Political Map of India, distinguishing Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam,
Nepal, and Bhutan.] It is an interesting fact that these hill people
should belong to the race which spreads over the vast Chinese Empire.
That race here advances to the last hill brinks which overlook the
Indian lowland. The political map of this portion of India illustrates a
parallel fact. While the plains are administered directly by British
officials, the mountain slopes descending to them are ruled by native
princes whose territories form a strip along the northern boundary of
India. North of Assam and Bengal we have in succession from east to
west, in the belt of hill country, the lands of Bhutan, Sikkim, and
Nepal. From Nepal are recruited the Gurkha Regiments of the Indian army,
the Gurkhas being a race of these same hill men, of small stature and
sturdy agility, of Hindu religion, but of more or less Mongolian stock,
and therefore intermediate between the Tibetans and the Hindus.
[Sidenote: 38.
The Bazaar, Darjeeling.] [Sidenote: 39.
The same—Nepali Vegetable Sellers.] [Sidenote: 40.
Man carrying Fodder, Darjeeling.] [Sidenote: 41.
Sikkim Peasants.] [Sidenote: 42.
Native Loom, Darjeeling.] [Sidenote: 43.
Village in Sikkim.] [Sidenote: 44.
The same.] Here we have a typical market scene in Darjeeling. Notice the
women doing coolie work. Next are vegetable sellers in the Darjeeling
Bazaar, and here is a man carrying fodder. The man with his back turned
is a Lepcha of Sikkim. Then we have a group of Sikkim peasants drinking
the native beer, made from marwa, a kind of millet. They draw it up
through straws from cups made of bamboo. Next we see a native working a
hand loom, and then a village in Sikkim. Here in the same village we see
a woman carrying baggage.
[Sidenote: 45.
Lama Monastery, near Darjeeling.] [Sidenote: 46.
The same—Devil Dancers.] [Sidenote: 47.
The same—interior.] [Sidenote: 48.
The Amban Dance, Darjeeling.] [Sidenote: 49.
The same—another view.] Near Darjeeling there is a small Buddhist
monastery, a two-storey building of which we have here a view. Notice
the semi-circle of tall poles, with linen flags, on which prayers are
inscribed. By the entrance are a number of prayer-wheels fastened to the
wall. Outside the monastery are men wearing the costumes of devil
dancers, such as are used in Buddhist religious ceremonies of these
parts. There are long trumpets placed against the door post. Let us
glance for a moment within this monastery, and see the hideous wooden
masks, and the silk dresses of the priestly dancers. Two scenes follow,
from Darjeeling itself, of an elaborate dance by Tibetan peasants called
the Amban dance. The lions and dragons are each made of two men, whose
bodies are hung with white yak hair and tails. They have grotesque
heads, with enormous eyes and gaping mouths, from which hang large
scarlet tongues. So we obtain some idea of the stage of barbarism in
which the hill tribes remain.
[Sidenote: 50.
North Bengal Mounted Rifles, Lebong.] [Sidenote: 51.
The same—Sword Pegging.] [Sidenote: 52.
Coolies at Darjeeling.] In contrast with these scenes are now two slides
illustrating the volunteer service of the white tea planters. Of these
the second shows tent-pegging on the Lebong parade ground, above the
Rungeet river. This form of tent-pegging is with a sword, and not with
the more usual lance. Here is a scene showing Darjeeling coolies
returned from work in the tea gardens.
[Sidenote: 53.
The Rungeet Gorge.] [Sidenote: 54.
The same.] [Sidenote: 55.
The Rungeet Bridge, Sikkim.] [Sidenote: 56.
A Himalayan Glacier.] [Sidenote: 57.
Glacier-fed Torrent in the Himalaya.] [Sidenote: 58.
Cane Bridge in the Himalaya.] Finally we have two views in the gorge of
the Rungeet river, between Darjeeling and Sikkim, with precipitous
sides, and then a glimpse of the Rungeet bridge. The Rungeet drains from
the hills of Darjeeling, and from the snow mountains beyond, into a
tributary of the Ganges. Several hundred such torrents burst in long
succession through deep portals in the Himalayan foot hills and feed the
great rivers of the plain, the Brahmaputra and the Ganges. They are
perennial rivers, for they originate in the melting of the glaciers, and
the Himalayan glaciers cover a vast area, being fed by the monsoon
snows. Nearly all the agricultural wealth of Northern India owes its
origin to the summer monsoon.
[Sidenote: 59.
Map of the Himalayan River System.] To understand the fundamental
conditions governing the Indian climate let us examine the two
concluding maps of this lecture. On the first of them all the country
with an elevation of more than fifteen hundred feet is coloured with a
dark brown, and that with a lower elevation is coloured a light brown. A
great angle of the Indian lowland is seen to project northward into the
Asiatic upland. For fifteen hundred miles the Himalaya limits the
lowland with a gracefully curving mountain edge, and from this edge
there flow the series of tributaries which gather to the rivers Indus,
Ganges, and Brahmaputra. Beyond, to the south, are seen in dark brown
the higher portions of the Deccan plateau.
[Sidenote: 60.
Map of South-West Monsoon.] Now compare with this the succeeding map,
which shows the winds of the summer time and the average rainfall. The
winds sweep in from the southwest, but as they cross Bengal they bend so
as to blow from the south and then from the southeast. The dark arrow
with the broken shaft striking northwestward through the heart of India
represents the usual track of the storms which prevail in the Central
Provinces during the summer season, producing the havoc along the Madras
coast and northward, of which we spoke in the second lecture. The
maximum rainfall, it will be seen, occurs in three regions—first on the
west face of the Western Ghats, and on the west face of the mountains of
Ceylon; secondly in the east of the Indian Peninsula near the track of
the storm centres; and thirdly along the south face of the Garo hills
and of the Himalayas north of Bengal, and on the west face of the
various mountain ranges of Burma. In other words, in the first and third
cases the rain is due to the winds striking the mountain ranges, and is
great only on the windward faces of those ranges. In the second case the
rainfall is mainly the result of the storms. On the other hand, there is
drought at this season under the lee of the mountains of Ceylon and of
the Western Ghats, and again in a comparatively small belt, near Pagan,
along the Irawaddy river, between the western and the eastern ridges of
Burma. Tibet, which is under the lee of the Himalayas, and northwestern
India, which is out of the track of the southwest winds, are wide
deserts. This map explains the exceptional fertility and density of
population of the Province of Bengal.
[Sidenote: Repeat Map No. 1.] India is so vast a country, and so varied,
that no traveller can hope to visit all parts of it. On our journey from
Calcutta to Darjeeling, we have left the province of Assam away to the
east of us. Assam is a through road nowhither, for high and difficult
mountains close the eastern end of its great valley. Moreover, though it
has vast natural resources, Assam is a country which throughout history
has lain for the most part outside Indian civilisation, and, even
to-day, has but a sparse population and a relatively small commercial
development. Let us, then, just remember in passing that this remote
province of India has a geography which, though simple, is built on a
very grand scale.
The San-po river rises high on the plateau of Tibet northward of
Lucknow. For more than 700 miles it flows eastward over the plateau in
rear of the Himalayan peaks; then it turns sharply southward and
descends steeply through a deep gorge little known, for it is tenanted
by hostile tribes. Where it emerges from the mountains the river has a
level not a thousand feet above the sea, and here, turning westward, it
forms the Brahmaputra—that is to say, the Son of Brahma, the Creator.
The Brahmaputra flows for 450 miles westward through the valley of
Assam, deeply trenched between the snowy wall of the Himalayas on the
one hand and the forested mountains of the Burmese border and the Khasia
and Garo hills on the other hand. The river “rolls down the valley in a
vast sheet of water,” depositing banks of silt at the smallest
obstruction, “so that islands form and re-form in constant succession.
Broad channels break away and rejoin the main river after wide
divergences, which are subjected to no control. The swamps on either
hand are flooded in the rainy season, till the lower reaches of the
valley are one vast shining sea, from which the hills slope up on either
side.” The traffic on the river is maintained chiefly by exports of tea
and timber, with imports of rice for the labourers on the tea estates.
Some day, when great sums of money are available for capital
expenditure, the Brahmaputra will be controlled, and Assam will become
the seat of teeming production and a dense population. The Indian Empire
contains some 300 million people; but, as we learn, it also contains
some of the chief virgin resources of the world.
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LECTURE IV.
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=THE UNITED PROVINCES.=
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THE MUTINY.
[Sidenote: 1.
Map of India, distinguishing the United Provinces.] Northwestward from
Bengal, over the great plain of the Ganges, we enter the next region of
India. The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh have an area almost equal
to that of Great Britain, and a population as dense. When we go from
Bengal to the United Provinces, it is as though we were crossing from
one to another of the great continental States of Europe, say from
Germany into France.
[Sidenote: 2.
Map of the United Provinces.] The Himalayan mountains lie to the north;
the hills of Central India to the south. The plain between them, raised
only a little above the sea, is two hundred miles across, measured from
the foot hills of the Himalayas to the first rise of the Central Indian
hills. Two great rivers, the Ganges and the Jumna, emerge from Himalayan
valleys, and traverse the plain southward, and presently southeastward,
leaving between them a tongue of land, known in Hindustani as the Doab,
or two waters. Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in
the Nearer East, signifies the same in the Greek language. The Jumna
joins the Ganges near the southern limit of the plain, and in the angle
of the confluence is the large city of Allahabad, the capital and seat
of the Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces. Other great
tributaries flow to the Ganges from more eastern parts of the Himalayas,
and bending southeastward join the main river one after another.
Five considerable cities focus the great population of the United
Provinces—Allahabad, already mentioned, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Agra, and
Benares. A hundred miles above Allahabad, on the right or south bank of
the Ganges, is the city of Cawnpore, and on the opposite or northern
bank extends the old Kingdom of Oudh, with Lucknow for its capital,
situated some forty miles northeast of Cawnpore. Agra, which gives its
name to all that part of the United Provinces which did not formerly
belong to Oudh, is situated on the right or south bank of the Jumna, a
hundred and fifty miles west of Lucknow. Eighty miles below Allahabad,
on the north bank of the Ganges, is Benares, the most sacred city of the
Hindus. All these distances between the cities of Agra, Cawnpore,
Lucknow, Allahabad, and Benares, lie over the dead level of the plain,
dusty, and like a desert in the dry season, but green and fertile after
the rains. Scattered over the plain are innumerable villages, in which
dwell nineteen out of twenty of the inhabitants of the joint Provinces.
Lucknow is the largest of the cities, yet it has only a quarter of a
million inhabitants.
The United Provinces are the heart of India, the typical Indian land,
safe from invasion from the north by reason of the Himalayan barrier and
the desert plateau of Tibet; relatively inaccessible from the ocean, and
not conquered by Britain until long after Bengal had become a Province
of the East India Company; relatively safe also from northwestern
invasion. Its people remain dominantly Hindu in their religion and
customs, whereas the great province of the Punjab further northwestward
has a majority of Musulmans. Southward is the plateau of Central India,
comparatively thinly peopled.
The language of the United Provinces, and of considerable districts to
west, south, and east of them, is Hindi, the most direct derivative of
the ancient Sanskrit tongue, whose use was contemporary with that of
Latin and Greek. All three of these ancient tongues, as well as Old
Persian, belong to the family of the Indo-European languages. Sanskrit
was brought into India by a conquering people from the northwest. Hindi
is now spoken by a hundred million people in all the northern centre of
India. It is the language not only of the United Provinces but also of
the western part of Bengal which is known as Behar, of that part of the
Punjab which surrounds Delhi, and of a wide district in Central India
ruled by the great Maratha chiefs, Sindhia and Holkar. Other tongues of
similar origin are spoken in the regions around—Bengali in Bengal,
Marathi and Gujrati in the lands which lie east and north of Bombay, and
Punjabi in the Punjab. We must think of these various Indian languages
as differing from one another much as French and Spanish and Italian
differ, which are all derived from a common Latin source. The Hindi
language was picked up by the Musulman conquerors of India, and by
adding to it words of their own Persian speech they formed Urdu, the
language of the camp. This is the language of educated Musulmans all
over India to this day. Under the name of Hindustani it has become a
sort of _lingua franca_ throughout India, and is used by Europeans when
talking to their servants.
Away to the south, beyond the limit of the Sanskrit tongues, in the
province of Madras and neighbouring areas, are talked languages wholly
alien from Sanskrit, and differing from Hindi, Bengali, Marathi,
Gujrati, and Punjabi, much as the Turkish and Hungarian languages differ
from the group of allied Indo-European tongues spoken in Western Europe.
These southern Indian tongues are known as Dravidian. The most important
of them are Telugu, spoken by twenty millions, and Tamil, spoken by some
fifteen millions. The Hindu religion, however, is held by the great
majority both of the Dravidian south and of the Indo-European north and
centre.
If there be one part of India which we may think of as the shrine of
shrines in a land where religion rules all life, it is to be found in a
triangle of cities just contained within the map before us. There on the
Ganges we see Benares and Patna, and some fifty miles south of Patna the
smaller town of Gaya. Benares from prehistoric times has been the focus
of Hinduism. Patna was the capital of the chief Gangetic kingdom more
than two thousand years ago, when the Greek ambassador Megasthenes,
first of the Westerns, travelled thus far into the East. Gaya was the
spot where Buddha, seeking to reform Hinduism some six hundred years
before Christ, obtained enlightenment, and then migrated to teach at
Benares, or rather at Sarnath, now in ruin, some three or four miles
north of the present Benares. The peoples of all the vast Indian and
Chinese world, from Karachi to Pekin and Tokyo, look to this little
group of cities as the centre of holiness, whether they be followers of
Brahma or of Buddha.
[Sidenote: 3.
Buddhist Tope at Sarnath.] [Sidenote: 4.
Sculptures at Sarnath.] [Sidenote: 5.
Lion-capital at Sarnath.] Old Benares, whose ruins are now known as
Sarnath, was a few miles north of the existing city. We have here one of
the Buddhist topes of Sarnath, which was the spot to which Buddha
removed after he had received enlightenment at Gaya. Here he and his
disciples began to teach. We have another view at Sarnath, showing some
of the ancient sculptures, and a gigantic lion-capital recently
excavated. Its size can be appreciated by noticing the man behind.
[Sidenote: 6.
Plan of Benares.] [Sidenote: 7.
View across the Ganges to the Southern Shore.] [Sidenote: 8.
Panchganga Ghat, Benares.] [Sidenote: 9.
The Same—another view.] [Sidenote: 10.
Palace of the Raja of Bhinga, Benares.] [Sidenote: 11.
The Same—another view.] Benares extends for four miles along the
northern bank of the Ganges. This bank is here higher than the southern,
and descends to the river edge with a steep brink. Down this brink are
many flights of steps, known as “ghats,” which we may translate by the
word “approaches.” We have already heard the word “ghat” applied to the
steep mountain-high brinks of the southern plateau of India, where the
upper ground breaks away to the shore of the Arabian Sea on the one
hand, and to the low-lying plain of the Carnatic on the other. The city
of Benares is situated on the plateau top above the ghats, and for four
miles the river front is crowned with palaces and temples, built of a
yellow sandstone. The opposite, the southern, shore lies low and without
buildings. Here is a view looking southward across the river from the
brink edge; it shows the low and non-sacred southern shore. Here are two
views of the brink itself, faced and crowned with buildings of yellow
sandstone. There follow two views of the palace of the Raja of Bhinga,
and in both we see the ghat steps descending to the water’s edge.
[Sidenote: 12.
Dasashwamedh Ghat, Benares.] [Sidenote: 13.
Manikarnika Ghat, Benares.] The population of Benares numbers some two
hundred thousand, of whom the great majority are of the Hindu faith, and
no fewer than thirty thousand are Brahmans, the priestly caste. It is
said that more than a million pilgrims visit the city every year. In the
early morning they descend the ghats to bathe in the river and to drink
the sacred water. Here we have the scene at one of these ghats, with the
conical towers of a temple, and the great sun umbrellas. Another scene
of a similar character follows at another ghat, the most sacred in
Benares.
[Sidenote: 14.
Burning Ghat, Benares.] [Sidenote: 15.
Another Burning Ghat, Benares.] Some of the ghats are used for the
burning of dead bodies. Wrapped in a white shroud, the corpse is dipped
into the river, then laid on a pile of faggots, and other faggots are
built around, and a light is set to the pile. The ashes are thrown into
the river. These rites are performed by the nearest relatives. We have
here the body of a woman of the poorer classes nearly consumed, and the
few relatives looking on. Here preparations are in progress for another
cremation. The corpse may be seen, with its feet in the water, resting
aslant at the foot of the ghat. The bodies of the higher castes are
burnt at the Raja Ghat on costly fires of sandal-wood. At night, from
the water, the city, with its thousands of lights and the tall flames at
the Burning Ghats, is deeply impressive.
[Sidenote: 16.
The Observatory, Benares.] [Sidenote: 17.
The Samrat Yantra in the Observatory.] [Sidenote: 18.
Eclipse Festival, Benares.] Perhaps the most interesting of all the
buildings at Benares is the Observatory, a lofty structure placed on the
river brink and commanding a wide view. Within are instruments of stone
on a great scale for the observation of the movements of the heavenly
bodies. This is the Samrat Yantra, used for observing the declination
and right ascension of the stars. Astronomy plays no inconsiderable part
in the rites of Benares. The pilgrimages are thronged at the time of
eclipse of the sun, and there are certain ghats of special resort during
the occurrence of eclipses.
[Sidenote: 19.
Roof of Golden Temple, Benares.] [Sidenote: 20 Vishnagi Temple,
Benares.] [Sidenote: 21.
Aurangzeb’s Mosque, Benares.] [Sidenote: 22.
The Same—another view.] Set a little back from the river front in a
small square is the chief temple of the Hindus. Europeans are not
permitted to go within, but only to peep through a hole in the wall, and
also from an upper balcony of a neighbouring house to look down upon the
gilded roof. Beside this temple there is another, half of which is in
ruin, and the remainder has been converted to the purpose of a Musulman
mosque. The old part is of yellow-grey sandstone, tawny with age, but
the mosque has been white-washed and shines brightly in the sunlight. We
have here a view of this temple-mosque, and then there follow two views,
showing the tall minarets of Aurangzeb’s Mosque, built on the site of
another Hindu temple which he destroyed. For two centuries until the
advent of British power the rulers of this Hindu land were of the
Musulman faith, conquerors from the northwest. The Musulmans destroyed
many of the ancient Hindu temples of Benares, so that most of the
buildings of the city are comparatively modern.
[Sidenote: 23.
A Fakir, Benares.] [Sidenote: 24.
Snake Charmers, Benares.] As in a Christian country, such a resort of
pilgrims brings together men from far distant and different lands, and
we have at Benares an epitome of all Hindu India. In the narrow
deep-shaded streets, and the sordid and tawdry purlieus of the temples
may be seen many a typical scene of Eastern life. Here, for instance,
close to Aurangzeb’s Mosque, is a Fakir or religious enthusiast, to whom
the alms of the faithful are due. He rests on this bed of spikes day and
night. Such Fakirs get much alms, which they are supposed by the envious
to bury underground. We have another characteristic scene here, two
snake charmers on one of the ghats, with a fine assortment of
reptiles—cobra, python, and other snakes, as well as scorpions. There is
always a ready crowd for them, as for jugglers of curious skill.
[Sidenote: 25.
Bullock Cart, Benares.] [Sidenote: 26.
A Camel, Benares.] [Sidenote: 27.
A Bridegroom, Benares.] The traffic in the streets is of the most
various kind. Here is an ox waggon, with cumbrous wooden wheels, laden
with rough stone for road making, and here a tall camel bringing in
tobacco from some outlying village. This is a bridegroom of the highest,
the Brahman caste, mounted on a white horse, and clothed in a golden
dress shot with pink. He is probably on his way to pay a ceremonial
call.
[Sidenote: 28.
Prince of Wales Hospital, Benares.] [Sidenote: 29.
Queen’s College, Benares.] [Sidenote: 30.
Central Hindu College, Benares.] Further inland, near the railway
station, is grouped the European quarter, with a Christian church, the
post office, the regimental barracks of the cantonment, missionary
colleges, villas of officials, and a few fine public buildings of recent
date. Here for instance, with a bullock cart passing it, and another
vehicle behind with a sun-hood, is the Prince of Wales Hospital. Here is
Queen’s College, where a modern education is given to some five hundred
students, and here finally is the Central Hindu College, opened in 1899,
“for the education of Hindu youth in their ancestral faith and in true
loyalty and patriotism.” This college contains about two hundred and
fifty students.