preferred for himself a voluntary death to the ignominy that he knew awaited his furvivance; and he accordingly died either by his own hand, or by that of a friendly Nayr, whom he is faid to have required to perform this laft mournful office for him; whereupon TIPPOO, difappointed of his prey, feized on the dead Rajah's effects and country, which he continued to hold till finally deprived, by the British arms, of that and the greater part of his Malabar territories, by the fuccefsful war that terminated by the peace, and his confequent ceffion of that country, in the year 1792; fince which the Zamorin, and all the other Rajahs, have returned to their diftri&s; into which they have been re-admitted, in full fubordination to the Company's Government, which can alone beneficially conduct the adminiftration of that coaft in its prefent circumstances, and adminifter equal and impartial juftice to the two great claffes of Hindus and Mahommedans, of which the prefent fociety confifts; and who, ftill fmarting under the impreffion of the injuries they reciprocally inflicted and fuffered during the turbulent and calamitous period of the Myfore dominion, can hardly be deemed to be in temper to qualify either to ftand towards each other in the relation of fovereign. and subject; more efpecially as the authority would have reverted, and the confequent retaliation have no doubt been exercifed, (as was in fome inftances at first attempted,) by thofe who had been, during the last twenty years, the inferior and fuffering party; for the Mapillas, or Mahommedans, finding themfelves mafters during the preceding difaftrous and unfettled adminif tration of the religion of their new Prince, had availed themselves of that powerful circumftance in their favour, to moleft, defpoil, and (as far as in them lay) to ruin their former Hindu fuperiors; fo that the bitterness of the enmity between the two fects had rifen to the highest pitch of rancour, and will no doubt require a courfe of years to fubfide, or to give place to a re-establishment of the ancient amity.

XXXIII. It has been already intimated, that the Mapillas in the fouthern diftricts exceed in numbers the remaining race of Hindus; and although many of them, who inhabit the towns on the coaft, are induftrious and quiet fubjects, yet there is a large proportion, called the Jungle Mapillas, who, occupying the interior receffes near to the hills, have been so long inured to predatory habits, that fome elapfe of time must be required fully to reclaim them.

XXXIV. I have thus fubmitted to the Society the best account which, from the materials in my poffeffion, I have been able to draw up of the History and Manners of the Inhabitants in the new acquifition of the Eaft India Company, excepting as far as regards the Neftorians, and other Chriftians, and the Jews; the major part of both of whom living to the fouthward of what are properly the British limits, I have not hitherto had any fufficient opportunity of acquiring minute or accurate information respecting them.

II.

AN

ACCOUNT of Two FAKEERS,

With their Portraits.

By JONATHAN DUNCAN, Efq.

*

T

BEG leave to lay before the Society the accompanying Pictures of two Fakeers, now living at Benares, which I had drawn there from the life. The first is named PURANA POORI, or (as ufually pronounced in Hindvee) PRAUN POORY, a Sunyasy, distinguished by the epithet Oordhbahu, from his arms and his hands being in a fixed pofition above his head; and as he is a very intelligent man, and has been a great traveller, he confented, in the month of May, 1792, to gratify my curiofity,. by allowing to be committed to writing, by a fervant of mine, from his verbal delivery in the Hinduftan language, a relation of his obfervations in the various countries into which he has penetrated; but as his account is too long for infertion in the Afatick Refearches, (fhould it even be deemed to merit a place in fo refpectable a repository,) I have here extracted the principal parts of it, as an accompaniment to the portrait; having only farther to premise, that I have the utmost reliance on our traveller's not defigning to impofe in any part of his narrative; but allowance mult be made for defects of memory, in a

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relation

relation extending through fo many years, and comprehending fuch a number of objects.

II. PRAUN POORY is a native of Canouge, of the Khetry or Raujepoot tribe. At nine years of age he fecretly withdrew from his father's houfe, and proceeded to the city of Bethour, on the banks of the Ganges, where he became a Fakeer, about the time (for he cannot otherwise fix the year) of MUNSOOR ALI KHAN's retreat from Dehlia to Lucknow, and two or three years before the fack of Mathura by AHMED SHAH ABDALLI; which two events are in Scorr's Hiftory of the Dekkan," related under the years 1751-2 and 1756; within which period he came to Allahabad to the great annual meeting of pilgrims, where hearing of the merits attached to what he defcribes as the eighteen different kinds of Tupifya, or modes of devotional difcipline, he made choice of that of Qordhbahu, above noticed; the first operation of which he represents to be very painful, and to require preparation by a previous course of abftinence,

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III. He then fet out to vifit Ramifher, oppofite to Ceylon, taking his route by Kalpi, Oujeine, Burahanpoor, Aurungabad, and Elora; the furprifing excavations at which place he notices and croffing the Godavery at Tounker, he paffed by Poona, Settara, and various other intermediate towns, to Bednore, of which a Ranny, or Princefs, was then the fovereign; whence he went on to Seringa patam, then in poffeffion of its Hindu Princes, whom he names NU'ND RAUJE and DEO RAUJE; leaving which, he defcended through the Tamerchery Pafs into Malabar, and arrived at Chochin; whence he croffed the Peninfula through a defart tract of country to Ramifher; after vifiting which, he returned up the Coromandel coaft to the temple of Jaggernauth in Oriffa, fpecifying all

the

the towns on this part of his route, which are too well. known to require to be here enumerated.

From Jaggernauth our traveller returned by nearly the fame route to Ramifher, whence he paffed over into Silan, or Ceylon, and proceeded to its capital, which fome, he obferves, call Khundi, (Candi,) and others Noora; but that KHUNDI MAHA RAUJE is the Prince's defignation; and that further on he arrived at Catlgang, on a river called the Manic Gunga, where there is a temple of CARTICA, or CARTICEYA, the fon of MAHADEO, to which he paid his refpects, and then went on to vifit the Sreepud, or, "The Divine Foot,' fituated upon a mountain of extraordinary height; and on one part of which there is alfo (according to this Fakeer's defcription) an extenfive miry cavity, called the Bhoput Tank, and which bears alfo the name of the Tank of RAVAN, or RABAN, (the b and v being pronounced indifferently in various parts of India,) one of the former Kings of this Ifland, well known in the Hindu legends for his wars with RAMA, and from whom this Tapu, or Ifland, may probably have received its ancient appellation of Tarprobane, (i. e. the Ifle of RABAN.) But, however this may be, our traveller ftates, that, leaving this tank, he proceeded on to a station called Seeta Koond, (where RAMA placed his wife SEETA, on the occafion of his war with her ravisher RAVAN,) and then reached at length to the Sreepud, on a moft extenfive table or flat, where there is (he obferves) a bungalow built over the print of the divine foot; after worshipping which, he returned by the fame route.

V. From Ceylon this Sunyay paffed over among the Malays, whom he defcribes as being Muffulmans ; but there was one capital Hindu merchant, a native of Ceylon, fettled there, at whofe house he lodged for

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two