Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/173

N A D N V empire. He traces the rise and growth of philology and belles-lettres, of theology, orthodox and heretical, of law and history, of mathematics and astronomy, of medicine and alchemy ; he does not despise the histories of knights errant, the fables of Kalila and Dimna, the facetiae of the " boon companions," the works of magic and divination. But to us no part of his work is more interesting than his account of the beliefs of sects and peoples beyond Islam. Here, fortunately, still more than in other parts of his work, he goes beyond the functions of the mere cataloguer; he tells what he learned of China from a Christian missionary of Najran, of India from a description of its religion compiled for the Barmecide Yahya ; his full accounts of the Sabians of Harran and of the doctrines of Mani 1 are of the very first importance for the historian of Asiatic religions. The Fihrist was much pillaged by later writers, but the author was sedulously ignored, and MSS. of his work are very scarce. Hottinger possessed one (now lost), and used it in his Historia Orieutalis. There are others (all imperfect) at Paris, Leyden, and Vienna ; a small part of the book is altogether lost. Fliigel pub lished an abstract of the work in Z. D. M. G., xiii. (1859)_; his edition, with notes, appeared posthumously (vol. i. , text, Leipsic, 1871; vol. ii., notes, 1872). NADIR SHAH. See PERSIA. NADIYA, or NTJDDEA, a district in the lieutenant- governorship of Bengal, lying between 22 52 33" and 24 11 K lat., and between 88 11 and 89 24 41" E. long., bounded on the 1ST. by Rajshahi, on the E. by Pabna and Jessor, on the S. by the 24 Parganas, and on the W. by Hugll, Bardwan, Birbhum, and Murshidabdd districts, with an area of 3404 square miles. It is emphatically a district of great rivers. Standing at the head of the Gangetic delta, its alluvial surface, though still liable to periodical inunda tion, has been raised by ancient deposits of silt sufficiently high to be permanent dry land. Along the entire north eastern boundary flows the wide stream of the Padma or Ganges ; and all the remaining rivers of the district are offshoots of the great river. The Bhagirathi on the eastern border, and the Jalangi and the Matabhanga meandering through the centre of the district, are the chief of these offshoots, and are called distinctively the "Nadiya rivers." But the whole surface of the country is interlaced with a network of minor streams, communicating with one another by side channels. All the rivers are navigable in the rainy season for boats of the largest burthen, but during the rest of the year they dwindle down to shallow streams, with dangerous sandbanks and bars. In former times the Nadiya rivers afforded the regular means of communication between the upper valley of the Ganges and the seaboard ; and much of the trade of the district still comes down to Calcutta by this route during the height of the rainy season. But the lines of the East Indian and Eastern Bengal Railways, with the main stream of the Ganges aud the Sundarbans route, now carry by far the larger portion of the traffic. The census of 1881 returned the population at 2,017,847, of whom 1,146,603 were Mohammedans and 864,773 Hindus. Of the 6439 Christians, 6304 were natives. Krishn.igar had 24,477 inhabitants in 1881 ; and six others had in 1872 a population exceeding 5000 : Santipur, 28,635; Kushtia, 9245; Ranaghat, 8871 ; Nadiya, 8863 ; Mihrpur, 5562 ; and Kumarkhali, 5251. Nadiya, the ancient capital, was formerly situated on the east bank of the Bhagirathi (which has since changed its course). It has always been celebrated for the sanctity and learning of its pandits. The battlefield of Plassey was situated in this district, but the floods of the Bhagirathi have washed away the scene of that memorable engagement. - Rice is the staple crop, and there are four harvests in the year. Indigo is the chief export staple ; but the district was the centre of the indigo riots in 1860, and the industry then received a blow from which it has never recovered. A large proportion of the cul tivable area of the district is held on utlandi tenure that is, for a single season only, the rents being assessed according to the out- 1 The former translated in Chwolson s Ssabier und Ssabismug, vol. ii., the latter in Fliigel s Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften, 1S62. turn of the crop. Floods are common, and frequently cause much damage. The number of indigo factories is still considerable. Cotton- weaving is carried on, but is everywhere on the decline, especially at the town of Santipur, where, in the beginning of the century, the Company used to purchase muslin to the annual value of 150,000. Santipur muslin is still exported to a small extent. Raw date sugar is largely manufactured. The chief exports are indigo, jute, linseed, wheat, pulses and gram, rice, chillies, sugar, and tobacco. The only institutions in the district worthy of note are the tols or indigenous Sanskrit schools. In these smriti (Hindu social and religious law) and nydya (logic) are taught by learned pandits to eager pupils. The tols consist generally of a mere collection of mud hovels round a quadrangle, where the students live in the most primitive manner, each in his own hut, with his brass water- pot and mat, and seldom any other furniture. A student generally remains at the tol for eight or ten years. No fees are charged, and the pandits depend for their livelihood on the presents which their fame as teachers ensures them at religious ceremonies. Most of the tols are in Nadiya town, but there are also a few in the surrounding villages. Their number is rapidly decreasing. The district revenue in 1880-81 amounted to Rs. 1,654,813, Rs. 1,051,776 being derived from the land-tax. Education waj afforded in 1877 by 897 schools, attended by 28,489 pupils. The principal educational institution is the Government college at Krishnagar. The average annual temperature is 77 Fahr. ; the average annual rainfall about 65 inches. Besides remittent and intermittent fevers, which cause very great mortality, small-pox, diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera are prevalent. Cattle disease i.j common. NJSVIUS, Gx-us, is the second in order of time among the creators of Latin literature. He had made his appear ance as an author within five years after the first dramatic representation of Livius Andronicus ; he was some ten or fifteen years older than Plautus, and preceded Ennius by a generation. As distinguished from Livius he was a native Italian, not a Greek ; he was also a writer of original power, not a mere adapter or translator. If it was due to Livius that the forms of Latin literature were, from the first, moulded on those of Greek literature, it was due to Nasvius that much of its spirit and substance was of native growth. Long before the formal recognition of litera ture in Rome, which dated from the year 240 B.C., there had existed various kinds of inartistic composition, written or spoken, in Saturnian verse. The most important of these were satiric and dramatic medleys, knoAvn by the name of saturse, and commemorative verses in praise of eminent men, which were first sung at funeral banquets, and seem afterwards to have been preserved among family records. The fact that Nsevius wrote his most important poem in Saturnian verse, the disparaging reference made to him by Ennius as the writer of verses like those of the old native "Fauni and Vates," the claim which he makes in his epitaph to be the last purely Latin poet, the political satire which he introduced into his comedies, the national and commemorative character of his epic poem, all point to him as a medium of connexion between the nameless authors of these satiric and commemorative verses and the recognized authors of Roman comedy, satire, and even epic poetry. Though the fragments preserved from his numerous writings are few and inconsiderable, yet they corroborate the impression derived from ancient testimony that he was a man of originality and force of mind, and of a bold and vigorous character. The impulse which he sought to give to Latin literature was somewhat antagonistic to that actually given by Ennius ; and either the greater genius and richer culture of the latter or his greater adaptation to his times determined that his influence should be pre dominant. Probably the genius of Ennius was the higher creative force ; it was more in harmony with the serious Roman spirit, and with the grandeur of Roman institu tions ; it more naturally allied itself with the aristocratic influence which was predominant in the state for two generations after the death of Naevius ; it was also more XVII. 21