EARLY ARAB GEOGRAPHERS.
to a king called the Balhará, and the name of this prince continues to his successors who reign in that capital until the present time (332 A.H.)
India is a vast country, extending over sea, and land, and mountains; it borders on the country of Zábaj [Java], which is the kingdom of the Maháraj, the king of the islands, whose dominion separate India and China, but are considered as part of India. India extends on the side of the mountains to Khurásán and Sind, as far as Tibet. There prevails a great difference of language and religion in these kingdoms, and they are frequently at war with each other. The most of them believe in the metempsychosis, or the transmigration of the soul. The Hindús are distinct from all other black people, as the Zanjis, the Damádams, and others, in point of intellect, government, philosophy, strength of constitution, and purity of colour.
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No king can succeed to the throne in India before he is forty years of age; nor does their sovereign ever appear before the public, except at certain distant intervals, and then only for the inspection of state affairs. In their opinion, the kings lose their dignity and bring contempt on their privileges if the public gazes at them frequently. Government is only maintained by good feeling and by respect for the various dignities of the state.[1]◌◌◌◌◌Royalty is limited to the descendants of one family, and never goes to another. The same is the case with the families of the wazírs, kázís, and other high officers. They are all (hereditary and) never changed or altered.
The Hindús abstain from drinking wine, and censure those who consume it; not because their religion forbids it, but in the dread of its clouding their reason and depriving them of its powers. If it can be proved of one of their kings, that he has drunk (wine), he forfeits the crown; for he is (not considered to be) able to rule and govern (the empire) if his mind is affected.
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- ↑ [The Paris translation says, “Le pouvoir ne se maintient chez; eux que par le despotisme et le respect de la hiérarchie politique.” Sprenger's version is “The measures of government must be carried by mildness in India, and by degradation from a higher rank.”]
