INDIA 205 Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow are especially re- markable for their delicacy, beauty, and taste. The most wonderful structures in the country are perhaps the great rock temples in the west- ern part of the Deccan, and those near Bom- bay. (See ELEPHANTA, and ELLORA.) Among the most important cities of India are Calcutta, the capital, on the Hoogly, in Bengal; Bom- bay, the chief seaport on the W. coast; Ma- dras, on the Coromandel coast; Benares, the holy city of the Hindoos, in the Northwest Provinces, on the banks of the Ganges ; Patna, an important centre of the opium trade in Be- har ; Allahabad, at the confluence of the Gan- ges and the Jumna ; Lucknow, the capital of Oude; Delhi, the metropolis of the Moham- medan empire in India ; Lahore and Amritsir, in the Punjaub ; Baroda, in Guzerat ; Poonah, in the territory of Bombay ; Nagpore, in the heart of central India; and Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam's Dominions. Almost all of these cities contain upward of 100,000 inhabitants, as do also Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and several others. A vast net- work of railways, constructed by the Brit- ish, is rapidly overspreading the entire land. Lines are already completed running up the Gangetic valley from Calcutta to Allahabad and Delhi, with a continuation to Lahore, and a branch to Lucknow ; from Bombay to Allah- abad, thus connecting the former city with Calcutta; also from Bombay northward to Baroda, and southward across the peninsula to Madras. Many other lines are in progress of construction. In 1873, 5,478* m. of railway were in operation. Telegraph lines, with an aggregate length of 15,102 m. in 1871, connect all the important places in India. There are three routes of telegraphic communication with England : one consisting of land lines from Con- stantinople to Bagdad, and thence to Fao at the head of the Persian gulf, whence a submarine cable leads to the port of Kurrachee near the mouths of the Indus ; a second, by means of the game cable to Bushire, which is one of its re- peating stations, and thence to the European system by way of Teheran, Tiflis, and Kertch ; and the third being the submarine cable be- tween Suez and Bombay. A submarine cable also extends from Madras to Singapore, anc the latter port is similarly connected with Hong Kong. The chief public works of na- tive construction are reservoirs or tanks for purposes of irrigation, which exist in immense numbers and frequently of great size and cost being often magnificently built of stone. There are also a number of canals constructed by the native princes in former ages, but these have mostly fallen into neglect and disuse. The British government has conducted an extensiv and systematic course of internal improvement Immense canals, inferior to none in the world have been constructed, the chief of which an those of the Jumna and the Ganges, to facili tate not only irrigation but the navigation o those rivers. These great systems of irriga ion comprehend not only the upper portion jf the Ganges basin, but the valley of the In- us, and districts in Orissa, Madras, Bombay, and other parts of the country. Silk, cotton, and woollen goods are the leading manufac- ures of India. Sericulture is extensively car- led on in Bengal and Mysore, and both these provinces are the seats of silk manufacture. )elhi is celebrated for its silk embroideries, and Benares and Ahmedabad for their gold >rocades. The manufactures of the Punjaub comprise silks, woollens, and white and colored cotton goods, the estimated value of the annual >roduction being 4,850,000. Cotton is also nanufactured in Oude, the Central Provinces, and Mysore. In the latter country there are cutlery works and manufactories of gold and silver lace. As the great bulk of the products s consumed in the country itself, the internal trade is very large, but there are only meagre statistics concerning it. Silver is the standard of value, and the monetary unit is the rupee, which is worth about two shillings sterling. The foreign trade of India has for centuries been famous for its lucrative nature. There were said to be 1,230 square-rigged vessels, 948 steamers, and over 50,000 native craft engaged in its carriage in 1871-'2. In that year the val- ues of some of the principal exports were as follows: coffee, 1,380,409; cotton, 21,272,- 430; grains, including rice, 4,865,748; indi- go, 3,705,475; jute, 4,117,308; opium, 13,- 365,228; seeds, 2,728,127; tea, 1,482,185; and wool, 906,699. The chief articles import- ed in the same year were : cotton twist and yarn, 2,473,353 ; cotton piece goods, 15,009,- 981 ; machinery, 405,835 ; manufactured met- als, 925,839; raw metals, 1,464,936; railway materials and stores, 516,996; salt, 913,- 915; raw silk, 651,595; silk goods, 480,948; wines and liquors, 1,381,961. Of gold and silver 11,573,813 were imported in 1871-'2, and 1,476,093 exported, leaving a balance of 10,097,720 remaining in India. This flow of the precious metals into India has for ages been a remarkable feature of the commerce of that country. A considerable foreign traffic, amounting to more than 1,000,000 in value annually, is carried on over the Himalayan passes, with Afghanistan, Turkistan, and Thi- bet. The main sources of government revenue are the land tax, opium sales, salt duties, cus- toms, and excise and stamp tax. More than two fifths of the receipts are derived from the land settlements. The terms of these vary in different provinces, but the principle generally sought to he applied is that the government is entitled to receive a certain proportion of the net produce of the land. Three modes of set- tlement are in vogue : the zemindary, in which proprietors known as zemindars are responsi- ble for the assessments of given districts, thus standing in the position of landlords them- selves; the village system, in which the vil- lagers hold the land collectively as toward the government ; and the ryotwar system, in
