INDIA.
IN this article we mean, in the first place, to give an ab stract of the history of India from the earliest period till the year 1760, when the Mogul dynasty was in fact reduc ed to insignificance, and the Europeans, particularly the English, began to assume the greatest influence in Hin dostan : in the second place, we shall give a sketch of the rise and progress of the European settlements in India ; and this will lead us to a continuation of the history of Hin dostan from the year 1760 to the pi esent time : and, lastly, we shall give the statistics of India.
When the Greek and Roman writers men tion India, in the most extensive acceptation of the term, they include a space almost as large as the whole of Eu rope, comprising an area of 40 degrees of latitude and lon gitude. They regarded it as bounded on the west by the Arachosian mountains, which divided it from Persia ; on the east, by the Chinese part of the peninsula beyond the Ganges; on the north by the deserts of Tartary ; and on the south, by the line. Within these boundaries lay the hills of Tibet ; the valley of Cashmere ; all the territories in which the ancients placed the Indo-Scythians, Nepaul, Bootan, Assam, Camroop, Siam, Ava, Aracan, and the ad jacent kingdoms as far as the China of the Hindoos, and the Sin of the Arabian geographers ; the entire western peninsula of Hindostan ; and the island of Ceylon.
In the acceptation of the terra Hindostan, as used by the Mahomedan writers, the territory in immediate sub jection to the sovereigns of Delhi was understood. This was divided, in the year 1582, by the emperor Acber, into eleven soubahs or provinces, viz. Lahore, Multan, in which Sinde was included, Ajmeer, Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Ba har, Oude, Bengal, Malwah, and Guzerat ; Cabul, and the countries lying to the west of the Indies, formed a twelfth soubah ; and when the Decan was conquered, three new soubahs were added, viz. Berar, Khandesh, and Aurunga bad.
It is evident, that the limits assigned to Hindostan by the Greek and Roman writers are not only much too ex tensive, but they are also very vague and indefinite ; and that those assigned by the Mahomedan writers, being de rived from and varying with the extent of the conquests of their sovereigns, are on that account unsatisfactory. The
limits assigned by the original Hindoos are, on the con trary, extremely well defined. According to them, Hin dustan is bounded on the north by the Himaleh moun tains, which commence near the Indus, in about the 35th degree of north latitude, and extend from Cashmere with out interruption beyond the eastern extremity of Hindos tan ; this limit on the north includes the hilly districts of Nepaul, and the country belonging to the Deb Rajah of Bootan : on the west, the river Indus is the natural boun dary; and on the south, the ocean : on the east, the Hin doos point out the eastern hills and forests of Tipperab and Chittagong as the boundaries of Hindostan ; these will carry their country nearly as far as the 92d degree of east longitude. Hindostan is thus defined by natural limits, and its extent and boundaries are pointed out almost as ac curately and clearly by another circumstance ; for within the natural limits the primitive Brahminical religion and languages prevail, with the exception of Bootan ; nor arc they found beyond these limits, except in Assam and Cas say. It was called Bharat-vecresh, or Ilharata, by its ancient inhabitants, from Bharat, one of the nine brothers, whose fa ther, according to the Brahmins, ruled the whole earth, and to whom this portion of the globe was assigned. To these names they sometimes prefixed the epithets of Mcdhyama, or central, and Punyabhumi, or the land of virtues. The word Ilindostan, by which the Persians designated all that part of the empire that lies between the Indus and the Ganges, and the latitudes of 21° and 30° N. is derived from the words Hindoo, black, and 8tan, place ; and the word Decan, which they applied indiscriminately to the whole of the southern peninsula, is derived from the Per sian word decan, south.