The empire of India

Front matter

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Part I— The Country Chapter I Physical Aspects

Distinctive Regions — Their hill ranges, river systems, geological formation, and scenery — The peninsula — ^The Indo-Gangetic plain — The Himalayas — Burma — ^The peculiarities of the Indian rainfall — The monsoon

CHAPTER n

NATURAL HISTORY

Flora of the peninsula, the Indo-Gangetic plain, the Himalayas, and Burma — Fauna — Mammals and birds of the open country, the dry forests, the damp forests, and the Himalayas— Reptiles — Batrachians — ^Fishes — Insect life — ^Minerals and their working . . . . . . ... 18

Chapter III Agriculture

Cropping perennial — Soils — Agricultural regions, and the peculiarities of their crops and methods of cultivation — The Indo-Gangetic plain — The peninsula — Burma — Economic isolation of Indian villages — Effect of social conditions and prejudices — Varieties of crops — Cereals — Pulses — • Oil-seeds— Fibres — Sugar-cane — Narcotics — Spices — ^Tea, Coffee, and Indigo — Cattle — Manure — Extension of cultivation — Implements , . . . . . 44 vi CONTENTS

Chapter IV Famine And Irrigation

PAGK

India's liability to famine — Failures of rainfall — Effect of railways — Famine relief— Works for the unemployed — Gratuitous relief — Children's kitchens — Success of relief measures — Famine mortality — Irrigation — The need for it and extent to which practised — Sources of irrigation — Wells — Tanks — Canals — State canals — Their future development . . . . . . — . . . . • • 64

Chapter V Manufactures

Causes of India's backwardness — Handicrafts — Weaving in cotton, silk, and wool — Embroidery — Dyeing — Leather — Perfumery— Ivory — Paper — ^Metal work in iron, brass, and copper — Jewellery and plate — ^Wood and stone work — Modem factories — Cotton and jute mills — Other mills — Growth and prospects of factory industry — ^Factory labour ..82

Chapter VI Commerce

Trade routes — Effect of railway construction — Gross value of foreign (sea-borne) trade — Its development — ^Absorption of treasure — Excess in value of exports : how balanced — Export trade : aggregate and in detail — Import trade : aggregate and in detail — ^British share of trade and of shipping— Trans-frontier land trade — Statistics of export and import trade of 1910-11 .. 100

Part Ii-the People Chapter VII Population, Races, And Castes

Numbers, density, and increase of population — Racial differences — Religious differences — Buddhists, Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Parsis — Caste : its origin and effects — Prospects of change — Differences of language — Hill tribes — Growth of a national consciousness . . 121

CONTENTS vu

Chapter VIII Manner Of Life

PACE

Poverty and its causes— Range of incomes in various classes —Indebtedness— Houses— Diet— Food taboos— Costume —The family— Position of women— The Hindu widow- Woman in Burma— Monotony of life . . • . • • 139

Chapter IX Religious Beliefs And Observances

Their variety and development — ^Aryan and Dravidian beliefs — Animism — Interacting influences — Sanskrit philosophy — Buddhism, Jainism, and Brahminism— Hindu polytheism — Religious practices — Worship — Pilgrimages — Bathing — ^The cult of the cow — Asceticism — Ancestor worship — ^Mystic ceremonies — ^Movements of reform— Christianity : its introduction and spread- Mohammedanism : its origin and peculiarities — Religion and character .. •• •• •• •• •• ^^^

Chapter X Education And Its Effects

Knowledge contrasted with environment — English education : its origin and spread — Present condition — ^The policy of the State— Grant-in-aid system— Fruits of education, as shown by examinations — Improvement of official efficiency—Effect on politics, manners, and morals— Religious instruction— Boarding-house system

^The Indian Press — ^Technical education — ^Foreign

influences — Vernacular (primary) education — Literacy of population — Cost of primary education — Female education — Educational expenditure 173

Chapter XI Europeans In India

UnsuitabiUty of climate — Classification of European community — Mercantile — Industrial — Planting : indigo, silk, tea, coffee — Mining : gold, coal, oil — Railway staff

Lawyers— Journalists — ^Missionaries — Attitude of the

people towards them . . . . . . • • . . 195 viii CONTENTS

Part Iii— The Government Chapter XII Historical Sketch Of Indian Governments

PAGE

Invading immigration : its causes and effects — Influence of religion in unifying or separating — Polytheistic invaders — ^The Aryans, Greeks, Scythians, Tartars — The Hindu administrative system — ^The raja and the village — Mohammedan invaders — Predatory incursions — Conquest and colonization — ^Mohammedan kingdoms — The Moghals — The Mohammedan administrative system — The rise of the Mahrattas and Sikhs — Christian invaders — The Portuguese — -French and British rivalry — Extension of British rule — The development and characteristics of British administration ., .. .. .. ..212

CHAPTER Xni

BRITISH PROVINCES AND NATIVE STATES

Their areas and populations — Classification of Native States — The principal States — Extension of British suzerainty — Its varying incidents compared in typical cases — Military assistance — Guarantee of dynasties — Prevention of gross oppression — Contrasted policies of annexation and intervention — Extent of interference in domestic affairs — Spirit of co-operation — ^British provinces — Characteristics of each outlined — ^Delhi as the capital of India . . 235

CHAPTER XIV

THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT

The East India Company — Parliamentary control — Authority of Secretary of State — ^The Government of India : its development from the original presidency governments — The Viceroy and his Executive Council — The provincial governments — Governors, Lieutenant- GoArernors, and Chief Commissioners — ^I*rovincial Executive Councils — The executive powers of Legislative Councils — The executive officials — Local self-government — Honorary magistrates — Urban and rural boards — The Indian Civil Service and its record . . . . 260

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER XV

LEGISLATION AND LAW COURTS

The ambitions of legislative assemblies — ^The Indian Legislative Councils — ^Their history — ^The Viceroy's Legislative Council ; its present constitution — Elected members — ^The franchise — Provincial Legislative Councils — ^privileges of Legislative Councils and their effects : on attitude of Nationalist politicians : on future legislation, economic and social — Laws — ^Their ancient sectarian character — British attempts to generalize — Domestic and religious questions — Codification of law : its success — Law Courts — Criminal tribunals — ^The High Courts — Inferior courts — European British subjects — Civil tribunals — Popularity of litigation — Indians in judicial employ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

CHAPTER XVI

THE ARMY AND THE POLICE

British and Native forces of Indian Army — -Their origins — - Developments before and after the Mutiny — Effect of Russian advance — Present organisation and strength — Increasing eflSciency — Volunteering — Cost of the Army — Loyalty of Native troops — ^The police — In early times — Under British rule — Powers of police officers — ^Their diflSculties — Criminality of population — Police reforms 297

CHAPTER XVII

TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS OF GOVERNMENT

Public works — Railways — Sjrstem on which constructed — Gauges— Financial success — Canals— Roads — -Buildings — Conservation of ancient monuments — Staff of department — Postal and telegraph department — Its popularity — Medical and sanitary department — Indian death rate — Diseases — ^Hospitals — ^Veterinary department — Inoculation for rinderpest — ^Agricultural department — Need of agricultural improvement — Co-operative credit societies — Forest department — Extent of forest estates — Their conservation — Other departments . . . . . . • 313

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVIII

TAXATION (including LAND REVENUE), FINANCE, AND CURRENCY

FAGB

Sources of revenue apart from taxation — ^The unearned increment of land — Other sources — Their yield during 1910-11 compared with proceeds of taxation — Land revenue — Early history — Land revenue " settlements " — Methods of assessment — Ryotwari and Zamindari systems — Limitations and abatements — Their effect in raising land values — Landlords and tenants — Forest revenue — Profits from railways and canals — Opium — The China trade — The salt tax — Excise — Consumption of liquor — Customs — Income tax — Imperial and provincial finance — Growth of revenue and expenditure — Surpluses — The Indian debt — Currency — The gold standard . . . . . . . . . . • • . . 333

Part Iv— Future Prospects Chapter XIX Social And Economic Progress

Difficulties in forecasting — Aptitudes and environment — The Oriental view of life — Effect of climate — ^Malaria — Child marriage — In-and-in breeding — Movements of reform — Tyranny of custom — Signs of relaxation — Effect of religion and of conversion to Christianity — Position of woman and its consequences — Her hopes of freedom — Education — Its limitations — Political aspirations — Their energizing effect .. .. .. .. .. •• 355

CHAPTER XX

POLITICAL CONDITIONS

The future of India should British rule be withdrawn — Its realization by Indian politicians — Views with which British rule is regarded — Appreciation of its advantages — Natural dislike of alien rule — Storms of passion and their effects — Sedition and its repression — Sentimental aspirations — Social grievances — Feelings of patriotism — Local and sectarian feelings — Desire for greater share of official appointments — How far reasonable — ^Efforts to meet it — Ambition for political power — ^the reconstitution of the Legislative Councils — Membership of British Empire — How far idea attractive — Loyalty to the King-Emperor . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

STREET SCENE IN DELHI, WITH VIEW OF THE) , ...

GREAT MOSQUE 1 ' facins

page

village scene : eastern bengal .... 8

kinchin j unga, in the himalayas, from darjiling . 12

bullocks treading out the corn .... 50

ploughing: in bengal 62

NEPALESE women WEAVING 84

THE HALL OF AUDIENCE IN THE MOGHAL PALACE AT

DELHI 92

MOONLIT VIEW OF THE RIVER HOOGLY AT CALCUTTA . 102

MADRASSI WOMAN 124

WARRIOR OF THE ASSAM HILLS — ON THE WAR-PATH . 136

THE BUDDHIST TOPE AT SANCHI : CENTRAL INDIA. . 158

RIVER-SIDE TEMPLES AT BENARES .... 162

A HINDU ASCETIC . 164

A HINDU FUNERAL I AT THE PYRE .... 166

MOHAMMEDANS AT PRAYER 168

TEA GARDEN : ASSAM ....... 202

RUINS OF EARLY MOHAMMEDAN MOSQUE, BUILT OVER

HINDU TEMPLE, AT DELHI 220

MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE AT ITS BEST : TOMB OF

HUMAYUN AT DELHI 222

ECLECTIC STYLE OF AKBAR : HOUSE IN HIS PALACE AT

FATEHPUR SIKRI 224

MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE IN DECADENCE I GATEWAY

AT LUCKNOW 226

A rAJA IN DURBAR . I 248

VIEW OF SIMLA 264

GURKHA SOLDIER 302

BENGAL CAVALRYMEN 304

THE GREAT HINDU TEMPLE AT MADURA IN MADRAS . 318 THE tAj MAHAl with ITS FLANKING MOSQUES : VIEWED

FROM THE JUMNA 320

MAP OF INDIA 1

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Chapter I Physical Aspects

India is the midmost of three peninsulas which the continent of Asia throws off into the southern seas. On the one side is the Malayan peninsula, a portion of which — Burma — ^has been incorporated in the Indian Empire. On the other side is Arabia. The southern configuration of the continent of Europe is not dissimilar, — on a miniature scale ; but Europe faces to the south the great land expanse of Africa, while Asia looks upon an ocean whichflows without a break between her and the giant island of the Antarctic circle. There was a time, in the Mesozoic period of geological chronology, when Asia also fronted a continent that stretched across from India to Madagascar, and occupied a large portion of what is now the Indian Ocean. The peninsula of India is a relic of this lost continent. It was divided from the mainland of Asia by a broad and deep sea channel, at least as extensive as the Mediterranean. Part of this channel has been filled up by river deposits, and now forms the fiat expanse of the Indo-Gangetic plain, in which the cities of Lahore, AUahabad and Calcutta are situated. Part of it is now occupied by the southern ranges of the Himalayas, which were thrust up by an upheaval of comparatively recent date, and owe their vastness to the fact that water has not had time to wear down their summits.

The Indian Empire then falls into four well-marked regions. There is the peninsula of India, embracing the country that lies south of a line stretching from Karachi to Delhi, and from Delhi to Calcutta, and including an area of 784,000 square miles and a population of 132 millions. There is the Indo-Gangetic plain, lying between the peninsula and the Himalayas, which, with its easternmost extension, forms an expanse of about 300,000 square miles, with a population of 162 millions. There is the Himalayan range which overlooks this plain. And to the east there is Burma, which forms part of a different peninsula, and differs from India proper in its conditions very markedly indeed. Its area may be estimated at 237,000 square miles, and its population at 12 millions. This classification, it should be explained, is so far incomplete that it does not take into account extensions of the Empire across the mountain ranges which, running southwards from the Himalayas, form the natural western and eastern boxmdaries of the Indo-Gangetic plain. In both cases the boundary has been carried outwards in order to repress marauding by the hill-men. On the western frontier some advance has also been dictated by strategical reasons, which have led to the inclusion of the large excrescence of British Baluchistan.

The Peninsula

The peninsula of India may be described as an elevated plateau, diamond-shaped, with two long sides running southwards and washed by the sea, and two short sides running northwards and abutting on the flat expanse of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Delhi is at its northern extremity. Along its northern boundaries a line of low hills and scarps marks it off from the plain that stretches between it and the Himalayas. Its southern margins are

THE PENINSULA— SURFACE FEATURES

raised and buttressed by coast ranges which overlook the sea from a height varying from a few hundred to many thousands of feet. These coast ranges are known as the Western and Eastern Ghdts. The western range is much the more considerable. It increases in altitude as it runs southwards, rising from an elevation of 3,000 feet above Bombay to 8,000 feet as it approaches the extremity of the peninsula. It forms a gigantic and continuous seawall, pierced by no vaUeys of any size, andimbroken save for a very curious gap, 200 miles from its southern extremity. The eastern range is much less distinctive, and consists of broken and comparatively low hills, interrupted by broad vaUeys which lead the drainage of the peninsula into the Bay of Bengal. South of Madras this eastern coast range is but faintly marked, and the configuration of the peninsula is determined and guarded by hill masses which run eastwards from the western coast range, and are in fact a part of it.

Across the upper portion of the plateau, along a line between Bombay and Calcutta, there runs a mountainrange — the Satpuras — which attains in some places an altitude of 4,000 feet. North of this line the drainage of the peninsula flows, as might be expected, from the centre to the sea on either side of it ; south of this line the rivers aU flow eastward into the Bay of Bengal. The country is curiously tilted, its surface lying highest along its western border, close above the Arabian Sea, so that its great rivers, the Goddvari, the Kistna, and the Tungabhadra, take their rise almost within sight of one ocean, but flow across the peninsula into the other. The plateau may in fact be compared to a gabled roof of which one slope is missing. Its backbone, so to speak, lies along its western margin ; and this bears out the belief, supported by more substantial facts, that its area formerly extended far to the west, and that it represents only a portion of an ancient continent.

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From the geological point of view the peninsula offers some remarkable features. The sedimentary rocks of which it is composed he, speaking generally, in horizontal strata, and exhibit very httle of the curving and twisting which in most other countries demonstrate the force of volcanic upheavals. And, away from the coast line, they contain no marine fossils whatever, — ^nothing to show that any portion of the land has ever been submerged below the sea. The peninsula has stood above the ocean since the very commencement of geological time. The rocks of its foundations — ^generally crystalline in the south, sandstone in the north — ^are of the most ancient that are known to us. Above them there occurs a series of fossiliferous rocks, containing coal beds, known as the Gondwdna. But these are fresh-water, not marine deposits. They correspond, roughly speaking, with the coal measures of Europe, and their fossils exhibit a similar preponderance of ferns amongst vegetable, and of reptiles amongst animal life, in forms so closely connected with fossils occurring in South Africa, and indeed in Australia and South America, as to encourage a surmise that these rock beds are the remains of a huge continent, or of a continent and a chain of islands, that stretched across the southern hemisphere and fiUed part of the domain of the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. The disappearance of this continent was followed, or accompanied, by an extraordinary outpouring of molten rock over the northern part of the peninsula. It welled up from below and spread over the country, levelling its surface, like a gigantic deluge. Over an area of 200,000 square miles it covers the older rocks with horizontal layers of black basalt which are in some places 6,000 feet thick. There were several periods of flow, with intervening periods of rest, sufficient to allow of the formation of fresh-water lakes, which were overwhelmed by fresh outpourings, but can be traced in beds of mud and gravel, containing fresh-water shells, that run through

THE PENINSULA— SURFACE FEATURES

the mass of basalt, at considerable depths below its surface. The levelling effect of this lava-flow has left its mark in the existing scenery of the upper portion of the peninsula. The hills are generally flat-topped, bounding the view by successions of terraces. And where the basalt has been much denuded, as along the western coast above Bombay, there remain, as monuments of a more ancient level, flat-topped pinnacles, often of grotesque appearance, which stand above the country like tall fortresses, and in the disturbed days of Indian history have been convenient strongholds for marauding or insurgent forces.

The surface of the peninsula is generally uneven and rocky. Although the plough has been urged up to the extreme margin of fertihty, not more than a third of the total area is imder cultivation. The range of Satpura hills which crosses its northern part has already been mentioned. From a distance they appear to be entirely covered with jungle, and although, on ascending their slopes one comes across open cultivated plateaux of considerable extent, they may generally be described as wild and forest-clad. They have provided an asylum for the tribes which have been swept aside by the immigration of more energetic and enterprising races from the north. Throughout the peninsula, hiU peaks and ranges are seldom absent from the landscape. As a rule they are forest-clad, but not very thickly, and their vegetation has little in common with the dense impassable jungle generally known as tropical. Forest growth is commonly thickest towards the east under the influence of moist winds from the Bay of Bengal ; and as one progresses westwards trees give way to scrub, except at high levels, until on reaching the west coast the hills are almost as bare as those of a desert country. But these remarks do not apply to the Malabar coast — on the south-western shore of the peninsula — where humidity from the sea, condensed by overhanging mountains, produces the climate of a palm-house and a tropical vegetation of great luxuriance. These mountains are the Nilgiris, an extension of the west coast range reaching an altitude of 8,000 feet. They introduce the traveller from Madras to scenery and a climate that is more European than Indian. Broad grassy downs, with closely coppiced hollows, swept by sea mists during the rainy season of summer, and whitened by hoar frost in winter, are supported by steep scarps that command magnificent prospects of the low country around. Scarp and plateau are indeed the typical features of the peninsula hiU scenery. But here and there the straight lines of the landscape are broken by the protrusion of irregular masses of crystalline rock, the best known of which is the rock of Trichinopoly.

The village scenery of the peninsula is exceedingly varied. In the east the low hills look down upon stretches of rice land ; to the west, as the land rises, and the rainfall lightens, rice gives place to millets and cotton, grown on broad treeless plateaux, which when the crops are off the ground present a most desolate appearance. Towards the north expanses of wheat make, during the cold winter months, a brilliant contrast with the dark foliage of the surrounding forest. The village houses are gable-roofed, collected together and not scattered over the fields. To each is attached a fruit or vegetable garden ; and these gardens lend a note of picturesqueness which can relieve even the depressing monotony of the hot weather months.

At the present day India is typified to Europe by the great northern plain, and the visions its name evokes are those of Delhi, Agra and Benares. But in the times of classical Rome, and down to the fifteenth century, it was the peninsula that was the India of geography and commerce. It is true that in stiU earlier days the Greek armies of Alexander had lifted India's veil from the north, and that on the north-western border Indo-Greek

THE GREAT NORTHERN PLAIN

kingdoms were founded which maintained for over a centmry connections between Northern India and the Levant. But these kingdoms fell, and from the second century before Christ Northern India hid itself again behind its mountain barriers. It was with the peninsula that the Romans traded in the days of Pliny ; it was from the peninsula that the Arabs introduced cotton and the sugar-cane into Europe, and it was the spices and calicoes of the peninsula which lured first the Portuguese and then the other nations of Europe to perilous adventures round the Cape of Good Hope.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain

The Indo-Gangetic plain, which lies to the north of the peninsula and between it and the Himalayas, is the most extensive sheet of level cultivation in the world. Excluding the valleys of the Indus and the Brahmaputra at its western and eastern extremities, it has a length of 1,500 and an average breadth of 200 miles. Over this vast tract of country not a stone of any kind — ^not a pebble — is to be found. The land is entirely composed of river sand and silt, and, since borings have shown that this deposit extends to a depth of at least 1,000 feet below the present sea-level, it is obvious that we stand here upon the site of an ancient sea which has gradually been filled up by the denudation of the mountains that overlooked it. The influence of this sea stiU persists in the salts which, in the drier parts of the plain, effloresce during the hot season, and sterilize in irregular patches many hundreds of square miles of its surface. The rivers which now traverse the plain tend in two directions. The five western rivers (from which the Punjab takes its name) — the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Rdvi and Sutlej — flow down the lower reaches of the Indus into the Arabian Sea. Seven other large rivers to the east — the best known of which are the Ganges and the Jumna — ^similarly unite in the Ganges to reach the Bay of Bengal. Approaching the sea through a network of wandering channels, their waters are mingled with those of an eighth large river — the Brahmaputra — which flows from the east down the valley of Assam. The silt brought down by these rivers is gradually enlarging an extensive delta — at the head of the Bay of Bengal — which is perhaps the most characteristic portion of the province of Bengal. Upon it is situated the city of Calcutta. The Indus at the extreme west, and the Brahmaputra at the extreme east, have their sources in Tibet, behind the snow peaks of the Himalayas, at no great distance apart ; and, curving round, in opposite directions, include in their embrace practically the whole of the Himalayan mountain chain. The sources of the other rivers are less remote. But their upper valleys all end in snowfields, and they begin to rise from the melting of the snow before they are replenished by the summer rains.

The plains are, as already stated, the creation of the rivers which flow through them. But in their higher reaches these rivers are now destructive not creative forces, since, owing to a rise in the surface slope of the country, their currents are too rapid to deposit the silt with which their water is charged. They drop the heavier sand, but carry the silt down to their lower reaches or out into the sea beyond their mouths. It seems that a slope of 6 inches to the mile is the steepest that will permit of the deposition of fine silt by river water. The slope of Bengal, which the Ganges traverses during the lower third of its course, is within this limit. But further west the slope of the country increases rapidly and is three times as steep as this along the upper third of the river channel. The dividing line between the rivers that flow on one side towards the Arabian Sea, and on the other side towards the Bay of Bengal, is about 800 feet above sea-level. This exceeds by at least 300 feet the height to which we should be carried by a slope of 6 inches

SCENERY OF THE PLAIN

to the mile, and this increase in altitude must be ascribed to a gradual upheaval of the surface. In present circumstances the river system of the plains between Patna on the east and Multan on the west adds nothing to their fertility, must, indeed, be constantly diminishing it by the surface drainage which is drawn to the river beds. At the time the rains break, the country is bare and improtected by vegetation, and down the channels which drain its surface surge muddy torrents that carry off into the rivers the fine particles of which they have robbed the soil. The delta of Bengal presents most of the features of a tropical country. The land is carpeted with a sheet of rice, broken here and there with fields of tall jute. The cottages of the peasants — ^high-gabled constructions of bamboo and grass — ^nestle half-concealed in clumps of bamboo and palms. They are dispersed about the fields, not massed together connectedly as is the case up-country. As one travels west the aspect of the country reflects more and more distinctly the increasing differentiation between the seasons of the year. Palms and bamboos give place to trees which are not dissimilar in general appearance to those of Europe ; during the cold season temperate crops, such as wheat, barley and peas, come into cultivation ; since the rainfall is still heavy in its season, roofs are still gabled, but tiles take the place of thatch, and mud walls are substituted for a bamboo framework. Further west again, with a lighter rainfaU, rice becomes a subordinate crop. During the season of summer rain the fields stand high with maize and millets which occupy about half the area ; the remaining half is devoted during the cold weather to wheat and barley, which in some places covers such wide expanses as to caU to mind the prairies of Canada. During the dry months of the hot weather the fields are bare and the country is swept by a wind as burning as the blast from a furnace mouth. The houses are flat-roofed, constructed of sun-dried mud, and collected together — '

originally no doubt for purposes of defence — so as to make of each village a miniature town. There are no house gardens, such as elsewhere in India enliven the surroundings of the peasant's home, and these Northern Indian villages have an air of sun-baked squalor, especially during the dry months of the hot weather when Hfe is a listless struggle with the unnerving effects of scorching heat.

Hard though these conditions of life may appear, it is to these plains of Northern India that we owe the treasures of Sanskrit literature and philosophy. They are par excellence the home of Hinduism. Into them, perhaps 4,000 years ago, descended from Central Asia the race, in blood akin to ourselves, the infusion of which energised the people of Northern India with talent that is ranked by some alongside the genius of Greece. This country, in turn saturated by warm rain, chilled by light frost, and scorched by desert winds, produced one of the richest and most elaborate languages of antiquity, four schools of philosophy alike distinguished for depth of thought and audacity of speculation, studies in mathematics to which we owe the first conception of algebra and perhaps our system of notation, poetry, epic and dramatic, which in dignity and in fecundity, if not in grace, may at least be compared with the classics of Mediterranean civilisation, and a system of civil order which, however disappointing in results, indicates a careful appreciation of eugenic theories. In these plains, at no great distance from the city of Patna, was the home of Buddha — ^the Illumined Master — who, at the time when in Greece Herodotus was introducing the study of secular history, insisted upon the importance of the mystical side of life, and founded a rehgion which in the East still moves the hearts of millions of mankind, and in the West can please minds that find Christianity disappointing. Nor did the Indian genius of those days flower only in the domains of philosophy and literature, It developed the highest martial virtues, and