xix. 18) as the fundamental law of religious morals, became in a certain

sense a commonplace of Pharisaic scholasticism. For the Pharisee who accepts the answer of Jesus regarding that fundamental doctrine which ranks the love of one's neighbour as the highest duty after the love of God (Mark xii. 33), does so because as a disciple of Hillel the idea is familiar to him. St Paul also (Gal. v. 14) doubtless learned this in the school of Gamaliel. Hillel emphasized the connexion between duty towards one's neighbour and duty towards oneself in the epigrammatic saying: "If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am for myself alone, what then am I? And if not now, then when?" (_Aboth_, i. 14). The duty of working both with and for men he teaches in the sentence: "Separate not thyself from the congregation" (_ib._ ii. 4). The duty of considering oneself part of common humanity, of not differing from others by any peculiarity of behaviour, he sums up in the words: "Appear neither naked nor clothed, neither sitting nor standing, neither laughing nor weeping" (_Tosef. Ber._ c. ii.). The command to love one's neighbour inspired also Hillel's injunction (_Aboth_, ii. 4): "Judge not thy neighbour until thou art in his place" (cf. Matt. vii. 1). The disinterested pursuit of learning, study for study's sake, is commended in many of Hillel's sayings as being what is best in life: "He who wishes to make a name for himself loses his name; he who does not increase [his knowledge] decreases it; he who does not learn is worthy of death; he who works for the sake of a crown is lost" (_Aboth_, i. 13). "He who occupies himself much with learning makes his life" (_ib._ ii. 7). "He who has acquired the words of doctrine has acquired the life of the world to come" (_ib._). "Say not: When I am free from other occupations I shall study; for may be thou shalt never at all be free" (_ib._ 4). One of his strings of proverbs runs as follows: "The uncultivated man is not innocent; the ignorant man is not devout; the bashful man learns not; the wrathful man teaches not; he who is much absorbed in trade cannot become wise; where no men are, there strive thyself to be a man" (_ib._ 5). The almost mystical profundity of Hillel's consciousness of God is shown in the words spoken by him on the occasion of a feast in the Temple--words alluding to the throng of people gathered there which he puts into the mouth of God Himself: "If I am here every one is here; if I am not here no one is here" (_Sukkah_ 53a). In like manner Hillel makes God say to Israel, referring to Exodus xx. 24: "Whither I please, thither will I go; if thou come into my house I come into thy house; if thou come not into my house, I come not into thine" (_ib._).

It is noteworthy that no miraculous legends are connected with Hillel's life. A scholastic tradition, however, tells of a voice from heaven which made itself heard when the wise men had assembled in Jericho, saying: "Among those here present is one who would have deserved the Holy Spirit to rest upon him, if his time had been worthy of it." And all eyes turned towards Hillel (_Tos. Sotah_, xiii. 3). When he died lamentation was made for him as follows: "Woe for the humble, woe for the pious, woe for the disciple of Ezra!" (_ib._)

HILLEL II., one of the patriarchs belonging to the family of Hillel I., lived in Tiberias about the middle of the 4th century, and introduced the arrangement of the calendar through which the Jews of the Diaspora became independent of Palestine in the uniform fixation of the new moons and feasts.

The Rabbi HILLEL, who in the 4th century made the remarkable declaration that Israel need not expect a Messiah, because the promise of a Messiah had already been fulfilled in the days of King Hezekiah (Babli, _Sanhedrin_, 99a), is probably Hillel, the son of Samuel ben Nahman, a well-known expounder of the scriptures. (W. Ba.)

HILLER, FERDINAND (1811-1885), German composer, was born at Frankfort-on-Main, on the 24th of October 1811. His first master was Aloys Schmitt, and when he was ten years of age his compositions and talent led his father, a well-to-do man, to send him to Hummel in Weimar. There he devoted himself to composition, among his work being the entr'actes to _Maria Stuart_, through which he made Goethe's acquaintance. Under Hummel, Hiller made great strides as a pianist, so much so that early in 1827 he went on a tour to Vienna, where he met Beethoven and produced his first quartet. After a brief visit home Hiller went to Paris in 1829, where he lived till 1836. His father's death necessitated his return to Frankfort for a time, but on the 8th of January 1839 he produced at Milan his opera _La Romilda_, and began to write his oratorio _Die Zerstorung Jerusalems_, one of his best works. Then he went to Leipzig, to his friend Mendelssohn, where in 1843-1844 he conducted a number of the Gewandhaus concerts and produced his oratorio. After a further visit to Italy to study sacred music, Hiller produced two operas, _Ein Traum_ and _Conradin_, at Dresden in 1845 and 1847 respectively; he went as conductor to Dusseldorf in 1847 and Cologne in 1850, and conducted at the Opera Italien in Paris in 1851 and 1852. At Cologne he became a power as conductor of the Gurzenich concerts and head of the Conservatorium. In 1884 he retired, and died on the 12th of May in the following year. Hiller frequently visited England. He composed a work for the opening of the Royal Albert Hall, his _Nala and Damayanti_ was performed at Birmingham, and he gave a series of pianoforte recitals of his own compositions at the Hanover Square Rooms in 1871. He had a perfect mastery over technique and form in musical composition, but his works are generally dry. He was a sound pianist and teacher, and occasionally a brilliant writer on musical matters. His compositions, numbering about two hundred, include six operas, two oratorios, six or seven cantatas, much chamber music and a once-popular pianoforte concerto.

HILLER, JOHANN ADAM (1728-1804), German musical composer, was born at Wendisch-Ossig near Gorlitz in Silesia on the 25th of December 1728. By the death of his father in 1734 he was left dependent to a large extent on the charity of friends. Entering in 1747 the Kreuzschule in Dresden, the school attended many years afterwards by Richard Wagner, he subsequently went to the university of Leipzig, where he studied jurisprudence, supporting himself by giving music lessons, and also by performing at concerts both on the flute and as a vocalist. Gradually he adopted music as his sole profession, and devoted himself more especially to the permanent establishment of a concert institute at Leipzig. It was he who in 1781 originated the celebrated Gewandhaus concerts which still flourish at Leipzig. In 1789 he became "cantor" of the Thomas school there, a position previously held by John Sebastian Bach. He died in Leipzig on the 16th of June 1804. Two of his pupils placed a monument to his memory in front of the Thomas school. Hiller's compositions comprise almost every kind of church music, from the cantata to the simple chorale. But much more important are his operettas, 14 in number, which for a long time retained their place on the boards, and had considerable influence on the development of light dramatic music in Germany. The _Jolly Cobbler_, _Love in the Country_ and the _Village Barber_ were amongst the most popular of his works. Hiller also excelled in sentimental songs and ballads. With great simplicity of structure his music combines a considerable amount of genuine melodic invention. Although an admirer and imitator of the Italian school, Hiller fully appreciated the greatness of Handel, and did much for the appreciation of his music in Germany. It was under his direction that the _Messiah_ was for the first time given at Berlin, more than forty years after the composition of that great work. Hiller was also a writer on music, and for some years (1766-1770) edited a musical weekly periodical named _Wochentliche Nachrichten und Anmerkungen die Musik betreffend_.

HILLIARD, LAWRENCE (d. 1640), English miniature painter. The date of his birth is not known, but he died in 1640. He was the son of Nicholas Hilliard, and evidently derived his Christian name from that of his grandmother. He adopted his father's profession and worked out the unexpired time of his licence after Nicholas Hilliard died. It was from Lawrence Hilliard that Charles I. received the portrait of Queen Elizabeth now at Montagu House, since van der Dort's catalogue describes it as "done by old Hilliard, and bought by the king of young Hilliard." In 1624 he was paid L42 from the treasury for five pictures, but the warrant does not specify whom they represented. His portraits are of great rarity, two of the most beautiful being those in the collections of Earl Beauchamp and Mr J. Pierpont Morgan. They are as a rule signed L.H., but are also to be distinguished by the beauty of the calligraphy in which the inscriptions round the portraits are written. The writing is as a rule very florid, full of exquisite curves and flourishes, and more elaborate than the more formal handwriting of Nicholas Hilliard. The colour scheme adopted by the son is richer and more varied than that used by the father, and Lawrence Hilliard's miniatures are not so hard as are those of Nicholas, and are marked by more shade and a greater effect of atmosphere. (G. C. W.)

HILLIARD, NICHOLAS (c. 1537-1619), the first true English miniature painter, is said to have been the son of Richard Hilliard of Exeter, high sheriff of the city and county in 1560, by Lawrence, daughter of John Wall, goldsmith, of London, and was born probably about 1537. He was appointed goldsmith, carver and portrait painter to Queen Elizabeth, and engraved the Great Seal of England in 1586. He was in high favour with James I. as well as with Elizabeth, and from the king received a special patent of appointment, dated the 5th of May 1617, and granting him a sole licence for the royal work for twelve years. He is believed to have been the author of an important treatise on miniature painting, now preserved in the Bodleian Library, but it seems more probable that the author of that treatise was John de Critz, Serjeant Painter to James I. It is probable, however, that the treatise was taken down from the instructions of Hilliard, for the benefit of one of his pupils, perhaps Isaac Oliver.

The esteem of his countrymen for Hilliard is testified to by Dr Donne, who in a poem called "The Storm" (1597) praises the work of this artist. He painted a portrait of himself at the age of thirteen, and is said to have executed one of Mary queen of Scots when he was eighteen years old. He died on the 7th of January 1619, and was buried in St Martin's-in-the-Fields, Westminster, leaving by his will twenty shillings to the poor of the parish, L30 between his two sisters, some goods to his maidservant, and all the rest of his effects to his son, Lawrence Hilliard, his sole executor.

It seems to be pretty certain that he visited France, and that he is the artist alluded to in the papers of the duc d'Alencon under the name of "Nicholas Belliart, peintre anglois" who was painter to this prince in 1577, receiving a stipend of 200 livres. The miniature of Mademoiselle de Sourdis, in the collection of Mr J. Pierpont Morgan, is certainly the work of Hilliard, and is dated 1577, in which year she was a maid of honour at the French Court; and other portraits which are his work are believed to represent Gabrielle d'Estrees, niece of Madame de Sourdis, la Princesse de Conde and Madame de Montgomery.

For further information respecting Hilliard's sojourn in France, see the privately printed catalogue of the collection of miniatures belonging to Mr J. Pierpont Morgan, compiled by Dr G. C. Williamson. (G. C. W.)

HILLSDALE, a city and the county-seat of Hillsdale county, Michigan, U.S.A., about 87 m. W. by S. of Detroit. Pop. (1900) 4151, of whom 300 were foreign-born; (1904) 4809; (1910) 5001. Hillsdale is served by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway. It has a public library, and is the seat of Hillsdale College (co-educational, Free Baptist), which was opened as Michigan Central College, at Spring Arbor, Michigan, in 1844, was removed to Hillsdale and received its present name in 1853 and was re-opened here in 1855. The college in 1907-1908 had 22 instructors and 345 students. The city is a centre for a rich farming region; among its manufactures are gasoline and gas engines, screen doors, wagons, barrels, shoes, fur-coats and flour. Hillsdale was first settled in 1837, was incorporated as a village in 1847, and was chartered as a city in 1869.

HILL TIPPERA, or TRIPURA, a native state of India, adjoining the British district of Tippera, in Eastern Bengal and Assam. Area, 4086 sq. m.; pop, (1901) 173,325; estimated revenue, L55,000. Six parallel ranges of hill cross it from north to south, at an average distance of 12 m. apart. The hills are covered for the most part with bamboo jungle, while the low ground abounds with trees of various kinds, canebrakes and swamps. The principal crop and food staple is rice. The other articles of produce are cotton, chillies and vegetables. The chief exports are cotton, timber, oilseeds, bamboo canes, thatching-grass and firewood, on all of which tolls are levied. The chief rivers are the Gumti, Haora, Khoyai, Dulai, Manu and Fenny (Pheni). During the heavy rains the people in the plains use boats as almost the sole means of conveyance.

The history of the state includes two distinct periods--the traditional period described in the _Rajmala_, or "Chronicles of the Kings of Tippera," and the period since A.D. 1407. The _Rajmala_ is a history in Bengali verse, compiled by the Brahmans of the court of Tripura. In the early history of the state, the rajas were in a state of chronic feud with all the neighbouring countries. The worship of Siva was here, as elsewhere in India, associated with the practice of human sacrifice, and in no part of India were more victims offered. It was not until the beginning of the 17th century that the Moguls obtained any footing in this country. When the East India Company obtained the _diwani_ or financial administration of Bengal in 1765, so much of Tippera as had been placed on the Mahommedan rent-roll came under British rule. Since 1808, each successive ruler has received investiture from the British government. In October 1905 the state was attached to the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It has a chronological era of its own, adopted by Raja Birraj, from whom the present raja is 93rd in descent. The year 1875 corresponded with 1285 of the Tippera era.

Besides being the ruler of Hill Tippera, the raja holds an estate in the British district of Tippera, called _chakla_ Roshnabad, which is far the most valuable of his possessions. The capital is Agartala (pop. 9513), where there is an Arts College. The raja's palace and other public buildings were seriously damaged by the earthquake of the 12th of June 1897. The late raja, who died from the result of a motor-car accident in 1909, succeeded his father in 1896, but he had taken a large share in the administration of the state for some years previously. The principle of succession, which had often caused serious disputes, was defined in 1904, to the effect that the chief may nominate any male descendant through males from himself or from any male ancestor, but failing such nomination, then the rule of primogeniture applies.

HILTON, JOHN (1804-1878), British surgeon, was born at Castle Hedingham, in Essex, in 1804. He entered Guy's Hospital in 1824. He was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in 1828, assistant-surgeon in 1845, surgeon 1849. In 1867 he was president of the Royal College of Surgeons, of which he became member in 1827 and fellow in 1843, and he also delivered the Hunterian oration in 1867. As Arris and Gale professor (1859-1862) he delivered a course of lectures on "Rest and Pain," which have become classics. He was also surgeon-extraordinary to Queen Victoria. Hilton was the greatest anatomist of his time, and was nick named "Anatomical John." It was he who, with Joseph Towne the artist, enriched Guy's Hospital with its unique collection of models. In his grasp of the structure and functions of the brain and spinal cord he was far in advance of his contemporaries. As an operator he was more cautious than brilliant. This was doubtless due partly to his living in the pre-anaesthetics period, and partly to his own consummate anatomical knowledge, as is indicated by the method for opening deep abscesses which is known by his name. But he could be bold when necessary; he was the first to reduce a case of obturator hernia by abdominal section, and one of the first to practise lumbar colostomy. He died at Clapham on the 14th of September 1878.

HILTON, WILLIAM (1786-1839), English painter, was born in Lincoln on the 3rd of June 1786, son of a portrait-painter. In 1800 he was placed with the engraver J. R. Smith, and about the same time began studying in the Royal Academy school. He first exhibited in this institution in 1803, sending a "Group of Banditti"; and he soon established a reputation for choice of subject, and qualities of design and colour superior to the great mass of his contemporaries. He made a tour in Italy with Thomas Phillips, the portrait-painter. In 1813, having exhibited "Miranda and Ferdinand with the Logs of Wood," he was elected an associate of the Academy, and in 1820 a full academician, his diploma-picture representing "Ganymede." In 1823 he produced "Christ crowned with Thorns," a large and important work, subsequently bought out of the Chantrey Fund; this may be regarded as his masterpiece. In 1827 he succeeded Henry Thomson as keeper of the Academy. He died in London on the 30th of December 1839, Some of his best pictures remained on his hands at his decease--such as the "Angel releasing Peter from Prison" (life-size), painted in 1831, "Una with the Lion entering Corceca's Cave" (1832), the "Murder of the Innocents," his last exhibited work (1838), "Comus," and "Amphitrite." The National Gallery now owns "Edith finding the Body of Harold" (1834), "Cupid Disarmed," "Rebecca and Abraham's Servant" (1829), "Nature blowing Bubbles for her Children" (1821), and "Sir Calepine rescuing Serena" (from the _Faerie Queen_) (1831). In the National Portrait Gallery is his likeness of John Keats, with whom he was acquainted. In a great school or period Hilton could not count as more than a respectable subordinate; but in the British school of the earlier part of the 19th century he had sufficient elevation of aim and width of attainment to stand conspicuous.

HILVERSUM, a town in the province of North Holland, 18 m. by rail S.E. of Amsterdam. It is connected with Amsterdam by a steam tramway, passing by way of the small fortified towns of Naarden and Muiden on the Zuider Zee. Pop. (1900) 20,238. It is situated in the middle of the Gooi, a stretch of hilly country extending from the Zuider Zee to about 5 m. south of Hilversum, and composed of pine woods and sandy heaths. A convalescent home, the Trompenberg, was established here in 1874, and there are a town hall, middle-class and technical schools, and various places of worship, including a synagogue. Hilversum manufactures large quantities of floor-cloths and horse-blankets.

HIMALAYA, the name given to the mountains which form the northern boundary of India. The word is Sanskrit and literally signifies "snow-abode," from _him_, snow, and _alaya_, abode, and might be translated "snowy-range," although that expression is perhaps more nearly the equivalent of _Himachal_, another Sanskrit word derived from _him_, snow, and _achal_, mountain, which is practically synonymous with Himalaya and is often used by natives of northern India. The name was converted by the Greeks into _Emodos_ and _Imaos_.

Modern geographers restrict the term Himalaya to that portion of the mountain region between India and Tibet enclosed within the arms of the Indus and the Brahmaputra. From the bend of the Indus southwards towards the plains of the Punjab to the bend of the Brahmaputra southwards towards the plains of Assam, through a length of 1500 m., is Himachal or Himalaya. Beyond the Indus, to the north-west, the region of mountain ranges which stretches to a junction with the Hindu Kush south of the Pamirs, is usually known as Trans-Himalaya. Thus the Himalaya represents the southern face of the great central upheaval--the plateau of Tibet--the northern face of which is buttressed by the Kuen Lun.

Structure of the Himalaya.

Throughout this vast space of elevated plateau and mountain face geologists now trace a system of main chains, or axes, extending from the Hindu Kush to Assam, arranged in approximately parallel lines, and traversed at intervals by main lines of drainage obliquely. Godwin-Austen indicates six of these geological axes as follows:

1. The main Central Asian axis, the Kuen Lun forming the northern edge or ridge of the Tibetan plateau.

2. The Trans-Himalayan chain of Muztagh (or Karakoram), which is lost in the Tibetan uplands, passing to the north of the sources of the Indus.

3. The Ladakh chain, partly north and partly south of the Indus--for that river breaks across it about 100 m. above Leh. This chain continues south of the Tsanpo (or Upper Brahmaputra), and becomes part of the Himalayan system.

4. The Zaskar, or main chain of the Himalaya, i.e. the "snowy range" _par excellence_ which is indicated by Nanga Parbat (overlooking the Indus), and passes in a south-east direction to the southern side of the Deosai plains. Thence, bending slightly south, it extends in the line of snowy peaks which are seen from Simla to the famous peaks of Gangotri and Nanda Devi. This is the best known range of the Himalaya.

5. The outer Himalaya or Pir Panjal-Dhaoladhar ridge.

6. The Sub-Himalaya, which is "easily defined by the fringing line of hills, more or less broad, and in places very distinctly marked off from the main chain by open valleys (dhuns) or narrow valleys, parallel to the main axis of the chain." These include the Siwaliks.

Interspersed between these main geological axes are many other minor ridges, on some of which are peaks of great elevation. In fact, the geological axis seldom coincides with the line of highest elevation, nor must it be confused with the main lines of water-divide of the Himalaya.

The great northern watershed of India.

On the north and north-west of Kashmir the great water-divide which separates the Indus drainage area from that of the Yarkand and other rivers of Chinese Turkestan has been explored by Sir F. Younghusband, and subsequently by H. H. P. Deasy. The general result of their investigations has been to prove that the Muztagh range, as it trends south-eastwards and finally forms a continuous mountain barrier together with the Karakoram, is the true water-divide west of the Tibetan plateau. Shutting off the sources of the Indus affluents from those of the Central Asian system of hydrography, this great water-parting is distinguished by a group of peaks of which the altitude is hardly less than that of the Eastern Himalaya. Mount Godwin-Austen (28,250 ft. high), only 750 ft. lower than Everest, affords an excellent example in Asiatic geography of a dominating, peak-crowned water-parting or divide. From Kailas on the far west to the extreme north-eastern sources of the Brahmaputra, the great northern water-parting of the Indo-Tibetan highlands has only been occasionally touched. Littledale, du Rhins and Bonvalot may have stood on it as they looked southwards towards Lhasa, but for some 500 or 600 m. east of Kailas it appears to be lost in the mazes of the minor ranges and ridges of the Tibetan plateau. Nor can it be said to be as yet well defined to the east of Lhasa.

Eastern Tibet.

The Tibetan plateau, or Chang, breaks up about the meridian of 92 deg. E., and to the east of this meridian the affluents of the Tsanpo (the same river as the Dihong and subsequently as the Brahmaputra) drain no longer from the elevated plateau, but from the rugged slopes of a wild region of mountains which assumes a systematic conformation where its successive ridges are arranged in concentric curves around the great bend of the Brahmaputra, wherein are hidden the sources of all the great rivers of Burma and China. Neither immediately beyond this great bend, nor within it in the Himalayan regions lying north of Assam and east of Bhutan, have scientific investigations yet been systematically carried out; but it is known that the largest of the Himalayan affluents of the Brahmaputra west of the bend derive their sources from the Tibetan plateau, and break down through the containing bands of hills, carrying deposits of gold from their sources to the plains, as do all the rivers of Tibet.

Himalaya north of the central chain of snowy peaks.

Although the northern limits of the Tsanpo basin are not sufficiently well known to locate the Indo-Tibetan watershed even approximately, there exists some scattered evidence of the nature of that strip of Northern Himalaya on the Tibeto-Nepalese border which lies between the line of greatest elevation and the trough of the Tsanpo. Recent investigations show that all the chief rivers of Nepal flowing southwards to the Tarai take their rise north of the line of highest crests, the "main range" of the Himalaya; and that some of them drain long lateral high-level valleys enclosed between minor ridges whose strike is parallel to the axis of the Himalaya and, occasionally, almost at right angles to the course of the main drainage channels breaking down to the plains. This formation brings the southern edge of the Tsanpo basin to the immediate neighbourhood of the banks of that river, which runs at its foot like a drain flanking a wall. It also affords material evidence of that wrinkling or folding action which accompanied the process of upheaval, when the Central Asian highlands were raised, which is more or less marked throughout the whole of the north-west Indian borderland. North of Bhutan, between the Himalayan crest and Lhasa, this formation is approximately maintained; farther east, although the same natural forces first resulted in the same effect of successive folds of the earth's crust, forming extensive curves of ridge and furrow, the abundant rainfall and the totally distinct climatic conditions which govern the processes of denudation subsequently led to the erosion of deeper valleys enclosed between forest-covered ranges which rise steeply from the river banks.

Height of Himalayan peaks.

Although suggestions have been made of the existence of higher peaks north of the Himalaya than that which dominates the Everest group, no evidence has been adduced to support such a contention. On the other hand the observations of Major Ryder and other surveyors who explored from Lhasa to the sources of the Brahmaputra and Indus, at the conclusion of the Tibetan mission in 1904, conclusively prove that Mount Everest, which appears from the Tibetan plateau as a single dominating peak, has no rival amongst Himalayan altitudes, whilst the very remarkable investigations made by permission of the Nepal durbar from peaks near Kathmandu in 1903, by Captain Wood, R.E., not only place the Everest group apart from other peaks with which they have been confused by scientists, isolating them in the topographical system of Nepal, but clearly show that there is no one dominating and continuous range indicating a main Himalayan chain which includes both Everest and Kinchinjunga. The main features of Nepalese topography are now fairly well defined. So much controversy has been aroused on the subject of Himalayan altitudes that the present position of scientific analysis in relation to them may be shortly stated. The heights of peaks determined by exact processes of trigonometrical observation are bound to be more or less in error for three reasons: (1) the extraordinary geoidal deformation of the level surface at the observing stations in submontane regions; (2) ignorance of the laws of refraction when rays traverse rarefied air in snow-covered regions; (3) ignorance of the variations in the actual height of peaks due to the increase, or decrease, of snow. The value of the heights attached to the three highest mountains in the world are, for these reasons, adjudged by Colonel S. G. Burrard, the Supt. Trigonometrical Surveys in India, to be in probable error to the following extent:

+-------------------+-----------------+---------------+ | | Present Survey | Most probable | | | Value of Height.| Value. | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+ | Mount Everest | 29,002 | 29,141 | | K2 (Godwin Austen)| 28,250 | 28,191 | | Kinchinjunga | 28,146 | 28,225 | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+

These determinations have the effect of placing Kinchinjunga second and K2 third on the list. (T. H. H.*)

_Geology._--The Himalaya have been formed by violent crumpling of the earth's crust along the southern margin of the great tableland of Central Asia. Outside the arc of the mountain chain no sign of this crumpling is to be detected except in the Salt Range, and the Peninsula of India has been entirely free from folding of any importance since early Palaeozoic times, if not since the Archean period itself. But the contrast between the Himalaya and the Peninsula is not confined to their structure: the difference in the rocks themselves is equally striking. In the Himalaya the geological sequence, from the Ordovician to the Eocene, is almost entirely marine; there are indeed occasional breaks in the series, but during nearly the whole of this long period the Himalayan region, or at least its northern part, must have been beneath the sea--the Central Mediterranean Sea of Neumayr or Tethys of Suess. In the peninsula, however, no marine fossils have yet been found of earlier date than Jurassic and Cretaceous, and these are confined to the neighbourhood of the coasts; the principal fossiliferous deposits are the plant-bearing beds of the Gondwana series, and there can be no doubt that, at least since the Carboniferous period, nearly the whole of the Peninsula has been land. Between the folded marine beds of the Himalaya and the nearly horizontal strata of the peninsula lies the Indo-Gangetic plain, covered by an enormous thickness of alluvial and wind-blown deposits of recent date. The deep boring at Lucknow passed through 1336 ft. of sands--reaching nearly to 1000 ft. below sea-level--without any sign of approaching the base of the alluvial series. It is clear, then, that in front of the Himalaya there is a great depression, but as yet there is no indication that this depression was ever beneath the sea.

In the light thrown by recent researches on the structure and origin of mountain chains the explanation of these facts is no longer difficult. From early Palaeozoic times the peninsula of India has been dry land, a part, indeed, of a great continent which in Mesozoic times extended across the Indian Ocean towards South Africa. Its northern shores were washed by the Sea of Tethys, which, at least in Jurassic and Cretaceous times, stretched across the Old World from west to east, and in this sea were laid down the marine deposits of the Himalaya. The tangential pressures which are known to be set up in the earth's crust--either by the contraction of the interior or in some other way--caused the deposits of this sea to be crushed up against the rigid granites and other old rocks of the peninsula and finally led to the whole mass being pushed forward over the edge of the part which did not crumple. The Indo-Gangetic depression was formed by the weight of the over-riding mass bending down the edge over which it rode, or else it is the lower limb of the S-shaped fold which would necessarily result if there were no fracture--the Himalaya representing the upper limb of the S.

Geologically, the Himalaya may be divided into three zones which correspond more or less with orographical divisions. The northern zone is the Tibetan, in which fossiliferous beds of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age are largely developed--excepting in the north-west no such rocks are known on the southern flanks. The second is the zone of the snowy peaks and of the lower Himalaya, and is composed chiefly of crystalline and metamorphic rocks together with unfossiliferous sedimentary beds supposed to be of Palaeozoic age. The southern zone comprises the Sub-Himalaya and consists entirely of Tertiary beds, and especially of the upper Tertiaries. The oldest beds which have hitherto yielded fossils, belong to the Ordovician system, but it is highly probable that the underlying "Haimantas" of the central Himalaya are of Cambrian age. From these beds up to the top of the Carboniferous there appears to be no break; but the Carboniferous beds were in some places eroded before the deposition of the _Productus_ shales, which belong to the Permian period. It is, however, possible that this erosion was merely local, for in other places there seems to be a complete passage from the Carboniferous to the Permian. From the Permian to the Lias the sequence in the central Himalaya shows no sign of a break, nor has any unconformity been proved between the Liassic beds and the overlying Spiti shales, which contain fossils of Middle and Upper Jurassic age. The Spiti shales are succeeded conformably by Cretaceous beds (Gieumal sandstone below and Chikkim limestone above), and these are followed without a break by Nummulitic beds of Eocene age, much disturbed and altered by intrusions of gabbro and syenite. Thus, in the Spiti area at least, there appears to have been continuous deposition of marine beds from the Permian _Productus_ shales to the Eocene Nummulitic formation. The next succeeding deposit is a sandstone, often highly inclined, which rests unconformably upon the Nummulitic beds and resembles the Lower Siwaliks of the Sub-Himalaya (Pliocene) but which as yet has yielded no fossils of any kind. The whole is overlaid unconformably by the younger Tertiaries of Hundes, which are perfectly horizontal and have been quite unaffected by any of the folds.

From the absence of any well-marked unconformity it is evident that in the northern part of the Himalayan belt, at least in the Spiti area, there can have been no post-Archaean folding of any magnitude until after the deposition of the Nummulitic beds, and that the folding was completed before the later Tertiaries of Hundes were laid down. It was, therefore, during the Miocene period that the elevation of this part of the chain began, while the disturbance of the Siwalik-like sandstone indicates that the folding continued into the Pliocene period. Along the southern flanks of the Himalaya the history of the chain is still more clearly shown. The sub-Himalaya are formed of Tertiary beds, chiefly Siwalik or upper Tertiary, while the lower Himalaya proper consist mainly of pre-Tertiary rocks without fossils. Throughout the whole length of the chain, wherever the junction of the Siwaliks with the pre-Tertiary rocks has been seen, it is a great reversed fault. West of the Blas river a similar reversed fault forms the boundary between the lower Tertiaries and the pre-Tertiary rocks of the Himalaya, while between the Sutlej and the Jumna rivers, where the lower Tertiaries help to form the lower Himalaya, the fault lies between them and the Siwaliks. The hade of the fault is constantly inwards, towards the centre of the chain, and the older rocks which form the Himalaya proper, have been pushed forward over the later beds of the sub-Himalaya. But the fault is more than an ordinary reversed fault: it was, nearly everywhere, the northern boundary of deposition of the Siwalik beds, and only in a few instances do any of the Siwalik deposits extend even to a short distance beyond it. The fault in fact was being formed during the deposition of the Siwalik beds, and as the beds were laid down, the Himalaya were pushed forward over them, the Siwaliks themselves being folded and upturned during the process. Accordingly, in some places the Siwaliks now form a continuous and conformable series from base to summit, in other places the middle beds are absent and the upper beds of the series rest upon the upturned and denuded edges of the lower beds. The Siwaliks are fluviatile and torrential deposits similar to those which are now being formed at the foot of the mountains, in the Indo-Gangetic plain; and their relations to the older rocks of the Himalaya proper were very similar to those which now exist between the deposits of the plain and the Siwaliks themselves. But the great fault just described is not the only one of this character. There is a series of such faults, approximately parallel to one another, and although they have not been traced throughout the whole chain, yet wherever they occur they seem to have formed the northern boundary of deposition of the deposits immediately to the south of them. It appears, therefore, that the Himalaya grew southwards in a series of stages. A reversed fault was formed at the foot of the chain, and upon this fault the mountains were pushed forward over the beds deposited at their base, crumpling and folding them in the process, and forming a sub-Himalayan ridge in front of the main chain. After a time a new fault originated at the foot of the sub-Himalayan zone thus raised, which now became part of the Himalaya themselves, and a new sub-Himalayan chain was formed in front of the previous one. The earthquakes of the present day show that the process is still in operation, and in time the deposits of the present Indo-Gangetic plain will be involved in the folds.

The regular form of the Himalaya, constituting an arc of a true circle, appears to indicate that the whole chain has been pushed forward as one mass upon a gigantic thrust-plane; but, if so, the dip of the plane must be low, for a line drawn along the southern foot of the Himalaya would coincide with the outcrop of a plane inclined to the surface at an angle of about 14 deg. The thrust-plane, then, does not coincide with any of the boundary faults already mentioned, which are usually inclined at angles of 50 deg. or 60 deg. The latter are due to the fact that, although, perhaps, the whole mass above the thrust-plane may move, yet the pressure which pushes it forwards necessarily proceeds from behind. The back, accordingly, moves faster than the front, and the whole is packed together; as when an ice-floe drives against the shore, the ice breaks and the outer fragments ride over those within. The great thrust-plane which is thus imagined to exist at the base of the Himalaya, corresponds with the "major thrusts" of the N.W. Highlands of Scotland, and the reversed faults which appear at the surface with the "minor thrusts." (P. La.)

Topographical results of evolution.

Such is the general outline of Himalayan evolution as now understood, and the process of it has led to certain marked features of scenery and topography. Within the area of the trans-Indus mountains we have beds of hard limestone or sandstone alternating with soft shales, which leads to the scooping out by erosion of long narrow valleys where the shales occur, and the passage of the streams through deep rifts or gorges across the hard limestone anticlinals, which stand in irregular series of parallel ridges with the eroded valleys between. The great mass of the Himalaya exhibits the same structure, due to the same conditions acting for longer periods and on a much larger scale; but the structure is varied in the eastern portions of the mountains by the effect of different climatic conditions, and especially by the greater rainfall. Instead of wide, barren, wind-swept valleys, here are found fertile alluvial plains--such as Manipur--but for the most part the erosive action of the river has been able to keep pace with the rise of the river bed, and we have deep, steep-sided valleys arranged between the same parallel system of folds as we see on the western frontier, connected by short transverse gaps where the rivers cross the folds, frequently to resume a course parallel to that originally held. An instance of this occurs where the Indus suddenly breaks through the well-defined Ladakh range in the North-west Himalaya to resume its north-westerly course after passing from the northern to the southern side of the range. The reason assigned for these extraordinary diversions of the drainage right across the general strike of the ridges is that it is antecedent--i.e. that the lines of drainage were formed ere the folds or anticlinals were raised; and that the drainage has merely maintained the course originally held, by the power of erosion during the gradual process of upheaval.

In the outer valleys of the Himalaya the sides are generally steep, so steep as to be liable to landslip, whilst the streams are still cutting down the river beds and have not yet reached the stage of equilibrium. Here and there a valley has become filled with alluvial detritus owing to some local impediment in the drainage, and when this occurs there is usually to be found a fertile and productive field for agriculture. The straits of the Jhelum, below Baramulla, probably account for the lovely vale of Kashmir, which is in form (if not in principles of construction) a repetition on grand scale of the Maidan of the Afridi Tirah, where the drainage from the slopes of a great amphitheatre of hills is collected and then arrested by the gorge which marks the outlet to the Bara.

General Himalayan formation is typical.

Other rivers besides the Indus and the Brahmaputra begin by draining a considerable area north of the snowy range--the Sutlej, the Kosi, the Gandak and the Subansiri, for example. All these rivers break through the main snowy range ere they twist their way through the southern hills to the plains of India. Here the "antecedent" theory will not suffice, for there is no sufficient catchment area north of the snows to support it. Their formation is explained by a process of "cutting back," by which the heads of these streams are gradually eating their way northwards owing to the greater rainfall on the southern than on the northern slopes. The result of this process is well exhibited in the relative steepness of slope on the Indian and Tibetan sides of the passes to the Indus plateau. On the southern or Indian side the routes to Tibet and Ladakh follow the levels of Himalayan valleys with no remarkably steep gradients till they near the approach to the water-divide. The slope then steepens with the ascending curve to the summit of the pass, from which point it falls with a comparatively gentle gradient to the general level of the plateau. The Zoji La, the Kashmir water-divide between the Jhelum and the Indus, is a prominent case in point, and all the passes from the Kumaon and Garhwal hills into Tibet exhibit this formation in a marked degree. Taking the average elevation of the central axial line of snowy peaks as 19,000 ft., the average height of the passes is not more than 10,000 owing to this process of cutting down by erosion and gradual encroachment into the northern basin.

_Meteorology._--Independently of the enormous variety of topographical conformation contained in the Himalayan system, the vast altitude of the mountains alone is sufficient to cause modifications of climate in ascending over their slopes such as are not surpassed by those observed in moving from the equator to the poles. One half of the total mass of the atmosphere and three-fourths of the water suspended in it in the form of vapour lie below the average altitude of the Himalaya; and of the residue, one-half of the air and virtually almost all the vapour come within the influence of the highest peaks. The regular variations in pressure of the air indicated by the barometer and the annual and diurnal oscillations are as well marked in the Himalaya as elsewhere, but the amount of vapour held in suspension diminishes so rapidly with the altitude that not more than one-sixth (sometimes only one-tenth) of that observed at the foot of the mountains is found at the greatest heights. This is dependent on the temperature of the air which rapidly decreases with altitude. On the mountains every altitude has its corresponding temperature, an elevation of 1000 ft. producing a fall of 3(1/2) deg., or about 1 deg. to each 300 ft. The mean winter temperature at 7000 ft. (which is about the average height of Himalayan "hill stations") is 44 deg. F. and the summer mean about 65 deg. F. At 9000 ft. the mean temperature of the coldest month is 32 deg. F. At 12,000 ft. the thermometer never falls below freezing-point from the end of May to the middle of October, and at 15,000 ft. it is seldom above that point even in the height of summer. It should be noted that the thermometrical conditions of Tibet vary considerably from those of the Himalaya. At 12,000 ft. in Tibet the mean of the hottest month is about 60 deg. F. and of the coldest about 10 deg. F. whilst, at 15,000 ft. the frost is only permanent from the end of October to the end of April. The distribution of vegetation and topographical conformation largely influence the question of local temperature. For instance it may be found that the difference of temperature between forest-clad ranges and the Indian plains is twice as much in April and May as in December or January; and the difference between the temperature of a well-wooded hill top and the open valley below may vary from 9 deg. to 24 deg. within twenty-four hours. The general relations of temperature to altitude as determined by Himalayan observations are as follows: (1) The decrease of temperature with altitude is most rapid in summer. (2) The annual range diminishes with the elevation. (3) The diurnal range diminishes with the elevation. Comparisons are, however, apt to become anomalous when applied to elevated zones with a dense covering of forest and a great quantity of cloud and open and uncloudy regions both above and below the forest-clad tracts.

Rainfall.

The chief rainfall occurs in the summer months between May and October (i.e. the period of the monsoon rains of India), the remainder of the year being comparatively dry. The fall of rain over the great plain of northern India gradually diminishes in quantity, and begins later, as we pass from east to west. At the same time the rain is heavier as we approach the Himalaya and the greatest falls are measured in its outer ranges; but the quantity again diminishes as we pass onward across the chain, and on arriving at the border of Tibet, behind the great line of snowy peaks, the rain falls in such small quantities as to be hardly susceptible of measurement. Diurnal currents of wind, which are established from the plains to the mountains during the day, and from the hills to the plains during the night, are important agents in distributing the rainfall. The condensation of vapour from the ascending currents and their gradual exhaustion as they are precipitated on successive ranges is very obvious in the cloud effects produced during the monsoon, the southern or windward face of each range being clothed day after day with a white crest of cloud whilst the northern slopes are often left entirely free. This shows how large a proportion of the vapour is arrested and how it is that only by drifting through the deeper gorges can any moisture find its way to the Tibetan table-land.

The yearly rainfall, which amounts to between 60 and 70 in. in the delta of the Ganges, is reduced to about 40 in. when that river issues from the mountains, and diminishes to 30 in. at the debouchment of the Indus into the plains. At Darjeeling (7000 ft. altitude) on the outer ranges of the eastern Himalaya it amounts to about 120 in. At Naini Tal north of the United Provinces it is about 90 in.; at Simla about 80 in., diminishing still further as one approaches the north-western hills. All these stations are about the same altitude.

Snowfall.

In the eastern Himalaya the ordinary winter limit of snow is 6000 ft. and it never lies for many days even at 7000 ft. In Kumaon, on the west, it usually reaches down to the 5000 ft. level and occasionally to 2500 ft. Snow has been known to fall at Peshawar. At Leh, in western Tibet, hardly 2 ft. of snow are usually registered and the fall on the passes between 17,000 and 19,000 ft. is not generally more than 3 ft., but on the Himalayan passes farther east the falls are much heavier. Even in September these passes may be quite blocked and they are not usually open till the middle of June. The snow-line, or the level to which snow recedes in the course of the year, ranges from 15,000 to 16,000 ft. on the southern exposures of the Himalaya that carry perpetual snow, along all that part of the system that lies between Sikkim and the Indus. It is not till December that the snow begins to descend for the winter, although after September light falls occur which cover the mountain sides down to 12,000 ft., but these soon disappear. On the snowy range the snow-line is not lower than 18,500 ft. and on the summit of the table-land it reaches to 20,000 ft. On all the passes into Tibet vegetation reaches to about 17,500 ft., and in August they may be crossed in ordinary years up to 18,400 ft. without finding any snow upon them; and it is as impossible to find snow in the summer in Tibet at 15,500 ft. above the sea as on the plains of India.

_Glaciers._--The level to which the Himalayan glaciers extend is greatly dependent on local conditions, principally the extent and elevation of the snow basins which feed them, and the slope and position of the mountain on which they are formed. Glaciers on the outer slopes of the Himalaya descend much lower than is commonly the case in Tibet, or in the most elevated valleys near the snowy range. The glaciers of Sikkim and the eastern mountains are believed not to reach a lower level than 13,500 or 14,000 ft. In Kumaon many of them descend to between 11,500 and 12,500 ft. In the higher valleys and Tibet 15,000 and 16,000 ft. is the ordinary level at which they end, but there are exceptions which descend far lower. In Europe the glaciers descend between 3000 and 5000 ft. below the snow-line, and in the Himalaya and Tibet about the same holds good. The summer temperatures of the points where the glaciers end on the Himalaya also correspond fairly with those of the corresponding positions in European glaciers, viz. for July a little below 60 deg. F., August 58 deg. and September 55 deg.

Measurements of the movement of Himalayan glaciers give results according closely with those obtained under analogous conditions in the Alps, viz. rates from 9(1/2) to 14(1/4) in. in twenty-four hours. The motion of one glacier from the middle of May to the middle of October averaged 8 in. in the twenty-four hours. The dimensions of the glaciers on the outer Himalaya, where, as before remarked, the valleys descend rapidly to lower levels, are fairly comparable with those of Alpine glaciers, though frequently much exceeding them in length--8 or 10 m. not being unusual. In the elevated valleys of northern Tibet, where the destructive action of the summer heat is far less, the development of the glaciers is enormous. At one locality in north-western Ladakh there is a continuous mass of snow and ice extending across a snowy ridge, measuring 64 m. between the extremities of the two glaciers at its opposite ends. Another single glacier has been surveyed 36 m. long.

The northern tributaries of the Gilgit river, which joins the Indus near its south-westerly bend towards the Punjab, take their rise from a glacier system which is probably unequalled in the world for its extent and magnificent proportions. Chief amongst them are the glaciers which have formed on the southern slopes of the Muztagh mountains below the group of gigantic peaks dominated by Mount Godwin-Austen (28,250 ft. high). The Biafo glacier system, which lies in a long narrow trough extending south-west from Nagar on the Hunza to near the base of the Muztagh peaks, may be traced for 90 m. between mountain walls which tower to a height of from 20,000 to 25,000 ft. above sea-level on either side.

In connexion with almost all the Himalayan glaciers of which precise accounts are forthcoming are ancient moraines indicating some previous condition in which their extent was much larger than now. In the east these moraines are very remarkable, extending 8 or 10 m. In the west they seem not to go beyond 2 or 3 m. reach. They have been observed on the summit of the table-land as well as on the Himalayan slope. The explanation suggested to account for the former great extension of glaciers in Norway would seem applicable here. Any modification of the coast-line which should submerge the area now occupied by the North Indian plain, or any considerable part of it, would be accompanied by a much wetter and more equable climate on the Himalaya; more snow would fall on the highest ranges, and less summer heat would be brought to bear on the destruction of the glaciers, which would receive larger supplies and descend lower.

_Botany._--Speaking broadly, the general type of the flora of the lower, hotter and wetter regions, which extend along the great plain at the foot of the Himalaya, and include the valleys of the larger rivers which penetrate far into the mountains, does not differ from that of the contiguous peninsula and islands, though the tropical and insular character gradually becomes less marked going from east to west, where, with a greater elevation and distance from the sea and higher latitude, the rainfall and humidity diminish and the winter cold increases. The vegetation of the western part of the plain and of the hottest zone of the western mountains thus becomes closely allied to, or almost identical with, that of the drier parts of the Indian peninsula, more especially of its hilly portions; and, while a general tropical character is preserved, forms are observed which indicate the addition of an Afghan as well as of an African element, of which last the gay lily _Gloriosa superba_ is an example, pointing to some previous connexion with Africa.

The European flora, which is diffused from the Mediterranean along the high lands of Asia, extends to the Himalaya; many European species reach the central parts of the chain, though few reach its eastern end, while genera common to Europe and the Himalaya are abundant throughout and at all elevations. From the opposite quarter an influx of Japanese and Chinese forms, such as the rhododendrons, the tea plant, _Aucuba_, _Helwingia_, _Skimmia_, _Adamia_, _Goughia_ and others, has taken place, these being more numerous in the east and gradually disappearing in the west. On the higher and therefore cooler and less rainy ranges of the Himalaya the conditions of temperature requisite for the preservation of the various species are readily found by ascending or descending the mountain slopes, and therefore a greater uniformity of character in the vegetation is maintained along the whole chain. At the greater elevations the species identical with those of Europe become more frequent, and in the alpine regions many plants are found identical with species of the Arctic zone. On the Tibetan plateau, with the increased dryness, a Siberian type is established, with many true Siberian species and more genera; and some of the Siberian forms are further disseminated, even to the plains of Upper India. The total absence of a few of the more common forms of northern Europe and Asia should also be noticed, among which may be named _Tilia_, _Fagus_, _Arbutus_, _Erica_, _Azalea_ and _Cistacae_.

In the more humid regions of the east the mountains are almost everywhere covered with a dense forest which reaches up to 12,000 or 13,000 ft. Many tropical types here ascend to 7000 ft. or more. To the west the upper limit of forest is somewhat lower, from 11,500 to 12,000 ft. and the tropical forms usually cease at 5000 ft.

In Sikkim the mountains are covered with dense forest of tall umbrageous trees, commonly accompanied by a luxuriant growth of under shrubs, and adorned with climbing and epiphytal plants in wonderful profusion. In the tropical zone large figs abound, _Terminalia_, _Shorea_ (sal), laurels, many _Leguminosae_, _Bombax_, _Artocarpus_, bamboos and several palms, among which species of Calamus are remarkable, climbing over the largest trees; and this is the western limit of _Cycas_ and _Myristica_ (nutmeg). Plantains ascend to 7000 ft. _Pandanus_ and tree-ferns abound. Other ferns, _Scitamineae_, orchids and climbing _Aroideae_ are very numerous, the last named profusely adorning the forests with their splendid dark-green foliage. Various oaks descend within a few hundred feet of the sea-level, increasing in numbers at greater altitudes, and becoming very frequent at 4000 ft., at which elevation also appear _Aucuba_, _Magnolia_, cherries, _Pyrus_, maple, alder and birch, with many _Araliaceae_, _Hollbollea_, _Skimmia_, _Daphne_, _Myrsine_, _Symplocos_ and _Rubus_. Rhododendrons begin at about 6000 ft. and become abundant at 8000 ft., from 10,000 to 14,000 ft. forming in many places the mass of the shrubby vegetation which extends some 2000 ft. above the forest. Epiphytal orchids are extremely numerous between 6000 and 8000 ft. Of the Coniferae, _Podocarpus_ and _Pinus longifolia_ alone descend to the tropical zone; _Abies Brunoniana_ and _Smithiana_ and the larch (a genus not seen in the western mountains) are found at 8000, and the yew and _Picea Webbiana_ at 10,000 ft. _Pinus excelsa_, which occurs in Bhutan, is absent in the wetter climate of Sikkim.

On the drier and higher mountains of the interior of the chain, the forests become more open, and are spread less uniformly over the hill-sides, a luxuriant herbaceous vegetation appears, and the number of shrubby _Leguminosae_, such as _Desmodium_ and _Indigofera_, increases, as well as _Ranunculaceae_, _Rosaceae_, _Umbelliferae_, _Labiatae_, _Gramineae_, _Cyperaceae_ and other European genera.

Passing to the westward, and viewing the flora of Kumaon, which province holds a central position on the chain, on the 80th meridian, we find that the gradual decrease of moisture and increase of high summer heat are accompanied by a marked change of the vegetation. The tropical forest is characterized by the trees of the hotter and drier parts of southern India, combined with a few of European type. Ferns are more rare, and the tree-ferns have disappeared. The species of palm are also reduced to two or three, and bamboos, though abundant, are confined to a few species.

The outer ranges of mountains are mainly covered with forests of _Pinus longifolia_, rhododendron, oak and _Pieris_. At Naini Tal cypress is abundant. The shrubby vegetation comprises _Rosa_, _Rubus_, _Indigofera_, _Desmodium_, _Berberis_, _Boehmeria_, _Viburnum_, _Clematis_, with an _Arundinaria_. Of herbaceous plants species of _Ranunculus_, _Potentilla_, _Geranium_, _Thalictrum_, _Primula_, _Gentiana_ and many other European forms are common. In the less exposed localities, on northern slopes and sheltered valleys, the European forms become more numerous, and we find species of alder, birch, ash, elm, maple, holly, hornbeam, _Pyrus_, &c. At greater elevations in the interior, besides the above are met _Corylus_, the common walnut, found wild throughout the range, horse chestnut, yew, also _Picea Webbiana_, _Pinus excelsa_, _Abies Smithiana_, _Cedrus Deodara_ (which tree does not grow spontaneously east of Kumaon), and several junipers. The denser forests are commonly found on the northern faces of the higher ranges, or in the deeper valleys, between 8000 and 10,500 ft. The woods on the outer ranges from 3000 up to 7000 ft. are more open, and consist mainly of evergreen trees.

The herbaceous vegetation does not differ greatly, generically, from that of the east, and many species of _Primulaceae_, _Ranunculaceae_, _Cruciferae_, _Labiatae_ and _Scrophulariaceae_ occur; balsams abound, also beautiful forms of _Campanulaceae_, _Gentiana_, _Meconopsis_, _Saxifraga_ and many others.

Cultivation hardly extends above 7000 ft., except in the valleys behind the great snowy peaks, where a few fields of buckwheat and Tibetan barley are sown up to 11,000 or 12,000 ft. At the lower elevations rice, maize and millets are common, wheat and barley at a somewhat higher level, and buckwheat and amaranth usually on the poorer lands, or those recently reclaimed from forest. Besides these, most of the ordinary vegetables of the plains are reared, and potatoes have been introduced in the neighbourhood of all the British stations.

As we pass to the west the species of rhododendron, oak and _Magnolia_ are much reduced in number as compared to the eastern region, and both the Malayan and Japanese forms are much less common. The herbaceous tropical and semi-tropical vegetation likewise by degrees disappears, the _Scitamineae_, epiphytal and terrestrial _Orchideae_, _Araceae_, _Cyrtandraceae_ and _Begoniae_ only occur in small numbers in Kumaon, and scarcely extend west of the Sutlej. In like manner several of the western forms suited to drier climates find their eastern limit in Kumaon. In Kashmir the plane and Lombardy poplar flourish, though hardly seen farther east, the cherry is cultivated in orchards, and the vegetation presents an eminently European cast. The alpine flora is slower in changing its character as we pass from east to west, but in Kashmir the vegetation of the higher mountains hardly differs from that of the mountains of Afghanistan, Persia and Siberia, even in species.

The total number of flowering plants inhabiting the range amounts probably to 5000 or 6000 species, among which may be reckoned several hundred common English plants chiefly from the temperate and alpine regions; and the characteristic of the flora as a whole is that it contains a general and tolerably complete illustration of almost all the chief natural families of all parts of the world, and has comparatively few distinctive features of its own.

The timber trees of the Himalaya are very numerous, but few of them are known to be of much value. The "Sal" is one of the most valuable of the trees; with the "Toon" and "Sissoo," it grows in the outer ranges most accessible from the plains. The "Deodar" is also much used, but the other pines produce timber that is not durable. Bamboos grow everywhere along the outer ranges, and rattans to the eastward, and are largely exported for use in the plains of India.

Though one species of coffee is indigenous in the hotter Himalayan forests, the climate does not appear suitable for the growth of the plant which supplies the coffee of commerce. The cultivation of tea, however, is carried on successfully on a large scale, both in the east and west of the mountains. In the western Himalaya the cultivated variety of the tea plant of China succeeds well; on the east the indigenous tea of Assam, which is not specifically different, and is perhaps the original parent of the Chinese variety, is now almost everywhere preferred. The produce of the Chinese variety in the hot and wet climate of the eastern Himalaya, Assam and eastern Bengal is neither so abundant nor so highly flavoured as that of the indigenous plant.

The cultivation of the cinchona, several species of which have been introduced from South America and naturalized in the Sikkim Himalaya, promises to yield at a comparatively small cost an ample supply of the febrifuge extracted from its bark. At present the manufacture is almost wholly in the hands of the Government, and the drug prepared is all disposed of in India.

_Zoology._--The general distribution of animal life is determined by much the same conditions that have controlled the vegetation. The connexion with Europe on the north-west, with China on the north-east, with Africa on the south-west, and with the Malayan region on the south-east is manifest; and the greater or less prevalence of the European and Eastern forms varies according to more western or eastern position on the chain. So far as is known these remarks will apply to the extinct as well as to the existing fauna. The Palaeozoic forms found in the Himalaya are very close to those of Europe, and in some cases identical. The Triassic fossils are still more closely allied, more than a third of the species being identical. Among the Jurassic Mollusca, also, are many species that are common in Europe. The Siwalik fossils contain 84 species of mammals of 45 genera, the whole bearing a marked resemblance to the Miocene fauna of Europe, but containing a larger number of genera still existing, especially of ruminants, and now held to be of Pliocene age.

The fauna of the Tibetan Himalaya is essentially European or rather that of the northern half of the old continent, which region has by zoologists been termed Palaearctic. Among the characteristic animals may be named the yak, from which is reared a cross breed with the ordinary horned cattle of India, many wild sheep, and two antelopes, as well as the musk-deer; several hares and some burrowing animals, including pikas (_Lagomys_) and two or three species of marmot; certain arctic forms of carnivora--fox, wolf, lynx, ounce, marten and ermine; also wild asses. Among birds are found bustard and species of sand-grouse and partridge; water-fowl in great variety, which breed on the lakes in summer and migrate to the plains of India in winter; the raven, hawks, eagles and owls, a magpie, and two kinds of chough; and many smaller birds of the passerine order, amongst which are several finches. Reptiles, as might be anticipated, are far from numerous, but a few lizards are found, belonging for the most part to types, such as _Phrynocephalus_, characteristic of the Central-Asiatic area. The fishes from the headwaters of the Indus also belong, for the most part, to Central-Asiatic types, with a small admixture of purely Himalayan forms. Amongst the former are several peculiar small-scaled carps, belonging to the genus _Schizothorax_ and its allies.

The ranges of the Himalaya, from the border of Tibet to the plains, form a zoological region which is one of the richest of the world, particularly in respect to birds, to which the forest-clad mountains offer almost every range of temperature.

Only two or three forms of monkey enter the mountains, the langur, a species of _Semnopithecus_, ranging up to 12,000 ft. No lemurs occur, although a species is found in Assam, and another in southern India. Bats are numerous, but the species are for the most part not peculiar to the area; several European forms are found at the higher elevations. Moles, which are unknown in the Indian peninsula, abound in the forest regions of the eastern Himalayas at a moderate altitude, and shrews of several species are found almost everywhere; amongst them are two very remarkable forms of water-shrew, one of which, however, _Nectogale_, is probably Tibetan rather than Himalayan. Bears are common, and so are a marten, several weasels and otters, and cats of various kinds and sizes, from the little spotted _Felis bengalensis_, smaller than a domestic cat, to animals like the clouded leopard rivalling a leopard in size. Leopards are common, and the tiger wanders to a considerable elevation, but can hardly be considered a permanent inhabitant, except in the lower valleys. Civets, the mungoose (_Herpestes_), and toddy cats (_Paradoxurus_) are only found at the lower elevations. Wild dogs (_Cyon_) are common, but neither foxes nor wolves occur in the forest area. Besides these carnivora some very peculiar forms are found, the most remarkable of which is Aelurus, sometimes called the cat-bear, a type akin to the American racoon. Two other genera, _Helictis_, an aberrant badger, and linsang, an aberrant civet, are representatives of Malayan types. Amongst the rodents squirrels abound, and the so-called flying squirrels are represented by several species. Rats and mice swarm, both kinds and individuals being numerous, but few present much peculiarity, a bamboo rat (_Rhizomys_) from the base of the eastern Himalaya being perhaps most worthy of notice. Two or three species of vole (_Arvicola_) have been detected, and porcupines are common. The elephant is found in the outer forests as far as the Jumna, and the rhinoceros as far as the Sarda; the spread of both of these animals as far as the Indus and into the plains of India, far beyond their present limits, is authenticated by historical records; they have probably retreated before the advance of cultivation and fire-arms. Wild pigs are common in the lower ranges, and one peculiar species of pigmy-hog (_Sus salvanius_) of very small size inhabits the forests at the base of the mountains in Nepal and Sikim. Deer of several kinds are met with, but do not ascend very high on the hillsides, and belong exclusively to Indian forms. The musk deer keeps to the greater elevations. The chevrotains of India and the Malay countries are unrepresented. The gaur or wild ox is found at the base of the hills. Three very characteristic ruminants, having some affinities with goats, inhabit the Himalaya; these are the "serow" (_Nemorhaedus_), "goral" (_Cemas_) and "tahr" (_Hemitragus_), the last-named ranging to rather high elevations. Lastly, the pangolin (_Manis_) is represented by two species in the eastern Himalaya. A dolphin (_Platanista_) living in the Ganges ascends that river and its affluents to their issue from the mountains.

Almost all the orders of birds are well represented, and the marvellous variety of forms found in the eastern Himalaya is only rivalled in Central and South America. Eagles, vultures and other birds of prey are seen soaring high over the highest of the forest-clad ranges. Owls are numerous, and a small species, _Glaucidium_, is conspicuous, breaking the stillness of the night by its monotonous though musical cry of two notes. Several kinds of swifts and nightjars are found, and gorgeously-coloured trogons, bee-eaters, rollers, and beautiful kingfishers and barbets are common. Several large hornbills inhabit the highest trees in the forest. The parrots are restricted to parrakeets, of which there are several species, and a single small lory. The number of woodpeckers is very great and the variety of plumage remarkable, and the voice of the cuckoo, of which there are numerous species, resounds in the spring as in Europe. The number of passerine birds is immense. Amongst them the sun-birds resemble in appearance and almost rival in beauty the humming-birds of the New Continent. Creepers, nuthatches, shrikes, and their allied forms, flycatchers and swallows, thrushes, dippers and babblers (about fifty species), bulbuls and orioles, peculiar types of redstart, various sylviads, wrens, tits, crows, jays and magpies, weaver-birds, avadavats, sparrows, crossbills and many finches, including the exquisitely coloured rose-finches, may also be mentioned. The pigeons are represented by several wood-pigeons, doves and green pigeons. The gallinaceous birds include the peacock, which everywhere adorns the forest bordering on the plains, jungle fowl and several pheasants; partridges, of which the chikor may be named as most abundant, and snow-pheasants and partridges, found only at the greatest elevations. Waders and waterfowl are far less abundant, and those occurring are nearly all migratory forms which visit the peninsula of India--the only important exception being two kinds of solitary snipe and the red-billed curlew.

Of the reptiles found in these mountains many are peculiar. Some of the snakes of India are to be seen in the hotter regions, including the python and some of the venomous species, the cobra being found as high up as 8000 or 9000 ft., though not common. Lizards are numerous, and as well as frogs are found at all elevations from the plains to the upper Himalayan valleys, and even extend to Tibet.

The fishes found in the rivers of the Himalaya show the same general connexion with the three neighbouring regions, the Palaearctic, the African and the Malayan. Of the principal families, the _Acanthopterygii_, which are abundant in the hotter parts of India, hardly enter the mountains, two genera only being found, of which one is the peculiar amphibious genus _Ophiocephalus_. None of these fishes are found in Tibet. The _Siluridae_, or scaleless fishes, and the _Cyprinidae_, or carp and loach, form the bulk of the mountain fish, and the genera and species appear to be organized for a mountain-torrent life, being almost all furnished with suckers to enable them to maintain their positions in the rapid streams which they inhabit. A few _Siluridae_ have been found in Tibet, but the carps constitute the larger part of the species. Many of the Himalayan forms are Indian fish which appear to go up to the higher streams to deposit their ova, and the Tibetan species as a rule are confined to the rivers on the table-land or to the streams at the greatest elevations, the characteristics of which are Tibetan rather than Himalayan. The _Salmonidae_ are entirely absent from the waters of the Himalaya proper, of Tibet and of Turkestan east of the Terektag.

The Himalayan butterflies are very numerous and brilliant, for the most part belonging to groups that extend both into the Malayan and European regions, while African forms also appear. There are large and gorgeous species of _Papilio_, _Nymphalidae_, _Morphidae_ and _Danaidae_, and the more favoured localities are described as being only second to South America in the display of this form of beauty and variety in insect life. Moths, also, of strange forms and of great size are common. The cicada's song resounds among the woods in the autumn; flights of locusts frequently appear after the summer, and they are carried by the prevailing winds even among the glaciers and eternal snows. Ants, bees and wasps of many species, and flies and gnats abound, particularly during the summer rainy season, and at all elevations.

_Mountain Scenery._--Much has been written about the impressiveness of Himalayan scenery. It is but lately, however, that any adequate conception of the magnitude and majesty of the most stupendous of the mountain groups which mass themselves about the upper tributaries and reaches of the Indus has been presented to us in the works of Sir F. Younghusband, Sir W. M. Conway, H. C. B. Tanner and D. Freshfield. It is not in comparison with the picturesque beauty of European Alpine scenery that the Himalaya appeals to the imagination, for amongst the hills of the outer Himalaya--the hills which are known to the majority of European residents and visitors--there is often a striking absence of those varied incidents and sharp contrasts which are essential to picturesqueness in mountain landscape. Too often the brown, barren, sun-scorched ridges are obscured in the yellow dust haze which drifts upwards from the plains; too often the whole perspective of hill and vale is blotted out in the grey mists that sweep in soft, resistless columns against these southern slopes, to be condensed and precipitated in ceaseless, monotonous rainfall. Few Europeans really see the Himalaya; fewer still are capable of translating their impressions into language which is neither exaggerated nor inadequate.

Some idea of the magnitude of Himalayan mountain construction--a magnitude which the eye totally fails to appreciate--may, however, be gathered from the following table of comparison of the absolute height of some peaks above sea-level with the actual amount of their slopes exposed to view:--

_Relative Extent of Snow Slopes Visible._

+---------------------+----------------------+--------+----------+ | | | Height | Amount | | Name of Mountain. | Place of Observation.| above | of Slope | | | | sea. | exposed. | +---------------------+----------------------+--------+----------+ | Everest | Dewanganj | 29,002 | 8,000 | | " | Sandakphu | " | 12,000 | | K2 or Godwin-Austen | Between Gilgit and | | | | | Gor, 16,000 ft. | 28,250 | | | Pk. XIII. or Makalu | Purnea, 200 ft | 27,800 | 8,000 | | | Sandakphu, 12,000 ft.| " | 9,000 | | Nanga Parbat | Gor, 16,000 ft. | 26,656 | 23,000 | | Tirach Mir | Between Gilgit and | | | | | Chitral, 8000 ft. | 25,400 |17-18,000 | | Rakapushi | Chaprot (Gilgit), | | | | | 13,000 ft. | 25,560 | 18,000 | | Kinchinjunga | Darjeeling, 7000 ft. | 28,146 | 16,000 | | Mont Blanc | Above Chamonix, 7000 | | | | | ft. | 15,781 | 11,500 | +---------------------+----------------------+--------+----------+

It will be observed from this table that it is not often that a greater slope of snow-covered mountain side is observable in the Himalaya than that which is afforded by the familiar view of Mont Blanc from Chamonix. (T. H. H.*)

AUTHORITIES.--Drew, _Jammu and Kashmir_ (London, 1875); G. W. Leitner, _Dardistan_ (1887); J. Biddulph, _Tribes of the Hindu Kush_ (Calcutta, 1880); H. H. Godwin-Austen, "Mountain Systems of the Himalaya," vols. v. and vi. _Proc. R. G. S._ (1883-1884); C. Ujfalvy, _Aus dem westlichen Himalaya_ (Leipzig, 1884); H. C. B. Tanner, "Our Present Knowledge of the Himalaya," vol. xiii. _Proc. R. G. S._ (1891); R. D. Oldham, "The Evolution of Indian Geography," vol. iii. _Jour. R. G. S._; W. Lawrence, _Kashmir_ (Oxford, 1895); Sir W. M. Conway, _Climbing and Exploring in the Karakoram_ (London, 1898); F. Bullock Workman, _In the Ice World of Himalaya_ (1900); F. B. and W. H. Workman, _Ice-bound Heights of the Mustagh_ (1908); D. W. Freshfield, _Round Kangchenjunga_ (1903).

For geology see R. Lydekker, "The Geology of Kashmir," &c., _Mem. Geol. Surv. India_, vol. xxii. (1883); C. S. Middlemiss, "Physical Geology of the Sub-Himalaya of Gahrwal and Kumaon," ibid., vol. xxiv. pt. 2 (1890); C. L. Griesbach, _Geology of the Central Himalayas_, vol. xxiii. (1891); R. D. Oldham, _Manual of the Geology of India_, chap. xviii. (2nd ed., 1893). Descriptions of the fossils, with some notes on stratigraphical questions, will be found in several of the volumes of the _Palaeontologia Indica_, published by the Geological Survey of India, Calcutta.

HIMERA, a city on the north coast of Sicily, on a hill above the east bank of the Himeras Septentrionalis. It was founded in 648 B.C. by the Chalcidian inhabitants of Zancle, in company with many Syracusan exiles. Early in the 5th century the tyrant Terillas, son-in-law of Anaxilas of Rhegium and Zancle, appealed to the Carthaginians, who came to his assistance, but were utterly defeated by Gelon of Syracuse in 480 B.C.--on the same day, it is said, as the battle of Salamis. Thrasydaeus, son of Theron of Agrigentum, seems to have ruled the city oppressively, but an appeal made to Hiero of Syracuse, Gelon's brother, was betrayed by him to Theron; the latter massacred all his enemies and in the following year resettled the town. In 415 it refused to admit the Athenian fleet and remained an ally of Syracuse. In 408 the Carthaginian invading army under Hannibal, after capturing Selinus, invested and took Himera and razed the city to the ground, founding a new town close to the hot springs (Thermae Himeraeae), 8 m. to the west. The only relic of the ancient town now visible above ground is a small portion (four columns, lower diameter 7 ft.) of a Doric temple, the date of which (whether before or after 480 B.C.) is uncertain.

HIMERIUS (c. A.D. 315-386), Greek sophist and rhetorician, was born at Prusa in Bithynia. He completed his education at Athens, whence he was summoned to Antioch in 362 by the emperor Julian to act as his private secretary. After the death of Julian in the following year Himerius returned to Athens, where he established a school of rhetoric, which he compared with that of Isocrates and the Delphic oracle, owing to the number of those who flocked from all parts of the world to hear him. Amongst his pupils were Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea. In recognition of his merits, civic rights and the membership of the Areopagus were conferred upon him. The death of his son Rufinus (his lament for whom, called [Greek: monodia], is extant) and that of a favourite daughter greatly affected his health; in his later years he became blind and he died of epilepsy. Although a heathen, who had been initiated into the mysteries of Mithra by Julian, he shows no prejudice against the Christians. Himerius is a typical representative of the later rhetorical schools. Photius (cod. 165, 243 Bekker) had read 71 speeches by him, of 36 of which he has given an epitome; 24 have come down to us complete and fragments of 10 or 12 others. They consist of epideictic or "display" speeches after the style of Aristides, the majority of them having been delivered on special occasions, such as the arrival of a new governor, visits to different cities (Thessalonica, Constantinople), or the death of friends or well-known personages. The _Polemarchicus_, like the _Menexenus_ of Plato and the _Epitaphios Logos_ of Hypereides, is a panegyric of those who had given their lives for their country; it is so called because it was originally the duty of the polemarch to arrange the funeral games in honour of those who had fallen in battle. Other declamations, only known from the excerpts in Photius, were imaginary orations put into the mouth of famous persons--Demosthenes advocating the recall of Aeschines from banishment, Hypereides supporting the policy of Demosthenes, Themistocles inveighing against the king of Persia, an orator unnamed attacking Epicurus for atheism before Julian at Constantinople. Himerius is more of a poet than a rhetorician, and his declamations are valuable as giving prose versions or even the actual words of lost poems by Greek lyric writers. The prose poem on the marriage of Severus and his greeting to Basil at the beginning of spring are quite in the spirit of the old lyric. Himerius possesses vigour of language and descriptive powers, though his productions are spoilt by too frequent use of imagery, allegorical and metaphorical obscurities, mannerism and ostentatious learning. But they are valuable for the history and social conditions of the time, although lacking the sincerity characteristic of Libanius.

See Eunapius, _Vitae sophistarum_; Suidas, _s.v._; editions by G. Wernsdorf (1790), with valuable introduction and commentaries, and by F. Dubner (1849) in the Didot series; C. Teuber, _Quaestiones Himerianae_ (Breslau, 1882); on the style, E. Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_ (1898).

HIMLY (LOUIS), AUGUSTE (1823-1906), French historian and geographer, was born at Strassburg on the 28th of March 1823. After studying in his native town and taking the university course in Berlin (1842-1843) he went to Paris, and passed first in the examination for fellowship (_agregation_) of the _lycees_ (1845), first in the examinations on leaving the Ecole des Chartes, and first in the examination for fellowship of the faculties (1849). In 1849 he took the degree of doctor of letters with two theses, one of which, _Wala et Louis le Debonnaire_ (published in Paris in 1849), placed him in the front rank of French scholars in the province of Carolingian history. Soon, however, he turned his attention to the study of geography. In 1858 he obtained an appointment as teacher of geography at the Sorbonne, and henceforth devoted himself to that subject. It was not till 1876 that he published, in two volumes, his remarkable _Histoire de la formation territoriale des etats de l'Europe centrale_, in which he showed with a firm, but sometimes slightly heavy touch, the reciprocal influence exerted by geography and history. While the work gives evidence throughout of wide and well-directed research, he preferred to write it in the form of a student's manual; but it was a manual so original that it gained him admission to the Institute in 1881. In that year he was appointed dean of the faculty of letters, and for ten years he directed the intellectual life of that great educational centre during its development into a great scientific body. He died at Sevres on the 6th of October 1906.

HIMMEL, FREDERICK HENRY (1765-1814), German composer, was born on the 20th of November 1765 at Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg, Prussia, and originally studied theology at Halle. During a temporary stay at Potsdam he had an opportunity of showing his self-acquired skill as a pianist before King Frederick William II., who thereupon made him a yearly allowance to enable him to complete his musical studies. This he did under Naumann, a German composer of the Italian school, and the style of that school Himmel himself adopted in his serious operas. The first of these, a pastoral opera, _Il Primo Navigatore_, was produced at Venice in 1794 with great success. In 1792 he went to Berlin, where his oratorio _Isaaco_ was produced, in consequence of which he was made court Kapellmeister to the king of Prussia, and in that capacity wrote a great deal of official music, including cantatas, and a coronation Te Deum. His Italian operas, successively composed for Stockholm, St Petersburg and Berlin, were all received with great favour in their day. Of much greater importance than these is an operetta to German words by Kotzebue, called _Fanchon_, an admirable specimen of the primitive form of the musical drama known in Germany as the _Singspiel_. Himmel's gift of writing genuine simple melody is also observable in his songs, amongst which one called "To Alexis" is the best. He died in Berlin on the 8th of June 1814.

HINCKLEY, a market town in the Bosworth parliamentary division of Leicestershire, England, 14(1/2) m. S.W. from Leicester on the Nuneaton-Leicester branch of the London & North-Western railway, and near the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal. Pop. of urban district (1901), 11,304. The town is well situated on a considerable eminence. Among the principal buildings are the church of St Mary, a Decorated and Perpendicular structure, with lofty tower and spire; the Roman Catholic academy named St Peter's Priory, and a grammar school. The ditch of a castle erected by Hugh de Grentismenil in the time of William Rufus is still to be traced. Hinckley is the centre of a stocking-weaving district, and its speciality is circular hose. It also possesses a boot-making industry, brick and tile works, and lime works. There are mineral springs in the neighbourhood.

HINCKS, EDWARD (1792-1866), British assyriologist, was born at Cork, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He took orders in the Protestant Church of Ireland, and was rector of Killyleagh, Down, from 1825 till his death on the 3rd of December 1866. Hincks devoted his spare time to the study of hieroglyphics, and to the deciphering of the cuneiform script (see CUNEIFORM), in which he was a pioneer, working out contemporaneously with Sir H. Rawlinson, and independently of him, the ancient Persian vowel system. He published a number of original and scholarly papers on assyriological questions of the highest value, chiefly in the _Transactions_ of the Royal Irish Academy.

HINCKS, SIR FRANCIS (1807-1885), Canadian statesman, was born at Cork, Ireland, the son of an Irish Presbyterian minister. In 1832 he engaged in business in Toronto, became a friend of Robert Baldwin, and in 1835 was chosen to examine the accounts of the Welland Canal, the management of which was being attacked by W. L. Mackenzie. This turned his attention to political life and in 1838 he founded the _Examiner_, a weekly paper in the Liberal interest. In 1841 he was elected M.P. for the county of Oxford, and in the following year was appointed inspector-general, the title then borne by the finance minister, but in 1843 resigned with Baldwin and the other ministers on the question of responsible government. In 1848 he again became inspector-general in the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry, and on their retirement in 1851 became premier of Canada, his chief colleague being A. N. Morin (1803-1865). While premier he was prominent in the negotiations which led to the construction of the Grand Trunk railway, and in co-operation with Lord Elgin negotiated with the United States the reciprocity treaty of 1854. In the same year the bitter hostility of the "Clear Grits" under George Brown compelled his resignation, and he was prominent in the formation of the Liberal-Conservative Party. In 1855 he was chosen governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands, and subsequently governor of British Guiana. In 1869 he was created K.C.M.G. and returned to Canada, becoming till 1873 finance minister in the cabinet of Sir John Macdonald. In February of that year he resigned, but continued to take an active part in public life. In 1879 the failure of the Consolidated Bank of Canada, of which he was president, led to his being tried for issuing false statements. Though found guilty on a technicality (see _Journal_ of the Canadian Bankers' Association, April 1906) judgment was suspended, his personal credit remained unimpaired, and he continued to take part in the discussion of public questions till his death on the 18th of August 1885.

His writings include: _The Political History of Canada between 1840 and 1855_ (1877); _The Political Destiny of Canada_ (1878), and his _Reminiscences_ (1884).

HINCMAR (c. 805-882), archbishop of Reims, one of the most remarkable figures in the ecclesiastical history of France, belonged to a noble family of the north or north-east of Gaul. Destined, doubtless, to the monastic life, he was brought up at St Denis under the direction of the abbot Hilduin (d. 844), who brought him in 822 to the court of the emperor Louis the Pious. When Hilduin was disgraced in 830 for having joined the party of Lothair, Hincmar accompanied him into exile at Corvey in Saxony, but returned with him to St Denis when the abbot was reconciled with the emperor, and remained faithful to the emperor during his struggle with his sons. After the death of Louis the Pious (840) Hincmar supported Charles the Bald, and received from him the abbacies of Notre-Dame at Compiegne and St Germer de Fly. In 845 he obtained through the king's support the archbishopric of Reims, and this choice was confirmed at the synod of Beauvais (April 845). Archbishop Ebbo, whom he replaced, had been deposed in 835 at the synod of Thionville (Diedenhofen) for having broken his oath of fidelity to the emperor Louis, whom he had deserted to join the party of Lothair. After the death of Louis, Ebbo succeeded in regaining possession of his see for some years (840-844), but in 844 Pope Sergius II. confirmed his deposition. It was in these circumstances that Hincmar succeeded, and in 847 Pope Leo IV. sent him the pallium.

One of the first cares of the new prelate was the restitution to his metropolitan see of the domains that had been alienated under Ebbo and given as benefices to laymen. From the beginning of his episcopate Hincmar was in constant conflict with the clerks who had been ordained by Ebbo during his reappearance. These clerks, whose ordination was regarded as invalid by Hincmar and his adherents, were condemned in 853 at the council of Soissons, and the decisions of that council were confirmed in 855 by Pope Benedict III. This conflict, however, bred an antagonism of which Hincmar was later to feel the effects. During the next thirty years the archbishop of Reims played a very prominent part in church and state. His authoritative and energetic will inspired, and in great measure directed, the policy of the west Frankish kingdom until his death. He took an active part in all the great political and religious affairs of his time, and was especially energetic in defending and extending the rights of the church and of the metropolitans in general, and of the metropolitan of the church of Reims in particular. In the resulting conflicts, in which his personal interest was in question, he displayed great activity and a wide knowledge of canon law, but did not scruple to resort to disingenuous interpretation of texts. His first encounter was with the heresiarch Gottschalk, whose predestinarian doctrines claimed to be modelled on those of St Augustine. Hincmar placed himself at the head of the party that regarded Gottschalk's doctrines as heretical, and succeeded in procuring the arrest and imprisonment of his adversary (849). For a part at least of his doctrines Gottschalk found ardent defenders, such as Lupus of Ferrieres, the deacon Florus and Amolo of Lyons. Through the energy and activity of Hincmar the theories of Gottschalk were condemned at Quierzy (853) and Valence (855), and the decisions of these two synods were confirmed at the synods of Langres and Savonnieres, near Toul (859). To refute the predestinarian heresy Hincmar composed his _De praedestinatione Dei et libero arbitrio_, and against certain propositions advanced by Gottschalk on the Trinity he wrote a treatise called _De una et non trina deitate_. Gottschalk died in prison in 868. The question of the divorce of Lothair II., king of Lorraine, who had repudiated his wife Theutberga to marry his concubine Waldrada, engaged Hincmar's literary activities in another direction. At the request of a number of great personages in Lorraine he composed in 860 his _De divortio Lotharii et Teutbergae_, in which he vigorously attacked, both from the moral and the legal standpoints, the condemnation pronounced against the queen by the synod of Aix-la-Chapelle (February 860). Hincmar energetically supported the policy of Charles the Bald in Lorraine, less perhaps from devotion to the king's interests than from a desire to see the whole of the ecclesiastical province of Reims united under the authority of a single sovereign, and in 869 it was he who consecrated Charles at Metz as king of Lorraine.

In the middle of the 9th century there appeared in Gaul the collection of false decretals commonly known as the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. The exact date and the circumstances of the composition of the collection are still an open question, but it is certain that Hincmar was one of the first to know of their existence, and apparently he was not aware that the documents were forged. The importance assigned by these decretals to the bishops and the provincial councils, as well as to the direct intervention of the Holy See, tended to curtail the rights of the metropolitans, of which Hincmar was so jealous. Rothad, bishop of Soissons, one of the most active members of the party in favour of the pseudo-Isidorian theories, immediately came into collision with his archbishop. Deposed in 863 at the council of Soissons, presided over by Hincmar, Rothad appealed to Rome. Pope Nicholas I. supported him zealously, and in 865, in spite of the protests of the archbishop of Reims, Arsenius, bishop of Orta and legate of the Holy See, was instructed to restore Rothad to his episcopal see. Hincmar experienced another check when he endeavoured to prevent Wulfad, one of the clerks deposed by Ebbo, from obtaining the archbishopric of Bourges with the support of Charles the Bald. After a synod held at Soissons, Nicholas I. pronounced himself in favour of the deposed clerks, and Hincmar was constrained to make submission (866). He was more successful in his contest with his nephew Hincmar, bishop of Laon, who was at first supported both by the king and by his uncle, the archbishop of Reims, but soon quarrelled with both. Hincmar of Laon refused to recognize the authority of his metropolitan, and entered into an open struggle with his uncle, who exposed his errors in a treatise called _Opusculum LV. capitulorum_, and procured his condemnation and deposition at the synod of Douzy (871). The bishop of Laon was sent into exile, probably to Aquitaine, where his eyes were put out by order of Count Boso. Pope Adrian protested against his deposition, but it was confirmed in 876 by Pope John VIII., and it was not until 878, at the council of Troyes, that the unfortunate prelate was reconciled with the Church. A serious conflict arose between Hincmar on the one side and Charles and the pope on the other in 876, when Pope John VIII., at the king's request, entrusted Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens, with the primacy of the Gauls and of Germany, and created him vicar apostolic. In Hincmar's eyes this was an encroachment on the jurisdiction of the archbishops, and it was against this primacy that he directed his treatise _De jure metropolitanorum_. At the same time he wrote a life of St Remigius, in which he endeavoured by audacious falsifications to prove the supremacy of the church of Reims over the other churches. Charles the Bald, however, upheld the rights of Ansegisus at the synod of Ponthion. Although Hincmar had been very hostile to Charles's expedition into Italy, he figured among his testamentary executors and helped to secure the submission of the nobles to Louis the Stammerer, whom he crowned at Compiegne (8th of December 877).

During the reign of Louis, Hincmar played an obscure part. He supported the accession of Louis III. and Carloman, but had a dispute with Louis, who wished to instal a candidate in the episcopal see of Beauvais without the archbishop's assent. To Carloman, on his accession in 882, Hincmar addressed his _De ordine palatii_, partly based on a treatise (now lost) by Adalard, abbot of Corbie (c. 814), in which he set forth his system of government and his opinion of the duties of a sovereign, a subject he had already touched in his _De regis persona et regio ministerio_, dedicated to Charles the Bald at an unknown date, and in his _Instructio ad Ludovicum regem_, addressed to Louis the Stammerer on his accession in 877. In the autumn of 832 an irruption of the Normans forced the old archbishop to take refuge at Epernay, where he died on the 21st of December 882. Hincmar was a prolific writer. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of several theological tracts; of the _De villa Noviliaco_, concerning the claiming of a domain of his church; and he continued from 861 the _Annales Bertiniani_, of which the first part was written by Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, the best source for the history of Charles the Bald. He also wrote a great number of letters, some of which are extant, and others embodied in the chronicles of Flodoard.

Hincmar's works, which are the principal source for the history of his life, were collected by Jacques Sirmond (Paris, 1645), and reprinted by Migne, _Patrol. Latina_, vol. cxxv. and cxxvi. See also C. von Noorden, _Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Reims_ (Bonn, 1863), and, especially, H. Schrors, _Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Reims_ (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1884). For Hincmar's political and ecclesiastical theories see preface to Maurice Prou's edition of the _De ordine palatii_ (Paris, 1885), and the abbe Lesne, _La Hierarchie episcopale en Gaule et en Germanie_ (Paris, 1905). (R. Po.)

HIND, the female of the red-deer, usually taken as being three years old and over, the male being known as a "hart." It is sometimes also applied to the female of other species of deer. The word appears in several Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch and Ger. _Hinde_, and has been connected with the Goth. _hinthan_ (_hinthan_), to seize, which may be connected ultimately with "hand" and "hunt." "Hart," from the O.E. _heort_, may be in origin connected with the root of Gr. [Greek: keras], horn. "Hind" (O.E. _hine_, probably from the O.E. _hinan_, members of a family or household), meaning a servant, especially a labourer on a farm, is another word. In Scotland the "hind" is a farm servant, with a cottage on the farm, and duties and responsibilities that make him superior to the rest of the labourers. Similarly "hind" is used in certain parts of northern England as equivalent to "bailiff."

HINDERSIN, GUSTAV EDUARD VON (1804-1872), Prussian general, was born at Wernigerode near Halberstadt on the 18th of July 1804. He was the son of a priest and received a good education. His earlier life was spent in great poverty, and the struggle for existence developed in him an iron strength of character. Entering the Prussian artillery in 1820 he became an officer in 1825. From 1830 to 1837 he attended the Allgemeine Kriegsakademie at Berlin, and in 1841, while still a subaltern, he was posted to the great General Staff, in which he afterwards directed the topographical section. In 1849 he served with the rank of major on the staff of General Peucker, who commanded a federal corps in the suppression of the Baden insurrection. He fell into the hands of the insurgents at the action of Ladenburg, but was released just before the fall of Rastadt. In the Danish war of 1864 Hindersin, now lieutenant-general, directed the artillery operations against the lines of Duppel, and for his services was ennobled by the king of Prussia. Soon afterwards he became inspector-general of artillery. His experience at Duppel had convinced him that the days of the smooth-bore gun were past, and he now devoted himself with unremitting zeal to the rearmament and reorganization of the Prussian artillery. The available funds were small, and grudgingly voted by the parliament. There was a strong feeling moreover that the smooth-bore was still tactically superior to its rival (see ARTILLERY, S 19). There was no practical training for war in either the field or the fortress artillery units. The latter had made scarcely any progress since the days of Frederick the Great, and before von Hindersin's appointment had practised with the same guns in the same bastion year after year. All this was altered, the whole "foot-artillery" was reorganized, manoeuvres were instituted, and the smooth-bores were, except for ditch defence, eliminated from the armament of the Prussian fortresses. But far more important was his work in connexion with the field and horse batteries. In 1864 only one battery in four had rifled guns, but by the unrelenting energy of von Hindersin the outbreak of war with Austria one and a half years later found the Prussians with ten in every sixteen batteries armed with the new weapon. But the battles of 1866 showed, besides the superiority of the rifled gun, a very marked absence of tactical efficiency in the Prussian artillery, which was almost always outmatched by that of the enemy. Von Hindersin had pleaded, in season and out of season, for the establishment of a school of gunnery; and in spite of want of funds, such a school had already been established. After 1866, however, more support was obtained, and the improvement in the Prussian field artillery between 1866 and 1870 was extraordinary, even though there had not been time for the work of the school to leaven the whole arm. Indeed, the German artillery played by far the most important part in the victories of the Franco-German war. Von Hindersin accompanied the king's headquarters as chief of artillery, as he had done in 1866, and was present at Gravelotte, Sedan and the siege of Paris. But his work, which was now accomplished, had worn out his physical powers, and he died on the 23rd of January 1872 at Berlin.

See Bartholomaus, _Der General der Infanterie von Hindersin_ (Berlin, 1895), and Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, _Letters on Artillery_ (translated by Major Walford, R.A.), No. xi.

HINDI, EASTERN, one of the "intermediate" Indo-Aryan languages (see HINDOSTANI). It is spoken in Oudh, Baghelkhand and Chhattisgarh by over 22,000,000 people. It is derived from the Apabhramsa form of Ardhamagadhi Prakrit (see PRAKRIT), and possesses a large and important literature. Its most famous writer was Tulsi Das, the poet and reformer, who died early in the 17th century, and since his time it has been the North-Indian language employed for epic poetry.

HINDI, WESTERN, the Indo-Aryan language of the middle and upper Gangetic Doab, and of the country to the north and south. It is the vernacular of over 40,000,000 people. Its standard dialect is Braj Bhasha, spoken near Muttra, which has a considerable literature mainly devoted to the religion founded on devotion to Krishna. Another dialect spoken near Delhi and in the upper Gangetic Doab is the original from which Hindostani, the great _lingua franca_ of India, has developed (see HINDOSTANI). Western Hindi, like Punjabi, its neighbour to the west, is descended from the Apabhramsa form of Sauraseni Prakrit (see PRAKRIT), and represents the language of the Madhyadesa or Midland, as distinct from the intermediate and outer Indo-Aryan languages.

HINDKI, the name given to the Hindus who inhabit Afghanistan. They are of the Khatri class, and are found all over the country even amongst the wildest tribes. Bellew in his _Races of Afghanistan_ estimates their number at about 300,000. The name Hindki is also loosely used on the upper Indus, in Dir, Bajour, &c., to denote the speakers of Punjabi or any of its dialects. It is sometimes applied in a historical sense to the Buddhist inhabitants of the Peshawar Valley north of the Kabul river, who were driven thence about the 5th or 6th century and settled in the neighbourhood of Kandahar.

HINDLEY, an urban district in the Ince parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 2 m. E.S.E. of Wigan, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire and Great Central railways. Pop. (1901) 23,504. Cotton spinning and the manufacture of cotton goods are the principal industries, and there are extensive coal-mines in the neighbourhood. It is recorded that in the time of the Puritan revolution Hindley church was entered by the Cavaliers, who played at cards in the pews, pulled down the pulpit and tore the Bible in pieces.

HINDOSTANI (properly _Hindostani_, of or belonging to Hindostan[1]), the name given by Europeans to an Indo-Aryan dialect (whose home is in the upper Gangetic Doab and near the city of Delhi), which, owing to political causes, has become the great _lingua franca_ of modern India. The name is not employed by natives of India, except as an imitation of the English nomenclature. Hindostani is by origin a dialect of Western Hindi, and it is first of all necessary to explain what we mean by the term "Hindi" as applied to language. Modern Indo-Aryan languages fall into three groups,--an outer band, the language of the Midland and an intermediate band. The Midland consists of the Gangetic Doab and of the country to its immediate north and south, extending, roughly speaking, from the Eastern Punjab on the west, to Cawnpore on its east. The language of this tract is called "Western Hindi"; to its west we have Panjabi (of the Central Punjab), and to the east, reaching as far as Benares, Eastern Hindi, both Intermediate languages. These three will all be dealt with in the present article. Panjabi and Western Hindi are derived from Sauraseni, and Eastern Hindi from Ardham gadha Prakrit, through the corresponding Apabhramsas (see PRAKRIT). Eastern Hindi differs in many respects from the two others, but it is customary to consider it together with the language of the Midland, and this will be followed on the present occasion. In 1901 the speakers of these three languages numbered: Panjabi, 17,070,961; Western Hindi, 40,714,925; Eastern Hindi, 22,136,358.

_Linguistic Boundaries._--Taking the tract covered by these three forms of speech, it has to its west, in the western Punjab, Lannda (see SINDHI), a language of the Outer band. The parent of Lahnda once no doubt covered the whole of the Punjab, but, in the process of expansion of the tribes of the Midland described in the article INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES, it was gradually driven back, leaving traces of its former existence which grow stronger as we proceed westwards, until at about the 74th degree of east longitude there is a mixed, transition dialect. To the west of that degree Lahnda may be said to be established, the deserts of the west-central Punjab forming a barrier and protecting it, just as, farther south, a continuation of the same desert has protected Sindhi from Rajasthani. It is the old traces of Lahnda which mainly differentiate Panjabi from Hindostani. To the south of Panjabi and Western Hindi lies Rajasthani. This language arose in much the same way as Panjabi. The expanding Midland language was stopped by the desert from reaching Sindhi, but to the south-west it found an unobstructed way into Gujarat, where, under the form of Gujarati, it broke the continuity of the Outer band. Eastern Hindi, as an Intermediate form of speech, is of much older lineage. It has been an Intermediate language since, at least, the institution of Jainism (say, 500 B.C.), and is much less subject to the influence of the Midland than is Panjabi. To its east it has Bihari, and, stretching far to the south, it has Marathi as its neighbour in that direction, both of these being Outer languages.

_Dialects._--The only important dialect of Eastern Hindi is Awadhi, spoken in Oudh, and possessing a large literature of great excellence. Chhattisgarhi and Bagheli, the other dialects, have scanty literatures of small value. Western Hindi has four main dialects, Bundeli of Bundelkhand, Braj Bhasha (properly "Braj Bhasa") of the country round Mathura (Muttra), Kanauji of the central Doab and the country to its north, and vernacular Hindostani of Delhi and the Upper Doab. West of the Upper Doab, across the Jumna, another dialect, Bangaru, is also found. It possesses no literature. Kanauji is very closely allied to Braj Bhasha, and these two share with Awadhi the honour of being the great literary speeches of northern India. Nearly all the classical literature of India is religious in character, and we may say that, as a broad rule, Awadhi literature is devoted to the Ramaite religion and the epic poetry connected with it, while that of Braj Bhasha is concerned with the religion of Krishna. Vernacular Hindostani has no literature of its own, but as the _lingua franca_ now to be described it has a large one. Panjabi has one dialect, Dogri, spoken in the Himalayas.

_Hindostani as a Lingua Franca._--It has often been said that Hindostani is a mongrel "pigeon" form of speech made up of contributions from the various languages which met in Delhi bazaar, but this theory has now been proved to be unfounded, owing to the discovery of the fact that it is an actual living dialect of Western Hindi, existing for centuries in its present habitat, and the direct descendant of Sauraseni Prakrit. It is not a typical dialect of that language, for, situated where it is, it represents Western Hindi merging into Panjabi (Braj Bhasha being admittedly the standard of the language), but to say that it is a mongrel tongue thrown together in the market is to reverse the order of events. It was the natural language of the people in the neighbourhood of Delhi, who formed the bulk of those who resorted to the bazaar, and hence it became the bazaar language. From here it became the _lingua franca_ of the Mogul camp and was carried everywhere in India by the lieutenants of the empire. It has several recognized varieties, amongst which we may mention Dakhini, Urdu, Rekhta and Hindi. Dakhini or "southern," is the form current in the south of India, and was the first to be employed for literature. It contains many archaic expressions now extinct in the standard dialect. Urdu, or _Urdu zaban_, "the language of the camp," is the name usually employed for Hindostani by natives, and is now the standard form of speech used by Mussulmans. All the early Hindostani literature was in poetry, and this literary form of speech was named "Rekhta," or "scattered," from the way in which words borrowed from Persian were "scattered" through it. The name is now reserved for the dialect used in poetry, Urdu being the dialect of prose and of conversation. The introduction of these borrowed words, which has been carried to even a greater extent in Urdu, was facilitated by the facts that the latter was by origin a "camp" language, and that Persian was the official language of the Mogul court. In this way Persian (and, with Persian, Arabic) words came into current use, and, though the language remained Indo-Aryan in its grammar and essential characteristics, it soon became unintelligible to any one who had not at least a moderate acquaintance with the vocabulary of Iran. This extreme Persianization of Urdu was due rather to Hindu than to Persian influence. Although Urdu literature was Mussulman in its origin, the Persian element was first introduced in excess by the pliant Hindu officials employed in the Mogul administration, and acquainted with Persian, rather than by Persians and Persianized Moguls, who for many centuries used only their own languages for literary purposes.[2] Prose Urdu literature took its origin in the English occupation of India and the need for text-books for the college of Fort William. It has had a prosperous career since the commencement of the 19th century, but some writers, especially those of Lucknow, have so overloaded it with Persian and Arabic that little of the original Indo-Aryan character remains, except, perhaps, an occasional pronoun or auxiliary verb. The Hindi form of Hindostani was invented simultaneously with Urdu prose by the teachers at Fort William. It was intended to be a Hindostani for the use of Hindus, and was derived from Urdu by ejecting all words of Persian or Arabic birth, and substituting for them words either borrowed from Sanskrit (_tatsamas_) or derived from the old primary Prakrit (_tadbhavas_) (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). Owing to the popularity of the first book written in it, and to its supplying the need for a _lingua franca_ which could be used by the most patriotic Hindus without offending their religious prejudices, it became widely adopted, and is now the recognized vehicle for writing prose by those inhabitants of northern India who do not employ Urdu. This Hindi, which is an altogether artificial product of the English, is hardly ever used for poetry. For this the indigenous dialects (usually Awadhi or Braj Bhasha) are nearly always employed by Hindus. Urdu, on the other hand, having had a natural growth, has a vigorous poetical literature. Modern Hindi prose is often disfigured by that too free borrowing of Sanskrit words instead of using home-born _tadbhavas_, which has been the ruin of Bengali, and it is rapidly becoming a Hindu counterpart of the Persianized Urdu, neither of which is intelligible except to persons of high education.

Not only has Urdu adopted a Persian vocabulary, but even a few peculiarities of Persian construction, such as reversing the positions of the governing and the governed word (e.g. _bap mera_ for _mera bap_), or of the adjective and the substantive it qualifies, or such as the use of Persian phrases with the preposition _ba_ instead of the native postposition of the ablative case (e.g. _ba-khushi_ for _khushi-se_, or _ba-hukm sarkar-ke_ instead of _sarkar-ke hukm-se_) are to be met with in many writings; and these, perhaps, combined with the too free indulgence on the part of some authors in the use of high-flown and pedantic Persian and Arabic words in place of common and yet chaste Indian words, and the general use of the Persian instead of the Nagari character, have induced some to regard Hindostani or Urdu as a language distinct from Hindi. But such a view betrays a radical misunderstanding of the whole question. We must define Urdu as the Persianized Hindostani of educated Mussulmans, while Hindi is the Sanskritized Hindostani of educated Hindus. As for the written character, Urdu, from the number of Persian words which it contains, can only be written conveniently in the Persian character, while Hindi, for a parallel reason, can only be written in the Nagari or one of its related alphabets (see SANSKRIT). On the other hand, "Hindostani" implies the great _lingua franca_ of India, capable of being written in either character, and, without purism, avoiding the excessive use of either Persian or Sanskrit words when employed for literature. It is easy to write this Hindostani, for it has an opulent vocabulary of _tadbhava_ words understood everywhere by both Mussulmans and Hindus. While "Hindostani," "Urdu" and "Hindi" are thus names of dialects, it should be remembered that the terms "Western Hindi" and "Eastern Hindi" connote, not dialects, but languages.

The epoch of Akbar, which first saw a regular revenue system established, with toleration and the free use of their religion to the Hindus, was, there can be little doubt, the period of the formation of the language. But its final consolidation did not take place till the reign of Shah Jahan. After the date of this monarch the changes are comparatively immaterial until we come to the time when European sources began to mingle with those of the East. Of the contributions from these sources there is little to say. Like the greater part of those from Arabic and Persian, they are chiefly nouns, and may be regarded rather as excrescences which have sprung up casually and have attached themselves to the original trunk than as ingredients duly incorporated in the body. In the case of the Persian and Arabic element, indeed, we do find not a few instances in which nouns have been furnished with a Hindi termination, e.g. _kharidna_, _badalna_, _guzarna_, _daghna_, _bakhshnaa_, _kaminapan_, &c.; but the European element cannot be said to have at all woven itself into the grammar of the language. It consists, as has been observed, solely of nouns, principally substantive nouns, which on their admission into the language are spelt phonetically, or according to the corrupt pronunciation they receive in the mouths of the natives, and are declined like the indigenous nouns by means of the usual postpositions or case-affixes. A few examples will suffice. The Portuguese, the first in order of seniority, contributes a few words, as _kamara_ or _kamra_ (_camera_), a room; _martol_ (_martello_), a hammer; _nilam_ (_leilao_), an auction, &c. &c. Of French and Dutch influence scarcely a trace exists. English has contributed a number of words, some of which have even found a place in the literature of the language; e.g. _kamishanar_ (commissioner); _jaj_ (judge); _daktar_ (doctor); _daktari_, "the science of medicine" or "the profession of physicians"; _inspektar_ (inspector); _istant_ (assistant); _sosayati_ (society); _apil_ (appeal); _apil karna_, "to appeal"; _dikri_ or _digri_ (decree); _digri_ (degree); _inc_ (inch); _fut_ (foot); and many more, are now words commonly used. Some borrowed words are distorted into the shape of genuine Hindostani words familiar to the speakers; e.g. the English railway term "signal" has become _sikandar_, the native name for Alexander the Great, and "signal-man" is _sikandar-man_, or "the pride of Alexander." How far the free use of Anglicisms will be adopted as the language progresses is a question upon which it would be hazardous to pronounce an opinion, but of late years it has greatly increased in the language of the educated, especially in the case of technical terms. A native veterinary surgeon once said to the present writer, "_kutte-ka saliva bahut antiseptic hai_" for "a dog's saliva is very antiseptic," and this is not an extravagant example.[3]

The vocabulary of Panjabi and Eastern Hindi is very similar to that of Western Hindi. Panjabi has no literature to speak of and is free from the burden of words borrowed from Persian or Sanskrit, only the commonest and simplest of such being found in it. Its vocabulary is thus almost entirely _tadbhava_, and, while capable of expressing all ideas, it has a charming rustic flavour, like the Lowland Scotch of Burns, indicative of the national character of the sturdy peasantry that employs it. Eastern Hindi is very like Panjabi in this respect, but for a different reason. In it were written the works of Tulsi Das, one of the greatest writers that India has produced, and his influence on the language has been as great as that of Shakespeare on English. The peasantry are continually quoting him without knowing it, and his style, simple and yet vigorous, thoroughly Indian and yet free from purism, has set a model which is everywhere followed except in the large towns where Urdu or Sanskritized Hindi prevails. Eastern Hindi is written in the Nagari alphabet, or in the current character related to it called "Kaithi" (see BIHARI). The indigenous alphabet of the Punjab is called _Landa_ or "clipped." It is related to Nagari, but is hardly legible to any one except the original writer, and sometimes not even to him. To remedy this defect an improved form of the alphabet was devised in the 16th century by Angad, the fifth Sikh Guru, for the purpose of recording the Sikh scriptures. It was named _Gurmukhi_, "proceeding from the mouth of the Guru," and is now generally used for writing the language.

_Grammar._--In the following account we use these contractions: Skr. = Sanskrit; Pr. = Prakrit; Ap. = Apabhramsa; W.H. = Western Hindi; E.H. = Eastern Hindi; H. = Hindostani; Br. = Braj Bhasha; P. = Panjabi.

(A) _Phonetics._--The phonetic system of all three languages is nearly the same as that of the Apabhramsas from which they are derived. With a few exceptions, to be noted below, the letters of the alphabets of the three languages are the same as in Sanskrit. Panjabi, and the western dialects of Western Hindi, have preserved the old Vedic cerebral l. There is a tendency for concurrent vowels to run into each other, and for the semi-vowels y and v to become vowels. Thus, Skr. _carmakaras_, Ap. _cammaaru_, a leather-worker, becomes H. _camar_; Skr. _rajani_, Ap. _ra(y)ani_, H. _rain_, night; Skr. _dhavalakas_, Ap. _dhavalau_, H. _dhaula_, white. Sometimes the semi-vowel is retained, as in Skr. _kataras_, Ap. _ka(y)aru_, H. _kayar_, a coward. Almost the only compound consonants which survived in the Pr. stage were double letters, and in W.H. and E.H. these are usually simplified, the preceding vowel being lengthened and sometimes nasalized, in compensation. P., on the other hand, prefers to retain the double consonant. Thus, Skr. _karma_, Ap. _kammu_, W.H. and E.H. _kam_, but P. _kamm_, a work; Skr. _satyas_, Ap. _saccu_, W.H. and E.H. _sac_, but P. _sacc_, true (H., being the W.H. dialect which lies nearest to P., often follows that language, and in this instance has _sacc_, usually written _sac_); Skr. _hastas_, Ap. _hatthu_, W.H. and E.H. _hath_, but P. _hatth_, a hand. The nasalization of vowels is very frequent in all three languages, and is here represented by the sign ~ over the vowel. Sometimes it is compensatory, as in _sac_, but it often represents an original _m_, as in _kawal_ from Skr. _kamalas_, a lotus. Final short vowels quiesce in prose pronunciation, and are usually not written in transliteration; thus the final _a_, _i_ or _u_ has been lost in all the examples given above, and other _tatsama_ examples are Skr. _mati_-which becomes _mat_, mind, and Skr. _vastu_-, which becomes _bast_, a thing. In all poetry, however (except in the Urdu poetry formed on Persian models, and under the rules of Persian prosody), they reappear and are necessary for the scansion.

In _tadbhava_ words an original long vowel in any syllable earlier than the penultimate is shortened. In P. and H. when the long vowel is _e_ or _o_ it is shortened to _i_ or _u_ respectively, but in other W.H. dialects and in E.H. it is shortened to _e_ or _o_; thus, _beti_, daughter, long form H. _bitiya_, E.H. _betiya_; _ghori_, mare, long form H. _ghuriya_, E.H. _ghoriya_. The short vowels _e_ and _o_ are very rare in P. and H., but are not uncommon (though ignored by most grammars) in E.H. and the other W.H. dialects. A medial _d_ is pronounced as a strongly burred cerebral _r_, and is then written as shown, with a supposited dot. All these changes and various contractions of Prakrit syllables have caused considerable variations in the forms of words, but generally not so as to obscure the origin.

(B) _Declension._--The nominative form of a _tadbhava_ word is derived from the nominative form in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but _tatsama_ words are usually borrowed in the form of the Skr. crude base; thus, Skr. _hastin_-, nom. _hasti_, Ap. nom. _hatthi_, H. _hathi_, an elephant; Skr. base _mati_-, nom. _matis_, H. (_tatsama_) _mati_, or, with elision of the final short vowel, _mat_. Some _tatsamas_ are, however, borrowed in the nominative form, as in Skr. _dhanin_-, nom. _dhani_, H. _dhani_, a rich man. As another example of a _tadbhava_ word, we may take the Skr. nom. _ghotas_, Ap. _ghodu_, H. _ghor_, a horse. Here again the final short vowel has been elided, but in old poetry we should find _ghoru_, and corresponding forms in u are occasionally met with at the present day.

In the article PRAKRIT attention is drawn to the frequent use of pleonastic suffixes, especially -_ka_- (fem.-(i)_ka_). With such a suffix we have the Skr. _ghota-kas_, Ap. _ghoda-u_, Western Hindi _ghorau_, or in P. and H. (which is the W.H. dialect nearest in locality to P.) _ghora_, a horse; Skr. _ghoti-ka_, Ap. _ghodi-a_, W.H. and P. _ghodi_, a mare. Such modern forms made with one pleonastic suffix are called "strong forms," while those made without it are called "weak forms." All strong forms end in _au_ (or _a_) in the masculine, and in _i_ in the feminine, whereas, in Skr., and hence in _tatsamas_, both _a_ and _i_ are generally typical of feminine words, though sometimes employed for the masculine. It is shown in the article PRAKRIT that these pleonastic suffixes can be doubled, or even trebled, and in this way we have a new series of _tadbhava_ forms. Let us take the imaginary Skr. *_ghota-ka-kas_ with a double suffix. From this we have the Ap. _ghoda-a-u_, and modern _ghorawa_ (with euphonic _w_ inserted), a horse. Similarly for the feminine we have Skr. *_ghoti-ka-ka_, Ap. _ghodi-a-a_, modern _ghoriya_ (with euphonic _y_ inserted), a mare. Such forms, made with two suffixes, are called "long forms," and are heard in familiar conversation, the feminine also serving as diminutives. There is a further stage, built upon three suffixes, and called the "redundant form," which is mainly used by the vulgar. As a rule masculine long forms end in -_awa_, -_iya_ or -_ua_, and feminines in -_iya_, although the matter is complicated by the occasional use of pleonastic suffixes other than the -_ka_- which we have taken for our example, and is the most common. Strong forms are rarely met with in E.H., but on the other hand long forms are more common in that language.

There are a few feminine terminations of weak nouns which may be noted. These are -_ini_, -_in_, -_an_, -_ni_ (Skr. -_ini_, Pr. _-ini_); and -_ani_, -_ani_, -_ain_ (Skr. -_ani_, Pr. -_ani_). These are found not only in words derived from Prakrit, but are added to Persian and even Arabic words; thus, _hathini_, _hathni_, _hathin_ (Skr. _hastini_, Pr. _hatthini_), a she-elephant; _sunarin_, _sunaran_, a female goldsmith (_sonar_); _sherni_, a tigress (Persian _sher_, a tiger); _Nasiban_, a proper name (Arabic _nasib_); _panditani_, the wife of a _pandit_; _caudhrain_, the wife of a _caudhri_ or head man; _mehtrani_, the wife of a sweeper (Pres. _mehtar_, a sweeper). With these exceptions weak forms rarely have any terminations distinctive of gender.[4]

The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has disappeared. We see it in the actual stage of disappearance in Apabhramsa (see PRAKRIT), in which the case terminations had become worn down to -_hu_, -_ho_, -_hi_, -_hi_ and -_ha_, of which -_hi_ and -_hi_ were employed for several cases, both singular and plural. There was also a marked tendency for these terminations to be confused, and in the earliest stages of the modern vernaculars we find -_hi_ freely employed for any oblique case of the singular, and -_hi_ for any oblique case of the plural, but more especially for the genitive and the locative. In the case of modern weak nouns these terminations have disappeared altogether in W.H. and P. except in sporadic forms of the locative such as _gawe_ (for _gawahi_), in the village. In E.H. they are still heard as the termination of a form which can stand for any oblique case, and is called the "oblique form" or the "oblique case." Thus, from _ghar_, a house (a weak noun), we have W.H. and P. oblique form _ghar_, E.H. _gharahi_, _ghare_ or _ghar_. In the plural, the oblique form is sometimes founded on the Ap. terminations -_ha_ and -_hu_, and sometimes on the Skr. termination of the genitive plural -_anam_ (Pr. -_ana_, -_anham_), as in P. _ghara_, W.H. _gharau_, _gharo_, _gharani_, E.H. _gharan_. In the case of masculine weak forms, the plural nominative has dropped the old termination, except in E.H., where it has adopted the oblique plural form for this case also, thus _gharan_. The nominative plural of feminine weak forms follows the example of the masculine in E.H. In P. it also takes the oblique plural form, while in W.H. it takes the old singular oblique form in -_ahi_, which it weakens to _ai_ or (H.) _e_; thus _bat_ (fem.), a word, nom. plur. E.H. _bat-an_, P. _bat-a_, W.H. _batai_ or (H.) _bate_.

Strong masculine bases in Ap. ended in -_a-a_ (nom. -_a-u_); thus _ghoda-a_- (nom. _ghoda-u_), and adding -_hi_ we get _ghoda-a-hi_, which becomes contracted _ghodahi_ and finally to _ghore_. The nominative plural is the same as the oblique singular, except in E.H. where it follows the oblique plural. The oblique plural of all closely follows in principle the weak forms. Feminine strong forms in Ap. ended in -_i-a_, contracted to _i_ in the modern languages. Except in E.H. the -_hi_ of the original oblique form singular disappears, so that we have E.H. _ghorihi_ or _ghori_, others only _ghori_. The nominative plural of feminine strong forms exhibits some irregularities. In E.H., as usual, it follows the plural oblique forms. In W.H. (except Hindostani) it simply nasalizes the oblique form singular (i.e. adds -_hi_ instead of -_hi_), as in _ghori_, but first on line looks like -hi]. P. and H. adopt the oblique long form for the plural and nasalize it, thus, P. _ghoria_, H. _ghoriya_. The oblique plurals call for no further remarks. We thus get the following summary, illustrating the way in which these nominative and oblique forms are made.

+-------------------+----------+------------+--------------------+---------------+ | | Panjabi. | Hindostani.| Braj Bhasha. | Eastern Hindi.| +-------------------+----------+------------+--------------------+---------------+ |Weak Noun Masc.-- | | | | | | Nom. Sing. | ghar | ghar | ghar | ghar | | Obl. Sing. | ghar | ghar | ghar | ghar, gharahi | | Nom. Plur. | ghar | ghar | ghar | gharan | | Obl. Plur. | ghara | gharo | gharau, gharani | gharan | |Strong Noun Masc.--| | | | | | Nom. Sing. | ghora | ghora | ghorau | ghora | | Obl. Sing. | ghore | ghore | ghore, ghorai | ghora, ghore | | Nom. Plur. | ghore | ghore | ghore | ghoran | | Obl. Plur. | ghoria | ghoro | ghorau, ghorani | ghoran | |Weak Noun Fem.-- | | | | | | Nom. Sing. | bat | bat | bat | bat | | Obl. Sing. | bat | bat | bat | bat | | Nom. Plur. | bata | bate | batai | batan | | Obl. Plur. | bata | bato | batau, batani | batan | |Strong Noun Fem.-- | | | | | | Nom. Sing. | ghori | ghori | ghori | ghori | | Obl. Sing. | ghori | ghori | ghori | ghori, ghorihi| | Nom. Plur. | ghoria | ghoriya | ghori | ghorin | | Obl. Plur. | ghoria | ghoriyo | ghoriyau, ghoriyani| ghorin | +-------------------+----------+------------+--------------------+---------------+

We have seen that the oblique form is the resultant of a general melting down of all the oblique cases of Sanskrit and Prakrit, and that in consequence it can be used for any oblique case. It is obvious that if it were so employed it would often give rise to great confusion. Hence, when it is necessary to show clearly what particular case is intended, it is usual to add defining particles corresponding to the English prepositions "of," "to," "from," "by," &c., which, as in all Indo-Aryan languages they follow the main word, are here called "postpositions." The following are the postpositions commonly employed to form cases in our three languages:--

+--------------+-------+----------+--------+----------+-----------+ | | Agent.| Genitive.| Dative.| Ablative.| Locative. | +--------------+-------+----------+--------+----------+-----------+ | Panjabi | nai | da | nu | te | vicc | | Hindostani | ne | ka | ko | se | me | | Braj Bhasha | ne | kau | kau | te, sau | mai | | Eastern Hindi| None | ker, k | ka | se | me, bikhe | +--------------+-------+----------+--------+----------+-----------+

The agent case is the case which a noun takes when it is the subject of a transitive verb in a tense formed from the past participle. This participle is passive in origin, and must be construed passively. In the Prakrit stage the subject was in such cases put into the instrumental case (see PRAKRIT), as in the phrase _aham tena mario_, I by-him (was) struck, i.e. he struck me. In Eastern Hindi this is still the case, the old instrumental being represented by the oblique form without any suffix. The other two languages define the fact that the subject is in the instrumental (or agent) case by the addition of the postposition _ne_, &c., an old form employed elsewhere to define the dative. It is really the oblique form (by origin a locative) of _na_ or _no_, which is employed in Gujarati (q.v.) for the genitive. As this suffix is never employed to indicate a material instrument but here only to indicate the agent or subject of a verb, it is called the postposition of the "agent" case.

The genitive postpositions have an interesting origin. In Buddhist Sanskrit the words _krtas_, done, and _krtyas_, to be done, were added to a noun to form a kind of genitive. A synonym of _krtyas_ was _karyas_. These three words were all adjectives, and agreed with the thing possessed in gender, number, and case; thus, _mala-krte_ _karande_, in the basket of the garland, literally, in the garland-made basket. In the various dialects of Apabhramsa Prakrit _krtas_ became (strong form) _kida-u_ or _kia-u_, _krtyas_ became _kicca-u_, and _karyas_ became _kera-u_ or _kajja-u_, the initial _k_ of which is liable to elision after a vowel. With the exception of Gujarati (and perhaps Marathi, q.v.) every Indo-Aryan language has genitive postpositions derived from one or other of these forms. Thus from _(ki)da-u_ we have Panjabi _da_; from _kia-u_ we have H. _ka_, Br. kau, E.H. and Bihari _k_ and Naipali _ko_; from _(ki)cca-u_ we have perhaps Marathi _ca_; from _kera-u_, E.H. and Bihari _ker_, _kar_, Bengali Oriya and Assamese -_r_, and Rajasthani -_ro_; while from _(ka)jja-u_ we have the Sindhi _jo_. It will be observed that while _k_, _ker_, _kar_, and _r_ are weak forms, the rest are strong. As already stated, the genitive is an adjective. _Bap_ means "father," and _bap-ka ghora_ is literally "the paternal horse." Hence (while the weak forms as usual do not change) these genitives agree with the thing possessed in gender, number, and case. Thus, _bap-ka ghora_, the horse of the father, but _bap-ki ghori_, the mare of the father, and _bap-ke ghore-ko_, to the horse of the father, the _ka_ being put into the oblique case masculine _ke_, to agree with _ghore_, which is itself in an oblique case. The details of the agreement vary slightly in P. and W.H., and must be learnt from the grammars. The E.H. weak forms do not change in the modern language. Finally, in Prakrit it was customary to add these postpositions (_kera-u_, &c.) to the genitive, as in _mama_ or _mama kera-u_, of me. Similarly these postpositions are, in the modern languages, added to the oblique form.

The locative of the Sanskrit _krtas_, _krte_, was used in that language as a dative postposition, and it can be shown that all the dative postpositions given above are by origin old oblique forms of some genitive postposition. Thus H. _ko_, Br. _kau_, is a contraction of _kahu_, an old oblique form of _kia-u_. Similarly for the others. The origin of the ablative postpositions is obscure. To the present writer they all seem (like the Bengal _haite_) to be connected with the verb substantive, but their derivation has not been definitely fixed. The locative postpositions _me_ and _mai_ are derived from the Skr. _madhye_, in, through _majjhi_, _mahi_, and so on. The derivation of _vicc_ and _bikhe_ is obscure.

+-------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+ | | Apabhramsa.| Panjabi.| Hindostani.| Braj | Eastern | | | | | | Bhasha.| Hindi. | +-------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+ | I, Nom. | hau | mai | mai | hau | mai | | Obl. | mai, mahu, | mai | mujh | mohi | mo | | | majjhu | | | | | | WE, Nom. | amhe | asi | ham | ham | ham | | Obl. | amaha | asa | hamo | hamau, | ham | | | | | | hamani| | | THOU, Nom. | tuhu | tu | tu | tu | tai | | Obl. | tai, tuha, | tai | tujh | tohi | to | | | tujjhu | | | | | | YOU, Nom. | tumhe | tusi | tum | tum | tum | | Obl. | tumhaha | tusa | tumho | tumhau | tum | +-------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+

The pronouns closely follow the Prakrit originals. This will be evident from the preceding table of the first two personal pronouns compared with Apabhramsa.

It will be observed that in most of the nominatives of the first person, and in the E.H. nominative of the second person, the old nominative has disappeared, and its place has been supplied by an oblique form, exactly as we have observed in the nominative plural of nouns substantive. The P. _asi_, _tusi_, &c., are survivals from the old Lahnda (see _Linguistic Boundaries_, above). The genitives of these two pronouns are rarely used, possessive pronouns (in H. _mera_, my; _hamara_, our; _tera_, thy; _tumhara_, your) being employed instead. They can all (except P. _asada_, our; _tusada_, your, which are Lahnda) be referred to corresponding Ap. forms.

There is no pronoun of the third person, the demonstrative pronouns being used instead. The following table shows the principal remaining pronominal forms, with their derivation from Ap.:--

+--------------------+--------------+----------+------------+--------+---------+ | | Apabhramsa. | Panjabi. | Hindostani.| Braj | Eastern | | | | | | Bhasha.| Hindi. | +--------------------+--------------+----------+------------+--------+---------+ | THAT, HE, Nom. | ? | uh | woh | wo | u | | Obl. | ? | uh | us | wa | o | | THOSE, THEY, Nom. | oi | oh | we | wai | unh | | Obl. | ? | unha | unh | uni | unh | | THIS, HE, Nom. | ehu | ih | yeh | yah | i | | Obl. | ehasu, ehaho| ih | is | ya | e | | THESE, THEY, Nom. | ei | eh | ye | yai | inh | | Obl. | ehana | inha | inh | ini | inh | | THAT, Nom. | so | so | so | so | se | | Obl. | tasu, taho | tih | tis | ta | te | | THOSE, Nom. | se | so | so | so | se | | Obl. | tana | tinha | tinh | tini | tenh | | WHO, Nom. | jo | jo | jo | jo | je | | Obl. | jasu, jaho | jih | jis | ja | je | | WHO (pl.), Nom. | je | jo | jo | jo | je | | Obl. | jana | jinha | jinh | jini | jenh | | WHO? Nom. | ko, kawanu | kaun | kaun | ko | ke | | Obl. | kasu, kaho | kih | kis | ka | ke | | WHO? (pl.), Nom. | ke | kaun | kaun | ko | ke | | Obl. | kana | kinha | kinh | kini | kenh | | WHAT?(Neut.), Nom. | kim | kia | kya | kaha | ka | | Obl. | kaha, kasu | kah, kas| kahe | kahe | kahe | +--------------------+--------------+----------+------------+--------+---------+

The origin of the first pronoun given above (that, he; those, they) cannot be referred to Sanskrit. It is derived from an Indo-Aryan base which was not admitted to the classical literary language, but of which we find sporadic traces in Apabhramsa. The existence of this base is further vouched for by its occurrence in the Iranian language of the Avesta under the form _ava-_. The base of the second pronoun is the same as the base of the first syllable in the Skr. _e-sas_, this, and other connected pronouns, and also occurs in the Avesta. Ap. _ehu_ is directly derived from _e-sas_.

There are other pronominal forms upon which, except perhaps _koi_ (Pr. _ko-vi_, Skr. _ko-'pi_), any one, it is unnecessary to dwell. The phrase _koi hai_? "Is any one (there)?" is the usual formula for calling a servant in upper India, and is the origin of the Anglo-Indian word "Qui-hi." The reflexive pronoun is _ap_ (Ap. _appu_, Skr. _atma_), self, which, something like the Latin _suus_ (Skr. _svas_), always refers to the subject of the sentence, but to all persons, not only to the third. Thus _mai apne_ (not _mere_) _bap-ko dekhta-hu_, "I see my father."

C. _Conjugation_.--The synthetic conjugation was already commencing to disappear in Prakrit, and in the modern languages the only original tenses which remain are the present, the imperative, and here and there the future. The first is now generally employed as a present subjunctive. In the accompanying table we have the conjugation of this tense, and also the three participles, present active, and past and future passive, compared with Apabhramsa, the verb selected being the intransitive root _call_ or _cal_, go. In Ap. the word may be spelt with one or with two _ls_, which accounts for the variations of spelling in the modern languages.

The imperative closely resembles the old present, except that it drops all terminations in the 2nd person singular; thus, _cal_, go thou.

In P. and H. a future is formed by adding the syllable _ga_ (fem. _gi_) to the simple present. Thus, H. _calu-ga_, I shall go. The _ga_ is commonly said to be derived from the Skr. _gatas_ (Pr. _gao_), gone, but this suggestion is not altogether acceptable to the present writer, although he is not now able to propose a better. Under the form of _-gau_ the same termination is used in Br., but in that dialect the old future has also survived, as in _calihau_ (Ap. _calihau_, Skr. _calisyami_), I shall go, which is conjugated like the simple present. The E.H. formation of the future is closely analogous to what we find in Bihari (q.v.). The third person is formed as in Braj Bhasha, but the first and second persons are formed by adding pronominal suffixes, meaning "by me," "by thee," &c., to the future passive participle.

+---------------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+ | | Apabhramsa.| Panjabi.| Hindostani.| Braj | Eastern | | | | | | Bjasja.| Hindi. | +---------------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+ | Old Present-- | | | | | | | Singular 1. | callau | calla | calu | calau | calau | | " 2. | callasi, | calle | cale | calai | calas | | | callahi | | | | | | " 3. | callai | calle | cale | calai | calai | | Plural 1. | callahu | calliye | cale | calai | calai | | " 2. | callahu | callo | calo | calau | calau | | " 3. | callanti, | callan | cale | calai | calai | | | callahi | | | | | | Present Participle | callanta-u | callda | calta | calatu | calat | | Past Part. Passive | callia-u | callia | cala | calyau | cala | | Future Part. Passive| callania-u | callna | calna | calnau | | | | calliavva-u| .. | .. | caliwau| calab | +---------------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+

Thus, _calab-u_, it-is-to-be-gone by-me, I shall go. We thus get the following forms. It will be observed that, as in many other Indo-Aryan languages, the first person plural has no suffix:--

Sing. Plur. 1. alabu calab 2. calabe calabo 3. calihai calihai

In old E.H. the future participle passive, _calab_, takes no suffix for any person, and is used for all persons.

The last remark leads us to a class of tenses in P. and W.H., in which a participle, by itself, can be employed for any person of a finite tense. A few examples of the use of the present and past participles will show the construction. They are all taken from Hindostani. _Woh calta_, he goes; _woh calti_, she goes; _mai cala_, I went; _woh cali_, she went; _we cale_, they went. The present participle in this construction, though it may be used to signify the present, is more commonly employed to signify a past conditional "(if) he had gone." It will have been observed that in the above examples, in all of which the verb is intransitive, the past as well as the present participle agrees with the subject in gender and number; but, if the verb be transitive, the passive meaning of the past participle comes into force. The subject must be put into the case of the agent, and the participle inflects to agree with the object. If the object be not expressed, or, as sometimes happens, be expressed in the dative case, the participle is construed impersonally, and takes the masculine (for want of a neuter) form. Thus, _mai-ne kaha_, by-me it-was-said, i.e. I said; _us-ne citthi likhi_, by-him a-letter (fem.) was-written, he wrote a letter; _raja-ne sherni-ko mara_, the king killed the tigress, lit., by-the-king, with-reference-to-the-tigress, it (impersonal) -was-killed. In the article PRAKRIT it is shown that the same construction is obtained in that language.

In E.H. the construction is the same, but is obscured by the fact that (as in the future) pronominal suffixes are added to the participle to indicate the person of the subject or of the agent, as in _calat-eu_, (if) I had gone; _cal-eu_, I went; _mar-eu_ (transitive), I struck, lit., struck-by-me; _mar-es_, struck-by-him, he struck. If the participle has to be feminine, it (although a weak form) takes the feminine termination _i_, as in _mari-u_, I struck her; _calati-u_, (if) I (fem.) had gone; _cali-u_, I (fem.) went.

Further tenses are formed by adding the verb substantive to these participles, as in H. _mai calta-hu_, I am going; _mai calta-tha_, I was going; _mai cala-hu_, I have gone; _mai cala-tha_, I had gone. These and other auxiliary verbs need not detain us long. They differ in the various languages. For "I am" we have P. _ha_, H. _hu_, Br. _hau_, E.H. _batyeu_ or _aheu_. For "I was" we have P. _si_ or _sa_, H. _tha_, Br. _hau_ or _hutau_, E.H. _raheu_. The H. _hu_ is thus conjugated:--

Sing. Plur. 1. hu hai 2. hai ho 3. hai hai

The derivation of _ha_, _hu_, _hau_, and _aheu_ is uncertain. They are usually derived from the Skr. _asmi_, I am; but this presents many difficulties. An old form of the third person singular is _hwai_, and this points to the Pr. _havai_, he is, equivalent to the Skr. _bhavati_, he becomes. On the other hand this does not account for the initial _a_ of _aheu_. This last word is in the _form_ of a past tense, and it may be a secondary formation from _asmi_. The P. _si_ is not a feminine of _sa_, as usually stated, but is a survival of the Skr. _asit_, Pr. _asi_, was. As in the Prakrit form, _si_ is employed for both genders, both numbers and all persons. _Sa_ is a secondary formation from this, on the analogy of the H. _tha_, which is from the Skr. _sthitas_, Pr. _thio_, stood, and is a participial form like _cal_a; thus, _woh tha_, he was; _woh thi_, she was. The Br. _hau_ is a modern past of _hau_, while _hutau_ is probably by origin a present participle of the Skr. _bhu_, become, Pr. _huntao_. The E.H. _bateu_, is the Skr. _varte_, Ap. _vattau_. _Raheu_ is the past tense of the root _rah_, remain.

The future participle passive is everywhere freely used as an infinitive or verbal noun; thus, H. _calna_, E.H. _calab_, the act of going, to go. There is a whole series of derivative verbal forms, making potential passives and transitives from intransitives, and causals (and even double causals) from transitives. Thus _dikhna_, to be seen; potential passive, _dikhana_, to be visible; transitive, _dekhna_, to see; causal, _dikhlana_, to show.

D. _Literature._--The literatures of Western and Eastern Hindi form the subject of a separate article (see HINDOSTANI LITERATURE). Panjabi has no formal literature. Even the _Granth_, the sacred book of the Sikhs, is mainly in archaic Western Hindi, only a small portion being in Panjabi. On the other hand, the language is peculiarly rich in folksongs and ballads, some of considerable length and great poetic beauty. The most famous is the ballad of _Hir_ and _Ranjha_ by Waris Shah, which is considered to be a model of pure Panjabi. Colonel Sir Richard Temple has published an important collection of these songs under the title of _The Legends of the Punjab_ (3 vols., Bombay and London, 1884-1900), in which both texts and translations of nearly all the favourite ones are to be found.

AUTHORITIES.--(a) General: The two standard authorities are the comparative grammars of J. Beames (1872-1879) and A. F. R. Hoernle (1880), mentioned in the article INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES. To these may be added G. A. Grierson, "On the Radical and Participial Tenses of the Modern Indo-Aryan Languages" in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. lxiv. (1895), part i. pp. 352 et seq.; and "On Certain Suffixes in the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars" in the _Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen_ for 1903, pp. 473 et seq.

(b) For the separate languages, see C. J. Lyall, _A Sketch of the Hindustani Language_ (Edinburgh, 1880); S. H. Kellogg, _A Grammar of the Hindi Language_ (for both Western and Eastern Hindi), (2nd ed., London, 1893); J. T. Platts, _A Grammar of the Hindustani or Urdu Language_ (London, 1874); and _A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English_ (London, 1884); E. P. Newton, _Panjabi Grammar: with Exercises and Vocabulary_ (Ludhiana, 1898); and Bhai Maya Singh, _The Panjabi Dictionary_ (Lahore, 1895). _The Linguistic Survey of India_, vol. vi., describes Eastern Hindi, and vol. ix., Hindostani and Panjabi, in each instance in great detail. (G. A. Gr.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Hindostan" is a Persian word, and in modern Persian is pronounced "Hindustan." It means the country of the Hindus. In medieval Persian the word was "Hindostan," with an _o_, but in the modern language the distinctions between _e_ and _i_ and between _o_ and _u_ have been lost. Indian languages have borrowed Persian words in their medieval form. Thus in India we have _sher_, a tiger, as compared with modern Persian _shir_; _go_, but modern Pers. _gu_; _bostan_, but modern Pers. _bustan_. The word "Hindu" is in medieval Persian "Hindo" representing the ancient Avesta _hendava_ (Sanskrit, _saindhava_), a dweller on the _Sindhu_ or Indus. Owing to the influence of scholars in modern Persian the word "Hindu" is now established in English and, through English, in the Indian literary languages; but "Hindo" is also often heard in India. "Hindostan" with _o_ is much more common both in English and in Indian languages, although "Hindustan" is also employed. Up to the days of Persian supremacy inaugurated in Calcutta by Gilchrist and his friends, every traveller in India spoke of "Indostan" or some such word, thus bearing testimony to the current pronunciation. Gilchrist introduced "Hindoostan," which became "Hindustan" in modern spelling. The word is not an Indian one, and both pronunciations, with _o_ and with _u_, are current in India at the present day, but that with _o_ is unquestionably the one demanded by the history of the word and of the form which other Persian words take on Indian soil. On the other hand "Hindu" is too firmly established in English for us to suggest the spelling "Hindo.". The word "Hindi" has another derivation, being formed from the Persian _Hind_, India (Avesta _hindu_, Sanskrit _sindhu_, the Indus). "Hindi" means "of or belonging to India," while "Hindu" now means "a person of the Hindu religion." (Cf. Sir C. J. Lyall, _A Sketch of the Hindustani Language_, p. 1).

[2] Sir C. J. Lyall, _op. cit._ p. 9.

[3] This and the preceding paragraph are partly taken from Mr Platts's article in vol. xi. of the 9th edition of this encyclopaedia.

[4] In some dialects of W.H. weak forms have masculines ending in u and corresponding feminines in _i_, but these are nowadays rarely met in the literary forms of speech. In old poetry they are common. In Braj Bhasha they have survived in the present participle.

HINDOSTANI LITERATURE. The writings dealt with in this article are those composed in the vernacular of that part of India which is properly called Hindostan,--that is, the valleys of the Jumna and Ganges rivers as far east as the river Kos, and the tract to the south including Rajputana, Central India (Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand), the Narmada (Nerbudda) valley as far west as Khandwa, and the northern half of the Central Provinces. It does not include the Punjab proper (though the town population there speak Hindostani), nor does it extend to Lower Bengal.

In this region several different dialects prevail. The people of the towns everywhere use chiefly the form of the language called _Urdu_ or _Rekhta_,[1] stocked with Persian words and phrases, and ordinarily written in a modification of the Persian character. The country folk (who form the immense majority) speak different varieties of _Hindi_, of which the word-stock derives from the Prakrits and literary Sanskrit, and which are written in the Devanagari or Kaithi character. Of these the most important from a literary point of view, proceeding from west to east, are _Marwari_ and _Jaipuri_ (the languages of Rajputana), _Brajbhasha_ (the language of the country about Mathura and Agra), _Kanauji_ (the language of the lower Ganges-Jumna Doab and western Rohilkhand), _Eastern Hindi_, also called _Awadhi_ and _Baiswari_ (the language of Eastern Rohilkhand, Oudh and the Benares division of the United Provinces) and _Bihari_ (the language of Bihar or Mithila, comprising several distinct dialects). What is called _High Hindi_ is a modern development, for literary purposes, of the dialect of Western Hindi spoken in the neighbourhood of Delhi and thence northwards to the Himalaya, which has formed the vernacular basis of Urdu; the Persian words in the latter have been eliminated and replaced by words of Sanskritic origin, and the order of words in the sentence which is proper to the indigenous speech is more strictly adhered to than in Urdu, which under the influence of Persian constructions has admitted many inversions.

As in many other countries, nearly all the early vernacular literature of Hindostan is in verse, and works in prose are a modern growth.[2] Both Hindi and Urdu are, in their application to literary purposes, at first intruders upon the ground already occupied by the learned languages Sanskrit and Persian, the former representing Hindu and the latter Musalman culture. But there is this difference between them, that, whereas Hindi has been raised to the dignity of a literary speech chiefly by impulses of revolt against the monopoly of the Brahmans, Urdu has been cultivated with goodwill by authors who have themselves highly valued and dexterously used the polished Persian. Both Sanskrit and Persian continue to be employed occasionally for composition by Indian writers, though much fallen from their former estate; but for popular purposes it may be said that their vernacular rivals are now almost in sole possession of the field.

The subject may be conveniently divided as follows:--

1. Early Hindi, of the period during which the language was being fashioned as a literary medium out of the ancient Prakrits, represented by the old heroic poems of Rajputana and the literature of the early _Bhagats_ or Vaishnava reformers, and extending from about A.D. 1100 to 1550;

2. Middle Hindi, representing the best age of Hindi poetry, and reaching from about 1550 to the end of the 18th century;

3. The rise and development of literary Urdu, beginning about the end of the 16th century, and reaching its height during the 18th;

4. The modern period, marked by the growth of a prose literature in both dialects, and dating from the beginning of the 19th century.

1. _Early Hindi._--Our knowledge of the ancient metrical chronicles of Rajputana is still very imperfect, and is chiefly derived from the monumental work of Colonel James Tod, called _The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan_ (published in 1829-1832), which is founded on them. It is in the nature of compositions of this character to be subjected to perpetual revision and recasting; they are the production of the family bards of the dynasties whose fortunes they record, and from generation to generation they are added to, and their language constantly modified to make it intelligible to the people of the time. Round an original nucleus of historical fact a rich growth of legend accumulates; later redactors endeavour to systematize and to assign dates, but the result is not often such as to inspire confidence; and the mass has more the character of ballad literature than of serious history. The materials used by Tod are nearly all still unprinted; his manuscripts are now deposited in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in London; and one of the tasks which, on linguistic and historical grounds, should first be undertaken by the investigator of early Hindi literature is the examination and sifting, and the publication in their original form, of these important texts.

Omitting a few fragments of more ancient bards given by compilers of accounts of Hindi literature, the earliest author of whom any portion has as yet been published in the original text is Chand Bardai, the court bard of Prithwi-Raj, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. His poem, entitled _Prithi-Raj Rasau_ (or _Raysa_), is a vast chronicle in 69 books or cantos, comprising a general history of the period when he wrote. Of this a small portion has been printed, partly under the editorship of the late Mr John Beames and partly under that of Dr Rudolf Hoernle, by the Asiatic Society of Bengal; but the excessively difficult nature of the task prevented both scholars from making much progress.[3] Chand, who came of a family of bards, was a native of Lahore, which had for nearly 170 years (since 1023) been under Muslim rule when he flourished, and the language of the poem exhibits a considerable leaven of Persian words. In its present form the work is a redaction made by Amar Singh of Mewar, about the beginning of the 17th century, and therefore more than 400 years after Chand's death, with his patron Prithwi-Raj, in 1193. There is, therefore, considerable reason to doubt whether we have in it much of Chand's composition in its original shape; and the nature of the incidents described enhances this doubt. The detailed dates contained in the Chronicle have been shown by Kabiraj Syamal Das[4] to be in every case about ninety years astray. It tells of repeated conflicts between the hero Prithwi-Raj and Sultan Shihabuddin, of Ghor (Muhammad Ghori), in which the latter always, except in the last great battle, comes off the worst, is taken prisoner and is released on payment of a ransom; these seem to be entirely unhistorical, our contemporary Persian authorities knowing of only one encounter (that of Tirauri (Tirawari) near Thenesar, fought in 1191) in which the Sultan was defeated, and even then he escaped uncaptured to Lahore. The Mongols (Book XV.) are brought on the stage more than thirty years before they actually set foot in India, and are related to have been vanquished by the redoubtable Prithwi-Raj. It is evident that such a record cannot possibly be, in its entirety, a contemporary chronicle; but nevertheless it appears to contain a considerable element which, from its language, may belong to Chand's own age, and represents the earliest surviving document in Hindi. "Though we may not possess the actual text of Chand, we have certainly in his writings some of the oldest known specimens of Gaudian literature, abounding in pure Apabhramsa Sauraseni Prakrit forms" (Grierson).

It is very difficult now to form a just estimate of the poem as literature. The language, essentially transitional in character, consists largely of words which have long since died out of the vernacular speech. Even the most learned Hindus of the present day are unable to interpret it with confidence; and the meaning of the verses must be sought by investigating the processes by which Sanskrit and Prakrit forms have been transfigured in their progress into Hindi. Chand appears, on the whole, to exhibit the merits and defects of ballad chroniclers in general. There is much that is lively and spirited in his descriptions of fight or council; and the characters of the Rajput warriors who surround his hero are often sketched in their utterances with skill and animation. The sound, however, frequently predominates over the sense; the narrative is carried on with the wearisome iteration and tedious unfolding of familiar themes and images which characterize all such poetry in India; and his value, for us at least, is linguistic rather than literary.

Chand may be taken as the representative of a long line of successors, continued even to the present day in the Rajput states. Many of their compositions are still widely popular as ballad literature, but are known only in oral versions sung in Hindostan by professional singers. One of the most famous of these is the _Alha-khand_, reputed to be the work of a contemporary of Chand called Jagnik or Jagnayak, of Mahoba in Bundelkhand, who sang the praises of Raja-Parmal, a ruler whose wars with Prithwi-Raj are recorded in the Mahoba-Khand of Chand's work. Alha and Udal, the heroes of the poem, are famous warriors in popular legend, and the stories connected with them exist in an eastern recension, current in Bihar, as well as in the Bundelkhandi or western form which is best known. Two versions of the latter have been printed, having been taken down as recited by illiterate professional rhapsodists. Another celebrated bard was Sarangdhar of Rantambhor, who flourished in 1363, and sang the praises of Hammir Deo (Hamir Deo), the Chauhan chief of Rantambhor who fell in a heroic struggle against Sultan 'Ala'uddin Khilji in 1300. He wrote the _Hammir Kavya_ and _Hammir Rasau_, of which an account is given by Tod;[5] he was also a poet in Sanskrit, in which language he compiled, in 1363, the anthology called _Sarngadhara-Paddhati_. Another work which may be mentioned (though much more modern) is the long chronicle entitled _Chhattra-Prakas_, or the history of Raja Chhatarsal, the Bundela raja of Panna, who was killed, fighting on behalf of Prince Dara-Shukoh, in the battle of Dholpur won by Aurangzeb in 1658. The author, Lal Kabi, has given in this work a history of the valiant Bundela nation which was rendered into English by Captain W. R. Pogson in 1828, and printed at Calcutta.

Before passing on to the more important branch of early Hindi literature, the works of the _Bhagats_, mention may be made here of a remarkable composition, a poem entitled the _Padmawat_, the materials of which are derived from the heroic legends of Rajputana, but which is not the work of a bard nor even of a Hindu. The author, Malik Muhammad of Ja'is, in Oudh, was a venerated Muslim devotee, to whom the Hindu raja of Amethi was greatly attached. Malik Muhammad wrote the Padmawat in 1540, the year in which Sher Shah Sur ousted Humayan from the throne of Delhi. The poem is composed in the purest vernacular Awadhi, with no admixture of traditional Hindu learning, and is generally to be found written in the Persian character, though the metres and language are thoroughly Indian. It professes to tell the tale of Padmawati or Padmini, a princess celebrated for her beauty who was the wife of the Chauhan raja of Chitor in Mewar. The historical Padmini's husband was named Bhim Singh, but Malik Muhammad calls him Ratan Sen; and the story turns upon the attempts of 'Ala'uddin Khilji, the sovereign of Delhi, to gain possession of her person. The tale of the siege of Chitor in 1303 by 'Ala'uddin, the heroic stand made by its defenders, who perished to the last man in fight with the Sultan's army, and the self-immolation of Padmini and the other women, the wives and daughters of the warriors, by the fiery death called _johar_, will be found related in Tod's _Rajasthan_, i. 262 sqq. Malik Muhammad takes great liberties with the history, and explains at the end of the poem that all is an allegory, and that the personages represent the human soul, Divine wisdom, Satan, delusion and other mystical characters.

Both on account of its interest as a true vernacular work, and as the composition of a Musalman who has taken the incidents of his morality from the legends of his country and not from an exotic source, the poem is memorable. It has often been lithographed, and is very popular; a translation has even been made into Sanskrit. A critical edition has been prepared by Dr G. A. Grierson and Pandit Sudhakar Dwivedi.

The other class of composition which is characteristic of the period of early Hindi, the literature of the _Bhagats_, or Vaishnava saints, who propagated the doctrine of _bhakti_, or faith in Vishnu, as the popular religion of Hindostan, has exercised a much more powerful influence both upon the national speech and upon the themes chosen for poetic treatment. It is also, as a body of literature, of high intrinsic interest for its form and content. Nearly the whole of subsequent poetical composition in Hindi is impressed with one or other type of Vaishnava doctrine, which, like Buddhism many centuries before, was essentially a reaction against Brahmanical influence and the chains of caste, a claim for the rights of humanity in face of the monopoly which the "twice-born" asserted of learning, of worship, of righteousness. A large proportion of the writers were non-Brahmans, and many of them of the lowest castes. As Siva was the popular deity of the Brahmans, so was Vishnu of the people; and while the literature of the Saivas and Saktas[6] is almost entirely in Sanskrit, and exercised little or no influence on the popular mind in northern India, that of the Vaishnavas is largely in Hindi, and in itself constitutes the great bulk of what has been written in that language.

The Vaishnava doctrine is commonly carried back to Ramanuja, a Brahman who was born about the end of the 11th century, at Perambur in the neighbourhood of the modern Madras, and spent his life in southern India. His works, which are in Sanskrit and consist of commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras, are devoted to establishing "the personal existence of a Supreme Deity, possessing every gracious attribute, full of love and pity for the sinful beings who adore him, and granting the released soul a home of eternal bliss near him--a home where each soul never loses its identity, and whose state is one of perfect peace."[7] In the Deity's infinite love and pity he has on several occasions become incarnate for the salvation of mankind, and of these incarnations two, Ramachandra, the prince of Ayodhya, and Krishna, the chief of the Yadava clan and son of Vasudeva, are pre-eminently those in which it is most fitting that he should be worshipped. Both of these incarnations had for many centuries[8] attracted popular veneration, and their histories had been celebrated by poets in epics and by weavers of religious myths in _Puranas_ or "old stories"; but it was apparently Ramanuja's teaching which secured for them, and especially for Ramachandra, their exclusive place as the objects of _bhakti_--ardent faith and personal devotion addressed to the Supreme. The adherents of Ramanuja were, however, all Brahmans, and observed very strict rules in respect of food, bathing and dress; the new doctrine had not yet penetrated to the people.

Whether Ramanuja himself gave the preference to Rama against Krishna as the form of Vishnu most worthy of worship is uncertain. He dealt mainly with philosophic conceptions of the Divine Nature, and probably busied himself little with mythological legend. His _mantra_, or formula of initiation, if Wilson[9] was correctly informed, implies devotion to Rama; but Vasudeva (Krishna) is also mentioned as a principal object of adoration, and Ramanuja himself dwelt for several years in Mysore, at a temple erected by the raja, at Yadavagiri in honour of Krishna in his form Ranchhor.[10] It is stated that in his worship of Krishna he joined with that god as his _Sakti_, or Energy, his wife Rukmini; while the later varieties of Krishna-worship prefer to honour his mistress Radha. The great difference, in temper and influence upon life, between these two forms of Vaishnava faith appears to be a development subsequent to Ramanuja; but by the time of Jaideo (about 1250) it is clear that the theme of Krishna and Radha, and the use of passionate language drawn from the relations of the sexes to express the longings of the soul for God, had become fully established; and from that time onwards the two types of Vaishnava religious emotion diverged more and more from one another.

The cult of Rama is founded on family life, and the relation of the worshipper to the Deity is that of a child to a father. The morality it inculcates springs from the sacred sources of human piety which in all religions have wrought most in favour of pureness of life, of fraternal helpfulness and of humble devotion to a loving and tender Parent, who desires the good of mankind, His children, and hates violence and wrong. That of Krishna, on the other hand, had for its basis the legendary career of a less estimable human hero, whose exploits are marked by a kind of elvish and fantastic wantonness; it has more and more spent its energy in developing that side of devotion which is perilously near to sensual thought, and has allowed the imagination and ingenuity of poets to dwell on things unmeet for verse or even for speech. It is claimed for those who first opened this way to faith that their hearts were pure and their thoughts innocent, and that the language of erotic passion which they use as the vehicle of their religious emotion is merely mystical and allegorical. This is probable; but that these beginnings were followed by corruption in the multitude, and that the fervent impulses of adoration made way in later times for those of lust and lasciviousness, seems beyond dispute.

The worship of Krishna, especially in his infant and youthful form (which appeals chiefly to women), is widely popular in the neighbourhood of Mathura, the capital of that land of Braj where as a boy he lived. Its literature is mainly composed in the dialect of this region, called Brajbhasha. That of Rama, though general throughout Hindostan, has since the time of Tulsi Das adopted for poetic use the language of Oudh, called Awadhi or Baiswari, a form of Eastern Hindi easily understood throughout the whole of the Gangetic valley. Thus these two dialects came to be, what they are to this day, the standard vehicles of poetic expression.

Subsequently to Ramanuja his doctrine appears to have been set forth, about 1250, in the vernacular of the people by Jaideo, a Brahman born at Kinduvilva, the modern Kenduli, in the Birbhum district of Bengal, author of the Sanskrit _Gita Govinda_, and by Namdeo or Nama, a tailor[11] of Maharashtra, of both of whom verses in the popular speech are preserved in the _Adi Granth_ of the Sikhs. But it was not until the beginning of the 15th century that the Brahman Ramanand, a prominent _Gosain_ of the sect of Ramanuja, having had a dispute with the members of his order in regard to the stringent rules observed by them, left the community, migrated to northern India (where he is said to have made his headquarters Galta in Rajputana), and addressed himself to those outside the Brahman caste, thus initiating the teaching of Vaishnavism as the popular faith of Hindostan. Among his twelve disciples or apostles were a Rajput, a Jat, a leather-worker, a barber and a Musalman weaver; the last-mentioned was the celebrated KABIR (see separate article). One short Hindi poem by Ramanand is contained in the _Adi Granth_, and Dr Grierson has collected hymns (_bhajans_) attributed to him and still current in Mithila or Tirhut. Both Ramanand and Kabir were adherents of the form of Vaishnavism where devotion is specially addressed to Raama, who is regarded not only as an incarnation, but as himself identical with the Deity. A contemporary of Ramanand, Bidyapati Thakur, is celebrated as the author of numerous lyrics in the Maithili dialect of Bihar, expressive of the other side of Vaishnavism, the passionate adoration of the Deity in the person of Krishna, the aspirations of the worshipper being mystically conveyed in the character of Radha, the cowherdess of Braj and the beloved of the son of Vasudeva. These stanzas of Bidyapati (who was a Brahman and author of several works in Sanskrit) afterwards inspired the Vaishnava literature of Bengal, whose most celebrated exponent was Chaitanya (b. 1484). Another famous adherent of the same cult was Mira Bai, "the one great poetess of northern India" (Grierson). This lady, daughter of Raja Ratiya Rana, Rathor, of Merta in Rajputana, must have been born about the beginning of the 15th century; she was married in 1413 to Raja Kumbhkaran of Mewar, who was killed by his son Uday Rana in 1469. She was devoted to Krishna in the form of Ranchhor, and her songs have a wide currency in northern India.

An important compilation of the utterances of the early Vaishnava saints or _Bhagats_ is contained in the sacred book, or _Adi Granth_, of the Sikh _Gurus_. Nanak, the founder of this sect (1469-1538), though a native of the Punjab (born at Talvandi on the Ravi near Lahore), took his doctrine from the _Bhagats_ (see KABIR); and each of the thirty-one _rags_, forming the body of the _Granth_, is followed by a compilation of texts from the utterances of Vaishnava saints, chiefly of Kabir, in confirmation of the teaching of the _Gurus_, while the whole book is closed by a _bhog_ or conclusion, containing more verses by the same authors, as well as by a celebrated Indian Sufi, Shekh Farid of Pakpattan. The body of the _Granth_ (q.v.), being in old Panjabi, falls outside the scope of this article; but the extracts included in it from the early writers of old Hindi are a precious store of specimens of authors some of whom have left no other record in the surviving literature. The _Adi Granth_, which was put together about 1600 by Arjun, the fifth _Guru_ of the Sikhs, sets forth the creed of the sect in its original pietistic form, before it assumed the militant character which afterwards distinguished it under the five _Gurus_ who succeeded him.

2. _Middle Hindi._--The second period, that of middle Hindi, begins with the reign of the Emperor Akbar (1556-1605); and it is not improbable that the broad and liberal views of this great monarch, his active sympathy with his Hindu subjects, the interest which he took in their religion and literature, and the peace which his organization of the empire secured for Hindostan, had an important effect on the great development of Hindi poetry which now set in.[12] Akbar's court was itself a centre of poetical composition. The court musician Tan Sen (who was also a poet) is still renowned, and many verses composed by him in the Emperor's name live to this day in the memory of the people. Akbar's favourite minister and companion, Raja Birbal (who fell in battle on the north-western frontier in 1583), was a musician and a poet as well as a politician, and held the title, conferred by the Emperor, of _Kabi-Ray_, or poet laureate; his verses and witty sayings are still extremely popular in northern India, though no complete work by him is known to exist. Other nobles of the court were also poets, among them the _Khan-khanan_ 'Abdur-Rahim, son of Bairam Khan, whose Hindi _dohas_ and _kabittas_ are still held in high estimation, and Faizi, brother of the celebrated Abul-Fazl, the Emperor's annalist.

By this time the worship of Krishna as the lover of Radha _(Radha-ballabh)_ had been systematized, and a local habitation found for it at Gokul, opposite Mathura on the Jumna, some 30 m. upstream from Agra, Akbar's capital, by Vallabhacharya, a Tailinga Brahman from Madras. Born in 1478, in 1497 he chose the land of Braj as his headquarters, thence making missionary tours throughout India. He wrote chiefly, if not entirely, in Sanskrit; but among his immediate followers, and those of his son Bitthalnath (who succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1530), were some of the most eminent poets in Hindi. Four disciples of Vallabhacharya and four of Bitthalnath, who flourished between 1550 and 1570, are known as the _Asht Chhap_, or "Eight Seals," and are the acknowledged masters of the literature of Braj-bhasha, in which dialect they all wrote. Their names are Krishna-Das Pay-ahari, Sur Das (the Bhat), Parmanand Das, Kumbhan Das, Chaturbhuj Das, Chhit Swami, Nand Das and Gobind Das. Of these much the most celebrated, and the only one whose verses are still popular, is Sur Das. The son of Baba Ram Das, who was a singer at Akbar's court, Sur Das was descended, according to his own statement, from the bard of Prithwi-Raj, Chand Bardai. A tradition gives the date of his birth as 1483, and that of his death as 1573; but both seem to be placed too early, and in Abul-Fazl's _Ain-i Akbari_ he is mentioned as living when that work was completed (1596/7). He was blind, and entirely devoted to the worship of Krishna, to whose address he composed a great number of hymns (_bhajans_), which have been collected in a compilation entitled the _Sur Sagar_, said to contain 60,000 verses; this work is very highly esteemed as the high-water mark of Braj devotional poetry, and has been repeatedly printed in India. Other compositions by him were a translation in verse of the _Bhagavata Purana_, and a poem dealing with the famous story of Nala and Damayanti; of the latter no copies are now known to exist.

The great glory of this age is Tulsi Das (q.v.). He and Sur Das between them are held to have exhausted the possibilities of the poetic art. It is somewhat remarkable that the time of their appearance coincided with the Elizabethan age of English literature.

To these great masters succeeded a period of artifice and reflection, when many works were composed dealing with the rules of poetry and the analysis and the appropriate language of sentiment. Of their writers the most famous is Kesab Das, a Brahman of Bundelkhand, who flourished during the latter part of Akbar's reign and the beginning of that of Jahangir. His works are the _Rasik-priya_, on composition (1591), the _Kavi-priya_, on the laws of poetry (1601), a highly esteemed poem dedicated to Parbin Rai Paturi, a celebrated courtesan of Orchha in Bundelkhand, the _Ramachandrika_, dealing with the history of Rama, (1610), and the _Vigyan-gita_ (1610). The fruit of this elaboration of the poetic art reached its highest perfection in BIHARI LAL, whose _Sat-sai_, or "seven centuries" (1662), is the most remarkable example in Hindi of the rhetorical style in poetry (see separate article).

Side by side with this cultivation of the literary use of the themes of Rama and Krishna, there grew up a class of compositions dealing, in a devotional spirit, with the lives and doings of the holy men from whose utterances and example the development of the popular religion proceeded. The most famous of these is the _Bhakta-mala_, or "Roll of the _Bhagats_," by Narayan Das, otherwise called Nabha Das, or Nabhaji. This author, who belonged to the despised caste of Doms and was a native of the Deccan, had in his youth seen Tulsi Das at Mathura, and himself flourished in the first half of the 17th century. His work consists of 108 stanzas in _chhappai_ metre, each setting forth the characteristics of some holy personage, and expressed in a style which is extremely brief and obscure. Its exact date is unknown, but it falls between 1585 and 1623. The book was furnished with a _ika_ (supplement or gloss) in the _kabitta_ metre, by Priya Das in 1713, gathering up, in an allusive and disjointed fashion, all the legendary stories related of each saint. This again was expanded about a century later by a modern author named Lachhman into a detailed work of biography, called the _Bhakta-sindhu_. From these nearly all our knowledge (such as it is) of the lives of the Vaishnava authors, both of the Rama and the Krishna cults, is derived, and much of it is of a very legendary and untrustworthy character. Another work, somewhat earlier in date than the _Bhakta-mala_, named the _Chaurasi Varta_, is devoted exclusively to stories of the followers of Vallabhacharya. It is reputed to have been written by Gokulnath, son of Bitthalnath, son of Vallabhacharya, and is dated in 1551.

The matter of these tales is justly characterized by Professor Wilson[13] (who gives some translated specimens) as "marvellous and insipid anecdotes"; but the book is remarkable for being in very artless prose, and, though written more than 300 years ago, shows that the current language of Braj was then almost precisely identical with that now spoken in that region. A specimen of the text will be found at p. 296 of Mr F. S. Growse's _Mathura, a District Memoir_ (3rd ed., 1883).

It would be tedious to enumerate the many authors who succeeded the great period of Hind poetical composition which extended through the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan. None of them attained to the fame of Sur Das, Tuls Das or Bihari Lal. Their themes exhibit no novelty, and they repeat with a wearisome monotony the sentiments of their predecessors. The list of Hindi authors drawn up by Dr G. A. Grierson, and printed in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ in 1889, may be consulted for the names and works of these _epigoni_. The courts of Chhatarsal, raja of Panna in Bundelkhand, who was killed in battle with Aurangzeb in 1658, and of several rajas of Bandho (now called Riwan or Rewah) in Baghelkhand, were famous for their patronage of poets; and the Mogul court itself kept up the office of _Kabi-Ray_ or poet laureate even during the fanatical reign of Aurangzeb.

Such, in the briefest outline, is the character of Hind literature during the period when it grew and flourished through its own original forces. Founded by a popular and religious impulse in many respects comparable to that which, nearly 1600 years before, had produced the doctrine and literature, in the vernacular tongue, of Jainism and Buddhism, and cultivated largely (though by no means exclusively) by authors not belonging to the Brahmanical order, it was the legitimate descendant in spirit, as Hindi is the legitimate descendant in speech, of the Prakrit literature which preceded it. Entirely in verse, it adopted and elaborated the Prakrit metrical forms, and carried them to a pitch of perfection too often overlooked by those who concern themselves rather with the substance than the form of the works they read. It covers a wide range of style, and expresses, in the works of its greatest masters, a rich variety of human feeling. Little studied by Europeans in the past, it deserves much more attention than it has received. The few who have explored it speak of it as an "enchanted garden" (Grierson), abounding in beauties of thought and phrase. Above all it is to be remembered that it is genuinely popular, and has reached strata of society scarcely touched by literature in Europe. The ballads of Rajput prowess, the aphorisms of Kabir, Tulsi Das's _Ramayan_, and the _bhajans_ of Sur Das are to this day carried about everywhere by wandering minstrels, and have found their way, throughout the great plains of northern India and the uplands of the Vindhya plateau, to the hearts of the people. There is no surer key to unlock the confidence of the villager than an apt quotation from one of these inspired singers.

3. _Literary Urdu._--The _origines_ of Urdu as a literary language are somewhat obscure. The popular account refers its rise to the time of Timur's invasion (1398). Some authors even claim for it a higher antiquity, asserting that a _diwan_, or collection of poems, was composed in _Rekhta_ by Mas'ud, son of Sa'd, in the last half of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century, and that Sa'di of Shiraz and his friend Amir Khusrau[14] of Delhi likewise made verses in that dialect before the end of the 13th century. This, however, is very improbable. It has already been seen that during the early centuries of Muslim rule in India adherents of that faith used the language and metrical forms of the country for their compositions. Persian words early made their way into the popular speech; they are common in Chand, and in Kabir's verses (which are nevertheless unquestionable Hindi) they are in many places used as freely as in the modern dialect. Much of the confusion which besets the subject is due to the want of a clear understanding of what Urdu, as opposed to Hindi, really is.

Urdu, as a literary language, differs from Hindi rather in its form than in its substance. The grammar, and to a large extent the vocabulary, of both are the same. The really vital point of difference, that in which Hindi and Urdu are incommensurable, is the _prosody_. Hardly one of the metres taken over by Urdu poets from Persian agrees with those used in Hindi. In the latter language it is the rule to give the short _a_ inherent in every consonant or _nexus_ of consonants its full value in scansion (though in prose it is no longer heard), except occasionally at the metrical pause; in Urdu this is never done, the words being scanned generally as pronounced in prose, with a few exceptions which need not be mentioned here. The great majority of Hindi metres are scanned by the number of _matras_ or syllabic instants--the value in time of a short syllable--of which the lines consist; in Urdu, as in Persian, the metre follows a special order of long and short syllables.

The question, then, is not When did Persian first become intermixed with Hindi in the literary speech?--for this process began with the first entry of Muslim conquerors into India, and continued for centuries before a line of Urdu verse was composed; nor When was the Persian character first employed to write Hindi?--for the written form is but a subordinate matter; as already mentioned, the MSS. of Malik Muhammad's purely Hindi poem, the _Padmawat_, are ordinarily found to be written in the Persian character; and copies lithographed in Devanagari of the popular compositions of the Urdu poet Nazir are commonly procurable in the bazars. We must ask When was the first verse composed in Hindi, whether with or without foreign admixture, according to the forms of Persian prosody, and not in those of the indigenous metrical system? Then, and not till then, did Urdu poetry come into being. This appears to have happened, as already mentioned, about the end of the 16th century. Meantime the vernacular speech had been gradually permeated with Persian words and phrases. The impulse which Akbar's interest in his Hindu subjects had given to the translation of Sanskrit works into Persian had brought the indigenous and the foreign literatures into contact. The current language of the neighbourhood of the capital, the Hindi spoken about Delhi and thence northwards to the Himalaya, was naturally the form of the vernacular which was most subject to foreign influences; and with the extension of Mogul territory by the conquests in the south of Akbar and his successors, this idiom was carried abroad by their armies, and was adopted by the Musalman kingdoms of the Deccan as their court language some time before their overthrow by the campaigns of Aurangzeb.

It is not a little remarkable that, as happened with the Vaishnava reformation initiated by Ramanuja and Ramanand, and with the Vallabhacharya cult of Krishna established at Mathura, the first impulse to literary composition in Urdu should have been given, not at the headquarters of the empire in the north, but at the Muhammadan courts of Golkonda and Bijapur in the south, the former situated amid an indigenous population speaking Telugu, and the latter among one whose speech was Kanarese, both Dravidian languages having nothing in common with the Aryan tongues of the north. This fact of itself defines the nature of the literature thus inaugurated. It had nothing to do with the idiom or ideas of the people among whom it was born, but was from the beginning an imitation of Persian models. It adopted the standards of form and content current among the poets of Eran. The _qasida_ or laudatory ode, the _ghazal_ or love-sonnet, usually of mystical import, the _marsiya_ or dirge, the _masnavi_ or narrative poem with coupled rhymes, the _hija_ or satire, the _ruba'i_ or epigram--these were the types which Urdu took over ready-made. And with the forms were appropriated also all the conventions of poetic diction. The Persians, having for centuries treated the same themes with a fecundity which most Europeans find extremely wearisome, had elaborated a system of rhetoric and a stock of poetic images which, in the exhaustion of original matter, made the success of the poet depend chiefly upon dexterity of artifice and cleverness of conceit. Pleasing hyperbole, ingenious comparison, antithesis, alliteration, carefully arranged gradation of noun and epithet, are the means employed to obtain variety; and few of the most eloquent passages of later Persian verse admit of translation into any other language without losing that which in the original makes their whole charm. What is true of Persian is likewise true of Urdu poetry. Until quite modern times, there is scarcely anything in it which can be called original.[15] Differences of school, which are made much of by native critics, are to us hardly perceptible; they consist in the use of one or other range of metaphor or comparison, classed, according as they repeat the well-worn poetical stock-in-trade of the Persians, or seek a slightly fresher and more Indian field of sentiment, as the old or the new style of composition.

Shuja'uddin Nuri, a native of Gujarat, a friend of Faizi and contemporary of Akbar, is mentioned by the native biographers as the most ancient Urdu poet after Amir Khusrau. He was tutor of the son of the _wazir_ of Sultan Abu-l-Hasan Kutb Shah of Golkonda, and several _ghazals_ by him are said to survive. Kuli Kutb Shah of Golkonda, who reigned from 1581, and his successor 'Abdullah Kutb Shah, who came to the throne in 1611, have both left collections of verse, including _ghazals_, _ruba'is_, _masnavis_ and _qasidas_. And during the reign of the latter Ibn Nishati wrote two works which are still famous as models of composition in Dakhni; they are _masnavis_ entitled the _Tuti-nama_, or "Tales of a Parrot," and the _Phul-ban_. The first, written in 1639, is an adaptation of a Persian work by Nakhshabi, but derives ultimately from a Sanskrit original entitled the _Suka-saptati_; this collection has been frequently rehandled in Urdu, both in verse and prose, and is the original of the _Tota-Kahani_, one of the first works in Urdu prose, composed in 1801 by Muhammad Haidar-bakhsh Haidari of the Fort William College. The _Phul-ban_ is a love tale named from its heroine, said to be translated from a Persian work entitled the _Basatin_. Another famous work which probably belongs to the same place and time is the _Story of Kamrup and Kala_ by Tahsinuddin, a _masnavi_ which has been published (1836) by M. Garcin de Tassy; what makes this poem remarkable is that, though the work of a Musalman, its personages are Hindu. Kamrup, the hero, is son of the king of Oudh, and the heroine, Kala, daughter of the king of Ceylon; the incidents somewhat resemble those of the tale of as-Sindibad in the _Thousand and One Nights_; the hero and heroine dream one of the other, and the former sets forth to find his beloved; his wanderings take him to many strange countries and through many wonderful adventures, ending in a happy marriage.

The court of Bijapur was no less distinguished in literature. Ibrahim 'Adil Shah (1579-1626) was the author of a work in verse on music entitled the _Nau-ras_ or "Nine Savours," which, however, appears to have been in Hindi rather than Urdu; the three prefaces (_dibajas_) to this poem were rendered into Persian prose by Maula Zuhuri, and, under the name of the _Sih nasr-i Zuhuri_, are well-known models of style. A successor of this prince, 'Ali 'Adil Shah, had as his court poet a Brahman known poetically as Nusrati, who in 1657 composed a _masnavi_ of some repute entitled the _Gulshan-i 'Ishq_, or "Rose-garden of Love," a romance relating the history of Prince Manohar and Madmalati,--like the _Kamrup_, an Indian theme. The same poet is author of an extremely long _masnavi_ entitled the _'Ali-nama_, celebrating the monarch under whom he lived.

These early authors, however, were but pioneers; the first generally accepted standard of form, a standard which suffered little change in two centuries, was established by Wali of Aurangabad (about 1680-1720) and his contemporary and fellow-townsman Siraj. The former of these is commonly called "the Father of Rekhtah"--_Baba-e Rekhta_; and all accounts agree that the immense development attained by Urdu poetry in northern India during the 18th century was due to his example and initiative. Very little is known of Wali's life; he is believed to have visited Delhi towards the end of the reign of Aurangzeb, and is said to have there received instruction from Shah Gulshan in the art of clothing in a vernacular dress the ideas of the Persian poets. His _Kulliyat_ or complete works have been published by M. Garcin de Tassy, with notes and a translation of selected passages (Paris, 1834-1836), and may be commended to readers desirous of consulting in the original a favourable specimen of Urdu poetical composition.

The first of the Delhi school of poets was Zuhuruddin Hatim, who was born in 1699 and died in 1792. In the second year of Muhammad Shah (1719), the _diwan_ of Wali reached Delhi, and excited the emulation of scholars there. Hatim was the first to imitate it in the Urdu of the north, and was followed by his friends Naji, Mazmun and Abru. Two _diwans_ by him survive. He became the founder of a school, and one of his pupils was Rafi us-Sauda, the most distinguished poet of northern India. Khan Arzu (1689-1756) was another of the fathers of Urdu poetry in the north. This author is chiefly renowned as a Persian scholar, in which language he not only composed much poetry, but one of the best of Persian lexicons, the _Siraju-l-lughat_; but his compositions in Urdu are also highly esteemed. He was the master of Mir Taqi, who ranks next to Sauda as the most eminent Urdu poet. Arzu died at Lucknow, whither he betook himself after the devastation of Delhi by Nadir Shah (1739). Another of the early Delhi poets who is considered to have surpassed his fellows was In'amullah Khan Yaqin, who died during the reign of Ahmad Shah (1748-1754), aged only twenty-five. Another was Mir Dard, pupil of the same Shah Gulshan who is said to have instructed Wali; his _diwan_ is not long, but extremely popular, and especially esteemed for the skill with which it develops the themes of spiritualism. In his old age he became a _darwesh_ of the _Naqshbandi_ following, and died in 1793.

Sauda and Mir Taqi are beyond question the most distinguished Urdu poets. The former was born at Delhi about the beginning of the 18th century, and studied under Hatim. He left Delhi after its devastation, and settled at Lucknow, where the Nawab Asafuddaulah gave him a _jagir_ of Rs. 6000 a year, and where he died in 1780. His poems are very numerous, and cover all the styles of Urdu poetry; but it is to his satires that his fame is chiefly due, and in these he is considered to have surpassed all other Indian poets. Mir Taqi was born at Agra, but early removed to Delhi, where he studied under Arzu; he was still living there at the time of Sauda's death, but in 1782 repaired to Lucknow, where he likewise received a pension; he died at a very advanced age in 1810. His works are very voluminous, including no less than six _diwans_. Mir is counted the superior of Sauda in the _ghazal_ and _masnavi_, while the latter excelled him in the satire and _qasida_. Sayyid Ahmad, an excellent authority, and himself one of the best of modern authors in Urdu, says of him in his _Asaru-s-Sanadid_: "Mir's language is so pure, and the expressions which he employs so suitable and natural, that to this day all are unanimous in his praise. Although the language of Sauda is also excellent, and he is superior to Mir in the point of his allusions, he is nevertheless inferior to him in style."

The tremendous misfortunes which befell Delhi at the hands of Nadir Shah (1739), Ahmad Shah Durrani (1756), and the Marathas (1759), and the rapid decay of the Mogul empire under these repeated shocks, transferred the centre of the cultivation of literature from that city to Lucknow, the capital of the newly founded and flourishing state of Oudh. It has been mentioned how Arzu, Sauda and Mir betook themselves to this refuge and ended their days there; they were followed in their new residence by a school of poets hardly inferior to those who had made Delhi illustrious in the first half of the century. Here they were joined by Mir Hasan (d. 1786), Mir Soz (d. 1800) and Qalandar-bakhsh Jur'at (d. 1810), also like themselves refugees from Delhi, and illustrious poets. Mir Hasan was a friend and collaborator of Mir Dard, and first established himself at Faizabad and subsequently at Lucknow; he excelled in the _ghazal_, _ruba'i_, _masnavi_ and _marsiya_, and is counted the third, with Sauda and Mir Taqi, among the most eminent of Urdu poets. His fame chiefly rests upon a much admired _masnavi_ entitled the _Sihru-l-bayan_, or "Magic of Eloquence," a romance relating the loves of Prince Be-nazir and the Princess Badr-i Munir; his _masnavi_ called the _Gulzar-i Iram_ ("Rose-garden of Iram," the legendary 'Adite paradise in southern Arabia), in praise of Faizabad, is likewise highly esteemed. Mir Muhammadi Soz was an elegant poet, remarkable for the success with which he composed in the dialect of the harem called _Rekhti_, but somewhat licentious in his verse; he became a _darwesh_ and renounced the world in his later years. Jur'at was also a prolific poet, but, like Soz, his _ghazals_ and _masnavis_ are licentious and full of double meanings. He imitated Sauda in satire with much success; he also cultivated Hindi poetry, and composed _dohas_ and _kabittas_. Miskin was another Lucknow poet of the same period, whose _marsiyas_ are especially admired; one of them, that on the death of Muslim and his two sons, is considered a masterpiece of this style of composition. The school of Lucknow, so founded and maintained during the early years of the century, continued to flourish till the dethronement of the last king, Wajid 'Ali, in 1856. Atash and Nasikh (who died respectively in 1847 and 1841) are the best among the modern poets of the school in the _ghazal_; Mir Anis, a grandson of Mir Hasan, and his contemporary Dabir, the former of whom died in December 1875 and the latter a few months later, excelled in the _marsiyah_. Rajab Ali Beg Surur, who died in 1869, was the author of a much-admired romance in rhyming prose entitled the _Fisanah-e 'Ajaib_ or "Tale of Marvels," besides a _diwan_. The dethroned prince Wajid 'Ali himself, poetically styled Akhtar, was also a poet; he published three diwans, among them a quantity of poetry in the rustic dialect of Oudh which is philologically of much interest.

Though Delhi was thus deserted by its brightest lights of literature, it did not altogether cease to cultivate the poetic art. Among the last Moguls several princes were themselves creditable poets. Shah Alam II. (1761-1806) wrote under the name of Aftab, and was the author of a romance entitled Manzum-i Aqdas, besides a _diwan_. His son Sulaiman-shukoh, brother of Akbar Shah II., who had at first, like his brother authors, repaired to Lucknow, returned to Delhi in 1815, and died in 1838; he also has left a _diwan_. Lastly, his nephew Bahadur Shah II., the last titular emperor of Delhi (d. 1862), wrote under the name of Zafar, and was a pupil in poetry of Shaikh Ibrahim Zauq, a distinguished writer; he has left a voluminous _diwan_, which has been printed at Delhi. Mashafi (Ghulam-i Hamdani), who died about 1814, was one of the most distinguished of the revived poetic school of Delhi, and was himself one of its founders. Originally of Lucknow, he left that city for Delhi in 1777, and held conferences of poets, at which several authors who afterwards acquired repute formed their style; he has left five _diwans_, a _Tazkira_ or biography of Urdu poets, and a _Shah-nama_ or account of the kings of Delhi down to Shah 'Alam. Qaim (Qiyamuddin 'Ali) was one of his society, and died in 1792; he has left several works of merit. Ghalib, otherwise Mirza Asadullah Khan Naushah, laureate of the last Mogul, who died in 1869, was undoubtedly the most eminent of the modern Delhi poets. He wrote chiefly in Persian, of which language, especially in the form cultivated by Firdausi, free from intermixture of Arabic words, he was a master; but his Urdu _diwan_, though short, is excellent in its way, and his reputation spread far and wide. To this school, though he lived and died at Agra, may be attached Mir Wali Muhammad Nazir (who died in the year 1832); his _masnavis_ entitled _Jogi-nama_, _Kauri-nama_, _Banjare-nama_, and _Burhape-nama_, as well as his _diwan_, have been frequently reprinted, and are extremely popular. His language is less artificial than that of the generality of Urdu poets, and some of his poems have been printed in Nagari, and are as well known and as much esteemed by Hindus as by Mahommedans. His verse is defaced by much obscenity.

4. _Modern Period._--While such, in outline, is the history of the literary schools of the Deccan, Delhi and Lucknow, a fourth, that of the Fort William College at Calcutta, was being formed, and was destined to give no less an impulse to the cultivation of Urdu prose than had a hundred years before been given to that of poetry by Wali. At the commencement of the 19th century Dr John Gilchrist was the head of this institution, and his efforts were directed towards getting together a body of literature suitable as text-books for the study of the Urdu language by the European officers of the administration. To his exertions we owe the elaboration of the vernacular as an official speech, and the possibility of substituting it for the previously current Persian as the language of the courts and the government. He gathered together at Calcutta the most eminent vernacular scholars of the time, and their works, due to his initiative, are still notable as specimens of elegant and serviceable prose composition, not only in Urdu, but also in Hindi. The chief authors of this school are Haidari (Sayyid Muhammad Haidar-bakhsh), Husaini (Mir Bahadur 'Ali), Mir Amman Lutf, Hafizuddin Ahmad, Sher 'Ali Afsos, Nihal Chand of Lahore, Kazim 'Ali Jawan, Lallu Lal Kavi, Mazhar 'Ali Wila and Ikram 'Ali.

Haidari died in 1828. He composed the _Tota-Kahani_ (1801), a prose redaction of the _Tuti-namah_ which has been already mentioned; a romance named _Araish-i Mahfil_ ("Ornament of the Assembly"), detailing the adventures of the famous Arab chief Hatim-i Tai; the _Gul-i Maghfirat_ or _Dah Majlis_, an account of the holy persons of the Muhammadan faith; the _Gulzar-i Danish_, a translation of the _Bahar-i Danish_, a Persian work containing stories descriptive of the craft and faithlessness of women; and the _Tarikh-i Nadiri_, a translation of a Persian history of Nadir Shah. Husaini is the author of an imitation in prose of Mir Hasan's _Sihru-l-bayan_, under the name of _Nasr-i Benazir_ ("the Incomparable Prose," or "the Prose of Benazir," the latter being the name of the hero), and of a work named _Akhlaq-i Hindi_, or "Indian Morals," both composed in 1802. The _Akhlaq-i Hindi_ is an adaptation of a Persian work called the _Mufarrihu-l-qulub_ ("the Delighter of Hearts"), itself a version of the _Hitopadesa_. Mir Amman was a native of Delhi, which he left in the time of Ahmad Shah Durrani for Patna, and in 1801 repaired to Calcutta. To him we owe the _Bagh o Bahar_ (1801-1802), an adaptation of Amir Khusrau's famous Persian romance entitled the _Chahar Darwesh_, or "Story of the Four Dervishes." Amman's work is not itself directly modelled on the Persian, but is a rehandling of an almost contemporary rendering by Tahsin of Etawa, called the _Nau-tarz-i Murassa'_. The style of this composition is much admired by natives of India, and editions of it are very numerous. Amman also composed an imitation of Husain Wa'iz Kashifi's _Akhlaq-i Muhsini_ under the name of the _Ganj-i Khubi_ ("Treasure of Virtue"), produced in 1802. Hafizuddin Ahmad was a professor at the Fort William College; in 1803 he completed a translation of Abu-l-Fazl's _'Iyar-i Danish_, under the name of the _Khirad-afroz_ ("Enlightener of the Understanding"). The _'Iyar-i Danish_ ("Touchstone of Wisdom") is one of the numerous imitations of the originally Sanskrit collection of apologues known in Persian as the _Fables of Bidpai_, or _Kalilah and Dimna_. Afsos was one of the most illustrious of the Fort William school; originally of Delhi, he left that city at the age of eleven, and entered the service of Qasim 'Ali Khan, Nawab of Bengal; he afterwards repaired to Hyderabad in the Deccan, and thence to Lucknow, where he was the pupil of Mir Hasan, Mir Soz and Mir Haidar 'Ali Hairan. He joined the Fort William College in 1800, and died in 1809. He is the author of a much esteemed diwan; but his chief reputation is founded on two prose works of great excellence, the _Araish-i Mahfil_ (1805), an account of India adapted from the introduction of the Persian _Khulasatu-t-tawarikh_ of Sujan Rae, and the _Bagh-i Urdu_ (1808), a translation of Sa'di's _Gulistan_. Nihal Chand translated into Urdu a _masnavi_, entitled the _Gul-i Bakawali_, under the name of _Mazhab-i 'Ishq_ ("Religion of Love"); this work is in prose intermingled with verse, was composed in 1804, and has been frequently reproduced. Jawan, like most of his collaborators, was originally of Delhi and afterwards of Lucknow; he joined the College in 1800. He is the author of a version in Urdu of the well-known story of Sakuntala, under the name of _Sakuntala Natak_; the Urdu was rendered from a previous Braj-bhasha version by Nawaz Kabishwar made in 1716, and was printed in 1802. He also composed a _Barah-masa_, or poetical description of the twelve months (a very popular and often-handled form of composition), with accounts of the various Hindu and Muhammadan festivals, entitled the _Dastur-i Hind_ ("Usages of India"), printed in 1812. Ikram 'Ali translated, under the name of the _Ikhwanu-s-safa_, or "Brothers of Purity" (1810), a chapter of a famous Arabian collection of treatises on science and philosophy entitled _Rasailu Ikhwani-s-safa_, and composed in the 10th century. The complete collection, due to different writers who dwelt at Basra, has recently been made known to European readers by the translation of Dr F. Dieterici (1858-1879); the chapter selected by Ikram 'Ali is the third, which records an allegorical strife for the mastery between men and animals before the king of the _Jinn_. The translation is written in excellent Urdu, and is one of the best of the Fort William productions.

Sri Lallu Lal was a Brahman, whose family, originally of Gujarat, had long been settled in northern India. What was done by the other Fort William authors for Urdu prose was done by Lallu Lal almost alone for Hindi. He may indeed without exaggeration be said to have created "High Hindi" as a literary language. His _Prem Sagar_ and _Rajniti_, the former a version in pure Hindi of the 10th chapter of the _Bhagavata Purana_, detailing the history of Krishna, and founded on a previous Braj-bhasha version by Chaturbhuj Misr, and the latter an adaptation in Braj-bhasha prose of the _Hitopadesa_ and part of the _Pancha-tantra_, are unquestionably the most important works in Hindi prose. The _Prem Sagar_ was begun in 1804 and ended in 1810; it enjoys immense popularity in northern India, has been frequently reproduced in a lithographed form, and has several times been printed. The _Rajniti_ was composed in 1809; it is much admired for its sententious brevity and the purity of its language. Besides these two works, Lallu Lal was the author of a collection of a hundred anecdotes in Hindi and Urdu entitled _Lataif-i Hindi_, an anthology of Hindi verse called the _Sabha-bilas_, a _Sat-sai_ in the style of Bihari-Lal called _Sapta-satika_ and several other works. He and Jawan worked together at the _Singhasan Battisi_ (1801), a redaction in mixed Urdu and Hindi (Devanagari character) of a famous collection of legends relating the prowess of King Vikramaditya; and he also aided the latter author in the production of the _Sakuntala Natak_. Mazhar 'Ali Wila was his collaborator in the _Baital Pachisi_, a collection of stories similar in many respects to the _Singhasan Battisi_, and also in mixed Urdu-Hindi; and he aided Wila in the preparation in Urdu of the _Story of Madhonal_, a romance originally composed in Braj-bhasha by Moti Ram.

The works of these authors, though compiled and published under the superintendence of Dr Gilchrist, Captain Abraham Lockett, Professor J. W. Taylor, Dr W. Hunter and other European officers of the college of Fort William, and originally intended for the instruction of the Company's officers in the vernacular, are essentially Indian in taste and style, and, until superseded by the more recent developments of literature noticed below, enjoyed a very wide reputation and popularity. They may, indeed, be said to have set the standard of prose composition in Urdu and Hindi, and for the first half of the 19th century their influence in this respect continued almost unchallenged. Side by side with them, among the Musalman population of northern India, another almost contemporaneous impulse did much for the expansion of the Urdu language, and, like the work of the Vaishnava reformers in moulding literary Hindi, gave an impetus to composition which might otherwise have been lacking. This was the reform in Islam led by Sayyid Ahmad[16] and his followers. In all Eastern countries religion is the first and chief subject of literary production; and the controversies which the new preaching aroused in India at once afforded abundant material for authorship in Urdu, and interested deeply the people to whom the works were addressed.

Sayyid Ahmad was born in 1782, and received his early education at Delhi; his instructors were two learned Muslims, Shah 'Abdul-'Aziz, author of a celebrated commentary on the Qur'an (the _Tafsir-i 'Aziziyyah_), and his brother 'Abdu-l-Qadir, the writer of the first translation of the holy volume into Urdu. Under their guidance Sayyid Ahmad embraced the doctrines of the Wahhabis, a sect whose preaching appears at this time to have first reached India. He gathered round him a large number of fervent disciples, among others Isma'il Haji, nephew of 'Abdu-l'Aziz and 'Abdu-l-Qadir, the chief author of the sect. After a course of preaching and apostleship at Delhi, Sayyid Ahmad set out in 1820 for Calcutta, attended by numerous adherents. Thence in 1822 he started on a pilgrimage to Mecca, whence he went to Constantinople, and was there received with distinction and gained many disciples. He travelled for nearly six years in Turkey and Arabia, and then returned to Delhi. The religious degradation and coldness which he found in his native country strongly impressed him after his sojourn in lands where the life of Islam is stronger, and he and his disciples established a propaganda throughout northern India, reprobating the superstitions which had crept into the faith from contact with Hindus, and preaching a _jihad_ or holy war against the Sikhs. In 1828 he started for Peshawar, attended by, it is said, upwards of 100,000 Indians, and accompanied by his chief followers, Haji Isma'il and 'Abdu-l-Hayy. He was furnished with means by a general subscription in northern India, and by several Muhammadan princes who had embraced his doctrines. At the beginning of 1829 he declared war against the Sikhs, and in the course of time made himself master of Peshawar. The Afghans, however, with whom he had allied himself in the contest, were soon disgusted by the rigour of his creed, and deserted him and his cause. He fled across the Indus and took refuge in the mountains of Pakhli and Dhamtor, where in 1831 he encountered a detachment of Sikhs under the command of Sher Singh, and in the combat he and Haji Isma'il were slain. His sect is, however, by no means extinct; the Wahhabi doctrines have continued to gain ground in India, and to give rise to much controversial writing, down to our own day.

The translation of the Quran by 'Abdu-l-Qadir was finished in 1803, and first published by Sayyid 'Abdullah, a fervent disciple of Sayyid Ahmad, at Hughli in 1829. The _Tambihu-l-ghafilin_, or "Awakener of the Heedless," a work in Persian by Sayyid Ahmad, was rendered into Urdu by 'Abdullah, and published at the same press in 1830. Haji Isma'il was the author of a treatise in Urdu entitled _Taqwiyatu-l-Iman_ ("Confirmation of the Faith"), which had great vogue among the following of the Sayyid. Other works by the disciples of the _Tariqah-e Muhammadiyyah_ (as the new preaching was called) are the _Targhib-i Jihad_ ("Incitation to Holy War"), _Hidayatu-l-Muminin_ ("Guide of the Believers"), _Muzihu-l-Kabair_ wa-l-Bid'ah ("Exposition of Mortal Sins and Heresy"), _Naslhatu-l-Muslimin_ ("Admonition to Muslims"), and the _Mi'at Masail_, or "Hundred Questions."

Printing was first used for vernacular works by the College Press at Fort William, at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and all the compositions prepared for Dr Gilchrist and his successors which have been mentioned were thus given to the public. But the expense of this method of reproduction long precluded its extensive use in India, and movable types, though well suited for alphabets derived from the Sanskrit, were not equally applicable to the flowing and graceful characters of Persian. Lithography was introduced about 1837, when the first press was set up at Delhi, and immediately gave a powerful stimulus to the multiplication of literature, both original and editions of older works. In 1832 the vernaculars were substituted for Persian as the official language of the courts and the acts of the legislature, and this at once led to the transfer to the former of a mass of technical and forensic terms which had previously been only to a limited extent in popular use. Thirdly, the spread of education in subjects of Western learning, for which text-books (many of them translations from English) were required, not only greatly enlarged the vocabulary of the common speech, but led by degrees to the use of a simpler and more direct style, and the abandonment wholesale of the florid and artificial ornament which was the legacy of the Persian literature upon which Urdu prose had at first modelled itself. Lastly, the establishment of a vernacular newspaper press, which lithography had rendered possible, placed within the reach of a continually widening public the means of becoming acquainted with new ideas in every department of culture, and practised the writers who contributed to it in the art of wielding their mother-tongue with effect in its application to European themes.

All these revolutionary agencies were at work, though in a tentative and limited fashion, when the great change, following on the Mutiny of 1857, of the transfer of the government of India from the Company to the Crown inaugurated a new era. Since 1860 their operation has become extremely rapid and far-reaching. The use of lithography both for Urdu and Hindi annually gives birth to hundreds of works. The extension of education through both public and private agency has created an immense mass of school-books, and the spread of instruction in English and the activity of translators have filled the vernaculars with a multitude of new words drawn from that language. The newspaper press, in Urdu and Hindi, now counts over two hundred journals, the majority issued in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and in the Punjab, but a few at Madras, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bombay and Calcutta. Of this great body of literary production it is possible to speak only in general terms. Style and vocabulary are still in a somewhat fluid and unsettled condition, and the subjects treated are almost as various as they are in European literatures. Much, indeed, of the work produced has scarcely any claim to literary excellence, and in the crowd of writers we may content ourselves with mentioning only a few whose influence and authority make it probable that they will hereafter be known as leaders in the new culture.

One of the first effects of the new literary inspiration seemed to be the extinction of poetical composition as previously practised. With the deaths of Zauq (1854) and Ghalib (1869) of the Delhi school, and those of Anis (1875) and Dabir (1876) of Lucknow, the end of Urdu poetry appeared to have come. The new age was intensely practical and eager to engage in the race for material and political advancement, and had no time for sentiment, or taste for mystical conceits. Moreover, poetical composition in India, as in other Eastern countries, has always owed much to the patronage of courts and princes. The thrones of Delhi and Lucknow had passed away, and the new rulers showed little interest in this form of achievement. Only at Hyderabad in the Deccan, under the patronage of the Nizam, were laureates still honoured; the last of these, Mirza Khan Dagh (1831-1905), enjoyed a wide reputation as a graceful and eloquent master of the poetic art.

But prose and material prosperity did not succeed in monopolizing the genius of the people. The great movement of reform and liberalism in Islam led by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) found its bard in Sayyid Altaf Husain of Panipat, poetically styled Hali--an ambiguous _nom-de-plume_ now generally taken in the sense of "modern," or "up-to-date." Hali in his youth was a pupil of the famous Ghalib, whose life he has written and of whose writings he has published an able criticism. At the age of forty he came under the influence of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, and from that time devoted his great poetic gifts to the service of his co-religionists. He has published much verse, of which an interesting specimen will be found in the edition of his _Ruba'is_ or quatrains (101 in number), with an English translation, by Mr G. E. Ward (Oxford, 1904); in this is included a famous poem addressed to his muse, setting forth his ideals in poetry--simplicity, avoidance of exaggeration and unreality, direct and emotional appeal to the heart, and above all sincerity. There can be no doubt that he has succeeded in becoming the leader of a new poetic school, which shows much vigour and promise.

Perhaps the most memorable of all Hali's compositions is his long poem in six-line stanzas (called _musaddas_) on "the flow and ebb of Islam" (1879), which has had an extraordinary influence in stimulating enthusiasm in the cause of progress among the Musalmans of the north of India. In it he draws, in simple and direct but searching and eloquent language, a rapid sketch of the glories of Islam in the past, its principles and precepts, and the sources of its strength; and then turns to contrast with this picture the degradation and decay into which it had, when he wrote, fallen in Hindostan. Never have the vices and shortcomings of a people been lashed by one of themselves with more vigorous denunciation, or with more earnestness of moral purpose. In his preface he explains how the poem came to be written--after a youth spent in heedlessness and unsettlement, at the instigation of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, and in the cause of that great reformer. The poem is still recited and imitated by Muslims in the Punjab and United Provinces, though the picture which it presents of Indian Musalmans is no longer wholly applicable to the community. Hali has recently completed a life of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan in two volumes, entitled _Hayat-i Javid_ ("eternal life"), a work of great merit.

Another writer whose work, though chiefly in prose, deals with poetry and poetic style, is Maulavi Muhammad Husain Azad, lately professor of Arabic at the Government College, Lahore. He has not himself composed much verse; but his biographies of Urdu poets, with criticisms of their works, entitled _Ab-i Hayat_ ("Water of Life," Lahore, 1883), is by far the best book dealing with the subject. His prose style is much admired. As Hali was the pupil of Ghalib, so was Azad that of Zauq, of whose poems he has published a revised and annotated edition. His other works in prose are _Qisas-i Hind_, episodes of Indian history arranged for schools; _Nairang-i Khayal_, an allegory dealing with human life; and _Darbar-i Akbari_, an account of the reign of Akbar.

Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's life and work are dealt with elsewhere. Among his literary achievements may be mentioned the _Asarus-Sanadid_ ("Vestiges of Princes"), an excellent account of Delhi and its monuments, which has passed through several editions since it was first lithographed in 1847. His essays and occasional papers, published in the _Aligarh Institute Gazette_ (started in 1864), and afterwards (from 1870 onwards) in a periodical entitled _Tahzibul-Akhlaq_ (or "Muhammadan Social Reformer"), handle all the problems of religious, social and educational advancement among Indian Musalmans--the cause with which his life was identified. His great _Commentary on the Qur'an_, in seven volumes, the last finished only a few days before his death in 1898, is carried to the end of Surah xx., a little more than half the book. In him Urdu prose found its most powerful wielder for the diffusion of modern ideas, and the movement which he set on foot has been the spring of the best literature in the language during recent years.

Another excellent writer of Urdu is Shamsul-'Ulama Maulavi Nazir Ahmad of Delhi, who is the author of a series of novels describing domestic life, of a somewhat didactic character, which have had a wide popularity, and from their admirable moral tone have been specially serviceable in the education of Indian women. These are entitled the _Mir'atul-'Arus_ (or "Brides' Mirror"); _Taubatun-Nasuh_ ("the Repentance of Nasuh"), _Banatun-Na'sh_ ("the Seven Stars of the Great Bear"), _Ibnul-Waqt_ ("Son of the Age"), and _Ayama_ ("Widows"). But Nazir Ahmad is a man of many sides; before he took to novel-writing he was the principal translator into Urdu of the _Indian Penal Code_ (1861), which is reckoned a masterpiece in the exact rendering of European legal ideas; and more lately he gave to the world the best Urdu version of the Quran. He has been a popular lecturer on social subjects, displaying a rich vein of humour, and in his old age even ventured upon verse. During the latter portion of his life he was most closely associated with Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan.

The novel is one of the most noteworthy features of recent literary composition in Urdu. India has from time immemorial been rich in stories and romances of adventure; but the description of actual life and character in action, as the modern novel is understood in Europe, is quite a new development. The most admired production of this kind in Urdu is a work entitled _Fisana-e Azad_, by Pandit Ratan-nath Sarshar of Lucknow. The story, which is very long, is remarkable for the faithful and vivid pictures of Lucknow society which it presents, and its exact and lifelike delineation of character; it appeared originally as a _feuilleton_ of the _Awadh Akhbar_, of which paper the author was at the time editor. Another good writer in the same branch of literature is Maulavi 'Abdul-Halim Sharar, also a native of the neighbourhood of Lucknow, but settled at Hyderabad. He was editor of a monthly periodical called the _Dil-gudaz_ ("melter of hearts"), which contained essays and papers in European style, and in it his novels, which are all of an historical character, in the style of Sir Walter Scott, originally appeared. The best are _'Aziz and Virgina_, a tale of the Crusades, and _Mansur and Mohina_, a story of which the scene is laid in India at the time of the invasions of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.

Although Urdu chiefly represents Musalman culture, its use is by no means confined to adherents of that faith. It has just been mentioned that the most popular Urdu novelist is a Hindu (a Brahman from Kashmir); and the statistics of the vernacular press show that this form of the language is widely used by Hindus as well as Musalmans. Thus, of eighty periodicals in Urdu published in the United Provinces, twenty-nine are conducted by Hindus; similarly, in the Punjab, of forty-eight Urdu journals, twenty are edited by Hindus.

"High Hindi" has scarcely adapted itself to modern requirements with the thoroughness displayed by Urdu. It is taught in the schools where the population is mainly Hindu, and books of science have been written in it with a terminology borrowed from Sanskrit, in place of the Persian terms used in the other dialect. But Sanskrit is far removed from the daily life of the people, and the majority of works in this style are read only by Pandits, the great bulk of them dealing with religion, philosophy and the ancient literature. There are thirty-seven Hindi and four Hindi-Urdu journals in the United Provinces; but many of them are exclusively religious in their character, and several, though written in Devanagari, employ a mixed language which admits Persian words freely. The old dialects of literature, Awadhi and Braj-bhasha, are now only used for poetry; High Hindi has been a complete failure for this purpose.

The most noticeable authors in Hindi since the middle of the 19th century have been Babu Harishchandra and Raja Siva Prasad, both of Benares. The former, during his short life (1850-1885), was an enthusiastic cultivator of the old poetic art, using the dialects just mentioned. He published in the _Sundari Tilak_ an anthology of the best Hindi poetry, and in the _Kabi-bachan-Sudha_ ("ambrosia of the words of poets") and the magazine called _Harishchandrika_ a quantity of old texts, with much added matter. He also wrote a volume of biographies of famous men, European and Indian, and many critical studies, historical and literary. In history especially he cleared up many problems, and traced the lines for further investigation. In his _Kashmir Kusum_, or history of Kashmir, a list is given of about a hundred works by him. He was also the real founder of the modern Hindi drama; he wrote plays himself, and inspired others. Raja Siva Prasad (1823-1895) served for many years in the educational department, and published a number of works intended for use in schools, which have greatly contributed to the formation of a sound vernacular form of Hindi, not excessively Sanskritized, and not rejecting current Persian forms. The society at Benares called the _Nagari Pracharini Sabha_ ("Society for promoting the use of the Nagari character") has, since the death of Harishchandra, been active in procuring the publication of works in Hindi, and has issued many useful books, besides conducting a systematic search for old MSS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The best account in English of Hindi literature is Dr G. A. Grierson's _Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindostan_, issued by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1889; the dates in this work, which is founded on indigenous compilations, have, however, in many cases to be received with caution. Before it appeared, Garcin de Tassy's _Histoire de la litterature Hindouie et Hindoustanie_, and his annual summaries of the progress made from 1850 to 1877, were our chief authority, and may still be consulted with advantage. For the religious literature of the Vaishnava sects, Professor H. H. Wilson's _Essay on the Religious Sects of the Hindus_ (vol. i. of his collected works) has not yet been superseded.

For Urdu poets, Professor Azad's _Ab-i Hayat_ (in Urdu) is the most trustworthy record. For the new school of Urdu literature reference may be made to a series of lectures (in English) by Shaikh 'Abdul-Qadir of Lahore, printed in 1898. The catalogues by Professor Blumhardt of Hindostani and Hindi books in the libraries of the British Museum and the India Office will give a good idea of the volume of the recent productions of the press in those languages. (C. J. L.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Urdu_ is a Turkish word meaning a camp or army with its followers, and is the origin of the European word _horde_. _Rekhta_ means "scattered, strewn," referring to the way in which Persian words are intermixed with those of Indian origin; it is used chiefly for the literary form of Urdu.

[2] The only known exceptions are a work in Hindi called the _Chaurasi Varta_ (mentioned below) and a few commentaries on poems; the latter can scarcely be called literature.

[3] A fresh critical edition of the text by Pandit Mohan Lal Vishnu Lal Pandia at Benares, under the auspices of the _Nagari Pracharini Sabha_, had reached canto xxiv. in 1907.

[4] See _J.A.S.B._ (1886), pp. 6 sqq.

[5] _Annals and Antiquities_, ii. 452 n. and 472 n.

[6] Worshippers of the energic power--_Sakti_--of Siva, represented by his consort Parvati or Bhawani.

[7] Quoted from G. A. Grierson, chapter on "Literature," in the _India Gazetteer_ (ed. 1907).

[8] The worship of Krishna is as old as Megasthenes (about 300 B.C.), who calls him Herakles, and was then, as now, located at Mathura on the Jumna river. That of Rama is probably still more ancient; the name occurs in stories of the Buddha.

[9] _Religious Sects of the Hindus_, p. 40.

[10] This name of Krishna, which means "He who quits the battle," is connected with the story of the transfer of the Yadava clan from Mathura to the new capital on the coast of the peninsula of Kathiawar, the city of Dwaraka. This migration was the result of an invasion of Braj by Jarasandha, king of Magadha, before whom Krishna resolved to retreat. As his path southwards took him through Rajputana and Gujarat, it is in these regions that his form Ranchhor is most generally venerated as a symbol of the shifting of the centre of divine life from Gangetic to southern India.

[11] In the _Granth_ Namdeo is called a calico-printer, _Chhipi_. The Marathi tradition is that he was a tailor, _Shimpi_; it is probable that the latter word, being unknown in northern India, has been wrongly rendered by the former.

[12] It will be remembered that Akbar's reign was remarkable for the translation into Persian of a large number of Sanskrit works of religion and philosophy, most of the versions being made by, or in the names of, members of his court.

[13] _Religious Sects_, p. 132.

[14] Amir Khusrau is credited with the authorship of many still popular rhymes, riddles or punning verses (called _pahelis_ and _mukuris_); but these, though often containing Persian words, are in Hindi and scanned according to the prosody of that language; they are, therefore, like Malik Muhammad's _Padmawat_, not Urdu or Rekhta verse (see Professor Azad's _Abi-Hayat_, pp. 72-76). A late Dakkhani poet who used the _takkallus_ of Sa'di is said by Azad (p. 79) to have been confused by Mirza Rafi'us-Sauda in his _Tazkira_ with Sa'di of Shiraz.

[15] An exception may be made to this general statement in favour of the _genre_ pictures of city and country life contained in the _masnavis_ of Sauda and Nazir. These are often satires (in the vein of Horace rather than Juvenal), and are full of interest as pictures of society. In Sauda, however, the conventional language used in description is often Persian rather than Indian.

[16] To be carefully distinguished from the reformer of the same name who flourished half a century later.

HINDU CHRONOLOGY. The subject of Hindu chronology divides naturally into three parts: the calendar, the eras, and other reckonings.

I. THE CALENDAR

The Hindus have had from very ancient times the system of lunisolar cycles, made by the combination of solar years, regulated by the course of the sun, and lunar years, regulated by the course of the moon, but treated in such a manner as to keep the beginning of the lunar year near the beginning of the solar year. The exact manner in which they arranged the details of their earliest calendar is still a subject of research. We deal here with their calendar as it now stands, in a form which was developed from about A.D. 400 under the influence of the Greek astronomy which had been introduced into India at no very long time previously.

The Hindu calendar, then, is determined by years of two kinds, solar and lunar. For civil purposes, solar years are used in Bengal, including Orissa, and in the Tamil and Malayalam districts of Madras, and lunar years throughout the rest of India. But the lunar year regulates everywhere the general religious rites and festivals, and the details of private and domestic life, such as the selection of auspicious occasions for marriages and for starting on journeys, the choice of lucky moments for shaving, and so on. Consequently, the details of the lunar year are shown even in the almanacs which follow the solar year. On the other hand, certain details of the solar year, such as the course of the sun through the signs and other divisions of the zodiac, are shown in the almanacs which follow the lunar year. We will treat the solar year first, because it governs the lunisolar system, and the explanation of it will greatly simplify the process of explaining the lunar calendar.

The astronomical solar year.

The civil solar year is determined by the astronomical solar year. The latter professes to begin at the vernal equinox, but the actual position is as follows. In our Western astronomy the signs of the zodiac have, in consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, drawn away to a large extent from the constellations from which they derived their names; with the result that the sun now comes to the vernal equinox, at the first point of the sign Aries, not in the constellation Aries, but at a point in Pisces, about 28 degrees before the beginning of Aries. The Hindus, however, have disregarded precession in connexion with their calendar from the time (A.D. 499, 522, or 527, according to different schools) when, by their system, the signs coincided with the constellations; and their sign Aries, called Mesha by them, is still their constellation Aries, beginning, according to them, at or near the star [zeta] Piscium. Their astronomical solar year is, in fact, not the tropical year, in the course of which the sun really passes from one vernal equinox to the next, but a sidereal year, the period during which the earth makes one revolution in its orbit round the sun with reference to the first point of Mesha; its beginning is the moment of the Mesha-samkranti, the entrance of the sun into the sidereal sign Mesha, instead of the tropical sign Aries; and it begins, not with the true equinox, but with an artificial or nominal equinox.

The length of this sidereal solar year was determined in the following manner. The astronomer selected what the Greeks termed an _exeligmos_, the Romans an _annus magnus_ or _mundanus_, a period in the course of which a given order of things is completed by the sun, moon, and planets returning to a state of conjunction from which they have started. The usual Hindu _exeligmos_ has been the Great Age of 4,320,000 sidereal solar years, the aggregate of the Krita or golden age, the Treta or silver age, the Dvapara or brazen age, and the Kali or iron age, in which we now are; but it has sometimes been the Kalpa or aeon, consisting according to one view of 1000, according to another view of 1008, Great Ages. He then laid down the number of revolutions, in the period of his _exeligmos_, of the _nakshatras_, certain stars and groups of stars which will be noticed more definitely in our account of the lunar year; that is, the number of rotations of the earth on its axis, or, in other words, the number of sidereal days. A deduction of the number of the years from the number of the sidereal days gave, as remainder, the number of civil days in the _exeligmos_. And, this remainder being divided by the number of the years, the quotient gave the length of the sidereal solar year: refinements, suggested by experience, inference, or extraneous information, were made by increasing or decreasing the number of sidereal days assigned to the _exeligmos_. The Hindus now recognize three standard sidereal solar years determined in that manner. (1) A year of 365 days 6 hrs. 12 min. 30 sec. according to the _Aryabhatiya_, otherwise called the _First Arya-Siddhanta_, which was written by the astronomer Aryabhata (b. A.D. 476): this year is used in the Tamil and Malayalam districts, and, we may add, in Ceylon. (2) A year of 365 days 6 hrs. 12 min. 30.915 sec. according to the _Rajamriga ka_, a treatise based on the _Brahma-Siddhanta_ of Brahmagupta (b. A.D. 598) and attributed to king Bhoja, of which the epoch, the point of time used in it for calculations, falls in A.D. 1042: this year is used in parts of Gujarat (Bombay) and in Rajputana and other western parts of Northern India. (3) A year of 365 days 6 hrs. 12 min. 36.56 sec. according to the present _Surya-Siddhanta_, a work of unknown authorship which dates from probably about A.D. 1000: this year is used in almost all the other parts of India. It may be remarked that, according to modern science, the true mean sidereal solar year measures 365 days 6 hrs. 9 min. 9.6 sec., and the mean tropical year measures 365 days 5 hrs. 48 min. 46.054440 sec.

The result of the use of this sidereal solar year is that the beginning of the Hindu astronomical solar year, and with it the civil solar year and the lunar year and the nominal incidence of the seasons, has always been, and still is, travelling slowly forward in our calendar year by an amount which varies according to the particular authority.[1] For instance, Aryabhata's year exceeds the Julian year by 12 min. 30 sec. This amounts to exactly one day in 115(1/5) years, and five days in 576 years. Thus, if we take the longer period and confine ourselves to a time when the Julian calendar (old style) was in use, according to Aryabhata the Mesha-samkranti began to occur in A.D. 603 on 20th March, and in A.D. 1179 on 25th March. The intermediate advances arrange themselves into four steps of one day each in 116 years, followed by one step of one day in 112 years: thus, the Mesha-samkranti began to occur on 21st March in A.D. 719, on 22nd March in A.D. 835, on 23rd March in A.D. 951, and on 24th March in A.D. 1067 (whence 112 years take us to 25th March in A.D. 1179). It is now occurring sometimes on 11th April, sometimes on the 12th; having first come to the 12th in A.D. 1871.

The civil solar year.

The civil solar year exists in more varieties than one. The principal variety, conveniently called the Meshadi year, i.e. "the year beginning at the Mesha-samkranti," is the only one that we need notice at this point. The beginning of it is determined directly by the astronomical solar year; and for religious purposes it begins, with that year, at the moment of the Mesha-samkranti. Its first civil day, however, may be either the day on which the _samkranti_ occurs, or the next day, or even the day after that: this is determined partly by the time of day or night at which the _samkranti_ occurs, which, moreover, of course varies in accordance with the locality as well as the particular authority that is followed; partly by differing details of practice in different parts of the country. In these circumstances an exact equivalent of the Meshadi civil solar year cannot be stated; but it may be taken as now beginning on or closely about the 12th of April.

The solar month.

The solar year is divided into twelve months, in accordance with the successive _samkrantis_ or entrances of the sun into the (sidereal) signs of the zodiac, which, as with us, are twelve in number. The names of the signs in Sanskrit are as follows: Mesha, the ram (Aries); Vrishabha, the bull (Taurus); Mithuna, the pair, the twins (Gemini); Karka, Karkata, Karkataka, the crab (Cancer); Simha, the lion (Leo); Kanya, the maiden (Virgo); Tula, the scales (Libra); Vrischika, the scorpion (Scorpio); Dhanus, the bow (Sagittarius); Makara, the sea-monster (Capricornus); Kumbha, the water-pot (Aquarius); and Mina, the fishes (Pisces). The solar months are known in some parts by the names of the signs or by corrupted forms of them; and these are the best names for them for general use, because they lead to no confusion. But they have elsewhere another set of names, preserving the connexion of them with the lunar months: the Sanskrit forms of these names are Chaitra, Vaisakha, Jyaishtha, Ashadha, Sravana, Bhadrapada, Asvina or Asvayuja, Karttika, Margasira or Margasirsha (also known as Agrahayana), Pausha, Magha, and Phalguna: in some localities these names are used in corrupted forms, and in others vernacular names are substituted for some of them; and, while in some parts the name Chaitra is attached to the month Mesha, in other parts it is attached to the month Mina, and so on throughout the series in each case. The astronomical solar month runs from the moment of one _samkranti_ of the sun to the moment of the next _samkranti_; and, as the signs of the Hindu zodiac are all of equal length, 30 degrees, as with us, while the speed of the sun (the motion of the earth in its orbit round the sun) varies according to the time of the year, the length of the month is variable: the shortest month is Dhanus; the longest is Mithuna. The civil solar month begins with its first civil day, which is determined, in different localities, in the same manner with the first civil day of the Meshadi year, as indicated above. The civil month is of variable length; partly for that reason, partly because of the variation in the length of the astronomical month. No exact equivalents of the civil months, therefore, can be stated; but, speaking approximately, we may say that, while the month Mesha now begins on or closely about 12th April, the beginning of a subsequent month may come as late as the 16th day of the English month in which it falls.

The seasons.

The solar year is also divided into six seasons, the Sanskrit names of which are Vasanta, spring; Grishma, the hot weather; Varsha, the rainy season; Sarad, autumn; Hemanta, the cold weather; and Sisira, the dewy season. Vasanta begins at the Mina-samkranti; the other seasons begin at each successive second _samkranti_ from that. Originally, this scheme was laid out with reference to the true course of the sun, and the starting-point of it was the real winter solstice, with Sisira, as the first season, beginning then; now, owing partly to the disregard of precession, partly to our introduction of New Style, each season comes about three weeks too late; Vasanta begins on or about 12th March, instead of 19th or 20th February, and so on with the rest. It may be added that in early times the year was also divided into three or four, and even into five or seven, seasons; and there appears to have been also a practice of reckoning the seasons according to the lunar months, which, however, would only give a very varying arrangement, in addition to neglecting the point that the seasons are naturally determined by the course of the sun, not of the moon. But there is now recognized only the division into six seasons, determined as stated above.

The solstitial divisions of the year.

The solar year is also divided into two parts called Uttarayana, the period during which the sun is moving to the north, and Dakshinayana, the period during which it is moving to the south. The Uttarayana begins at the nominal winter solstice, as marked by the Makara-samkranti; and the day on which this solstice occurs, usually 12th January at present, is still a special occasion of festivity and rejoicing; the Dakshinayana begins at the nominal summer solstice, as marked by the Karka-samkranti. It may be added here that, while the Hindus disregard precession in the actual computation of their years and the regulation of their calendar, they pay attention to it in certain other respects, and notably as regards the solstices: the precessional solstices are looked upon as auspicious occasions, as well as the non-precessional solstices, and are customarily shown in the almanacs; and some of the almanacs show also the other precessional _samkrantis_ of the sun.

The civil day.

The civil days of the solar month begin at sunrise. They are numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., in unbroken succession to the end of the month. And, the length of the month being variable for the reasons stated above, the number of the civil days may range from twenty-nine to thirty-two.

The weekday.

The civil days are named after the weekdays, of which the usual appellations (there are various synonyms in each case, and some of the names are used in corrupted forms) are in Sanskrit Adityavara or Ravivara, the day of the sun, sometimes called Adivara, the beginning-day (Sunday); Somavara, the day of the moon (Monday); Mangalavara, the day of Mars (Tuesday); Budhavara, the day of Mercury (Wednesday); Brihas-pativara or Guruvara, the day of Jupiter (Thursday); Sukravara, the day of Venus (Friday); and Sanivara, the day of Saturn (Saturday). It may be mentioned, as a matter of archaeological interest, that, while some of the astronomical books perhaps postulate an earlier knowledge of the "lords of the days," and other writings indicate a still earlier use of the period of seven days, the first proved instance of the use of the name of a weekday is of the year A.D. 484, and is furnished by an inscription in the Saugor district, Central India.

Divisions of the day.

The divisions of the civil day, as far as we need note them, are 60 _vipalas_ = 1 _pala_ = 24 seconds; 60 _palas_ = 1 _ghatika_ = 24 minutes; 60 _ghatikas_ = 24 hours = 1 day. There is also the _muhurta_ = 2 _ghatikas_ = 48 minutes: this is the nearest approach to the "hour." The comparative value of these measures of time may perhaps be best illustrated thus: 2(1/2) _muhurtas_ = 2 hours; 2(1/2) _ghatikas_ = 1 hour; 2(1/2) _palas_ = 1 minute; 2(1/2) _vipalas_ = 1 second.

Civil time.

As their civil day begins at sunrise, the Hindus naturally count all their times, in _ghatikas_ and _palas_, from that moment. But the moment is a varying one, though not in India to anything like the extent to which it is so in European latitudes; and under the British Government the Hindus have recognized the advantage, and in fact the necessity, especially in connexion with their lunar calendar, of having a convenient means of referring their own times to the time which prevails officially. Consequently, some of the almanacs have adopted the European practice of showing the time of sunrise, in hours and minutes, from midnight; and some of them add the time of sunset from noon.

The lunar year.

The lunar year consists primarily of twelve lunations or lunar months, of which the present Sanskrit names, generally used in more or less corrupted forms, are Chaitra, Vaisakha, &c., to Phalguna, as given above in connexion with the solar months. It is of two principal varieties, according as it begins with a certain day in the month Chaitra, or with the corresponding day in Karttika: the former variety is conveniently known as the Chaitradi year; the latter as the Karttikadi year. For religious purposes the lunar year begins with its first lunar day: for civil purposes it begins with its first civil day, the relation of which to the lunar day will be explained below. Owing to the manner in which, as we shall explain, the beginning of the lunar year is always shifting backwards and forwards, it is not practicable to lay down any close equivalents for comparison: but an indication may be given as follows. The first civil day of the Chaitradi year is the day after the new-moon conjunction which occurs next after the entrance of the sun into Mina, and it now falls from about 13th March to about 11th April: the first civil day of the Karttikadi year is the first day after the new-moon conjunction which occurs next after the entrance of the sun into Tula, and it now falls from about 17th October to about 15th November.

The lunar month.

The present names of the lunar months, indicated above, were derived from the _nakshatras_, which are certain conspicuous stars and groups of stars lying more or less along the neighbourhood of the ecliptic. The _nakshatras_ are regarded sometimes as twenty-seven in number, sometimes as twenty-eight, and are grouped in twelve sets of two or three each, beginning, according to the earlier arrangement of the list, with the pair Krittika and Rohini, and including in the sixth place Chitra and Svati, and ending with the triplet Revati, Asvini and Bharani. They are sometimes styled lunar mansions, and are sometimes spoken of as the signs of the lunar zodiac; and it is, no doubt, chiefly in connexion with the moon that they are now taken into consideration. But they mark divisions of the ecliptic: according to one system, twenty-seven divisions, each of 13 degrees 20 minutes; according to two other systems, twenty-seven or twenty-eight unequal divisions, which we need not explain here. The almanacs show the course of the sun through them, as well as the course of the moon; and the course of the sun was marked by them only, before the time when the Hindus began to use the twelve signs of the solar zodiac. So there is nothing exclusively lunar about them. The present names of the lunar months were derived from the _nakshatras_ in the following manner: the full-moon which occurred when the moon was in conjunction with Chitra (the star [alpha] Virginis) was named Chaitri, and the lunar month, which contained the Chaitri full-moon, was named Chaitra; and so on with the others. The present names have superseded another set of names which were at one time in use concurrently with them; these other names are Madhu (= Chaitra), Madhava, Sukra, Suchi, Nabhas, Nabhasya, Isha, Urja (= Karttika), Sahas, Sahasya, Tapas, and Tapasya (= Phalguna): they seem to have marked originally solar season-months of the solar year, rather than lunar months of the lunar year.

A lunar month may be regarded as ending either with the new-moon, which is called _amavasya_, or with the full-moon, which is called _purnamasi_, _purnima_: a month of the former kind is termed _amanta_, "ending with the new-moon," or _sukladi_, "beginning with the bright fortnight;" a month of the latter kind is termed purnimanta, "ending with the full-moon," or _krishnadi_, "beginning with the dark fortnight." For all purposes of the calendar, the _amanta_ month is used in Southern India, and the _purnimanta_ month in Northern India. But only the _amanta_ month, the period of the synodic revolution of the moon, is recognized in Hindu astronomy, and for the purpose of naming the lunations and adjusting the lunar to the solar year by the intercalation and suppression of lunar months; and the rule is that the lunar Chaitra is the _amanta_ or synodic month at the first moment of which the sun is in the sign Mina, and in the course of which the sun enters Mesha: the other months follow in the same way; and the lunar Karttika is the _amanta_ month at the first moment of which the sun is in Tula, and in the course of which the sun enters Vrischika. The connexion between the lunar and the solar months is maintained by the point that the name Chaitra is applied according to one practice to the solar Mina, in which the lunar Chaitra begins, and according to another practice to the solar Mesha, in which the lunar Chaitra ends. Like the lunar year, the lunar month begins for religious purposes with its first lunar day, and for civil purposes with its first civil day.

Intercalation and suppression of lunar months.

One mean lunar year of twelve lunations measures very nearly 354 days 8 hrs. 48 min. 34 sec.; and one Hindu solar year measures 365 days 6 hrs. 12 min. 30 sec. according to Aryabhata, or slightly more according to the other two authorities. Consequently, the beginning of a lunar year pure and simple would be always travelling backwards through the solar year, by about eleven days on each occasion, and would in course of time recede entirely through the solar year, as it does in the Mahommedan calendar. The Hindus prevent that in the following manner. The length of the Hindu astronomical solar month, measured by the _samkrantis_ of the sun, its successive entrances into the signs of the zodiac, ranges, in accordance with periodical variations in the speed of the sun, from about 29 days 7 hrs. 38 min. up to about 31 days 15 hrs. 28 min. The length of the _amanta_ or synodic lunar month ranges, in accordance with periodical variations in the speed of the moon and the sun, from about 29 days 19 hrs. 30 min. down to about 29 days 7 hrs. 20 min. Consequently, it happens from time to time that there are two new-moon conjunctions, so that two lunations begin, in one astronomical solar month, between two _samkrantis_ of the sun, while the sun is in one and the same sign of the zodiac, and there is no _samkranti_ in the lunation ending with the second new-moon: when this is the case, there are two lunations to which the same name is applicable, and so there is an additional or intercalated month, in the sense that a name is repeated: thus, when two new-moons occur while the sun is in Mesha, the lunation ending with the first of them, during which the sun has entered Mesha, is Chaitra; the next lunation, in which there is no _samkranti_, is Vaisakha, because it begins when the sun is in Mesha; and the next lunation after that is again Vaisakha, for the same reason, and also because the sun enters Vrishabha in the course of it: in these circumstances, the first of the two Vaisakhas is called Adhika-Vaisakha, "the additional or intercalated Vaisakha," and the second is called simply Vaisakha, or sometimes Nija-Vaisakha, "the natural Vaisakha." On the other hand, it occasionally happens, in an autumn or winter month, that there are two _samkrantis_ of the sun in one and the same _amanta_ or synodic lunar month, between two new-moon conjunctions, so that no lunation begins between the two _samkrantis_: when this is the case, there is one lunation to which two names are applicable, and there is a suppressed month, in the sense that a name is omitted: thus, if the sun enters both Dhanus and Makara during one synodic lunation, that lunation is Margasira, because the sun was in Vrischika at the first moment of it and enters Dhanus in the course of it;[2] the next lunation is Magha, because the sun is in Makara by the time when it begins and will enter Kumbha in the course of it; and the name Pausha, between Margasira and Magha, is omitted. When a month is thus suppressed, there is always one intercalated month, and sometimes two, in the same Chaitradi lunar year, so that the lunar year never contains less than twelve months, and from time to time consists of thirteen months. There are normally seven intercalated months, rising to eight when a month is suppressed, in 19 solar years, which equal very nearly 235 lunations;[3] and there is never less than one year without an intercalated month between two years with intercalated months, except when there is only one such month in a year in which a month is suppressed; then there is always an intercalated month in the next year also. The suppression of a month takes place at intervals of 19 years and upwards, regarding which no definite statement can conveniently be made here. It may be added that an intercalated Chaitra or Karttika takes the place of the ordinary month as the first month of the year; an intercalated month is not rejected for that purpose, though it is tabooed from the religious and auspicious points of view.

The manner in which this arrangement of intercalated and suppressed months works out, so as to prevent the beginning of the Chaitradi lunar year departing far from the beginning of the Meshadi solar year, may be illustrated as follows. In A.D. 1815 the Mesha-samkranti occurred on 11th April; and the first civil day of the Chaitradi year was 10th April. In A.D. 1816 and 1817 the first civil day of the Chaitradi year fell back to 29th March and 18th March. In A.D. 1817, however, there was an intercalated month, Sravana; with the result that in A.D. 1818 the first civil day of the Chaitradi year advanced to 6th April. And, after various shiftings of the same kind--including in A.D. 1822 an intercalation of Asvina and a suppression of Pausha, followed in A.D. 1823, when the first civil day of the Chaitradi year had fallen back to 13th March, by an intercalation of Chaitra itself--in A.D. 1834, when the Mesha-samkranti occurred again on 11th April, the first civil day of the Chaitradi year was again 10th April.

The lunar fortnight.

The lunar month is divided into two fortnights (_paksha_), called bright and dark, or, in Indian terms, _sukla_ or _suddha_, _sudi_, _sudi_, and _krishna_ or _bahula_, _badi_, _vadi_: the bright fortnight, _sukla-paksha_, is the period of the waxing moon, ending at the full-moon; the dark fortnight, _krishna-paksha_, is the period of the waning moon, ending at the new-moon. In the _amanta_ or _sukladi_ month, the bright fortnight precedes the dark; in the _purnimanta_ or _krishnadi_ month, the dark fortnight comes first; and the result is that, whereas, for instance, the bright fortnight of Chaitra is the same period of time throughout India, the preceding dark fortnight is known in Northern India as the dark fortnight of Chaitra, but in Southern India as the dark fortnight of Phalguna. This, however, does not affect the period covered by the lunar year; the Chaitradi and Karttikadi years begin everywhere with the bright fortnight of Chaitra and Karttika respectively; simply, by the _amanta_ system the dark fortnights of Chaitra and Karttika are the second fortnights, and by the _purnimanta_ system they are the last fortnights, of the years. Like the month, the fortnight begins for religious purposes with its first lunar day, and for civil purposes with its first civil day.

The lunar day.

The lunar fortnights are divided each into fifteen tithis or lunar days.[4] The _tithi_ is the time in which the moon increases her distance from the sun round the circle by twelve degrees; and the almanacs show each _tithi_ by its ending-time; that is, by the moment, expressed in _ghatikas_ and _palas_, after sunrise, at which the moon completes that distance. In accordance with that, the _tithi_ is usually used and cited with the weekday on which it ends; but there are special rules regarding certain rites, festivals, &c., which sometimes require the _tithi_ to be used and cited with the weekday on which it begins or is current at a particular time. The first _tithi_ of each fortnight begins immediately after the moment of new-moon and full-moon respectively; the last _tithi_ ends at the moment of full-moon and new-moon. The _tithis_ are primarily denoted by the numbers 1, 2, 3, &c., for each fortnight; but, while the full-moon _tithi_ is always numbered 15, the new-moon _tithi_ is generally numbered 30, even where the _purnimanta_ month is used. The _tithis_ may be cited either by their figures or by the Sanskrit ordinal words _prathama_, "first," _dvitiya_, "second," &c., or corruptions of them. But usually the first _tithi_ of either fortnight is cited by the term _pratipad_, _pratipada_, and the new-moon and full-moon _tithis_ are cited by the terms _amavasya_ and _purnima_; or here, again, corruptions of the Sanskrit terms are used. And special names are sometimes prefixed to the numbers of the _tithis_, according to the rites, festivals, &c., prescribed for them, or events or merits assigned to them: for instance, Vaisakha sukla 3 is Akshaya or Akshayya-tritiya, the third _tithi_ which ensures permanence to acts performed on it; Bhadrapada sukla 4 is Ganesa-chaturthi, the fourth _tithi_ dedicated to the worship of the god Ganesa, Ganapati, and the _amanta_ Bhadrapada or _purnimanta_ Asvina krishna 13 is Kaliyugadi-trayodasi, as being regarded (for some reason which is not apparent) as the anniversary of the beginning of the Kaliyuga, the present Age. The first _tithi_ of the year is styled Samvatsara-pratipada, which term answers closely to our "New Year's Day."

The civil day.

The civil days of the lunar month begin, like those of the solar month, at sunrise, and bear in the same way the names of the weekdays. But they are numbered in a different manner; fortnight by fortnight and according to the _tithis_. The general rule is that the civil day takes the number of the _tithi_ which is current at its sunrise. And the results are as follows. As the motions of the sun and the moon vary periodically, a tithi is of variable length, ranging, according to the Hindu calculations, from 21 hrs. 34 min. 24 sec. to 26 hrs. 6 min. 24 sec.: it may, therefore, be either shorter or longer than a civil day, the duration of which is practically 24 hours (one minute, roughly, more or less, according to the time of the year). A _tithi_ may end at any moment during the civil day; and ordinarily it ends on the civil day after that on which it begins, and covers only one sunrise and gives its number to the day on which it ends. It may, however, begin on one civil day and end on the next but one, and so cover two sunrises; and it is then treated as a repeated _tithi_, in the sense that its number is repeated: for instance, if the seventh _tithi_ so begins and ends, the civil day on which it begins is numbered 6, from the _tithi_ which is current at the sunrise of that day and ends on it; the day covered entirely by the seventh _tithi_ is numbered 7, because that _tithi_ is current at its sunrise; the next day, at the sunrise of which the seventh _tithi_ is still current and during which it ends, is again numbered 7; and the number 8 falls to the next day after that, when the eighth tithi is current at sunrise.[5] On the other hand, a _tithi_ may begin and end during one and the same civil day, so as not to touch a sunrise at all: in this case, it exists for any practical purposes for which it may be wanted (it is, however, to be avoided if possible, as being an unlucky occasion), but it is suppressed or expunged for the numbering of the civil day, in the sense that its number is omitted; for instance, if the seventh _tithi_ begins and ends during one civil day, that day is numbered 6 from, as before, the _tithi_ which is current at its sunrise and ends when the seventh _tithi_ begins; the next day is numbered 8, because the eighth _tithi_ is current at its sunrise; and there is, in this case, no civil day bearing the number seven. In consequence of this method of numbering, it sometimes happens, as the result of the suppression of a _tithi_, that the day of a full-moon is numbered 14 instead of 15; that the day of a new-moon is numbered 14 instead of 30; and that the first day of a fortnight, and even the first day of a lunar year, is numbered 2 instead of 1.

There are, on an average, thirteen suppressed _tithis_ and seven repeated _tithis_ in twelve lunar months; and so the lunar year averages 354 days, rising to about 384 when a month is intercalated. It occasionally happens that there are two suppressions of _tithis_ in one and the same fortnight; and the almanacs show such a case in the bright fortnight of Jyaishtha, A.D. 1878: but this occurs only after very long intervals.

The Karana.

The _tithi_ is divided into two _karanas_; each _karana_ being the time in which the moon increases her distance from the sun by six degrees. But this is a detail of astrological rather than chronological interest. So, also, are two other details to which a prominent place is given in the lunar calendars; to yoga, or time in which the joint motion in longitude, the sum of the motions of the sun and the moon, is increased by 13 degrees 20 minutes; and the _nakshatra_, the position of the moon as referred to the ecliptic by means of the stars and groups of stars which have been mentioned above under the lunar month.

In the Indian calendar everything depends upon exact times, which differ, of course, on every different meridian; and (to cite what is perhaps the most frequent and generally important occurrence) suppression and repetition may affect one _tithi_ and civil day in one locality, and another _tithi_ and civil day in another locality not very far distant. Consequently, neither for the lunar nor for the solar calendar is there any almanac which is applicable to even the whole area in which any particular length of the astronomical solar year prevails; much less, for the whole of India. Different almanacs are prepared and published for places of leading importance; details for minor places, when wanted, have to be worked out by the local astrologer, the modern representative of an ancient official known as Sammvatsara, the "clerk of the year."

II. ERAS

As far as the available evidence goes (and we have no reason to expect to discover anything opposed to it), any use of eras, in the sense of continuous reckonings which originated in historical occurrences or astronomical epochs and were employed for official and other public chronological purposes, did not prevail in India before the 1st century B.C. Prior to that time, there existed, indeed, in connexion with the sacrificial calendar, a five-years lunisolar cycle, and possibly some extended cycles of the same nature; and there was in Buddhist circles a record of the years elapsed since the death of Buddha, which we shall mention again further on. But, as is gathered from books and is well illustrated by the edicts of Asoka (reigned 264-227 B.C.) and the inscriptions of other rulers, the years of the reign of each successive king were found sufficient for the public dating of proclamations and the record of events. There is no known case in which any Indian king, of really ancient times, deliberately applied himself to the foundation of an era: and we have no reason for thinking that such a thing was ever done, or that any Hindu reckoning at all owes its existence to a recognition of historical requirements. The eras which came into existence from the 1st century B.C. onwards mostly had their origin in the fortuitous extension of regnal reckonings. The usual course has been that, under the influence of filial piety, pride in ancestry, loyalty to a paramount sovereign, or some other such motive, the successor of some king continued the regnal reckoning of his predecessor, who was not necessarily the first king in the dynasty, and perhaps did not even reign for any long time, instead of starting a new reckoning, beginning again with the year 1, according to the years of his own reign. Having thus run for two reigns, the reckoning was sufficiently well established to continue in the same form, and to eventually develop into a generally accepted local era, which might or might not be taken over by subsequent dynasties ruling afterwards over the same territory. In these circumstances, we find the establisher of any particular era in that king who first continued his predecessor's regnal reckoning, instead of replacing it by his own; but we regard as the founder of the era that king whose regnal reckoning was so continued. We may add here that it was only in advanced stages that any of the Hindu eras assumed specific names: during the earlier period of each of them, the years were simply cited by the term _samvatsara_ or _varsha_, "the year (bearing such-and-such a number)," or by the abbreviations _samvat_ and _sam_, without any appellative designation.

The Buddhist and Jain religious reckonings.

The Hindus have had two religious reckonings, which it will be convenient to notice first. Certain, statements in the Ceylonese chronicles, the _Dipavamsa_ and _Mahavamsa_, endorsed by an entry in a record of Asoka, show that in the 3rd century B.C. there existed among the Buddhists a record of the time elapsed since the death of Buddha in 483 B.C., from which it was known that Asoka was anointed to the sovereignty 218 years after the death. The reckoning, however, was confined to esoteric Buddhist circles, and did not commend itself for any public use; and the only known inscriptional use of it, which also furnishes the latest known date recorded in it, is found in the Last Edict of Asoka, which presents his dying speech delivered in 226 B.C., 256 years after the death of Buddha. In Ceylon, where, also the original reckoning was not maintained, there was devised in the 12th century A.D. a reckoning styled Buddhavarsha, "the years of Buddha," which still exists, and which purports to run from the death of Buddha, but has set up an erroneous date for that event in 544 B.C. This later reckoning spread from Ceylon to Burma and Siam, where, also, it is still used. It did not obtain any general recognition in India, because, when it was devised, Buddhism had practically died out there, except at Bodh-Gaya. But, as there seems to have been constant intercourse between Bodh-Gaya and Ceylon as well as other foreign Buddhist countries, we should not be surprised to find an occasional instance of its use at Bodh-Gaya: and it is believed that one such instance, belonging to A.D. 1270, has been obtained.

The Jains have had, and still maintain, a reckoning from the death of the founder of their faith, Vira, Mahavira, Vardhamana, which event is placed by them in 528 B.C. This reckoning figures largely in the Jain books, which put forward dates in it for very early times. But the earliest known synchronous date in it--by which we mean a date given by a writer who recorded the year in which he himself was writing--is one of the year 980, or, according to a different view mentioned in the passage itself, of the year 993. This reckoning, again, did not commend itself for any official or other public use. And the only known inscriptional instances of the use of it are modern ones, of the 19th century. While it is certain that the Jain reckoning, as it exists, has its initial point in 528 B.C. it has not yet been determined whether that is actually the year in which Vira died. All that can be said on this point is that the date is not inconsistent with certain statements in Buddhist books, which mention, by a Prakrit name of which the Sanskrit form is Nirgrantha-Jnata-putra, a contemporary of Buddha, in whom there is recognized the original of the Jain Vira, Mahavira, or Vardhamana, and who, the same books say, died while Buddha was still alive. But there are some indications that Nirgrantha-Jnataputra may have died only a short time before Buddha himself; and the event may easily have been set back to 528 B.C. in circumstances, attending a determination of the reckoning long after the occurrence, analogous to those in which the Ceylonese Buddhavarsha set up the erroneous date of 544 B.C. for the death of Buddha.

Bygone Eras of royal origin.

In the class of eras of royal origin, brought into existence in the manner indicated above, the Hindus have had various reckonings which have now mostly fallen into disuse. We may mention them, without giving them the detailed treatment which the more important of the still existing reckonings demand.

The Kalachuri or Chedi era, commencing in A.D. 248 or 249, is known best from inscriptional records, bearing dates which range from the 10th to the 13th century A.D., of the Kalachuri kings of the Chedi country in Central India; and it is from them that it derived the name under which it passes. In earlier times, however, we find this era well established, without any appellation, in Western India, in Gujarat and the Thana district of Bombay, where it was used by kings and princes of the Chalukya, Gurjara, Sendraka, Katachchuri and Traikutaka families. It is traced back there to A.D. 457, at which time there was reigning a Traikutaka king named Dahrasena. Beyond that point, we have at present no certain knowledge about it. But it seems probable that the founder of it may be recognized in an Abhira king Isvarasena, or else in his father Sivadatta, who was reigning at Nasik in or closely about A.D. 248-49.

The Gupta era, commencing in A.D. 320, was founded by Chandragupta I., the first paramount king in the great Gupta dynasty of Northern India. When the Guptas passed away, their reckoning was taken over by the Maitraka kings of Valabhi, who succeeded them in Kathiawar and some of the neighbouring territories; and so it became also known as the Valabhi era.

From Halsi in the Belgaum district, Bombay, we have a record of the Kadamba king Kakusthavarman, which was framed during the time when he was the Yuvaraja or anointed successor to the sovereignty, and may be referred to about A.D. 500. It is dated in "the eightieth victorious year," and thus indicates the preservation of a reckoning running from the foundation of the Kadamba dynasty by Mayuravarman, the great-grandfather of Kakusthavarman. But no other evidence of the existence of this era has been obtained.

The records of the Ganga kings of Kalinganagara, which is the modern Mukhalingam-Nagarikatakam in the Ganjam district, Madras, show the existence of a Ganga era which ran for at any rate 254 years. And various details in the inscriptions enable us to trace the origin of the Ganga kings to Western India, and to place the initial point of their reckoning in A.D. 590, when a certain Satyasraya-Dhruvaraja-Indravarman, an ancestor and probably the grandfather of the first Ganga king Rajasimha-Indravarman I., commenced to govern a large province in the Konkan under the Chalukya king Kirtivarman I.

An era commencing in A.D. 605 or 606 was founded in Northern India by the great king Harshavardhana, who reigned first at Thanesar and then at Kanauj, and who was the third sovereign in a dynasty which traced its origin to a prince named Naravardhana. A peculiarity about this era is that it continued in use for apparently four centuries after Harshavardhana, in spite of the fact that his line ended with him.

The inscriptions assert that the Western Chalukya king Vikrama or Vikramaditya VI. of Kalyani in the Nizam's dominions, who reigned from A.D. 1076 to 1126, abolished the use of the Saka era in his dominions in favour of an era named after himself. What he or his ministers did was to adopt, for the first time in that dynasty, the system of regnal years, according to which, while the Saka era also remained in use, most of the records of his time are dated, not in that era, but in the year so-and-so of the Chalukya-Vikrama-kala or Chalukya-Vikrama-varsha, "the time or years of the Chalukya Vikrama." There is some evidence that this reckoning survived Vikramaditya VI. for a short time. But his successors introduced their own regnal reckonings; and that prevented it from acquiring permanence.

In Tirhut, there is still used a reckoning which is known as the Lakshmanasena era from the name of the king of Bengal by whom it was founded. There is a difference of opinion as to the exact initial point of this reckoning; but the best conclusion appears to be that which places it in A.D. 1119. This era prevailed at one time throughout Bengal: we know this from a passage in the _Akbarnama_, written in A.D. 1584, which specifies the Saka era as the reckoning of Gujarat and the Dekkan, the Vikrama era as the reckoning of Malwa, Delhi, and those parts, and the Lakshmanasena era as the reckoning of Bengal.

The last reckoning that we have to mention here is one known as the Rajyabhisheka-Saka, "the era of the anointment to the sovereignty," which was in use for a time in Western India. It dated from the day Jyaishtha sukla 13 of the Saka year 1597 current, = 6 June, A.D. 1674, when Sivaji, the founder of the Maratha kingdom, had himself enthroned.

Miscellaneous Eras.

There are four reckonings which it is difficult at present to class exactly. Two inscriptions of the 15th and 17th centuries, recently brought to notice from Jesalmer in Rajputana, present a reckoning which postulates an initial point in A.D. 624 or in the preceding or the following year, and bears an appellation, Bhatika, which seems to be based on the name of the Bhatti tribe, to which the rulers of Jesalmer belong. No historical event is known, referable to that time, which can have given rise to an era. It is possible that the apparent initial date represents an epoch, at the end of the Saka year 546 or thereabouts, laid down in some astronomical work composed then or soon afterwards and used in the Jesalmer territory. But it seems more probable that it is a purely fictitious date, set up by an attempt to evolve an early history Of the ruling family.

In the Tinnevelly district of Madras, and in the territories of the same presidency in which the Malayalam language prevails, namely, South Kanara below Mangalore, the Malabar district, and the Cochin and Travancore states, there is used a reckoning which is known sometimes as the Kollam or Kolamba reckoning, sometimes as the era of Parasurama. The years of it are solar: in the southern parts of the territory in which it is current, they begin with the month Simha; in the northern parts, they begin with the next month, Kanya. The initial point of the reckoning is in A.D. 825; and the year 1076 commenced in A.D. 1900. The popular view about this reckoning is that it consists of cycles of 1000 years; that we are now in the fourth cycle; and that the reckoning originated in 1176 B.C. with the mythical Parasurama, who exterminated the Kshatriya or warrior caste, and reclaimed the Konkan countries, Western India below the Ghauts, from the ocean. But the earliest known date in it, of the year 149, falls in A.D. 973; and the reckoning has run on in continuation of the thousand, instead of beginning afresh in A.D. 1825. It seems probable, therefore, that the reckoning had no existence before A.D. 825. The years are cited sometimes as "the Kollam year (of such-and-such a number)," sometimes as "the year (so-and-so) after Kollam appeared;" and this suggests that the reckoning may possibly owe its origin to some event, occurring in A.D. 825, connected with one or other of the towns and ports named Kollam, on the Malabar coast; perhaps Northern Kollam in the Malabar district, perhaps Southern Kollam, better known as Quilon, in Travancore. But the introduction of Parasurama into the matter, which would carry back (let us say) the foundation of Kollam to legendary times, may indicate, rather, a purely imaginative origin. Or, again, since each century of the Kollam reckoning begins in the same year A.D. with a century of the Saptarshi reckoning (see below under III. Other Reckonings), it is not impossible that this reckoning may be a southern offshoot of the Saptarshi reckoning, or at least may have had the same astrological origin.

In Nepal there is a reckoning, known as the Newar era and commencing in A.D. 879, which superseded the Gupta and Harsha eras there. One tradition attributes the foundation of it to a king Raghavadeva; another says that, in the time and with the permission of a king Jayadevamalla, a merchant named Sakhwal paid off, by means of wealth acquired from sand which turned into gold, all the debts then existing in the country, and introduced the new era in commemoration of the occurrence. It is possible that the era may have been founded by some ruler of Nepal: but nothing authentic is known about the particular names mentioned in connexion with it. This era appears to have been discarded for state and official purposes, in favour of the Saka era, in A.D. 1768, when the Gurkhas became masters of Nepal; but manuscripts show that in literary circles it has remained in use up to at any rate A.D. 1875.

Inscriptions disclose the use in Kathiawar and Gujarat, in the 12th and 13th centuries, of a reckoning, commencing in A.D. 1114, which is known as the Simha-samvat. No historical occurrence is known, on which it can have been based; and the origin of it is obscure.

Three great Eras in general use.

The eras mentioned above have for the most part served their purposes and died out. But there are three great reckonings, dating from a very respectable antiquity, which have held their own and survived to the present day. These are the Kaliyuga, Vikrama, and Saka eras. It will be convenient to treat the Kaliyuga first, though, in spite of having the greatest apparent antiquity, it is the latest of the three in respect of actual date of origin.

The Kaliyuga Era of 3102 B.C.

The Kaliyuga era is the principal astronomical reckoning of the Hindus. It is frequently, if not generally, shown in the almanacs: but it can hardly be looked upon as being now in practical use for civil purposes; and, as regards the custom of previous times as far as we can judge it from the inscriptional use, which furnishes a good guide, the position is as follows: from Southern India we have one such instance of A.D. 634, one of A.D. 770, three of the 10th century, and then, from the 12th century onwards, but more particularly from the 14th, a certain number of instances, not exactly very small in itself, but extremely so in comparison with the number of cases of the use of the Vikrama and Saka eras and other reckonings: from Northern India the earliest known instance of is A.D. 1169 or 1170, and the later ones number only four. Its years are by nature sidereal solar years, commencing with the Mesha-samkranti, the entrance of the sun into the Hindu constellation and sign Mesha, i.e. Aries (for this and other technical details, see above, under the Calendar);[6] but they were probably cited as lunar years in the inscriptional records which present the reckoning; and the almanacs appear to treat them either as Meshadi civil solar years with solar months, or as Chaitradi lunar years with lunar months _amanta_ (ending with the new-moon) or _purnimanta_ (ending with the full-moon) as the case may be, according to the locality. Its initial point lies in 3102 B.C.; and the year 5002 began in A.D. 1900.[7]

This reckoning is not an historical era, actually running from 3102 B.C. It was devised for astronomical purposes at some time about A.D. 400, when the Hindu astronomers, having taken over the principles of the Greek astronomy, recognized that they required for purposes of computation a specific reckoning with a definite initial occasion. They found that occasion in a conjunction of the sun, the moon, and the five planets which were then known, at the first point of their sign Mesha. There was not really such a conjunction; nor, apparently, is it even the case that the sun was actually at the first point of Mesha at the moment arrived at. But there was an approach to such a conjunction, which was turned into an actual conjunction by taking the mean instead of the true positions of the sun, the moon, and the planets. And, partly from the reckoning which has come down to us, partly from the astronomical books, we know that the moment assigned to the assumed conjunction was according to one school the midnight between Thursday the 17th, and Friday the 18th, February, 3102 B.C., and according to another school the sunrise on the Friday.

The reckoning thus devised was subsequently identified with the Kaliyuga as the iron age, the last and shortest, with a duration of 432,000 years, of the four ages in each cycle of ages in the Hindu system of cosmical periods. Also, traditional history was fitted to it by one school, represented notably by the Puranas, which, referring the great war between the Pandavas and the Kurus, which is the topic of the Mahabharata, to the close of the preceding age, the Dvapara, placed on the last day of that age the culminating event which ushered in the Kali age; namely, the death of Krishna (the return to heaven of Vishnu on the termination of his incarnation as Krishna), which was followed by the abdication of the Pandava king Yudhishthira, who, having installed his grand-nephew Parikshit as his successor, then set out on his own journey to heaven. Another school, however, placed the Pandavas and the Kurus 653 years later, in 2449 B.C. A third school places in 3102 B.C. the anointment of Yudhishthira to the sovereignty, and treats that event as inaugurating the Kali age; from this point of view, the first 3044 years of the Kaliyuga--the period from its commencement in 3102 B.C. to the commencement of the first historical era, the so-called Vikrama era, in 58 B.C.--are also known as "the era of Yudhishthira."

The Vikrama Era of 58 B.C.

The Vikrama era, which is the earliest of all the Hindu eras in respect of order of foundation, is the dominant era and the great historical reckoning of Northern India--that is, of the territory on the north of the rivers Narbada and Mahanadi--to which part of the country its use has always been practically confined. Like, indeed, the Kaliyuga and Saka eras, it is freely cited in almanacs in any part of India; and it is sometimes used in the south by immigrants from the north: but it is, by nature, so essentially foreign to the south that the earliest known inscriptional instance of the use of it in Southern India only dates from A.D. 1218, and the very few later instances that have been obtained, prior to the 15th century A.D., come, along with the instance of A.D. 1218, from the close neighbourhood of the dividing-line between the north and the south. The Vikrama era has never been used for astronomical purposes. Its years are lunar, with lunar months, but seem liable to be sometimes regarded as solar, with solar months, when they are cited in almanacs of Southern India which present the solar calendar. Originally they were Kartti-kadi, with _purnimanta_ months (ending with the full-moon). They now exist in the following three varieties: in Kathiawar and Gujarat, they are chiefly Karttikadi, with _amanta_ months (ending with the new-moon); and they are shown in this form in almanacs for the other parts of the Bombay Presidency; but there is also found in Kathiawar and that neighbourhood an Ashadhadi variety, commencing with Ashadha sukla I, similarly with _amanta_ months; in the rest of Northern India, they are Chaitradi, with _purnimanta_ months. The era has its initial point in 58 B.C., and its first civil day, Karttika sukla I, is 19th September in that year if we determine it with reference to the Hindu Tula-samkranti, or 18th October if we determine it with reference to the tropical equinox. The years of the three varieties, Chaitradi, Ashadhadi, and Karttikadi, all commence in the same year A.D.; and the year 1958 began in A.D. 1900.

Hindu legend connects the foundation of this era with a king Vikrama or Vikramaditya of Ujjain in Malwa, Central India: one version is that he began to reign in 58 B.C.; another is that he died in that year, and that the reckoning commemorates his death. Modern research, however, based largely on the inscriptional records, has shown that there was no such king, and that the real facts are very different. The era owes its existence to the Kushan king Kanishka, a foreign invader, who established himself in Northern India and commenced to reign there in B.C. 58.[8] He was the founder of it, in the sense that the opening years of it were the years of his reign. It was established and set going as an era by his successor, who continued the reckoning so started, instead of breaking it by introducing another according to his own regnal years. And it was perpetuated as an era, and transmitted as such to posterity by the Malavas, the people from whom the modern territory Malwa derived its name, who were an important section of the subjects of Kanishka and his successors. In consonance with that, records ranging in date from A.D. 473 to 879 style it "the reckoning of the Malavas, the years of the Malava lords, the Malava time or era." Prior to that, it had no specific name; the years of it were simply cited, in ordinary Hindu fashion, by the term _samvatsara_, "the year (of such-and-such a number)," or by its abbreviations _samvat_ and _sam_: and the same was frequently done in later times also, and is habitually done in the present day; and so, in modern times, this era has often been loosely styled "the Samvat era." The idea of a king Vikrama in connexion with it appears to date from only the 9th or 10th century A.D.

The Saka Era of A.D. 78.

The Saka era, though it actually had its origin in the south-west corner of Northern India, is the dominant era and the great historical reckoning of Southern India; that is, of the territory below the rivers Narbada and Mahanadi. It is also the subsidiary astronomical reckoning, largely used, from the 6th century A.D. onwards, in the _Karanas_, the works dealing with practical details of the calendar, for laying down epochs or points of time furnishing convenient bases for computation. As a result of that, it came to be used in past times for general purposes also, to a limited extent, in parts of Northern India where it was not indigenous. And it is now used more or less freely, and is cited in almanacs everywhere. Its years are usually lunar, Chaitradi, and its months are _purnimanta_ (ending with the full-moon) in Northern India, and _amanta_ (ending with the new-moon) in Southern India; but in times gone by it was sometimes treated for purposes of calculation as having astronomical solar years, and it is now treated as having Mesh di civil solar years and solar months in those parts of India where that form of the solar calendar prevails. It has its initial point in A.D. 78; and its first civil day, Chaitra sukla I, is 3rd March in that year, as determined with reference either to the Hindu M'na-samkranti or to the entrance of the sun into the tropical Pisces. The year 1823 began in A.D. 1900.

Regarding the origin of the Saka era, there was current in the 10th and 11th centuries A.D. a belief which, ignoring the difference of a hundred and thirty-five years between the two reckonings, connected the legendary king Vikramaditya of Ujjain, mentioned above under the Vikrama era, with the foundation of this era also. The story runs, from this point of view, that the Sakas were a barbarous people who established themselves in the western and north-western dominions of that king, but were met in battle and destroyed by him, and that the era was established in celebration of that event. The modern belief, however, ascribes the foundation of this era to a king Salivahana of Pratishthana, which is the modern Paithan, on the Godavari, in the Nizam's dominions. But in this case, again, research has shown that the facts are very different. Like the Vikrama era, the Saka era owes its existence to foreign invaders. It was founded by the Chhaharata or Kshaharata king Nahapana, who appears to have been a Pahlava or Palhava, i.e. of Parthian extraction, and who reigned from A.D. 78 to about 125.[9] He established himself first in Kathiawar, but subsequently brought under his sway northern Gujarat (Bombay) and Ujjain, and, below the Narbada, southern Gujarat, Nasik and probably Khandesh. His capital seems to have been Dohad, in the Panch Mahals. And he had two viceroys: one, named Bhumaka, of the same family with himself, in Kathiawar; and another, Chashtana, son of Ghsamotika, at Ujjain. Soon after A.D. 125, Nahapana was overthrown, and his family was wiped out, by the Satavahana-Satakarni king Gautamiputra-Sri-Satakarni, who thereby recovered the territories on the south of the Narbada, and perhaps secured for a time Kathiawar and some other parts on the north of that river. Very soon, however, Chashtana, or else his son Jayadaman, established his sway over all the territory which had belonged to Nahapana on the north of the Narbada; founded a line of Hinduized foreign kings, who ruled there for more than three centuries; and, continuing Nahapana's regnal reckoning, established the era to which the name Saka eventually became attached. Inscriptions and coins show that, up to at least the second decade of its fourth century, this reckoning had no specific appellation; its years were simply cited, in the usual fashion, as _varsha_, "the year (of such-and-such a number)." The reckoning was then taken up by the astronomers. And we find it first called Sakakala, "the time or era of the Sakas," in an epochal date, the end of the year 427, falling in A.D. 505, which was used by the astronomer Varahamihira (d. A.D. 587) in his Panchasiddhantika. That this name came to be attached to it appears to be due to the points that, along with some of the Pahlavas or Palhavas and the Yavanas or descendants of the Asiatic Greeks, some of the Sakas, the Scythians, had made their way into Kathiawar and neighbouring parts by about A.D. 100, and that the Sakas incidentally came to acquire prominence in the memory of the Hindus regarding these occurrences, in such a manner that their name was selected when the occasion arose to devise an appellation for an era the exact origin of which had been forgotten. The name of the imaginary king Salivahana first figures in connexion with the era in a record of A.D. 1272, and seems plainly to have been introduced in imitation of the coupling of the name Vikrama, Vikramaditya, with the era of B.C. 58.

That the Saka era, though it had its origin in the south-west corner of Northern India, is essentially an era of Southern India, is proved by its inscriptional and numismatic history. During the period before the time when it was taken up by the astronomers, it is found only in the inscriptions of Nahapana, and in the similar records and on the coins of the descendants of Chashtana. After that same time, it figures first in a record of the Chalukya king Kirtivarman I., at Badami in the Bijapur district, Bombay, which is dated on the full-moon day of the month Karttika, falling in A.D. 578, "when there had elapsed five centuries of the years of the anointment of the Saka king to the sovereignty." And from this date onwards the records of a large part of Southern India are mostly dated in this era, by various expressions all of which include the term Saka or Saka. In Northern India the case is very different. We have a record dated in the month Karttika, the Saka year 631 (expired), falling in A.D. 709: it comes from Multai in the Betul district, Central Provinces, that is, from the south of the Narbada; but it belongs to Gujarat (Bombay), and perhaps to the north, though more probably to the south, of that province. But, setting that aside, the earliest inscriptional instance of the use of this era in Northern India, outside Kathiawar and Gujarat, is found in a record of A.D. 862 at Deogarh near Lalitpur, the headquarters town of the Lalitpur district, United Provinces of Agra and Oude; here, however, the record is primarily dated, with the full details of the month, &c., in "Samvat 919," that is, in the Vikrama year 919; it is only as a subsidiary detail that the Saka year 784 is given in a separate passage at the end of the record, a sort of postscript. From this date onwards the era is found in other records of Northern India, but to any appreciable extent only from A.D. 1137, and to only a very small extent in comparison with the Vikrama and other northern eras; and the cases in which it was used exclusively there, without being coupled with one or other of the northern reckonings, are still more conspicuously few. In short, the general position is that the Saka era has been essentially foreign to Northern India until recent times; it was used there quite exceptionally and sporadically, and in very few cases indeed at any appreciable distance from the dividing-line between the north and the south. That it found its way into Northern India, outside Kathiawar and northern Gujarat at all, is unquestionably due to its use by the astronomers. It also travelled, across the sea, by the 7th century A.D. to Cambodia, and somewhat later to Java; to which parts it was doubtless taken in almanacs, or in invoices, statements of account, &c., by the persons engaged in the trade between Broach and the far east via Tagara (Ter) and the east coast. It also found its way in subsequent times to Assam and Ceylon, and more recently still to Nepal.

III. OTHER RECKONINGS

The Cycles of Jupiter.

We come now to certain reckonings consisting of cycles, and will take first the cycles of Guru or Brihaspati, Jupiter. This planet, a very conspicuous object in eastern skies, requires a period of 4332.6 days, = 50.4 days less than twelve Julian years, to make a circuit of the heavens, and has provided the Hindus with two reckonings, each in more than one variety; a cycle of twelve years, and a cycle of sixty years. The years of Jupiter, in all their varieties, are usually styled _samvatsara_; and it is convenient to use this term here, in order to preserve clearly the distinction between them and the solar and lunar years. The _samvatsaras_ have no divisions of their own; the months, days, &c., cited with them are those of the ordinary solar or lunar calendar, as the case may be.

The 12-years Cycle.

The older reckoning of Jupiter appears to be that of the 12-years cycle, which is found in two varieties; in both of them the _samvatsaras_ bear, according to certain rules which need not be explained here, the same names with the lunar months, Chaitra, Vaisakha, &c. In one variety, each _samvatsara_ runs from one of the planet's heliacal risings--that is, from the day on which it becomes visible as a morning star on the eastern horizon--to the next such rising; and the length of such a _samvatsara_, according to the Hindu data, is from 392 to 405 days, with an average of 399 days. Inscriptional instances of the use of this cycle are found in six of the Gupta records of Northern India, ranging from A.D. 475 to 528.

In the other variety of the 12-years cycle, which is mentioned in astronomical works from the time of Aryabhata onwards (b. A.D. 476), the _samvatsaras_ are regulated by Jupiter's course with reference to his mean motion and mean longitude: a _samvatsara_ of this variety commences when Jupiter thus enters a sign of the zodiac, and lasts for the time occupied by him in traversing that sign from the same point of view; and the period taken by him to do that--that is, the duration of such a _samvatsara_--is slightly in excess, according to the Hindu data, of 361.02 days, which amount is very close to the actual fact, 361.05 days. Inscriptional instances of the use of this cycle are perhaps found in two records of Southern India of the Kadamba series, belonging to about A.D. 575.

The 12-years mean-sign cycle seems to be still used in some parts. And the heliacal risings of Jupiter, as also, indeed, those of the other planets, are shown in almanacs for astrological purposes. In either variety, however, the 12-years cycle is now chiefly of antiquarian interest.

The 60-years cycle.

The cycle of Jupiter now in general use is a cycle of sixty years, the _samvatsaras_ of which bear certain special names, Prabhava, Vibhava, Sukla, Pramoda, &c., again in accordance with certain rules which we need not explain here. This cycle exists in three varieties.

According to the original constitution of this cycle, the _samvatsaras_ are determined as in the second or mean-sign variety of the 12-years cycle: each _samvatsara_ commences when Jupiter enters a sign of the zodiac with reference to his mean motion and longitude; and it lasts for slightly more than 361.02 days. This variety is traced back in inscriptional records to A.D. 602, and is still used in Northern India.

Now, the _samvatsaras_ are calculated by means of the astronomical solar year commencing with the Mesha-samkranti, the entrance of the sun into the sign Mesha (Aries). The process gives the number of the _samvatsara_ last expired before any particular Mesha-samkranti, with a remainder denoting the portion of the current _samvatsara_ elapsed up to the same time; and the remainder, reduced to months, &c., gives the moment of the commencement of the current _samvatsara_, by reckoning back from the Mesha-samkranti. As the result, apparently, of unwillingness to take the trouble to work out the full details, at some time about A.D. 800 a practice arose, in some quarters, according to which that _samvatsara_ of the 60-years cycle which was current at any particular Mesha-samkranti was taken as coinciding with the astronomical solar year beginning at that _samkranti_, and with the Chaitradi lunar year belonging to that same solar year. And this practice set up a lunisolar variety of the cycle, in connexion with which we have to notice the following point. While the duration of a mean-sign _samvatsara_ is closely about 361.02 days, the length of the Hindu astronomical solar year is closely about 365.258 days. It consequently happens, after every 85 or 86 years, that a mean-sign _samvatsara_ begins and ends between two successive Mesha-samkrantis. In the mean-sign cycle, such a _samvatsara_ retains its existence unaffected; and the names Prabhava, Vibhava, &c., run on without any interruption. According to the lunisolar system, however, the position is different; the _samvatsara_ beginning and ending between the two Mesha-samkrantis is expunged or suppressed, in the sense that its name is omitted and is replaced by the next name on the list. The second variety of the 60-years cycle, thus started, ran on alongside of the mean-sign variety, and, being eventually transferred, with that variety, to Northern India, is now known as the northern lunisolar variety. It preserves a connexion between the _samvatsaras_ and the movements of Jupiter: but the connexion is an imperfect one; and both in this variety, and still more markedly in the remaining one still to be described, the _samvatsaras_ practically became mere appellations for the solar and lunar years.

Meanwhile, just after A.D. 900, another development occurred, and there was started a third variety, which is now known as the southern lunisolar variety. The precise year in which this happened depends on the particular authority that we follow. If we take the elements adopted in the Surya-Siddhanta as the proper data for that time and for the locality--Western India below the Narbada--to which the early history of the cycle belongs, the position was as follows. At the Mesha-samkranti in A.D. 908 there was current, by the mean-sign system, the _samvatsara_ No. 2, Vibhava: but No. 4, Pramoda, was current by the same system at the Mesha-samkranti in A.D. 909; and No. 3, Sukla, began and ended between the two Mesha-samkrantis. Accordingly, No. 2, Vibhava, was the lunisolar _samvatsara_ for the Meshadi solar year and the Chaitradi lunar year commencing in A.D. 908; and by the strict lunisolar system, which was adhered to by some people and is now known as the northern lunisolar system, it was followed in A.D. 909 by No. 4, Pramoda, the name of the intermediate _samvatsara_, No. 3, Sukla, being passed over. On the other hand, whether through oversight, or whatever the reason may have been, by other people the name of No. 3, Sukla, was not passed over, but that _samvatsara_ was taken as the lunisolar _samvatsara_ for the Meshadi solar year and the Chaitradi lunar year beginning in A.D. 909, and No. 4, Pramoda, followed it in A.D. 910. On subsequent similar occasions, also, there was, in the same quarters, no passing over of the name of any _samvatsara_. And this practice established itself in Southern India, to the exclusion there of the mean-sign and the northern lunisolar varieties; the discrepancy between the last-mentioned variety and the variety thus set up continuing, of course, to increase by one _samvatsara_ after every 85 or 86 years. In this variety, the southern lunisolar variety, all connexion between the _samvatsaras_ and the movements of Jupiter has now been lost.

The present position of the 60-years cycle in its three varieties may be illustrated thus. In Northern India, by the mean-sign system the _samvatsara_ No. 46, Paridhavin, began, according to different authorities, in August, September or October, A.D. 1899. Consequently, by the northern or expunging lunisolar system, that same _samvatsara_, No. 46, Paridhavin, coincided with the Meshadi civil solar year beginning with or just after 12th April, and with the Chaitradi lunar year beginning with 31st March, A.D. 1900. But by the southern or non-expunging lunisolar system those same solar and lunar years were No. 34, Sarvarin.

The treatment of the cycles of Jupiter in the Sanskrit books shows that it was primarily from the astrological point of view that they appealed to the Hindus; it was only as a secondary consideration that they acquired anything of a chronological nature. For the practical application of any of them to historical purposes, it is, of course, necessary that, along with the mention of a _samvatsara_, there should always be given the year of some known era, or some other specific guide to the exact period to which that _samvatsara_ is to be referred. But it is fortunately the case that the _samvatsaras_ have been but rarely cited in the inscriptional records without such a guide, of some kind or another.

The Saptarshi reckoning.

The Saptarshi reckoning is used in Kashmir, and in the Kangra district and some of the Hill states on the south-east of Kashmir; some nine centuries ago it was also in use in the Punjab, and apparently in Sind. In addition to being cited by such expressions as Saptarshi-samvat, "the year (so-and-so) of the Saptarshis," and Sastra-samvatsara, "the year (so-and-so) of the scriptures," it is found mentioned as Lokakala, "the time or era of the people," and by other terms which mark it as a vulgar reckoning. And it appears that modern popular names for it are Pahari-samvat and Kachcha-samvat, which we may render by "the Hill era" and "the crude era." The years of this reckoning are lunar, Chaitradi; and the months are _purnimanta_ (ending with the full-moon). As matters stand now, the reckoning has a theoretical initial point in 3077 B.C.; and the year 4976, more usually called simply 76, began in A.D. 1900; but there are some indications that the initial point was originally placed one year earlier.

The idea at the bottom of this reckoning is a belief that the Saptarshis, "the Seven Rishis or Saints," Marichi and others, were translated to heaven, and became the stars of the constellation Ursa Major, in 3076 B.C. (or 3077); and that these stars possess an independent movement of their own, which, referred to the ecliptic, carries them round at the rate of 100 years for each _nakshatra_ or twenty-seventh division of the circle. Theoretically, therefore, the Saptarshi reckoning consists of cycles of 2700 years; and the numbering of the years should run from 1 to 2700, and then commence afresh. In practice, however, it has been treated quite differently. According to the general custom, which has distinctly prevailed in Kashmir from the earliest use of the reckoning for chronological purposes, and is illustrated by Kalhana in his history of Kashmir, the _Rajataramgini_, written in A.D. 1148-1150, the numeration of the years has been centennial; whenever a century has been completed, the numbering has not run on 101, 102, 103, &c., but has begun again with 1, 2, 3, &c. Almanacs, indeed, show both the figures of the century and the full figures of the entire reckoning, which is treated as running from 3076 B. C., not from 376 B.C. as the commencement of a new cycle, the second; thus, an almanac for the year beginning in A.D. 1793 describes that year as "the year 4869 according to the course of the Seven Rishis, and similarly the year 69." And elsewhere sometimes the full. figures are found, sometimes the abbreviated ones; thus, while a manuscript written in A.D. 1648 is dated in "the year 24" (for 4724), another, written in A.D. 1224 is dated in "the year 4300." But, as in the _Rajataramgini_, so also in inscriptions, which range from A.D. 1204 onwards, only the abbreviated figures have hitherto been found. Essentially, therefore, the Saptarshi reckoning is a centennial reckoning, by suppressed or omitted hundreds, with its earlier centuries commencing in 3076, 2976 B.C., and so on, and its later centuries commencing in A.D. 25, 125, 225, &c.; on precisely the same lines with those according to which we may use, e.g. 98 to mean A.D. 1798, and 57 to mean A.D. 1857, and 9 to mean A.D. 1909. And the practical difficulties attending the use of such a system for chronological purposes are obvious; isolated dates recorded in such a fashion cannot be allocated without some explicit clue to the centuries to which they belong. Fortunately, however, as regards Kashmir, we have the necessary guide in the facts that Kalhana recorded his own date in the Saka era as well as in this reckoning, and gave full historical details which enable us to determine unmistakably the equivalent of the first date in this reckoning cited by him, and to arrange with certainty the chronology presented by him from that time.

The belief underlying this reckoning according to the course of the Seven Rishis is traced back in India, as an astrological detail, to at least the 6th century A.D. But the reckoning was first adopted for chronological purposes in Kashmir and at some time about A.D. 800; the first recorded date in it is one of "the year 89," meaning 3889, = A.D. 813-814, given by Kalhana. It was introduced into India between A.D. 925 and 1025.

The Grahaparivritti cycle.

The Grahaparivritti is a reckoning which is used in the southernmost parts of Madras, particularly in the Madura district. It consists of cycles of 90 Meshadi solar years, and is said, in conformity with its name, which means "the revolution of planets," to be made up by the sum of the days in 1 revolution of the sun, 22 of Mercury, 5 of Venus, 15 of Mars, 11 of Jupiter, and 29 of Saturn. The first cycle is held to have commenced in 24 B.C., the second in A.D. 67, and so on; and, in accordance with that view, the year 34, which began in A.D. 1900, was the 34th year of the 22nd cycle.

No inscriptional use of this cycle has come to notice. There seems no substantial reason for believing that the reckoning was really started in 24 B.C. The alleged constitution of the cycle, which appears to be correct within about twelve days, and might possibly be made apparently exact, suggests an astrological origin. And, if a guess may be hazarded, we would conjecture that the reckoning is an offshoot of the southern lunisolar variety of the 60-years cycle of Jupiter, and had its real origin in some year in which a Prabhava _samvatsara_ of that variety commenced, and to which the first year of a Grahaparivritti cycle can be referred: that was the case in A.D. 967 and at each subsequent 180th year.

The Onko cycle.

In part of the Ganjam district, Madras, there is a reckoning, known as the Onko or Anka, i.e. literally "the number or numbers," consisting of lunar years, each commencing with Bhadrapada sukla 12, which run theoretically in cycles of 59 years. But the reckoning has the peculiarity that, whether the explanation is to be found in a superstition about certain numbers or in some other reason, the year 6, and any year the number of which ends with 6 or 0 (except the year 10), is omitted from the numbering; so that, for instance, the year 7 follows next after the year 5. The origin of the reckoning is not known. But the use of it seems to be traceable in records of the Ganga kings who reigned in that part of the country and in Orissa in the 12th and following centuries. And the initial day, Bhadrapada sukla 12, which figures again in the Vilayati and Amli reckoning of Orissa (see farther on), is perhaps to be accounted for on the view that this day was the day of the anointment, in the 7th century, of the first Ganga king, Rajasimha-Indravarman I.

The Maghi reckoning.

In the Chittagong district, Bengal, there is a solar reckoning, known by the name Maghi, of which the year 1262 either began or ended in A.D. 1900; so that it has an initial point in A.D. 639 or 638. It appears that Chittagong was conquered by the king of Arakan in the 9th century, and remained usually in the possession of the Maghs--the Arakanese or a class of them--till A.D. 1666, when it was finally annexed to the Mogul empire. In these circumstances it is plain that the Magh reckoning took its name from the Maghs; its year, which is Meshadi, from Bengal; and its numbering from the Sakkaraj, the ordinary era of Arakan and Burma, which has its initial point in A.D. 638.

Hinduized offshoots of the Hijra era.

The Hijra (Hegira) era, the reckoning from the flight of Mahomet, which dates from the 16th of July, A.D. 662, is, of course, used by the Mahommedans in India, and is customarily shown, with the details of its calendar, in the Hindu almanacs. An account of it does not fall within the scope of this article. But we have to mention it because we come now to certain Hinduized reckonings which are hybrid offshoots of it. We need only say, however, in explanation of some of the following figures, that the years of the Hijra era are purely lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months and no more; with the result that the initial day of the year is always travelling backwards through the Julian year, and makes a complete circuit in thirty-four years. The reckonings derived from it, which we have to describe, have apparent initial points in A.D. 591, 593, 594, and 600. They had their real origin, however, in the 14th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

The emperor Akbar succeeded to the throne in February, A.D. 1556, in the Hijra year 963, which ran from 16th November 1555 to 3rd November 1556. Amongst the reforms aimed at by him and his officials, one was to abolish, or at least minimize, by introducing uniformity of numbering, the confusion due to the existence of various reckonings, both Mahommedan and Hindu. And one step taken in that direction was to assign to the Hindu year the same number with the Hijra year. It is believed that this was first done by the Persian clerks of the revenue and financial offices at an early time in Akbar's reign, and that it received authoritative sanction in the Hijra year 971 (21st August 1563 to 8th August 1564). At any rate, the innovation was certainly first made in Upper India; and the numbering started there was introduced into Bengal and those parts as Akbar extended his dominions, but without interfering with local customs as to the commencement of the Hindu year. The result is that we now have the following reckonings, the years of which are used as revenue years:--

The Fasli reckoning of Upper India.

In the United Provinces and the Punjab, there is an Asvinadi lunar reckoning, known as the Fasli, according to which the year 1308 began in A.D. 1900; so that the reckoning has an apparent initial point in A.D. 593. The name of this reckoning is derived from _fasl_, "a harvest," of which there are two; the _fasl-i-rabi_ or "spring harvest," commencing in February, and the _fasl-i-kharif_, or "autumn harvest" commencing in October. The years of this reckoning begin with the _purnimanta_ Asvina krishna 1, which now falls in September. A peculiar feature of it is that, though the months are lunar, they are not divided into fortnights, and the numbering of the days runs on, as in the Mahommedan month, from the first to the end of the month without being affected by any expunction and repetition of _tithis_; and, for this and other reasons, it seems that in this case a new form of Hindu year was devised, of such a kind as to enable the agriculturists to realize their produce and pay their assessments comfortably within the year. The Hijra era has, of course, now drawn somewhat widely away from this and the other reckonings derived from it; the Hijra year commencing in A.D. 1900 was 1318, ten years in advance of the Fasli year.

The Vilayati-san and Amli-san of Orissa.

In Orissa and some other parts of Bengal, there is a reckoning, or two almost identical reckonings, the facts of which are not quite clear. According to one account, the term Amli-san, "the official year," is only another name of the Vilayati-san, "the year received from the _vilayat_ or province of Hindustan." But we are also told that the Vilayati-san is a Kanyadi solar year, whereas the Amli-san, though it too has solar months, changes its number on the lunar day Bhadrapada sukla 12 (mentioned above in connexion with the Onko cycle of Orissa), which comes sometimes in Kanya, but sometimes in the preceding month, Simha. Elsewhere, again, it is the Vilayati-san which is shown as changing its number on Bhadrapada sukla 12. In either case, the year 1308 of this reckoning, also, began in A.D. 1900; and so, like the Fasli of Upper India, this reckoning, too, has an apparent initial point in A.D. 593. The day Bhadrapada sukla 12 now usually falls in September, but may come during the last three days of August. The first day of the solar month Kanya now falls on 15th or 16th September.

The Bengali-san.

In Bengal there is in more general use a Meshadi solar reckoning, known as the Bengali-san or "Bengal year," according to which the year 1307 began in A.D. 1900; so that this reckoning has an apparent initial point in A.D. 594. The initial day of the year is the first day of the solar month Mesha, now falling on 12th or 13th April.

The Fasli of Bombay and Madras.

The system of Fasli reckonings was introduced into Southern India under the emperor Shah Jahan, at some time in the Hijra year 1046, which ran from 26th May, A.D. 1636, to 15th May, A.D. 1637. But the numbering which was current in Northern India was not taken over. A new start was made; and, as the year of the Hijra had gone back, during the intervening seventy-three Julian years, by two years and a quarter (less by only five days) from the date of its commencement in the year 971, the Fasli reckoning of Southern India began with a nominal year 1046 (instead of 971 + 73 = 1044), commencing in A.D. 1636. The Fasli reckoning of Southern India exists in two varieties. The years of the Bombay Fasli are popularly known as Mrigasal years, because they commence when the sun enters the _nakshatra_ Mrigasiras, which occurs now on 6th or 7th June: the reckoning seems to have taken over this initial day from the Maratha Sur-san (see below). The Fasli years of Madras originally began at the Karka-samkranti, the nominal summer solstice: under the British government, the commencement of them was first fixed to 12th July, on which day the _samkranti_ was then usually occurring; but it was afterwards changed to 1st July as a more convenient date. The years of the Bombay and Madras Fasli have no division of their own into months, fortnights, &c.; the year is always used along with one or other of the real Hindu reckonings, and the details are cited according to that reckoning.

The Maratha Sur-san or Arabi-san.

Another offshoot of the Hijra era, but one of earlier date and not belonging to the class of Fasli reckonings, is found, in the Maratha country, in the Sur-san or Shahur-san, "the year of months," also known as Arabi-san, "the Arab year." This reckoning, which is met with chiefly in old _sanads_ or charters, appears to have branched off in or closely about the Hijra year 745, which ran from 15th May, A.D. 1344, to 3rd May, A.D. 1345; but the exact circumstance in which it originated is not known. The years of this reckoning begin, like those of the Bombay Fasli, with the entrance of the sun into the _nakshatra_ Mrigasiras, which now occurs on 6th or 7th June; but the months and days are those of the Hijra year. The Sur-san year 1301 began in A.D. 1900; and so the reckoning has an apparent initial point in A.D. 600. A peculiarity attending this reckoning is that, whatever may be the vernacular of a clerk, he uses the Arabic numeral words in reading out the year; and the same words are given alongside of the figures in the Hindu almanacs.

AUTHORITIES.--The Hindu astronomy had already begun to attract attention before the close of the 18th century. The investigation, however, of the calendar and the eras, along with the verification of dates, was started by Warren, whose _Kala Sankalita_ was published in 1825. The inquiry was carried on by Prinsep in his _Useful Tables_ (1834-1836), by Cowasjee Patell in his _Chronology_ (1866), and by Cunningham in his _Book of Indian Eras_ (1883). But Warren's processes, though mostly giving accurate results, were lengthy and troublesome; and calculations made on the lines laid down by his successors gave results which might or might not be correct, and could only be cited as approximate results. The exact calculation of Hindu dates by easy processes was started by Shankar Balkrishna Dikshit, in an article published in the _Indian Antiquary_, vol. 16 (1887). This was succeeded by methods and tables devised by Jacobi, which were published in the next volume of the same journal. There then followed several contributions in the same line by other scholars, some for exact, others for closely approximate, results, and some valuable articles by Kielhorn on some of the principal Hindu eras and other reckonings, which were published in the same journal, vols. 17 (1888) to 26 (1897). And the treatment of the matter culminated for the time being in the publication, in 1896, of Sewell and Dikshit's _Indian Calendar_, which contains an appendix by Schram on eclipses of the sun in India, and was supplemented in 1898 by Sewell's _Eclipses of the Moon in India_. The present article is based on the above-mentioned and various detached writings, supplemented by original research. For the exact calculation of Hindu dates and the determination of the European equivalents of them, use may be made either of Sewell and Dikshit's works mentioned above, or of the improved tables by Jacobi which were published in the _Epigraphia Indica_, vols. 1 and 2 (1892-1894). (J. F. F.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The disregard of precession, and the consequent travelling forward of the year through the natural seasons, is, of course, a serious defect in the Hindu calendar, the principles of which are otherwise good. Accordingly, an attempt was made by a small band of reformers to rectify this state of things by introducing a precessional calendar, taking as the first lunar month the synodic lunation in which the sun enters the tropical Aries, instead of the sidereal Mesha; and the publication was started, in or about 1886, of the Sayana-Panchang or "Precessional Almanac."

Further, the Hindu sidereal solar year is in excess of the true mean sidereal year by (if we use Aryabhata's value) 3 min. 20.4 sec. If we take this, for convenience, at 3 min. 20 sec., the excess amounts to exactly one day in 432 years. And so even the sidereal Mesha-samkranti is now found to occur three or four days later than the day on which it should occur. Accordingly, another reformer had begun, in or about 1865, to publish the Navin athava Patwardhani Panchang, the "New or Patwardhani Almanac," in which he determined the details of the year according to the proper Mesha-samkranti.

[2] It might also be called Pausha, because the sun enters Makara in the course of it; and it may be observed that, in accordance with a second rule which formerly existed, it would have been named Pausha because it ends while the sun is in Makara, and the omitted name would have been Margasira. But the more important condition of the present rule, that Pausha begins while the sun is in Dhanus, is not satisfied.

[3] The well-known Metonic cycle, whence we have by rearrangement our system of Golden Numbers, naturally suggests itself; and we have been told sometimes that that cycle was adopted by the Hindus, and elsewhere that the intercalation of a month by them generally takes place in the years 3, 5, 8, 11, 14, 16, and 19 of each cycle, differing only in respect of the 14th year, instead of the 13th, from the arrangement which is said to have been fixed by Meton. As regards the first point, however, there is no evidence that a special period of 19 years was ever actually used by the Hindus during the period with which we are dealing, beyond the extent to which it figures as a component of the number of years, 19 X 150 = 2850, forming the lunisolar cycle of an early work entitled _Romaka-Siddhanta_; and, as was recognized by Kalippos not long after the time of Meton himself, the Metonic cycle has not, for any length of time, the closeness of results which has been sometimes supposed to attach to it; it requires to be readjusted periodically. As regards the second point, the precise years of the intercalated months depend upon, and vary with, the year that we may select as the apparent first year of a set of 19 years, and it is not easy to arrange the Hindu years in sets answering to a direct continuation of the Metonic cycle.

[4] It is customary to render the term _tithi_ by "lunar day:" it is, in fact, explained as such in Sanskrit works; and, as the _tithis_ do mark the age of the moon by periods approximating to 24 hours, they are, in a sense, lunar days. But the _tithi_ must not be confused with the lunar day of western astronomy, which is the interval, with a mean duration of about 24 hrs. 54 min., between two successive meridian passages of the moon.

[5] We illustrate the ordinary occurrences. But there are others. Thus, a repeated _tithi_ may occasionally be followed by a suppressed one: in this case the numbering of the civil days would be 6, 7, 7, 9, &c., instead of 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, &c. Or it may occasionally be preceded by a suppressed one: in this case the numbering would be 5, 7, 7, 8, &c., instead of 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, &c.

[6] It is always to be borne in mind that, as already explained, while the Hindu Mesha answers to our Aries, it does not coincide with either the sign or the constellation Aries.

[7] We select A.D. 1900 as a gauge-year, in preference to the year in which we are writing, because its figures are more convenient for comparative purposes. In accordance with the general tendency of the Hindus to cite expired years, the almanacs would mostly show 5001 (instead of 5002) as the number for the Kaliyuga year answering to A.D. 1900-1901. And, for the same reason, this reckoning has often been called the Kaliyuga era of 3101 B.C. There is, perhaps, no particular objection to that, provided that we then deal with the Vikrama and Saka eras on the same lines, and bear in mind that in each case the initial point of the reckoning really lies in the preceding year. But we prefer to treat these reckonings with exact correctness.

[8] It may be remarked that there are about twelve different views regarding the date of Kanishka and the origin of the Vikrama era. Some writers hold that Kanishka began to reign in A.D. 78, and founded the so-called Saka era beginning in that year; one writer would place his initial date about A.D. 123, others would place it in A.D. 278. The view maintained by the present writer was held at one time by Sir A. Cunningham: and, as some others have already begun to recognize, evidence is now steadily accumulating in support of the correctness of it.

[9] See the preceding note.