The Mahomedan invasion of India, which effected so great a change in the character of the country, took place in the first quarter of the eleventh century. The Mahomedan empire was founded there by the Ghorè dynasty in 1157. I may fitly close my remarks on the site of this ancient city, by glancing at the geographical extent and condition of the country at this great era of a mighty change in Indian history. It is said by Rennel and other writers, that according to the testimony of the ancients, India, on the most enlarged scale, divided on the West from Persia by the Arachosian Mountains, bounded on the East by China, on the North by Tartary, and extending South to the Sunda Isles, comprised an area of 40°, including a superficies almost as large as Europe: a statement which appears preposterous. The Mahomedan writers understood Hindoostan, under the sovereigns of Delhi, to include the twelve Soobahs or Provinces into which it was sub-divided in 1582; viz., Lahore, Mooltan, Scinde, Ajmere, Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Bahar, Oude, Bengal, Malwah, Guzerat; Cabool, and the country west of India, was made a thirteenth Soobah, and again others were added: namely, the Deccan, including Berar, Khandeish, and Ahmednuggur, and afterwards Aurungabad. According to the geography of the original Hindoos, Hindoostan is bounded on the North by the Himalaya ridge of mountains, including Cashmere, Nepaul, and Bootan; on the South by the Ocean; on the West by the Indus; and on the East by Chittagong. With the exception of Bootan, the primitive Brahminical religion and languages prevail in the above boundaries; nor are they to be found beyond them, save in Assam and Cassey, where Brahminical doctrines still prevail; but in Bootan the people are Buddhists. The modern name Hindoostan, is a Persian appellation, derived from the word "Hindoo" (black), and "Sthan" (a place). The above limits give 1,020,000 geographical miles. Elphinstone[95] says, "India is bounded by the Himalaya mountains, the river Indus, and the sea. Its length from Cashmere to Cape Comorin is about 1,900 British miles,[96] and its breadth, from the mouth of the Indus to the mountains east of the Berhampooter, is considerably above 1,500 British miles. In its southern boundary it is limited by the Nerbudda." According to the Hindoo calculation, India extends northward to the thirty-fifth degree of latitude. Cabool, which was included by Akbar in Hindoostan, is reckoned between the thirty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of north latitude. But Hindoostan is bounded on the West by the river Indus, which excludes Cabool and Scinde. Sylhet, and Chittagong are to the East of the Berhampooter, near the mountains, and must be included. The southern boundary is the sea. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 73: The late Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Dr. Samuel Butler, in his Ancient and Modern Geography, p. 267, called it also Helabas. In India some speak of it as "Illahabas."]