A Short History of the Bombay Presidency

est. But near the coast the rivers are for the most part tidal streams, and are much used for navigation ; while they afford fertility to the picturesque country through which they take their course. Next to the Indus, the most important rivers that fall into the Western Ocean are the Narbada and Tiipti, that flow half across India from the Central Provinces and empty themselves into the sea at Broach and Surat in Guzdrat. Of those that take the contrary course from the Ghats to the Bay of Bengal the chief are the Godawari and the Krishna, with its tributary the Bhima. Towns and villages are met with every few miles, those in the Deccan having strong walls that were once needed for their protection. The people have ever sought the security that a community affords, and the traditional custom has survived after its necessity has disappeared. Farmhouses and cottages scattered about like those in England are never to be seen in India. Four languages besides Hindustani are spoken in the Presidency. In Sind the language is Sindi, in which the Persian and Hindustani elements predominate ; in Guzarat Guzarati, the language spoken by the Parsis, in which a Persian colouring is laid upon a Sanskrit foundation ; in the Konkan. and the Deccan, except in the extreme south and east, Marathi, which, of all Indian languages, bears the closest resemblance to the Sanskrit from which it has sprung, the characters in which it is written being almost unaltered. The country in which M...