Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846

by W. W. W. Humbley

The station appeared to be an exceedingly pleasant one; the bungalows to the north are surrounded with fine tropical trees, which give it a very cheerful appearance. During my stay here, my tent was pitched in an ancient Mahomedan burying ground.

On the 16th of April, I rode to Akbarabad fourteen miles and a half. The hot winds having now set in, and travelling in the day-time being almost insupportable, I started at eleven o'clock the same night, and arrived at Budwas, a distance of twenty miles at half-past-four o'clock on the morning of the 17th. On the 18th I rode to Naia Serai, twenty miles; and on Sunday, the 19th, to Korowlee, thirteen miles and one-eighth; on the 20th, to Bowgong, sixteen miles; on the 21st, to Chiberamow, twenty-one miles; on the 22nd, to Goorsaigunge, fourteen miles.

On the 23rd I rode to Meerun-ke-Serai, a distance of fourteen miles. On my arrival, I visited the ancient city of Kanoge, by diverging two miles from the main road, to my left. An old man of ninety years of age was my guide through the ruins, accompanied by his son apparently as aged as himself. The father's name was Oodee Ram. Kanoge is abbreviated from Kanyacubja.[65] It is a town of great antiquity and celebrity, in the Province of Agra, having been the capital of a powerful kingdom, at the time of the first invasion of the Mahomedans. It is situated on the west of the river Ganges, in Lat. 27° 5´ north, and Long. 79° 52´ east. The Ganges runs about two miles off, and, by means of a canal which makes a bend towards the town, the sacred stream is brought close to the citadel.

The town, at present, consists of only one street, but along an extent of six miles, the fragments of small pieces of brick earth, and the occasional vestiges of a building, point out the site of this ancient capital of Hindoostan. I may mention a peculiarity in the Hindoo buildings, that they are composed of very small bricks, worked in with a great portion of cement, which is harder, and requires more force to break it, than the bricks.

I here saw the tombs of two Mahomedan saints, who lie in state in two Mausolea on an elevation covered with trees. From the terrace which surrounds them I enjoyed a pleasant prospect over the plain, scattered with the ruins of temples and tombs; little images broken into fragments, are lying about in all directions under the trees. Ancient coins of an irregular shape are frequently found among the ruins; they are inscribed with Sanscrit characters, the original language of India, and, sometimes have the figure of a Hindoo deity on one side. We nowhere read of any one having ever collected these coins, much less of having translated the inscriptions upon them. Surely it would be worth the trouble to send some one to dig them up out of the heaps of rubbish which cover them. Coins are the books of antiquity, for the art of printing was not known even in Europe till about 400 years ago. The coins found in the Tope at Munnikala in the Punjaub, have led to the belief, that such structures as those at Kanoge were not raised by the natives of the country. It is true that the search for coins in that district has not always produced genuine ones, for the cupidity of the natives has led them to sell modern copies of ancient coins to Europeans not versed in the knowledge of these antique deposits; they see that they are of Bactrian origin, but cannot distinguish the true from the false coins. General Ventura, who opened the Tope, had the advantage of a first discovery, for spurious ones could not have been originally deposited there.

Kanoge, in the remotest times of Hindoo history, was a place of great renown, and the capital of the powerful kingdom of Hindoostan, which existed down to the period of the Mahomedan invasion, which is about coeval with that of England by William the Conqueror. The name Kanyacubja, has reference to a well-known story related in the Hindoo mythological poems. The language of Kanoge appears to have formed the ground-work of the modern Hindoostanee known also by the appellation of Hindee or Hindivee, it is a graft on the Sanscrit; the Oordoo is a mixture of Hindee and Persian. Oordoo means a camp, hence Oordoo is the Camp or Court language of Delhi and Lucknow, where it is spoken with the greatest purity. Kings formerly often lived in Camp with their troops.

The Rajahs of Kanoge are mentioned by Ferishta as early as 1008. The town was conquered, though not permanently retained, by Mahmood, of Ghuznee, A.D. 1018. The late Lieutenant-Colonel W. Francklin, Bengal army, in his "Enquiry into the Site of the Ancient Palibothra," calls it "Kennouj, or Kanycacubja." The learned Mr. Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities (p. 36), observes, of this city, that it was enclosed by walls fifty coss, or one hundred miles, in circumference; and, in page 42 of the same work, states, on the authority of the Ayeen Akbaree,[66] that, in the beginning of the sixth century, under the reign of Maldeo, it contained 30,000 shops where betel-nut was sold, and 60,000 bands[67] of singers and musicians, who paid a tax to government. The extent of the city might reasonably allow of a population of from two to three millions of souls. If these positions be admissible, we surely need not cavil at the extent of the city of Palibothra, as assigned to it in the Hindoo records. Colonel Francklin writes of Bisnagur (Beejanuggur), "of this city, Cæsar Frederic, a Venetian merchant, who was there in 1567, says, 'that it had a circuit of ninety-four miles, and that it contained within it a number of little hills and pagodas.'" Major Rennel, the well-known Surveyor-general of India, in his Dissertations, agrees with the Venetian, that these hills and pagodas were within the boundaries. Of course, there were many temples at Kanoge; and there seems to be no reason whatever for disbelieving the fact of its having been one hundred miles in circumference, or of there having been 4,000 souls to a square mile.

Now, let us take the city of Benares. The late Mr. James Prinsep,[68] between the years 1824 and 1827, found the population to be 183,491; or, 34,621 to the square mile. The census was taken under peculiar difficulties. Benares, or Kasi, is the most sacred Hindoo city in Hindoostan. In the late census, taken in 1848-49, the population was allowed to stand the same as when taken in 1824-27. The lapse of more than twenty years will give a great increase of population, even supposing that there had been an over-calculation.

Let us test the point by English statistics. In Middlesex[69] they quote 5,590—98 souls to a square mile. Now, if we say three millions for Kanoge, it will give about 4,800 souls to a square mile. Then it must be recollected, that the streets of Benares are so very narrow, that if one person enters a street at one end on an elephant, and another comes from the opposite end similarly mounted, neither can pass, but one must back out, which implies that the streets are not twenty feet wide. Besides which, the native houses in Benares are several stories high. It is a fact, that a great portion of the sickness of that city, as of others which I have seen, arises from the circumstance that the sun's rays never penetrate the street. Therefore, if Kanoge were peopled to anything like the extent even of Middlesex, we may believe the number of inhabitants to have been as great as suggested by Maurice. If the Venetian be correct, we may assert that, if Beejanuggur extended ninety-four miles, Kanoge, the most ancient Hindoo city of Hindoostan, was one hundred miles in circumference. It is to be borne in mind, that the population of the world, at the period referred to, was greater than in times before the Christian era. Lord Lake had his head-quarters at Kanoge before his army took the field in 1803.