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XDIAN
ICTURES,
« * » * •
Drawn with Pen and Pencil
BY THE
REV. W. URWICK, M.A..
AUTHOR Of "ISCIDESTS OF A JOURHEY ROUSD THE WORLD,^ ETC.
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
$6 PATBK;«01Ttit Row, 6s St. PaUL'» CHUEtHVA»0,
AND 164 Piccadilly.
••: •>>
8_A
SNAKE CHARMER.
V
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.
CONTENTS.
Tmb Goloui TuirLa. Ahiiitmk l-'nmliifint
HtmJu^—TH* Palacv, Laiiom 7 fat' v
Maf or IxDiA .*• viii
Htadimf — PALAHqklii ix
Ceylo^i.
POSITION AND ASPECT OF THE ISLAND— GALLE AND COLOMItO— NEWKRA ELLIA
AND PEDkO-TALLA-GALLA — ADAM'S PEAK AND KANDY — THE UO TREE — THE
RUINED CITIES, ANURAJAPURA AND POLLONARUA— CHRISTIANITY IN THE
ISLAND .......... pages 11-38
Tkaparuu Dafeba, Aaaniapura
Hmdimt- Cotat" ■■<•■' Callc
i M«a or the Cout
I Woaea age 130
Heading — Mohammedan School, Allahabad. . 131
A Vishnuvite Fakir. ..... 132
Indian Fakir page 135
Benares . . ...... 136
Tope at Sarnath 138
CONTENTS.
Sculpture on Tope *t Sanialh . faf 139
Imambara, Lucknow '4'
Pavilion of Turka, K»i$CT B»fh, Locknow . 141
Sale Elephants, ailh HowcUhs, on Parade 144
Ruias of Ihe Regency, Lucknov ... 145
Sczae near Naiaa Tal 4*
Naiaa Tal G<>r(e. Almotali Road ... 14;
SmteeOttoca Ghl^ Ganfcs, Cavnpore 14S
Mctaorial Well, Cavnpon 49
Asra Fort ^gt 150
The Taj Mahal, Agra ... 151
Balcony in Palace. Agra 15a
Pearl Mo^ue, Agra ... 153
Gatewajr at Secundra ...... 155
Paach Mahal, Futlepore Sikri .... 156
Bridge over the ifanges, Oude and R oh ilk and
Railway 157
raaf^M*— Tombs in the Sarai, Allahabad ijS
The Pu^ijab.
ITS CONDITION AND F.XTENT-
— PESHAWAR AND KASHMIR-
DELHI AND ITS PLAINS— AMRITSAR AND LAHORE
-SIMLA— LANDOUR—DHARMSALA — nALHOUSIE
PagfS 159-182
Itlmxlrnti^ms,
Pcar and Lake of Immortality fagl 160
//M^Wr— Bat-ielieh in the M
imiiiml — Waler-carrier« •
Hal of Pltraie AudiciKC, DcUu
JaMw M»iid, Delhi
(Xaaert, Maafm of KalaK xai
Aladia'i GaM^ widt Ina PBhr
Kaiub Uiaw, MW DeW .
CiMadi CiMmfc, DcOU
CaUoi Teafk 7«
Tomb of Runch Sin(, Lahore .
.Sakhi Sarwar ....
Stmt in Peihlvar ....
Aiiock
Kavf«Ucf« in the Museum, PaahAwar
Hat-rdicft in the Mk^cum, Pe^twar
Floaiing (iardenv Lake of Srinafur
Shop!, Srinagiir, kaUunir •
riadree Gladcr, Himllayaa
•71
»74
• 75
•7«
•77
i7«
•79
■So
iSl
F(A|PUTAf,aadLake Daiiia ili .Saned Hill, San^lmr 191
Tomb at Aluir, Rajyjiaaa .... 187 The Molurram ia Bbo^ 194
BoMBykY pF(EglDENCY.
JABALPUR, AJANTA. AND ELURA — BOMBAY— CAVES OF ELEPHANTA, KENNERY,
KARLI — M.\TAERAN — POONA — MAHABLESHWAR— SURAT — BARODA — KUTCM —
SINDE pages 195-219
Ittmtlrmtitnt,
TIm Gwkvar'i EkpkaM la the Great Sjvari al
Buada /hw 19)
Mndlmg-thun Chat Railway ... 197
Ba>-rdic6, Gaiaway of Karli .
latoior of GfW Dnoba of Kaik
Straat ia Boaikay ....
C«laa Wiltbli^ ....
Fin a c a lo the Caret of Ucphania
Grotio at Ketwery
•oj
109
Jiwmm, Bombay
Tha G^nar Rock ....
On the Indui ....
Ia the Chrbtijui Uula' School, Agra
fof* >io
"1
••4
"7
>i8
••9
/
75
AFGHANISTAN ^""' '-^ n.-°..i/ .. ^ - =v
9
Plateau of Tibet
Sonagliui;©';'?^
MalUdpurS Bhilsaa -^y
\ \° '\ ' Bhopalo{i. Ji, . ., ,
MhowP;-c>:putjiiijC^
I ii a""B-,' oKhandwa .
----- , •' ( .-.■- -C i-'-, S •{ r»raiiiilli ■^ 1 Xo V^
1 iirP-^ 1 B..f..r.* „>:.„../,__>
oHoshungabaci ''iMundla-
t-VrVf, < \ALcuTJAk' ^y
'fe;f™H^t<^'\5Ma^^^
/ '. Jaipur/' ^ -, j^i^a-anjam
ElephantI?)?°NareH .V'V ^~W>~^ aJ-tiM:^ ^Lp /iugVlpA •, v-il*.-/— - ^/Borhamporo
MatteSn oK^U I .-...T he O^c an "^ '
DasgaJm, "Puna-Vifs;-, \^\.i.,, -
Poladpbre" „— \\ V; U, •J.y.'-A*
Juggcnnath)
Poladpbre" „— U '«;; ^^ K^i'-'^^Z^^
MaUabalesJiwar ■pSattatiL *«...•■, H A I 0\A R A B A
T, . ) i dI *^ : n^^„t^^ oSeoimderaiiad <>
' oTCqlhapore "^-m, HMD»RAB»o o ) ) ^'^
ri---'\ ■■-! -t-, . ,,' '^(^MiUkar Nulgiiiida
'^'^yj • n^^ I*aiT — ^ — * -'
w— , oBelgaiim ;' .
r Nulgundjd JJ t>\\ o/cocana
amul,
loiu ^
' •'>■ V irt ^-Vizagapalam
Cocanada
YtA0
lacadive Is. '■ \
BRITISH ISLES
oil SAME SCALE.
Maldivo Is. •
INDIA, together with CeyLON, stretches two thousand miles from the Himalayas
southwards into the ocean ; and its extreme width, measured across its northern
boundary, is nineteen hundred miles. It is as large as Eurojx: less Russia. Physically
it divides itself into three parts : (i) the Himalayas, "the abode of snow," as the name
means, where arc the treasures of the rain, and the bracing mountain air, forming a
double mountain wall against the north ; (2) the River Plains, with the Brahmaputra
in the east, the Indus in the west, and the mighty Ganges, " Mother Ganga " adored
by the jxrople, across the centre ; ( 3) the three-sided table land of the Dcccan, separated
from the river plains by the Vindhya mountains, with the Eastern and Western Ghdts
running along either coast and meeting at Cape Comorin. Thus this vast country is
naturally isolated, with the sea on either side, the Himdlayan range scimitar-likc across
the north, its spurs in the east making a natural wall, and the Sulaiman range along
the Indus in the west, forming a boundarj- equally secure.
Of this vast triangle of earth the |X)pulation is two hundred and forty millions.
As to its Ethnology and Languages we find :
I. The E.\RI,Y Non-Aryan Racks, divided into three great groups : the Thibeto-
Hurmans, the Kolarians, and the Dravidians.
(a) The TuiBF.ro-BuKM.XNS occupy the Himalayas, and include many mountain
tribes akin in feature and in tongue to the Chinese.
(d) The Kolarians, supjxjsed to have come in through the mountain passes, arc
now scattered on the rugged mountains, in the wide jungles and pathless forests,
scattered remains of a primitive population, fierce, black, undersized, muscular, with no
written literature — their only monuments stone slabs, flints, and mounds. Of these the
chief tribes arc the Soiitd/s, and the Khauds. They were called by their conquerors
Dyasus "foes," and Dosas ".slaves."
(<•) The Dravidians, who also came through the mountain passes, forced their
way on in a compact phalanx till they found a .secure and permanent resting-place
in the south. They attained a high state of civilisation long before the Aryan invasion.
Their chief languages, polished and cultivated, are the Telugu— melodious as Italian —
the Tamil, rich in its literature, the Canarese, and the Malayalam.
II. The Aryans, "nobles," as the word means, the wide-spread Indo-European race,
whose western branch extends over Greece, Rome, Germany, and England. They, in
turn, entered India by the north-west passes, speaking the stately Sanscrit, driving the
inferior hordes before them, and finding a permanent home in the great River Plains.
The very name of their great work.s, the Veda.s, links them on with ourselves ; — Veda, oT^,
videre, wit and u'/jdom. They soon a.sserted their supremacy over the earlier peoples ;
as Brahmans and as Rajputs they established Caste, and gave to the East the two giant
religious .systems of Brahmanism and Buddhism. Their languages were the Sanscrit and
Pali, with their branches, Panjabi, Sindhi, Hindi, Bengali, Marhatti and Singalese.
(<7) Panjabi is spoken by the Sikhs, who occupy the northern basin of the Indus,
and who were among the first Aryan settlers.
is
{b) ^/Vft^r-rs's'pokeiVifi'tHe'lower valley of the Indus.
(c) Hindi, which in its purest form closely resembles the parent Sanscrit, and is
written in the Nagari character, is spoken in various dialects in the North- West Provinces.
(d) Bengali is spoken in the lower valley of the Ganges.
\e) Mar hat ii prevails chiefly in the Bombay Presidency. This Hindu race showed
its native bravery in the seventeenth century, by overthrowing the Mohammedan
power. It was from the Marhattas and the Sikhs as Hindus, and not from the
Mohammedans, that we won India.
(/) Singalese is derived from the Pali. Pali was the language of Magadha in North
India. It was used by the Buddhists and Jains for their sacred books, and it travelled
with Buddhism to Ceylon.
The Greeks invaded India 327 B.C., under Alexander the Great, but left no
permanent settlement behind, though the influence of the Greek type of sculpture long
survived in Indian art.
SCYTHIC influences and a Scythic era also mark the annals of India from 57 B.C.
downwards, and some of the Rajput tribes are traced back to them.
III. The next wave of conquest was that of the MOHAMMEDANS, who entered
India in the eleventh century, and made successive conquests. They brought with
them their native Arabic; and Arabic inscriptions adorn the magnificent mosques,
halls, palaces, and tombs, which they raised chiefly in the seventeenth century. Half
the present Mohammedan population in India is Musalman in race.
The religions of India may be classified as follows :
I. Brahmanism, the religion of the Aryans, which found its earliest exposition
in the hymns of the Veda.s, and its development in the institutes of Manu. Originally
it was monotheistic. The Rig-Veda, usually placed 1400 years B.C., consists of a
series of hymns addressed to bright friendly gods, devas, literally, "the shining ones,"
the great powers of nature, the father-heaven, mother-earth, the encompassing sky.
Brahma, the creator, has no separate existence in these hymns. Vishnu, the preserver,
is but slightly known, and Siva, the destroyer, appears as Rudra, the god of tempests.
The potent prayer was called Brahma, and he who offered it Brahman. Aleady in
the Vedas sacrifices are enjoined, the man-sacrifice, and the great horse-sacrifice of
six hundred animals that was substituted for it. And thus by degrees sprang up the
four great CASTES: (i) the Brahinans, or priests; (2) the Kshastrias, or warriors, now
called Rajputs ; (3) the Vaisyas, or husbandmen, and beneath these (4) the servile
class, or Sndras, " the slaves of black descent." After a long struggle between the
priestly and warrior castes, the former prevailed, and established their supremacy as
the makers of Sanscrit literature, and the priests and teachers of the people. The
Brahman's life was one of discipline. Study occupied his early years ; then marriage
and family life, next seclusion and devotion, and lastly mendicacy, asceticism, and
absorption. Throughout life he practised strict abstinence, recognising the transitory
vanity of human life. " What is the world ? " says a Brahman sage. " It is even as the
bough of a tree on which a bird rests for a night, and in the morning flies away."
Self-culture, self-restraint, was the ideal life. Hence, amidst all the changes of history
the Brahman in India, refined in features, tall and slim, has calmly ruled.
Brahmanism in its growth and spread strikingly illustrates the teachings of Holy
Scripture regarding the gradual lapse of man from a pure and simple faith, from the
knowledge of God, into idolatry and superstition. " Knowing God, they glorified Him
not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened." I3rahma the creator became a mere abstract name ; Vishnu the preserver
received ten incarnations (Avatars) Rama and Krishna being the chief, and Siva the
destroyer and reproducer became the embodiment of wrath and lust. The most pro-
minent doctrine of philosophical Brahmanism became the transmigration of souls, ending
with absorption into the Supreme Being.
II. Buddhism, now the religion, in a degraded form, of one-third of the human race,
hid its origin in India, whence it has long been exiled. Its founder was Gautama,
son of a prince of the Sakyan clan, born B.C. 623, a hundred miles north of Benares.
After his student and married life, he retired, when thirty years old, to a cave near
Gaya, in the Patna district, and this epoch in his life is called "his Great Renunciation."
But instead of finding peace in his fasting and seclusion, he reached a crisis of
despair, passed through a conflict with the powers of darkness, and emerged with
new light and knowledge, to be henceforth know as Buddha, " the Enlightened." This
era is known as that of "his Enlightenment." Now he began to live and preach a
new life of love and kindness among men, condemning caste, proclaiming the equality
of men, and setting before them NirvAna, i.e. cessation, not of existence, but of sin
and sorrow, as their final goal. He began this public teaching at the age of thirty-
six, and for forty years he laboured. His last words were, " Work out your own salva-
tion with diligence ; keep your mind upon my teaching ; all things change, but this
changes not. I desire to depart ; I desire Nir\'4na, the eternal rest."
The secret of Gautlma Buddha's success was the truth which his preaching affirmed,
viz. (a) the overthrow of caste, the equality of Sudra, if just and holy, with Brahman ;
(b) the law of Karma, i.e. conscience or responsibility, that what a man sows he must
reap ; (r) the law of justice and of kindness ; and {d) Nir\ana, the cessation of all causes of
sorrow, to be attained by the practice of virtue. The date of his death is B.C. 543.
Buddhism was a missionar)' religion, and it spread as a gospel through India.
Its Constantine was Asoka, grandson of Chandra Gupta, and King of Maghada (B.C. 250),
whose edicts in Pali inscriptions indicate the humanity and kindness of the teaching
which the system promulgated. The .son of Asoka became Buddhist missionary' to
Ceylon, and the system spread all over India, as the Topes and Caves of early
Buddhism indicate. But it borrowed much from Brahmanism, namely, the doctrine of
transmigration, the practice of a.sceticism, and the recognition of a priestly order.
Relics of Buddha were cherished and adored, and shrines built over them. Images of
the saint himself were multiplied and became objects of worship. But in process of
time Brahmanism in India triumphed over its rival. Buddhism lacked a personal God,
it was a form of atheism ; it failed to recognize the doctrines of human sin, and of
expiation by sacrifice ; and here the Brahmins had the advantage, and in time regained
their influence and their supremacy. By the tenth century of the Christian era. Bud-
dhism was in India an exiled religion, finding its home in Thibet and Ceylon, in China
and Burmah. It has since degenerated into an elaborate Ritualism, akin to Romanism,
with the image of Buddha for the crucifi.x, the goddess of mercy for the Virgin, a
shaven, robed and celibate priesthood, altar and lights, the ro.sary and penance, monks
and nun.s, purgatory in its series of hell.s, prayers for the dead, and in Thibet, a jjope.
III. HiNDUI.SM is the modem development in India of the religion of the Brahmans,
modified by Buddhist teaching. And here again we find only degeneracy from the
primitive standards. The Brahmans themselves have in many parts degenerated, and
are corpulent, self-indulgent, immoral, worldly-minded men. Ca.ste in all its tyranny
prevails. Woman is immured in ignorance, and doomed to slaverj*. Married when a
child, if the child-husband die-s she is a widow for life, doomed to drudger>' and
neglect. The temples are adorned with revolting and ob.scene sculptures and frescce.s.
The images of idolatry are hideous, the objects of adoration countless. VlSHNUVIS.M,
or the Worship of Vishnu the preser\er, and his many incarnations, and Saivlsm, or
the worship of Siva the destroyer, form in the present day the very heart and
soul of Hinduism. The old idolatry of serpents, trees and stone.s, borrowed, jjerhaps,
from the non-Aryan tribes, has been adopted into the system, and the Linga bedaubed
with red ochre is the popular idol. The Puranas are the writings that form the basis
of modern Hinduism, and they disclose Phallic worship in all its loath.someness. The
chief daily ceremony in all temples, after washing and dressing] the idol, and burning
lights and incense before it, consists in offering it food of some kind, — boiled rice,
grain, .sweetmeats, fruits, — and decorating it with flowers. The smallest village has its
own peculiar symbols of worship, rough idols and mere blocks of stone or wood, con-
secrated to local deities by patches of red paint.
IV. Moh.ammk5anism apfKjared in India, first, about the eleventh century, and
gained a permanent footing by the conquests of the Moguls. In the seventeenth century
INTRODUCTORY.
its sway was universal in North India. It proclaimed the doctrine, " there is one God,
and Mohammed is His prophet," and it built its giant mosques in the great cities. It
made many converts ; and the Mohammedan population now numbers forty-one
millions. But it is a religion, not of love, but of selfishness, lust, and hatred. Most of
the Indian Mohammedans are of the Sunni sect. They neither eat nor intermarry
with Hindus. Butchers, cooks, and table-servants are for the most part Mohammedans,
these occupations being unlawful religiously for the Hindus. Dhirzis, or tailors, are
Musalmans, and most grooms (syces), and coachmen, Dhobis, or washermen, bldstis, or
watercarriers, and bearers or house servants are Hindus. The Mohammedans of India
ill brook our supremacy.' They are ambitious alike of learning and of power.
V. The Jains are a small sect, but very old, akin to the Buddhists, but having an
independent origin. They are a wealthy community, distinguished by the beauty and
costliness of their temples, and the multiplicity of their hospitals, especially those for
diseased and decrepit animals ; they lay great stress on the doctrine of transmigration
of souls, and will sweep the seat on which they would sit, or the path along which
they would walk, lest they should unwittingly crush an insect. Their chief distinctive
feature is saint worship, and their most important holy places of pilgrimage are Mount
Abu in the west, and Parasnath in the east.
VI. The Parsis are of Persian origin, and are settled chiefly in Bombay, where they
have become wealthy and prosperous. They hold the tenets of Zoroaster, and worship
the four elements, fire, air, earth and water. The supreme being, called Ormazd, is
with them not self-existent, but derived, and they are polytheists in the most rigid sense
of the term. They wear a peculiar head-dress, somewhat like a mitre ; their scriptures
are the Zendavesta ; their tongue is akin to Arabic, but they speak English.
To this brief epitome of the races, languages and religions, that from time to time
have taken root in India, there remain to be added the settlements of the PORTU-
GUESE and French in the sixteenth century, on the east and west coasts, and the
settlements and conquests of Britain, consummating in the establishment of her
direct rule over one hundred and eighty-si.K millions of the population, and her pro-
tectorate over feudatory states numbering fifty-four millions of souls. Side by side
with British conquest, CHRISTIAN MISSIONS have advanced, at first discountenanced, but
afterwards protected and encouraged, carrying the truth as it is in jESUS into the
cities and villages of the land, unfurling the banner of the Cross amidst the teeming
populations, and bringing in its train the civilising and elevating influences of education,
science and inventions. Britain has done much for India ; there still remains much to
be done. P'orty millions of our fellow subjects go through life on insufficient food.
The food supply must be adjusted by equal land laws to the growing population, and
Government expenses must be brought down to the level of a just and bearable taxa-
tion. Two hundred millions are the votaries of a debasing idolatry. Christianity and
Education hand in hand must accomplish their work of enlightenment for women as
well as for men throughout the land.
The order of places in this work follows the route of my journey, beginning with
Point de Galle and ending with Bombay. I am indebted to many tourists like myself
who have given their impressions to the world for descriptions of scenes which I was
unable to visit. For the general subject there are no writers to whom I owe more
than to Dr. James Fergusson, the great authority on Indian Architecture, and to
Dr. W. W. Hunter, India's ablest statistician. Dr. Hunter's writings have been of
invaluable service to me ; they stand pre-eminent alike for accuracy of detail, and
largeness, breadth, and magnanimity of judgment. The valuable Manual of RoPER
Lethridge, Esq., has also been helpful to me. With reference to Ceylon, I am
specially indebted to J. W. Rhvs Davids, Esq., the Hibbert Lecturer. I beg further
to acknowledge the assistance rendered mc by Richard Garnett, Esq., of the British
Museum Library, George Loch, Esq., of the India Civil Service, and Dr. RoST of
the India Office. At the suggestion of Sir J. RiSDON BENNETT, jf.D., I have prefixed
this short INTRODUCTION on Indian Ethnology, Languages, and Religions.
C£;ylon.
1
(XniAtita NkAK OMXfc.
C£;yl,on
POSITION AND ASPECT OF THE ISLAND — GALLE AND COLOMBO — NEWERA ELLIA
AND PEDRO-TALLA-GALLA — ADAMS PEAK AND KANDV — THE BO TREE — THE
RUINED CITIES, ANURAJAPURA AND POLLONARUA — CHRISTIANITY IN THE
ISLAND.
/'^EYLON in shape and position hangs like a pear from the south-east
^^ coast of the Indian Peninsula. The isthmus called Adam's Bridge
forms as it were the stalk connecting the island with the continent ; the name
Adam's Bridge arising from the Mohammedan legend that on his expulsion
from Paradise Adam passed by this singular causeway into Ceylon. The
isthmus connects Ramisseram with Manaar, and is cut in one place only by
a channel called the Paumbam Passage, through which vessels drawing
ten feet may pass ; but larger ships and steamers to and from Madras
and Bombay must go all the way round Ceylon. The northern portion,
answering to the thin part of the pear, is one vast forest — interminable
jungle — dotted sparsely with specks of yellow green cultivation, but con-
taining the ruins of the two ancient capitals, and on th^ east coast, the
CEYLON.
port of ■TiuA'cbm'alee.: • .T:hef- •J'Ower half of the island swells out in the
Kandyan provinces into a mass of gneiss and granite mountains, with a
margin of rich and luxuriant lower land ; and here we find the best scenery,
and the chief centres of modern enterprise. Almost in the middle of the
island is the capital Kandy, connected by railway with Colombo on the
west coast ; and at the south-west corner is the ancient and well-known
port of call, Point de Galle.
To the sea-trained eye of the voyager across the hot Indian Ocean from
the east or west, Ceylon unfolds a scene of loveliness and grandeur unsur-
passed by any land. It enjoys two
monsoons in the year, and the
abundant supply of moisture thus
afforded, clothes it with perpetual
green. Its slopes are enamelled
with verdure ; flowers of gor-
geous hues deck its plains, palms
of all descriptions abound, climbing
plants rooted in the rocks hang
down in huge festoons, and trees
dip their foliage into the sea. By
the Brahmans the island was called
Lanka, " the resplendent ;" by the
Buddhists " a pearl upon the brow
of India;" by the Chinese "the
island of jewels ;" by the Greeks
" the land of the hyacinth and the
ruby." It has with reason been
regarded as the country whither
the ships of Solomon came for
"gold and silver, ivory, and apes,
and peacocks" (i Kings x. ii, 22),
and " the almug trees, and precious
stones in abundance from Ophir,"
are the most obvious productions
of Ceylon. The very terms by which these things are designated in
the Hebrew Bible are identical. Sir J. E. Tennent tells us, with the Tamil
names by which some of them are still called. Fable contributes to the
charm attaching to Ceylon. The tale of Sinbad in the Arabian Nights
runs that in the Indian Ocean, near a mountainous island of loadstone, the
ships fell asunder, and nails, and everything of iron flew to the loadstone ;
and hence native boats are put together without the use of iron nails. The
" spicy breezes " of poetry, moreover, though hardly in keeping with fact,
because the cinnamon gives forth its odour only when crushed, yet bear
<2f.S-
SINGALESE MEN OF THE COAST.
/rs ISHABITANTS.
witness to the same fascinating charm belonging to the island, and Milton
has immortalised them in his great epic where he says :
" To those who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest."
Ceylon is a little smaller than Ireland, and its population now is two
millions and a half. They are mainly of two races, the Tamils, of black
complexion and slight-limbed, ac-
tive and wirj-, a mixed Dravidian
race from South India, and the
Singalese. The Singalese, again,
are of two types, the Kandyan
type or highlanders, of robust
frame, hairy chest, open counten-
ance, yellow brown tint, and the
coast Singalese, effeminate-look-
ing, with little beard and long
hair rolled into a lump at the
back of the head and fastened by
a tortoiseshell comb. The Tamils
of the north are in religion Brah-
mans, the Singalese of the south
are Buddhists. Buddhism was
brought hither from India fully two
centuries B.C. Its sacred books in
Pali, written on Olas, i.e. Palmyra
palm leaves, are called the
Pitakas, the three baskets, trea-
suries, or collections, viz. : i, Rules
of the Order ; 2, Doctrine ; 3, Sup-
plementary matter. Its temples are
called Dag&bas. A dagoba — from ditatu, a relic, and gabbhan, a shrine — is
properly a monument raised to preserve one of the relics of GautSma
Buddha. Fragments of his bones, locks of his hair, are inclosed in masses of
masonry ; a dome of brickwork resting on a square elevated platform covers
the shrine, and is surmounted by a tee or pinnacle. The oldest of these
shrines is that raised by King Tissa, B.C. 200, over the collar-bone of Buddha.
The Dagoba of Anurajapura, built B.C. 89, was four hundred feet high — forty
feet higher than St Paul's. Besides Buddhism in the south, and Hrahmanism
chiefly in the north, there is Mohammedanism among the Moormen, who
are in the main of Persian origin. Romanism, planted by the Portuguese,
SINGAI.UB WOMEN OP THB COAST.
CEYLON.
took Its complexion from Buddhism, and in its rites conformed to the
heathen customs of the people ; indeed, the churches at Jaffna, in the north,
were fitted up as theatres. The Parawas, or fishermen class, were the first
to embrace Christianity.
The Dipawansa, " island history," and the Mahawansa, " great history,"
contain the Chronicles of Ceylon. They tell us that for four hundred years,
from the seventh to the eleventh century, the incursions and exploits of the
Malabars harassed the island. What tended to civilise — as the huge reservoirs
called "consecrated lakes" to
water the paddy or rice lands still
bear witness — was introduced by
the northern rulers ; and all that
contributed to debase is traceable
to the Malabars. The reign of
Prakrama Bahu, a.d. 1150, stands
out prominently as a time of pros-
perity and advance. Religion and
agriculture went hand in hand,
and huge tanks were construc-
ted, called " seas of Prakram ; "
security of life and property was
established, so that a girl decked
with gold might traverse the
island in safety. But it came to
pass that in the year 1505 ships
from Portugal arrived at Jaffna
and Colombo. The Portuguese
by degrees gained a footing along
the coast, and they held territory
there for a hundred and forty
years. In 1602 the Dutch began
to come, and by degrees over-
threw and supplanted the Portu-
guese, occupying Galle in 1640.
Theirs was a military tenure, and lasted also one hundred and forty years.
In 1796 their settlements were in turn ceded to the British, who have
borne rule ever since, and in 18 15 won by conquest the Kandyan provinces.
Nearing Galle, but still some miles from land, we met several of the
curiously constructed " double canoes " which the Singalese fishermen use.
They are from twenty to thirty feet long, only twenty inches wide, three
feet in depth, including the washboard, which is sewn to the gunwale, and
are hollowed out of a single stem. The most striking feature about them
is the balance-log, a solid buoyant outrigger the same length as the boat,
MOORMEN HAWKERS.
o
s
o
.A
O
POINT DE GALLE.
and like a second canoe, fixed by two long curved bamboo poles projecting
eighteen feet from one side and carrying a high sail hoisted on two poles.
This outrigger is always kept to windward when sailing, the canoes having
prows at both ends, and being steered with short flat paddles. In these
boats the fishermen can sail ten knots an hour, and they venture out twenty
miles to sea.
Conveyed from the steamer across the harbour within the old Dutch ram-
parts, the traveller soon finds himself in Galle, besieged by hawkers (chiefly
Moormen) of precious stones, tortoiseshell, ebony, stuffs, and fancy work in
wood and gold ; but ridding himself of these he will gladly enjoy a stroll
along the ramparts and by the lighthouse, and a drive to the Cinnamon
Gardens and Wakwella. The cinnamon laurel grows to the height of six
or eight feet, and is not barked before the ninth year. Peeling the bark
begins in May and lasts till November, but the gardens about Galle and
Colombo planted by the Dutch are in melancholy decay, and the beautiful
shrubs are growing wild, the cinnamon trade having long ago passed to
other lands through the monopoly of the Dutch. Wakwella Bungalow is
a lovely spot commanding a fine view of the inland mountains and forests.
The roads thither are of a rich red colour, owing to the iron ore or brick-
like rock called Lalerile, and are draped on either side with lovely flowering
creepers and shaded with rich foliage.
As we returned we stopped at the foot of a wooded hill, to visit a
Buddhist temple, apparently modern and but lately decorated in a very gaudy
fashion. The paintings represented scenes in the history of kings and
others. Within was a gigantic figure of Buddha, with images of Siva and
Vi.shnu on either side. The Buddhist priests wore bright yellow garments
hung on their dark lanky forms. The usual worship consists mainly in
the offering of flowers and fruits.
The railway from Galle to Colombo not being yet complete, we drove
in her Majesty's mail — a wretched conveyance shockingly horsed— along
the lovely road of seventy miles which skirts the shore. It is an avenue
of stately palms with a rich undergrowth of tropical trees and gorgeous
orchids. Away on the right are the mountains, away to the left glitters
the blue sea ; the beach is fringed with verdure, and at the headlands
the ripples kiss the overhanging leaves. The tides about Ceylon are very
slight, the water falling only thirty inches. The white cottages of the
natives, each with its garden of cocoa-nuts, nestle in the' groves, and the
fishermen's canoes skim along the sea. The natives whom wc pass look
clean and picturesque, but their mouths are invariably discoloured with betel
chewing. The leaves of the betel vine together with lime and the sliced
nuts of the areca-palm form a tonic, which from time immemorial it has
been the national habit to chew, and the mixture imparts a blood-like colour
to the mouth. The betel is an intoxicating kind of pepper, and with the
CEYLON.
Singalese answers to the opium of the Chinese, and to the tobacco of
other nations, but it is not considered so injurious.
COCOA-NUT TREES AND CLIMBERS.
The cocoa-nut trees about the dweUings of the natives along this road
are countless ; and they have a saying that the cocoa-nut, like the magpie
COLOMBO.
and robin, will only flourish within the sound of the human voice. Like the
Palmyra palm in the north of Ceylon, the cocoa-nut in the south yields most
of the necessaries of life. Its fruit furnishes food, its shell drinking vessels,
its juice palm wine and sugar, its stem materials for building, its leaves roofs,
matting, baskets, and paper. The number of these trees in the island is
estimated to be twenty millions. The natives climb them with great agility,
partly with the help of bamboo ladders, and oftener with the help of a
short band of cocoa-nut fibre between the feet or round the loins.
The city of Colombo, whose population now numbers one hundred and
twenty thousand, presents but
few features of interest to the t>
tourist. It extends about four
miles along the coast and two
miles inland, and is divided, like
most Indian cities, into the black,
or native town, and the Euro-
pean quarter. The buildings in
the latter are chiefly of Dutch
origin — as the fort, the belfry and
clock tower, the barracks, and
the Wolfendahl Church. The
old name Kalambu was altered
by the Portuguese to Colombo
in honour of Columbus. Here
one sees the Singalese chiefly
as servants, the Parsees as mer-
chants, the Tamils as labourers,
the Moors as retail dealers.
The heat at mid-day is most
oppressive, but the drive along
the Galle Face by the sea at
sunset is cool and refreshing. A
favourite resort, seven miles south
by railway, is Mount Lavinia, on
the sea, once a Governor's house, now a hotel, near which is a mag-
nificent banyan tree. In Colombo there are two cathedrals, one Roman
Catholic, the other English ; and in the street of the dealers in rice is
a grotesquely-ornamented Hindoo temple. In Colombo the raw coffee
brought from the plantations undergoes the process of curing at several
mills for the purpose. Here may be seen, first, the drying of the beans ;
secondly, the removal of the skin by passing the beans under rollers ; thirdly,
the picking out of the bad berries, done by women and children ; fourthly,
the distribution of the different sizes by means of sieves ; fifthly, the process
BUDDHIST PRIEST WITH NOVICES.
CEYLON.
of packing in huge barrels for exportation. Tamil women are largely em-
ployed in these establishments, and present a neat, healthy, and happy
appearance. We found the new Museum in the midst of the Cinnamon
gardens well worth a visit. Besides the natural and manufactured products
of the island, there are here several interesting archseological remains brought
from the ruined cities, and in particular a magnificent stone lion. The
drive round the lake is lovely, and several miles in extent, but the moist
heat was like a perpetual Turkish bath.
The distance from Colombo inland to Kandy is seventy-five miles, and
the railway winds its way among the mountains, through scenery combining
Alpine grandeur with tropical luxuriance. A huge, isolated hill, called the
Bible Rock, from its resemblance to a Bible open upon a cushion, stands
out conspicuously in the distance on the right. The line winds and curves
round beetling cliffs and overhanging precipices draped with luxuriant
creepers. Coolies, i.e., labourers (chiefly Tamils) are conveyed in gangs of not
less than six at reduced rates, upon the certificate from their importer or
estate manager, and children nnder four fset in height are charged half-fare.
The journey occupies four hours and a half. A branch line leads to Gam-
pola, which is the station for Newera EUia. Gampola, the last of the native
capitals, was fifty years ago the cradle, and is still the gateway, of the
great coffee plantations. Though the plant had before been brought to
Ceylon, the Portuguese and Dutch did little or nothing for its cultivation,
and it was not until 1825, that by the removal of the heavy duty the plant
rose to importance among the products of the island. Now, all round
Gampola, for miles, the hills are covered with coffee plantations. The leaves
are bright and smooth, like the laurel, but darker ; the flowers are white,
and of sweet odour, the berries are crimson like cherries. It is calculated
that two hundred thousand natives (chiefly Tamils) are employed on the
plantations, which cover over one hundred thousand acres.
A coach runs daily from Gampola, winding up the mountains through
Pussilawa, "valley of flowers," to Ramboddie in four hours, and the views
are majestic and charming. In the magnificent glen of Ramboddie we
reach a barrier of mountains seemingly impassable. Waterfalls on every hand
come tumbling over precipices, and roaring through deep ravines mantled
with palms and orchids, yellow gamboge trees, and white-flowered daturas.
From this point the road climbs the mountain gorge in terraces, cut in many
places out of the rock, through a wild forest to the height of six thousand
feet ; and from the summit of the pass a view of Newera Ellia is ob-
tained. At this height, the coffee plantations give place to those of tea,
lately introduced, and found to grow well at this altitude. Several acres
of forest have been cleared for tea plantations. From this point you
rapidly descend into the far-famed valley of Newera Ellia ; and taking up
your quarters at one of the homely and comfortable lodging-houses, after
NEW ERA ELLIA.
the heat of Colombo and the railway, you now feel cold enough to be
glad of a fire.
Newera Ellia, the Buxton of Ceylon, its great sanatorium, whither the
jaded European, overdone with the heat of Galle or Colombo, resorts for
refreshment and rest, is a wide-spreading valley green and grassy, watered
by crystal streams, high up among the mountains at the foot of Pedro-talla-
galla, the highest mountain in Ceylon. Here one seems to get into England
again ; English-looking cottages, with gardens full of English llowcrs, fruit trees,
and vegetables ; oaks and firs, green fields and hedges, robins and black-
THE rSORO-TALLA-CALLA RAKCE.
birds, bracing breezes and crisp, frosty nights. The temperature ranges from
36*^ to 81°, and its average at noon is only 62 ' in the shade. The roads
are good, the walks varied, and the mountains on every side invite to a
sturdy climb.
A well-kept bridle-path cut through the forest in zigzags leads to
the summit of Pedro-talla-galla, which is eight thousand three hundred
and forty feet above the sea, or nine hundred and forty feet higher
than Adam's Peak. Here one soon gets into the lonely jungle, where
in the early morning nature teems with life and motion, and the air is
melodious with the voice of birds. We started at 6 a.m. and reached the
CEYLON.
top of the mountain in two hours and a half. At the height of about
seven thousand five hundred feet we came upon a large antlered elk
quietly grazing ; he gave a deep bark, and scampered off. The Ceylon
elk is a large animal, four feet high, of a dark brown colour, rough mane,
heavy antlers, and body five feet long. Almost to the summit there is
brushwood, and the rhododendrons
were in full bloom. The morning
was beautifully fine, and the prospect
was most extensive and delightful.
The sea was visible in the distance
towards the west and south, Adam's
Peak to the west, the hills of Kandy
to the north, and those of BaduUa
to the east. From Newera Ellia to Badulla the road descends three
thousand feet in forty miles, and commands splendid views. No scene in
nature can be more peaceful and lovely than the valley of the Badulla
Oya. At Ella the river forces its way through a wild ravine in a series of
falls. There are no lakes, properly speaking, in Ceylon, but from these
mountain ranges one sees what look like lakes, the immense tanks, relics
ADAM'S PEAK.
of a former civilisation, formed by means of artificial dams drawn across
valleys shut in by hills, and making sheets of water six, eight, or ten miles
long, by two or three wide. The embankments are from sixty to seventy
feet high, and two hundred feet broad at the base ; they consist of earthwork,
faced in some cases with stone. The design of these immense reservoirs was
to supply water for the paddy lands in the districts lying north of the
mountains. Every village northwards was provided with a tank, and canals
conveyed the water to the fields. They date from the seventh century
downwards.
Descending from Pedro-talla-galla, I came upon the track of a wild
elephant. The jungle was freshly trodden down, soil disturbed, and trees
uprooted. It is an Eastern saying that the last word can never be
said about an elephant. When the British first came elephants were
numerous, but now they are rare. Very few Ceylon elephants have tusks.
They are smaller than the African ; twice the circumference of the foot
gives the animal's height, which is usually eight or nine feet. They are
said to live seventy years, and it is a trite saying, " A dead elephant
is never seen." The elephant has marvellous facility in ascending and
descending mountains, the joints of the hind legs bending inwards, and
enabling them to kneel like a man, and in this posture to slide down,
the fore legs being kept straight out. At the approach of the white
man they retire : they possess defective sight, but powerful scent. A
story is told of a wild elephant at Goa which had got loose in the
market-place, and was destroying all before it, but recognising in the crowd
the child of a woman who had been in the habit of feeding him when
passing her shop, he took it up in his trunk and carried it safely, home.
Elephants have been exported from Ceylon to India ever since the First
Punic War. Of late their numbers have been considerably reduced. They
cannot lift the head above the level of the shoulder, and they show
timidity and shyness at the sight of man. They like the mountains and
the shady thickets. They go in herds, and a solitary elephant is usually
a thief.
The famous Adam's Peak may be ascended either from Newera Ellia
or the Maskeliya side, where the climb is comparatively easy, or from
Katnapura, on the south side, which is reached by coach from Colombo.
The rocky cone which forms its summit is climbed with the help of chains
fastened in the rock. A fearful ladder, forty feet high, lands us on the top,
where is a small temple, and beneath a sheltered space beside is the Sri
pada, or footprint, a natural indentation in the rock, artificially made to
assume the shape of a man's left foot, five feet long by two and a half
broad. The Brahmans call it the footstep of Siva, the Buddhists that of
Buddha, the Chinese that of I-'o. i.e. Buddha, and afterwards the Moham-
medans called it the footprint of Adam. Adam, it was fabled, when driven
CEYLON.
from Paradise took refuge in Ceylon, and spent years of exile on this moun-
tain before his re-union with Eve on Mount Arafath near Mecca. Hence
the name Adam's Peak. Between Adam's Peak and the sea quantities of
precious stones have been found ; indeed, this is the region where still
they are sought— sapphires, amethysts, topazes, rubies. Ratnapura means
" the city of rubies," and the sands of the rivers still abound with
small particles of tiny gems. Lapidaries use it to polish softer stones.
The cat's eye, a green translucent quartz, is specially appreciated by
KANDY.
the Singalese. The precarious occupation of gem-hunting is chiefly
carried on at Saffragam. The chief polishers and sellers of gems are
Moormen.
The tourist in these mountain districts is almost sure to find somethine
he does not want, in the form of leeches, whose presence is first discovered
by the chill feeling of the creature hanging heavily on the skin when full
and distended. They are about an inch in length, and only one eighth of
an inch in thickness, but they swell into more than twice that length and
size. They make their way through the finest stocking. They live not in
36
KANDY.
pools, but in rank and damp herbage. In moving, they plant one extremity
on the ground and advance by semicircular strides. You may often see
them hanging like tassels round the ankles of the palanquin bearers, and
dogs and horses are tormented by them. Crocodiles too, are occasionally
seen across one's path in Ary weather, when the tanks are low, making
their way in search of water. They are very tenacious of life, indeed it is
almost impossible to kill them.
TKMrUC or THB DALADA.
Kandy, the ancient capital of the Highland Singalese, is a beautifully
situated little city of about ten thousand inhabitants in a nest of hills, itself
fifteen hundred feet above the sea ; and the thickly wooded hills around it
are fully two thousand feet high. At the foot of its main street, which slopes
down a hill, is a long artificial lake, made in 1807 by the then King of
Kandy ; and this sheet of water adds much to the loveliness of the scene.
Here, for centuries, the Kandyan kings lived secure, as if in their mountain
CEYLON.
BUDDHISI IhMll.E, LAKE OF KANDY.
fastnesses; but upon the conquest of the place by the British in 1815,
a road was constructed through the mountains to the coast, which even
still presents wonders of engineering skill ; and now a railway sends two
trains daily to and from Colombo in a four hours' journey. The climate
is delightful and the scenery charming. From the fourteenth century down-
wards, the place has been distinguished as the headquarters of Buddhism,
, ___ __ _- finding its centre in
the Temple of the
Dalada, the shrine
of Buddha's tooth,
round which the
Buddhist hierarchy
gather. This, with
the adjoining palace,
is the most interest-
ing building in Cey-
lon. There is an oc-
tagonal stone edifice
of two stories, in
the upper part of
which is an Oriental
library, containing
several valuable Pali manuscripts, and the Buddhist scriptures written on
wood and sumptuously bound. A balcony runs outside, on which the kings
of Kandy were wont in former times to appear before the people, and to
witness performances on the green below.
The relic of the left eye-tooth of Gautama Buddha, here said to
be enshrined, has a curious history. Rescued from his funeral pile,
B.C. 543, it was preserved for eight
centuries at Dantapura in South India,
and brought to Ceylon a.d. 310. The
Malabars afterwards captured it, and
took it back to India, but the great
Prakrama recovered it. The Portuguese
missionaries got possession of it in the euddha's tooth.
sixteenth century, carried it away to Goa,
and after refusing a large ransom offered for it by the Singalese, reduced
it to powder and destroyed it at Goa in the presence of witnesses. The
account of this destruction of the tooth is most circumstantial in the Portu-
guese records. Nevertheless, the Buddhist priests at Kandy produced another
tooth, which they affirmed to be the real relic, that taken by the Portu-
guese being a counterfeit, and they conducted this to the shrine with
great pomp and ceremonial. This is the relic now treasured with such
THE TOOTH REUC.
care and reverence. It is probably not a human tooth at all, being,
as those who have seen it affirm, much too large (two inches long)
ever to have belonged to man. When the British got possession of it in
1815, there was great excitement, the relic being regarded as a sort of
national palladium. They allowed it, however, to be restored to its shrine amid
gjeat festivities. The sanctuary in which it reposes is a small chamber,
without a ray of light, in which the air is stifling, hot and heavy with the
j)erfume of flowers, situated in the inmost . recesses of the temple. The
frames of the doors of this chamber are inlaid with carved ivory, and on a
SACKED aO TkEI, ANUKAJArURA, 3I0O VBAU OLD.
massive silver table, three feet six inches high, stands the bell-shaped shrine,
jewelled and hung round with chains, and consisting of six cases, the largest
five feet high, formed of silver gilt, inlaid with rubies, the others similarly
wrought, but diminishing in size gradually, until, on removing the innermost
one, about one foot in height, a golden lotus is disclosed, on which reposes
the sacred relic. In front of the silver altar is a table upon which worshippers
deposit their gifts.
The hills round Kandy command charming views of the city and the
outlying district. Gregory's Drive is a new road that winds up the hill '
above the miniature lake, with bungalows looking out on lovely scenery ;
CEYLON.
and a path through the opposite woods, called Lady Horton's Walk, leads
up to a point commanding a panoramic view of the Vale of Dumbera and
the Knuckles range of hills, the river Mahawelli-ganga flowing rapidly below.
The Peridenia Botanical garden, covering one hundred and fifty acres, is about
three miles from the town, and is rich in all varieties of palms and other
tropical plants. A fine avenue of indiarubber trees leads to a noble group
of palms, the palmyra, the talipat, the areca, the date palm, the cocoa-nut, and
so on, — a huge Kew Palm House in the open air, with a river overhung
with bamboos flowing through. The sacred Bo tree of the Singalese, to which
they as Buddhists attach symbolically the same importance as Christians do
to the Cross, is found close to every dagoba. Buddha himself is said to
have made frequent allusions to the growth of this tree as an emblem of
GATEWAY LEADING TO THE SACRED TREE, ANURAJAPURA.
the rapid propagation of his faith. It differs from the banyan by sending
down no roots from its branches, but its heart-shaped leaves are attached
to the stem by so slender a stalk that they appear to be ever in motion,
and thus, like the leaves of the aspen, of which the cross was thought to be
made, whose leaves are said to tremble in recollection of the crucifixion,
those of the Bo tree are supposed by the Buddhists to tremble in remem-
brance of the sacred scene of which they were the witnesses. It was while
reclining under the shade of this tree at Budh Gaya in Magadha or Bihar
that Gautama received Buddhahood. The first Bo tree in Ceylon is said
to have been sent by Asoka, king of Magadha, a branch from the parent-
tree at Uruwela, b.c. 245, and to have been planted at the old capital
Anurajapura. It is still pointed out as the oldest tree in the world, and is
THE RUINED CITIES.
said to be the parent-tree from which all other Bo trees in the island have
been propagated. A wall is now built round it, and a flight of stone steps
leads to the sacred enclosure. Pilgrims come to visit it from China, and even
from Japan. The solitar)' column on the right marks the place where Elala,
a Malabar invader, who reigned with justice and moderation, fell (b.c. i6o).
It was erected by his rival in admiration of his bravery, and it is still
regarded with veneration. Among the neighbouring ruins is a beautifully
carved stone of great antiquity, now forming a doorstep, and representing
the lotus flower in the centre, a procession of wild animals on the outside,
and in the intermediate circle the hanza, or sacred goose, an object of
veneration formerly in all parts of India.
Pollonania and Anurajapura, the two ancient and long ruined capitals
V-. J-'— •■ -^ -\»'*».^V
CARVED STONK AT ANURAJAPURA.
of Ceylon, lie to the north-east and north of Kandy. The tourist starts by
the road to Trincomalee as far as Matale, sixteen miles, near which (three
miles off) is a cave temple, called the Alu Wiharc, curiously built, amid
loose and tumbled masses of rock. The place is specially interesting as the
spot where, as the Mahawanso says, the books of Buddhism were first com-
piled, and its precepts reduced to writing. The statement runs : " The wise
monks of former days handed down the text of the Three Pitakas by word
of mouth. But seeing the destruction of men, the monks of this time
assembled, and, that the Faith might last, wrote them in books." Leaving
Matale, we make our way through Nalande (fourteen miles) to Dambulla
(fifteen miles), where is one of the oldest rock temples in Ceylon. The rock is
five hundred feet high, and is visible from afar. The temple is reached by
CEYLON.
hewn steps, and upon climbing these we behold a noble gateway adorned
with carvings. The building was known as " the cave of the golden rock,"
darkness being the characteristic of the interior of all Buddhist temples.
Indeed, the word Wihara or Vihara, now denoting any Buddhist temple or
monastery, literally signifies "a residence." In the forest stretching south of
Dambulla there stands a colossal statue of Buddha carved in a mass of rock.
It is upwards of fifty feet high, and reminds one of the Daibutz of Japan.
It would appear that in early times this statue was roofed over. It is
called the Aukana Wihara.
The road leads on through jungle by the great tank of Topare to
PoLLONARUA, or Pulastipura, where are the ruins of a city built by the famous
King Prakrama Bahu, which continued to be the capital of the Kandyan
CARVED STONE AT ANURAJAPURA.
monarchs till the fourteenth century. The remains are extensive and
interesting, displaying beauty of design and excellence of execution. The
forest abounds with them, but perhaps the most striking is the Jayata-wana-
rama, a huge Buddhist temple, containing, between two octagonal towers
forming the main entrance, a statue of Buddha, fifty feet high, formed
of brick covered with polished chtmam or cement. The side view gives a
good idea of the elaborate carving and extensive range of this building.
Another still more curious building at Pulastipura is the Gal-wihara, a
rock temple, which has in front four richly-carved columns, a raised altar,
with a statue of Buddha seated, a statue of Buddha standing, and a statue
of the same famous saint reclining — forty-five feet in length— the attitude of
his attaining Nirvana.
ANURAJAPURA.
North of Matale about sixty miles is another and still more ancient
ruined city called Anurajapura. According to the narrative of the Maha-
wanso this city was founded four hundred years B.C. When King Asoka
sent his son Mahinda to introduce Buddhism to Ceylon, the reigning
monarch was Tissa (250-230 B.C.) who received him with favour and
espoused the new religion. He built the famous temple called the Thupa-
rama Dagoba, of bell-shaped outline, the most elegant in Ceylon, which
\KAMA DAOOBA.
Still rises sixty-three feet from the ground, and stands on a platform fifty
yards square, with three rows of monolith pillars twenty-six feet high, one
hundred and fifty in all. He erected it as a shrine for the right collar-
bone of Buddha. The pillars are supposed to represent and answer to the
stone rail surrounding the topes in India. They were probably connected with
each other by beams of wood and frames of canvas covered with paintings.
Paintings, as distinct from sculptures, are characteristic of Ceylon temples.
A precipitous rocky hill, a thousand feet high, eight miles to the east,
33
CEYLON.
connected with the city by a long street, was chosen as an appropriate site
for another huge temple of brick, under which was deposited another relic
of Buddha — a hair which grew on a mole between his eyebrows. Regarding
this hill, the hill of Mihintale, a visitor to it thus writes : " It was on this
hill, the three peaks of which, each now surmounted by a dagoba, form
so striking an object from the central trunk road which runs along its
side, that the famous missionary Mahinda spent most of his after years.
Here, on the precipitous western side of the- hill, under a large mass of
granite rock, at a spot which, completely shut out from the world, affords a
magnificent view of the plains below, he had his study hollowed out, and
steps cut in the rock over which alone it could be reached. The great rock
effectually protects the cave from the heat of the sun, in whose warm light
GAL-WIHARA, PULASTIPURA ; IMAGE Ol 1;L DDIIA RECUMBENT.
the valley below lies basking ; not a sound reaches it from the plain, now
a far-reaching forest, then full of busy homesteads ; there is only heard that
hum of insects which never ceases, and the rustling of the leaves of the
trees which cling to the sides of the precipice. I shall not easily forget
the day when I first entered that lonely, cool, and quiet chamber, so
simple and yet so beautiful, where more than two thousand years ago the
great teacher of Ceylon had sat and thought and worked through long years
of his peaceful and useful life. On that hill he afterwards died, and his
ashes still rest under the dagoba, which is the principal object of the reverence
and care of the few monks who still reside in the Mahintale Wihare." '
The square of the entire city of Anurajapura, including tanks, was walled
' Buddhism, by T. W. Rhys Davids. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
34
CHRISTIANITY.
in about B.C. 48, by Queen Anula, and each side is said to have been sixteen
miles long. The entire distance from Anurajapura to Colombo by way of
Kandy is one hundred and sixty miles.
Conjectures have been eagerly made concerning traces of Christianity
in Ceylon in the early centuries ; but if in those days there were any
Christians in Ceylon, they must have been sojourners only from among the
Syrian Christians on the Coromandel coast. " Its light appears," says Sir
J. E. Tennent, "to have been transiently kindled, and to have speedily
KUANVILLV DAi:OIM, ANUKAJAPrRA.
become extinguished." Cosmas, a.d. 535, speaks of Christians here, with
a priest and deacon ordained in Persia. These were probably Nestorians.
The two Mohammedan travellers of the ninth century, whose narratives
have been translated, are silent as to the existence of any form of
Christianity, and Marco Polo, a.d. 1290, declares that the inhabitants
were idolaters. The Portuguese in the sixteenth century brought with
them Romanism, and Xavier was invited in 1544 to come to Jaffna, but
though many were baptized, he has recorded his disappointment at the
13
CEYLON.
inward unsoundness of all he had outwardly achieved. Many natives, both
in the north and in the south, became Roman Catholics ; but, in the charges
officially brought against the Jesuits, it was alleged to be doubtful whether
by affecting idolatr)^ and tolerating it amongst their proselytes, they had
not themselves become converts to Hinduism rather than made Hindus
converts to Christianity. They assumed the character of Brahmins of a
superior caste, and even composed a pretended Veda. They conducted images
of the V^irgin in triumphal procession, imitated from the orgies of Juggernaut.
Among their most distinguished
preachers has been Joseph Vaz
(died at Kandy, 1711), who added
to the Church thirty thousand
converts from the heathen. The
Dutch on their coming estab-
lished the Reformed Church of
Holland as the religion of the
colony, and the first Presbyterian
clergyman began his ministra-
tions in 1642. In 1658 they
issued a proclamation forbidding
the presence of Roman Catholic
priests ; and finding this to fail,
they issued another forbidding
them to administer baptism.
They pulled down and broke
the Romanist images, and in
Jaffna took possession of the
churches. But, in spite of all
this severity, Romanism kept its
ground, and the Dutch mission-
aries did not succeed. Notwith-
standing the thousands of Singa-
lese once enrolled as converts,
the discipline of the Dutch Pres-
byterians is now almost extinct
among the natives. Baptism with registration was, in fact, regarded as a
government qualification, a badge of civil rights, and submitted to as such.
Children were brought in crowds, and the ceremony was performed by
arranging them in rows and sprinkling their faces with water as the adminis-
trator walked along. Cases are on record where the parent, living far from
Colombo, borrowed an infant in the town, and had it baptized and registered
in the name of the child who was at home. Since the British rule began,
this coercive policy has ceased, and the Gospel has been preached in a
3«
MUDALIYAR OR HEADMAN.
M/SS/OAfS.
Christian spirit. In 1816 Ceylon was made an archdeaconry under the
see of Calcutta. It was made a bishopric in 1845. Protestant missions,
set on foot by the American Board in 18 16, have been uninterruptedly
COLOSSAL IMACB OF BOODHA.
efficient. Upwards of six hundred students have been under instruction
from time to time in the American seminary at Batticotta ; and of these
more than half have openly professed Christianity, and all have been more
or less imbued with its spirit. The majority are filling situations of credit
CEYLON.
and responsibility in the island. The Wesleyans also have been and are
still extensively at work with churches, colleges, and schools in North and
South Ceylon ; and the Baptists have useful missions at Ratnapura, at
the foot of Adam's Peak and among the pilgrims thither, at Colombo,
and at Kandy. Lastly, the Church Missionary Society has been successful
in several stations, though of late years unfortunate hindrances have sprung
up through Ritualistic tendencies and claims of the newly-appointed bishop.
Out of the taxes levied upon the native population the sum of twelve
thousand pounds is annually paid by the government in support of this
episcopate and other religious establishments in the island. The Kandy
Collegiate School educates a large number of boys and young men. Never-
theless, Brahmanism has still a strong hold upon the Tamils of the north,
and Buddhism, with its flower-offering and devil-worship, is still vigorous
among the Singalese. Books, too, in favour of Buddhism, with extracts from
English writers who extol its early literature, are published and circulated.
Evangelical Christianity is, however, gaining ground, and the present census
will probably show the number of Protestants to be upwards of seventy
thousand. A scheme of disendowment is proposed, to take effect in five
years.
1 !
COCOA-NUT PALMS AND JUNGLE.
38
MADTiA^ PFiEl^mE^NCY.
iHiaiaiiiiiiiiiiiiBiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiii
CHAFEL OF TUB SACKED BULL, CIIILLAMBARAM.
MADRAg PRE3IDJE;K'CY.
TINNtVtl.LY AM) TKAVANCORE — THK DKAVIDIAN TKMri.KS — MADIRA — TK:CIIIN0P<.>LY
— TAXJoRE — MADRAS — TIIK COAST VOYAGE NORTIIWARUS.
/'^EYLON is linked on to India not only by
^^-^ a natural isthmus or chain of alternate
islands and sandbanks, and politically by a
government under the same crown of Britain,
but by a continual transfer of population to
and from the mainland. The Tamils, who are
the chief work-people on the coffee plantations
of Ceylon, come from the Madras Presidency,
and they do not generally settle permanently
in the island. There is a continual stream of
comers and goers, and there are si.x ports on
the western coast of Ceylon, to and from which
vessels run to the Coromandel Coast, as the
eastern side of Southern India is called.
Of these six ports the chief arc I'csalai and
\'ankalai in the north, and Colombo on the
west. In 1874, for example, there arrived in
twenty-five thousand of these Indian coolies,
Ceylon one hundred and
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
and the departures numbered ninety thousand. A great exodus always follows
the gathering of the crop ; in the steamer in which we crossed from Colombo
to Tuticorin (one hundred and fifty miles) there were about five hundred
Tamils, men, women and children, on board returning to their native land.
Many of them crowded the deck all night, and, in spite of much rough-
ness from the sailors and boatmen, seemed patient and light-hearted.
The noise and jabbering as the boats conveying them from shore swarmed
round the steamer was amusing, and almost deafening. There is certainly
no lack of talk, no taciturnity among them. After a calm starlight night
we found our vessel anchored off the flat sandy coast of India, about si.\
miles from shore. The steamer could not be brought nearer on account
of the shallows ; and though the sea was calm the billows of a heavy swell
chased each other over the sandbanks with a long lazy sweep, towards the
land. A fleet of heavy native sail-boats came out to take the passengers
ashore ; and in a four-oared boat, after jjassing Hare Island, we reached the
landing-stage of Tuticorin in an hour. Tuticorin was once celebrated for its
pearl fishery, and is now a town rising in importance as the terminus of the
South Indian Railway. It is the main port of the District of Tinnevelly, a
district which, together with the Native State of Travancore, forms the
southern part of India. Cape Comorin itself is within the boundary of
Travancore, but Tinnevelly occupies two-thirds of the breadth of the pen-
insula. These two provinces are separated by the range of Western Ghauts,
which run north and south along the western coast, rising to the height
of seven thousand feet, and are the highest mountains to be met with
till we come to the Himalayas. Tinnevelly is about the size of York-
shire, and has a population of a million and a half. Northwards, the
country is well cultivated, and of a green fertile aspect, paddy lands e.x.-
tending for miles on either side the railway ; but southwards there stretches
a vast sandy plain of a fiery red colour, dotted over by groves of tall
majestic Palmyra palms. While all around is parched and arid, this tree
strikes its roots forty feet below the surface, gathers up the moisture, and
daily gives forth quantities of sap called " toddy," which is collected in small
earthen vessels attached to the tree, and is largely manufactured into sugar.
The Shanar labourer climbs thirty or forty trees seventy feet high twice
every day to collect the sap. The Hindus call the Palmyra " the tree of
life," and dedicate it to Ganesh. It gives three quarts of "toddy" daily,
its wood is hard and durable, and its leaves thatch the native houses, are
woven into mats and baskets, or smoothed by pressure, they serve for
books and parchments. In a word, the Palmyra palm in South India as
well as in the north-east of Ceylon supplies shelter, furniture, food, drink,
oil, and fuel for the people, with forage for their cattle and utensils for
their farms.
It is an interesting fact that Tinnevelly and Travancore, more than any
TINNEVELLY.
Other part of India, have been brought under the influence of Christianity,
and this from the earUest times. The Christians of St. Thomas, as they
are called, early in the third centur)', it is supposed, occupied portions of
the Coromandel Coast on the east, and of the Malabar Coast on the west.
Indeed, the Syrian Churches here claim to have sprung from the preaching
of the Apostle Thomas himself; however this may be, a Syriac ms. of
the Bible, brought from this district, now at Cambridge, is said to date from
the eighth century. And in modern times Christian missions have been
MAII^:, MALABAR COAST.
more successful here than anywhere else in India. • Travancore, unlike
Tinnevelly, is a mountainous countr)' full of diversified scenery. In its
northern part, the Malay&lam language is spoken. The view from the Peak
of Agastya, seven thousand feet high, which is usually ascended from
Trivanderum, is said to be the finest in Southern India. As on the east
the Palmyra, so on the west of these mountains the Cocoa-nut palm
flourishes. Here there is quite a nest of missions. Th(; population of
Travancore numbers upwards of two millions, of whom one-fifth is Christian.
43
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
The London Missionary Society takes the lead, and the census report
witnesses that "by the indefatigable labours and self-denying earnestness
CHRISTIAN NATIVE GIRLS.
of the learned body of the missionaries in the country, the large community
of Native Christians are rapidly advancing in their moral, intellectual and
46
PAIJMCOTTA.
material condition." Travancore is perhaps one of the best governed and
most enli.2[htened native states in India. North of it, on the west coast,
is Cochin, near to which is the old Hebrew colony known as " the
Black Jews of Malabar." Their religious knowledge is much narrower than
that of the "White Jews," who have been settled there since the destruction
of Jerusalem. The Black Jews are supposed to have come thither upon
the conquest of the Ten Tribes, and perhaps through Afghanistan.
Taking the train which runs through Maniachi Junction, a branch line
brought us in three hours to Tinnevelly. The railway terminus here is
half-way between the town of Tinnevelly and the celebrated settlement of
Palimcotta. The River Tambiravarni ("the copper-coloured river") rising
in the Ghauts, near the famous Falls of Papanasum, waters the plain and
TAMILS OF IODT1I INDIA.
gives it a most fertile aspect. The country is covered with cotton and
rice fields. Tinnevelly, the native city, with its Temple of Siva, lies to the
west, and Palimcotta, fifty-seven miles from Cape Comorin, the F!nglish
station, to the east. Nothing can be more strange and pleasant to the
eye of a Christian than to see the spire of a Christian church, with the
surroundings of a missionary compound, rising amid the emblems of decay-
ing heathendom in that far-off land. Hearing the church bell on the quiet
Sunday morning, and seeing the schools and the people wending their way
to worship, one might almost fancy oneself in some neat English village,
were it not for the dark faces of the villagers and the strange tower
of an old heathen temple looming above the trees. The mission here
was begun by the Danish missionaries in 1771, and Schwartz himself
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
visited Palimcotta twice. The Christians of the district now constitute
one-fifth of the population, but they are for the most part from among
the lowest castes, i.e. the Shanars, the caste of Palmyra-climbers. Two
veteran missionaries are at present at the head of Christian effort in the dis-
trict, namely, Bishop Sargent at Palimcotta, and Bishop Caldwell at Edey-
engoody, thirty miles south-east. Large numbers of natives are putting
themselves under Christian instruction, in the hope of protection from oppres-
sion, for there is much oppression in every Indian village ; and by connec-
tion with a strong English mission there is hope that they may get their
wrongs redressed. Many more have joined the Christians in their gratitude
for relief given in time of famine. But, whatever the motive, they hear the
Gospel message, and are instructed in Christian truth ; they become intelligent,
progressive, promising.
The cleverness and intelligence of the natives when well educated is
manifest from the following examples which Bishop Sargent gave us. He
had at table one day a young native who had passed the Indian Civil
Service examination— a gigantic labour and achievement for any man, but
especially for a Hindu — and who had thoroughly mastered not only the
English language, but our English literature also. To test his memory and
his knowledge, each one at table quoted some familiar lines from an English
poet ; and thereupon the young Tamil not only recited each quotation,
but named the work it was from, gave the connection and the author's
name. "Your quotation," he began, "was so and so, from such a play of
Shakespeare, and this is the connection;" and so on to each^one round the
table. Again, a native missionary was once asked when preaching, " How
do you explain the differences among you ? Here are Church Missionary
and Propagation Society missionaries, Baptist missionaries, Presbyterian and
London Society missionaries. How are we to tell which is right ? " The
native preacher replied : " There was once a dispute among the fingers of
the hand, which should have the pre-eminence. The tlnimb said, ' I ought
to have the pre-eminence, for it is plain, you can none of you do anything
without me.' 'Ah,' said the first finger, 'what is more important than
pointing out the way ? This is my office ; I ought to have the pre-eminence.'
'I,' said the second finger, 'rest my claim on mathematical principles. When
you hold the hand upright, which finger is the tallest ? I am ; therefore I
ought to have the pre-eminence.' ' No,' said the thiyd finger, ' for though
it is something to point out the way, and mathematics too are strong, there
is one thing stronger, and that is love. And when you put the symbol of
love upon the hand it is the third finger that you choose ; therefore the
supremacy is mine.' ' Hear me too,' said the little finger ; ' true, indeed, I am
small and you are large, mathematics are strong, and love is stronger, but
there is one thing higher than all, and that is worship ; and when you
approach the god, I am the finger that you choose to present nearest in
48
o
o
o
>
n
X
>
MADURA.
your prayer, for you press your hands together, lift them up, and hold them
thus. Therefore I should have the pre-eminence.' Now," continued the
KCINID rUtUMAI. PAOOOA.
native pastor, " each finger has something to say for itself, each is important
in its way ; and so with the various Christian Societies. But all derive their
GKEAT HALL OR AUDIENCE CIIAMbEK l.N THE FALACB OF TIRUMALA, MADURA.
life and strength from a common source, and all working harmoniously under
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
the guidance of a common Will, become mighty for the accomplishment of
Christ's work in the world." These two examples show how the Hindu
may become fully competent both for the Indian Civil Service and for
missionary work in India.
The whole of that part of Southern India that lies between the eighth
and the sixteenth parallels of latitude used to be called the Carnatic or
Black Country, and is peopled by the Dravidian race. The Dravidians were
TIRUMALA's CHOITLTRY, MADURA.
not the aborigines of the country ; they were, like the Aryans of the north,
early immigrants who came in successive waves from some part of Central
Asia, and settled chiefly in the southern portion of the great peninsula.
They are quite distinct from the Aryans; their skin is darker, and their
language different. They form one-fifth of the whole population of India.
They are active, hard-working, docile and enduring. They are more
sober, self-denying, and less brutish in their habits than Europeans. They
show greater respect for animal life, they have more natural courtesy of
MADURA.
manner, and, as servants, attach themselves to those who treat them well
with far greater affection than English servants. The Uravidian tongue
embraces four groups of languages, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, and Malayalam.
KNTKAHCE TO THE rUTHA UANDAPAM, MADVRA.
The railway from Tinnevelly runs north, about a hundred miles through
a flat productive country, in about seven hours to Madura, the ancient
capital of the large district which bears that name. Madura was for cen-
turies before the Mohammedan conquest the metropolis of South Indian
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
learning and religion ; and the ruins of the palace, together with the immense
Temple of Siva, covering twenty acres, are standing memorials of its early
greatness. Here we come face to face with the masterpieces of Dravidian
architecture for which the Madras Presidency is famous, and which in
their number, their vastness, and the elaborateness of their workmanship,
astonish and almost bewilder the Christian tourist. The Dravidians of
Southern India offered their labour to their gods. Their temples are
divided into the following
parts : —
I. The Vimana or Adytum,
square, and surmounted by a
pyramidal roof overlaid with
gold. Here, in a dark cubical
cell, the altar and idol are
immured, and a lamp is kept
burning dimly night and day.
II. Around the Vimana, and
leading up to it usually from the
four points of the compass, are
the Mantapas, huge stone por-
ches richly carved.
III. The Gopuras, or gate
pyramids, the most obvious
features from the outside, tower-
ing two hundred feet high,
and elaborately carved with a
congeries of most grotesque
figures in stone. They are
raised tier upon tier in diminish-
ing stories, of which there are
from ten to fourteen, and they
terminate in an oblong dome-
top.
IV. The pillared halls, or
Choultries, commonly from ten
to twenty feet high, with a thousand stone pillars elaborately carved from
base to capital and shaped into divers figures, and supporting a flat stone roof.
V. Sacred Tanks, surrounded with corridors and with flights of steps
descending into the water.
All these, gathered round and leading to a common centre in the
adytum, form together the monster wide-spreading temple of South India
called the Pagoda. •'
The Pagoda of Madura has nine towers or gopuras, one of which we
ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT HALL, PALACE OF TIRUMALA,
MADURA.
MADURA.
ascended by a narrow staircase leadinj^ from story to story to the highest,
each small chamber with pigeon-holes in its walls, opening north and south ;
but the peeps thus gained, being very limited, hardly repaid the fatigue of
the climb. This temple dates from the third century ii.c. ; it was destroyed
in A. I). 1324, and restored in the seventeenth century. It is kept in good
repair, and many masons were still at work upon it. It is dedicated partly
to Minakshi, the fish-eyed goddess, and partly to Siva.
Passing through the gopuras and along corridors used as bazaars, we
came to the dark flat-roofed choultry, or hall of a thousand pillars, each pillar
being of stone, some of black granite, all carved more or less elaborately, and
representing male and female deities dancing. One of the figures is said to
represent the devil, and boys are allowed to spit in his face. One pillar is
subdivided into twenty-four smaller ones. A corridor built by Tirumala,
three hundred and thirty feet long, by one hundred and five in width, with
stone figures of Yali, a strange monster, the lion of the south, on either
side, leads on to the sacred tank — about fifty yards square, and full of
dark green water — in which some Brahmans were bathing. The corridors
around this tank are covered internally with fresco paintings, some astro-
nomical, others of a gross character. There are three different statues of
the bull sacred to Siva, as the shrine is approached. Admission to the
shrine itself is prohibited, and as you look up the aisle within, all is darkness
and stillness, save in the distance the glimmer of the lamp before the idol.
The favourite idols are plastered with oil and red ochre ; and there is a
general greasiness about the precincts by no means fragrant or cleanly.
Outside the great pagoda, in the street, stands the car in which the idol
is taken round the city in pomp on festive occasions. Grandeur and
abomination, massiveness and uncleanness are in this temple strangely
combined.
Another celebrated building in Madura, now in great part ruined, is the
Palace of Tirumala, one of the greatest of the rulers of the province, built :
by him in 1623. The hall is a quadrangle, two hundred and fifty by one
hundred and fifty feet, and with an elaborate corridor, and one hundred and
twenty eight massive granite pillars ornamented with stucco, made from
c/iunam, or sh«ll lime, which is a characteristic of the Madras Presidency. The
British Government is now restoring it, and using it for legislative purposes.
On the other side of the town there is a lovely drive leading to a large
sacred tank, the Teppu-kulam, with an island and temple in the centre. The
road is arched over and shaded with banyan trees ; and a very fine specimen
of this tree is to be seen in the garden of the Collector. The Collector in
India is, of course, the Civil Servant, a prince in his way, who represents
government in the District. Under the Collector in a Zillah District there are
usually four Assistant Collectors, and on a level with him one District Judge,
with two Assistant judges, one Superintendent of Police, with an assistant, and
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
SACRED TANK AND ISLAND TEMrLK,
one Medical Officer. The Col-
lector and his English staff
hardly ever know the vernacu-
lar ; by the natives they are re-
garded with awe, not affection,
and too often want of consideration flows from want of intimacy. A Zillah
District is in extent somewhat like an English county, and usually contains
an area of two or three thousand square miles, and a population of one or
two millions. " The Collector is separated by an impassable gulf from the
people of the country," says Sir J. B. Phear ; and he adds, "to the eyes
of a native, the English official is an incomprehensible being, inaccessible,
selfish, overbearing, irresistible." This statement is made with reference to
the Bengal Presidency, and it applies in its full force to that of Madras.
The Collector is paid from the taxes two or three thousand pounds sterling
-^ a year, and retires with an annual pension of a thousand pounds.
At Madura the American Board has a very efficient mission, with valuable
schools. It was founded in 1834 ; since which time it has covered the entire
province with a network of stations. It includes one hundred and thirty-
eight congregations, a hundred native missionaries, and a hundred native
teachers. " The institution of boarding-schools, peculiar to missions in Southern
India, was introduced by the American Board, and there are in the Madura
province one hundred and eighteen schools and training colleges.
In India, even in the coolest season, if you want coolness, you must rise
early. It was New Year's morning, and the bright stars of the Southern
Cross were still shining, when we drove in the missionary's conveyance to
the railway station and took the early train one hundred miles northwards
for Trichinopoly, a city often taken and retaken in the wars between the
French and English in the last century. The sun rose in a clear sky at 6.30,
56
TRICHINOPOLY.
and hills sweeping up from the plain were kindled by his beams. The
peasants were already at work like dark skeletons upon the land, employed
chiefly in lifting water from wells and tanks by means of long bamboo
levers, and pouring it into trenches cut through the rice-fields. Long before
we arrived the famous rock of Trichinopoly was in view before us, and we
^.i/
ROCK AWD TBMrLE, TRICMIICOrOLY.
reached the city in the heat of the
day, after a seven hours' journey.
The main feature of Trichinopoly
is its noble rock of syenite, rising
abruptly five hundred feet above the sea, and towering two hundred and
fifty feet over the town. Half way up is a temple to Siva, cut in the rock
and built against it. We climbed stair after stair, and up the last dangerous
flight of steps cut in the bare precipitous rock, without banister or rail, to
the Mandepam or pavilion on the summit, a temple to the god Ganesh.
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
Here there presents itself a clear and extensive view in every direction over
the wide-spreading plain, northwards over Seringham, east to Tanjore, south
and west over the town, where the streets were all alive with a Moham-
medan procession and the beating of drums. Outside the town to the
south-west lay the military cantonments, where about five thousand troops
are kept ; and to the west are the chapels, monasteries and nunneries of the
Roman Catholics. Almost all the Tamil servants are said to be Romanists.
The Lutherans too have missions here, called the Leipzig Mission, and the
new Lutheran church is a conspicuous object. They recognise the laws of
caste among their converts. Immediately at the foot of the rock is the
chapel in which the well-known missionary, C. F. Schwartz, preached. The
old pulpit from which he so often proclaimed the message of Christ to the
natives is still there. His influence with the native population was irre-
sistible. In their transactions with the English they would treat only through
him. He was born in Germany, on the 26th of October, 1726, and died at
Tanjore, on the 14th of February, 1789, "revered," as the tablet in his
church there says, "by Christian, Mohammedan, and Hindu alike." He left
three thousand converts to Christianity behind him, in Tanjore alone. The
remains of another famous Indian missionary. Bishop Heber, lie here in St.
John's Church. He died suddenly at Trichinopoly, in 1826, when taking a
cold bath, in the forty-third year of his age.
A three miles' drive northwards from Trichinopoly brings you to the
famous Dravidian temples of Seringham, the largest in all India. Seringham
is a river-island formed by the Kaveri, which, rising far away in the Nilgiri
Hills, about five miles above Trichinopoly divides into two branches. The
Great Pagoda in the island thus formed is seven miles in circumference, and
includes many bazaars and streets of Brahmans' houses, so that it is more like
a walled town than a temple. The sight of the fourteen magnificent gate
towers or gopuras from the outside is very impressive. Each has huge
monoliths of granite on either side, the portico about forty feet high ; and
above the majestic gateways are pyramids of elaborate stone carving
towering up to the height of two hundred feet. You drive through a
succession of these gopuras, and alighting, you enter on foot a great
choultry or pillared hall whose flat stone roof, fifteen feet high, is supported
by one thousand columns, each a single block of granite, and all carved into
grotesque figures of men and horses, men mounted upon rearing horses, and
spearing tigers, and the like. Beyond is the central shrine, dark and dismal,
but surmounted by a golden dome. Near to this four sacred elephants are
stabled, and a staircase leads up to the flat stone roof which covers all these
acres. The highest gopura was ascended by the Prince of Wales during his
tour through India in 1875, and he left a gift of five hundred rupees to the
temple. The contrast between the vastness, majesty and grandeur of the
temple precincts, embodying the skill and toil of thousands of labourers and
58
NILGIRI HILLS.
lapidaries for years, and the hideous, dirty, greasy, little idol before the
dimly burning lamp in the centre, is most strange and striking. The most
laborious and elaborate architecture in the world has been raised in honour of
the most hideous idols, and for the most degraded idolatry.
A mile from the walls of this wide-spreading temple is another, smaller
but older, namely, the Jambukeswar Pagoda, which is in decay, but is a very
compact specimen of Dravidian architecture. As the large temple of Seringham
THE lAJAH-COPURA, SCR INGHAM.
is dedicated to Vishnu, this is raised to Siva, and its name denotes him as
" Lord of the rose-apple," or " Lord of India."
Looking westward from Trichinopoly, one sees the noble range of the
Nilgiri hills, a group of granite mountains shaped like a triangle, and about
forty miles in length. Owing to their great elevation (seven thousand feet),
they have a delightful climate and are much resorted to. The principal
stations are, Coonoor, Wellington and Utakamund. A branch line of railway
runs from Coimbatore, near the gap in the mountains of the same name, north-
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
wards to MettapoUium ; and thus this healthy and dehghtful resort is brought
within a sixteen hours' journey of Madras itself. Utakamund is the summer
seat of the Madras Government. The hills, covered with dark soil and grass,
possess a vegetation of the temperate zone, with a mean temperature of 58°.
Here live the tribe of Tudas, numbering about two thousand, a handsome race,
theists in religion, but with no idols. Three miles from Coimbatore is the
LHuuMllB
TUDAS IN THE NILGIRIS. /
Pagoda of Perur, not of very ancient date, but containing interesting details of
architecture, and elaborate compound pillars ; but the subjects of the carving
show that degradation which is justly described as "the fatal characteristic
of art in India." The excursion to the Anamalai (elephant) hills is healthy
and exhilarating. There are now extensive coffee plantations on the slopes
of the Nilgiri hills. In the Nilgiris a small but singular tribe of people is
62
CASTE IN INDIA.
met with, called Tudas. They are a handsome race, tall and athletic, with
Roman noses, beautiful teeth, and large full expressive eyes. They never
wear any head covering, but let the hair grow six or seven inches, so that
it forms a thick bushy mass of curls all round. They are honest, brave,
inoffensive, and live as herdmen, but are somewhat indolent. Polyandry pre-
I vails among them, the brothers of a family having often only one wife
^ among them. Their language is peculiar, but Dravidian. As has been
already said, they have no idols ; but they have a temple dedicated to
trtil/i. They regard the Brahmans with contempt. They are considered to
be the aborigines of these hills. They only number a few hundred, and
are gradually decreasing. The Badaga tribe is more numerous and more
accessible to Christian influences.
TEMPLE or SOUBKAMANVA, TANJORE.
Tanjore is two hours' journey by railway from Trichinopoly ; and crowds
of natives, with the varying symbols of their caste painted on their fore-
heads, filled .the stations and thronged the carriages. There are first,
the Brahmans, or priests, sprung from the mouth of Brahma, distinguished by
the sacred cord around their bodies ; secondly, the Kshuttries, or warriors,
sprung from his arms ; third, the Vaisyas, from his thighs, the merchants,
men of commerce, industry and agriculture ; and fourth, the Sudras, the cul-
tivators of the soil, labourers and servants, sprung from the feet of Brahma.
Below these are those of no caste, the Pariahs or outcasts. One sees men
of all these several castes crowded together, jostling one another on the rail-
way platform and crowding into the same carriage ; for though there are
fcur classes of carriages on Indian railways, many of the highest castes are
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
the poorest, and have to travel fourth class, and you will see the Brahman
sitting side by side with the Pariah. The railway is the great antagonist to
caste in India.
Tanjore is a large city of a hundred thousand inhabitants. In former
times it was the seat of Brahminical learning, and it contains several pagodas
in large green areas or gardens, and two large walled forts. As you ap-
proach the city, the Great Pagoda with its lofty gopura is a conspicuous
object, impressive and graceful. Its base measures eighty feet square, and
PALACE OF THE RAJAHS AT TAXJORE.
the pyramid rises fourteen stories to the height of two hundred feet. The
top-stone or dome is a huge monolith, beautifully carved and said to weigh
eighty tons. The courts are not covered over as at Madura, but are open
to light and air, and within the precincts is a large open square six hundred
feet by two hundred. Here is the colossal bull Nundi, fifteen feet long
and twelve feet high, in a couching posture, of stone saturated with oil. It
rests upon a platform which you ascend by twelve steps, and has over it a
large canopy supported by granite pillars. This bull, sacred to Siva, faces
TANJORE.
the magnificent temple, an oblong building of red sandstone, with the huge
gopura rising nobly over the shrine. Farther on to the left, but within the
enclosure, is another but much smaller shrine, of beautifully carved stone, and
cloisters surround the court covered with coarse pictures of heroes. To the
right, within the court, is the Temple of Soubramanya, " as exquisite a piece of
decorative architecture," says Mr. Fergusson, "as is to be found in the south
of India." The steps up to its entrance are supported by small carved
elephants with men in singular attitudes, sitting on or falling from their
COURT IN PALACE OF THE RAJAH, TANK>RE.
trunks. The palace of the Princess of Tanjore contains an open court, with
singular figures in stone, and a statue in white marble of the late Rajah.
In the Protestant mission church built by Schwartz, his remains lie, and a
slab behind the pulpit with an inscription marks the spot. The country
about Tanjore looked peculiarly rich and fertile. The great river Kiveri
here opens out into a delta, and irrigation works of considerable extent
distribute its fertilising waters.
The Danes were the first among Protestant nations to send the Gospel
«7
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
to India, for in the year 1705 Ziegenbalg came to Tranquebar on the east
coast, and made his way to Tanjore, dressed in native costume. The Rajah
at first objected, but afterwards sanctioned the mission. Ziegenbalg, having
translated the New Testament into Tamil, died in 17 19, and his work was
resumed by Schultze, and several congregations of Christians grew up in the
kingdom of Tanjore. Then followed the war between France and England
which ended in the conquests of the latter under Clive, and the chaplainc)'-
of the garrison of Trichinopoly by the equally eminent soldier, although of
the Prince of Peace, the well-known Schwartz, whom the Rajah requested to
remove from Trichinopoly and to reside at Tanjore. Here he was employed
upon several occasions to treat with the native princes. " Let them send
the Christian," said they ; "he will not deceive us." On two occasions' when
--/s.
BIUSTI, OR WATER-CARRIER.
-"' Y^"-^"
the Fort of Tanjore was threatened with famine, and the Rajah was power-
less to obtain supplies, Schwartz, at his earnest request, undertook to relieve
it, and succeeded in saving its inmates from starvation. A few hours
before his death the Rajah requested Schwartz to act as guardian to his
infant son. Schwartz in fact was revered as a father by the people as well
as by the Rajah of Tanjore. The Tanjore mission was his chief work, and he
continued its guiding spirit to the end. At his death in 1798, after forty-
eight years spent in the country, a long and bitter cry of lamentation arose
from multitudes, and the Rajah shed a flood of tears over his body, and
covered it with a gold cloth. The Christian Knowledge Society sustained the
mission after Schwartz's death, and the Leipzig missionaries commended their
Christianity to the Hindus by the adoption of caste, a step which has made
the prosecution of Christian work very difficult. But the Propagation Society
68
PONDICHERRY.
has nine central missions in the provinces of Tanjore and Trichinopoly, and at
Combaconum there are many converts, though chiefly from the lower castes.
The new railway between Tanjore and Madras was not yet complete,
the bridges over the estuary of one of the rivers (the Peravanur) not being
built ; and in the middle of the night we were conveyed in bullock waggons
inland and across this estuary, thus giving us an idea of what travelling must
have been in the country before railways were made. The entire journey is
about two hundred miles, and it is now accomplished in eighteen hours, four of
which were occupied in the bullock waggon over half-a-dozen miles.
The line runs along the tract of country long known as the Coromandel
Coast, which stretches for about four hundred miles north from Adam's Bridge.
Throughout its whole e.xtent this coast does not afford any secure port or
harbour. A heavy surf rolls in upon the flat sandy shore. The soil near the
coast is a mixture of sea-sand and loam, often in dry weather covered with salt.
Farther inland low hills commence, and the soil when irrigated is fertile,
but the upi>er part of the hills is sterile.
This coast, though destitute of harbours, has been the favourite country
for European settlements. Here is Pondicmerrv, still belonging to the French,
divided into two portions, the white town orderly, neat, with beautiful boule-
vards, the black, or native town, with a large pagoda. Its lower or square
part is quite plain, but from its cornice upwards there are large and fantastic
figures, those in the centre somewhat resembling Buddha, and indicating the
influence of his system even in South India. No doubt the gopura has under-
gone alteration and repair, for in portions figures are introduced representing
European soldiers. In fact, nothing can be too fantastic for these carvings ;
figures the most grotesque and caricatures are introduced. The summit seems
to represent the trisula ornament, symbolical of the Buddhist trinity.
Pondicherry is a town of fifty thousand inhabitants, including about a
thousand Europ>eans. The Missions Hrangcres de France have a settlement
here. They are successful among the natives ; but they conform in great part
to their idolatrous customs and caste prejudices. The priests have assumed
the character of Brahmans of a superior caste from the Western world. In
fact, at one time they were wont to wear the cavy, or orange robe peculiar to
the most venerated Brahmans, and carried on their foreheads the sacred spot of
sandal-wood powder. "If," says the Abbe Dubois, "any mode of Christian
worship is calculated to gain ground in India, it is no doubt the Catholic
form, which Protestants consider idolatry. Its external pomp and show are
well suited to the genius of the natives. It has a pooja, or sacrifice, viz.
the mass ; processions, images, and statues ; tirtan, or holy water ; feasts,
fasts, and prayers for the dead ; invocation of saints, and other practices
which bear more or less resemblance to that of the Hindus."
Here, too, is Cuddalore, now a handsome town of forty thousand inhabitants,
formerly belonging to the French, but yielded by treaty in i 795. Here again
MADRAS PRESIDENCy.
is Tranquebar, once a Danish settlement. The entire district abounds in
specimens of Dravidian architecture. Far south by Paumban Passage is the
great Pagoda of Ramessveram, exhibiting all the beauties of the Dravidian
style, with four stone gopuras and corridors with columns elaborately carved.
I'AGODA AT PONDICHERRY.
On the railway, twenty-four miles north-east from Tanjore, we pass Com-
baconum, a town of forty-five thousand inhabitants, one of the old capitals
of the native Chola kingdom, once called the Oxford of Southern India,
on account of its learning, with its richly ornamented gopura, twelve
■:i
GOPURA AT COMBACONUM
COMBACONUAf.
Stories and one hundred and fifty feet high. The Chola kingdom was one
of that tri-archy of kingdoms which existed in South India in the time
of Asoka, and down to the Mohammedan conquest, the other two being
the Chera and the Pandya. The large pagoda here is dedicated to Vishnu,
another indication of Buddhist influence, for Siva is the favourite deity of
the south, and Vishnuism is (as Mr. Fergusson observes) a bad and
corrupt form of Buddhism. The great gopura can be ascended, but the
stone steps are old and broken, and there is no hand-rail ; the floors are of
FACODA OF CHILLAMBARAM : INTERIOR COURT.
Stone, and shake alarmingly to the tread. Near the temple is a large sacred
tank into which it is said that the Ganges flows every year. So vast is the
concourse of people who descend into the water to bathe at one time, that
the surface rises some inches, and this confirms their belief in the miracle.
The idol cars are drawn through the streets, as at Pun, and every year
persons are accidentally crushed beneath their wheels. The tank is surrounded
by a number of small pagodas, each containing a lingam. The Beauchamp
College at Combaconum is one of the best educational institutions in South
71
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
India, and there is a very good school for girls, with upwards of a hundred
scholars. Farther north is Chillambaram, where is a very large tank, and at
the four cardinal points, four vast gopuras, together with the usual hall of a
thousand pillars. On the west of the tank is the Temple of Parvati, sixty-
eight feet high, and on the south the Temple of Siva, containing the sacred
image of the dancing Siva ; the roof is covered with plates of copper
gilt. This temple is reputed to be one of the most ancient of the Dravidian
pagodas. It is highly venerated by the people, who believe it to be the
work of a king in the sixth
century whose name signifies
"golden-coloured emperor." The
tradition is that he was a leper,
but miraculously recovered by
bathing in the sacred waters of
the tank at Chillambaram, and in
gratitude he rebuilt the temple.
The outer wall is six hundred
yards by five hundred, and in the
centre lies the celebrated tank
around which the buildings clus-
ter. The four points of the
compass are marked by four large
gopuras. In the sixteenth cen-
tury the kings of the tri-archy
made many donations to the fane.
The oldest thing now existing is,
in Mr. Fergusson's judgment, a
little shrine in the inmost enclo-
sure with a little porch of two
pillars, more graceful and more
elegantly executed than any other
of their class. A chain cut out
of solid stone connects two
similar and corresponding pillars,
upon which dancing figures are engraved in honour of Venna, the god of
dancing, of Kashmir, with whom a legend has connected the building. A
double gallery with plain and chaste columns runs along the interior enclosure
wall. But the most elegant workmanship is found in the porch of the
Temple of Parvati, the central aisle of which is seven yards wide. Here the
architect has put forth all his power. The temple is an aggregate of buildings
of different styles of architecture, and portions could not have been raised till
after the Mohammedans had settled in the south and taught the Hindus their
methods. It is of granite, and now covers thirty-nine acres of ground.
SPECIMENS OF SCULPTURE ON PILLARS, IN THE GRAND
GALLERY, CHILLAMBARAM.
CONJEVERAM.
At CoNjEVER^vM, one of the seven holy cities of India, and the Benares
of the south, once a city of the Hindu kingdom of Chola, there are two
groups of temples, with commanding gopuras nearly two hundred feet high.
A symbol like a horse-shoe on the
wall of the inner enclosure is
said to be the first letter of the
word V^ishnu, and there has been
hard fighting for nearly a century
about the form of this symbol ;
indeed, the Tamils are still at law
about it. The one party contend
that the mark or symbol — made
with a kind of white paint on
the forehead — should be made
with a plain line, while the other
party make it with a little boss
at the bottom extending halfway
down the nose ! These are the
two sects of the Vishnuvites.
The usual mark worn by the
Vishnu worshippers is two per-
pendicular strokes meeting below
in a curve ; that of the Siva
worshippers is quite different,
consisting of three horizontal
lines, usually white. The town of Conjeveram is full of fine trees and low
houses. Fantastic figures in wood in the thousand-pillared hall are carried
^ in procession on festival occasions.
^ A large number of nautch girls are
kept in this temple. The gopuras
are full of chambers, but all unoc-
cupied. This is strange, for their
great height must conduce to airi-
ness and coolness. Hut when asked,
the Hrahmans said tiiey dared not
sleep there, for fear of being attacked
by evil spirits, ghosts of Brahmans
turned into devils ; and they used
Ijoth the Sanscrit and English word e.x-
plaining the forms as high-caste devils.
About three hours before reaching Madras (forty miles south), on the
coast, are the ruins of an extensive town cut in rock, and called Mahava-
lipur, or the Seven Pagodas. Here are many curious excavations and
CHAIN COT OUT OF A SINGLE STONE ; PILLAES ^^ Tl.
APART, CKILLAMBARAM.
ixii BLt OAI I KKY, CHILLAMBARAM.
MADRAS PRESWENCV.
carvings in the rock, — groups of monkeys, the boar's temple representing
Vishnu as a boar, — the tiger's cave, a cave surrounded with tiger's heads
carved in the rock. Another singularly sculptured rock, forty feet high and
twice as long, presents a hundred strange figures of men, women, monkeys
and elephants. The shore temple is washed by the waves, and the legend
tells of many similar buildings partially submerged.
Southey, in his Curse of Kehama, refers to this legend of a submerged
city thus :
" The sepulchres
Of ancient kings which Bah in his power
Made in primeval times, and built above them
A city like the city of the gods.
Being a god himself For many an age
«\
ENTRANCE TO THK Vi\r,Oit.\, CONJKVKK AM.
Hath ocean warred against his palaces.
Till overwhelmed beneath the waves —
Not overthrown^so well the awful chief
Had laid their deep foundations.
76
Their golden summits in the noonday light
Shone o'er the dark green deep that rolled between,
Her domes and pinnacles and spires were seen
Peering above the sea, a mournful sight.
And on the sandy shore, beside the verge
Of ocean, here and there a rock-cut fane
Resisted in its strength the surf and surge
That on their deep foundations beat in vain."
AfAHA VALIPUR.
Mahavalipur is, according to Mr. Fergusson, a petrified Buddhist village,
applied to the purposes of another religion, but representing Buddhist forms
in the seventh century, when Buddhism was dying out. Doubtless it had
some connection with Ceylon. The people who carved these curious monu-
ments seem, says Mr. F., suddenly to have settled on a spot where no temples
existed before, and to have set to work at once to fashion the detached
granite boulders they found on the shore into nine raths or miniature
MAHAVALIPUK : THE CIIAIIIVA.
temples. They pierced the side of the hill with fourteen cave.s, carved two
long bas-reliefs, and then abandoned them unfinished. The raths are close
together on the sandy beach south of the hill of caves. The largest, called
Bhima's Ratha, is sixteen yards long, eight wide, and nine high. The roofs
are ornamented with ranges of little recesses or simulated cells, which charac-
terise the Dravidian temples, and are surmounted by a dome, an equally
universal feature. The next rath is pyramidal and four stories high. These
singular niins, while they are memorials of Buddhism in its decay, throw light
77
^
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
GREAT RATH AT MAHAVALIPUR.
upon the history of the Dravidian buildings, which probably were originally of
wood, and from about the seventh century began to be constructed in stone.
Regarding the Hinduism of Southern India
as embodied in these temples, Dr. Monier
Williams says : " Religion is even more
closely interwoven with every affair of daily
life, and is even more showily demonstra-
tive in the south of India than in the
north. A distinction must be pointed out
between Brahmanism and Hinduism. Brah-
manism is the purely pantheistic and not
necessarily idolatrous creed evolved by the
Brahmans out of the religion of the Veda.
Hinduism is that complicated system of
polytheistic doctrines, idolatrous superstitions,
and caste usages which has been developed
out of Brahmanism after its contact with
Buddhism and its admixture with the non-
Aryan creeds of the Dravidians and abor-
igines of Southern India. Brahmanism and
Hinduism, though infinitely remote from
each other, are integral parts of the same
system. One is the germ or root, the other is the rank and diseased out-
growth, . . . Vaishnavism and Saivism (or the worship of Vishnu and Siva)
78
DETAILS OF ENTRANCES TO SUBTERRANEAN
TEMPLES, MAHAVALIPUR.
- *•
MADRAS.
constitute the very heart and soul of Southern Hinduism. As to Brahma,
the third member of the Hindoo Triad, and original creator of the world,
he is' not worshipped at all, except in the person of his alleged offspring,
the Brahmans. Moreover, Vaishnavism and Saivism are nowhere so pro-
nounced and imposing as in Southern India. The temples of Conjeveram,
Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tinnevelly, and Ramessveram are as superior
in magnitude to those of Benares as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's are
to the other churches of London. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten
that although a belief in devils, and homage to b/iuias, or spirits of all kinds,
are common all over India, yet what is called 'devil worship' is far more
sj^tematically practised in the South of India and in Ceylon than in the
North. The god Siva is constantly con-
nected with demoniacal agencies, either as
superintending and controlling them, or as
himself possessing (especially in the person
of his wife Kjli) all the fierceness and
malignity usually attributed to demons. . . .
All honour to those noble-hearted mission-
aries who are seeking by the establishment
of female schools to supply India with its
most pressing need — good wives and
mothers — and are training girls to act as
high-class schoolmistresses, and sending them
forth to form new centres of female educa-
tion in various parts of Southern India."
No city, perhaps, in the world has a
site so utterly unpropitious and disadvan-
tageous as Madras. On a coast exposed
without shelter to the north-east monsoon,
with a barrier of sand lashed continually
by a surf passable in fine weather only by
native boats of singular construction manned by native boatmen, and in
foul weather insurmountable even by these, with no navigable river flowing
into the sea, it spreads along the border of a wilderness of barren sand
in the torrid zone, exposed to the unsheltered glare of a scorching sun.
The first British settlement was at Armagan, sixty miles north, a situation
with some natural advantages, where a factory was built; but in 1639 the
East India Company's agent abandoned it for the miserable spot, granted in
irony by a native prince, upon which he built Fort St. George. Nothing
more strikingly illustrates the power of British pluck and enterprise than the
present aspect of Madras. Along that inhospitable coast for a distance of
nine miles, and covering that sandy waste, there now stretches a thriving
city, with an area of twenty-seven square miles, and a population of four
ENTRANCES TO SUBTBRRANIAN TEMPLBS,
MAIIAVAUPUL
79
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
TIGER CAVE, MAHAVALIPUR.
hundred thousand. Along that unprotected roadstead the ships of all nations
ride at anchor to take in or discharge
cargo ; and from . the city the iron horse
wends its way north-westerly across the con-
tinent, eight hundred miles in forty hours,
to Bombay, and sends its tracks south-
wards almost to Cape Comorin. The
meridian of Madras now gives its time to
the entire railway system of India.
Spreading over this wide area, Madras
is an aggregation of no less than twenty-
three towns and villages, with public build-
ings, European residences, warehouses and
even shops in park-like enclosures, filling
up the intervening spaces. Beginning with
the north, there is Royapuram, with the
Tinnevelly settlement ; then the Black
Town, defended from the encroachments
of the sea by a strong stone bulwark,
and with seven wells of water, filtered
through the sand, pure and wholesome.
The population of these two is one hundred and fifty thousand. Next
comes Fort St. George, the first nucleus
of the city, strongly fortified, containing
the arsenal, council house, and the B'ort
church, with its monument to the missionary
Schwartz ; and beyond, the island and the
Governor's house and gardens. Then south-
wards, Triplicane, the Mohammedan quarter,
with eighty thousand souls ; and beyond
this St. Thom4 the traditional site of the
martyrdom of the Apostle Thomas. Inland,
beyond the Fort and the Black Town, are
Chintadrepettah and Vepery, in which
stands the church where the Lutheran mis-
sionary Sartorius preached for many years,
and where the London Mission has its
compound. The view from the lighthouse,
one hundred and eleven feet high, is ex-
tensive ; one sees the entire city, and the
shore for miles. The houses for the most
part are yellow, covered with the stucco called
chunam, which when dried and polished has the appearance of the finest
ENTRANCE TO ROCK TEMPLE, MAHAVALIPUR.
MADRAS.
marble. The grounds round the European houses are well planted, and
the countr)' now presents a green and cheerful aspect. Mount Road,
running south and inland, leads to many bungalows and hotels. The
drive along the beach to the Capper House is the pleasantest in
Madras. Here one meets the sea-breeze, appropriately called by the resi-
dents " the doctor." Here we pass the most imposing of the public
buildings of the city, in particular the University. It was strange to see
on the Sunday the punkas swinging during service in the churches.
Like huge weavers' beams with heavy curtains, they are kept in motion by
means of cords pulled from the outside, two natives, who keep each other
SELLERS OF MILK, MADRAS.
awake, being employed for every one. However strict a Sabbatarian, the
minister as well as the people must have the punka kept going over
his head throughout the service.
In Madras we visited two large hospitals ; the one in the Foreign Town
supported by Europeans and conducted upon the English system, the other
in the Native Town and under native superintendence. The general hospital
in the Foreign Town is a very large and well-ventilated building. It has
spacious corridors, wide and shady verandas, and noble wards. The doors
were open on every hand, mainly towards the verandas ; and a refreshing
breeze passing gently through, relieved the heat, which in this climate
is so oppressive to the patient. In every ward freshness and cheerfulness
V
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
seemed to bespeak a cure. Hopefulness was upon the countenances even
of the most afflicted, and pleasant pictures and beautiful flowers gladdened
the eye. The matron is a lady clever and kind. Her apartments are at the
top of the building, on which a garden is laid out, and which commands
an extensive view. The other hospital, that in the Black Town, was,
I regret to say, a contrast to all this. It is called the Choultry Poor-
house and Hospital. Here mute misery was written on every face. The
patients had no bedclothes. The paupers lie on a mat on the floor. The
portion set apart for lepers presented a most painful spectacle. Those who
were in the early stages of the disease were all oiled, and were sitting on
their haunches, rubbing and scratching themselves uneasily. Two young
men, brothers, presented two different types of the disease. The one was
not in the least disfigured ; the other was frightfully so, the face being
covered with blotches. But whatever the form it assumes, the disease is
incurable. In its later stages ulcers appear, and eat off fingers and toes,
features and limbs. Several poor wretches in great suffering were plastering
their own sores, the materials for doing co being handed to them at the
point of a long wand. It was a revolting sight. Most of the sufferers were
natives, but a few knew English. To these I spoke a few words about the
Lord Jesus and the lepers. It was all one could then do. Sickened and
saddened, we next went through bare and comfortless wards for aged and
infirm men and women, who here drag out the residue of their days of
sorrow. There is also a foundling ward. The foundlings seemed to be in
great wretchedness. In this hospital there were 250 patients, and the
average was at that time ten deaths a week.
During the awful famine of 1878, there were nine thousand inmates,
kept in a sort of camp, and an average of thirty deaths a day. The dead
were burnt in heaps by contract daily. In this lazar house there were,
when we visited it, 250 patients in hospital, 275 in the almshouses, 42 in
the Rajah's Choultry, and 250 lepers; making a total of 817 souls. The
horrors of that famine year are untold and untellable. As the waggons of
grain passed from the shore to the railway, they had to be guarded with
a strong military force ; but the starving would risk blows of sabres and
horses' hoofs to pierce the sacks, so that the grain might trickle out ; and
afterwards hundreds might be seen eagerly picking up the grains that had
fallen upon the road. In punishment for this offence all who could be
captured were driven into pens set up upon the shore, and confined there
without food or water, and under the blaze of the sun, for four and twenty
hours. Thus many perished. And this was not in remote districts, but at
the head-quarters of British power, pomp and fashion in South India — in
Madras itself! Inland they died of famine by hundreds. "I do not know,"
said an eyewitness, a government dispenser of relief, "I do not know what
we should have done without the dogs and vultures."
83
4--
PORTION OF GOPURA AT TIRUPETTY.
MYSORE.
No account of Madras would be complete without a reference to the
Free Church College, which stands first among the educational establishments
of Southern India. It was begun in 1837 by the well-known missionary
Dr. Anderson, — whose name is in the south what the name of Dr. Duff
is in the north, — and within a year there were two hundred and seventy
scholars. But then it was suddenly broken up by the agency of " that
hydra-headed monster," Caste. Two Pariah boys were admitted, and the
rest left. Dr. Anderson was entreated to dismiss the Pariah boys, but
he was firm ; and he gained the victory. By-and-by the youths returned ;
and Pariah and Brahman might be seen sitting side by side on the same
bench, learning the same lessons. This was a blow given to caste that
has been felt throughout Southern India, and felt to the present day.
The numbers soon rose to five hundred ; and ever since the college has
maintained its position as the most efficient in Madras. It is a striking
fact that the three Presidency cities in India — Madras, Calcutta, and
Bombay — possess colleges organised by Scotchmen, which have accomplished
greater results in producing an enlightened and well-trained body of natives
in India than any other society, nay more, than the Government itself.
At Tirupetty, about fifty miles from Madras, there is an old temple
much frequented by pilgrims, and very interesting to the student of Indian
architecture. Pursuing the path up the hill, we go through three gopuras
curiously carved. The hill is two thousand five hundred feet high, and has
seven peaks or summits, on the last of which is the pagoda. Along the top
are ruined houses, forming a quadrangle, with stone wall enclosure. A tower
rises above these, and around is a broad belt of mango, tamarind, and
sandal trees. It is said to be one of the oldest Dravidian temples.
West of Madras about sixty miles is Arcot, the famous town which
Clive pounced upon in 1751, that he might relieve Trichinopoly. The
garrison, seeing dive's troops marching on steadily in the teeth of a thunder-
storm, thought they were fire-proof, and abandoned the place. Entering it,
Clive held the place during a fifty days' siege, and repelled the assaults
of the Mohammedan troops. Arcot is now a large and prosperous town.
Beyond lies Mysore, one of the most flourishing of the native tributary
states in India, occupying a table-land lofty, well-wooded and cool, where is
the famous Seringapatam, now almost in ruins, and Bangalore, one of the
healthiest cities in India, with a large British settlement. Scattered over
the table-land are many huge isolated rocks called drugs, four thousand feet
above the sea, and formeriy used as fortresses. Coorg is a mountainous
district, thickly-wooded, with extensive coffee and tea plantations. Worthiest
of record is the name of a native, Samuel Flavel, a man of great origin-
ality, intellectual power and untiring zeal, who for twenty years (i 826-1 847),
was instrumental in spreading Christianity with its civilising influences in
Mysore.
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
MADRAS SURF.
The coast voyage from Madras to Calcutta occupies eight days, and
gives an opportunity of seeing the main ports, the steamer calling daily at
some place on the way, and stopping four or six hours. Of the entire
voyage the most difficult and disagreeable part often is the passage over
the surf from the shore to the ship. The morning was calm ; yet the
huge billows were rolling in in all their majesty and strength. There lay
our Masulah boat waiting to receive us. These boats are twenty-five feet
long, eight feet broad, and six feet deep. They are flat-bottomed and
pointed and curved up high at either end. They are exceedingly light,
and draw only three inches of water. There is not a nail in them nor a
rib of timber ; they arc sewn together with cocoa-nut fibre, and padded
inside with straw, outside with tow. They yield to the force of the
wave and to the bump of the shore. As they lie on the sand, they
seem to you immovable ; but the native boatmen, twelve in number,
soon push their obedient and easily managed craft to the advancing
lip of the wave ; it is carried out as this retreats, and they dexterously
jump in, lay hold of their paddles, and pull with their might. The
helmsman steers with a long and powerful oar, and thus keeps the bow
to the waves. And now you see approaching the next yawning wave high
above you, and threatening to engulf you ; but meeting it, the sloping
bow mounts up perpendicularly, shipping perhaps a quantity of spray, but
springing first to the top and then over the crest of the huge billow,
and down again into the shallow water left as the wave rolls on. In
calm weather only three of these huge billows are dangerous, and these
MASULIPA TAM.
surmounted, you are safe. But the boatmen have been trained to the
work from boyhood, and handle their craft with marvellous skill. Though
a daily feat, the novelty seems never to wear off. They are all excitement,
and cheer over each leap and plunge. Besides the Masulah boats, another
kind of craft is used by the natives, called a catamaran, which is simply
a raft constructed of three pieces of timber ten or twelve feet long, tied
together, the middle one being longer than the others and curved upwards
at the ends. It is driven through the surf by a man with a paddle, who is
often washed off, but is so well practised that he leaps on again in an instant.
With these amphibious creatures the catamaran keeps on its way where a
boat would inevitably be lost. It took us half an hour in the Masulah boat
to reach our ship, the boatmen keeping time to a monotonous song.
The first port off which we anchored on our coasting voyage north-
wards was Masulipatam. Masulipatam is a very old and important city of
forty thousand inhabitants, situated in the Telugu District, and between the
deltas of the two mighty rivers, the Krishna and the Godavery. Telugu
is the most melodious and soft of the Dravidian languages, and is spoken
throughout the portion of the Madras Presidency e.xtending northward
to Orissa. It is also spoken far inland in the Nizam's dominions. The
great rivers, the Krishna (or Kistna) and the Godavery form the character-
istic physical features of the country. Both rise in the Western Ghauts,
seventy miles north-west of Bombay, the Godavery near Nassick, and they
sweep across the vast table-land from west to east, flowing right across the
Indian peninsula, winding their way by deep defiles through the Eastern
Ghauts, and spreading over the country in immense deltas as they empty
themselves into the sea. Formerly these rivers were a peril to the country,
overflowing their banks and sweeping whole villages away. But the irriga-
tion works of modern enterprise "have turned the furious streams into
ministering angels." Colossal anicuts, or dams, have with immense labour
been thrown across them, and the water is carried by canals over the whole
country, which has thus become one of the richest grain-producing districts
in India. Masulipatam possesses a cotton manufacture, distinguished for
the bright and beautiful colours of its cloth. In the centre of the city,
where the streets meet, are thirty-three huge limestone slabs covered with
alto- and bas-reliefs brought from the ruins of a neighbouring pagoda.
Masulipatam is the centre of the operations of the Church Missionary
Society in this part of India; the noble High School for the thorough
education of young Hindus is distinguished in influence and success, and its
pupils are to be found in almost every department, as sub-magistrates, school-
masters and even deputy collectors. Inland, at Guntur, the American
Lutherans have a flourishing mission. In this district are the Buddhist topes
of Amravati, fragments of which are in the British Museum. The rails
are the most richly ornamented in India, and furnish a series of pictures
«7
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
of Buddhism, "unsurpassed" says Fergusson, "by anything now known to
exist in India."
Another night's voyage brought us northwards to Cocanada, north of
the river in the Godavery District, where we spent our second day. Land-
ing in the morning, we made our way to the compound of the Canadian
Baptist Mission, delightfully shaded with banyan and pipul trees, and there
we heard much of the marvellous conversions at Nellore and Ongole,
where eight thousand natives had in one month embraced Christianity, owing
to Christian kindness during the famine. Here we travelled inland about
five miles in coffin-like palanquins, with twelve bearers to each, who went
dolefully along on the high banks of a canal keeping time with their voices
in the heat of the day, to a lonely pagoda whose towering gopura is a
PALMYRAS IN THE GODAVERY.
revolting sight. It is, in fact, a mass of obscenity cut in stone, such as one
could hardly imagine depravity itself capable of inventing. Yet this is
connected with, nay, is part and parcel of the religion of Brahma ; that
religion upon the excellency of which some Sanscrit professors expatiate !
One sight of this temple at Cocanada would suffice to disabuse them of their
fine pictures of Hinduism and of the elevating power of the Vedas. A
few pet quotations are always at hand when one would praise Brahmanism.
They are in the oldest Vedas, grains of wheat in the bushel of chaff. If
we would learn what the Hindu religion really is, and what are its practical
fruits, we must visit the temples of India.
Next morning we reached Vizagapatam, or Vizag, as it is briefly called.
The headland (one thousand seven hundred feet), as approached from the
VrXAGAPATAAf.
south, is called the Dolphin's Nose ; there is a huge cave on the sea-line,
and the cliffs are imposing. On the hill above the creek three striking
buildings meet the eye — a heathen temple, a Mohammedan mosque, and a
Roman Catholic church. As we landed, we saw crowds of poor women
working as porters, and carrj'ing huge boxes of cargo. Vizagapatam is in
the province called the Northern Circars, extending about five hundred miles
along the Bay of Bengal, and among the earliest possessions of the East
India Company. The natives are a fine class of men, both in physique and
BRAHMAN FREPARF.n FOR ?RAVRR
CALCUTTA.
hundred and forty-six Euro-
peans were imprisoned in the
Black Hole, a small chamber
eighteen feet square in the
Fort, and one hundred and
twenty-three were smothered
to death. The Black Hole
was destroyed in 1818. In
January of 1757 Clive won
back the settlement ; and the
place has gradually grown in
size and importance until now
it is the centre of Govern-
ment, the seat of the Viceroy,
and if we include Howrah, on
the opposite bank of the river,
now connected with the city by
a bridge, it numbers nine hun-
dred thousand inhabitants.
Government House is a
huge and imposing building,
and in it is that famous Council
Room, with the portraits of
Hastings and others 011 its
walls, where the welfare or
fate of millions of souls has
often hung in the balance. In
the immediate neighbourhood,
are the modem and majestic
Law Courts, with towers and
fretted roof. Behind, rises
the dome of the Post Office, a
noble building ; and along the
road called Chowringee, look-
ing out upon the Maidan, or
common, six miles in circum-
ference, are the large houses,
each within its gardens or
"compound," that have won
for the place the name "City
of Palaces ; " while the ravages
of climate upon the health
of European residents have
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
suggested the parody, " City of Pale Faces." There are many statues and
monuments about the Maidan, the creatures of official inspiration. To the west
is the river, with its forest of masts ; and Fort William, which covers some
acres between the Maidan and the river to the south, is an imposing barrack
with a very noble church. To the north runs the Chidpore Road, through the
Black Town, full of natives and native shops, and parallel with it Cornwallis
Street, noted for its charitable and educational institutions. These institu-
tions all over Calcutta stand as the memorials of illustrious names. Here
it was that Bishop Wilson toiled, and here stands his church, St. John's.
Here, too, in a conspicuous position stands the Scotch Church, where the
zealous and self-denying Dr. Duff laboured. In Cornwallis Square, is the
College which he first founded, now in the hands of the Scotch Estab-
lished Church ; near it is the Free Church College, afterwards built by
Dr. Duff, in which he taught for many years, and where a thousand young
men and boys are daily assembled for religious and secular education. It is a
giant building, and in the centre hall, where the school is wont to assemble
to hear the Scriptures every morning, now stands a bust of that noble
presence, placed there in loving remembrance of the founder. Not far off, on
the banks of the river, is the Burning Ghaut, in the native quarter, where
the process of cremation may be witnessed every day.
Early one morning, after the usual Chota-Hasri, or "little breakfast,"
served in the bedroom before rising, I was taken by a friend in a
boat down the Hoogly to the Botanic Gardens, beyond the deserted-looking
Bishop's College. The air on the river was cold and damp, reminding one
a little of London fog, a strange contrast to the noonday heat of the city.
A few boatmen were plying their craft lazily along. Opposite was the
palace of the deposed monarch of Oude, who keeps tigers in his grounds.
Landing at a wharf on the west bank, we at once entered the gardens,
which cover three hundred acres, and happily combine the natural with the
artificial ; they contain beautiful specimens of the Mauritius, the talipot, the
sago and other palms, a large variety of crotons, and, above all, a great
banyan tree, with a girth of eighteen yards, whose branches and descending
roots extend to a circumference of three hundred yards.
The same day we visited Kalighat, which gave its name to Calcutta,
and is situated on the bank .of an old bed of the Ganges, four miles south
of the city. The legend is that when the corpse of the goddess Kali, wife
of Siva, was cut in pieces by order of the gods, one of her fingers fell here,
and a temple was raised in her honour. The present temple was built three
hundred years ago, and renewed in 1809; its priests are called " Haldar,"
and amass great wealth from the daily offerings of pilgrims. There are
many festivals, to which immense crowds resort, especially on the second
day of the Dnrja Pnja, the great Bengali religious festival in honour
of the goddess, held at the autumnal equino.K. The street off which
CALCUTTA.
■
the temple lies is full. of shops for the sale of idol pictures, images and
charms. When we arrived, sacrifices were being offered in the midst of
an excited crowd. In an area before the temple stood the priest, and
beside him the executioner, sword in hand. We saw three kids and two
buffaloes sacrificed. The head of the victim is fastened in a wooden vice,
its body is held up by the hind legs, and tht; sacrificer strikes with his sword.
If the head is severed with one stroke, the victim is considered acceptable
to the goddess, and its blood is collected by the priest, carried into the
shrine, and sprinkled upon her huge projecting tongue. We could see in
the distance the hideous idol within, its tongue streaming with blood.
If the head of the animal is not severed with the first stroke, it is considered
unacceptable, and is cast aside. The officiating Brahman, almost naked, with
BANYAN IN CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS.
the sacred cord round his neck, was a fierce-looking, but very shrewd man.
He could speak English. We found that he had been when a boy five
years at the Bhowanipore Mission School, and that a near kinsman of his
was a convert to Christianity and a missionary. Upon my saying, " How
can you carry on the.se revolting rites ? You know that they are vain, and
a pretence," he replied, " Yes, I know it ; but the people will have it, and
I must get my living." The man evidently disbelieved in his heathenism,
and might be a professor of Christianity if he saw it would pay. It was
strange and saddening to see these bloody, exciting, and degrading rites amid
a huge gathering of devotees within a few miles of English civilisation and
fashion. Only a mile away is the large college and compound of the London
Mission. Two miles nearer town stands the cathedral of St. Paul, in "the
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
churchwarden Gothic style," with its Hbrary and statue of Bishop Heber.
And in the evening the fashionables of Calcutta, pale and listless, might
be seen rolling in gay equipages in lines three deep, across the Maidan, and
by the shipping along the river-side, and gathering round the band in the
Eden Gardens. In the temple area
at Kalighat, around the shrine of
Kali, you see Hindu caste and
W,Wd^'.j>y^ idolatry in all their proud and de-
vout barbarism ; the same day, at
evening, in the Eden Gardens,
around the band you may witness
•■fe ^iR^Jt %- ^^ pomp and vanity of Anglo-
from the haughty
lives upon the taxes,
to the industrious
tradesman who pays
them. Brahman and
Sudra you find alike
in both assemblies ;
and it is not easy
to decide which is
the more unreason-
able and inexcusable,
the heathen or the
official pride.
The Mohamme-
dans of Calcutta
have a large educa-
tional establishment,
called the Madrisa,
where the pupils
are instructed in
languages and Mo-
hammedan law, and
graduate at the
Calcutta University.
The new theistic sect
called the Brahmo-
somaj has a Mandir,
or church, for the " Progressive Brahmos," as the party headed by K. C.
Sen is called. They have normal and adult schools, and a small girls'
school. The Hindu College, in College Square, is a handsome building of
the Ionic order.
KELIGIOUS MENDICANT.
JU
SERAAfPORE.
Starting one morning early by railway from Sealdah Station, we travelled
about eighteen miles north to Samnuggur, where we were taken over a
cotton factory, and found the rooms as airy as in Lancashire, though, of
course, hotter. The workpeople looked healthy and content. The average
wages per month are, for a girl, ten shillings ; a woman, si.xteen shillings ;
a man thirty-two shillings. The Hoogly, which flows close by, is deep
and wide, and there is an interesting old temple with beautifully carved
stone in the neighbourhood. The river view is very picturesque, com-
manding a reach of the river, teeming with rural beauty. Farther up
are Hugli and Bandel, where is a monastery said to be the oldest in
Bengal, dating from 1599. Returning to Barrackpore, on the same line, we
drove through the park, a charming, quiet retreat, not unlike Kew Gardens,
on the banks of the Hoogly, whither the Viceroy usually comes to spend
the Sunday. The house commands a noble prospect si.x miles down the
river. A short distance off is Lady Canning's tomb, which occupies a
charming spot on the banks of the river. Her remains have long since
been removed to England. The park contains many good trees, palms of
various kinds, banyan trees, lovely pine-like casuarinas, and graceful bamboos.
In the neighbourhood are the filtering-beds, through which the waters of
the Ganges pass to supply Calcutta.
Immediately opposite to Barrack|)ore, on the west bank of the river, is
Serampore, once a Danish settlement, thirteen miles from Calcutta, where are
the famous Baptist College and the
scenes of the labours of Carey,
Marshman, and Ward. Carey
landed at Calcutta in 1 793, and
after some struggles for subsist-
ence set up a printing press. His
colleagues came in 1 797 : and
they would all have been re-
shipped by the authorities, had
they not found refuge at Seram-
pore, under the protection of
the Danish flag. The college
is a substantial building, with
a noble staircase, and possesses
a fine library, in which is an
interesting collection of Bibles
in Oriental languages, and some
valuable manuscripts. One of
Carey's, a polyglot dictionary
of Sanscrit words with the corresponding word in six languages, is beautifully
written, and shows the toil and perseverance of its author. The burial-
SCRAMPORK COLLEGE.
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
ground is about half a mile distant, where lie the mortal remains of Carey,
Ward, and Marshman. Carey's tomb has this inscription :
William Carey.
Born, 17th August, 1761 ;
Died, 9th June, 1834.
" A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall."
martyn's home, aldeen, serampore.
The tombs of all three missionaries have domes, supported on pillars ; but
the ground has the air of neglect and decay, and the wall near Carey's
tomb is broken down. We next drove to the Danish church in which Carey
preached. It is now in the hands of the Establishment. Near the mission
chapel a large jute factory has been erected. Not far off, on the river
side, at Aldeen, stood the pagoda where another eminent missionary, Henry
Martyn, took up his abode on his arrival in India in the year 1806, and
io8
ox THE WAY TO DARJEELING.
where he spent many hours in learning Hindustani and translating portions
of the Scriptures. It is a picturesque and interesting spot. He thus speaks
of it in his journal : " The habitation assigned me by Mr. Brown, is a
pagoda in his grounds, on the edge of the river. Thither I retired at
nit, and rode on to the delightfully placed lodgings
which we had beforehand engaged, distant just fifteen minutes' walk from
the Observatory Hill and the Mall, and with the sublime snows towering
high before us ; — a spot nmch frequented by Calcutta officials during the
hot season.
"J
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
At sunrise on Sunday morning I walked round the Mall and up to the
Observatory, which commands a full view of the stupendous scenery. Never
did I understand so fully the force of the apostle's expression, " depth and
height," as now that I had before me the giant mountains, and looked
down into the depths, deeper and deeper still, six thousand feet, into the
forest-clad ravine of the Great Ranjit river, and then slowly raised my
eyes higher and higher through the successive ridges of foliage and rocks,
till they reached the eternal snows, and still far up and up to the peaks
soaring into the sky. From the
lowest point which the eye can reach
in the Ranjit valley to the highest
peak of Kinchinjunga, the vertical
height is not less than five miles
— such a thickness of the earth's
crust being probably nowhere else
visible on the earth's surface.
More than twelve peaks can be
counted which rise above twenty
thousand feet. The air was cold
and bracing, the grass was crisp
and white with frost ; the sun
shot his rays across in dazzling
splendour, and in the stillness and
brightness of the scene one felt
as if transported to another world.
After morning service in the little
English church, I went down to
the square bazaar or market-place,
which is crowded on Sundays
with strange nationalities. Here
were the old aborigines, the Lep-
CHAS, with Mongolian type of face,
oblique eyes, high cheek-bones,
clad in striped cotton garments ;
the men with pigtails like the
Chinese, the women with nose-rings and large silver ornaments, some with
strings of rupees. They are a small, plain, but powerful- looking race,
inured to hardship, nomadic, but amiable. Their besetting sin is gambling.
They are a merry and careless people, with but little thought of the morrow.
They are very fond of quoits, using pieces of slate for the purpose, which
they throw with great dexterity. They always wear a long knife, curved
like a sickle and stuck in the girdle, which serves them to fell trees, skin
animals, build huts, pare their nails, sever their food, and even pick their
HIMiLAYA HILL GIRL.
DARJEELING.
teeth. Rice is their staple food. Their language is a Thebetan dialect, and
their religion a corrupt Buddhism.
Here, too, in large numbers, were the Bhooteas, tall and robust,
sturdy, flat-faced people, weather-beaten, with broad mouths and flat
noses ; their complexion whitish yellow, but encrusted with dirt, and tar, and
smoke. They seldom wash. They are dressed in loose blankets girt about
the waist with a leather belt, in which they place their brass pipes, their
long knives, chopsticks, tindcr-bo.x, tobacco-pouch and tweezers, with which
they pluck away all trace of beard. They wear stout woven boots — boot
and stocking in one. The women have their faces tarred, and their hair
b plaited in two tails, the neck loaded with strings of coral and amber,
large heavy, round earrings, dragging down the lobe of the ear. They are
always spinning. The Bhooteas are Buddhists, and believe in the efficacy
of praying-machines. When crossing mountains they hang little scraps of
rag on the bushes, as a prayer for safety, and place grains of rice along the
hillside to propitiate evil spirits. They bury their dead on the mountains,
raising cairns over them.
Here, again, one might see the light and agile Nei)alese, with intelli-
gent and pleasing countenances, active and enduring, and brave to a degree,
as the Nepal war (1816) witnesses. Their secluded valleys are rich in
forest and minerals, and on the frontier indigo is largely grown. Their
dogs are yellow-fanged, wolf-like, fierce, surly creatures, but invaluable watch-
dogs. Nepal proper is a small valley twelve miles by nine at the foot of this
part of the Himalayan range, but the country e.xtends west from Sikkim
to Kumaon. The ruling race are called Ghurkas. Here Buddhism and
Vaishnavism are found side by side. The temples are of wood, and remind
one of those of Japan. The temple of Mahadeva at Patau presents both
styles of architecture, the Hindu and the Thibetan or Turanian side by side.
The capital of Nepal is Khatmandu, and contains a beautiful temple in
the Chinese style. The view of the Himalayas to the north-east is
very grand. The ragged Lama mendicant is also to be met with, and
Sherbas and Thibetan beggars, jovial, but easily excited. Intermingled with
these native mountain tribes were stolid Chinamen, proud Mahommedans,
and graceful Hindus. In the midst of the bustle and bartering, the mis-
sionary had his open room, or shed, into which the jxiople came to hear
hymn, or prayer, or Scripture. In the Bhootea village there is a small,
dirty Buddhist temple called Bhootea Bustee. The Lamas, or priests, are
also of a low type, unctuous, sly, insolent. They sell praying-machines
(Mani), and use them in their worship, continually turning tliem round.
Indeed, you enter the temple between two huge cylinders, like pillars, two
feet in diameter and six feet high, which are gigantic praying machines,
turned by means of a winch. Here we met many Thibetans returning to
their country with heavy burdens.
««7
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
Rising one morning while it was yet dark and starlight, we mounted
our ponies, and, with guides, started for the ascent of the Sinchal Moun-
tain (eight thousand three hundred feet), six miles from Darjeeling. Riding
through the military sanatorium to " the Saddle," or Johr Bungalow, we
PALACE AND TEMPLE, KHATMANDU, NEPAL.
began the ascent up a steep winding track through the jungle, and after an
hour's climb reached the Chimneys — the ruins of the first military station —
perched upon a ridge, or shoulder of Sinchal, where Kinchinjunga and its
neighbour peaks burst on our view, kindled with the rays of the rising sun.
The air was perfectly clear, and the sky cloudless. Here we dismounted, and
ii8
DARJEEUNG.
scrambled through brushwood and snow to the summit, which is specially
celebrated, because of the glorious prospect it commands — the sweep of the
Himalayan range, including Everest itself, the presiding monarch of them
all, the highest mountain in the world. There he rose to our view, of sugar-
loaf shape, far off, but clear cut against the sky. The entire range " Pelion
on Ossa piled," was now before us as far as the eye could reach in a clear
atmosphere and a cloudless sky. It was like looking from a Pisgah across
the valleys and over moun-
tains to a new and loftier
country. Here one is over-
whelmed with the majesty of
Nature and the power of the
Almighty. The deep blue
sky, the pure white snows,
the clear-cut precipices, the
dark, shady ravines, the dense
primeval forests, all impress
the spectator with the presence
of God. Having filled the eyt*
and mind with the sublimity
of a prospect never to be for-
gotten during two hours spent
on that green, but now frost-
whitened mountain, we reluct-
antly descended to the shoulder
where our ponies were, and
returned thankful and exultant
that we had been so favoured
in the weather ; for these grand-
eurs are often enveloped in
mist or cloud for days together.
The annual average rainfall
at Darjeeling is nine feet eight
inches — one hundred and si.\-
teen inches— June to Septem-
ber being the wettest months.
The descent from Darjeeling to the Ranjit river, which separates it from
the Himalayan range, is six thousand feet in eleven miles, and the river
is crossed by one of those cane bridges which are peculiar to this part of
the world. The main chains supporting the bridge are branches of trees,
and rattan canes ; the sides are of split canes, hanging from each main chain,
two feet apart. Into these loops the foot-path is laid, composed of three
bamboos, the thickness of a man's arm, laid side by side, the section of the
DANDY TRAVELLING, HIMALAYAS.
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
bridge resembling the letter V, in the angle or base of which the traveller
finds footing. The piers of these bridges are generally two convenient trees
through whose branches the main chains are passed and pegged into the
ground beyond. Only one traveller can pass over at a time, and the spring
liRIDGE OVER THE RANJIT RIVER, DARJEELTNG.
and oscillation are considerable, but strong bamboos are placed underneath
and connected with the main chains by split rattan ropes to prevent the
bridge from collapsing with the weight.
At the lower edge of the great forest which clothes the Sinchal lies
a botanical garden, lonely and lovely, the Rungaroon Garden, where we
DARJEELING.
found roses, scarlet geraniums, verbenas, and many English plants and
flowers in the midst of tropical luxuriance. The garden is to be devoted
to such indigenous plants, epiphytes, orchids, gingers, etc., as are not
likely to thrive in the moister and more shady forest sections. The p.-xth
leading to this spot is rich in forest beauty. Beyond are some of the tea
and cinchona plantations for which Darjeeling is famous, and which, as the
slopes are cleared, mar in some degree the beauty of the nearer hills.
The tea gardens are laid out in the most unromantic fashion, acre upon
acre planted with straight rows of bushes two feet high with small glazed
dark green leaves, and in the centre the manager's bungalow flanked by
long ranges of low buildings, where the process of drying, sorting and
packing is carried on. The Bhootea coolies, both men and women, may be
seen carrying chests of immense weight up the steepest hills. They leave
the railway porters of England far behind. A story is told that one of
these sturdy women actually brought up a grand piano on her back from
Kursiong to the station. The work on the plantations is not so laborious.
It consists mainly in deep hoeing between the lines of trees as weeds
appear, and careful hand weeding. In November of the third year, when
the plant is four feet high, it is pruned down to twenty inches, that the
young leaves may be plucked easily ; and six weeks afterwards, when the
tea plant is said to " flush," or throw out new shoots six inches high,
the picking is repeated, and so on at intervals of twenty days for eight
months. Tea can be made only of these young and tender leaves, and
the plucking requires gentle touch, women and children being employed.
For sorting, rolling, drying, etc., machinery is generally used.
The cinchona (quinine) plantations in the Darjeeling district cover
nearly two thousand acres, stocked with about three million cinchona trees.
The quinine comes from the bark. Quinidine, or cinchonidine, chiefly from
the red cinchona, is a good substitute for quinine. It is produced in large
quantities, and is obtainable at a much more moderate cost.
Language cannot describe the glory of the Himalayas seen from
Darjeeling lit up by the rays of the setting sun. From the Observatory
more than twelve peaks can be counted, which rise above twenty thousand
feet, and none are below fifteen thousand. Against the azure sky, in an
atmosphere far clearer than we ever see in England, the snowy range reflects
the colours of the sunset, ever changing and deepening in richness from
bright yellow to pink, from pink to crimson, and long after the sun has set
to us. Well may one writer speak of the view as " something to be treasured
as one of the most noteworthy moments of his life ; " and another of " the
deep happiness of a sojourn in this enchanted land, sentinelled by the ever-
lasting mountains." And the contrast from these " abodes of snow," to the
luxuriant tropical vegetation surrounding us on every hand, clothing the richly-
wooded hills through which we drive, is hardly less striking and impressive.
«#
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
The natives are loth to stir early, for they feel the morning cold, and are
ill prepared against it as to clothing ; but with the Himalayas now bright
with the rising sun we succeeded in starting by Tonga Dak (a sort of
dog-cart) at 8 a.m., reaching Kursiong at 1 1 a.m. and Sillijuri in time for
the evening train. The transition as we drove along from snow and frost to
firs and oaks, then to rhododendrons, indiarubber-trees, tree-ferns of immense
size, golden ferns with stems three feet high, and wondrous orchids, white.
RAILWAY TRAVELLING.
yellow, and purple, banks studded with stag-moss and yellow calceolarias,
scented magnolia and magnificent bamboos — gives an exhilaration and excitement
not to be had to the same extent in any other part of the world.
The East Indian Railway runs north-west from Calcutta up the Ganges
valley nine hundred and fifty-four miles to Delhi ; and at Delhi it meets the
Scinde Punjab and Indus Valley State Railways, which complete the iron road
by Lahore away still northward to Peshawar, and southwards to Karachi,
that important and rising port at the mouth of the Indus one thousand one
•V
NATIVE LIFE AND EMPLOYMENT.
hundred and sixty-nine miles from Delhi. Thus the railway journey across India
from Calcutta to Karachi is two thousand one hundred and twenty-three
miles, and from Calcutta to Bombay, branching south from Allahabad, is fourteen
hundred and nine miles. The river Ganges with its tributaries drains an area of
three hundred and ninety thousand square miles, including the Lower Provinces
of Bengal, the North-West Provinces and Oude. Here the Aryan race, entering
from the north-west, attained their full strength and development. Hindi,
Hindustani, or Bengali is their language, with the written character called
GRAIN SELLERS.
Nagari, resembling the ancient Sanscrit. The population is estimated at
sixty millions. Their life is for the most part a struggle for existence by the
tillage of the soil — rice, plantains, cocoanuts, and the cultivation of indigo,
hemp, cotton and the opium poppy. The land Is not, as in B|>gland, parcelled
out into farms. There are wealthy proprietors, who hold large tracts by
grant, purchase, or hereditarj^uccession ; but the tenants are literally children
of the soil. Wherever a village nestles among its plantains or mango groves,
the land is parcelled out among the villagers. The villagers or immediate
cultivators of soil are called ryols. The land-owners are called zamindars.
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
A large proprietor does not reckon up his farms, but he counts his villages.
Often between the zamindars and the ryots there are middle-men or lease-
holders {painidars), who are sometimes indigo planters. Having got the
village on lease, you summon the tenants, show them their rent account, and
get them to agree to cultivate a certain percentage of the land in indigo.
The compact being made, the ryots are your slaves for ever. The sowing
of every year goes to pay the debt of the last, and the debt must be paid
off by so many bundles of the indigo plant. The planter's bungalow is a
fine-looking house, with an immense compound. In front of it is the factory,
and at some distance miserable huts in which the coolies live.' In the
i.i....v,K CARRIAGE.
cultivation of the land bullocks are used for draught and carriage. The'
Bengal plough is much the same as the Greek or Roman one. " The English
have no idea," says Sir J. B. Phear, " of the extreme poverty of the
bulk of the Bengal population. Seven rupees a month will support a
whole family. Food is the principal item, and probably one rupee eight
annas a month will suffice to feed an adult man, and twelve annas a
woman." Yet the salt tax alone averages annually a hundred and twelve
annas per head upon the entire population. " Famine," says another experi-
enced writer, "is the horizon of the Indian villager; insufficient food is the
' Any one who would learn what Indian village life is, should read Sms-tl Peasant Life, by the Rev. L. B. Day ;
and T/ie Aryan Village, by Sir J. B. Phear.
■ >'4
RURAL LIFE.
foreground. And this is the more extraordinary, since the villager is
surrounded by a dreamland of plenty. Everywhere you see fields flooded
deep with millet and wheat. The village and its old trees have to climb on
to a knoll to keep their feet out of the glorious poppy and the luscious
sugar-cane. Sumptuous cream-coloured bullocks move sleepily about with
an air of luxurious sloth. Everything is steeped in repose. The bees mur-
mur their idylls among the flowers ; the doves moan their amorous complaints
from the shady leafage of pipal
trees ; out of the cool recesses of
wells the idle cooing of the
pigeons ascends into the summer-
laden air ; the rainbow-fed cha-
meleon slumbers on the branch ;
the enamelled beetle
on the leaf; the little
fish is in the sparkling
depths below ; the ra-
diant kingfisher, trem-
ulous as sunlight, in
mid-air : and the pea-
cock with furled glories,
on the temple tower of
the silent gods. Amid
this easeful and luscious
splendour the villager
labours and starves.
While he has to main-
tain the glorious phan-
tasmagoria of an im-
perial policy, while he
has to support legions
of scarlet soldiers,
golden cuprassies, pur-
ple politicals, and green
commissions, he must
remain the hunger-
stricken, over-driven
phantom that he is."'
tax, salt tax, feast tax,
THt'CS.
What with income tax, licence tax, succession
and fast tax, his hookah — his " bubble bubble," so
called from the gurgling noise of the water inside the cocoanut-shell— is his
only solace amid the privations of his wretched life. When he would
protest, he dies of famine ; this is his revenge.
■ TwtMly-ou Days in IiiJia, by G. A. Mackay.
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
Through this vast district the railroad now wends its way. Before it came
along the great trunk road travellers were often attacked, robbed, and even
murdered in the days of Thug notoriety. The Thugs, who abounded chiefly
in the forests, were fanatics who made highway robbery part of their religion,
and declared that their victims were sacrifices to the goddess Kali. Disguised
as peaceful travellers, they would first engage in simple and friendly greeting,
looking gentle and unassuming, and then suddenly they would throw the
handkerchief noose round the neck of the wayfarer, strangle him in a
moment, and rifle him of all he possessed. Sometimes a girl appeared sitting
at the wayside weeping. The traveller, in pity, might stop to speak to her ;
but if so he was doomed. She soon had the noose round his throat, and
strangled him on the spot. Since 1830 Thuggism has been suppressed, but
the instinct possesses the thieves still, and the sight of the noose will cause
the calm features to blaze with fury. In the school of industry at Jabalpur,
some aged Thugs, proud of their race and profession, may still be seen. A
visitor anxious to understand their mode of strangling, submitted his neck
to be operated upon, but at the great risk of his life ; for with the kind-
ling instinct of the Thug, the illustration threatened in another moment
to become a reality. Datura poisoning is still practised by the same class
of people. An old man and his son were lately poisoned for the sake
of a new blanket by a gang of Thugs. The railroad now conveys us in
ease and security over these vast plains. About one hundred and twenty
miles from Calcutta we pass through Ranigunge, where there is the largest
and most important coalfield in India. The miners are Bhowries and
Sontals, low of stature, and great toilers, the former using the pick, the
latter only the crowbar in getting the coal. The mines are not deep, and
they are free from firedamp. In this district is Parasnath, the highest peak
in Bengal proper, four thousand six hundred feet above the sea. It is a place
of great sanctity to the Jains, who make yearly pilgrimages hither, and who
strongly opposed the sanatorium for sick soldiers now erected on it. The
mountain commands a grand panorama of the surrounding country, with its
winding rivers and its wooded hills. The Sontals have made their way
north to Raj Mahal, where by industry they have established themselves.
Their villages are quite distinct and separate from those occupied by Hindus.
The chord line carries us between Chotia Nagpur on the south, and
Behar on the north. Chotia Nagpur is a mountainous province inhabited
chiefly by Dravidian tribes, the Kols and Oraons, among whom the Lutheran
missionaries laboured successfully for many years. It is a succession of high
tablelands called Pats, three thousand feet above the sea. In Behar we
have the Patna district, which is famous for its rice, and the Gaya district,
famous for its Buddhist remains. Behar, indeed, is the cradle of Buddhism,
and the name is only a corruption of Vthara, a cave, or temple. Near
Gaya is the site of the famous Bo-Tree, under which Gautama Buddha taught ;
I2«
BYGONE DAYS IN TRAVELLING.
and the Elephant Rock, on which he sat with his disciples, is still pointed
out. Here it was that Gautama learnt that the path to salvation lay not
in penance and self-torture, but in preaching a higher life to his fellow-men.
Here he became "the Buddha," the Enlightened, and began a ministry
of love that lasted till his death at the age of eighty. In front of the
Bo-Tree is the Buddh Gaya Temple, dating from the seventh centur}', and
the Buddh Gaya rails are supf>osed to be the oldest Hindu sculptures
hitherto found. There are several groups of cave temples, more or less
ruined, in the neighbourhood, and bearing date from Asoka, B.C. 250.
lkAVkLUi«i M'AU.OMS.
Hindu pilgrims come hither to adore the footprint of Vishnu on a rock.
Shraddhas, i.e.. offerings in honour of departed relatives, arc performed
here at the Vishnu-pada temple, situated on one of the ridges, and built of
black stone with a lofty dome and golden pinnacle. Various offerings are
placed by the pilg^ms round the footprint, the object being to help the
progress of the souls of ancestors departed to heaven, and the time occupied
in the rites being at least eight days.
The loop line runs through Behar and brings us through Colgong, where
several rocky islands of granite interrupt the channel of the Ganges ; the
chief of these, Divinath, a sacred island, is crowned with a Hindu temple.
THE BENGAL PROVINCES.
Several idols are carved on the rocks, and in places there are wedge-marks,
showing that monoliths have been split off. These are the only rocks that
interrupt the course of the Ganges for a thousand miles. The boats on the
Ganges used for the conveyance of grain, cotton, etc., float down the stream
at the rate of four miles an hour ; and when ascending they hoist a sail,
and are carried up by the south wind which habitually blows. The small
English steamers on the river had originally the ordinary rudder ; but it was
found necessary to adopt the large broad helm which the native boats have
had from time immemorial, as the only shape which would act in the strong
current.
COLGONG ROCKS, GANGES.
i>8
AND OVD^.
.IIOOL, ALL.V..
THE NORTH-WE^T PROVINCE? AND OUDE-
BENARES, THE HOLY CITY THE MUTINY CITIES : LUCKNOW
AND CAWNPORE— THE MOHAMMEDAN CITIES: AGRA AND
ALLAHABAD.
^ ow pleasant, after a long wearisome railway journey of
five hundred miles across the plains of Bengal, on
reaching the terminus opposite the great stronghold
of heathenism, Benares, the sacred city of the
Hindus, with the mighty Ganges flowing between,
to find Christians and friends waiting to receive you.
So was it with us when on our arrival, a sa^-ce, or
footman, from the mission conducted us across the bridge of
boats and through the city four miles to the European settle-
ment and to our hotel ; and when presently that eminent oriental
scholar and missionary, the Rev. M. A. Sherring, whose pre-
mature death has since been announced, came to welcome and
to guide us in our plans for sightseeing. Having crossed the
Ganges, we were now in the North-West Provinces, and in the
headquarters of idolatry in India. What Jerusalem is to the
Jew, what Rome is to the Latin, what Mecca is to the Mohammedan,
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND DUDE.
Benares is to the Hindu. It contains fourteen hundred Hindu temples,
idols innumerable, and twenty thousand Brahmans. Like Paul at Athens,
the Christian's spirit is moved within him as he sees the city wholly given
to idolatry. Troops of pilgrims are continually thronging its streets, and
swarming up and down its ghats,
■■_:. "/,.,,. ^fe?i: vL:. or flights of steps leading down to
the Ganges, along which the city
stretches for three miles, rising
gracefully upon the solitary cliff, up
the face of which it is built tier
upon tier.
In Benares we see what Hin-
duism practically is. Students of
the Vedas may restrict the term
Brahmanism " to the purely panthe-
istic and not necessarily idolatrous
system evolved by the Brahmans
out of the partly monotheistic,
partly polytheistic, partly panthe-
istic religion," expressed in those
sacred songs. But it is the poly-
theistic element which has become
its life and soul, embodied as this
is in the Hinduism of India. Hin-
duism is, in fact, idolatry of the
basest kind, the worship of Vishnu
the preserver, and Siva the de-
stroyer, represented by numberless
idols and symbols of the most re-
volting character. Here in the
North-West Provinces, and above
all in Benares, Hinduism has ac-
quired a stony compactness, and
a solidity almost impenetrable.
Here Brahmanism and caste hold
sway. The Hindustani, stalwart,
tall, strong-limbed, independent,
solid, proudly rests on his good
breed, good blood, and the associations of antiquity. He adores the
social hierarchy ; and all the great events of life, births, marriages, deaths,
occupations, professions, are interlaced and enchained with the overgrown
fabric of his idolatry. And Benares is the centre of all this. It is a very
ancient city, and is frequently alluded to in early Sanscrit literature. For
t#dC.rf"
A VISHNUVITE FAKlR.
BENARES.
the sanctity of its inhabitants, of its temples and reservoirs, of its wells and
streams, Benares has been famed for thousands of years. Here, to quote the
high authority of the lamented Rev. M. A. Sherring, "Molatry is a charm, a
fascination, to the Hindu. It is, so to speak, the air he breathes. It is the
food of his soul. He is subdued, enslaved, befooled by it. The nature of
the Hindu partakes of the supposed nature of the gods whom he worships.
And what is that nature ? According to the traditions handed about amongst
the natives, and constantly dwelt upon in their conveisation, and referred to
in their popular songs — which perhaps would be sufficient proof — yet more
esf>ecially according to the numberless statements and narratives found in
their sacred writings, on which these traditions are based, it is, in many
instances, vile and abominable to the last degree. Idolatry is a word denoting
all that is wicked in imagination and impure in practice. Idolatry is a
demon — an incarnation of all evil — but nevertheless as bewitching and seduc-
tive as a Siren. It ensnares the depraved heart, coils around it like a
serpent, transfi.\es it with its deadly fangs, and finally stings it to death."
This is the testimony of a Sanscrit scholar who knew the Vedas well,
and who lived thirty years among the Hindus, at the headquarters of
Hinduism.
One Sunday, morning at seven, we drove outside the city to the Church
Mission compound, and as we approached saw the native children of the
girls' and orphans' schools walking in procession into church, all neatly
dressed, and in excellent order, so that you might imagine you were not
in Benares, but in some English countrj- parish. The bell was tolling for
service, and entering we found a goodly gathering of Hindus. The service
was read and the sermon preached in the native language. The houses of
the missionaries are within the large compound, which looked refreshingly
green and shaded with trees. Afterwards, at the London Mission compound,
which is more within the city, we found a small native congregation. Missions
have been prosecuted here now for si.\ty years by various societies ; but
little perceptible impression has been made ujxjn the citadel of heathenism.
A faithful witnessing for Jfusvs is maintained, but the converts are few.
Conversions belong to God ; and nothing so tests and testifies the strength
of the labourer's faith and zeal and love as persevering labour without appa-
rent results. During the week I visited the London Missionary College, where
four hundred native young men and boys arc educated. And as I went
from class-room to class-room, filled with scholars learning not only their
native Hindustani, but Sanscrit, Arabic, and English, as well as arithmetic,
mathematics, chemistry ; as I sat in the head-master's room— Mr. Sherring's
— and found him at wOfK teaching the Scriptures to a class of intelligent-
looking young men, all natives ; as I spoke to them in English, and heard
their shrewd questions and answers, I felt that certainly a powerful influence
here is working and multiplying, shedding light upon many minds, awakening
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
intellectual freedom, and producing a moral and religious life, before which
idolatry must eventually totter and fall.
Taking time by the forelock, and gladly seizing the cool of early
morning, we started next day under the Rev. M. A. Sherring's conduct,
to see the sights. And first we visited the mansion of the Maharajah of
Vizianagram, furnished in European style, and showing the inroads of
Western civilisation. Not far from this is the Durga Temple, at the southern
extremity of the city. Bloody sacrifices are offered to the goddess Durga
(or Kali) in front of her shrine every Tuesday. The temple swarms
with reddish-brown monkeys in every nook, along every wall, and about the
streets and bazaars. These monkeys are all regarded as living deities,
gods and goddesses, and of greater sanctity far than the poor people
living round about who are annoyed by them. Hinduism, instead of
tracing men to monkeys like Darwinism, raises monkeys to be gods,
a step higher than men. Proceeding to the Dasasamed Ghat, we left
our carriage and ascended the Man-Mandil Observatory, containing several
large astronomical instruments erected by the Rajah Say Singh in 1693.
Here there is a beautifully-carved oriel window, commanding a fine view of
the river. The Rajah Si Bahadur received us with politeness. Close by
is the temple of the rain god, supposed to exercise power over the clouds
in procuring rain. The idol is placed in a cistern low down in the
centre of the temple, and kept drenched with water. The Nepalese
temple, rising from the banks of the Ganges near the Man-Mandil Ghat,
is a strikingly picturesque object, and is now the only Buddhist temple in
Benares.
The Dasasamed Ghat is one of the five celebrated places of pilgrimage
in Benares. Here we saw one of those religious devotees called Fakirs,
who live upon charity, and obtain a reputation for sanctity by abstinence,
retaining the body in one position, and imposing severe penances upon
themselves. They suffer their hair to grow in long shaggy locks, sometimes
reaching to the ground, and their austerities are regarded with reverence
and admiration. At the Burning Ghat, whither a boat conveyed us, there lay
a corpse with wood piled round it, prepared for cremation, and another
funeral pile, with its smouldering embers just burnt out. Funeral rites are
continually going on here ; for many come to Benares as the goal of their
hope and life on purpose to die. Several pairs of short slabs set up on
end, called stittee, mark the spots where widows have been burnt alive on
the pyre of their husbands. The word sutiee means " chaste or faithful
woman." The custom was prohibited by the government in 1829; but
these spots are still the objects of worship.
Our boat conveyed us next to the steps dividing the city along the
river into two equal portions and leading up to the famous Well of
Salvation. At the top this well is twenty yards long and ten wide, and
BENARES.
flights of Steps slope down the four sides like a pyramid reversed to a narrow
trough of water at the bottom in which devotees were standing, washing
face and head, and sipping the foetid water from their hands. It is believed
that this well, filled with the sweat of Vishnu, infallibly washes away all sin.
The water is disgustingly dirty, as though it held in solution the sins it
washed away. Near this well is
the temple of Ganesh, the god of
wisdom, represented as a figure
painted red, with three eyes and
an elephant's trunk, over which a
cloth is drawn, like that which a
barber wraps about a man before
shaving him. At the feet of the
god is the figure of a rat, the
animal on which he is supposed to
ride. Passing the Rajah of Nag-
pore's Ghit, where the massive
mason r)' has given way, we saw
swarms of people streaming down
the several stairs and along the
bathing platforms as we sailed
slowly past ; and verj- picturesque
they looked, some bathing, som<
praying, some dressing, and multi-
tudes going up and coming down.
Leaving the boat at the needle-like
minarets which strike the eye in
every view of Benares, and ap-
pear in almost every photograph,
we climbed first the long, broad
flight of steps, and then the narrow
winding staircase inside the minaret,
and obtained from the summit (three
hundred feet above the river) a
wide view of the city and the
surrounding countr)'. The mosque,
with its strong and deep founda-
tions, and its exquisitely graceful
minarets, was built by Aurangzeb,
a bigot and a persecutor, the last, the most cruel, intolerant, and hated of
the Moguls, 1658-1707. He imprisoned his father, Shdh Jahdn, murdered
his brothers, imposed the Jiziah, a religious tax, on every one not Moham-
medan, destroyed Hindu temples, and built mosques out of the materials,
I.SDIAN FAKtK.
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
in particular, this at Benares, still the most conspicuous object, towering over
all the temples of Brahmanism.
Traversing the narrow streets on foot, the only way in which they can
be traversed, for nearly a mile, we next visited the famous temple of the
police deity of the city (kohval), symbolised by a huge truncheon of stone,
called dandpan, four feet high, which is worshipped by many people every
BENARES.
week. In front of it priests with rods of peacock feathers were inflicting
very gentle vicarious punishment upon the worshippers. Walking through
the quarter of the city devoted to the manufacture of Benares brasswork
(where you see boys hammering the patterns with a small punch) we reached
the Golden Temple, dedicated to the god Bisheshwar, or Siva, whose image
is the lingam, a plain conical stone set on end. This is the reigning deity
of Benares, and this is its chief temple in the city. As you approach it
t3S
BENARES.
from the north you pass through a court where is a large collection of
images chiefly linga, male and female emblems. They are from the ruins
of the older temple which Aurangzeb destroyed. They are all objects of
worship and bear marks of adoration— garlands of flowers, oil and paint.
Before the central lingam you see the Hindu worshippers prostrating them-
selves ; and this worship is the centre and culmination of Brahmanism in
India. This temple, like all the Benares temples, is of a mean and dirty
a.spect, but it is surmounted by a gilded tower and dome glittering in the
sun fifty feet high. Adjoining is the "Well of Knowledge," giving forth
a loathsome stench. The spectator turns away from all with pain, horror,
and disgust.
The great sight of Benares is, after all, its river front in the early morn-
ing, when the rays of sunrise flood the city with brightness, and its inhabit-
ants bathe in their sacred river. Seated on the deck of a large river boat,
called a dingee, we floated slowly along with the lazy tide watching the
panorama of human life and devotion. Men, women and children of all
ages were crowding the ghats and performing their ablutions in the yellow
flood, as a daily act of refreshment, of purification, and of religion ; wor-
shipping the river, basking in the sun, bottling up vessels of the sacred
water for purifying purposes at home, and then going to the priests to have
painted on their shining foreheads the distinctive marks of their caste.
Above the motley crowd rose the towering temples and the mosques, tinted
with red or burnished with gold. The Hindus are a devout and religious
people, and their zeal and earnestness in what is false, may teach a lesson to
those who know the true.
Benares is not only the headquarters of Brahmanism, it is the cradle
of Buddhism. After si.x years' asceticism and solitude at Gaya, Gautama
Buddha, B.C. 590, having experienced his temptation and his enlightenment
under the Bo-tree, made his way to Benares, affirming, " I am going to that
city, to give light to those enshrouded in darkness, and to open the gates
of immortality to men." The place where he taught, once called the Deer
Park, now Samath, lies four miles north-west of the city, and is marked
by a large collection of Buddhist remains. Here are two large Stupas or
Topes, sacred octagonal towers, built by King Asoka 250 B.C., separated
about half a mile from each other, but connected by ruins of walls and
foundations of buildings lately exhumed, and heaps of thickly scattered
bricks. The Buddhist Slupa, or Tope, is in shape and appearance like
an enormous bee-hive, raised hundreds of feet in height, beautifully orna-
mented, and surrounded by a massive stone rail. It was raisetl usually
as a memorial of some event, or as a relic-shrine. This at Benares, called
Dhamek, is a solid round tower, ninety-three feet in diameter at base, one
hundred and twenty-eight feet in height. The lower part is built entirely of
stone, the upper part of large bricks. The lower part has eight projecting
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
faces with niches to receive a statue. The eight statues have disappeared,
but they probably represented Buddha the , preacher, hfe size with upHfled
hand. The sides are richly decorated with a profusion of flowering foliage,
TOPE AT SARNATil.
below which the middle band is formed of various geometric figures deeply
cut. The upper band is a scroll of the lotus plant with leaves and buds ; the
lower band is similar but with full-blown flowers. In the middle of the
lower ornamentation there is a human figure seated on a lotus flower, and
138
BUDDHIST REMAINS A T SARNAIH.
holding two branches of the lotus in his hands. On each side of him there
are three lotus flowers, of which the four nearer ones support pairs of sacred
geese, while the two farther ones carry only single birds. Over the nearest
pair of geese on the right hand of the figure there is a frog. The attitudes
of the birds are all good, and even that of the human figure is easy,
although formal. The lotus scroll is very rich and beautiful. The breadth
of each of the eight faces is thirty-six feet six inches.
We entered a passage at the base of the tower which leads right
SCOLITORE ON TOPE AT SARNATII.
through. In the centre there is a shaft open to the top. To the west of
the tower are the remains of a great hospital and of an old Buddhist
monastery. A second tope surmounted by a tower, called Lori's Leap, con-
sists of a mound of solid brickwork seventy-four feet high. The tower above
it is an octagonal building erected (1531) to commemorate the ascent of the
mound on which it stands by the Emperor Humayun.
The last votaries of Buddha were driven from India in the twelfth
century. Numbers of images, concealed by the departing monks, are found
'39
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
burled near Sarnath ; and heaps of ashes scattered amid the ruuis show that
the monasteries were destroyed by fire. Thus it took several centuries to
extirpate Buddhism from India.
Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, a State which is now included with the
North-West Provinces, is a city of three hundred thousand inhabitants,
situated on the banks of the river Gumti, the Oudh tributary of the Ganges.
At first sight it impresses the visitor as a most beautiful city, containing
a galaxy of majestic buildings of dazzling whiteness, crowned with domes
of burnished gold and scores of minarets. But a nearer view destroys
the illusion. The white colour of the buildings is not marble, it is simply
wash, the material for the most part is not stone but stucco, and the domes
are mere shells of wood. Still the distances in the city are great, the roads
admirable and planted with trees, and the gardens and parks are for beauty
and extent unsurpassed in any city in India. The architecture of Lucknow
is for the most part tawdry and unsubstantial ; the natural loveliness of
the city's surroundings, with its well-wooded parks and charming flower
gardens, is delightful. We first drove to the Dilkusa Palace, in a beautiful
park stocked with deer, the head-quarters of Sir Colin Campbell's force
during the Mutiny of 1857. Then to the Martiniere, a strange fantastic
building almost as imposing as a stucco Versailles. It was built and
endowed by a Frenchman, Claude Martin, who came to India as a private
soldier, and died a general and a millionaire. It was originally intended as
a palace, but before it was finished the wealthy builder endowed it as a
school — a happy change ; and the spacious state-rooms are filled with little
red beds, each child having one of his own. In front is a huge tank, with
a lofty column in the centre.
One could hardly look without a shudder at the Secunder Bagh garden,
one hundred and twenty yards square, where the English troops in 1857
took their revenge by slaughtering, to a man, two thousand sepoys. The
drive through Wingfield Park, which contains many singular trees, e.g., the
bael and the fragrant sandal -wood, was exceedingly pleasant. It led us to
the Church Mission compound, containing some old buildings, very pictu-
resque. The Kaiser Bagh is an enormous structure, a mass of plaster and
stucco, in the Cremorne style of modern grandeur. Next we visited the
Chowk, a long narrow bazaar, crowded with natives who made way and
shrunk from us, not, we were told, out of respect to the conquering race,
but from religious dread of contact and pollution. The great Imambara,
" the architectural gem of Lucknow," is a huge edifice in the fort of great
solidity, with a grand hall sixty yards long, and now converted into a depot
for ordnance. The elephant stables, a short distance from the city, give
one a good idea of the majesty and docility of these creatures, when
tame and employed on state occasions. Here upwards of a hundred tame
elephants are kept by the Government, well-housed and fed, and all
LUC KNOW
well trained — a marvellous sight, especially as we saw them, when all out
on parade in a wide field, each with his mamouts or keepers. The cost
of each elephant would probably make a fat living for a hundred Hindu
families. The depots where captured elephants are kept are called Khedda.
They are usually captured in Eastern Bengal by being driven into V^-shaped
traps or corrals ; and by degrees are broken in and tamed so as to become
the most majestic and docile of beasts of burden. On state occasions these
elephants are clad in the costliest cloths, surmounted by gilded howdahs.
^f^
PAVILION OF TUKKA, KAISKR HACII, LUCKNOW.
But, of course, the centre of interest in Lucknow is the Residency,
where, in 1857, two thousand 'two hundred souls, consisting of nearly a
thousand European residents, with their women and children and native
servants, who came in for refuge, and five hundred English soldiers, under
Sir Henry Lawrence, with the same number of native soldiers who remained
faithful, kept a large army of sepoys at bay for si.x months.
The building is a large three-storieJ house, with two towers, and thick
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
wall>:, Standing on an elevation. Its o-rounds cover some acres, with scattered
buildings, and a rampart. It is a ruin, a melancholy spectacle; and the
inscriptions are most affecting, "Here Sir Henry Lawrence was wounded;"
" Here Sir Henry Lawrence died." We went down to the huge cellars.
STATE ELEPHANTS, WITH HOWDAHS, ON PARADE.
where the women and children and the sick took refuge. Marks of shot
and shell are on every hand, but Nature has mantled the spot with verdure.
Near is the burial-ground, sweet with blooming roses, but full of touching
monuments raised over the remains of those who died of disease or were
shot during the siege. July was the most fatal month. On the fourth of
LL'CKXOir.
that month, Lawrence, the beloved, the adored commander, fell. His tomb
has this inscription, embodying his own dying words: "Here lies Henry
Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May the Lord have mercy on his
soul!" Nearly three months passed after his death before Havelock came
to the rescue.
Soon afterwards, this great general himself died of disease, brought on
by the hardships of his march.
His tomb is at the Alambagh,
and over it a monument erected
by his widow and children, with
the inscription : " He showed
how the profession of a Chris-
tian could be combined with
the duties of a soldier." To his
friend Outram, before he died,
he said, " For more than forty
years I have so ruled my life,
that when death came, I might
face it without fear."
What with beautiful parks,
capital roads, good shops, and
a large civil and military popu-
lation, Lucknow, in spite of
these sad memories, is, we are
told, extremely popular. There
is plenty of society, and plenty
of amusement. Boating, shoot-
ing, games of all sorts, are in
vogue ; Badminton parties, races,
and "a magnificent ball-room
with a perfect floor." Out of
a native taxation amounting to
twenty lakhs of rupees, the
authorities of these North-West
Provinces spend three and a half in "conservancy," including lighting, repairing,
and watering the roads, and seven and a half on works of public utility ; so
that the European residents are well provided for. In the hottest months
they have within ea.sy reach by way of railway to Bareilly, the refreshing
hill station of Naini Tal.
Naini Tal is in the Himalayan division of Kumaon, and is the resort
of the Government of the North-West Provinces during the hot weather.
The scenery as we ride up is lovely ; fine trees, drooping creepers, orchids,
and tree ferns. The road winds round hills rising above hills, all densely
kUINS or THE KBSIDENCY, LUCKNOW.
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
wooded, with peeps into valleys, each divided by its stream. Unexpectedly,
at last, a turn in the road reveals Naini Tal, a tarn rather than a lake,
oval and olive green. " At the concave end of a horseshoe," says an
accurate writer, "about the centre, place church, library, club, hotel, bazaar,
and a few houses, almost encircling a beautiful lake elevated six thousand
three hundred and fifty feet, the surrounding hills rising to eight thousand five
hundred feet. Up the valley . in the heart of the mountains cottages are
scattered about, but the hotels and places of resort are located on the flat
near the margin of the water. Lake circumference, two miles, depth ninety-
three feet, with a ridge
-- -is^" -""--- -----v^^ running through the centre
twenty feet. People need
never be dull. Quiet
enough for those contented
to walk round the Syren
Lake, or to climb up the
hills." The " snow seat "
commands a magnificent
view. The rhododendrons
are large, with thick trunks
and splendid blossoms.
" I made," says Mr. Shiell,
"a ten days' walking tour
from Naini Tal towards
' the snows ' through those
hills, and woods, and wa-
ters that make Kumaon
the fairest portion of all
the sub-Himalayan region,
one of the most beauti-
ful territories upon earth.
Alone in all that great
extent it possesses lake
scenery, a chain of gem-
like tarns stretching some
fifteen to twenty miles from Naini Tal As we progressed to Almorah, the
snows grew nearer and more vast. The farthest . point we reached was
a hill called Binsur Peak, a tree-clad isolated cone ; the warm tints of
sunset suffused the snows with a hectic flush, which, gradually, as the
sun declined, faded from off them, till they grew pale and cold, like
marble masks, and the stars came out, one by one, flickering like tapers on
the faces of the dead."
An awful landslip took place at Naini Tal on the i8th of September, 1880.
1*6
SCENE NEAR NAINI TAL.
NAIXI TAL.
About one o'clock in the day the place was startled by a
roar, louder than the crash of heavy g^ns, followed
of distant thunder, and then by an ominous silence,
dust Tose heavenward, and the whole place shook as
quake had passed. The waters of the lake rose
above their usual limit, and swept in a massive wave
It was as though some giant had dropped half a
spot. Many lives were lost, several houses destroyed,
more sudden, more awful, or more complete. Without a
sudden and sullen
by a rumbling as
Vast clouds of
though an earth-
in a moment far
towards the weir,
mountain on the
Never was havoc
moment's warning
NAINI TAL CORRB, ALMORAII ROAn.
down came the enormous landslip, bur>-ing in deadly embrace the hotel
and a party of workmen behind, assembly-rooms and library, with every
living soul they contained. The station was plunged into the deepest
gloom.
Cawnpore, only forty miles by railway from Lucknow, is a
busy, populous town, with cotton factories, flour mills, and large saddlery
works. It is situated on the Ganges, which here varies in width from five
hundred yards to a mile, and is crossed by a long railway bridge. The
militarj' station, with accommodation for seven thousand troops, is extremely
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
popular with pig-stickers
and sportsmen generally.
It stands in a flat, sandy
plain, very hot and dusty.
Near the railway station,
a fine old soldier of
Havelock's army, who was
in all the fighting of 1857,
keeps an hotel, and acts
as guide to his visitors.
Our guide first led us
over Wheeler's Entrench-
ment, now green and
garden-like, where Sir
Hugh Wheeler gathered
two hundred and fifty
men, the remnant of his
troops, the rest having
mutinied, three hundred
residents and three hun-
dred and thirty women
and children. Here he
defended himself bravely
behind a slender rampart
of earth for several weeks,
when at length the worn-
out band, already sadly
reduced by death, yielded
to the treacherous pro-
mises of the Nana Sahib
and surrendered, with the
issue that we all know.
This is no place to tell
again the heart-rending
story. Enough that the
Well associated with these
horrors is now surrounded
by a monument touchingly
appropriate and beautiful.
It is by Marochetti, and
walled in with a Gothic
railing. The statue is
that of an angel leaning
CAWXPORE.
with drooping wings, her back against the all-sustaining cross, her arms
folded upon her breast, having in her hands the palm leaves emblematical
of martyrdom and victory. The pedestal bears the following inscription :
" Sicred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian people — chiefly women and
children — who, near this s|)ot, were cruelly massacred by the followers of the rebel Nana Dhoon-
dopunt of Bithoor, and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below, on the fifteenth day of
July, «857."
A memorial church stands a short distance off, round which are many
tombs. The inscription is fre-
quent : " These are they which
came out of great tribulation."
One thinks of Cawnpore with
a shudder, and leaves it with a
sigh. The fact, however, must
be recorded whenever the sad
story is told, that the most care-
ful Government investigations
failed to discover a single case
on the part of the sepoys of
mutilation before death, or of
torture, or of the dishonour of
women during the Indian Mutiny.
" However late you arrive
at Agra, if it is moonlight, drive
to the Taj." This was the advice
of a friend who had seen the
Taj, and who adored it as the
finest sight on earth. " Be sure
to have moonlight for Agra and
the Taj," said another. Agra
and the Taj seem to go together
in the imagination of many, and
Agra seems almost to exist for
the Taj. " Nothing that has
been written," says a third,
"does the Taj any sort of justice, and we may wait another two hundred
and fifty years for a worthy description." What then is the Taj ? It
b a tomb, a Mohammedan tomb, the tomb of a woman, the tomb of a
rich man's favourite wife, the word Taj being, like "Sail," or "Bess,"
the pet name with which he addressed her ; it is her tomb and his own,
for he lies beside her, built in compliance with a request of hers before
she died. One characteristic of the Tartars was their tornb-biiilding pro-
pensity. Each Mogul in turn built a tomb for himself. The Taj was built
MEMOklAL WELL, CAWNPOKB.
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
by the Mogul Shah Jehan, the grandson of Akbar, as a tomb for his
favourite wife, Moomtaj a Mehal, and for himself. About two miles from the
town along a dusty road, you pass under a colossal gateway, in itself an object
commanding and impressive, and worth coming many miles to see ; and
before you is a lovely garden, green and shaded with beautiful trees, and in
the centre an avenue of tall dark cypress-trees, separated by a line of
fountains, and leading the eye to the foot of the building, which rises from a
double platform, the first of red sandstone twenty feet high and one thousand
feet broad, the second of marble fifteen feet high, and three hundred feet
square, on the corners of which stand four marble minarets. In the centre
AGRA FORT.
of all thus reared in air stands the Taj, with giant arches and clustering
domes. The afternoon sun was shining upon it, and the deep blue sky
beyond. As you walk towards it the building grows to its real size, and
what at first sight seemed a swan-like vision reared in air now displays
its colossal proportions, a marble shrine of great magnitude inlaid
with precious stones, graceful in its outlines, costly in its gems, and perfect
m its details. Beyond, the Jumna flows ; and on either side the great
platform there rises a beautiful mosque, the one for use, the other (because
not looking towards Mecca) raised only for finish and symmetry. Every
picture of the Taj fails to give the full impression of its majesty, because
with minuteness of detail, and effeminate elegance of finish it fails to embody
THE TAJ, AGRA.
its stuiiendous size and giant massiveness. What is huge and massive is
usually associated in the mind with what is rough, abrupt, ponderous. In
the Taj you have the majesty of a giant building combined with the
lightness and delicacy of a costly cabinet. As Bishop Heber said, the Saracens
built like Titans, and finished like jewellers. The Taj is, in fact, a colossal
^-
THK TAj MEIIAL, AGRA.
casket, whose base is a square of one hundred and eighty-six feet, whose
height is two hundred feet, and whose cost was above two millions sterling.
The echoes under its dome are almost perpetual, and most soft and musical.
Within, all is empty, save the marble sarcophagus above, and the actual tomb
in a vault beneath. Death is there without any hopeful emblem, and to the
triumph of death the building witnesses. As I walked round it outside the
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
words came into my mind which the disciples addressed to Jesus : "Master,
see what manner of stones and what buildings are here." Nor could I shut
out from my recollection those other words of the Master in reply : " Seest
thou these 'great buildings ? There shall not be left one stone upon another
that shall not be thrown down " — words which significantly stand in close
connection with
His estimate of
the widow's mite,
uttered a few mo-
ments before, • —
her act perma-
nent, the massive
temple transient.
The Taj is a per-
fect casket, per-
fect in its propor-
tions, its material,
its elegance, its
costliness ; but it
lacks object, sanc-
tity, history, asso-
ciations, utility.
It is, as I have
said, a tomb, the
tomb of one of
the wives of a
Mohammedan
ruler, built at her
request for her
and for himself.
As a tomb, the
grave of his faith-
ful daughter, co-
vered with sod, at
Delhi, touches a
higher chord. As
a building, though
with some it is a
sign of culture to adore it as the embodiment of heavenly beauty, and
comparable even with the eternal snows of the Himalayas, to my mind,
considering the national history and aspirations they each embody, the
Parthenon at Athens, the cathedral at Milan, and even the Capitol at
Washington, are nobler buildings than the Taj.
BALCONY IN PALACE, AGRA.
AGRA.
The palaces of the Moguls in India are usually found within the fort
of the capital. The fort of Agra though hardly equal to that of Delhi,
is grand and imposing. It is of red sandstone, and its walls are forty
feet high. Within are the various buildings belonging to the palace of a
Mohammedan ruler. There is a hall of public audience, and one of
ir.ARI. Mi>syiK, A(.KA.
private audience, luxurious cham-
bers and baths, dwellings for the
soldiers, dungeons for prisoners,
throne-rooms, and mosques for worship. Here are stored the .Somnath
Gates, the dumb memorials of Lord EUenborough's pompous and silly
boast. Here the great Akbar lived for many years. But the most beau-
tiful buildings here were raised by his grandson, Shah Jehan. These
consist of the apartments of the harem, and the Peari Mosque. As to the
THE NORTH-WE^T PROVINCES AND OUDE.
harem, "picture to yourselves," says a graphic writer, "rooms or boudoirs,
call them what you please, opening one into another, all of pure marble ;
here a balcony supported by delicate pillars with projecting roofs ; there,
exquisite balustrades in delicate lace-like open patterns, having no ornament,
save gilding, with views extending over the country, and embracing the
Taj and the Jumna. Imagine, again, rivulets of water streaming from
room to room along marble beds ; gardens of flowers and precious exotics ;
the creepers running over trellises, and shading from the heat the pathways
across the marble floors, and mingling with the flying spray of the fountains ;
and this on and on from room to room, from balcony to balcony, from court
to court."
Pre-eminent in beauty, within the fort of Agra is the Mutee Musjid, or
Pearl Mosque, also built by Shah Jehan, two hundred and forty feet from
east to west, and one hundred and ninety feet from north to south, with an
open court one hundred and fifty feet square. This building is wholly of
white marble, from the pavement to the summit of its domes. The western
part or mosque proper is also of white marble, except an Arabic inscription
from the Koran in black. The domes tower high above the other buildings
of the fort, and in the glare of the morning sun look as if really built up
of pearl. It is not only the Pearl Mosque, it is the pearl of mosques, un-
equalled in beauty by any other.
But to all this white marble there is a dark side, " dark scenes in the
shades below balancing the brilliant scenes in the heights above. Deep down
are seen mysterious stairs descending into empty cells and covered vaults,
and from these again descending deeper and deeper still, through tortuous
passages, ending apparently in nothing, yet with more than a suspicion of a
something beyond, although a built-up wall interposes. We examined these
mysterious and dim retreats, and we saw enough to convince us that pleasure
and pain, ' lust and hate,' were near neighbours in Agra, as in other places.
Sad evidences were apparent of beings who from jealousy, or other causes,
had been conveyed to these chambers of horror, and there executed in the
eye of God alone." Beyond some of these barriers human skeletons have been
found, some hung with ropes. Thus, side by side with the relics of Oriental
splendour, are the visible tokens of Mogul cruelty.
The tomb of Akbar is near Secundra, seven miles from Agra, in
a court a quarter of a mile square. A heavy wall surrounds it like a
fortress. It is three hundred feet square, and a hundred feet high, rising
in terraces of pyramidal form, with cloisters, gallerieG, and domes. The
design is borrowed, Mr. Fergusson thinks, from a Hindu, or, more correctly,
a Buddhist model. The highest elevation is flat-roofed, with kiosks at
the angles. Omit the domes, and the resemblance to the old Buddhist
viharas is apparent. Akbar was just and tolerant, and sought in vain to
abolish the distinction between Hindu and Mohammedan. He abolished
FUTTEPORE SIKRI.
the Hindu tax, jiziah, and carried out many reforms. He took up his resi-
dence at Futtepore Sikri, where are to be seen his finest works as a
builder, which cluster, Acropolis-like, ■•iQpon the top of a small ridge of
hills. The richest of these are three pavilions, said to have been erected
for his three favourite sultanas. But his most majestic work is the mosque,
sternly grand ; the southern gateway of which stands on a rising ground, and
"when looked at from below is noble," says Mr. Fergusson, "beyond that of
OATKWAV AT SItCONDRA.
any portal attached to any mosque in India, perhaps in the whole world."
Futtepore Sikri was the Windsor or Versailles of the Moguls. It is twenty
miles from Agra, on a rocky hill ; and the wall enclosing it is nine miles in
extent. Among the buildings, one is called the Hide-and-Seek Palace, with
narrow corridors, where, as is told, the consorts of the emperor used to
amuse themselves at bo-peep. The material of the buildings is red sandstone,
of the richest colour and finest grain. "The style," acutely observes Mr.
Sheill, " though elaborately ornate, is characterised by an almost-|^im severity ;
THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDE.
and so cyclopean are the dimensions and the massiveness of the masonry
that they might be the abodes of an extinct race of giants."
The seat of government in the North-West Provinces is Allahabad,
" City of Allah," a Mohammedan name, given in the sixteenth century to the
ancient Prayaga, a sacred Hindu city situated on the tongue of land formed
by the confluence of the Jumna and the Ganges. A magnificent railway
bridge now spans the Jumna just above the union of the rivers. Its
length is three thousand two hundred and twenty-four feet, and there are
fifteen openings of two hundred and five feet clear. The piers are of stone,
PANCH MAHAL, FUTTEPORE SIKRI.
sunk fifty feet below the bed of the river. It reminds one somewhat of the
bridge at Montreal. Allahabad was once a republican state in the heart
of ancient India. The fort, originally a Hindu stronghold, but rebuilt by
Akbar of red stone, though not to be compared with that of Agra, contains
a monolith forty-two feet high, with a Pali inscription — one of those erected
by the Buddhist King Asoka. This is the most complete and probably
the oldest of the Buddhist Lats. Under the great hall, now transformed
into an arsenal, steps lead down to a subterranean Hindu temple, full of
loathsome figures and emblems daubed with red paint. No doubt the place
was originally a Buddhist cave-temple. The stump of a banyan tree, said to
ALLAHABAD.
be fifteen centuries old, and
still alive, is here the object
of worship. A light burns be-
fore it, and beside it a young
Brahman sits to receive the
offerings of the devotees. As
we stood near, some women
came up, paid their money,
received the priest's blessing,
scattered flowers, and then em-
braced with kisses the sacred
stump. At Delhi and Agra
Hinduism has been crushed
by Mohammedanism. At Al-
lahabad it has taken refuge
underground. From the roof
of the arsenal we looked upon
the junction of the Jumna and
the Ganges, where many pil-
grims were bathing. This
"meeting of the waters" is
regarded as a most sacred
place of pilgrimage, and in
January and February during
the Mela it presents the ap-
pearance of a continual fair,
with processions, banners,
booths, and bathers. Thou-
sands go down into the water,
all classes and all ages, in the
vain hope of washing away
their guilt.
The Sarai in Allahabad
is a square high-walled garden,
containing three stone Mo-
hammedan mausoleums, sur-
mounted by marble domes.
They are the tombs of the
two sons of Jehanjir and their
mother. That in the centre,
of the unhappy Khusru, the
eldest son, and victim of his
father's cruelty, is the largest ;
NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUVE.
that of the mother, on the right, comes next ; but they do not allow her
to have a quiet sleep, for the upper floor of her tomb has been fitted
up into a billiard-room. That of the younger son, on the left, is smaller,
and is surmounted by a graceful dome. The walls of all three are
outwardly ornamented, and the interiors are beautifully painted, though the
colours are faded. Near the Sarai is the pretty church of the Episcopal
Methodist Mission, which is very successful among the Hindus. The
American Presbyterian Mission, whose operations stretch far up into the
Punjab, has its head-quarters here, and its schools are most efficient. It
has asylums for the blind and for lepers, a printing-press and depository.
Allahabad, as the great railway centre where the lines from Delhi, Calcutta
and Bombay meet, is a rapidly-growing city.
TOMBS IN THE SARAI, ALLAHABAD.
'58
THf; PUNJAB.
•J
<
i
s
u
•<
Q
•<
a
BAS-ftEUCFS IN THB MUSEUM, PE^hIWAII.
THE PUNJAB.
ITS CONDITION AND EXTENT — DELHI AND ITS PLAINS — AMRITSAR AND LAHORE —
PESHAWAR AND KASHMIR —SIMLA — LANDOUR — DHARMSALA — DALHOUSIE.
' I "HK Punjab is the most promis-
-■■ ing of English conquests in
India. It is nearest to England
by way of Karachi ; it has a cooler
and more bracing climate, though
the south parts about Multan are
almost rainless, and from the prox-
imity of the desert the air becomes
scorching. It has accessible hill
stations, and it has a population of
twenty-three millions, friendly and
loyal, as well as quiet and indus-
trious. " When I first crossed
the Sutlej," says the lamented
John Lawrence, " there was not
the trace of a road in the country,
now we have several thousand
miles of road and railways. The
people were our enemies ; one
class in the country preyed on the
all this has changed- Life and
property are wonderfully safe. The people are peaceable and well-disposed.
WATUKARRICU.
other ; there was little real security. Now
THE PUNJAB.
All this has been proved beyond question in 1857, when, but for the general
contentment of the people, it would not have been possible to maintain the
public tranquillity, still less to have assisted in the re-conquest of Hindustan.
For all these advantages I acknowledge myself indebted to the great Author
of all good. Without His guiding and protecting hand, what would indeed
have become of us all ? " Henry and John Lawrence, and indeed most of
their coadjutors and successors in the government of the Punjab, were men
who openly avowed their faith in Christianity, and their desire to give it to
the people they governed. They supported missionary effort, and the results
are evident. Sir Herbert Edwardes, the Commissioner, openly declared at
Peshawar: "The East has been given to our country for a mission, neither
to the minds nor bodies, but to the souls of men. Our mission in India is to
do for other nations what we have done for our own. To the Hindus we
have to preach one God, and to the Mohammedans to preach one Mediator."
The Americans were the pioneers of missions throughout the district ; and
the foundations of a sound Bible Christianity have been deeply laid.
Besides efficient schools, they have founded orphanages, asylums, and
hospitals. No fewer than eight Missionary Societies, with thirty central
missions, are now at work in the Punjab ; and no stronger argument for
Christian missions could be urged than that afforded by the state of
the country.
The name Punjab signifies " the five rivers," the five great tributaries
of the Indus ; and the tracts of country between the rivers are called
Doabs. But the Sutlej, the limit of the conquests of Alexander the Great,
does not form the eastern boundary. The province of Delhi itself has since
the Mutiny been included ; and when one enters Delhi one enters the
Punjab. Many hill states are also embraced under the name ; and to these
must be added ill-governed Kashmir, extending beyond the Himalayas, and
unjustly handed over to the tender mercies of an alien Maharajah.
Delhi, the Rome of Asia during three thousand years, is a thousand
miles from Calcutta, and fifteen hours by railway from Cawnpore. The city
is on the river Jumna, just outside the boundary of the North-West Pro-
vinces, and within the Punjab. It had a long history before the Moguls. It
is said to have been destroyed and rebuilt seven times ; and the remains of
these successive cities cover the plain for miles. The great fort, built by
Shah Jehan, is a mile and a half in circuit, with a wall forty feet high.
Entering by the Lahore Gate, a splendid Gothic arch in the centre of the
tower is succeeded by a long vaulted aisle ; and driving through, we come
to the Hall of Public Audience, of red sandstone, and then by the Motee
Musjid, the Mosque of Pearls, well named from its pearly loveliness, to the
Hall of Private Audience, all of polished marble, and looking out over the
wide Jumna. Here, between each pair of pillars, is a beautiful balustrade
of marble chastely carved. The roof has at each corner a marble kiosk
i€a
DELHI.
with a gilt dome. The ceiling is composed of gold and silver filigree work,
and in the centre stood the famous peacock throne of solid gold, with gems
and diamonds estimated as worth six million pounds sterling. It was
IIAI.L OP PRIVATE AUDIENCE, DELHI.
captured by the Persian Nadir Shah in 1739. All this wealth and grandeur
have been taken away ; but the building still witnesses to its former magni-
ficence, and along the cornice on each side of the chamber the inscription
THE PUNJAB.
is repeated in flourishing Arabic inlaid: "If there be a paradise on earth,
it is this ! it is this ! it is this ! " Vanitas vanitatum, would be a more
appropriate motto now.
The great Mosque of Delhi, built of red sandstone and white marble —
the snowy domes marble, the needle-like mmarets red sandstone — perched
high upon a rock, and approached by forty deep steps on three of its sides,
is the one object that meets the eye everywhere about Delhi, and is the
finest mosque in India, and the chief shrine of Indian Mohammedanism.
Like all great mosques, it is named Jumma Musjid, i.e. the Friday Mosque,
Friday being the Mohammedan Sabbath. The Empress, our Queen, has
forty millions of Mohammedan subjects in India. Their bearing strikes you
JUMMA MUSJID, DELHI.
at once as different from that of the Hindus. They are conquered con-
querors. Once the rulers, they are in turn the ruled ; and as they walk
haughtily along, when they pass an Englishman, they grind their teeth.
Pride and hatred, the two most prominent features in a Mohammedan, are
apparent on every hand. To describe this mosque will be to describe all.
A huge quadrangle open to the sky, four hundred and fifty feet square, a
fountain in the middle, for the ablutions of the faithful, a colonnade on three
sides, north, south and east, of red sandstone with open arches. On the
west, towards Mecca, a building open in front, of white marble, covered with
three graceful white marble domes, surmounted by spires of copper, richly
gilti Its front— with a majestic opening in the centre and smaller arches on
either side — is all of white marble with Arabic inscriptions. The interior
164
DELHI.
is paved throughout with nine hundred immense oblong slabs of white
marble bordered with black, and in the wall, at the centre, is the niche, or
kibla, towards sacred Mecca, where prayers are directed. At either corner
is a minaret one hundred and forty feet high, of white marble and red
sandstone placed vertically in alternate stripes. Up these the muezzin
goes to call to prayers ; and the summit commands a magnificent view.
On Fridays you may see the vast area filled with worshippers kneeling
CLOIITKRS, MOSQUE OF KUTVB, NEAR DELHI.
and rising, standing up and prostrating themselves as one man. Women
are seldom seen within the precincts ; indeed, practically, women, according to
the Mohammedans, have no souls, they exist for and are the chattels of
men. The Koran itself allows a man four wives, to say nothing of concu-
bines; and its paradise is a paradise of lust. It is the fashion to praise
Mohammed and the Koran ; but history, and the present character of the
Moslems of every land, testify that whatever excellence there may appear
in the founder or his great work, hatred, cruelty, pride and lust are the
««3
THE PUNJAB.
graces which it fosters. From treating his women with savage coolness, or
beating them with rage, the Mohammedan will turn towards Mecca, and in
pharisaic devoutness taking off his shoes and spreading his garment in the
most conspicuous place, he will go through his gesticulations and perform his
prayers. Here in Delhi, at Agra, Allahabad, and Bombay, in Cairo,
Jerusalem, Damascus, Constantinople, London, by land and on board ship,
1 have witnessed the performance, and always has it left this impression on
my mind.
There are in the neighbourhood of what we may call the Mohammedan
Delhi the ruins of a series of successive cities that have been razed to the
ground. Among these stands the Lat of Feroz Shah, a monolith of red
sandstone covered with an inscription in Pali, which tells that it was erected
by Asoka. The column is, therefore, at least two thousand two hundred
years old, and the inscription upon it is probably the oldest writing in India.
The tomb of Humayun, Akbar's father, a tyrant of great cruelty, the
patron of Thuggism, and now revered as a saint, is colossal in size and
marvellous in workmanship ; red sandstone inlaid with marble, and white
marble domes. It took sixteen years in building, and the quadrangle of
solid masonry in which it stands is four hundred yards square. Near it is
the sixty-four pillared hall, and a beautifully-carved tomb of a Mussulman
saint of the fourteenth century. Another sumptuous tomb is in honour of
a scoundrel who killed himself by drinking cherry-brandy, of which liquor
he used to swallow a glass an hour! Here also is the simple sodded grave
of the faithful daughter of Shah Jehan, faithful to him when he was im-
prisoned by his son in the midst of his grandeur, and with the inscription
on a stone at the head in Arabic : " Let no rich canopy cover my grave.
This grass is the best covering for the tomb of the poor in spirit." Such
simplicity is refreshing amid gigantic idolatry in stone of man and the basest
of men. At hand, in a small deep tank, forty feet square, miserable Hindus
turn a penny by jumping with a run from a dome top, feet foremost from
a height of fifty feet, shooting like arrows straight into the water, with the
sound of a dead man's dive, and presently coming up to you quite ex-
hausted to beg backsheesh for the feat.
After traversing the wide sandy plain covered with these buildings and
ruins for a distance of eleven miles, it is a relief to reach an oasis of green
sward and shady trees. Here, in the midst of verdure, stand the most
gigantic and impressive remains of old Delhi's splendour. Passing through
Aladin's Gate, a majestic arch, reminding one almost of Furness Abbey,
and with the celebrated iron pillar about fifty feet in length before it,
you see before you a massive column like an isolated minaret with
five successive galleries. This is the celebrated Kutub Minar, a fluted
column two hundred and forty feet high, one hundred feet circumference
at the base, and gradually diminishing in a series of five stories, like
i66
DELHI.
joints in a telescope, to thirty feet circumference at the summit. The
view from the top is extensive, modern Delhi and the hills beyond
being perfectly clear in outline. What the column was built for it is difficult
to say. It is supposed to be, not a Mohammedan, but a Hindu building,
dating from the twelfth century ; but it certainly looks much more like the
Moslem buildings in modern Delhi ; and the more probable tradition is
that it was erected in 1 1 93 to celebrate the overthrow of the last of
ALADIil't GATS, WITH IRON PILLAR.
the Hindu Rajahs of Delhi. A sultan named Katub, who succeeded Ghori
(a.d. 1206), a general and administrator, is said to have built this ntinar or
" pillar " of victory. Round about it are the ruins of a mosque, built out of
the previous ruins of Hindu temples, like the cloisters of a great cathedral.
The enigmatical iron pillar, sixty feet long, smooth and black with age, and
the elaborately-carved columns of the temple indicate a Brahmanical origin.
In the midst of these ruins the trees and shrubs afid creepers are most
luxuriant and refreshing after the heat and dust and glare of the plain.
167
THE PUNJAB.
The Siege of Delhi was one of the
most tragic and important events of the
Mutiny year. In the Chowk, or main
thoroughfare, seventy-four feet wide, with
a raised shaded footpath running down
the centre and planted with trees, Captain
Hodson exposed the bodies of the aged
King of Delhi's two sons, whom he had
himself shot without trial and with his
own hand after their surrender,
street, too, stands tlie kotwali,
or court-house, before which the
defenders of the city during the
siege were one after another
executed by the English. The
inhabitants may well tremble
at the very name of this street.
But it is very gay ; full of shops,
in fact, it is called the Regent
Street of Delhi, which now
glories in Lord Lytton's bur-
lesque Durbar of 1876, held
while famine was stalking
through the peninsula, and pre-
paring its holo-
caust of five mil-
lion souls. Delhi
... 4 -^
IC8
KUTUB MINAR, NEAR DELHI.
DELHI.
is a convenient, sociable, and popular station for the judicial, military, and
revenue officers. Driving to the Ridge outside the city to the north, we
passed through the Kashmir Gate, blown u{? bravely by the English when
they stormed the city ; and close by it is the spot where Nicholson fell,
who, as his tombstone tells, led the assault of Delhi, but was in the hour
CIIANIII CIIOWK, DBLIIt.
of victory mortally wounded. Crowning the height, a mile away, and com-
manding a magnificent view over Delhi, is the Flagstaff Tower ; and, farther
on, the Memorial, appropriately giving on its sides the details of encamp-
ment and of siege. It liears the inscription : " In memory of the officers and
soldiers of the Delhi field force who were killed in action or died of wounds
169
THE PUNJAB.
or disease between the 30th of May and the 20th of September, 1857.
Erected by their comrades and government."
Turning from these sad reminiscences it was a relief on the Sunday
to attend Christian services and to mark the progress of Christian missions.
The name of England is in North India associated everywhere so palpably
with troops, cantonments, battles and bloodshed, that were it not for
missions and missionaries there would be nothing to show that our country
is also associated with the Gospel of the Prince of Peace. It is an old
native proverb, " English religion, devil religion." Bayonets rather than
Bibles, gunpowder rather than goodness, are associated with our country
in native experience. Even attendance at church is accompanied with the
clank of swords and the beat of drums. Still the Christian religion is not
without its champions and its votaries in the army as well as outside.
Missionaries are often the objects of careless hilarious ridicule at other
tables besides mess tables, but usually on the part of men who do not really
know them nor take any pains to examine their work. For the most part
their lives are quiet and obscure ; but they are nevertheless the true and
consistent ambassadors of the Prince of Peace and King of Righteousness.
Here in Delhi the Cambridge mission is making its way among different
classes of the inhabitants. There is a square of houses on the north-east
of the city occupied almost entirely by native Christians ; and several weekly
Bible classes are attended by Hindus. The high schools have many Christian
native teachers. The Baptists have been in Delhi sixty years, and have
an extensive field of operations. Their ragged schools receive, like most
mission schools in India, Government aid, and are doing a very good work
among the poorest classes, teaching the pupils to read the Gospels. Their
Basil meetings in the open air amid the dwellings of the poor after the
day's work is done are attended by from fifty to a hundred heathens or
Mohammedans. There are five-and-twenty places where these singing meet-
ings are held three or four evenings a week. The tunes are native. The
Zenana Mission is also effectively worked, and many women are under
Christian influence and instruction.
Leaving Delhi at 1.30 p.m. and travelling all night north-west by railway
three hundred and sixteen miles, we find ourselves next morning at six
o'clock in Amritsar, " fountain of immortality," a great emporium of trade,
and the sacred city of the religious community called Sikhs. The word
Sikhs signifies "disciples," and the religion thus designated is a mixture
of Hinduism and Mohammedanism, inculcating the worship of one God, but
attaching extreme reverence to the cow. The spiritual teachers of these
" disciples " are called Gurus ; and many of the population, including most
of the upper classes, are of this persuasion. Its Bible is called the Grunt/i,
and is regarded with great reverence. It has been translated into English,
and the translator describes it as " shallow and incoherent in the extreme."
AMRITSAR.
Amritsar is a very oriental-looking city, and a great place for ivory
carving and for the manufacture of Kashmir shawls. The process is exceed-
ingly tedious and trying to the workman's eyes. A separate shuttle is used
for every colour, and a whole day may be spent over a section of the
shawl scarcely perceptible to the eye. The rooms in which they are woven
are close and narrow, in fact, dirty and wretched dens, a strange contrast
GOLOKN TEMPLE OF THE SIKHS, AMRITSAK.
to the picturesque city outside. But the one great sight of Amritsar is
the Golden Temple of the Sikhs. It is of pure white marble, rising out
of a large tank, and its roof is of plates of copper richly gilded. The blue
rippling waves wash against the polished marble courtyard which surrounds
the tank. The temple is connected by a broad roadway, also of white
marble, with golden balustrades and lamps (see frontispiece to this volume).
The lower half of the walls are carved white marble, the doors solid silver.
THE PUNJAB.
the windows golden ; while the upper half and the roof seem a mass of
gold. The outside dazzles, glistening in the brilliant sunlight, and is reflected
in the sparkling waters. There is much mosaic work in the marble flooring,
and the interior is highly gilded. The temple is not large, but somewhat
resembles the Alhambra.
Lahore is only two hours by railway from Amritsar. It was a great
city a thousand years ago. In the time of the Moguls it is said to have
TOMB OF RUNGIT SING, LAHORE.
had a circumference of eighteen miles. But now it is a mere shadow of
its former self. It is only about three miles in circumference, and a
circular road runs round it with a belt of ornamental garden. The Great
Mosque built by Aurangzeb is a stately pile, and has in its quadrangle a
noble banyan and other trees peopled with flocks of starlings. But, like
that at Benares, the mosque is deserted. The high perched white fort
commands an admirable view of the city and the dusty wilderness around.
One of the chief sights in Lahore is the tomb erected by the beautiful and
LAHORE.
talented Nurjehan over her drunken husband, the Emperor Jehanjeer. It
is in the style of the Taj, and stands in a beautiful garden planted with
orange groves far to the west of the city across the Ravee.
The European quarters, including the military station, cover an area of
fourteen square miles. The distances are quite awful. In the Lawrence
Hall Gardens are eighty thousand trees. The residence of the Lieutenant-
governor is opposite. Three miles from Mianmir, the military station, where
!>AKIU aAkV./^,..
there is a splendid church, are the stately Shalamar Gardens. The church in
the civil station is said to have been originally the tomb of a dancing-girl.
Two hundred miles south-west by rail, over arid desert from Lahore,
lies MuLTAN, well known for its dust storms and fiery heat, but of
historic interest from Alexander the Great downwards, till it was taken by
the British in 1849. It contains many mosques and a beautiful Hindu
temple. Westward across the Indus is Dera Ghazi Khan ; and thirty
miles beyond, at the foot of the Suliman range, running north and south
»7J
THE PUNJAB.
as a natural wall separating Afghanistan, is Sakhi Sarwar, said to be
the place of which it was remarked by some native that, it being in
existence, it was unnecessary for the gods to have made Hell also, the
STKKKT IN rESHAVVAR.
heat, dust and barrenness are choking and oppressive. The name is
derived from that of a Mohammedan saint whose tomb close by, a large
square tower-like building with spires or minarets, draws many pilgrims.
ATTOCK.
An annual festival or fair in his honour is held in the month of April.
The walls of the shrine within are hung with small pillows variously
ornamented, offerings of the pilgrims to the saint. Near the building is
a defile called the Robber's Leap, enclosed with cliffs formed of gravelly
layers, and rocks uneasily resting in fantastic positions. Farther on is
a cave with the finger-print of the saint, and again the print of his left
foot on a slanting ledge of rock ; this place is called the Moza. His com-
panions are said to be buried in an adjacent mound, on which are only
pebbles and stunted brambles.
The Northern State Railway now runs all the way to Peshawar, crosses
the Jhelum (the ancient Hystaspes) near the Manikyala Tope, and passes
through Rawal Pindee, a healthy military station situated on an elevated
ridge. From this station we ascend in ten or twelve hours' dhooly journey
to Murree, a gay and festive hill station upon a ridge seven thousand
five hundred feet high. Northwards the slopes are clothed with oaks,
pines and horse-chestnuts. Srinagur, the capital of Kashmir, is one hundred
and sixty miles from Murree. Sixty miles beyond Rawal Pindee the
railway brings us to Attock, a fortress on the Indus, which here is
THE PUNJAB.
two hundred and sixty yards wide and flows in a strong turbulent
torrent, crossed only by a bridge of boats. Overhanging the river is a
crag looking out upon a wide tract of desert. Near to this Darius crossed
the Indus, b.c. 518; and not far from Rawal Pindee Alexander the Great
won his famous victory over Porus, B.C. 326. Forty miles more bring
us to Peshawar, the frontier-city, eighteen miles east of the Kyber Pass.
Peshawar has fifty thousand inhabitants, but its liability to earthquakes
gives the buildings an unstable character. In the museum there are several
interesting bas-reliefs, illustrative of early Indian sculpture, and showing the
influence of Greek art. What the Buddhists were to the architecture of
Northern India the Greeks were to its sculpture. Greek faces constantly
occur in ancient Buddhist statuary, and the blending of these with Hindu
forms and features is
distinctly traceable. As
by degrees Greek in-
fluence faded away, the
coarser representations
of full-blown Hinduism
asserted their sway, as
at Amravati and Sanchi,
and afterwards at Ele-
phanta.
From Peshawar
may be seen the dark
range of serrated moun-
tains with the black
chasm of the Kyber
Pass, and far away the
Hindu Koosh. The
beautiful valley in the
BAS-KELIEFS IN THE MUSEUM, PESIlAwAK. flush of SpriuPf wlien
the horseshoe of mountains is still clad in snow, while its peach and quince
gardens are in full flower, must be enchanting. The climate is temperate.
Another way into Kashmir is by the pretty station of Sealkote, which
Mr. Grant Duff describes as the prettiest in India, the Pir Punjal and
other great Himalayan ranges being full in view. He was journeying to
Jummoo, the winter capital of the Maharajah of Kashmir. " We had crossed
most of the woodland, and had descended from our elephants, when we
reached a point where in the clearer morning, the mountains stood out in
all their beauty. On the left stretched the mighty snowy chain of the
Pir Punjal, rising eighteen thousand feet. Then in the middle of the back-
ground came an outer range not snowy ; lastly, far to the right another
snowy range on the borders of Thibet. Between us and the mountains
176
SRTNAGUR.
lay Jummoo, with its white pyramidal temples shininjx in the sun, and
surrounded by a near landscape which wanted nothing to make it perfect.
It was the most beautiful land view I ever beheld. The Maharajah is a
lucky man, with heaven for his
winter, and the seventh heaven
for his summer capital."
The easiest way, however,
into "the Happy Valley," is
by way of Rawal Pindee and
Murree ; and Mr. Anthony Shiell
has g^ven us a graphic account
of the journey. The distance
is a hundred and sixty miles,
occupying five days on f>ony,
and two by boat (doongah) on
the river. The vale of Kashmir
is an oval, a hundred miles
long and twenty-five broad,
traversed by the Jhelum and
fringed by glens and minor
valleys, encompassed by the
snow-wall of the Himalaya.
Midway is the capital, Srin-
agur, with a population of
I50,cxx). It lies ujjon a flat,
intersected by canals ; diversi-
fied by orchards, and lined by
stately poplars. It is, like
Venice, a city of canals, and
a city of bridges—" Kandals "
as they are called— quaint struc-
tures, centuries old, of "the
incorruptible Himalayan cedar,
the invaluable deodara." There
are two lakes, one celebrated
for its historic and fK>etic as-
sociations, the other for the
snowy mountains which it re-
flects. The river Jhelum forms
the main thoroughfare of the city. Buildings cluster on either side down to
the water s edge, mostly high four-storied wooden houses with pent roofs, over-
laid with earth which is clothed with grass and other plants, and broad flights
of stone steps lead down to the stream. The narrow streets are little better
«77
BAS-RKLIKKS IN TIIF. Ml'SKl'M, rKSIliWAR.
THE PUNJAB.
than the beds of open sewers. The panorama of mountains from the spHntered
crests of Pir Panjal on the south, to the broad brow of hoary Haramook on
the north, and the snowy summit of " the Naked Mountain," is magnificent.
The hill called " The Throne of Solomon," six thousand two hundred and
sixty-three feet above the sea, and a thousand feet above the valley, has a
FLOATING GARDENS, LAKE OF SillNAGUR.
Stone Buddhist temple on the top, now converted into a mosque. The
panoramic view from this point is very grand of Peri Mahal Fort, Apple-
tree Canal, and Poplar Avenue, and of the city lake, with the gardens,
summerhouses and fountains, where lay the scene of Lalla Rookh. To
the west lies Gulmarg, a favourite sanitarium, on a mountain common high
up the hills, three thousand feet above Srinagur, the air cold, bracing
178
SIMLA.
and salubrious, and the plateau surrounded by forests of pine. Forty miles
to the east and up the Himalayas is the cave of Ambernath, a place
of pilgrimage sacred to Siva, who is said " to have had the coolness to
assume" the form of a block of ice and to take up his abode here. The
cave is visited by thousands of pilgrims in July. It lies far up the
Laddar Valley, si.xteen thousand feet above the sea. It is of gypsum,
fifty yards deep and fifty wide, thirty yards high. The scenery is of titanic
splendour, and there is a noble glacier, with red-sandstone serrated cliffs
rising one thousand feet on either side the defile.
From the railway at Umballa you drive northwards thirty-eight miles in
Tonga Dak, — a covered spring-cart drawn by a pair of ponies, with a
centre board which divides the two front from the two back passengers — to
SHOr$, SRINAr.l'l :.;.„.
Kalka, from which place there are two roads, the old road and the new
road, to Simla. The old road is a difficult mountain path, up which if you
are not carried in a sort of sedan, called "a jampan," you had better ride
or walk. The views are commanding all the way. The new road is a
masterpiece of engineering, cut out of the sides of the mountains, and suj)-
ported in many places by massive walls. The gradients are nicely adjusted,
and you can drive the fifty-seven miles in eight hours by Tonga DAk.
Simla is seven thousand feet above the sea, and fir-clad Jacko eight thousand.
What with graceful deodaras, firs, oaks, rhododendrons, the magnificent
scenery and the snow panorama, Simla is exceedingly beautiful. The rain
and mist in June and July are dismal in the extreme; but from October
the weather is enchanting. Simla is the seat of the Supreme Govern-
ment for half the year, " where it slumbers with a revolver under its pillow ; "
THE PUNJAB.
and it is therefore a place full of caste and cost, a sort of Indian Olympus,
from whose heights the officials living at Government expense look down
with disdain upon the toilers in the plains beneath. It may be called a third
heaven of flirtation and fashion. Indeed, one part is called Elysium. It is,
as we say, " out of the world ; " but it seems when you get there as if the
world with its pomps and vanities had been caught up hither out of the
world. It is an Indian Capua. You look over a billowy sea of hills to
the great snowy range fifty miles away, its icy pinnacles glistening in the
silent air as far as the eye can reach. The bazaar slopes gradually down
the valley. The snows as seen from Simla are not so striking; but from
neighbouring mountains, such as the Chore summit, the sacred sources of
the Ganges can be seen, as represented by domes, towers and pinnacles
of dazzling snow. It is a glorious tour, occupying about a month to go
from Simla by Kotgur, where the Church Mission has a station, over the
Burunghatti, fifteen thousand feet above the sea level.
180
LANDOUR.
Landour, which is the oldest of the hill stations, lies about a hundred
miles east of Simla, and is usually approached by way of Saharunpore, from
which railway-station an omnibus runs along a well-metalled, shaded, undu-
lating road, across the Sewalic range and dipping into a lovely valley, the
Deyra Doon, to Rajpore. From Rajpore the remaining nine miles may be
accomplished on foot by pony or in jampan. The road passes over deep
precipices, and troops of monkeys, and here and there peacocks, may be
seen as we climb- Passing through Mussoorie — sometimes called the
Ramsgate of India— we reach Landour, on the crest of the mountain.
There is not an acre of level land in view. It is a simple line of peaks,
but every rock on which a house could be fastened has been seized upon,
until villages of considerable size have sprung up. Roads, houses, and
gardens have ingeniously been cut or scooped out of the hill-sides. Some
white cottages cling like limpets to the ledges. The magnificent views have
been thus described : " On one side lies the Deyra Doon, one of the fairest
valleys in all the East, smiling in its verdure and foliage, although it was
now mid-winter. Farther on is the Sewalic range of the Himalayas, and
still farther, in full view, the great plain of India, fifteen hundred
miles in extent, with the silvery threads of the Jumna and Ganges. On
the opposite side, towards the north-east, separated by a confused mass
of mountain, much of which is densely wooded, i>eak after peak of the
snowy range, stretching out into Thibet and Kashmir, lifts its snowy head
into the clouds." We are in the presence of the highest mountains on the
globe, on the border of that table-land which the Arabs call " the roof of
the world." Wilson, the author of Jhe Abode of Snow, says, " There is
nothing in the Alps which can afford even a faint idea of the savage deso-
lation and appalling sublimity of many of the Himalayan .scenes. Nowhere
have the faces of the rocks been so scarred and riven by the nightly action
of frost, and the mid-day floods from melting snow. In almost every valley
we see places where whole peaks or sides of great mountains have very
recently come shattering down." The climate of Landour is delightful ; " its
warmth," says the eastern proverb, " is not heat, its coolness is not cold."
Perhaps the purest air breathed by man is found in the HimAlayas, close
to the snows, and at Landour it is almost as good, e.xcept where tainted by
man. It is said to be the very best place in India for European children.
The hill stations for the Punjab arc Dharmsala and Dalhousie. Diiakm-
SALA is noted for excessive rains. In other parts of the Himalayas the effect
of the snow mountains is softened by intermediate ranges, but here they seem
almost to overhang the spectator. Looking up from Kangra, the lower hills
are like ripples on the sea, and the eye rests on the sublime titanic rocks sharp
cut against the sky. The winding streams, the irrigated valley, said to be
next to Cashmir in beauty, the bamlxx) clumps, the branching oaks, the stately
pines, the blooming rhododendra, the ruins of hill castles, the towering old
THE PUNJAB.
Kangra Fort, combine to make this
one of the most fascinating hill stations in
India. Nothing can be more impressive
than the hills and mountains here lit up
in solitary splendour and savage beauty by
the crimson glory of an autumn sunset. The cold grey rocks become rose
pink, and as this fades the silvery moon sheds her sheen over the valley
and the fir-clad hills, realising the sad solemnity of the most impressive
funeral. Here Lord Elgin sickened and died in 1863.
Dalhousie is still farther to the north-west, and is by some reckoned
as the best of the hill stations, but to reach it involves a long and
fatiguing journey from Amritsar. It spreads over three hills, the highest of
which is nearly eight thousand feet above the sea. Beyond is a charming
and well-wooded forest, while the famous Needle Rock, the highest of
the peaks here visible, rises to the height of twenty-one thousand feet.
i8>
T^A^PUTAKA AND C£;NTP(AL
INDIA AQEINCV,
TOPE OF SANCHI, NORTHERN GATE.
PALACB or BIKtlNG DEO^ AND LAKE DATTIA.
RAJPliTANA AND CENTRAL, INDIA AQENCY.
MOUNT ABU — UDAIPUR AND CHITTORE — AJMERE — JAIPl'R — ALWAR — OWALIOR —
SONAGHUR — SANCUI — BHOPAL.
'T'^MK large district of Rajputana, made up of eighteen different native
-*- states, with a [X)puIation of eleven millions, is traversed from north-east
to south-west by a system of mountains called the Aravalis, west of which
is desert, and east lie a number of interesting cities. A railway now runs
from Delhi along the mountain ranges, and joins the Baroda line from the
south. The Agent of the British Government lives at Mount Abu, which rises
five thousand feet above the sandy plain, and encloses a lovely valley, and
a small lake called the Pearl Lake. This is a majestic hill sacred both for
Hindus and for Jains; and they have here four temples arranged in the form
of a cross, built of white marble brought from a distance, and dating as far
back as the eleventh century. That built by the Prince Vincala Sah, though
plain outside, is magnificent within, but bearing marks of decay. It contains
a colossal statue of the deified coryphaeus of the Jains Parswanatha.
RAJPUTANA AND CENTRAL INDIA AGENCY.
Eastward from Mount Abu is Udaipur, situated on a low ridge with
two lakes, or rather summer tanks, for they are artificial, one of which faces
the city and reflects its palaces. There are a few islands, on which are
built handsome residences. Looking from the east, the view is striking ; the
placid waters reflect the buildings ; and the palace, built of granite, a hundred
feet high, overlooks the lake and the city. It is considered one of the
finest buildings in Rajputana, and is sometimes compared to Windsor.
Eastward again from Udaipur is the ancient capital, Chittore, whose
fortress is conspicuous from afar, perched upon a lofty rock, which stretches
northwards about two miles, forming a plateau, still covered with the remains
of departed splendour. Chittore was long the stronghold of Hindu inde-
pendence against the wave of Mohammedan conquest. Its prince was called
the Rana. Three times it was besieged and sacked. First in a.d. 1300,
when Ala-ud-din volunteered to raise the siege, provided the Rana's wife, the
beautiful Pudmani, were surrendered to him. She stipulated to enter the
conqueror's camp attended by the ladies of her household. On the appointed
day seven hundred litters accompanied her, each litter carried by six armed
soldiers disguised as porters, and containing not ladies, but warriors armed to
the teeth. A bloody fray ensued, but the plot failed, the husband and wife
escaped, and the siege was renewed ; and rather than surrender, thousands of
the wives and daughters of the inhabitants performed the johur, i.e. immo-
lated themselves upon burning piles of timber, while the men rushed out of
the city and perished sword in hand. The second siege was under the
Sultan of Guzerat in 1533, when the women performed another y^//?;r, the
princess before dying sending her bracelet as a challenge to Humayun to be
her avenger ; and he afterwards fulfilled the pledge and restored the Rana.
The third and final siege was in 1567, by the famous Akbar. The women
again threw themselves on burning piles, while the men put on saffron gar-
ments and perished sword in hand. Chittore was thenceforward deserted,
and the Rana sought refuge in the Aravali Hills, and founded Udaipur.
Within the ruined fortress are several antique buildings. Besides the
palace of the Rana, which was a plain building, are two vast temples
with tanks or reservoirs. Inscriptions upon them state that they were
built out of the ruins of former temples, brought from Nagara, five miles
north. The most striking of the two is the Temple of Vriji. The style of
architecture is good, and the masonry excellent. Perhaps the most singular
building among the ruins is the Pillar of Victory, erected in 1439, by
the Rana. It stands on a platform fourteen yards square, and is a
hundred and fifty feet high. There are nine stories, and on the summit is
a lantern tower and a dome. The whole is one mass of elaborate sculpture
in white marble, representing various subjects in Hindu mythology. The
tower commands a glorious view of the country round.
A railway is being constructed which runs northwards from Indore
18S
AJMERE.
through Chittore to Ajmere, and joins the Rajputana line. Ajmere is a
city of great antiquity and interest, surrounded by a wall with five strong
gateways in a beautiful style of architecture. It is in a lovely valley with a
magnificent lake. The modern streets have noble buildings, and the ancient
narrow bazaars remind one of Cairo. The Dargah, or shrine of the
Mohammedan Khwaja Sahib, stands at the end of a long broad bazaar;
and behind, to the north-east, rises Taragar, a hill about one thousand feet
loMU AT ALWAR, RAJILIANA,
above the valley, on the lower part of which are the remains of a Jain
temple, converted into a mosque, called " the mosque of two days and a
half," because it probably just took this length of time to knock off the
heads of the pillars on the columns, and to destroy the memorials of the
former worshipi The roof is supported by four rows of graceful pillars, all
carved in patterns up to the very top ; and the ceiling is covered with various
designs, the lotus flower being frequent, indicating its connection with Bud-
dhism. In Ajmere are the winter quarters of the Government Agent for
RAJPUTANA AND CENTRAL INDIA AGENCY.
Rajputana. Mayo College is intended for the education of the upper classes
belonging to the various native states.
The railway now brings us northwards eighty miles from Ajmere to
Jaipur, one of the most enlightened of the Rajputana states. The city dates
from 1730, when the government was removed from the old capital Amber,
five miles distant. Here there is a collegiate institution for the training of
native youths, and a school of art in connection with it. The houses are
stuccoed and painted in pink and white, and the public gardens are taste-
fully laid out. The neighbourhood abounds in game. The streets are wide,
the houses two stories high, the second story having only loopholes, through
which the women can look without being seen. The dresses of the people
are gay and varied, the colours brilliant. The view of the old town of Amber
from the Durbar Hall is very beautiful. When the Prince of Wales was at
Jaipur, the Mohammedan festival of the Moharrem was celebrated with great
pomp. This festival is in memory of the martyrdom of the sons of Ali, the
immediate descendants of the Prophet, who were put to death by rival
claimants to the headship of Islam. The dress of the women in Rajputana
is thus described by a lady writer : " The Hindu women wear petticoats ;
the Mohammedans rather tight trousers, with scarfs of brilliandy-coloured
muslin over their heads and bodies ; many bracelets of glass, silver or lead,
reaching nearly to the elbow, with an armlet above ; earrings all round the
ears, seven, ten, or more ; large anklets of silver or lead ; toe-rings that
jingle as they shuffle along, their feet bare, of course." On the borders of
Jaipur is the Sambar Salt Lake ; and salt is manufactured by evaporation
all over this part of Rajputana. Now salt is a Government monopoly in
India, and, to levy the tax, we have actually put a fence of prickly pear
round Rajputana. The Government, says Mr. Princep, have been trying
to come to an agreement with Ram Sing in the matter of his salt,
and he was invited to Simla to discuss the business. The Viceroy, Lord
Lytton, with extreme friendliness said, taking his hand in both his, " Maha-
rajah, if there is anything I can do for you, please mention it." " There
is one thing," answered Ram Sing, "please not to mention the word salt"
by which reply the Rajah got the better of the Viceroy.
From Jaipur northwards, a hundred miles by rail, we reach Alwar, on
the way to Delhi, which stands two thousand feet above the sea-level, with
tooth-like hills of quartz and slate, crowned with forts. The Rajah's palace
faces these hills, and from a window at the back you look out upon a
tank, on the opposite side of which is a series of small temples, and on
the left, or south, the tomb of Baktawar Sing, erected within the present
century, of white marble upon a platform of rose-coloured sandstone. It
affords a good specimen of the foliated arch. The singular dome terminates
in a massive stone pinnacle. On the north there rises a fantastic hill
a thousand feet high, with blocks of marble interspersed among trees, and
188
ALWAR.
crowned by a castle. The whole scene, in its still calm, the buildings
mirrored in the water below, looks so unlike a bit of the common world,
so picture-like, as seen out of that small opening, that one almost expects
to see it disappear as in a panorama, and another picture take its place.
SCULPTURED CAVE IN CWALIOK.
The story is told that the Government Agent proposed to plant an avenue
of pipal trees {Ficus religiosa), considered sacred by the Hindus, on either
side the road in front of the shops ; but the Btinniahs, or native shopkeepers,
one and all declared that if this were done they would not take the shops ;
<«0
RAJPUTANA AND CENTRAL INDIA AGENCY.
and when pressed for a reason, replied that " it was because they could not
tell untruths or swear falsely under their shade," adding, " and how can we
carry on business otherwise ? " The force of this argument seems to have
been acknowledged, as the point was yielded, and other trees have been
planted instead. The pipal is regarded as occupied by the god Brahma,
and it is sometimes invested with the sacred thread, as if it were a real
person. The planting of it is accompanied by a religious ceremony, and the
prayer offered, " O Vishnu ! grant that for planting this tree I may continue
as many years in heaven as this tree shall remain growing in the earth."
It is never injured, cut down, or burnt by devout Hindus ; but the
proximity of the tree does not always guarantee truthfulness. The aborigines
of the Central Provinces are called Gonds, a very peculiar race, with black
skin, thick lips, and flat nose, and wearing for clothing only the loin cloth.
They are of dirty habits, tatooed, and addicted to drinking. As to their
religion, Dr. Hunter tells us that "they worship cholera and small-pox, and
to appease the wrath of these divinities they offer sacrifices ; cleaning their
villages, they place the sweepings on a road or track, in the hope that
some traveller will be infected, and so convey the disease away into
another village."
East of Rajputana is the Central India Agency, with a population of
eight millions, embracing no less than seventy different states, the chief of
which are Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, Rewah, and Bundelcund. They all formed
part of the extensive Mahratta kingdom, which stretched from Gwalior as
far south as Goa. The Mahrattas are supposed to have been among the
original tribes of India, driven south by the Aryans. They were a bold and
industrious race, husbandmen, for the most part, strong and self-reliant ; and
they appear in history first under Sivaji, who united the several tribes in a
valiant crusade against the Mogul conquerors of India, and maintained the
conflict with unflinching courage till his death in 1680. The Mahrattas are born
horsemen ; they ride sturdy ponies, and show great skill and bravery as skir-
mishers. They not only checked, but in effect subdued the Mohammedan
power, which declined from the time of Sivaji. In his rule the Brahman element
was strong, and to the Peishwas the military authority was subservient. One
of these Peishwas raised the Scindia family of Mahrattas to the highest place
as military leaders, and under them the Mahrattas were found to be formid-
able foes, even by well-equipped English troops. Their capital is still Gwalior,
with its huge isolated rock, three hundred feet high with perpendicular sides,
and a mile and a half long, impregnable against any native force. On the
summit is King Pal, a fortress and palace in one, as if growing out of the
rock ; and farther on the huge temple of Adinath, a striking specimen of Jain
architecture. In the centre is the Vihara Temple, conspicuous from afar, dating
probably from the eleventh century, and now a hundred and twenty feet high,
though probably it was in its complete state much higher. On the west of the
GtVAL/OJt.
plateau the rock is split into a
deep, narrow gorge, full of curiou
carvings on either side ; chiefly
colossal figures with sphinx-like
faces representing Adinath, thirty-
five feet high, and other Tirthan-
kars, or Jain deities. Above each
statue is a canopy of richly-carved
stone. Jainism prevails in these
districts, and was by some viewed
as an offshoot of Buddhism ; but
it is now generally regarded as
having an independent origin,
dating back as far as Buddhism
itself. It lays great stress upon
the doctrine of transmigration, and
care for animal life is carried to an
o
X
RAJPUTANA AND CENTRAL INDIA AGENCY.
absurd length. The Jains retain caste distinctions, and are divided into two
sects, the " clothed in white," and the " sky-clothed." Their .sacred books
are called Agamas. Though they dissent from the Veda, they call them-
selves Hindus. They pay great reverence to any Jina, or "conquering
saint," who by long discipline aims at Divine perfection.
BuNDELCUND, whicli lies to the east, is the classic land of brigandism,
and in its sombre forests was born the terrible religion of the Thugs. It
is one of the least known parts of India. Its capital is Duttiah, and to
the west of this city stands the palace of Birsing-Deo, a square block of
building (see p. 185), each side of which is a hundred yards long and ninety
feet high. The whole is of granite built upon a vaulted terrace. The
rooms are large, but badly lighted. Everything is sombre and massive,
like a keep, and it is abandoned to the bats and the owls. Its gardens lead
down to the lake, which, with its tombs opposite, presents a very striking and
interesting picture. One of the most famous places of pilgrimage for the Jains
of Central India is Sonaghur, "the golden mountain." On the road from
Dattia the hills present the appearance of broken pyramidal blocks of granite,
and some like cromlechs and Druidical remains in single huge blocks. Many
of these monoliths are worshipped as lingas, and are smeared with red ochre.
Sonaghur (p. 191) rises in strange and picturesque outline, a granite hill, with
large loose masses of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to a
hundred temples of various shapes and sizes, with bulbous domes, and
copied in some degree from Moslem art. There is no vegetation ; the
rocks are bare, and look as if they would fall upon and crush the
buildings, which are inhabited only by a few Jain monks. A pretty little
villaee, half hidden in trees, lies at the foot of the hill.
One of the most interesting collections of Buddhist remains is found at
Sanciii, in the neighbourhood of Bhilsa, and in the district of Biiopal. The
small village of Sanchi is on the ridge of a sandstone hill five miles from
Bhilsa and twenty miles north-east from the town of Bhopal. The hill is flat-
topped and isolated, with a steep cliff eastward. Its height is three hundred
feet, the rock is light red sandstone, and the ruins are on the top. They lie
so remote from the sweep of Mohammedan and British conquest that they
have escaped the damage and destruction that have befallen many Indian
monuments of antiquity. They consist mainly of topes or stupas, i.e. huge
hemispherical mounds usually raised in early Buddhism to mark the place of
relics or graves. Of these topes there are upwards of twenty-five, larger or
smaller, within a distance of ten miles. We know from historical sources, the
Mahadeva in particular, that Asoka, the Buddhist king, grand.son of the
great Chandra Gupta, tarried some time at Besnagar, close to Sanchi, and
there married Devi, the daughter of the chief, by whom he had twin sons,
Ujenio and Mahinda (who went to Ceylon), and a daughter. There is also
a record of a farewell visit paid by Mahinda to his royal mother at Sanchi.
193
SAXCHI.
THK MOUARKbM IN BliOCAL.
No doubt, therefore, the topes at Sanchi were raised by Asoka or Mahinda ;
and perhaps the great tope may be a monument in remembrance of Asoka's
wife, the royal mother of Mahinda. It has been dug into, and is
«91
RAJPUTANA AND CENTRAL INDIA AGENCY.
found solid, nothing but bricks laid in mud, save the layers of smooth
stones covered with plaster on the outside surface. No relics have been
discovered. Topes were built by forced labour, the foundations being trodden
firm by elephants. This tope is almost hemispherical, a hundred and six
feet in diameter at the base, and forty-two feet in height. The hemisphere
stands upon a base twelve feet high and forming a path seven feet wide,
with a staircase up to it, round the tope, where it is supposed processions
used to v/alk on festival occasions. The circumference of the building,
measured round the base, is five hundred and fifty feet. It is surrounded
by a stone railing, the stones, nine feet high, being morticed and fitted like
those at Stonehenge ; and there are four gateways, facing the four points of
the compass. The red sandstone has been used for all the topes ; where hard-
ness was required and in the gateways, a fine white sandstone from a place
three miles off was employed. Three of these gateways were standing thirty
years ago, but one was knocked down by some clumsy Englishmen, and only
two, the east gate and the north gate, now remain. The east gate has been
modelled for South Kensington Museum ; the frontispiece to this chapter is
of the Northern Gate, which is the finest and most elaborate. Supposing
that the tope itself was raised B.C. 250, inscriptions on each rail show that it
was the gift of a different individual, and thus the whole circle may have
taken a century or more to erect. The gateways, too, were added at intervals
— the oldest dating about a.d. 20, the northern next, and afterwards the other
two. Mr. Fergusson considers that the four gateways may have been added to
the tope during the first century of the Christian era. The northern gateway
is the largest ; its height is thirty-five feet, and its extreme width is twenty
feet. Two vertical monoliths eighteen feet high support a third placed
horizontally and morticed in like woodwork, and somewhat resembling the
Torii in Japan. Above this two small blocks support a second horizontal
monolith, and again two blocks support the topmost horizontal stone. The
whole is elaborately carved back and front with sculptures representing scenes
(it is supposed) from the life of Buddha ; but if so the scenes must be from
Buddha's life before he became an ascetic, for drinking and love-making are
portrayed, several nude femab figures are introduced, and images of the
goddess Devi, the wife of Vishnu. The emblems on the top closely resemble
those of Dharma and Juggernaut.
jMi)
BOMBAY ?T(E?1D£;NCY.
Q
O
BIIORE GliAi iv ^.>.v
BOMBAY PKE^IDENCY.
JABALPUR, AJANTA, AND ELURA — IIO.MUAY — CAVES OF ELEPHANTA, KENNERY,
KARI.I — MATAERAN — POONA ^— MAHADLESHWAR — SURAT — BARODA — KUTCH
— SIXDE.
' I 'HE tourist across India from Allahabad to Bombay, or vice versa,
-■■ usually breaks the long railway journey (eight hundred and fifty miles
and thirty-six hours) at Jabam'lr, a large and flourishing city in the Central
Provinces, in order to visit the Marble Rocks, one of the most remarkable
scenes of natural beauty to be found in India. Jabalpur is two hundred and
thirty miles from Allahabad and a thousand feet above the sea ; it is over-
looked by a range of hills, consisting of granite, gneiss, hornblende,
dolomite, and always covered with verdure. The Marble Rocks are eleven
miles from Jabalpur ; and on the way you pass Mudden Mahal, with
curious hills commanding an extensive view of Jabalpur and the country
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
round, and crowned with a ruined temple on the top of a huge black boulder,
while about the base are numerous tanks and mango groves. At the
Marble Rocks the deep blue Narbada for two miles flows between two
radiant snow-white walls a hundred feet in height. The river, now entering
the gorge with a leap, has excavated this deep channel for itself, and can
be traversed in a flat-bottomed boat, which is rowed or poled along as far
as the cascade. The rocks rise precipitously from the water, and are in
parts extremely white, seamed by veins of dark green or black volcanic rock.
The boat passes through the gradually contracting gorge, amid the hum of
bees, the chattering of monkeys, and the rustling of forest leaves. Above
the rocks the river is a hundred yards broad ; here it is compressed into some
twenty yards ; it has a great depth, and glides very smoothly. When a full
strong light from sun or moon is thrown upon the rocks above, the combined
effect of the marble and its reflection is quite dazzling. The play of light
forms a striking contrast with the deep hues of the waters ; by moonlight
the rocks look ghost-like and mysterious. But the place is not free from
danger. High up above you hang from the cliffs the semicircular combs of
bees, which infest the gorge, and which, if disturbed by the firing of a gun or
otherwise, swarm down upon the intruders, and there is no means of avoiding
their cruel stings. Nevertheless the natives, by means of bamboo ladders
suspended from the cliffs, manage at night to smother the bees with torches,
and to rob the honey. On the summit of a low hill overlooking the Marble
Rocks there are several Hindu Sivoid temples, and the Hindus still hold
annually a religious gathering and a fair, attended by thousands during the
moonlight of November.
In the neighbourhood of Jabalpur are the Mopani coal-fields and
mines of hsematite ore ; but the amount of coal raised is not more fhan
about a thousand tons per month, and even when sold at ten rupees a ton
barely covers working expenses. In the Bombay Presidency English coal
is used, and of course the prices are very high. Few stations in India can
show such majestic mango-trees as Jabalpur ; and it is remarkable for its
pine-apples. Here also the sal, a tree whose habit is to occupy, where it
grows at all, the whole area to the exclusion of others, is found to rule
supreme. Its seeds have a marvellous power of self-propagation, sprouting
immediately on reaching the ground. It is almost the only evergreen tree in
India. Many of the young forests of sal resemble more the regularly tended
saplings of an English plantation than self-sown trees. The timber of the
sal, if inferior to the teak for some purposes, is superior for others, and it
is- almost the only timber tree of Upper India. Singly the sdl is a little
formal in outline, and possesses a fine firm appearance, from its horizontal
branches. It has bright leaves like broad lance-heads, and straight tapering
stem with grey and deeply-fissured bark. Its great charm, however, resides in
the fresh cool aspect of the clumps and belts in which it chiefly grows. The
ly8
TIGERS.
bamboo thickets of the higher hills, with their light feathery foliage, beauti-
fully supplement the heavier masses of the sal that climb their skirts. The
graciousness of nature in furnishing such plentiful shade cannot but be admired.
Just at the time when the face of the country begins to quiver in the fierce sun
and burning blasts of April, the banyan and peepul figs and the ever-present
mango throw out a fresh crop of leaves ; those of the banyan being then,
moreover, charged with a thick milky juice that forms an impenetrable non-
conductor to the sun's rays.
These are in substance the observations of the late Captain Forsyth,
who spent a considerable time in the Narbada Valley. While a keen
observer of nature, he was an ardent sportsman, and has left us some
interesting facts relating to the tiger, the inhabitant of the Indian jungle,
and the devastator of the country in days gone by. Though tiger-hunting is
inferior, as a mere exercise or an effort of skill, to some other pursuits, yet it
furnishes a test of coolness and nerve ; and there is an e.xcitement unsurpassed
in attacking an animal before whom every other beast of the forest quails,
and unarmed man is helpless as the mouse under the paw of a cat. It is
difficult to get information from natives as .to the whereabouts of tigers.
The hunter and his train of overbearing, swindling servants are shunned by
the poor inhabitants. The tiger himself is, in fact, far more endurable than
those who, encamping against him, demand grain and other supplies, and
force the natives to beat for the tiger, with a considerable chance of getting
killed, and very little chance of being paid for their services. The native,
moreover, regards the tiger as a sort of protector, destroying the wild animals
which feed upon the crops. The confirmed man-eater, however, is a deadly
foe, and much real courage is shown in tiger-hunting, when it is not carried
on in large multitudinous companies.
Tigers are now very much rarer to meet with than they once were,
when Government offered a reward for each tiger's head sufficient to
maintain a peasant's family in comfort for three months. All this is now
changed, and it is a frequent complaint that one can so seldom get a shot at
a tiger. The only animal, says Dr. W. W. Hunter, that has defied the energy
of the British official is the snake. The ascertained number of persons who
died from snake-bite in 1875 was seventeen thousand, out of a total of
twenty-one thousand three hundred and ninety-one killed by snakes and all
other wild animals.
Leaving Jabalpur, the great Indian Peninsula Railway conveys us
through the picturesque valley of the Narbada, wild, woody, uncultivated
and thinly peopled. The railway stations are like oases, few and distant
from each other, bright with flowers and well supplied with refreshments, in
the midst of jungle. At Khandwa, the branch line to Indore turns north-
wards towards Delhi, opening up a very fertile and productive country for
cotton, tobacco, and opium. Indore itself is an ill-built city with a few
BOMB A Y PRESIDENCY.
mosques, but with little to demand the tourist's attention. The large
military cantonment of Mhow, about twelve miles south-west from Indore,
is quite a European town. Fifty miles farther on along the main line, we
come to the branch for Nagpur, a straggling city in a swampy hollow, but
much improved by tanks and watercourses, and the largest city in the Central
Provinces. Nine miles from Nagpur is the cantonment of Kamthi.
In order to visit the famous caves of Ajanta and Elura, we take a slow
train from Bhosawal to Pachora, from which the caves are about thirty-two
miles distant. Visitors from Bombay usually leave the train at Nandgaon. The
Buddhist caves at Ajanta, in a deep glen, penetrating far into the mountain,
are twenty-nine in number, with fresco
paintings on the walls and ceilings, illus-
trative of the religious and social life of
the people when Buddhism still flourished.
None of the caves are high, and there
is nothing imposing connected with them.
The principal object within is either a
Chaitya, a Dagoba, i.e., relic-shrine, or an
image of Buddha. In some of the rock-
temples here, as may be seen in the illus-
tration, the older Buddhism had disap-
peared, and Brahmanism had begun to
re-assert its sway. Instead of paintings,
we find sculptures and images, not of
Buddha only, but of Hindu gods and
goddesses. It is supposed that this re-
volution in religious belief was com-
menced before the fourth century of our
era, and indeed that images of Buddha
were hardly known in India nor wor-
shipped after the seventh century. The
series of excavations extends along the
face of a tall cliff for a distance of five hundred yards ; and some of the caverns
are a hundred feet deep and forty wide. Below them is a beautiful waterfall,
which bounds from rock to rock from a height of three hundred feet, and
the glen is green and shady with forest trees and numerous creepers.
We pursue our way from Ajanta by road to Aurangabad, near which is
the far-famed fortress of Doulatabad, an extraordinary hill, consisting of a
huge conical rock five hundred feet high, and cut perpendicular all round
for a height of forty yards. A winding passage inside leads first to a
chamber and then to the summit, which is occupied by the fortress. Leaving
this place, we ascend the Ghat or mountain-ridge to Roza, where on the
plateau we see several Mohammedan tombs, one of which has been converted
BUDDHA.
ELURA.
into a bungalow. Descending the Ghit on the other side, we reach the
caves of Elura, situated near the base of a crescent-shaped range of hills six
hundred feet high. There are thirty caves, of which ten are Buddhist,
towards the south, the most ancient ; fourteen Brahmanical, in the centre, the
most elaborate ; and six Jaina northwards. They are cut in greenstone-
rock, and extend a mile and a half along the amphitheatre. Cascades fall in
front of the caves, and the base of the mountain is fringed with brush-
wood and trees. The best time for a visit is after the rains, when the country
is green and the waterfalls full. The Kailas, or Paradise Cave, is the most
wonderful. Within a pit is an entire temple cut out of the solid rock,
a monolithic Brahmanical temple of the eighth century, with columns and
walls elaborately carved, and a pyramidal spire over the shrine. Dr.
Wilson, of Bombay, when he visited this cave, preached the gospel in
it to a congregation of thirty natives. "Some of our auditors," he says,
" pointed to the magnificent arches and stupendous figures around us, as the
very works of God's own hand ; but we pointed them to the marks of
the instrument of the mason, to the innumerable proofs of decay every-
where exhibited, and to the unsuitableness, absurdity, and impiety of the
representations. They could not resist our appeal. Little did the formers
of this wonderful structure anticipate an event of this kind. We were pro-
bably the first messengers of peace who have declared within it the claims
of Jehovah."
Resuming our railway journey towards Bombay at Nandgaum, we make
another halt sixty miles farther on at Nassick, which lies at the foot of the
great Western GhAts on their eastern side, where the Godavery rises.
Nassick is called the Benares of Western India, and is pleasantly
situated on the banks of the Godaver)', which here is broad but shallow,
and lined with temples. The country is fertile and well-wooded ; the town
is eighteen hundred feet above the sea, and its advantages are so great
that Sir G. Campbell seriously proposed to make it the capital of India.
Its population is thirty-five thousand, including ten thousand Brahmans.
There is a very pleasant excursion to Gungapore, eight miles farther up
the Godavery, where there are nine temples and a pretty waterfall ; but
the chief sight is the Buddhist caves of Pandu Lena, running round a
conical hill five miles from the town. They are seventeen in number,
and were excavated in the fourth century of our era, though from an in-
scription over the entrance of one of them it seems to bear date B.C. 129.
The mountains round are very majestic, but everything is so associated
with the reigning superstition, that one of these is called the Bed of
Kama, its summit being a table-land. The river is an object of great
attraction, and besides the great Rama-Kunda, or pool for bathing, there
are eleven other pools, sacred to some of the gods. The Church Mission
has established here an industrial settlement, called Sharanpur, or "city of
BOMB A y PRESIDENCY.
refuge," where there is a Christian congregation, schools, an orphanage, and
an asylum.
And now resuming our journey along the main line, we see our way
blocked up by rocks ahead ; and the apparently impassable barrier of the
Western Ghats, which run parallel to the west coast of India northwards
from the Nilgiri Hills, rises in all its majesty before us. But the iron horse
gradually winds its way snake-like, now round this shoulder, and now across
that ravine, till at length we are on the top of the ridge of the Thull Ghat.
The line curves round precipices like the worm of a screw, while you look
out on one side of the carriage at the overhanging rocks, and on the other
see below the deep ravine with its roaring torrent. It is .a noble piece of
engineering. The incline is nine miles long, with many zigzags, and thirteen
tunnels. The sharpest curve is one of seventeen chains radius, and the
maximum gradient is one in thirty-seven. There are fifteen bridges and six
viaducts. The descent down the sea-face of the Thull Ghat is very
fine ; lofty cliffs, green slopes, wooded gorges, roaring streams, forests of
palm and teak, aromatic groves — all combining to present a picture of
grandeur and loveliness. At length we reach the Konkan, the level
strip of country intervening between the mountains and the sea, and
passing through Tanna, on the Island of Salsette, we arrive at the terminus
in Bombay.
How grateful is the sweet smell of the sea and its refreshing breeze
after three thousand miles of inland travel and several weeks of inland
sojourn in North India ! At home in Britain we never lose the bracing
freshness which the sea imparts to the stiff or gentle gales, because in
any direction the sea is not far off; but when we cross, for example,
the American continent from New York to San Francisco, or still more,
when we make the journey from Calcutta, through the plains of Bengal
and the North-West Provinces to Karachi or Bombay, the days or weeks
of inland sojourn and travel amid arid plains and over scorching plateaux
make one long for the pleasant sight of the sea and the refreshing odour
of the ocean breeze. And these breezes, Bombay — "fair haven," as the
names signifies — enjoys in double measure, for it is a city built upon an
island, or chain of islands, branching out southwards from the mainland,
and enclosing a splendid harbour of forty square miles. The fort was
ceded by the Portuguese in 1661 to Charles 11., who handed it over to the
East India Company in 1668 for an annual rent of "ten pounds in gold."
Owing to the increased growth of Indian cotton, and still more to the
opening of the Suez Canal, Bombay has rapidly grown during the present
century into a city of seven hundred thousand inhabitants. Of these four
hundred thousand are Hindus, one hundred and fifty thousand Mohammedans,
fifty thousand Parsis, and the remainder Jains, Eurasians, and Europeans.
The variety of nationality and costume is perhaps more striking here than
ROMRA Y.
anywhere else in India. Crowds of coolies, or labourers, with their dark
skins, turbaned heads, and the strip of cloth around their loins ; native
women, graceful in figure and features, decked out in many colours —
crimson and white and yellow, orange, green, and blue — with heavy bracelets
on arms and ankles ; Parsis, with white garments and dark towering hats.
alKLLl I.N U'JMIIAV.
and Mohammedans, proud and stately, all bustling along beneath the tropical
sun, and in an atmosphere transparent and bright, present a scene most
picturesque and exhilarating. The native town stretches northwards, and
here is the centre of trade. There is, however, no distinctively European
quarter in Bombay, Englishmen and natives having their offices side by side.
Southwards, beyond the Green, is the Fort, now no longer a fort, but an
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
esplanade with levelled ramparts and with noble buildings — the new Secre-
tariat, the new Post Office, the High Court, the University Library and Tower,
all European in their style. Beyond these is the promontory of Lower
Colaba, with mainly a seafaring population.
To one coming for the first time into Bombay from the sea, it is a new
sensation to be in this Asiatic atmosphere, surrounded and waited upon by
soft- footed Hindus, who glide about noiselessly like cats, watching every
COTTON WElGIIliNG.
look, eager to anticipate every wish ; indeed, you cannot enter the hotel
without a dozen servants rising to their feet and making salaams with
profound reverence as you pass. But one soon learns to accept these
obeisances, and to play the English grandee. Native service in India is so
cheap that every Englishman has his attendants ; and no sooner does the
youth, who at home was wont to do everything for himself, set foot here,
than he discovers, that by virtue of his belonging to the conquering race
PAh'Sls.
he can hold his head high, smoke at leisure, and be waited upon by mild
Hindus, making obeisance to him from the moment he rises in the morning
till he is asleep at night. Nay, his servant, like a faithful dog, lies in readi-
ness on the mat outside his door all through the night, and two others are
pulling the punkah through the silent hours over sahib's head. He falls
moreover into the habit of drinking " pegs," as drams of spirits with or
without soda water are called. The name arose from the mode of
marking, by pegs opposite his name, each soldier's allowance as he
got it twice daily in the barrack canteen. An old officer returning from
the country said to me, " I know no worse school for a young man
than India. I have two nephews who have inherited land in Oude ; I
am trying to persuade their guardians to sell the land there, and to buy
farms for them in New Zealand or America. There they must learn
industry and self-dependence. Here in India they learn to be haughty, idle,
imperious, self-indulgent." This is the temptation, and this is the threatening
danger; for the Hindu is not slow to perceive that by hard taxation he
really pays for the pomp and retinue of English officials, their incomes from
the Viceroy downwards being practically drawn from the sweat of his brow.
But to the prevailing arrogance there are many noble e.\ceptions, men who
fear God, who respect the Hindu as a man, not merely regard him as a
brute ; who fulfil the duty for which they are paid by the people with
conscientiousness and kindness; who eschew "pegs," and live temperate and
pure lives ; who treat the people with justice and humanity. These men
are our strength in India.
The favourite suburb for the wealthy is Malabar Hill, a lofty ridge
about five hundred feet high, which stretches as a separate promontory
for two miles out to sea in a south-westerly direction. This thickly
wooded ridge commands glorious views of the city and the ocean. It is
dotted over with bungalows, shaded with palms, and embowered in tropical
foliage. Here at evening, on the broad verandahs, the merchant or official,
stretched in his long bamboo chair, can enjoy the cool ocean breeze. The
Government Bungalow is at the extreme point, and from it the drive
of five miles down the slope and along the beach leads to the Apollo
Bunder, where the fashion of Bombay drives in the afternoon until sunset,
and gathers to the music of the band. The equipages of the wealthy
Parsis and of the English residents sweep along, with trails of native
footmen.
The P.\ksis, who are descendants of the ancient Persians, and who
settled at Surat a thousand years ago, are now an intelligent and enter-
prising community, rivalling Europeans in opulence. Much of the mercantile
business of the East is in their hands. They speak English with fluency,
and in their schools English is universally taught. As to religion, they are
the followers of Zoroaster, whose precepts in the Zendavesta are summed up
TOS
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
thus: "Good thoughts," "good words," "good deeds." Theoretically they
claim to be monotheists, but they adore the four elements, fire, air, earth,
and water ; they will not contaminate earth by any burial, nor fire by
cremation. In their own cemetery on Malabar Hill are five mysterious
stone receptacles for their dead, about eight yards high and twenty wide,
called " towers of silence." Each tower possesses usually an extraordinary
coping, not of dead stone but of living vultures. There they sit motionless
with their heads pointed inwards. Inside each tower are a number of stone
receptacles, like the spokes of a wheel pointing inwards, open at the top
arfd sloping towards the centre, where is a deep well with charcoal and sand
below. When a funeral occurs the body is brought to the bottom of the
incline leading to the tower, and here the mourners retire, leaving the
bearers to advance with their burden. The corpse is silently conveyed into
the interior, laid uncovered in one of the open stone receptacles, and left
there. Scarcely is the door closed when the vultures swoop down upon the
body, and in five minutes the satiated birds fly back and settle down again
upon the parapet. Meanwhile the mourners change their clothes, leaving
their funeral garments behind them. The dry skeleton is afterwards placed
in the centre well, gradually to disappear below. A Parsi merchant Avith
whom I travelled for several days strongly vindicated this use of birds
of prey, as reverential to the four sacred elements, as less revolting than
worms, and as best contributing to the health of the living. The best
account of Parseeism is Dr. Wilson's work The Parsi Religion. Under his
instruction several Parsis embraced Christianity, and two are now ordained
missionaries.
Besides the Grant Medical Hospital, so well known for its efficiency,
may be named the Panjrapul, a hospital for diseased and decrepit animals.
This has been founded and is supported mainly by the Jains, with whom
tenderness for animal life is a distinguishing tenet. They are most careful
lest they should tread on or crush any insect, or by accident swallow the
tiniest mite. They strain the water which they drink (a wise precaution for
sanitary reasons), and they will not eat or drink in the dark, lest they should
inadvertently swallow life. This care arises from their belief that life
everywhere, whether in trees or animals or man, is one and the same ;
they contend for the identity of life in all kinds of existences. In the
hospital all sick or maimed animals are treated, from the elephant to the
dog ; even fleas and other vermin are carefully nursed. Crows, cows,
monkeys, serpents are regarded as more or less pervaded by Divinity, and
any noxious insect or reptile may be an incarnation of a deceased relative.
The Jina is "a conquering saint," and the principal point in the creed of
Jainas is the reverence paid to holy men who have attained perfection. One
way of winning perfection is to found a hospital for broken-down animals or
to build a new temple.
CAVES OF ELEPHANTA.
Having hired a steam-launch, we started one beautiful morning for the
island of Elephanta, six miles south-east of Bombay, and after a delightful
passage reached the landing-place, a long narrow pier, in an hour and a
half. A stone pathway and steps lead up to the famous caves, where the
custodian furnishes you with a ticket of admission ; and with the guide-book
you can decipher all that is to be seen. Three massive columns cut out of
the solid rock divide the entrance, and support a huge overhanging cliff mantled
ENTRANCE TO THE CAVES OF EI.EPIIAMTA.
with verdure and draped with flowering creepers. The regularity of the
pillars, which run in parallel lines, and the coarseness of the workmanship,
indicate the comparative lateness of the work. The great cave is about one
hundred and thirty feet deep, and equally wide, hollowed out of trap rock,
huge pillars being left in rows to support the roof, which is about twenty
feet high. This is a very fair specimen of the rock temples of the Hindus.
Facing you in the distance, at the back of the cave as you enter, is a fine
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
colossal cutting of the Hindu trinity, Brahma the creator in the centre,
Vishnu the preserver on your left, Siva the destroyer on your right. The
three faces are combined as if in three huge heads, and the carving of the
head-dresses is very carefully executed. On every hand huge bas-reliefs
stare passively from the rocky walls around, and represent Siva in various forms,
with his wife Parvati. The fact that all the designs in the cavern clearly
refer to Siva only, has led to the conclusion that the entire temple was
dedicated to him, under the name Trimurti, and that the three colossal heads in
the centre represent him only, in three different characters : the centre being
in feature calm and benevolent, that on the left merry and joyous, that on
the right fierce and revengeful. On the west side of this monster hall is the
most holy place, wherein there rises an immense linga shrine, the emblem
of the creative powers of the universe, and the most frequent, indeed, the
universal object of idolatry throughout India. Around are giant Brahmans
in stone placed as guards ; and hither, in the days when worship was
celebrated in the templ^, the costliest offerings were brought. We pause
before this in horror and sadness, as we think of the age which could revel
in the beliefs which these figures embody. On the east side a panel
depicts the birth of the elephant-headed god of wisdom, Ganesh. Here, too,
is what is called the Lions' Cave, on account of two colossal lions in basalt
which were discovered in some excavations, and have been placed here.
Again you have Siva as an ascetic, and Siva in the dance. In fact, there
is quite a theogony here. The flat ponderous roof of mountain, the
pillars as if pressed down and bulging out with its weight, the sombre gloom
pervading the recesses, and the weird and fantastic carvings on every hand,
give to the place an air of mysteriousness and gloom. If civilized man
views it with amazement, and is impressed with its grandeur, no wonder
that devout and credulous Hindus once regarded it with awe as the dwel-
ling-place of an omnipotent and relentless deity. This huge and gloomy
rock-temple dates as far back as the ninth century of our era. Outside, the
island is fertile, romantic, and hilly — a delightful contrast, as the temple of
the Almighty, with the dark idol shrine within ; and boys brought for sale
beautifully-coloured flies and pendent birds' nests. The excursion to and
from Elephanta is easily accomplished in a day, and there is no pleasanter
one in the neighbourhood of Bombay.
What the caves of Elephanta were for Brahmanism the Kennery caves,
in the opposite direction, were for Buddhism ; and the visitor at Bombay
has within a day's excursion a very interesting specimen of both these
classes of cave architecture. The Kenneky caves are six miles from Tanna
railway station. They are almost a hundred in number, and are hollowed
out of a large hill in a tract of thick forest. The pillars of the great cave
are somewhat like those of Elephanta ; but in the Vihara, which is about
forty yards long, there is a colossal figure of Buddha on either side.
KENNERY CAVES.
liUyTTO AT KEN.NKKV.
Flights of steps lead up to the top of the hill, which commands an extensive
view, and here are a number of smaller caves, all with indications of
Buddhist worship. Traces of plaster and painting are observable, supposed
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
to be the work of the Buddhists when driven from Karli. Many of these
rock temples were no doubt originally natural caves. Being carved in the
living rock, and not built up with stone, they remain just as they were at
BAS-RELIEFS, GATEWAY OF KARI.I.
the beginning, and have not been altered or repaired. The Kennery caves
bear date about the fifth century of our era. Dr. Wilson enumerates no
fewer than thirty-seven groups of these cave temples in the Bombay
Presidency, the greater number being of Buddhist origin. Those of Elura
KARLI.
were the first, then followed the Karlt caves, and the latest imitations of
them are the Jain excavations. Of all these rock-temples the finest perhaps
are those of Karli, about eighty miles by railway from Bombay. The great
Chaitya cave here is hewn in the face of a precipice, two-thirds up the side
of a thickly- wooded hill. In front of it stands the Lion Pillar, a monolith of
exquisite architectural proportions, with four stone lions back to back in its
capital. The doorway is through a screen carved with colossal figures. The
I.STERIOR OF GREAT DACOBA OF KARI.I.
cave itself looks like an oblong church, with a nave and side aisles. It is
forty yards long by twelve yards wide, and has a semicircular apse behind
the shrine. The roof is dome-like, ornamented by a series of wooden
rafters and resting on forty pillars, each having a richly- moulded capital on
which kneel two elephants, each bearing two figures. The chaitya, or dagoba, is
a dome on a circular drum surmounted by the remains of a wooden challar,
or umbrella. The only light which is admitted from without comes from a
horseshoe window, and falls on this object with great effect. The sculptures
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
represent the aboriginal tribes doing obeisance to Buddha. From inscriptions
that have been deciphered, the date of this Buddhist Jemple is about b.c. 78.
There is nothing jn ancient Buddhist architecture that so closely resembles
mediaeval Christian building. Not the least wonderful here are the reservoirs
of ever-cool water, some of them of great depth and cut out of the living
rock. The finest cathedrals of Europe do not always excite such emotions
as the Karli temple dedicated to Gautama Buddha. It bears this inscription :
" By the victorious and most exalted king, this rock mansion has been
established, the most excellent in India."
Leaving Bombay by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, two hours
will find us -at Narel, fifty-three miles distance, and within six miles of
Matiieran, a healthy hill station about two thousand five hundred feet above
the sea, where we find ourselves away from the noise and heat of the city,
in the midst of lovely scenery and a pure and buoyant atmosphere, with the
scent of wild flowers and the songs of birds. There are fine views of the
Ghats from Garbut Point, and Panorama Point commands the wide
expanse of the Konkan, v.'ith the sea beyond. On the east of the hill is a
noble grove, where magnificent trees are to be seen festooned by gigantic
creepers. Many Bombay merchants come out hither daily during the hot
months. Resuming our railway journey, we now ascend the Bhore Ghat,
which is two thousand feet above the sea level. Here the mountains are
precipitously scarped, and the railway wends its way, round precipices and in
zigzags, to the summit of the tremendous ravine. At one point the angle
is so sharp that trains cannot turn, and they reverse their direction on a
level terrace. This range was considered the key of the Deccan in the early
wars of the English with the Mahrattas, and a proposal was made to fortify
it. Better far is the traversing of it first by an excellent road, and next by a
railway, which surmounts the barrier, and brings Poona within six hours of
Bombay.
Poona is one of the old capitals of the Mahratta, or " Great Kingdom,"
as the word signifies, the other two capitals being Satura and Kolhapore.
Here the Peishwa ruled till his defeat in 1818; and since that time the city
has not been so flourishing. It is situated in a wide-stretching treeless plain,
and is divided into seven quarters, called by the seven days of the week.
The inhabitants are chiefly Hindus, and there are many Brahmans, fat and
sleek, to be seen in the streets. The shrine of Parvati is on an eminence over-
looking the town. Here are the Government English Schools, the Sanscrit
College, and the military headquarters for Western India. ^ Seventy miles
journey south by a good but hilly road brings us to Mahableshwar, a
glorious sanatorium, four thousand seven hundred feet above the sea, and the
Simla of the Bombay Presidency. It is now more easily approached by
steam from Bombay to Dasgaum, and thence by the new Ghat road through
Poladpur and Warra. Perhaps the best description of this charming resort
MAHABLESHWAR.
is from the pen of the late Rev. Dr. John Wilson, who had a bungalow
here for many years. He says : " I am at present sojourning on the most
lovely spot that you can imagine. The scenery around is the grandest, the
most beautiful, and the most sublime which I have yet witnessed during my
earthly wanderings, extensive though they have been. The Mahableshwar
is part of the Great Western Gh&ts, and four thousand seven hundred feet
high, a loftiness surpassing the highest of Caledonia's mountains. The
vegetation partakes of the magnificence of the tropics, but is enchanting to the
dwellers in the climes of the sun, as in some respects resembling that of our
beloved native land. The materiel of the heights is of the trap formation, which,
by its basaltic masses and columns and precipitous scarps, affords the most
wonderful and diversified specimens of Nature's architecture, and by its valleys
MAIUBIESIIWAK.
and ravines, of her gigantic excavation. The province of the Konkan, with
its hills and dales, and exhaustless forests and fruitful fields, stretches below.
At a distance the ocean is seen as a vast mirror of brilliancy, reflecting the
glory of the sky. The clouds baffle all description. Their various and
changing hues, and multifarious forms and motions, as they descend to kiss
the mountain brow, or remain above as our fleecy mantle, or interpose
between us and the luminary of heaven to catch its rays, and to reveal their
coloured splendour, fill the mind with the most intense delight. . . . Satara, in
my opinion, is the most lovely station in our Presidency. The valley of the
Yena, with its abundant cultivation, and that of the Krishna, which partly
appears, and the mountains to the west, and the hills to the north and south,
presenting, with their basaltic masses, and layers, and columns, and scarps, and
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
towers, the most interesting specimens of Nature's architecture, have a very
striking effect on the eye of the spectator. The fort is curiously formed
on the summit of one of the highest elevations ; and it is associated with all
the interest and romance of Mahratti history. The native town is spacious,
busy, and regular, to a degree seldom seen in this country. The camp is
very agreeably situated;
--ss^rS-—
and the Residency has
a beautiful neighbour-
hood."
No European knew
the Bombay Presidency
so well as did Dr. Wil-
son. He went out as
a missionary- in the year
1829, at once set him-
self to master the Mah-
ratti language, and soon
became eminent as a
champion of the Chris-
tian religion with Parsis,
Mohammedans and
Hindus. He ranked
facile princeps among
Oriental scholars, was
President of the Bom-
bay Asiatic Society,
wrote several valuable
treatises, and was con-
sulted upon political
questions by the highest
authorities in India. He
travelled through every
part of the Bombay
Presidency ; and after
a life-sojourn of forty-
seven years, he died
esteemed and lamented
by all classes, on the ist of December, 1875. The Free Church Institute stands
a monument of his labours in the city. I went through the several class-
rooms with deep interest and surprise, and addressed the senior class of
native students, who spoke English fluently, and greatly astonished me with
their intelligent questions. I also visited the Jews' School, in which Dr. Wilson
took deep interest, for there are many Bcni-Israel, as they are called, in
JEWESSES, BOMBAY.
BARODA.
Bombay, and here are nearly a hundred Jewish children, boys and girls,
learning Hebrew and English, and reading the Hebrew Bible. The
American missions in Bombay date from 1813. and have been all along
conducted with zeal and efficiency. Driving across the Esplanade one
Saturday, I saw a large crowd of Hindus gathered at the foot of one of the
statues; and in the midst of them stood the venerable Mr. Bowen, holding
an open-air service, and preaching the Gospel of Christ. He, like Dr. Wilson,
is a veteran in mission work, and is highly esteemed by the Hindus.
The Bombay Presidency extends southwards past the Portuguese settle-
ment of Goa, and includes North Kanara. The first sight of Goa is magni-
ficent, and the houses look substantial ; but it is evident that little remains
but the churches and some other public buildings. The view from the
turrets of the Augustinian convent is magnificent. The Gairsoppa Falls,
which are about three hundred and forty miles south of Bombay, in North
Kanara, are reckoned among the chief wonders of India. Here the Shera-
vatty divides into several channels above the old capital of Gairsoppa. There
are four distinct falls, but they can be seen together, and November is the
best month to visit them. They are named the " Rajah," the " Roarer,"
the " Rocket," and " Dame Blanche." The " Rajah " falls in a single leap a
depth of eight hundred feet, but the other three glide in a thick body of
water down the sloping rocks.
Northwards the Bombay Presidency embraces the peninsular lands of
Gujarat and Kutch, and the district called Sinde, which includes the mouths
cf the Indus. Taking the Bombay and Baroda line, we reach Surat (one
hundred and si.\ty-scven miles) in eight hours, an ugly town, but famous
in histor)', and an outpost of the Mahrattas. It was one of the first English
settlements in India, and declined as Bombay supplanted it. Here there
are several factories, and the place is well known for its cotton. There are
in Western India at present forty-one cotton factories. The inhabitants of
Surat have shown great intelligence and spirit in resisting unjust taxation.
The tombs of the governors of the English and Dutch factories are immense
structures, in imitation of Mohammedans, and meant to impress the natives
with the greatness and wealth of the owners. The railway stations along
this line are beautifully kept, and have gardens smiling with flowers.
Another hundred miles are traversed in about five hours, and we reach
Baroda, the capital of the Mahratta chief, called the Gaikwar, or "cowherd."
The city is divided into four quarters by wide streets, meeting in the centre
at a spacious market-place. The population is said to be two hundred
thousand. The houses are mostly of wood, and the country around is
charmingly fertile. The Gaikwar's court is a scene of great splendour. He
entertains European guests sumptuously, though the entertainments are
somewhat of a barbaric character, involving the cruelty of elephant and
rhinoceros fights, and combats of gladiators, which sometimes prove fatal.
• IS
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
" Baroda," says Dr. Wilson, " is considered a cesspool of moral corruption.
Notwithstanding the productions of much of its soil, it has seldom, if
ever, been free from embarrassments of debt. Much caprice is shown in
the exactions made from the agricultural population. The administration of
justice has been most imperfect and partial." The grandeur of the sowan's,
or processions of the Gaikwar, is quite dazzling. The prince himself rides
on a noble elephant, whose howra is of silver, presented by the Queen of
England ; and in the procession comes the standard-bearer, also mounted
on an elephant. Here to this day we see how, as Milton says :
" The gorgeous East
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold."
In the neighbourhood of Gogo, north of Baroda, in the peninsula of
Kathiawar, where are the best Laskars or sailors in India, is the famous
Jain hill of temples called Palitana. The Jains regard temple-building as a
virtue, and these temples range in date from the fifth century of our era down
to the present time. The grouping together of temples is a peculiarity which
the Jains practise to a greater extent than the followers of any other religion in
India. The hill commands an extensive view, and the temples are among the
most costly in India, built of sandstone or basalt, and neatly chunamed.
The floors and doorposts are of marble, and a good deal of the workman-
ship is mosaic. The images are decorated with earrings, necklaces, armlets,
and the wonder is that such an amount of treasure has remained unmolested.
The Jaina priests here wear cloth shoes. They carry a besom to sweep the
road and put all insects out of the way of harm, and a mouth-cloth to
prevent insects from entering their mouths when praying. They believe
that all life — the life of vegetables, brutes, men, gods — however diffused, is
equally sacred. "How many lives are there," asked Dr. Wilson, "in a
pound of water?" "An infinite number," was the reply. "How many are
there in a bullock ? " " One." " You kill then thousands of lives, while the
Mussulman butcher kills one."
The city which bears the clearest marks of Mohammedan conquest in
Gujarat is Ahmadabad, where there are several large mosques ; but even
these indicate the power of Jainism reacting upon the Moslem conquerors.
A drive to the long deserted, but once lordly pleasure-place, at some distance
from the city, on the banks of the river, reveals to the tourist the park -like
character of Gujarat. Wheat is extensively grown, especially in the northern
part, rice and the sugar-cane flourish, and mango-trees are in great abundance.
Southwards cotton is widely cultivated. Along the coast there lies Somnath,
where was the temple regarding which Lord Ellenborough became the
laughing-stock of India when in his heated and unprincipled policy he made
his empty boast that he would return with a flourish the Somnath Gates
carried away by the Afghans eight centuries before. The gates never got
KUTCH.
beyond Agra; they probably never belonged to the temple, which is a ruin,
now utterly forsaken, traversed by the village swine. The image in it which
the Moslems destroyed was the Linga, and the remains of the temple
carvings which they broke are of such a character that their destruction is
scarcely a matter for surprise or regret. Farther north we reach the granite
rock of GiRNAR, containing the Asoka inscriptions. On the mountain are the
ruins of Buddhist dagobas, and from one of the peaks Hindus who get tired
of life throw themselves down, in the hope of making a speedy journey to
heaven. The view from the top embraces the adjoining hills and a wide range
of low country. But the Girnar Rock ranks in historical literature with the
Rosetta stone. It was first deciphered in 1835 by Dr. Wilson, who writes:
" After comparing the let-
ters with several Sanscrit
alphabets in my possession,
I found myself able, to my
great joy and that of the
Brahmans who were with
me, to make out several
words, and to decide as to
the probable possibility of
making out the whole."
The inscriptions cover a
hundred square feet of the
uneven surface of a huge
rounded and conical granite
boulder twelve feet high.
They record the character
of the great and good
Asoka.
Sailing still north-west
along the coast of Gujarat
we reach Dwarka, which was once in the west of India what Puri, the shrine
of Juggernaut, is still in the east. The temple has a lofty steeple, and it
stands on an elevated piece of ground with a flight of steps leading down to
a creek of the sea, which is regarded as a sacred bathing-place. Its celebrity
is greatly on the wane, and the decreasing number of pilgrims witnesses to
the gradual decline of superstition among the people.
The state called Kurcii forms a connecting link between Gujarat and
Sinde. It is almost an island, two hundred miles long by one hundred
broad, intersected by two mountain ranges, and somewhat sterile in character,
owing to lack of water. Cotton is the main crop. Under the influence of
British counsel, specially of the excellent Dr. Gray, the Rao adopted many
beneficent measures, suppressed the slave trade and infanticide, and proved
THE GIKNAR KOCK.
BOMB A V PRESIDENCY.
himself one of the most learned and humane of the Indian princes. His
capital is Bhooj, which was converted into a heap of ruins in 1819 by the
great earthquake that was felt throughout India, even to Calcutta and
Pondicherry. The Runn of Kutch is a flat region of seven thousand square
miles, the dried-up bed of an inland sea, barren and unfruitful, and some-
times overflowed by the sea, which leaves large salt deposits. The sudden
changes of land into sea, and sea into land, show the revolutions still
possible on the earth.
The most northerly portion of the Bombay Presidency is Sinde, which
includes the delta of the Indus. The morale of the policy which conquered
and annexed this country in 1843 was well summed up in the parody upon
J.N HIE I.NDL'S.
the short despatch of Sir C. Napier, Peccavi, " I have Sinde." But whatever
may have been the errors of our early rule, the wise policy of Lord
Dalhousie provided for such administrative and engineering improvements
in Sinde, as promise to make '' yotuig Egypt" as it is called, more than
rival old, although the Indus can never equal the Nile. Dr. Wilson, of
Bombay, was the first Protestant missionary who opened his lips in Sinde ;
this was in 1850, and at Karachi. By the battle-field of Miani and the
fort of Haidarabad, where the governor had just received the homage
of the chiefs, the two missionaries Duff and Wilson met thirty years
ago, and made plans for educational and mission work which since have
borne abundant fruit. The rising port of Karachi has now upwards of fifty
thousand inhabitants. It is connected by railway with Calcutta, by telegraph
218
OUR HOPE FOR INDIA.
V^ -^^l,
with Bassora and Europe, and by steam-ship, like Bombay, with all parts of
the world.
The prosperity of India depends upon the steady growth and spread of
political justice, education male and female, and Christian missions and
literature. Justice must be done by the legal recognition of peasant right,
making rjot and tenant joint sharers in the increasing value of the land : by
reduced taxation, relieving the burdens which now crush the people ; by careful
curtailment of military and
civil - service expenditure,
moderating salaries, employ-
ing native talent ; by wise
expenditure in irrigation and
other public works, thus
averting famine and increas-
ing the food supply; and
by a steady course of firm,
just, and wise legislation.
In education more must be
done by Government for the
mass of the population,
elementary schools for the
people being supported, and
advanced colleges for the
rich being left to support
themselves ; while schools
and colleges under missionary
management are more liber-
ally aided and encouraged,
and zenana work and board-
ing schools for girls and orphanages supplemented by grants in aid. But,
above all. our hope for India is in the circulation of the Scriptures and
of a healthy Christian periodical literature, weekly and monthly, as in other
parts of the world, and in the humble, zealous, self-denying labours of the
"fishers of men" called and sent by the Lord Jesus, publishing the gospel
of peace, bringing good tidings to the sin-burdened and sin-bound. Thus
Christ's Kingdom shall prevail, and India will become hopeful, enlightened,
self-governed, prosperous and free.
IN TUB CHRISTIAN CIKU' SCHOOL, AGRA.
•14
INDEX.
Absorption, xi.
Adam's Bridge, ii
Adam's Footprint, 25
Adam's Peak, 20, 25
Adinath, 190
Agra, 149, sq.
Ahmadabad, 216
Ajanta, 200
Ajmere, 187
Aldeen, 108
Allahabad, 157 fq.
Alu li^ihari-, 31
Alwar, 188
Ambtrnath Cave, 179
American Missions, 37, 56,
158, 162, 213
Amravati, 87, 170
Amritsar, 170 sq.
Anderson, Dr., 85
Anilra-japiira, 13, 30, 33 sq.
Arcot, 8s
Armagan, 79
Aryans, x.
Asoka, King, xi , 30, 31,
127, 137, 166, ig*
Assam, 109
Attock, 99, 1-5
Aukana Wihara, 32
Avatafs, xi.
Baktawar Sing, 188
Bangalore, 85
Banyan Tree, I04, i^
Baptist Missions, 109, 170
Bareilly, 145
Barmul Pass, 99
Baroda, 215
Barrackpore, 107
Batticotta, 37
Bearers, xii.
"Bees, 198
Behar, 126-130
Bells, Church, 47, 133
Benares, 75, 131 sqq., 173
Bengali, x.
Betel, The, 17
Bhilsa, 192
Bhiati, xii., C8
Bhooj, 218
Bhooteas, 117
Bhopal, 192
Bhore Ghat, 197, 213
Bhowries, 126
Bhutas, 79
Bhuvaneswar, 96
Birsing Deo, 192
Bithoor, 149
Black Hole of Calcutta, 103
Bo Tree, 29 sq., 126
Boats on Ganges, 128
Bombay, 202 sq.
Botanical Gardens, 30, 104,
loq, 120
Brahma, x., 208
Brahmanism, x., 78, 132,2. o
Brahmans, x., 65, 105
Brahmaputra, 'Ihe, ix., 109
Brahmo-somaj, 106
Brass Work, 136
Buddh Gaya, 30, 127
Buddha, xi., xii., ::8, 96
Buddha's tooth, 28, 95
Buddhism, xi., xii., 28, 38.
73» 77i 9^» '*7> i^^i 2JO
Bull, sacred, 41, 66
Bundelcund, 193
Calcutta, 99 sqq.
Canadian Mission, 88
Canarcse, x., sj
Cane bridges, 119
Canoes, 14
Carey, William, 107 sq.
Carnatic, The, 52
Caste, X., xi.. 65, 85
Catamarans, 8;
Cawnpore, 147 sq.
Central Indii Agc:ncy, 193
Ceyion, 9 sqq.
Ceylon, Christianity in, 35
Chaitya, 200, 211
Chanda, 92
Chandernagore, 109
Chandra Gupta, xi.
' Chidpore Road, 104
Chillambaram, 41, 49, 74
Chittore. 186
Chotia Nagpur, 126
Choultries, ^^
CkoTvk, The, 140, 167
Church Missionary Society,
87, 109, 1^3, 140, 180, 201
Cinchona Plantations, 121
Circars, Northern, 95
Clive, Lord, 85, ^03, 109
Coal Fields, 126, ig8
Cocoa-nut Palm, 18 sq , ^5
Coconada, 88
Coimbatore, 61 sq.
Colaba, 204
Colgong Rock«, 127
Collector, The, 106
Colombo, 14, 19 iq.
Combaconum, 70
Comorin Cape, ix., 42, 47
Conjeveram, 40, 75
Coolies, 20, 41
Coorg, 85
Coromandel Coast, 35,41, 96
Corrals, 141
Cotton Factories, 107, 215
Cudda'ore, 69
Cuttack, 95, 99
Dak Bu-'Galows, no
Dalada, The, 27
Dalhoiisie, 182
Dambulla, 31
Darjeeling, 109 sqq.
Darwinism, 1^4
Deccan The, ix., 92, 212
Delhi, 122, 152, 102 sqq.
Dhamek, 137
Dharmsala, 181
Dhirzis, xii
Dliobis, xii.
Dipawansa, The, 14
Divinath, 127 '
Doabs, 162
Dosas, ix. I
Doulatabad, 200 |
Dravidian Architecture, 54 j
Dravidians, ix., 52 i
Duff, Dr., 104, 218
Durbar, 89 I
DurRa, 134 I
Duttiah, 193
Dwarka, 217 '
Dyasus, ix. '
Elephant, The, 25, 140
Elephanta Caves 176, 207
Elk of Ceylon, 22
Elura Caves, 201
Elysium, i8o
Ethnology of Indi ■, "x. sq.
Eurasian:^, 2C2
Fakirs, 334 'q.
False Point, 99
Famine, 82, 81
Fergusson, Sir James, xiii ,
67, 74. "7
Feroy Shah, 166
Flavel, Samuel, 85
Free Church Colleges :
Madras, 85 ; Culcutta,
104 ; Bombay, 214
Free Church Nlisaions, 92
French Settlements, xi i.,
6g, 109
Futtepore Sikri, 156
Gala-wihar, 32, 34
Galle, 14
Ganesh, 42, 135, 208
Ganges, ix , 99, lo.^, icg, 180
Ganjam, 92
Gautama, xi. sq., 13, ;8, 30,
126, 137, 212
Gaya, 30, ia6, 137
Chats, The, ix , 42, 87, 132
Goa, 190, 215
Godavery, The, 87, 52, 201
1 Gogo, ai6
i Golci-nda, sg
I Gonds, 190
I Gopuras, 54
! Grtek Invasion, x., 176
( Gujarat, 216
Gungapore, 201
Gwalior, 190
Kaidarabad, 92, 218
Happy Valley, The, 177
Hastings, Warren, 103
Havelock. Sir Henry, 145
Himalayas, ix,, no, i3i, 181
Hindi, x.
Hindu Trinity, 2c8
Hinduism, xii., 36, 78, 132
Hoogly, The, 99, 104, 107
Hospitals, 81 sq., 2o5
Hunter, Dr. W. W., xiii.,
199
Iambara, The, 140
Idolatry, 133
Indore, 186, 190, 199
Indus, The, ix., 122, 173, 175
Jabalp[:r, 197 sq.
Jains, The, xii., 126, 185,
191, ao6, 2i5
Jaipur, 188
Jalna, 93
Jambukeswar, 61
yampan, 179
Jina, The, 206
Jiziah, The, 135
Juggernaut, 95, 194, 217
Junina MusJiJ, 164
Kah.as. The, 201
Kali Ghat, 104
Kanarak, 96
Kandy, 12, 26 sq.
Karli, 210
Kashmir, 176 sq.
Kathiwar, 216
Kennery Caves, 208
Khansaniah, The, no
Khatniandu, 117 sq.
Kib a. The, r 5
King Pat, 190
Kolarians, ix.
Kolhapore, 212
Kols, The, 126
Konkan, Tne, 202, 212 sq.
Krishna, xi., 96
Kshatiries, xi., ^5
Kutch, 217
Kutub Minar, 168
Laudar Vai.i.ev, i;8
Lahore, 122, 172
Land m India, 133
Landour, 181
L&ts, 158, 166
Lavinia, Alt., 19
, Lepchas, 114
I Lingavi, 73, 136, 192, 208
London Missionary Society,
46, 80, 91, 105, 133
Lotus flower, 138
Lucknow, 140 sqq.
Madras, 79 sqq.
Madure, 53
Ma^adha, x., 30,
Mahableshwar, 213
Mahavallipur, 75 sqq.
Malabar Hill, 205
Malayalam, x., 45
Mango trees, 198
Marble Rocks, The, it,8
Marhattas, x., 190, 212 .
Marhatti, x.
Martiiiiere, The, t|0
Martyn Henry, 108
Masulah Boat?, 85, 92
Masulip..tam, 87
Minakshi, 55
Moguls, The, xii, 153, 155,
Mohammedans, x., xii., 164
sq.
Mongolians, n +
Mopaui Coalfields, 198
t Mudden Mahal, 197
Muezzin, The, 165
Multan, i6i, 173
Mysore, 85
Nagpur, 92, 2co
Naini Tal, 145 sq.
Narbada, The, 198
Nassick, 87, 201
Nepal, 117 sq.
Nervana, xi,
Newera Ellia, 20 sq.
Nilgiri Hills, 61
Non-Aryan Races, ix.
North- West Province:^, 131,
Opium, 123
Oraons, The,"i26
Orchids, 20
Orissa, 95 sq.
Ormazd, xiii.
Oude, 104, 140 sq.
Palanquins, ix., 88
Pali, X.
Palimcotta, 47
Palitana, 216
Palmyra Palms, 42, 88
Pandu Lena, 2ot
Pandya Kingdom, 73
Panjabi, x.
Papanasum Falls, 4?
Parasnath, Mount, xiii., 92,
126
Parawas, The, 14
Pariah--, 65 sq.
Partis, xiii., 203 sq.
Parvali, 74, 208, 212
Patan, 117
Patna District, 126
Fats, 126
Pedro-talla-galla, 21 sq.
Peridinia Gardens, 30
Perur, 62
Peshawar, 122, 175 sq.
Phallic Worship, xii.
Phear, Sir J. B., 56, 124,
Pitakas, The, 13, 31
Plassey, 109
PolloUirua, 32
Pondicherry, 69 ?q , 218
Poona, 212
Poituguese, The, xiii., 14,
35, 202, 215
Poverty of the people, 124
Pulastipura, 32
Punjab, The, 161 sqq.
Puranas, The, xii.
Puri, 73, 9:, 217
Rajputana, 185 sqq.
Rajputs, X. sq.
Rama, xi., 201
Ramboddif, 20
I Ranigung Coaltield, 126
Rainapura, 25 sq., 38
Reformed Church of. Hol-
land, 36
Religious Mendicant:^, 106
Residency, The, 141 bq.
Rig Veda, The, x.
River Plains, ix., sq.
Romanism, 13, 35, 69
Ruanvelly Dagoba, 35
Rudra, x.
Rungaroon Gardens, 120
Runjit Sing, 172
Sacrifices, xi., 105
Saivism, xii., 73, 75
Sakhi Sarwar, 174
Sal, The, 198
SalbCtte, 202
Salt-tax, 124, 18S
Sambar Salt Lake, 188
Samnuggur, 107
Sanchi, 176, 192
Sanscrit, x., 123, 132
Sarnath, 137 sq.
Sartorius, 89
Satura, 212 sq.
Schwartz, C. F., 47, 58,
67 sq., 80
Sealkote, 176
Secunderabad, 92
Secunder Bagh, The, 140
Secundra, 156
Semachillum, 91
Sen, K. C, io5
Sepoys, 149
Seringapaiam, 85
Seringham, 58 sq.
Seven Pagodas, I'he, 75
Shanars, 48, 181
Shillong, IC9
Shraddhas, 127
Sikhs, The, 170
Simla, 179, sq.
Sindhi, X.
Singalese, x., 13
Siva, X., 25, 66, 75, ro4,
132, 208
Snakes, 199
Somnath Gate?, 153, 2i5
Sonaghur, 192
Srinagur, 175, 177
Stupds, 137, 192
Sudras, xi., 65
Sythic era, x,
Taj, The, 149 sqq.
Tambiravami, The, 47
Tamil, x., 13, 48
Tamils, 20, 41, 47
Tanjore, 58 sqq.
Taragar, 187
Telugu, X., 87, 91
Teppu-kulam, 55 sq.
Thibetans, xii., 117
Thibeto-Burmans, ix.
Thuggism, 126, 167
Thugs, 126, 192
Thull Ghat, 202
Tiger Cave, 75, 80
Tigers, 104, 199
Tinneveliy, 43 sqq.
Tirupetly, 85
Towers of Silence, 206
Transmigration of souls
xii. sq., 191
Travancore, 42 sq.
Trichinopoly, 57
Triiicomalee, 12, 31
Tudas, 62, 65
Tuticorin, 42
Udaipur, 186
Utakamund, 61 sq.
Vaisvas, xi., 65
Vedas, Ihe, x , 88, 132
l''ima?ui, 54, 96
Vindhya Mountains, ix., 93
Vishnu, X., 75, 96, 127, 132,
208
Vishnuvism, xii.. 73, 75, 79
Vizagapatajn, £8 sq.
Well of Salvation, 134
Wesleyan Missions, 38
Williams, Dr. Monicr, 78
Wilson, Bishop, 104
Wilson, Dr. John, 2or, 213
Vena, The, 213
Zamindars, 123 rq.
Zenanas Mission, 170
Zendavesta, The, xii , 205
Zoroaster, xiii., 205
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