CHAPTER XI.
HISTORY OF INDIA. ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF
ITS INHABITANTS.
S ec tio n I.—Geographical Survey of India.—Subdivisions
of countries, with reference to their great physical boundaries.—
Corresponding distribution of Races.
T h e vast mountainous barrier of—the Ilim&laya, which
separates India from Tibet and Central Asia and resembles}
though of much greater extent, the Alpine ^boMef of
Italy, seems to have been comprehended, together|with
Hindustan and the Dekhan, by the ancient Indian geographers,
in the fabulous region of Jambudwipa. Jam-
budwipa, literally the island or peninsula of the jambu-tr.ee
or rose-apple, is one of the seven great sections into which
the earth, according to the Brahmans, is divided by the
oeean on whose. surface its separate parts lie spread out
like the expanded petals of a water-lily.* In the gentre of
the seven great divisions, compared to the cup or seed-
vessel of a lotus, of which the leaves form the seven dwipas
or peninsulas, rises the sacred mountain of Meru, like a
pillar of gold and gems. On its summit sits Brahma,
adored by Rishis and Gandharbhas, while the Regents of the
four quarters of the universe hold their stations on its four
faces. India itself received from its inhabitants the vain
epithets of Medhy&ma, or the “ Middle Region,? ; and
Punyabhfimi, or the “ Land of Virtues.” Jambudwipa,
* Sir William Jones, Essay on the Hindus.
including Mount Meru, which was apparently the highest
summit of the Himâlaya, of greater extent than Hindustan,
may bè: termed almost with strict propriety an island, since
it is separated from the continent of Asia by two great
rivers which, to the northward of the Himalaya, spring
almost ffom a common point, and flowing round all its
northern side, fall into the-'opposite seas of Persia and
Bengal:- Taking their rise in the valley of Tibet, near the
sacred lake of Manasa-sarovara, these risers flow in opposite
directions under the northern fëet of! the Himâlaya, and
passing round each^lfktretnity of that great chain, turn
1 southward and enter the,> ocean at' the eastern and western
extremities of Hindustan. The Attok, or the Sindh, rising
jiqt far from the- source of the 5Zang^p or Brahmaputra;
passes in a north-wjssterly direction; nearly parallel to the
Himâlaya by Leh in Ladakh, and flowing to the northward
of Kashmir,’'turns'"southward; then'penetrating the
great Alpine barrier pflndia,yearly at right angles, through
vast ravines, it assumes the name of Indus, andidespends into
the plain of Kach, topintinue its co ^ r^ in to the Indo- -
Persian'Sea. The otherj^^^al r iv e rt he Zangbu*, or
Sanpo, runs' towards the south-east and then turns- southward
into the valleyjbf Assam, whgre;^ is known as the
Brahmaputra, and unites ?itàeîf with the Ganges, to fall into
the Bay of Bengal. The whole legion thus insulated from
the Tna.inla.Tid of {Asia,, consists of three^pairfs‘r first,the-
mountainous northern harder formed by Ih^ëWowy Chain,
and including’fhe long terrasses of inferior highlands which,
intersected by the numerous. valleys of Kashmir, Nepâl,
and Bhutan, lie along its „ southern5.;feet and separaf|&it
from the low countries of ceùtral India; and, secondly,
Eastern, Central, and Western Hindustan, watered by the
Jumna and Ganges, the » Indus, and their çdntributary
streams. The third division, is the Dekhan, or t^ePemn-
sula. The Dekhan, so called from the Sanskrit— v
—Rahshin, meaning the South,-is bounded' on two sides by
the sea, and on its northern side by the chain of the. Vindhya
It is termed Zangbu by the authorities preferred by Humboldt and Hitter.