The History of India by Mountstuart Elphinstone. Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population. Besides being a noted administrator, he wrote books on India and Afghanistan. India is bounded by the Hemalaya mountains, the river Indus, and the sea. Its length from Cashmir to Cape Comorin is about 1,900 British miles; and its breadth from the mouth of the Indus to the mountains east of the Baramputra considerably upwards of 1,500 British miles. It is crossed from east to west by a chain of Natural mountains, called those of Vindya, which extends divisions. Between the twenty-third and twenty-fifth parallels of latitude, nearly from the desert north-west of Guzerat, to the Ganges.