THE INDIAN PENINSULA 14%

The United Provinces (which are drained and irrigated
 by the Ganges system) cover together 106,000
square miles, and include a population of 44,000,000.
“There is no country in Europe in which the populaton
 is so dense; the average number of persons to
the square mile in England and Wales is 446, in the
United Provinces it is 460. No other Indian province
is so thickly peopled ; in Bengal, which most nearly
approaches it, the average number to the square mile
is 360.” “This has been for ages the most famous
part of India. In prehistoric times it was the Central
or Middle Land, the Madhya-desha of the sacred books
of the Hindus and of the ancient poets, the abode of
the solar and lunar races, and of the gods and heroes
of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. . . . This tract contains
 the most holy places of India, Benares, Ajodhya,
Kanauj, Muttra, and many others: it was here that Buddha
 was born, and preached, and died, and it was from
this centre that his creed spread over a great part of
‘he eastern world. In more modern times Hindustan
was the chief seat of the Muhammadan power. Delhi
and Agra became the capitals of the Afghan and Moghul
sovereigns, and although the great majority of the population
 always remained Hindu, there was for many
centuries no part of India in which Mussulman authority
and organisation was so complete. In our own times
this has been politically the most important part of our
[ndian Empire. ‘To the native imagination,’ as Mr.
Keene has observed, ‘Hindustan is still the centre of
[ndia, and Delhi is still the metropolis.” Thus writes
Sir John Strachey, who is perhaps the best living authority
 on the subject. In physical conformation there is
no great difference. between the Eastern Punjab :and
the United Provinces. They are all included in one
vast alluvial plain, of which the unbroken monotony is a
weariness to contemplate. But the flat ugliness of much
of the Punjab plain scenery is relieved in the upper
provinces of the Gangetic basin by the wealth of rich
cultivation, which during the rains and in the winter