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us when we behold the pyramids and the face of Memnon. It afforded the basis of the most sacred oath known to the ancients. It was the ground of that fear which the Greeks personified in Nemesis.

lects of Europe, after patient and long-continued examination, have been well-nigh baffled in the attempt to discover which is fiction and which is fact. A few threads of truth have rewarded their pains, and perhaps a few others may occasionally be drawn forth; but that the gaudy-colored fabric of Hindu history, manufactured by themselves, will ever be satisfactorily separated into its two component parts is as hopeless as to expect that the waters of the Jumna will ever cease to mingle with the waters of the Ganges.......The result is, that this city of Benares, whose antiquity is very great, is robbed of much of the glory which is justly her due."*

The study of Indian antiquities is very recent. "Only within the last few years," says Mr. Sherring, "so far as I am aware, have any inquiries been made in a regular manner after old build

But the zeal of the historian and the archæologist-a zeal born of this Race-Passion-is often baffled, and is never perfectly satisfied with the results of its search. The startling events of remote history have left behind them sometimes no trace at all, and often only faint signs which are scarcely intelligible. The invasion of the Shepherd Kings-in itself, doubtless, an occurrence of great and lasting moment-left but a dent upon the soil of Egypt, Nomadic invasions in Asia that, age after age, overturned empires have left no more palpable record than the flight of comets through space upon the regions they have traversed. The most ancient monuments known to the anti-ings in Benares. James Prinsep, the great Inquarian—signs, perhaps, of conquests that shook the world, or of religious emotions which swayed millions of the human race-stare us stolidly in the face; they can not tell their story. More recent memorials, having still hovering about them the fragrance of the meanings which they embody, are confused, the symbols of one age being blended with, or, as in a palimpsest, written over those of another.

Thus it is with Benares-the Sacred City of the Hindus-a city so ancient that its origin is only mythically recorded. As the religious centre of Hinduism, of Buddhism, and then of Hinduism again, and for a long period as a secondary centre of Islamism, it has influenced the faith of more than half of the world's population. But numerous conflicts have almost entirely obliterated its earliest monuments; and what has not been thus obliterated has become inextricably confused on account of the appropriation by one conquering faith of the religious temples of that which preceded. Hindu writers have done little to relieve the difficulties of the archæologist; "they have shown a singular neglect of chronology, and an utter distaste for noting and recording historical facts in a simple and consecutive manner. This is the more remarkable when it is remembered that many of them have been accustomed to close thought, and have prided themselves on their intellectual acumen, that they have originated numerous systems of philosophy, and made great pretensions to logical accuracy; and that the habit of the nation generally, for thousands of years, has been to reverence the past, and to reflect upon and observe, with punctilious nicety, its religious ceremonies and social usages...... They possess no single record, among the ten thousand separate manuscript works of which their ancient literature is said to be composed, on the historical correctness of which one can place much reliance. Legendary stories are so intermingled with real events, and the web of the one is so intimately inwoven with the woof of the other, and the two form so homogeneous a whole, that the finest microscopic intel

dian archæologist, was a resident in the city for about ten years; but it does not appear that he made any important discoveries in it......Major Kittoe, the late Government archæologist, and the architect of the Government College-a beautiful Gothic structure in the suburbs of the city-although interesting himself in the excavations of Sárnáth, some three miles north of Benares, did not, so far as is known, examine the city itself. Indeed, so inattentive was be to its claims to antiquity that he removed many cart-loads of heavy stones, some of which were curiously carved, from Bakarígá Kund, on the confines of the city, and not more than a mile from the college which he was erecting, without reflecting that they might possibly be relics of ancient buildings formerly situated on that site. As a fact, they were originally connected with a series of Buddhist edifices covering perhaps as much space as those structures the foundations and remains of which are found at Sárnáth. A third archeologist, Mr. Thomas, late Judge of Benares, and a distinguished numismatist, trod in the same footsteps, only taking interest in the coins discovered in the city and in the Sárnáth explorations. As instances of ruthless spoliation, I may here remark that, in the erection of one of the bridges over the river Barna, forty-eight statues and other sculptured stones were removed from Sárnáth and thrown into the river, to serve as a breakwater to the piers; and that, in the erection of the second bridge, the iron one, from fifty to sixty cartloads of stones from the Sárnáth buildings were employed. But this Vandalism hardly equals that of Babu Jagat Sinh, who, in the last century, carted away an entire tope, or sacred tower, from the same vast store-house, with which he built Jagat Ganj, a ward or district in the suburbs of the city." Much of the existing city has been built in comparatively modern times, and, with the exception of an occasional bit of

The quotations given in this paper, unless referred to other authority, are from Mr. Sherring's work, "The Sacred City of the Hindus," recently published in London.

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old frieze or cornice, or a broken bass-relief or | architecture, but also sculptured stones of many statue, inserted into recent walls, deposited over kinds distributed among the walls and foundadrains, or lying neglected by the side of the tions of modern houses, and in such profusion road, there is nothing of an ancient character that there can be no doubt as to the existence visible in a large section of it; but in the north- of an older city upon this site. Some of the ern quarter of the city there exist a large num- capitals, pillars, bases, architraves, and mouldber of isolated specimens of architectural re-ings are most severely simple in their type, indimains of various stages of antiquity. Not only cating great antiquity, while others are crowded are there in this quarter separate buildings, or with ornamentation. parts of buildings, of an early style of Hindu VOL. XXXVIII.-No. 228.-48

"It is worthy of notice," says Mr. Sherring,

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The purpose of Mr. Sherring's work is to give representation of Benares as she was and as she is; of "her early condition-her connection with ancient Buddhism, her architectural remains, her famous temples, holy wells and tanks, and numerous gháts or stairs leading down to the Ganges-the legends concerning them-the peculiar customs at the templesthe ceremonies of the idolator-the modes of worship-the religious festivals, and other topics, illustrative of the character which Benares maintains as the sacred city of India." This subject is the more interesting in that Benares, which has held for 2500 years a foremost place in the history of India, is likely to retain this position in the new era of enlightenment which, under the auspices of Christianity, has already dawned upon that land.

Benares, now the capital of a division of the Bengal Presidency, is situated on the left bank of the Ganges, 390 miles northwest from Calcutta, but probably more than twice that distance if measured by the tortuous course of the river. It stretches for several miles along the edge of the Ganges, from which ascend numerous gháts or flights of stone steps. The streets are narrow; and the buildings, principally of stone, are very lofty, and are built to inclose a circular space; they often contain 200 inhabitants each. The entire population is estimated at from 200,000 to 500,000; the exact number it is scarcely possible to determine owing to the immense fluctuating population, but it is probably about 400,000, of whom one-tenth are Mohammedans. Benares is properly the only Hindu city in India. The wealthy residents live in detached houses, surrounded by walls with open courts; the poorer live in mud huts, of which there are about 16,000.

"as illustrating the nature of Mohammedan | and Southern India; the latter being frequentrule in India, that nearly all the buildings in ly of gigantic dimensions. Yet, in respect of Benares, of acknowledged antiquity, have been symmetry and beauty, the difference is immenseappropriated by the Mussulmans; being used ly in favor of the Northern fanes." as mosques, mausoleums, dargáhs, and so forth; and also that a large portion of the separate pil-a lars, architraves, and various other ancient remains, which, as before remarked, are so plentifully found in one part of the city, now contribute to the support and adornment of their edifices. Not content with destroying temples and mutilating idols with all the zeal of fanatics, they fixed their greedy eyes on whatever object was suited to their own purposes, and, without scruple or any of the tenderness shown by the present rulers, seized upon it for themselves. And thus it has come to pass that every solid and durable structure, and every ancient stone of value, being esteemed by them as their peculiar property, has, with very few exceptions, passed into their hands. We believe it was the boast of Alauddin that he had destroyed one thousand temples in Benares alone. How many more were razed to the ground, or transformed into mosques through the iconoclastic fervor of Aurungzeb, there is no means of knowing; but it is not too much to say that he was unsurpassed in this feature of religious fanaticism by any of his predecessors. If there is one circumstance respecting the Mohammedan period which Hindus remember better than another it is the insulting pride of the Mussulmans, the outrages which they perpetrated upon their religious convictions, and the extensive spoliation of their temples and shrines....... When we endeavor to ascertain what the Mohammedans have left to the Hindus of their ancient buildings in Benares, we are startled at the result of our investigations. Although the city is bestrewn with temples in every direction, in some places very thickly, yet it would be difficult, I believe, to find twenty temples in all Benares of the age of Aurungzeb, or from 1658 to 1707. The same unequal proportion of old temples as compared with new is visible throughout the whole of Northern India. Moreover, the diminutive size of nearly all the temples that exist is another powerful testimony to the stringency of the Mohammedan rule. It seems clear that, for the most part, the emperors forbade the Hindus to build spacious temples, and suffered them to erect only small structures, of the size of cages, for their idols, and these of no pretensions to beauty. The consequence is, that the Hindus of the present day, blindly following the example of their predecessors of two centuries ago, commonly build their religious edifices of the same dwarfish size as formerly; but, instead of plain, ugly buildings, they are often of elegant construction. Some of them, indeed, are so delicately carved externally, are so crowded with bass-reliefs and minute sculpturing, are so lavishly ornamented "The Doorgha Khond, the famed temple of the Sathat the eye of the beholder becomes satiated cred Monkeys, I found thronged with worshipers and and wearied. In regard to size there is a mark-of the best holy tanks in India, but has not muet garlanded in every part with roses: it overhangs one ed difference between the temples of Northern beauty or grandeur, and is chiefly remarkable for the

Mr. C. W. Dilke, in his recently published work, "Greater Britain," gives the following graphic description of the city as it now ap pears:

"In the comparative cool of the early morning 1 sallied out on a stroll through the outskirts of Benares. Thousands of women were stepping gracefully along the crowded roads, bearing on their heads the waterjars, while at every few paces there was a well, at which hundreds were waiting along with the bheesties their turn for lowering their bright gleaming copper cups to the well water to fill their skins or vases. All were keeping up a continual chatter, women with women, men with men; all the tongues were running ceaselessly. It is astonishing to see the indignation that a trifling mishap creates-such gesticulation, sucl. shouting and loud talk, you would think that murder at least was in question. The world can not show the Hindu's equal as a babbler; the women talk while they grind corn, the men while they smoke their water pipes; your true Hindu is never quiet; when no talking he is playing on his tom-tom.

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swarms of huge, fat-paunched, yellow-bearded, holy monkeys, whose outposts hold one quarter of the city, and whose main body forms a living roof to the temple. A singular contrast to the Doorgha Khond was the Queen's College for native students, built in a mixture of Tudor and Hindu architecture. The view from the roof is noticeable, depending as it does for its beauty on the mingling of the rich green of the timber with the gay colors of the painted native huts. Over the trees are seen the minarets at the river-side, and an unwonted life was given to the view by the smoke and flames that were rising from two burning huts in widely separated districts of the native town.

"When the sun had declined sufficiently to admit of another excursion I started from my bungalow, and, passing through the elephant-corral, went down with a guide to the gháts, the observatory of Jai Singh, and the Golden Temple. From the minarets of the Mosque of Aurangzeb I had a lovely sunset view of the gháts, the city, and the Ganges; but the real sight of Benares, after all, lies in a walk through the tortuous passages that do duty for streets. No carriages can pass them, they are so narrow. You walk preceded by your guide, who warns the people, that they may stand aside and not be defiled by your touch, for that is the real secret of the apparent respect paid to you

in Benares; but the sacred cows are so numerous and part applicable to her present state. He speaks so obstinate that you can not avoid sometimes jostling of her as "a city which in wealth, population, them. The scene in the passages is the most Indian in India. The gaudy dresses of the Hindu princes dignity, and sanctity, was among the foremost spending a week in purification at the holy place, the of Asia. It was commonly believed that half frescoed fronts of the shops and houses, the deafening a million of human beings was crowded into beating of the tom-toms, and, above all, the smoke that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and sickening smell from the 'burning gháts' that meet you, mingled with a sweeter smell of burning and minarets, and balconies, and carved oriels, spices, as you work your way through the vast crowds to which the sacred apes clung by hundreds. of pilgrims who are pouring up from the river's bank, The traveler could scarcely make his way all alike are strange to the English traveler, and fill through the press of holy mendicants, and not his mind with that indescribable awe which every where accompanies the sight of scenes and ceremonies less holy bulls. The broad and stately flights that we do not understand. When once you are on of steps which descended from these swarming the Ganges bank itself the scene is wilder still; a river- haunts to the bathing-places along the Ganges, front of some three miles, faced with lofty gháts or flights of river stairs, over which rise, pile above pile, were worn every day by the footsteps of an in sublime confusion, lofty palaces with oriel windows innumerable multitude of worshipers. The hanging over the sacred stream; observatories with schools and temples drew crowds of pious Hingiant sun-dials, gilt domes (golden, the story runs), dus from every province where the Brahminand silver minarets. On the ghats, rows of fires, each ical faith was known. Hundreds of devotees with a smouldering body; on the river, boat-loads of pilgrims and fakeers, praying while they float; under came thither every month to die; for it was bethe houses, lines of prostrate bodies-those of the sick lieved that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the -brought to the sacred Ganges-or, say our Govern- man who should pass from the sacred city into ment spies, to be murdered by suffocation with sacred mud, while prowling about are the wolf-like fa- the sacred river. Nor was superstition the only natics who feed on putrid flesh. The whole is lit by a motive which allured strangers to that great sickly sun fitfully glaring through the smoke, while metropolis. Commerce had as many pilgrims the Ganges stream is half obscured by the river fog as religion. All along the shores of the venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in the bazars the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere."

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"The lofty pavilions that crown the river-front are ornamented with paintings of every beast that walks and bird that flies, with monsters, too-pink and green and spotted-with griffins, dragons, and elephant-headed gods embracing dancing-girls. and there are representations of red-coated soldiers English it would seem, for they have white faces, but so, the Maories say, have the New Zealand fairies, who are certainly not British. The Benares taste for painting leads to the decoration with pink and yellow spots of the very cows. The tiger is the commonest of all the figures on the walls; indeed, the explanation that the representations are allegorical, or that the gods are pictured in tiger shape, has not removed from my mind the belief that the tiger has been worshiped in India at some early date. All Easterns are inclined to worship the beasts that eat them; the Javanese light floating sacrifices to their river crocodiles; the Scindees at Kurrachee venerate the sacred mugger, or man-eating alligator; the hill tribes pray to snakes; indeed, to a new-comer, al! Indian religion has the air of devil-worship, or worship of the destructive principle in some shape; the gods are drawn as grinning fiends, they are propitiated by infernal music, they are often worshiped with obscene and hid

eous rites. There is even something cruel in the monotonous roar of the great tom-toms; the sound seems to connect itself with widow-burning, with child-murder, with Juggernauth processions. Since the earliest known times the tom-tom has been used to drown the cries of tortured fanatics; its booming is bound up with the thousand barbarisms of false religion. If the scene on the Benares gháts is full of horror, we must not forget that Hinduism is a creed of fear and

horror, not of love."

The description of Benares toward the close of the last century, given by Macaulay in his essay on Warren Hastings,* is for the most

The district of Benares was ceded to the East India Company in 1775 by the King of Oude. The next year the district was granted to the rajah Cheit Singh of Benares, subject to the payment of an annual tribute to the Company. The violation of this agreement by Mr. Hastings formed one of the charges against him in the case of his impeachment by the House of Commous. This violation of agreement led to an insurrection at Benares, resulting in the downfall of the rajah and the destruction of his family. When Cheit

The early history of Benares is involved in obscurity. Indisputably, it is a city of great antiquity. Before Mecca was it existed; perhaps before Jerusalem or the Egyptian Phile; its origin may even date from the time when the Aryan race first spread itself over Northern India; certainly the beginnings of its history stretch far back into the clouds and mists of the Vedic pre-historic periods. It is regarded by all Hindus as coeval with the birth of Hinduism. Allusions to Benares are exceedingly abundant in ancient Sanskrit literature. "By reason of some subtle and mysterious charm it has linked itself with the religious sympathies of the Hindus through every century of its existence. For the sanctity of its inhabitants, of its temples and reservoirs, of its wells and streams, of the very soil that is trodden, of the very air that is breathed, and of every thing in it and around it, Benares has been famed for thousands of years. The Hindu ever beholds the city in one peculiar aspect-as a place of spotless holiness and heavenly beauty, where the spiritual eye may be delighted and the heart may be purified; and his imagination has been kept fervid, from generation to generation, by

Singh rebelled he was residing in a strong fort built upon the banks of the Ganges, above the Sivála Ghat. Warren Hastings was, at the time, living in the gar den house of Mánodás, situated in the Ausánganj Mahalla, nearly three miles off on the western side of the city. The rajah managed to escape from his fortress through one of the windows on the river side.

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