III.--BENARES.
PART I.
RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES.
I. That the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long
since, an orderly, well-cultivated, and improved province, of great
extent; and its capital city, as Warren Hastings, Esquire, has informed
the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 21st of November, 1781, "is
highly revered by the natives of the Hindoo persuasion, so that many who
have acquired independent fortunes retire to close their days in a place
so eminently distinguished for its sanctity"; and he further acquaints
the Directors, "that it may rather be considered as the seat of the
Hindoo religion than as the capital of a province. But as its
inhabitants are not composed of Hindoos only, the _former_ wealth which
flowed into it from the offerings of pilgrims, as well as from the
transactions of exchange, for which its central situation is adapted,
has attracted numbers of Mahomedans, who still continue to reside in it
with their families." And these circumstances of the city of Benares,
which not only attracted the attention of all the different
descriptions of men who inhabit Hindostan, but interested them warmly in
whatever it might suffer, did in a peculiar manner require that the
Governor-General and Council of Calcutta should conduct themselves with
regard to its rulers and inhabitants, when it became dependent on the
Company, on the most distinguished principles of good faith, equity,
moderation, and mildness.
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