education of the people of India is based on the system set forth in a dispatch of sir Charles Wood, dated July 19, 1854. The main principle of the dispatch was that European knowledge should be diffused through the languages understood by the great mass of the people; hut that the teaching of English should always be combined with careful attention to time study of the vernacular languages. W ith regard to the wealthier classes, it was declared that the time had arrived for the establishment of uni versities in India, conferring degrees, and based on the model of the university of Lon don. They were not to be places of education, but to test the value of education obtained elsewhere, and to confer degrees in arts. law, medicine, and civil engineering. Such universities have accordingly been established in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay; and since 1859 government schools have been opened for the instruction of all classes of time Indian people. In each province there is now a director of public instruction, assisted by school inspectors, one of whom has under his care one circle or subdivision of the province. Normal schools for the training of teachers have also been established, and attempts are being made to spread female education. In 1874-75 dare were 53,764 government and private schools and colleges, giving instruction to 1,668,026 pupiE4, the gross expenditure on government schools from imperial and other sources being upwards of £1,000,000. In the North-west Provinces the total number of pupils under instruction is about 220.000. Therp are 250 boys in every 3,000 people, and of these 16 are at gov ernment schools. 14 at vernacular schools, and 2 learn English. In the same 8,000 peo ple there are 200 girls, and 1 is at school. In 1875-6, 838 candidates passed the entrance examination at the university of Calcutta, 662 at Madras, and 431 at Bombay. The postal statistics partly illustrate native progress. The number of letters and newspapers carried by the post more than doubled in the ten years 1867-76. The total number of letters, etc., sent through the post-offices of British India in 1875-6 was 119,470,921.
Administrative Lower Provinces of Bengal, under their lieutenant governor. Bengal in this sense includes the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, Chota Nagpore, aud.Orissa. Calcutta is the seat of government. Assam was detached front Bengal, and made a separate government under its own chief commissioner, ix) 1874. For sani tary reasons the seat of government is not now at Gowhatty, but at Debrugu•h. The Provinces, under their lieutenant-governor, formerly under the same adminis tration as the Lower Provinces of Bengal, constitute a distinct government, the capital being Allahabad. Oude (or Audit) is another local government, its head being styled chief commissioner. The seat of government is Lucknow. The Punjab is administered by a lieutenant-governor; its capital is Lahore. The Central Provinces became a sepa rate chief commissionership in 1861; Nagpore is the chief town and seat of government. In British Bu•malt, the three provinces of Aracan, Pegu, and Tenasserim form the administration of a chief commissiouer. The territories immediately under the adminis tration of the are Ajmere and Mairwara, Coorg, Berar, and Mysore. Most of the preceding administrations lie within the limits of what used to be known as the presidency of Bengal. The other two " presidencies" have not much changed their areas. Madras, with its capital of the same name, has an official head called governor. Bombay, named after the seat of government, has also a "governor." It should be added that as the threefold division into presidencies is maintained for military purposes, the army of Bengal is responsible for the territory not included in Madras or Bombay, save that Mysore is garrisoned by the Madras army.
oldest history of India is entirely legendary; it is shrouded in mythical narratives, which, though of the highest interest from a religious and areffieological point of view, do not enlighten us as to the dates of the personages concerned, nor as to the reality of the facts which they record. Thus, the solar and lunar dynasties spoken of in the epic poems, the .Thinulyanct and Mandblairata, and in the Pnrd.nas, as well as
other dynasties, like that of Pradyota, S'isunfiga, and others mentioned in the Pardnax, are for the present, at least, beyond the reach of history, in the sense in which we use this word. The first reliable date to be met with in ancient Hindu history is that of Chandragupta; for he is the king whom the Greek historians call Sandrocottus; and as he was the ally of Seleucus,we may safely conclude that he reigned about 300 B. C. lie belonged to the Manrya dynasty,which contains another distinguished name, that of the king As6ka, who plays a prominent part in Buddhist and probably reigned from 263 to 226 11.C.; but since the history of this and other dynasties which reigned in different parts of India up to the time of the Mohammedan conquest concerns more the special student of Hindu antiquity and Indian history than the general reader, we must content our selves here with referring those who take an interest in it to the admirable work of prof. Christian Lassen, the Indische Alterthumskunde, where they will not only find the richest material collected in any one book hitherto devoted to this subject, but also learn to appreciate the difficulties which beset the questions of ancient Hindu history and chro nology.
From the Mohammedan (1001) to the close of Viscount Canning's Administra tion (1862).—House of Ghizni (1001-1167). The sultan sovereign of the small state of Ghizni (q.v.), was the first conqueror who permanently established the Moham medan power in India. In 1186 the house of Ghizni became extinct, and the Hindu princes fell one by one before a succession of Mohammedan dynasties, whose names and dates are as follows: Slave kings of Delhi of these sovereigns, Alimish, who ascended the throne in 1211, added the greater part of Hindustan proper to his dominions, and in his reign the Mongol Genghis Khan devastated the north-eastern parts of India. In Balin's reign (about 1284) the Mongols made a second irruption into Hindustan, butwere totally defeated by the monareh's eldest son, the:heroie Mohammed, who fell in the action. The Ehilfis and house of Toghlak (1288-1412).—in 1290 the Mongols made their third and last great irruption into Hindustan, but were almost anni hilated by Zafir Khan, whose name became so proverbial among the Mongols, that when their horses started, they would as them if they saw the ghost of 'kith. Khan. 1111397, during the reign of the last of the Togh]ak kings, the Tartar Timm, or Tamerlane, sacked Delhi, and proclaimed himself gmperor of India. The ,qyuds (1412-1450). The House of Lodi (1450-1526). To the kings of this dynasty succeeded the Great Moovi9 or House of Timur (1n6-1701). Baber, who had for 22 years been sovereign of Cabul, invaded India for the fifth time towards the end of the year 1525 (see BABESt), and after doing, battle with sultan Ibrahim on the plain of Paniput, April, 1526, entered Delhi in triumph, and established himself as emperor of the Mohammedan dominionsin India, in right of his ancestor Timur. He died in 1580, and was succeeded by his son Humayun. The celebrated Akbar (q.v.), son of Humayun, became emperor in 1556, and reigned for nearly 25 years. His son ascended the throne in 1605, and his grandson, Shah Jehan, in 1627. In 1658 Shah Jehan was imprisoned by his son, the filmoul Auruugzebe (q.v.), who usurped the imperial power. This remarkable man raised the Mogul empire to the highest pitch of greatness and splendor, and was the ablest and most powerful, as well as the most ambitious and bigoted, of his race. The death of Aurungzebe took place in 1707, and the decay of the empire, which had begun a few years before then, proceeded rapidly. "A succession of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, sauntered away life in secluded palaces." Viceroys of the Great Mogul formed their provinces into independent states; whilst Hindu and Moham medan adventurers carved out kingdoms with the sword. The dismemberment of the Mogul empire opened a wide field for ambition and enterprise to the nations of Europe. The Venetians, the Genoese, the Portuguese; and the Dutch had by turns traded with India; and in 1602 the English appeared on the scene. See EAST Nina COMPANY.