translated into Persian many great Sanskrit works, including the Mahábhárata.

In 1341 an African traveller, named Ibn Batutah, visited Delhi. He was received with great respect, and appointed to the office of judge by the king, Muhammad Bin Tughlak (see Chap. X. § 3). Seeing, however, some evidence of Muhammad's capricious and cruel temper, he resigned his office. The king, without taking offence, attached him to an embassy to China, and thus honourably dismissed him. His Travels (which have been translated in English and French) contain very valuable accounts of India.

The chief historian of the later Mughul period was Mir Muhammad, better known as Kháfi Khán. Aurangzeb (see Chap. XIV.) strictly ordered that no history should be written; but Mir Muhammad wrote his in secret during the latter part of Aurangzeb's reign (about A.D. 1700), and hence obtained the title Kháfi Khán (the concealed).

There are many other historians, to whose works (some in Arabic, but mostly in Persian) we need only briefly allude. Sultan Bábar wrote Memoirs of his own life, which are most graphic and interesting: they were originally written in Turki, but were translated into Persian. Utbi wrote the Tárikh Yamíní, the history of the period of Sabaktigín and his great successor Mahmud. Hasan Nizám wrote the Táj-ul-maásir, memoirs of the lives of Muhammad Ghori, Kutb-ud-dín, and Altamsh. It was written at Delhi about the year 1210; it is partly in verse, and contains much Arabic. A more important history is that of Minhaj-us-Siraj, whose work, the Tabakát-iNásiri, is the most trustworthy authority for the history of the Afghán period down to the accession of Balban. Two valuable histories of the later part of the same period are both called Tárihk-i-Fírúz-Sháhí—one being written by Zia-ud-din Barni, the other by Shams-i-Siraj Afif. Other historians are Abdul-Kadir Badaoni and Nizam-uddín Ahmad, who wrote in the time of Akbar; Muatimad Khán, who wrote the Jahángir-Námah; Muhammad Bin

Sáleh, who wrote the Sháh-Jahán-Námah; Mirza Muhammad Kásim, who wrote the Alamgir-Námah; and Sayyid Ghulam Husain Khán, a relative of the Nawab Alivírdi Khán (see Chap. XX.), who wrote a history of the eighteenth-century Hindustan in the year 1783.

Amongst many others we may mention three very famous Muhammadan poets of India-Ferdausi, Ansari, and Amir Khusrau.

Ansari and Ferdausi were both ornaments of the court of Mahmud of Ghazni. The latter has been called the "Persian Homer'; he wrote the Sháh-Námah, in praise of Mahmud.

Amir Khusrau was one of the illustrious literary exiles who fled from Persia to the Court of Balban to avoid the Mughuls. He wrote an immense amount of poetry, some of which has been considered very beautiful. Two of his most celebrated poems are (1) on the loves of Khizr Khán and Dewál Deví (see Chap. X.), and (2) on the meeting between the Emperor Kaikubád and his father, Bughrá Khán (see Chap. X.).

§ 78. Modern Vernacular Literature. The literature of the modern vernaculars of India is of recent growth, except in Tamil, which possesses some medieval poetry of great beauty.

At the present time the Bengáli literature is the most flourishing. Formerly a mistaken view of the philology of the Bengáli language caused many of the best authors in that language to make their writing Sanskrit rather than true Bengáli; and even now there is a tendency to aim at a highly Sanskritised style, the result of which is a great divergence between the written and the spoken language. Of late years, however, the wider diffusion of critical and philological scholarship has tended to correct this defect of pedantry, and to strengthen and purify the language. A recently published History of Bengali Literature by a well-known Bengáli author gives a valuable account of the early growth of the language. There are at the present moment a considerable number of 'standard

authors,' some of great merit. Of recent writers the most famous are the learned Pandit, Ishwara Chandra Vidyáságara, and Bankim Chandra Chatterji, a successful novelist and magazine editor, in prose; and Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Iswara Chandra Gupta in poetry. In the year 1877 the new and original works published in Bengáli amounted to about 550; besides eighty-four translations, most of which were from standard English works, including several scientific treatises.

Next to the Bengáli literature comes the Hindi. Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, and Allahabad are the great publishing centres. The Hindi pandits take the lead in the editing and publishing of the classical Sanskrit literature. In the year 1877 more than 300 editions of ancient classical authors were published in the North-West Provinces and the Punjab-showing a most remarkable activity in this field of learning. In the Bombay Presidency, during the same year, more than 300 original works were published in the vernaculars, Maráthi and Gujaráti, and 38 translations. In Madras there were 107 original works and 38 translations published, chiefly in Tamil and Telugu.

As might be expected among a people whose religion so much enters into their daily life as is the case with the Hindús, religious publications are more numerous in India than any others-more than 1,200 having been published in one year. Educational works take the next place, with more than 1,100 publications in one year; and then poetry and the drama, with over 800. Fiction is well repre

sented, and works on law are also numerous.

The periodical literature of India is increasing rapidly, both in quantity and in value. About 200 newspapers are now published in the various Indian vernaculars. Many of these are dailies. The literary character of the leading vernacular journals has greatly improved of late. Many magazines, too, are springing up in various parts of the country; some of these, such as the Banga Darsana in Bengal, are written in an interesting manner and with much ability.

PART IX.

RELIGIONS AND CUSTOMS.

History. § 81. Its § 84. Hindu Clergy. The Bráhma Samáj.

§ 79. Bráhmanism or Hinduism. § 80. Its Modern Aspect. § 82. Avatárs. § 83. Legends. § 85. Hindu Sects, and Hindu Reformers. § 86. § 87. Sikhs. § 88. Buddhism. § 89. Jainism. § 90. Musalmáns. § 91. Pársis. § 92. Hindu Caste. § 93. Obsolete or Prohibited Customs. § 94. Christian Missions.

§ 79. Bráhmanism or Hinduism.-Of the 240 millions who inhabit the Indian Empire it is estimated that about 185 millions profess a religion more or less closely connected with, or derived from, the ancient faith of the Aryan Hindus that found its earliest expression in the hymns of the VEDAS (see Chap. I. § 2). When we look at Hinduism in its present manifold forms of development or degeneration, and consider also its past history, it will be evident that it is (in the words of Monier Williams) 'like a huge irregular structure which has had no single architect but a whole series, and has spread itself over an immense surface by continual additions and accretions.'

§ 80. Its History.-The history of Bráhmanism—its origin in the simple doctrines, partly monotheistic, partly pantheistic, of the Vedas-its development into a priestly system as shown in the Institutes of Manu, and a series of philosophical systems as seen in the Darsanas-its further development into a popular religion, powerfully appealing to human sympathies in the stories of the godlike avatárs or Incarnations of Vishnu in the heroic forms of Krishna and Ráma, as shown in the great epics of the Mahábhárata and the Rámáyana-its final development, not always unaccompanied by degradation, in the legends and traditions of the Puránas-will be briefly traced in the course of our first chapter.

§ 81. Its Modern Aspect.-Bráhmanism in its modern

aspect has two sides-one esoteric, philosophical, the religion of the few-the other exoteric, popular, the religion of the many; and, as in other religions, the difference between these two sides is wide, in proportion to the ignorance and credulity of the masses and the exclusiveness of the educated and priestly classes.

Philosophical Bráhmanism, based on the Upanishad of the Vedas, is a spiritual Pantheism; it teaches that nothing really exists but the one self-existent Spirit called Brahma (neuter), all else is Máyá, or Illusion; nothing exists but God, and everything existing is God. Men, animals, plants, stones, pass through innumerable existences, and may even rise to be gods; but gods, men, animals, plants, and every conceivable emanation from the Supreme Soul aim at, and must end by, ABSORPTION (or rather reabsorption) into their source, Brahma.'

It is hardly necessary to say that idolatry and polytheism are indignantly disclaimed by the highest teachers of this philosophical Bráhmanism. The numerous gods, represented by images, are regarded by them as simply manifestations of the one universal Spirit. They say 'worship before images, not to images, is practised by us as a condescension to weak-minded persons;' and again, Our sacred books insist on the unity of the Supreme Being, and abound in the grandest descriptions of His attributes: He is "the most Holy of all holies," "the most Blessed of the blessed," "the God of all gods," "the Everlasting Father of all creatures," "omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent," "He is the life in all," "the Father, Mother, Husband, and Sustainer of the world," "the Birth and Death of all," "the one God hidden in all beings, and dwelling as a witness within their hearts.”' 1

Practically, the most prominent dogma of philosophical

An admirable account of the modern aspects of Bráhmanism is to be found in Professor Monier Williams's Modern India, from which these quotations are taken.