Vindhya mountains, and the Narbadá valley to the Sátpura mountains, belonged to these Provinces as a sort of adjunct. On the north was the Himalayan region of Kumáun and Garhwál. Irrespective of the Vindhyan tract, and the Himálayan district, both mountainous, the main and central portion of these Provinces, under Thomason's government, may be geographically described as the plain of Hindustán or the upper basin of the Ganges.
Of all the names in Indian geography Hindustán is the most famous. In it were established the headquarters of the Mughal Empire, and thus it became the Empress Province of India. During the middle ages, the name Hindustán came to be applied by many to India itself. In the present century it has been limited correctly to the upper basin of the Ganges, as contradistinguished from the lower basin in Behar and Bengal. Even with this limitation it was, on Thomason's accession to the government, the most important territory in India, though during recent years it may in romantic interest have yielded to the Punjab. It contained Delhi and Agra, cities among the most beautiful in India, even in Asia; the classic of some among the loftiest triumphs achieved by Moslem arms and policy, — Hardwár, the classic spot where the Ganges as a young giant debouches from the Himálayas into the wide plains, and where Hindu pilgrims swarm periodically to bathe — Benares, the venerated centre of Hindu faith and learning.
