C it ie s and
T o’Wns.
Benarïs-
Allahabad.
Ancient capitals.
poles that Palibothra flood at the junction pf,t.he Span or Son? with the
G&ögés j that is^ he^hearly eomeide^iwith ,Major Réfioell.5 Yet japon
th e whole the unprejudiced infpe&or *of Ptolemy may; perhaps prefer
Allahabad, |
Benares approaches to the weftern frontier of; the. Britifh poffeffions,
the diftriQi having been ceded, to the Eaft India Company in- the year
1775. It is a richj-populousj. and compa£t city, on the n o rth e rn ’bank
o f the Ganges, about 460 miles from Calcutta. Benares, anciently
called Kafi, was the moft early-feat o f Braminical knowledge, or quackery,
m th e north. I t was not till th e tenth or. eleventh century o f th e
Chriftiatt sera that this baleful fe£b overturned the worfhip o f Bóodh in
the Deccan. T h e Bramins feem to be firft mentioned by Strabo, who
diflinguilhes them from another face o f Indian philofophers called Ge r-
m a n i; wh o were probably the Gympofophifti o f other authors, and
fvorfhippers o f Boödh.*
On leaving the Britifh poflfeflrons, and proceeding towards the weft,
firft occurs Allahabad, in the province fo called, at th e Confluence o f the
Jumna and the Ganges, a city belonging to the Navah or Nabö'h' ö f
Oude, but o f little confequence» Not far to thé S. W . o f Allahabad
are the diamond mines ó f Penna, in the fmaH detached province o f Buiv-
deleund.
Lucknow is the preferit capital o f Oude, having ftipeffiedèd Fyza-
had, a city on the Gogfa, near the aincient city o f Aiudh, which 'fèeips-
fo have given name to the province. At a confiderable diftancè t<? the
N. W . is Berilli, a fmali but noted town near th e northern frontier. -
About 50 B. .miles W. from Lucknow ftands Canbgëj' 'anciently th e
capital o f a kingdom. Before proceeding to Agra and Delhi, modern
capitals o f Hindoftan, it m'ay be proper to o bfèrvethat the kingdoms
Celebrated by the Braminical, or northern traditions, and fables were
5 Af. R. it . 26. Mr. Wilford, with his ufual imagination, argues for the mouth, o f the Cofa.
on the oppofite fide of the Ganges !■ ,
* The Brachman nations of Pliny are the Barmahs, or Birmans> of modern- times, who1 had- -
probably invaded and figized a great part of Eaftern Hindoftan. Perhaps even the B/axitaiicu of
Strabo are the Rachans- or Priefts of the Birmans.
Where was Pliny’s powerful kingdom of Andara in Gangetic Hindoftan, and Antomela on
the Indus ? That writer’s geography is commonly neglefted, though one of the beft of antiquity,
4 i; chiefly
chiefly' ki&his part of Hindof t anThe reader- is fomedtoes- b^Udered C m ^
by’ the jWe o f nativet tends, or uriconaimon orthography, .without any
explanation ;'(hnt. tHe learned - Jones? infews Nanda,- and
tfo^n’otled'fiGhandragnpta^lthe .«lafljeal. «Saridrac^ttus, reigne^Lat Patpai}
and a kind of «chronology o f their tfdccelFqrs'tnay ijfUhe Afrati,®' ^
RefearChesj6 with table's^©f. the k§jng$ ,@f Audh^tei^Qude,, and. or
Delhi, both in the folar ,and-lunardmfe?«s t^ey-^e djyj^ed, by.J^e wildnefs
of Hindoo imagination; iwit-banatherof the king's qfMagada, or Bahar,
the-laft o f w h ic h 'kontains’.NandaJ1 andy(Sb%Hdijag,vptav -T,he&ili% are^
inacoamt^Md: coiifofed; rtbe* Brami.tts«fb i i n | M e w c p n v e rf^ t in quadrifr
lions- HrilKbhsy-'and billions' oft.f.ears, 'th an in diifcuffmg,-the little datq^
ofifetltop^an* fcholarsi'*1 .T h e -lift of R ^ s & f JT itf o iW f
nfftheNtelug^ publifhed b y Ariqytetilsdu- Terton-, u i iW vjBhart ^ h p
relided at Haftriapour onfthe Ganges, now D e lh i; ;but -the ,royft f e #
was'afterwards transferred .tol iGanpehe, and thd
the^feouritains o f Sewalik to .encounter, th e G k i n e f r , ^ o b M j J |J |
wrong -interpretation, for Tibet. Benares-is. alfo, mentioned as a c apita^
and-if is bdlffly aflertCd' that th f eighty-fmirth-Raja, AndarjaJ, conquered
all Hindoftan with U y \ b n \ a c&iqueft aT& .e ff e ^ d b y th e
hundred aHd ninth Raja. ' This lift, which is certainly fa r fupenor to
M i o fth e Hnd.tclofes with th e conqueft by the Mahotaetftns^A. D. 119,2.-
Perhaps oUr‘ poffeffions in the foUth'maydifetefefome chronologies o f
thekSi^s in that quarter, particularly the Balharas. I f anything can be
done 'ih arranging the fta io n s o f the Bramins, and .elidtmgb fame |
IhadoW o f truth, it muft~ be-begun'bjffeftablhhing grandMand marks o f | j
Chronology, eftablifhea B y ' Vafiohs' “ ihtelligCnee' 'derived >ftom remote ,
quartets j and the fafeft cdutfewill be to trkce it backward from modem
to ancient times, and th u s -la fih g f'a1 fd ld ^ f e u n d f e r ^ ,’iriftead'Hf beginning’with
the Qtbiilous!in th e vain1 hdpfe of finding truthv - ' 1 ^
SI Thefe capitals 6 f aticient kingdoms in this'qharter were followed by -Agra.
Agra and Delhi. r'~ The*-great and 'godd etrip^#r Aebar conftkuted
Agra the capital o f the Mogul empire about A. D.*i j-#®. "It was then
aref,|inknoV^p^©)g{g^^ ’ ‘ *• J .■ 5 ^ ,,
P P 2 a fmali