India is, in fact, divided into three distinct basins; that of the Indus, that of the Ganges, and the plain of the Deccan, constituting Central India. This last is classic India, that is to say, the only part of the country thoroughly known to Europeans. M. Grandidier's travels were in the Deccan, to which refer the remarks we are about to quote:--
"The Hindoos of the Deccan," says M. Grandidier, "resemble the Aryan (Caucasian) race in the oval shape of their head, in the formation of their cranium, and in their facial angle. They are distinct from it, however, in colour. Their bodies are frail; the low caste native is thin and slight, but makes up for his lack of strength by his activity and lightness. His skin varies from a light copper colour to a dark brown; his hair is a fine glossy black, and grows plentifully on his face.
"Gentle and timid, the Hindoo is wanting in perseverance and firmness; gifted with a rapid comprehension, he is yet incapable of any sustained effort. A double yoke, from time immemorial, has weighed him down; caste distinctions and a foreign sway have made him a flexible creature, possessing more prudence and cunning than energy and uprightness; more keenness of wit than nobility of soul.
[Illustration: 159.--A PARSEE GENTLEMAN.]
"A lively imagination, never subdued by a rational education, has brought him under the influence of the gross superstitions sanctioned by the Hindoo religion, with its train of ignoble divinities. The timidity of his character has preserved him from the violent fanaticism of the Mussulman, but his religion is very dear to him, and the belief of the lower classes is at least a sincere one.
"Sivaism, to which belong most of the inhabitants of the Deccan, is so priceless in their eyes, that they value it far beyond their lives. They repose an ardent and lively faith in the most absurd doctrines. This form of religion pleases their imagination by its fantastic dreams and by its poetic materialism, and its ceremonies amuse them, while gratifying their passions.
"The paucity of their wants tends to render them improvident, and their lively and childish imagination, feeding on the smallest and vaguest facts, which they poetise and exaggerate in their own manner, develops in them a dreamy and indolent mode of life.