After the age of Ptolemy, we derive no additional or more accurate information regarding India, till the 6th century after Christ. At this period Cosmas, an Egyp tian merchant, made some voyages to Irdia. From his work, it appears that he was well acquainted with the west coast of the Peninsula, which he particularly men tions as celebrated,for its trade in pepper. After this time, till the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, the geography of India is almost entirely illustrated by the Arabian writers, particularly by two Mahomedan travel lers in the 9th century, whose travels have beeen publish ed by Renaudot, by Massoudi, and by another Arabian author, who wrote about the middle of the 14th century. The Mahomedan travellers mention a great empire on the Malabar coast : their relation in this and other respects is confirmed by Massoudi, who published his account of In dia in the 10th century. This last author describes India as divided into four kingdoms ; the first comprised the provinces on the Indus and its tributary streams, of which Multan was the capital. The second kingdom seems to have lain on the banks of the Ganges; of this, Kanoge was the capital. This kingdom and its capital are much celebrated in the most remote times of ancient Hindoo history. The third kingdom was Cashmere ; the fourth was Guzcrat. From this description, it is evident that the information respecting India possessed by Massoudi, and probably by his countrymen in general, was confined to Hindostan proper. The Arabian author who wrote about the middle of the 14th century, divides into the northern part, comprehending all the provinces on the Indus; the middle, which stretched across from Guzerat to the Gan ges; and the southern, which he calls Comar, probably from Cape Comorin. About the middle of the 13th cen tury, Marco Polo visited different parts of Hindostan : he is the first author who mentions Bengal and Surat by their present names, as rich and powerful kingdoms.
'f he next illustration of the geography of Hindostan is derived from the Ayin Aebaree, a work which we have al ready mentioned under the reign of the Emperor Acbar. This sovereign divided Hindostan Proper into eleven sou bahs or provinces, which were again divided into circus, and these subdivided into parjahwahs. Caubul, and the countries west of the Indus, constituted a 12th soubah ; and the conquests in the Decal' afterwards were divided into three more. The details given in the Ayin Acbaree, of the extent, boundaries, divisions, productions, military force, &c. of these provinces, twe surprisingly minute, and apparently the result of much attentive and laborious in vestigation and inquiries. But our object is only to notice such provinces as have a clifferent extent assigned to them in the Ayin Acharcc from what is assigned to them at pre sent, in order that we may thus illustrate the progressive geography of Hindostan. In the reign of Acbar, Multan was one of the largest provinces of the empire, extending to the frontiers of Persia, and also comprehending several of the Dooabs now belonging to the province of Lahore. The province of Ajmecr at present extends rather more to the south than it did in the reign of Acbar, when this part of it was probably possessed by independent Rajpoot princes. In the soubah of Bengal are included Orissa and Cuttack, with the country to the south-cast as far as Chit.
tagong. 1?Ialwah, instead of being bounded on the south by Khandeish and Berar, extended beyond the Ne,buddah, while on the south-west and south it touched on Baglana, and on Berar on the cast. The very ancient limits ul Gu zerat included the greater part of Khandeish and Malwah ; and in the reign of Adaar it extended southward to Da maun, where it touched on Autungabad. Tile present province of Nanderc was comprehended in that of while the western parts of the latter do not seem to have been conquered by Acbar. The province of Khandeish differed in its dimensions and boundaries only very little from what it is present, then having Aurungabad on the west, instead of Guzcrat, which now bounds it on that quar ter. The province of Aurungabad, which in the time of Acbar was known by the name of 41miednagur, having been partially conquered by that monarch, its boundaries were constantly fluctuating ; nor were they permanently fixed, till, the capital having been taken in 1634, the whole of the province was annexed to the Alogul em pire.
Notwithstanding the conquests and settlements of the Portuguese in India,'yet, as they were almost entirely con fined to the sea-coast, they did not much increase the geo graphical knowledge possessed by Europeans respecting this country. Indeed, till the conquests of the English, during the middle and latter end of the 18th century, lit tle was accurately known respecting the interior of Hin dostan. In I786, Major Rennell published the first edi tion of his Memoir of a mop of Hindostan ; in this work, with wonderful research and information, though not al ways with the most perspicuous or satisfactory arrange ment, he has thrown great light on the geography of this country ; and, except with regard to those districts which at that time had been little, if at all explored by the En glish, he left scarcely any point uninvestigated. In the subsequent editions of his Memoir, as well as in the Ori ental Repertory of Dalrymple, the Asiatic Researches, the valuable Travels of Dr. Francis Buchanan, and other au thors, the geography of Hindostan has received such am ple and minute investigation, as to leave very few parts of that extensive country unexamined.
THE general description of the face of the country may be given in a few words. In Hindostan Proper, it is for the most part champagne, with occasional hills of no great elevation. In the Decan and the south of India, it is flat near the sea coast on both sides, and mountainous in the interior. But it may be satisfactory to give a more regu lar and minute description of the lace of the country. If we enter Hindostan at the north-west corner into Lahore, the face' of the country is hilly, till we reach the southern extremity of this pros ince, where the Punjab commences ; passing thence to Multan, we again meet with hills in its northern extremity. The face of the country in Ajmcer is nearly the same, but when we pass to the south west in to Guzerat, the surface is very flat ; on the contrary, if we pass into the south or south-east, into Malwah, we enter a very elevated region, one of the most elevated, indeed, in Ilindostan, as the rivers flow from it in every direction. If from the province of Lahore we change our route, and en ter Delhi, •c find the face of the country very flat ; in deed Delhi, Oude, and Bengal, are the most flat provinces Ilindostan. The surface of Orissa, also north of the ri ver Chumbul, is flat, but to the south of that river, as well as in the north-west, it is hilly. Proceeding to the south, the first lofty land we meet with in Ilindostan Proper is in the Bundelcund district of the province of Allahabad, in the south-west. The southern part of Bahar is also hilly, while the northern division of this province, beyond the Gauges, partakes of the flat character of Bengal and Oude. On the cast side of the Decan, before we arrive at the Ghauts, there is a mountainous ridge, extending from the Godavery to the Mahanuddy : proceeding across the coun try in a direction nearly due west from this ridge, we en ter the province of Berar, the surface of which is for the most part elevated and hilly ; the same character applies to the province of Gundwana, Khandeish, Hyderabad, Orissa, and the Northern Circars. The south of India consists of table land, or rather an elevated surface consi derably broken in the centre, and remarkable for many precipitous rocks, the natural strength of which has been greatly augmented by the erection of fortresses on them ; the Ghauts on the east and west of this table land, and a flat country between both the chains of Ghauts and the sea. In the province of Malabar, however, there is a chaiii of low hills, separated from one another, and from the Ghauts, by narrow yanks; in some places these hills rise to the sea coast, but in other parts there is between them and the sea a flat tract, seldom above three miles wide, and in general not so much ; near the low hills these plains arc the most level.