Ayodhya, the ancient kingdom of Rama; and further
eastward Anugangam, the region of the Ganges.* s
Hindustan, or Central India, exclusive of the Dekhan, is
thus divided into two great portions, that of the Indus and
the Ganges. To the northward lies the third great region,
the Himalaya.
Paragraph 2.—General Observations on the Races^of
People who inhabit the Regions described in tjie
preceding pages.
The whole extent of India, rather of Jambudwipa or the
vast island bounded by the ocean and the two great rivers
of Tibet^ consists, as we have seen, of three .jgincipal
regions, the high mountainous country. of the Himalaya
towards the north, Hindustan or Aryavarta, in th^midst,
and the Dekhan or the peninsula, to theeouth. Its population
is formed by a great number of different races. Of
these I must here briefly survey the distribution* in order fo
afford my readers a distinct view of a complicated subje^f,
of which the details would appear to be obscure and confused
without some previous outline.
The population of India and its borders consists partly of
nations more or less civilised, and, in part, of barbarous
aborigines, who occupy the mountainous and less accessible
traets. Of the latter there are veryjiumerous tribe&,
who differ from each other in languages and physical characters,
and, on this ground, appear to be referable to
different original stems. In the north-eastern part of the
Ilimfilayan countries, on the borders of the Brahmaputra
and beyond that river, there are numerous tribes "of wild
mountaineers resembling the most barbarous races of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula, with whom they appear to be much
more nearly connected than with the inhabitants of Hindustan.
They are rude idolaters, retaining the simple and
gross superstitions found everywhere among the most unèul-
tivated tribes of men. In the southern parts of Hindustan
* This outline is partly taken from Colonel Tod’s description S® History of Ra-
jast’hah, vol. 1.
and in the Dekhan there are tribes not less savage than the
northern races, but differing from them, and among themselves,
in physical characters.
Among the civilised, nations the principal race are the
Hindoos, prdperly so termed, the name being used not in a
political or religious but in an ethnological sense. They
are the people who speak dialects essentially allied to the
Sanskrit, and through it to the great Indo-European family
of languages. Their proper country is Hindustan, namely,
the region includdfilbe tween the Indus on the western side,
and the delta , of the Ganges ■ or the Brahmaputra on the
east. To the northward andrsouthward its boundaries are
the Himalayan countries and the Vindhya mountains. But
beyond the limits of Hindustan the' Indian race, meaning
the Hindoos, have“ extended their colonies towards the north
and south, and they form a part of the. population-of the
Himalayan border as well* as of many countries in the
Dekhan.
From" thé Hindoos was perhaps dèrivéd that portion of
mental*culture which is found in cM^r civilised races'of ’the
Indian world. The religion of'Buddha was eónveyèd from
India ifcandient timesuto ' the mountainous counttifesd of
Tibétf and Bhutan and other tracts : in the northern or
Himalayan border. The , religion of the Brahmans, with
their arts and literature, were introduced at a still earlier
period among the nations Dekhan, who are known to
Be the offsets of a stock’'Entirely distinct from thatiof thé
genuine Hindoos,-and to spëak languages which, though
mixed with different proportions of Sanskrit words, are of
peculiar structure and have an origin ally-distinct vocabulary.
By many it is now Shpposed, that these southern
nations had attained some -degree of civil culture, and had
even a peculiar-literature, befoWhe earliest colonies of
Hindoos, or even the first missionaries' of the Brahmanya
religion were introduced among them.*
In thè following survey I shall begin with the Hindoos,
* Memoirs by Mr. James Prinsep, in the different numbers of the Journal of
- ~tiie Asiatic Society, o f Bengal, on the literature of the Tamuls, and particularly
on the alphabet described by Iambulus.
VOL. IV. L