The History of British India Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1848 Excerpt: ...sera. Two thousand ycarti have done nothing for them, every thing for us. We must, therefore, i- fairness, compare them with their cotemporaries, with the people of anti-quity; and we shall then have reason to believe, that they occupied a very foremost station amongst the nations. They had a religion less disgraced by idolatrous worship, than most of those which prevailed in early times. They had a government, which, although despotic, was equally restricted by law, by institutions, and religion: they had a code of laws, in many respects wise and rational, and adapted to a great variety of relations, s, which could not have existed, except in an advanced condition of social organization. They had a copious and cultivated language, and an extensive and diversified literature; they had made great progress in the mathematical sciences; they speculated profoundly on the mysteries of man and nature, and they had acquired remarkable proficiency in many of the ornamental and useful arts of life. Whatever defects may be justly BOOK II. imputed to their religion, their government, their laws, their literature, CHAF-H). their sciences, their arts, as contrasted with the same proofs of civilization in modern Europe, it will not be disputed by any impartial and candid critic, that as far as we have the means of instituting a comparison, the Hindus were in all these respects quite as civilized as the most civilized nations of the ancient world, and in as early times as any of which records or traditions remain.--W. BOOK III. THE MAHOMEDANS. CHAPTER I. From the first Invasion of India by the Nations in the North, till the expulsion of the Gaznevide dynasty. Ji i At the time when the nations of Europe opened their communication with India, by the Cape of Good Hope, ...