A History of India

THE country which, following the ancients, we name India1, lies in the eastern hemisphere, between the eighth and the thirty-fourth degrees of northern latitude, and the sixty-eighth and ninetysecond degrees of eastern longitude. Its length from north to south is about 1900, and its greatest

breadth from west to east about 1500 miles. It is bounded on the north by the lofty range of the Himalaya 2 mountains, on the west by the river Indus, on the east by the high lands eastwards of the Brahmapûtra river, while its whole southern coast is washed by the waters of the Indian ocean. This region consists of two distinct parts, separated by a mountain range. The northern portion is a large oblong plain, the southern a triangular peninsula; the former is named Hindûstân, the latter the Deckan 3; the mountain range which divides them is called the Vindhya mountains. They commence near the peninsula of Gûzerât, and run eastwards to the river Ganges. The only island of any magnitude on the coast of India is the great island of Ceylon, to the east of its southern extremity.

The portion of India which we denominate Hindûstân, comprises the following regions. Eastwards of the Indus, from its mouth to its junction with

1 India is only the Latin name, the Greeks called it ή Ινδική χώρα. ǹ 'Ivdikỳ sc. yñ or xúpa. It was derived from that of the river named in Sanscrit Sindhu, i. e. river, of which the Persians made Hindhu, the Hebrews, ejecting n, as usual, Hodu (Esther i. 1), and the Ionian Greeks dropping the aspirate 'Ivdós, and the people 'Ivdoí. The Sanscrit name of the country between the Himalaya and the Vindhya mountains is Yambudwîpa or Bharatakhanda.

2 Snow-mountains; from hima snow, and alaya abode. Hence the Greeks named a part of the range Imaüs. 3 The South; in Sanscrit, Dakshina.

the Garrâh, or united stream of the rivers Beyah and Sutlej, extends a wide sandy desert, like those of Africa or Arabia, as far as the Aravalli hills, which run northwards from the western extremity of the Vindhya range towards the city of Delhi. The whole of this tract, however, is not desert; its south-eastern portion is remarkably fertile; it contains many oases, and the region along the Indus, and watered by that stream, which overflows annually like the Nile, is rich and well inhabited. To the south of the Sandy Desert lie the two peninsulas of Cutch and Gûzerât; and to the north, and extending to the northern boundary of India, lies the fertile region named the Punjâb, i. e. Five-rivers, from the five tributaries of the Indus, by which it is watered.

Eastwards of the Aravalli range the country rises into an elevated plain, or table-land, to the height of about 2000 feet above the level of the sea. the south-east it is supported by hills proceeding from the Vindhya ranges, north-east it slopes into the basin of the Ganges. It is now known by the name of Central India. The country thence eastwards is the basin of the Ganges, including in it Bengal, which is not usually reckoned a part of Hindûstân. It may be regarded as one great and rises above the general level. This region appears extensive plain, though in some places the land to have been the original seat of the civilization and power of India.

In the Deckan, on the west, the valley of the river Nerbudda lies between the Vindhya and another parallel range named the Injâdree or Satpoora, south of which range is the valley of the river Tapti. The land then rises into a table-land, extending to the extreme point of the peninsula ; it is of varied and undulating surface, in general fertile, but displaying at times tracts of sandy desert. This table-land is supported on the west and east by ranges named the Ghâts, of which the western is the higher, and approaches nearer to the sea-coast. On either side of the peninsula between the Ghâts and the sea, are strips of land varying in breadth and in fertility. From that

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A History of India: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day