province find their way to the ocean, and the little variation in their banks, we shall probably not err much in assigning this province a greater elevation than most parts between the northern mountains of Hindustan and the Nerbudda. Though probably the land of Omerkantah, where that river rises, may be higher, its elevation even will be found less than that of the great central table-range which divides the southern parts of the peninsula of India.

Excepting to the north-west, there is a rise towards the province of Malwa from all quarters: to the south it is elevated one thousand seven hundred feet above the valley of the Nerbudda, or Nemaur; and this occurs in a very short distance, from the abrupt ascent of the Vindhya mountains, which have little declivity towards the north. Though less strongly marked to the east and west, there is an equally well indicated ascent over the hilly tracts (branches of the Vindhya) which on the east pass Bhopal, and on the west divide this province from Guzerat and Mewar. To the north-west there is an ascent to Mewar at the Chittore range, which is about two hundred feet high; but as the plain of Malwa declines to this point more than that amount, and the country beyond it, or west of it, begins again to descend, none perhaps but the highest lands of Mewar can be considered on a level with the southern parts of Malwa.

The temperature of Malwa is, in general, not only mild, but the range of the thermometer unusually small, excepting during the latter part of the year, when great and sudden changes often take place. Though during the two months immediately succeeding the rainy season (when the hilly and woody parts should be shunned) fevers prevail here as in other parts of India, yet the climate must, on the whole, be considered as salubrious, and, to those enervated by a long residence in the lower and warmer plains of India, pleasant and invigorating. The seasons are those common to western India, and may chiefly be distinguished as the rainy, the cold, and the hot. The fall of rain during the months of June, July, August, and September, is, in general, mild and regular, and may in common seasons be estimated at about fifty inches. During this season, the range of the thermometer is exceedingly small, seldom falling lower than 72° night and morning, or rising higher than 76° or 77° at noon. Though the mornings become cooler soon after the close of the rainy season, there is no very cold weather till the month of December: it continues all January, and part of February. In the latter month, in 1820, the thermometer stood, at six o'clock in the morning, at 28°. During the hot season which succeeds, the parching winds from the northward and westward, that prevail in most parts of India to an intense degree, are here comparatively mild and of short duration. The thermometer, however, during the day rises sometimes as high as 98°; but the nights are invariably cool and refreshing in Malwa.'

These provinces abound in good iron ore, and in some places copper and lead; while the soil is fertile, and easily

irrigated.

irrigated. Malwa contains also extensive forests consisting of fine timber, particularly the teak, which is one of the principal branches of its commerce. In the second chapter, the author proceeds to the history of Malwa, but its early annals have perished, and the proverbial uncertainty of Hindû records involves the subject in still greater obscurity. A short view of the first princes of Malwa is attempted, but they are seen more faintly than the line that appeared to Macbeth: "come like shadows, so depart." We dare not inflict on our readers copious extracts from this uninviting chapter. It is sufficient to remark that all tradition, oral or written, combines to shew that Malwa was à dependency of the Hindû empire of Delhi, and that it is scarcely possible to trace its history even for a long period after the first Moham medan conquest. The Rajpoot chiefs retained their power and influence for a considerable time subsequent to that event. This powerful tribe, however, were goaded by reli gious persecution to their frequent defections from the house of Timur: the Mahratta invasion was actually encouraged by the princes and chiefs of Jeypoor, Marwar, Mewar, and Malwa; and there are many testimonies to prove that this conquest owed its success to the senseless bigotry of the Mohammedan dynasty. We cannot refuse a place to the following passage; which may impart a salutary lesson to those who think that mankind can be weaned by terror and cruelty from the religion of their country:

The example of that toleration and liberal indulgence which Akber extended to his Hindu subjects, was followed by his immediate successors; but the spirit of a religion established by the sword, one of whose first tenets enjoined conversion, death, or heavy tribute to infidels, and above all to the worshippers of idols, ill accorded with a policy that was grounded on maxims which made no distinction between the latter and the faithful. This feeling shewed itself on the occurrence of wars and disputes with the Hindus; but, while the sovereign himself was free from bigotry, its action was very limited. The Emperor Jehangire shewed no preference to any religion. His son Shah Jehan, in his earlier years, evinced similar sentiments; and, when in mature age he became an attentive observer of the forms, if not a true believer in the tenets, of the Mahomedan faith, he continued (with one casual deviation) his wonted toleration to his subjects. The eldest son of this monarch, the celebrated and unfortunate Dara, wrote a work, the object of which was to reconcile the tenets of Mahomed and Brahma; and his brothers appear to have been as far removed from bigotry as himself, with the exception of Aurungzebe, a prince whose attainment and exercise of power present perhaps as many lessons as the life of any monarch that ever reigned. Without presuming to strike the balance between

B 4

his

his good and bad actions, or to decide whether he had a just claim to his great reputation, or was, throughout his long reign, an actor, and, with every artificial accomplishment for the great scene in which fortune had placed him, deficient in that strength which belongs alone to him who plays a natural part, we may pronounce, on the ground of the measures he adopted to promote his ambitious views, that his early professions of zeal for the faith of Mahomed were merely meant to increase the number of his adherents, by placing his conduct on this essential point in strong contrast with that of his brothers and rivals for imperial power. That Aurungzebe was solely governed, in his contests with them, by worldly considerations, is proved by one fact. That affected, unforgiving, and ungovernable zeal which was pleaded as his excuse for imbruing his hands in the blood of the gallant and generous Dara, was forgotten the moment that crime had secured him the throne; and the completest indulgence was granted to all his idolatrous subjects, whom we find, in the first years of his reign, as much, if not more favoured than Mahomedans. This also was, no doubt, the result of policy. But a narrow policy, which looked for expedients to remedy every evil, was not sufficient to save the family of Timur from that ruin with which it was now threatened. Its power could alone have been preserved by a firmness and wisdom founded on true virtue and greatness of mind, which disdained a temporary advantage, however alluring, that was to be gained by a departure from principles essential to the general interests of the empire. How opposite was the conduct of Aurungzebe. Irritation at the successful depredations of the Mahrattas,—the suspicion of these freebooters enjoying the good wishes, if not the secret aid of others, or a spirit of bigotry, perhaps sincere, but more probably assumed, to revive the attachment of the Mahomedans, led him to attempt, by the most unjustifiable means, the conversion of the whole of his Hindu subjects. Few yielded to his persuasion or threats; but the remainder were visited, as a punishment for their obstinacy, with the extortion of heavy taxes and fines. The produce of these impositions was expected to be immense. The public revenue had greatly decayed in the reign of Aurungzebe; and the mean motive of desiring to fill his treasury has been imputed to this sovereign, as the ground of a measure, which, even unsuccessful as it was (for it could not be carried into full effect), lost him the temper and attachment of a great majority of his subjects. The chief historical record that has been preserved, connected with this transaction, is the bold and animated appeal made by Jeswunt Singh, Raja of Joudpoor, in his letter to the Emperor. After recalling to his memory the opposite conduct of Akber, of Jehangire, and his father Shah Jehan, and reprobating the attempt to collect a revenue upon the consciences of men, or to vex the devotee and anchoret with a tax upon his belief, the Hindu prince observes, "If your Majesty places any faith in those books by distinction called Divine, you will there be instructed that God is the God of all mankind, not of Mahomedans alone. The Pagan and Mussulman are equal in

his presence; distinctions of colour are of his ordination. It is he who gives existence. In your temples it is in his name that the voice calls to prayer; in the house of images, the bell is shaken: still he is the object of our adoration. To vilify, therefore, the religion, or the customs of other men, is to set at nought the pleasure of the Almighty.” —

These facts have importance, not merely as they account historically, which is the chief object, for the first establishment of the Mahrattas in Malwa, the defence of which had been almost wholly committed to Rajpoots; but as they shew the effect produced by an attack upon the religion of that warlike and superstitious race of men. It led them to welcome freebooters to their homes; nor have the great miseries they have since endured obliterated a recollection of the chief causes which led to this revolution. Sentiments of gratitude towards the emperors who honoured and favoured them are mixed with indignation at the attempt made to alter their religion; and their bards and minstrels, who are their only historians, still relate the oppression and injustice which overthrew their temples to establish the edifices of another faith, and raised a revenue on their belief, rendered as insulting as it was oppressive, by being levied on all their religious ceremonies, even to those performed over the dead. These national legends usually pass from their wrongs to a more animated strain, and record the fame of those heroes, who overthrew the mosques of the tyrants, which had been erected in spots sacred to their ancient deities, and restored the hallowed ground to that worship to which it had been so long dedicated. This theme is

familiar, in a degree hardly to be credited, among the Hindus of Malwa; and the strength in which the feeling exists reconciles us to believe it was sufficient to make the inhabitants of this country consent to become the authors of their own ruin, in the introduction of the power of the Mahrattas, whose invasion of their country no lesser motive could have induced them to encourage and support.'

Chapter iii. contains the Mahratta invasion of Malwa: but Sir John Malcolm acknowleges that the records of that event give little more than the dates of the invasion, and these are far from being correct or complete. It seems, on the whole, probable that, though Malwa was invaded a few years before the death of Aurengzebe, the Mahratta authority was not established before Mohammed Shah, about 1732 of our æra. The ensuing acute distinctions between the Mahratta and the Hindu characters are striking and original:

Raised by the genius of Sevajee to the proud rank of being first the scourge, and afterwards the destroyer of the Mahomedan empire, the cause of the Mahrattas had, in all its early stages, the aid of religious feeling. It was a kind of holy war; and the appearance of Brahmins at the head of their armies gave, in the first instance, force to this impression. This people have been too

generally

generally described: there cannot be more opposite characters than we meet with among them, particularly in the great classes who have shared the power of the state, the Brahmins, and sol diers of the Khetri and Sudra tribes. The Mahratta Brahmin is, from diet, habit, and education, keen, active, and intelligent, but generally avaricious, and often treacherous. His life, if in public business, must, from the system of his government, be passed in efforts to deceive, and to detect others in deceiving. Such occupations raise cunning to the place of wisdom, and debase, by giving a mean and interested bent to the mind, all those claims to respect and attachment, upon which great and despotic power can alone have any permanent foundation.

The history of the Mahratta nation abounds with instances of Brahmins rising from the lowest stations (usually that of agents) to be ministers, and sometimes rulers, of a state; but their character undergoes little change from advancement, and, in general, all its meanest features remain.

Though often leading armies, the Mahratta Brahmins have not, with some remarkable exceptions, gained a high reputation for courage; and if not arrogant or cruel, they have often merited the charge of being unfeeling and oppressive.

The plain uninstructed Mahratta Sudra, or Khetri, enters upon his career as a soldier in the same dress, and with the same habits, with which he tills his field or attends his flocks; and he has, generally speaking, preserved, throughout revolutions that have at one time raised him to the highest consideration and power, and again cast him back to his former occupations, the same simplicity of character. This may be referred to the nature of Hindu institutions, to the example of Sevajee and his leaders, and to the advantage derived from habits that gave facility to conquest, by placing him in strong contrast with the proud and formal Mahomedan; by associating him with the Hindu population of the countries he invaded; and by preventing his progress ever being impeded by that pomp, luxury, or pride, which form so often an incumbrance, if not an obstacle, to the most successful conquerors. That the Mahratta soldier was more distinguished by art, than by valour; that he gloried as much in rapid flight as in daring attack, is not denied by the warmest panegyrist of his own tribe; but though these facts are admitted, and farther, that he was often mean and sordid, it is contended, and with truth, that he had many excellent qualities. Few could claim superiority to him in patience under fatigue, hunger, and thirst, and in that plain manliness of character which remained unchanged by success or adversity: nor can we deny to the Mahrattas, in the early part of their history, and before their extensive conquests had made their vast and mixed armies cease to be national, the merit of conducting their Cossack inroads into other countries with a consideration to the inhabitants, which had been deemed incompatible with that terrible and destructive species of war.'

All accounts agree that the administration of the Mahrattas was at first moderate, and their demeanour conciliatory to the inhabitants.