remainder, by much the greatest part, being noisome swamps, or muddy lakes. In the dry part a great many camels are reared, who feed on the brushwood. The upper part of the delta is well cultivated, and yields abundance of rice. It is remarkable, that the tide fhould not be visible in the Indus at a greater diftance than fixty or fixty-five miles from the fea. In the Ganges, the tides are perceptible at two hundred and forty miles from its mouth; and in the river of the Amazons, at fix hundred miles. The bore, or fudden influx of the tide in the mouth of the Indus, is high and dangerous; hence the mifchief it did to the fleet of Alexander. The river Indus, and its branches, admit of an uninterrupted navigation from Tatta to Moultan, Lahore, and Cafhmere, for velels of near two hundred tons.

The country along the Indus, for three hundred miles from its mouth, is called SINDY. Its breadth is different; in the widest part it is about one hundred and fixty miles. Sindy, in many particulars of foil and climate, and in the general appearance of its furface, refembles Egypt; the lower part of it being compofed of rich vegetable mould, and extended into a

wide

civil authority, but confirmed and fanctioned by religion. This inftitution, though it lays a restraint on the natural fiberty of man, and must neceffarily fomet mes check the exertions of genius, has brought the Indian manufactures to a degree of perfection fuperior to that of any other country, and has always preferved the trade of India with other nations nearly in the fame ftate. India continues ftill to fupply nearly the fame articles as in the time of Pliny, Plin. xii. and xiii, and to drain thofe countries with which it trades of their gold and filver, as it did in ancient times; fee p. 128.Some mention an additional caft, called Burrun Sunker, compofed of fuch as are produced by an unlawful union between perfons of different cafts. These are mostly dealers in petty articles of retail trade.

Although it be impoffible for a person of a lower caft to tife to a higher, yet in certain cafes, perfons of a higher clafs may exercife the occupations of a lower without fofing their caft by doing fo. Accordingly Brahmins are fometimes employed, not only as minifters of state, but as foldiers.Ancient authors reprefent the Indians as divided into feven kinds or orders, Strab. xv. 703.; Diodor. ii. 40; Arrian. Indic. 10. miled, as it is thought, by confidering fome of the fubdivifions of the cafts as diftinét orders. They remark, that there were no flaves in India, Ib.

There is a number of devotees or religionitts in India, called Faquirs, who voluntarily fubje&t themselves to fingular mortifications, and undergo the feverest penances; on which account they are held in the highest veneration by the people. Thefe Strabo calls Germanes or Hylolii, xv. 713. and mentions one of them who flood a whole day on one leg, fupporting a large piece of wood with his hands, Ib. 74. Pliny calls them GYMNOSOPHISTE, (quod in India, qui habentur SAPIENTES nudi tatem agunt, Cic. Tufc. v. 27.) and remarks that fome of them ufed to look at the fun for a whole day without moving their eyes, and others to ftand from morning to night on the feorching fands on one foot, vii. 2.

The government in all the countries of India was monarchical; but limited and controlled by the fixed and inviolable privileges of the different cafts, particularly by

wide delta; while the upper part of it is a narrow flip of country, confined on one fide by a ridge or ridges of mountains, and on the other by a fandy defert; the river Indus, equal at least to the Nile, winding through the midst of this level valley, and annually overflowing it. During the months of July, Auguft, and part of September, which is the rainy feafon in most other parts of India, the atmosphere is here generally clouded, but no rain, falls, except very near to the fea. Indeed very few thowers fall during the whole year. The Prince of Sindy is tributary to the king of Candahar. He is a Mahomedan, and ufually refides at the fort of HYDRABAD, fituate on the Indus, a little above the head of the delta, and near the city NUSSERPOUR. The Hindoos are here treated with great rigour by their Mahomedan governors, which drives numbers of them into other countries.

On the north-east of Sindy lie the territories of the Seiks: on the north, thofe of the king of Candahar; on the weft is Makran, anciently Gedrofia, a province of Perfia, whose prince is tributary to the king of Candahar. A fandy defert bounds Sindy on the east, extending near five hundred and fifty miles

in

the fanctity and pre-eminence of the BRAHMINS, who would deem it degradation and pollution, if they were to eat of the fame food with their fovereign. Their perfons are facred, and even for the most heinous crimes they cannot be capitally punished; their blood must never be fhed. On important occations, it is the duty of fovereigns to confult them, and to be directed by their advice. In ancient times, at a folemn affembly, called the great Synod. (Meyan Sunsdog,) which used to be held at the beginning of every year, all the Brahmins affembling at the palace of the king, gave their opinion about the administration of public affairs; concerning the ftate of agriculture and pafturage, Strab. xv. 703. f. and whatever elfe they judged of advantage to those whe were prefent, Diodor. ii. 40. The government of the Mahrattas at present is mostly aristocratical.

The monarchs of India were confidered as the great proprietors of the land, as is ftill the cafe in the great empires of the eaft, fee p. 631. The husbandmen, now called RYOTS, faid as rent ufully the fourth of the produce of their tams, Strab. & Diodor. ibid. As long as the husbandman paid the established rent, he retained poffeffion of the farm, which defcended, like property, fom father to fon. Before the original institutions of India were fubverted by foreign invaders, the industry of the husbandman, on which every member of the community depended for fubfiflence, was as fecure as the tenure by which he held his lands was equitable. It was not uncommon, as we learn from strab, xv. 704. for two hoftile armies to be fighting in one field, while the peasants were ploughing or digging with perfect fafety in the next. The greatest attention was paid to render the condition of thofe who cultivated the ground comfortable, Various officers were appointed for this purpose. One clafs of them had the charge of the TANKS or public refervoirs of water, without a regular dutribution of which, fields in a tord climate cannot be rendered fertile. Those who collect the rents from the Ryats, and parc 1 out the lands among them, are called ZEMINDARS; who, it is fuppofed, were at first appointed only during pleafure, but a terwards became hereditary. On this fubject, how

in length, and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty in breadth, mentioned by Herodotus, iii. 98. Owing to the want of rain in Sindy, and its vicinity to this defert, the heats in fummer are fo violent, and the winds which blow from the defert fo pernicious, that the houfes are contrived fo as to be occafionally ventilated by means of apertures on the tops of them, refembling the funnels of fmall chimnies. When the hot winds preyail, the windows are clofely fhut, by which means the hottest of the current of air (that nearest the surface of the earth, of courfe) is excluded; and a cooler part, because more elevated, defcends into the house through the funnels. By this means also vaft clouds of duft are excluded, the entry of which alone would be fufficient to render the houfes uninhabitable. The roofs are compofed of thick layers of earth instead of terraces. Few countries are more unwholesome to European conftitutions, particularly the lower part of the delta. Along the banks of the Indus, the fishermen and graziers form moveable villages or towns, because they are continually changing their positions like a camp; as Arrian informs us, was obferved by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander's

eyer, there are different opinions. In the time of ACBAR, the lands were valued, and the rent of each inhabitant and of each village afcertained. The annual amount of revenue then fixed, and the mode of levying it, continued with little variation in the province of Bengal to the year 1757, when Jaffeer Ali Kazon, being created Nabob of Arcot by the English, after the battle of Plaffey, was obliged to depart from the wife arrangements of Acbar, and introduce new modes of affeffment, that he might raife the fum which he had ftipulated to pay on his elevation.

There were various other officers who had different tasks affigned them, which are defcribed, Strab. xv. 707. &c. Diodor. ii. 41. Among the reft, fome took care to provide accommodation and lodgings for ftrangers, Ib. Such houfes are now called Choultries, and are frequent in every part of the country. The greatest attention was paid to the making of highways; and ftones were erected at the end of every ten ftadia, to mark the distances, and direct travellers, Ib.

The ancient Indians lived moftly on rice, as the Hindoos do still, Strab. xv. 709. They had no written laws; and fuits were determined according to the principles of equity, Ib. The first who published a compendium of Indian jurisprudence was ACBAR, by the affittance of his Vizier Abel Fazel, in the code called Ayeen Akbery.

All buildings, of whatever kind, confecrated to the offices of religion, arc called PAGODAS. Of these the most ancient is thought to be that in the inland of Elephanta, at no great diftance from Bombay; which is an excavation hewn out of a folid rock, about half way up a high mountain, and formed into a fpacious area, nearly 120 feet fquare; with human figures, in high relief, of gigantic fize and fingular forms, on the infide. There are various pagodas of this kind in the ifle of Salfette, fill nearer to Bombay.Inftead of caverns, apparently the original places of worship, temples came to be raised by the Indians in honour of their deities; at firft in the form of a large py-ramid, with no other light but what came from a fall door, as at Degur,

near