BENARES

one of the North-western Provinces of India, and a town in the same. The area of the district of is 19,800 square miles, 16,000 of which are rich culticenvated flats on each side of the Ganges. The heat in Bimmier is exce ive, but in winter fires are requisite. Garden stuffs, grain of different kinds, flax for oil At (no linens are manufactured here), and sugar, are the and principal objecto of cultivation. Rice, for which many parts of the soil seem well adapted, is seldom the grown. Muslins, silks, and gauzes, salt, indigo, and its opium, are made very extensively. The principal towns are Benares, Mirza-pur, Chunaxgarii, and Ghazi-pur. The pop. is about 9,450,000, and the Hindoos are to the Mu ulmans as ten to one in the he time town, and as twenty to one in the villages. The town (in SanBcrity Varanan, from the two streams Van and Nasi) stands in lot. 25** 80' v., and Ion. 83* r B., on the high bank and northern side of the Granges, from which it rises like an amphitheatre. The height of the hoaaes and nurowne of the streets give it all the nsnal inoonvenienoes of an Asiatic town. The pop. is estimated at 200,000, of Di^om not le than 20,000 are said to be Brahmins; and at the great Hindoo festivals the concourse is immense; for Kasi, or Kcuhd, the Splendid^ as the TndJATiH commonly call it, is one of the most sacred places of pilgrimage in all India. To die at Benares is the greatest happine for a Hindoo, because he is then sure of immediate admi ion into heaven. The number of pious foundations and temples is exceedingly great. Several of the Hindoo princes have agents here to offer up sacrifices in their behalf. The principal temple is called Viatoetwar or Bisesar, and is dedicated to Siva^ whose sacred relic it contains. Aurungzebe bmlt a splendid mosque on the highest ground in the city, and on the ruins of a temple. At the end of the seventeenth century an observatory was erected in this dty, which still exists; and acoUegefor the instruction of Hindoos in their own literature was established by the British government in 1801; but it has not yet done much for the revival of learning among the natives, owing to the pride of the Brahmins. Benares has long been tiie great mart for diamonds and other gems, brought principally from the Bundelcund. The merchants and bankers are numerous and wealthy. There are few English inhabitants, except the government officers and the members of the circuit court. Kasi was ceded to the East India company by the Nabob of Aud*h (Oude) in 1775, and since 1781 has enjoyed uninterrupted tranquillity. The inhabitants are better informed than the natives of the country in general. The reader will find an interesting account of Benares in Bishop Heber's Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India in 1824-26 (London, 1828). 152