BENARES, a large and valuable district of Hindostan, in the province of Allahabad, situated on both sides of the river Ganges, between the 23d and 27th degrees of N. latitude. It contains 1200 square miles of fertile soil, which produces grain, chiefly barley, wheat, several species of the pea, and some rice; besides sugar, indigo, and opium. The air is so cold during the winter as to render fires necessary; but for three months after March it becomes so heated, by the setting in of the hot winds, as to destroy all verdure. It is exceedingly populous and well cultivated, its inhabitants being Hindoos, and well versed in the arts. The country from Patna to Buxar, Gazypoor, Benares, and Mirzapoor, is rich and highly cultivated; while the numerous clumps of mango trees give the district the appearance of a forest, and afford shelter to the cattle. The country is well watered. The principal rivers are the Ganges, the Goomty, the Caramnassa, and the Soane, the two latter being the boundary rivers. Tissues, brocades, and ornamented gauzes, are manufactured throughout the province, and in the northern parts plain and flowered muslins, adapted to common uses; baftas are also fabricated in the western, and sanaes in the eastern part of the province. The district furnishes a proportion of the company’s opium. The chief towns are Benares, Mirzapoor, Jionpoor, Chunar, and Gazypoor. In answer to some queries circulated by the Marquis Wellesley in 1801, the population was returned at 3,000,000, and the proportion of Hindoos to Mahommedans was as five to one. The Bengal code of regulations has been extended, with little alteration, to the district of Benares. The Brahmins, however, in consideration of their high character, have received some special indulgence in the mode of proceeding against them on criminal charges; and, when they are convicted of a capital offence, the punishment of death is commutable into transportation at the discretion of the government. Many of their criminal practices, however, such as holding out a threat of avenging themselves on their adversaries by suicide, or by the murder of one of their own children, have been subjected to the usual course of punishment by law. Another tribe of Hindoos, among whom.it was customary to destroy their female infants, are also subjected to trial and punishment for murder. Cheit Sing, who ruled over this zemindary in 1770, was expelled in 1781 by the British, who since this period have had possession of the country.

Benares, an extensive and opulent city of Hindostan, in the province of Allahabad, is the capital of the Benares district. It has long been celebrated among the Hindoos as a seat of piety and learning, as well as a noted emporium of trade. The Ganges here forms a fine sweep of about four miles in length, and the city is situated on the northern bank of the river, and on the outward side of the curve, which is the most elevated. It is about four miles in length by two in breadth, and it rises from the river in an amphitheatrical form, thickly studded with domes and minarets. The bank of the river is entirely lined with stone, in which are many very fine ghats or landing places, built by pious devotees, of large stones, to the height of thirty feet before they reach the level of the street, and highly ornamented. These are generally crowded with bathers and worshippers. ' - Shrines and temples, even within the limits of the river’s rise, almost line its banks. The streets of this great city are so winding and narrow that there is not room for a wheel carriage to pass; and it is difficult to penetrate them even on horseback. The streets are considerably lower than the ground-floors of the houses, which have mostly arched rows in front, with little shops behind them; and above these they are richly embellished with verandas, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and very broad overhanging eaves supported by carved brackets. The houses are built of a very good stone from Chunar, and are mostly lofty, none being less than two storeys in height, most of them three, and several of five or six storeys, close to each other, with terraces on the summit, and extremely small windows, for the sake of coolness and to prevent inspection. The Hindoos are fond of painting the outside of their houses of a deep red colour, and of covering the most conspicuous parts with paintings in gaudy colours of flower-pots, men, women, bulls, elephants, gods and goddesses, in all the forms of Hindoo mythology. The number of temples is very great, mostly small, and stuck like shrines in the angles of the streets, and under the shadow of the lofty houses. Their forms are not ungraceful, and they are many of them covered over with beautiful and elaborate carvings of flowers, animals, and palmbranches, rivalling in richness and minuteness the finest specimens of Gothic or of Grecian architecture.

The mosque, which was built by Aurungzebe on the site of a Hindoo temple, and in order to mortify the Hindoos, is a handsome building, placed on the highest and most conspicuous point of land, and close to the river, lts minarets are very lofty, and command an extensive view of the town and adjacent country, and of the numerous Hindoo temples scattered over the city and the surrounding plains. The Hindoo college at Benares is a large building, divided into two courts, with galleries above and below. There are 200 scholars in this college, who learn reading, writing, arithmetic, Persian, Hindoo law, and sacred literature; Sanscrit; astronomy according to the Ptolemaic system, by which the sun is supposed to revolve round the earth; and astrology.

Benares having from time immemorial been a holy city, contains about 8000 houses of Brahmins, who subsist by charitable contributions, although they have property of their own. These houses are adorned with idols, and send out an unceasing sound from all sorts of discordant instruments; while religious mendicants from the numerous Hindoo sects, with every conceivable deformity “which chalk, cow-dung, disease, matted locks, distorted limbs, and disgusting and hideous attitudes of penance, can show, literally line the principal streets on both sides.” Sonic are seen with their legs or arms distorted by long continuance in one position; others with their hands clenched until the nails have grown through at the back. A stranger, as he passes through the streets, is saluted with the most pitiful exclamations from those swarms of beggars· But besides this immense resort to Benares of poor [ grims from every part of India, as well as from Thibet an the Burman empire, numerous rich individuals in the decline of life, and almost all the great men who are disgraced[7:4:561] or banished from home by the political revolutions which have been of late years so frequent among the Hindoo states, repair to this holy city to wash away their sins in the sacred waters of the Ganges, or to fill up their time with the gaudy ceremonies of their religion. All these devotees give away large sums in indiscriminate charity, some of them to the annual amount of L.8000 or L.9000; and it is the hope of sharing in those pious distributions that brings together from all quarters such a concourse of religious mendicants. Bulls are reckoned sacred by the Hindoo, and being tame and familiar, they walk lazily up and down the streets, or are seen lying across them, interrupting the passage, and are hardly to be roused, as, in compliance with the prejudices of the fanatic population, they must be treated in the gentlest manner. Monkeys, also held sacred, are seen clinging to all the roofs and projections of the temple.

But, amid all this wretchedness and fanaticism, Benares is a splendid, wealthy, and commercial city; the bazars are filled with the richest goods, and there is a constant bustle of business in all the principal streets. It is a great commercial emporium for the shawls of the north, the diamonds of the south, and the muslins of Dacca and the eastern provinces; and it has very considerable manufactures of silk, cotton, and fine wool, as well as of gold and silver lace; while English hardware, swords, shields, and spears from Lucknow and Monghyr, and the finer manufactures of Europe, are exported to Bundelcund, Gorruckpoor, Nepaul, and other tracts removed from the main channel of communication by the Ganges. The inhabitants, according to a census made in 1803, amounted to above 582,000; and during religious festivals, the concourse of people from all parts is immense. Yet the city, notwithstanding its crowded population and narrow streets (the new market-place, constructed by the present government, being the only square or open part in it), is not unhealthy; which is probably owing to its dry situation on a high rocky bank, sloping towards the river, and to the frequent ablutions and temperate habits of the people. There are but few Europeans in Benares; a judge, collector, and register, with a few other civil servants, constitute the whole of the company’s establishment; to which may be added a few private merchants and planters. The residence of the English judge and civil establishment is at Secrole, a pleasant village about two miles from the city, where there is a military cantonment for a battalion of sepoys. The Benares division of the court of circuit includes Mirzapoor, Allahabad, Bundelcund, Jionpoor, Gorruckpoor, and the city of Benares. From Benares to Calcutta by Birbhoom the travelling distance is 460 miles, by Moorshedabad 565, from Allahabad 83, Buzar 70, Bareilly 345, Calpy 239, Kanoge 259 miles. Long. 83. 0. E. Lat. 25. 30. N. (s.)