Beginnings of Sanskrit scholarship. — § 12. The Root in philology. — § 13. Words as factors in prehistoric reconstruction. — §§ 14- 15. The Cow. — § 16. Mistaken notions concerning remote antiquity. — §§ 17-23. Sanskrit word-studies. — § 24. Uncertainty as to the Aryas' primeval home.

III

§1. The English East India Company. — 15 2. The Portuguese East India Company. — § 3. The French East India vi CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

Company. — § 4. Warren Hastings's humane views. — § 5. Hampered by ignorance of the people and country. — § 6. Sir William Jones. — § 7. His accidental discovery of the Hindu Drama. — §8. Its character. — §9. Its golden age. Kalidasa. — §10. "The Ring of Shakuntala." — § H- " Vikrama and Urvasi." — §12. First results of Sanskrit scholarship. — § 13. Character of Hindu Poetry. — §§ 14-15. Brief survey of Sanskrit Literature. — §§ 16-17. Difhculties encountered by the first Sanskrit scholars. — §§ 18-19. II. T. Colebrooke and Ch. Wilkins. — § 20. Great development of Sanskrit scholarship.

IV

§ I. India specially identified with the history of Aryan thought and speech. — §2. Indo-Eranian period. — § 3. The separation. — §§4-5. The Penjab, or &//(2/;-6'm<^//wz'«/z, and its rivers. — § 6. Early Aryan life in the Penjab. — § 7. Race conflict between Aryas and natives. — §8. The Rig-Veda- Samhita. — §9. Earliest religious life of the Aryas in India. The Rishis. — § 10. The Yajur-Veda and the Sama-Veda. — • § II. The Atharva-Veda. — § 12. The text of the Rig- Veda. Memorizing. — § 13. Necessity of commentaries. — §§ 14-15. The Brahmanas. — § 16. Shruti, " Revelation." — § 17. Smriti, "Tradition," " The Vedangas. — §18. The Sutras. — § 19. Shrania-Stitras and .S/war/a-Sutras. Great importance attached to the study of language and metre. — § 20. The periods of Vedic Literature.

V. The Rig-Veda : the Older Gods . . . 131-187

§§ 1-2. General character of the Rig- Veda. — §§ 3-4. Chiefly Naturalism. The birth of Myths. — § 5. Dyaus and Prithivi, " Heaven and Earth." — § 6. The root Div ; Dyaus ; Deva ; Asura. — § 7. How names become gods. — § 8. Varuna, the Sky. — § g. Varuna, the King. — § 10. Varuna, the ruler of the Atmosphere (aniariksha). — § 11. Hymns to Varuna. —

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. vu

PAGE

§ 12. Varuna, the keeper of Rita (the Cosmic Order and the Moral Law. — § 13. Varuna, the punisher and forgiver of sins. — § 14. Mitra and Varuna. Later aspects of Varuna. — §§15-17. Aditi and the Adityas. — §18. Agni Fire. — §19. Agni, the friend of men, the messenger, the hotar (priest). § 20. The Birth of Agni. — § 21. The three abodes of Agni ; Apam-Napat, (the Son of the Waters). — § 22. Agni's descent with the rain. — § 23. The finding and bringing of Agni. — § 24. Agni's kinship with the race of men. — § 25. The funereal Agni. — § 26. Soma, the Eranian Haoma. — § 27. Soma the plant. — § 28. The pressing of the Soma plant and preparation of the sacrificial Soma-drink. — § 29. The celestial Soma — the Amrita (drink of immortality). — §§ 30-32. Soma the Moon. Mysticism of the Soma-worship. ■ — § 33- Vivasvat and his son Yama. — § 34. Yama, King of the Dead. The Sarameya Dogs. — § 35. Later aspect of Yama. — § 36. Yama originally the Moon. His brother Manu, the progenitor of the human race. — § 37. Vayu or Vata, the Wind. — §38. Closing remarks.

Appendix to Chapter V. . . . . 187-190

The Churning of the Amrita.

VI. The Rig-Veda : the Storm-Myth. — The Sun

and-Dawn Myth 191-236

§1. The Atmospheric Drama. — §2, The sacredness of the Cow. — § 3. The Cloud-Kine. The Drought-Fiends. — §4. Atmospheric battles. — §5. Anthropomorphism. — §6, Indra, the champion fighter and Soma-drinker. — § 7. The leader and war-god of the Aryas. — §§ 8-10. The dispenser of wealth. — §§ 11-12. Rivalry between Indra and Varuna. — § 13. Indra's stormy infancy. — § 14. Harmony restored. — ^^§§15-19. Parjanya, the Storm-god. — §20. Rudra. — §21. The Maruts. — § 22. Indra and the Maruts quarrel. — §§ 23-25. The Sun-and-Dawn Drama. — §§ 26-27. Surya, the viii CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

Sun. — § 28. Indra and Surya. — § 29. Indra and Ushas. — § 30. Ushas, the Dawn. — § 31. The Two Sisters. — § 32. Ushas and Surya. — §33. Ushas, "the Mother of Cows." — § 34. Ushas, the dispenser of wealth. — §§ 35-38. The Ashvins, the Twilight Twins. — § 39. Pushan.

VII. The Rig-Veda : Later and Lesser Gods

Story-Myths 237-273

§ I. Drawbacks and advantages of Classification. — § 2. "Later" gods — how to qualify the expression. — §3. Vagueness about the rank of gods. — §4. Vishnu.— §§ 5-7. Savitar. — §§ 8-10. Tvashtar and the Ribhus. — § 11. Probable original identity of Tvashtar and Savitar. Myth of the Ribhus explained. — § 12. Tvashtar, Indra's father, — §§ 13- 14. Myth of the Birth of the Ashvins. — §§ 15-16. Myth of Sarama and the Panis. — § 17. Transformation of nature-myths into spiritual and sacrificial ones. — § 18. Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, "the Lord of Prayer," — §§19-20. Deified mythical abstractions : Prajapati ; Vishvakarman ; Hiranyagarbha, and others — § 21. Scarcity and insignificance of feminine deities. — § 22. The Waters and Rivers. — § 23. The divine Sarasvati ; probably at one time the Indus, and still earlier the Eranian Haraqaiti. — § 24. Sarasvati, the goddess of eloquence and sacred poetry. — § 25. Vach, deified Speech. — § 26. Aranyani, the Forest.

VIII. The Rig-Veda : Early History . . . 274-334

§§ 1—3. The Four Castes. — § 4. Caste not mentioned in the Rig- Veda, except in the Purusha-Sukta. — §§ 5-6. Aryas and Dasyus. — § 7. Dasyus, several native tribes and races. — § 8. Kolarians and Dravidians. — § 9. Manners and religion of the Kolarians. — § 10. Dravidian Serpent-worship. — §11. Snake-festival. — §12. Dravidians in Aryan epic

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. IX tradition.— § 13. Modern savage tribes. — §14. The Rig- Veda not all myth. — §§ 15-16, Historical material in the Rig- Veda. — § 17. Connection between Dravidian India and Chaldea. — § 18. Dravidian export trade. — § 19. Dravidians a Turanian race. — § 20. Language not a sure indication of race. — § 21. Non-Aryan races and language the majority in India, — § 22. Aryan conquest not all effected by force, — § 23. Aryan propaganda carried on by the priests, — § 24. The Gayatri. — § 25. Vasishtha and Vishvamitra : narrow Orthodoxy against broad Liberalism — §26. The "Five Races," or " Five Tribes." — § 27. The Tritsu and the Puru. — § 28, Indra invoked by both Aryas and Dasyus. — § 29. The Confederacy against the Tritsu. — § 30. Vishvamitra's hymn to the Rivers. — § 31. Battle of the Ten Kings, — § 32, Aryan supremacy established.

Appendix to Chapter VIII 335-348

The Story of the Flood in India (the Matsya Avatar).

§ I, Various versions of the Flood Story in Indian Literature. — §2. Version in the Shatapatha-Brahmana. — §3, In the Mahabharata, — § 4, In the Matsya Purana. — § 5. In the Bhagavat? Purana. — § 6, Points of similarity with the Chaldean story. — § 7. Traces of the Flood Story in Folk-lore.

IX. The Rig-Veda : Early Culture , . . 349-381

§ I. General picture. — § 2. Aryan funeral rite in the Rig- Veda. — §§ 3-5. In the Grihya-Sutras. — §§ 6-8. Belief in a Future Life,— § 9. The Pitris— Fathers.— §§ 10-13. The Aryan Marriage-rite. Exalted position of the wife in the Rig- Veda. — § 15. Gambling, — §§ 16-17. Vasishtha's "Cursing Hymn." — §18. The Healer's Song. — §19. Various pursuits of men, — § 20. Closing remarks.

X CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

X. Page

The Rig-Veda : Sacrifice .... 382-413

§ I, Importance of Sacrifice. — §§ 2-3. Dakshind — " Largess " to the priests. — § 4. Excessive claims of the priests. — §§ 5-6, Sacrifice a spell. — §§ 7-8. Sacrifice an imitation of the heavenly phenomena of Light and Rain. — § g. Its compelling power over these phenomena. — §§ lo-ii. The heavenly phenomena a celestial sacrifice, the exact counterpart of the earthly sacrifice. — §§ 12—13. Who are the celestial sacrificers ? — §§ 14-15. To vs^hom is the celestial sacrifice offered? — § 16. The Ashvaviedha — Horse sacrifice. — § 17. The PtirtishamedJia — Human sacrifice. — § 18. — Legend of the abolition of bloody sacrifice. — § I9. The story of Shunahshepha.

XI. The Rig-Veda : Cosmogonv ; Philosophy

Retrospect 414-439

§ r. The questioning mood of the Rig poets. — § 2. How^ was the world made ? — § 3. Cosmogonic theories — § 4. The Sacrifice theory. — § 5. The Purusha-Sukta. — § 6. The Atman or Self — The First-Born. — § 7. The One Unborn. ' — § 8. The great Cosmogonic hymn, X., 129. — § 9. Monotheism in the Rig- Veda. — § 10. Henotheism or Kathenotheism — Promiscuous identifications of gods with one another — Underlying monotheistic tendency. — § ii. The riddle of the Rig- Veda. — § 12. Its solution : the Aryas of the Rig- Veda — Fire-Worshippers. — §§ 13-15. Retrospect — Results.

Principal Works Read or Consulted in THE Preparation of the Present Volume 441-444

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE CONQUEST OF LANKA, BY THE ARYAN HINDUS,

(from the ramayana) . . . Frontispiece MAP ........ facing I

a ridge of HIMALAYA' 5

VIEW FROM THE EAST TOP OF KANCHAN JANGA' . 7

TAMBUR RIVER AT LOWEST LIMIT OF FIRS ' . . II

A VIEW IN DEKHAN ; THE GHATS '^ . . . . 17

A VIEW IN THE MYSORE (dEKHAn) ° . . . I9 A BANYAN GROVE SHELTERING A SETTLEMENT OF HINDU FANATICS PRACTISING ASCETIC AUS- TERITY ......... 25

CLASPING ROOTS OF THE WIGHTIA ' . . . 28 LIVING BRIDGE (hIMALAYAN FORESt) * , . -31

TAME LEOPARDS TRAINED FOR HUNTING READY

FOR THE CHASE ...... 37

PRIMEVAL FOREST ; MONKEYS SCARED BY A LARGE

SNAKE 41

LANDSCAPE AT THE FOOT OF THE VINDHYA . . 43

A LANDSCAPE IN LAHORE (pENJAb) ^ . . . I05

SOURCES OF THE GANGES ' . . . . , IIO

' From Hooker's Himalayan yotirnals. ^ From Heber's Indian Joui-nal. John Murray : London. ^ From Lefmann's Geschichte des alien Ittdiens. Muller, Grote, & Baumgartel : Berlin.

ILL USTRA TIONS.

THE GANGES AT GANGATRI ' .

DYING HINDU BROUGHT TO THE GANGES TO BREATHE HIS LAST ....

the soma plant ^ .

the churning of the amrita

the sixth avatar (or vishnu incarnate as

parashu-rama) brahmans of bengal" . low-caste bengalese ^ . primitive stone monuments santal types * festival of serpents^ .

GONDH types"

ANCIENT TYPE OF DWELLINGS

HIMALAYAS ANCIENT TYPE OF DWELLINGS HEAD OF ANCIENT CHALDEAN (aBOUT 40OO B.C.) RECEPTION OF A GURU, OR SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTOR THE SHATADRU, OR SHUTUDRI (sUTLEj) * THE MATSYA-AVATAR, OR FIRST INCARNATION OF

VISHNU, IN THE FORM OF A FISH OANNES AND THE GOD EA , . .

SACRIFICIAL IMPLEMENTS * . . .

SACRIFICIAL DISHES, GRASS, WOOD, ETC. ^ PART OF A HORSE SACRIFICE PROCESSION

IN NORTHERN INDIA

DISCOVERED IN THE

PAGE III

169 189

282 283 289 291

297 301

345 347 354

355 404

^ From Rousselet's India. J. S. Virtue & Co. : London.

^ From Hooker's Himalayan Journals.

* From Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship.

Chapter I. The Wonderland Of The East

I. " . . . And I saw the blue, holy Ganges, the eternally radiant Himalaya, the gigantic banyan- forests, with their wide leafy avenues, in which the clever elephants and the white-robed pilgrims peacefully wander ; strangely dreamy flowers gazed at me, with mysterious meaning ; golden, wondrous birds burst into glad, wild song ; glittering sunbeams and the sweetly silly laugh of apes teased me playfully ; and from distant pagodas came the pious strains of praying priests. . . . " '

Only a poet's day-dream ; but how telling each feature of the fanciful picture ; and how each quaintlyworded sentence lifts you out of the screechy, glary reality of steam whistle and electric light, till the few perfect lines, like the richly patterned flying-rug of Oriental story, land you in the very midst of that world of mystery and enchantment, of gorgeousness and twilight, restful at once and exciting, which the name India has always represented to the Western mind.

> Heine (prose works).

2. Another world ; a world in itself. That is what India pre-eminently is, and therein lies the charm. The word has been said and repeated times out of number, yet seldom with a full realization of the literalness and extent of its truth. Not even an attentive survey of the map is sufficient to impress it on the mind anything but vaguely. Comparison and a few figures are needed to create a clear and definite perception. Nothing less will convince us that we have to do not with a country, but with a continent, and that we can no more speak of the climate, the people, the language of India, in the singular, than of those of Europe — which it very nearly equals in size. For a line drawn from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges gives the distance between Bayonne (on the Atlantic coast by the Pyrenees) and Constantinople ; while another, stretched from the northernmost angle, just where the Indus turns southwards, to Cape Comorin, equals in length that from Arkhangelsk on the White Sea to Naples. Nor would the latter line take in, by a great deal, the entire length of the Isle of Ceylon, which is itself not very much smaller than Ireland. Were we to include the extreme Northeast (Assam) and the Indian lands east of the mouths of the Ganges and the Indian Ocean — (Burma, Siam, etc.) — we should obtain even more imposing parallels ; but we are not concerned in the present work with more than the great western peninsula, — nor, strictly speaking, with the whole of that ; since the beginnings of political and social life and the spiritual development in religion and philosophy, that are to be our theme, were perfected almost entirely within the northern half of it. This at various periods received divers expressive and significant native names, but it is found convenient, in our own time, to gather it under the general appellation of Hindustan, roughly bordered in the south by the ViNDHYA MOUNTAINS, a chain of several ridges, which stretches across the continent and divides it into two pretty even halves. All that lies south of the Vindhyas is no less sweepingly designated as Dekhan.' For general purposes this simple division, though somewhat arbitrary, does excellently well. Even after a careful survey of these proportions, it comes home to us with something of a shock when we are told that the population of India (the western peninsula alone) amounted in 1872, on the showing of the census taken that year, to over 250,000,000 (not including Burma), or about one sixth of the entire human race.

3. But extent and numbers do not alone, nor even chiefly, go to produce the imposing impression we associate with the name of India. It is the various features of its physical geography, and especially its mountain scenery, that make of it a vision of glory and majesty. Some countries, like Babylonia and Egypt, are what their rivers make them. India — physically and intellectually — is the creation of her Himalaya. Never was wall of separation more towering, more impassable, raised by nature. Scarcely an opening along the immense extent of this, the most compact and highest range in the world, yields a passage to either the rude winds or ruder peoples

* "South Country," corrupted from " Dakshinapati."

of the North. For ages Eran and Turan might roam and fight, and settle and migrate, across and athwart that vast table-land of Central Asia, itself the loftiest terrace on the face of the earth — and all their random waves broke against the stupendous, impervious barrier.' Whatever conquering or civilizing swarms made their way at various times into the land of the Indus, reached it through a few gaps in the lesser chains of the Northwest, the HiNDU-KuSH and the Suleiman Mountains, the passes that became celebrated in history under the names of Khaibar, KURAM, and Bholan. The ruggedness and small number of even these breaks made such occurrences difficult and far between, while the waters which surrounded the lower half of the continent, being those of an ocean rather than of inland seas, for many centuries served purposes of isolation far more than of intercourse. So the great North beyond the mountains remained a region of mystery and awe, from which the oldest native peoples vaguely fancied their ancestors to have come down at some time, so that some of their descendant tribes were wont, even till very lately, to bury their dead with the feet turned northwards, ready for the journey to the old home, where they were to find their final rest.

4. Travellers agree that no mountain scenery — not that of the Alps, nor any in the Caucasus, the Andes, or other famed highlands of the world — is

' The level of this table-land is itself, on a rough average, 10,000 feet above the sea, and the Himalaya vs^all rises 10,000 feet above that, not including such exceptional giants as Mt. Everest, Dhawalagiri and some others, whose peaks tower up to nearly as many feet more. (Mt. Everest-29,002 ft.)

■H l i.i remotely comparable in splendor and sublimity to what the Himalaya offers in almost any of its valleys. A continuous ridge nearly double the height and five times the length of the Swiss- Italian Alps, with a mountain region depending on it, the size of Spain, Italy, and Greece put together in a row, and of which one small portion, Kashmir, looking like a nook nestled in the northwest corner, is as large as all Switzerland, — surely such a ridge gives scope to variety of scenery. We arc told that it is not uncommon to stand on some point, from which the eye takes in a semicircular sweep of undulating or jagged snow-line with an iridescent, opal-like glory ever playing along it, and with peaks rising from it at intervals, — " heaven-kissing hills " indeed ! — the least of which is several thousand feet higher than Mont Blanc, like pillars of ice supporting a dome of a blue so intense as to seem solid ; while at your feet, forest-clothed and cut by valleys, stretch down the lower ridges, which descend, tier below tier, in four great terraces, into the hot plains of Lower Hindustan. If the spectator had taken his station on a summit of the northernmost — and highest — ridge, somewhere on the northwest boundary of Nepal, the grandeur of the physical surroundings would be helped by that of memories and associations. He would there be at the very core and centre of the divine HiMAVAT — to use the fine ancient name, which means " Abode of Winter," — the region to which the Aryan Hindu has, for ages well-nigh untold, looked with longing and reverence ; for there, on the fairest and loftiest heights

8 VBDIC INDIA.

he knew, he placed the dwellings of his gods. There they were enthroned in serene and unattainable majesty ; there they guarded the hidden storehouses of their choicest gifts to men : for there lay the mysterious caves of KUVERA, the god of wealth, the keeper of gold and silver and other precious ore, and of sparkling gems : there, snow-fed and pure, at a height of about 15,000 feet, slumber the sacred lakes, eternally mirroring in their still waters only the heavens and the mountain wilderness that cradles them ; and there, too, cluster the springs of the great rivers, holiest of things, — the Indus, and the SuTLEj, and the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra with the most glorious name — " Son of God," — that river ever had. To such regions, all wildness and mystery, all peace and silence, but for the rush of torrents and the music of winds and leaves, worldweary men and women, longing for the rest and beauty of passionless, eternal things, have come age after age, and still come, on long pilgrimages, frequently stretching into years of self-exile in rude forest-hermitages, to drink deep of solitude and meditation, and return, heart-healed and renovated, to the plains below ; unless — and thrice blessed those to whom this is given, — they can stay among the mountains and woods, as in the vestibule to a higher world, stripped of all earthly clingings, desires and repinings, patiently and happily waiting for the final release. Thus the Himalayas have ever been woven into the deepest spiritual life of the people whose physical destinies they helped to shape. They literally bounded their view in every sense, and what

THE WONDERLAND OF THE EAST. g

lay beyond was the great unknown North, where dwelt the UttarA-Kura, the " remotest of men " — whether the spirits of the happy dead or a fabulous race enjoying a perpetual golden age of sinlessness and bliss, cannot be made out with absolute clearness — perhaps both.

5. A review of all the conditions and manifestations of India's physical life were needed to appreciate the entire range of the influence exercised by that stupendous chain, which, as it is the main feature of India's geography, is also the main agent of her prosperity. Its eternally renewed, inexhaustible treasury of snows is drawn on by the whole of Hindustan through the channels of its noble and numerous rivers, its true wealth-givers, which a thousand branching smaller ridges, dwindling down to mere slopes, direct into as many valleys, breaking the mass into a perfect, nicely graded and distributed network. Indeed, the privileged land gets more than its share of the great store ; for some of its largest rivers — the Indus with its companion and later feeder, the Sutlej, and also the Brahmaputra — have their springs and a certain length of course on the northern side of the watershed, thus bringing to their own side much of the rainfall which should by rights go to the far thirstier plains of Tibet and Bokharia. Nor is it only by storing the moisture in its snowdrifts and glaciers, by nursing and feeding India's infant rivers, that the Himalaya benefits the land it overshadows and protects: it also secures to it the largest rainfall in the world, as far as measured to this day, and regulates the " rainy season," without which even such rivers would be insufficient to ensure the productiveness of a soil exposed to torrid heat during most of the year. Shut off from the coohng gales of the north, India depends entirely on that peculiar form of tradev/inds known as the MONSOONS, or rather on the southwestern monsoon which sets in in June, laden with the accumulated vapors exhaled through many months by the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean, and condensed in mid-air into huge solid banks of clouds. These clouds travel with great swiftness northward across the atmosphere or hang over the land obscuring the light of day, according as the violence of the wind rages or abates, until they are dashed against the stony breast of the Himalaya, whose elevation infinitely overtops the region of drifting vapors. Shattered with the shock, they discharge their torrents of rain as would a waterfiUed skin cut open by a rock against which it was hurled. The monsoon, being abruptly stopped as well as the clouds by the double Himalayan wall, besides getting involved in the countless narrow valleys and winding passes of the intricate highlands which lead up to it, combined with the tremendous accumulation of electricity, produces the most terrific thunderstorms of the world — and thus the Himalayas detain and confiscate for the exclusive benefit of their privileged land the supply of waters which cannot sail over their lofty heads, and for want of which the great Central Tableland is doomed to thirst and comparative barrenness. The consequence is that the average yearly rainfalls

3. — TAMBUR RIVER AT LOWEST LIMIT OF FIRS (HIMALAYA).

recorded for Hindustan, according to the most exact scientific calculations, give well-nigh incredible figures : 125 inches in that part of the Penjab highlands which faces the southwest and is exposed to the full force of the monsoon ; 220 inches in similarly situated parts of Bengal ; while Assam, raised on a higher tier of the Himalayan platforms, and backed more closely by the main ridge, claims the honor of owning the largest rainfall in the whole world : 481 inches.* Even this tremendous figure is surpassed in exceptional years ; indeed it was all but doubled in the year 1861, for which 805 inches were shown, 366 inches having fallen in the single month of July. But this, again, is a visitation nothing short of a public calamity, as disastrous in its way as the opposite extreme.

6. It would seem that failing crops and dearth should be evils unknown in a country blessed with rivers so many and so noble, and so bountiful a sky. Unfortunately, the contrary is frequently the case, owing to the extremely uneven distribution of the rainfall, excessive in places and insufficient in others. Meteorological observations are carried on at 435 stations in British India. With such a number the distances between the stations cannot be very great ; yet the figures returned vary as much as though they belonged to different climes. Thus in Penjab, not a very extensive province, the average fall dwin-

' At the station of Cherra-Poonjee. All the figures and scientific data which, it is hoped, will lend this chapter an authority beyond that of a mere general description, are taken from that mine of precise knowledge, W. W. Hunter's hidiatt Empire — Its People^ History, and Products (second edition, 1886).

dies from 125 inches to 7 and even 5, at the stations along the Indus, because they are protected by the Suleiman range, which breaks the force and direction of the monsoon, being attacked by it not in front, but sideways, and, so to speak, indirectly. The same causes — i.e., the disposition of the various mountain ridges and spurs — interferes with the even distribution of rain all over Dekhan no less than Hindustan. Thus it is that the same year not infrequently brings both floods and drought, crops and whole villages being swept away in one province, while in another nothing has come up at all, with the uniform result — famine and frightful mortality — not to speak of such seasons when the southwestern monsoon itself, for some unknown reason, totally fails at the appointed time, or comes along feeble and unsteady. And as everything in India seems to affect an extravagant scale, so a year of famine, even local, is attended with horrors well-nigh indescribable, for with a population so dense, and, as a rule, so poor and improvident, the ravages of actual starvation are doubled by its attendant diseases, and deaths are numbered by hundreds of thousands. With truly Oriental resignation and apathy, the people look to the Government for relief, and, when the calamity gets beyond the possibility of help, die without a word, as they stand, or sit, or lie. The annals of India from the time it came under British rule show a string of famines, separated by intervals of no more than from three to eight years, seldom ten, and lasting quite frequently over a year, even as long as three years. Some are limited to particular provinces, but only too many are recorded as general.

7. Of these, the most widely spread and most prolonged that India ever experienced,, was that of 1876-78. The southwest monsoon failed in 1875, and again in 1876; and in this latter year the northeast monsoon, — ^which sets in in October, and is at best a poor resource, coming, as it does, not across an ocean but an inland waste, and being, moreover, intercepted by the Himalaya, — proved even less efilicient than usual. The main crops had perished in the drought of 1875, and this disappointment finished the rest. Nor did the summer of 1877 bring relief, for the southwest monsoon failed for the third time, and though the autumn monsoon, for a wonder, did arrive laden with some goodly showers, the curse^ was not removed from the land until a normal rainfall once more visited it in June, 1878. All these years the people died — of starvation, of cholera, of hunger-fevers ; mortality rose to forty per cent, above the usual rates, and as the number of births greatly diminished at the same time, and the normal proportions were not restored until 1880, the total of the population was found in this year to have actually decreased during the last four years, instead of increasing at a moderate but steady rate, as is the case wherever the normal law of life-statistics is undisturbed and the number of births exceeds that of deaths. To give one palpable illustration of the ghastly phenomenon, we will borrow the record for the single province of Madras from a contemporary work of the highest authority and reliability ' : ' W. W, Hunter's, The Indian Empire, etc.