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 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 
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 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 
 INDIAN PEOPLES 
 
 By sir WILLIAM WILSON H.UNTER, K.C.S.L, CLE. 
 
 M.A. OxoN., LL.D. Cambridge 
 
 TWENTIETH EDITION REVISED. EIGHTIETH THOUSAND 
 
 OXFORD : AT THE CLARENDON PRESS : 1893.
 
 Oxford 
 
 HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 ^ 
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 ^6 ^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In this book I try to exhibit the growth of t\^e Indian 
 peoples, to show what part they have played in the 
 world's progress, and what sufferings they have endured 
 from other nations. Short Indian histories, as written 
 by Englishmen, usually dismiss the first two thousand 
 years of their narrative in a few pages, and start by 
 disclosing India as a conquered country. This plan is 
 not good, either for Europeans in India or for the 
 Indians themselves ; nor does it accord with the facts. 
 As long as Indian history is presented to the Indian 
 youth as nothing but a dreary record of disunion and 
 subjection, our Anglo-Indian Schools can scarcely become 
 the nurseries of a self-respecting nation. I have there- 
 fore tried to put together, from original sources, a brief 
 narrative of what I believe to be the true history of the 
 peoples of India. These sources have been carefully 
 examined in my larger works. This little book merely 
 states, without discussing, the results arrived at by the 
 labour of thirty years. 
 
 I have tried to show how an early gifted race, 
 ethnically akin to our own, welded the primitive forest 
 tribes into settled communities. How the nobler stock, 
 set free from the severer struggle for life by the bounty 
 of the Indian soil, created a language, a literature and 
 a religion, of rare stateliness and beauty. How the 
 very absence of that strenuous striving with nature, 
 which is so necessary a discipline for nations, unfitted 
 them for the "rcat conflicts which await all races. How,
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 among the most intellectual class, the domestic and 
 contemplative aspects of life overpowered the practical 
 and the political. How Hinduism, while sufficing to 
 organize the Indian communities into social and re- 
 ligious confederacies, failed to knit them together into 
 a coherent nation. 
 
 India was destined, by her position, to receive the 
 human overflow from the ancient breeding-grounds of 
 Central Asia. Waves of conquest from the north were 
 as inevitable in early times as are the tidal waves from 
 the ocean at the present day. But such conquests, 
 although rapid, were seldom enduring ; and although 
 widespread, were never complete. The religious and 
 social organization of Hinduism never succumbed. The 
 greatest of India's conquerors, the Mughals, were being 
 liemmed in by Hindu confederacies before their 
 supremacy had lasted if centuries. So far as can 
 now be estimated, the advance of the British alone 
 saved the Delhi Empire from dismemberment by three 
 Hindu military powers, the Marathas, Rajputs, and 
 Sikhs. The British Rule has endured, because it is 
 wielded in the joint interest of the Indian races. 
 
 But while these thoughts have long been present in 
 my mind, I have not obtruded them on my pages. For 
 I hope that this little book will reach the hands of many 
 who look on history as a record of events, rather than 
 as a compendium of philosophy. The greatest service 
 which an Indian historian can at present render to India, 
 is to state the facts accurately and in such a way that 
 they will be read. If my story is found to combine 
 truth with simplicity, it will have attained all that I 
 aimed at. If it teaches young Englishmen and young 
 Natives of India to think more kindly of each other, 
 I shall esteem myself richly rewarded.
 
 PREFACE TO THE TWENTIETH 
 EDITION 
 
 I AM grateful to my critics in many countries for the 
 reception which they have given to this book. It has 
 been translated into five languages, including a literal 
 rendering in Burmese, and a poetical version in Urdu. 
 The English issue alone has reached its seventy -eighth 
 thousandth copy, and from i8(S6 onwards to last year 
 the Calcutta University prescribed the work as a text- 
 book for its Entrance Examination. The present 
 edition incorporates suggestions kindly forwarded to 
 me by Directors of Public Instruction, and other educa- 
 tional authorities in India. To Mr. Griffith, formerly 
 Director of Public Instruction in the North-Western 
 Provinces, and to Professor A. A. Macdonell, Deputy 
 Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, I am specially indebted 
 for a revision of the earlier chapters. The whole proof- 
 sheets have been kindly revised for me by Mr. Morse 
 Stephens, B.A,, Lecturer on Indian History to the 
 University of Cambridge. 
 
 On my own part, no pains have been spared to 
 render this edition an improvement on its predecessors. 
 Although compressed into a small size, it essays to em- 
 body the latest results of Indian historical research, and 
 of that more critical examination of the Indian Records 
 which forms so important a feature of recent Indian
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 work. My endeavour has been to present the history 
 of India in an attractive and accurate narrative, yet 
 within a compass which will place it in reach of the 
 ordinary English and American reader, and render it 
 available as a text-book for English and Indian colleges 
 or schools. The Twentieth Edition includes the 
 principal figures arrived at by the Indian Census of 
 1 89 1, and brings down the chronicle of events to the 
 expansion of the Indian Legislative Councils by the 
 Act of Parliament in 1892. 
 
 VV. W. HUNTER. 
 
 Oaken Holt, Cumnor, near Oxford, 
 1892.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Country ....... 17-31 
 
 Situation and size of India, 17, 18; the four regions of which 
 it is composed, iS ; first region — the Himalayas, 18-21 ; Himalayan 
 river system — Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Ganges and Jumna, 21, 
 22 ; second region — river plains of India, 22, 23; work done by the 
 rivers — the Bengal Delta, 23-26 ; crops and scenery of the northern 
 river plains, 26, 27; third region — the southern table-land, its 
 scenery, rivers and products, 27-30; fourth region — Burma, 30, 31 ; 
 materials for reference, 31. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The People ....... 32-39 
 
 General survey of the people, 32, 33 ; population statistics in 
 British and Native India, 33-35 ; density of population, 36; scarcity 
 of large towns, 36 ; overcrowded and under-peopled Districts, 36, 
 37 ; distribution of the people, 37 ; nomadic system of husbandry, 
 37 ; rise in rents, 37, 38 ; abolition of serfdom, 38 ; four-fold divi- 
 sion of the people, 38, 39 ; the two chief races of pre-historic India, 
 39 ; materials for reference, 39. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The non-Aryans ...... 40-51 
 
 The non-Aryans or 'Aborigines,' 40; as described in the Veda, 
 40, 41 ; the non-Aryans at the present day, 41, 42; the Andaman 
 islanders, 42 ; hill tribes in Madras, 42, 43 ; in the Vindhya ranges, 
 43 ; in the Central Provinces, 44 ; leaf-wearing tribe in Orissa, 
 44 ; Himalayan tribes, 44, 45 ; the Santals of Lower Bengal, their 
 system of government history, &c., 45-47; the Kandhs of Orissa,
 
 lO TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGF. 
 
 their customs, human sacrifices, &c., 47-49 ; the three great non- 
 Aryan stocks, 49 ; character and future of the non-Aryans, 50 ; 
 materials for reference, 51. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Aryans in India ...... 52-73 
 
 The Aryan stock, 52 ; early Aryan conquests in Europe and Asia, 
 52 ; the Aryans in their primitive home in Western Asia, 53 ; the 
 common origin of European and Indian religions, 53 ; and of the 
 Indo-European languages, 53 ; Indo-Aryans on the march, 53, 54 ; 
 the Rig- Veda, 54, 55 ; Aryan civilization in Veda, 55 ; Vedic gods, 
 55-57; a Vedic hymn, 57; Vedic literature, 58; the Brahmanas, 
 58, 59; the four castes formed, 59, 60 ; establishment of Brahman 
 supremacy, 60 ; four stages of a Brahman's life, 60, 61 ; the modern 
 Brahmans, 61, 62 ; Brahman theology — the Hindu Trinity, 62, 63 ; 
 Brahman philosophy, literature, astronomy, medicine, music, lawf, 
 poetry, 63-67 ; the epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, 
 67-71 ; later Sanskrit epics, 71 ; the Sanskrit drama and lyric poetry, 
 71, 72 ; materials for reference, 73. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Buddhism in India (543 b.c. to looo a.d.) . . . 74-84 
 
 Rise of Buddhism, 74 ; life of Gautama Buddha, 74-76 ; Buddha's 
 doctrines, 76, 77; missionary aspects of Buddhism, 77, 78; early 
 Buddhist councils, 78 ; Asoka's conversion to Buddhism, and its 
 establishment as a State religion, 78, 79 ; his rock edicts, 79 ; 
 Kanishka's council, 79, 80 ; rivalry of Buddhism and Brahmanism, 
 80, 81 ; Siladitya's council (634 a.d.), 81 ; great Buddhist monastery 
 of Nalanda, 82; victory of Brahmanism (700 to 900 a.d.), 82; 
 Buddhism an exiled religion from India (900 A. D.), 82, 83; the 
 Jains the modern successors of the ancient Buddhists, 83 ; influence 
 of Buddhism on modern Hinduism, S3, 84; materials for refer- 
 ence, 84. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Greeks in India (327-161 b.c.) .... 85-S9 
 
 Early Greek references to India, 85 ; Alexander the Great's 
 campaign in the Punjab and Sind, 85-87 ; his successors, 87 ; 
 Chandra Gupta's kingdom in Northern India, 87, 88 ; Megasthenes' 
 description of India (300 B.C.), 88, 89; later Greek invasions, 89; 
 materials for reference, 89.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. II 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ScYTHic Inroads (about loo B.C. to 500 A. D.) . . . 90-93 
 
 The Scythians in Central Asia, 90 ; Scythic kingdoms in Northern 
 India, 90, 91 ; Scythic races still in India, 91 ; wars of Vikramaditya 
 against the Scythians (57 B. c), and of Salivahana (78 A.D.), 91, 92 ; 
 later opponents of the Scythians, the Sah, Gnpta, and Valabhi 
 dynasties, 92, 93 ; materials for reference, 93. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Growth of Hinduism (700 to 1500 a.d.) . . . 94-108 
 
 The three sources of the Indian people — the Aryans, non-Aryans, 
 and Scythians, 94, 95 ; Aryan work of civilization, 95 ; the Brah- 
 mans, 95, 96 ; two-fold basis of Hinduism, caste and religion, 96-99 ; 
 Buddhist influences on Hinduism, 99 ; non- Aryan influences on 
 Hinduism, 99 ; the Hindu Book of Saints, 99, loo ; Sankara 
 Acharya, the Sivaite religious reformer of the ninth century, 100; 
 two-fold aspects of Siva-worship, 100, loi ; the thirteen Sivaite sects, 
 loi, 102 ; Vishnu-worship, 102, 103 ; the Vishnu Purana (1045 A.D.), 
 103 ; Vishnuite apostles — Ramanuja (1150 A. D.), Ramanand (1300- 
 1400 A. D.), Kabir (1380-1420 A.D.), Chaitanya (1485-1527 a.d.), 
 Vallabha-Swami (1520 a.d.), 103-106; Krishna-worship, io(5, 107 ; 
 religious bond of Hinduism, 107 ; materials for reference, 107, loS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Early Muhammadan Conquerors (714-1526 a.d.) . . 109-131 
 
 Muhammadan influence on Hinduism, 109; chronological sum- 
 mary of Muhammadan dynasties, 109, no; Arab invasions of Sind 
 (647-828 A.D.), no. III; India on the eve of the Muhammadan 
 conquest, ill, 112 ; Muhammadan conquests only partial and tem- 
 porary, 112, 113; first Tiirki invasions — Subuktigin (977 A. D.), 
 113; Mahmud of Ghazni (1001-1030), his seventeen invasions of 
 India and sack of Somnath, 113-116; house of Ghor (1152-1186), 
 116; Muhammad of Ghor, 116-119 ; defeat of the Rajput clans, 
 117, 118; conquest of Bengal (1203), 118; the Slave kings (1206- 
 1290) — Kutab-ud-din, 119; Altamsh, 119, 120; Empress Raziya, 120; 
 Mughal irruptions and Rajput revolts, 120; Balban, 120, 121; 
 house of Khilji (1290-1320), 121-124; Jalal-ud-din, 121, 122 ; Ala- 
 ud-din's conquest of Southern India, 122; extent of the Muham- 
 madan power in India (1306), 122, 123; Khusn'i, the renegade 
 Hindu emperor, 123, 124; the Tughlak dynasty (1320-1414), 124-
 
 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 126; Muhammad Tughlak, his cruelties, revenue exactions, 124- 
 126; Firuz Shah Tughlak, his canals, 126; Timur's invasion 
 (1398), 126; the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, 127 ; Hindu kingdoms 
 of the south — Vijayanagar, 127, 128; the Muhammadan States in 
 the Deccan, 128; the Bahmani dynasty, 128, 129; the five Mu- 
 hammadan States of the Deccan (1489-168S), 129; downfall of 
 Vijayanagar, 1 29, 130 ; independence of the Muhammadan Provinces, 
 130; weakness of the early Delhi empire, 130, 131; materials for 
 reference, 131. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Mughal Dynasty (1526-1761) .... 132-155 
 Babar's invasion of India and overthrow of the Lodi dynasty at 
 Panipat (1526), 132; Humayun's reign (1530-1556), 132, 133; his 
 defeat by Sher Shah, the Afghan, 133 ; he flies to Persia, but regains 
 India as the result of the second battle of Panipat (1556), 133; 
 Akbar the Great (i 556-1605), chronological summary of his reign, 
 133> ^34) the regent Bairam, 134; Akbar's work in India, reduc- 
 tion of Muhammadan States and the Rajput clans, 134-136 ; his 
 policy of conciliation towards the Hindus, 135, 136 ; his conquests 
 in Southern India, 136, 137; his religious faith, 137, 138; Akbar's 
 organization of the Empire, 138, 139; his revenue survey of India, 
 139; his ministers, 140; Jahangir (1605-1627), his wars and con- 
 quests, 140 ; the Empress Nur Jahan, 140, 141 ; Jahangir's personal 
 character, 141, 142 ; Shah Jahan (1628-1658), his administration and 
 wars, 142, 143; his great architectural works at Agra and Delhi, 
 143 ; his revenues, 143, 144 ; deposed by his rebellious son, Aurang- 
 zeb, 144; Aurangzeb's reign (165S-1707), 144-150; chronological 
 summary of his reign, 144, 145 ; he murders his brothers, 145, 146; 
 his great campaign in Southern India, 146, 147 ; his war with the 
 Marathas, and death, 147, 148 ; Mir Jumla's unsuccessful expedition 
 to Assam, 148 ; Aurangzeb's bigoted policy and oppression of the 
 Hindus, 148, 149; revenue of the empire, 149, 150; character of 
 Aurangzeb, 150 ; decline of the Mughal power under the succeeding 
 nominal Emperors, 150, 151 ; independence of the Deccan and of 
 Oudh, 151 ; Maratha, Sikh, and Rajput revolts, 151 ; the invasions 
 of Nadir Shah the Persian, and Ahmad Shah the Afghan, 151, 152 ; 
 misery of the country, 152, 153 ; decline and downfall of the Empire, 
 153 ; India conquered by the British, not from the Mughals, but from 
 the Hindus, 154; chronological summary of principal events from 
 the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, till the banishment of Bahadur Shah, 
 the last Mughal Emperor, for complicity in the Mutiny of 1857, 154, 
 155 ; materials for reference, 155.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The MarAthAs ...... 156-163 
 
 Rise of the Marathas, and the growth of their power in the Deccan, 
 156, 157 ; Sivaji's guerilla warfare with Aurangzeb, 157 ; the house 
 of Sivaji, 158 ; the Peshwas and the Mardtha confederacy, 15S, 159; 
 the five Maratha houses, viz. the Peshwa, Sindhia, Holkar, the Nag- 
 pur Bhonslas, and the Gaekwar of Baroda, 160-162; the three 
 Maratha wars with the British, 162, 163; materials for reference, 
 163. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Early European Settlements .... 164-175 
 
 Europe and the East before 1500 A. D., 164; Vasco daGama, 164; 
 early Portuguese governors and their oppressions, 165, 166; down- 
 fall of the Portuguese power, and extent of its present possessions 
 in India, 166; the Dutch in India, and their supremacy in the 
 Eastern seas, 166-168; early English adventurers (1496-1596), 168, 
 169 ; English East India Companies, 169, 170 ; first voyages of the 
 English Company, 170; massacre of Amboyna (1623), 170, 171; 
 early English settlements in Madras, 171 ; in Bombay, 171, 172 ; in 
 Bengal, 172; other East India Companies, 173, 174; materials for 
 reference 175. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Foundation of British Rule in India . . 176-199 
 
 Table of Governors, Governors- General, and Viceroys of India 
 (1758-1892), 176, 177; French and English in the south, 177; 
 state of Southern India after the death of Aurangzeb (1707), 177, 
 178; wars in the Karnatik — Dupleix and Clive, 178, 179; battle of 
 Wandiwash, 179; Native rulers of Bengal (1707-1756), 179, 180; 
 capture of Calcutta by the Nawab Siraj-ud-daula, and the ' Black 
 Hole ' tragedy, 180; Clive recaptures Calcutta, 180; his victory at 
 Plassey (1757), 180, 181; installation of Mir Jafar, as Nawab of 
 Bengal, 181, 182; QX\v^% jdgir, 1S2, 183; Clive, first Governor of 
 Bengal (1758), 183; dethronement of Mir Jafar, and substitution of 
 Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, 184 ; Mir Kasim's revolt, and the 
 massacre of Patna, 184; reconquest of Bengal, battle of Baxar, 184, 
 185 ; Clive's second governorship, and the acquisition of the Diwani 
 or financial administration of Bengal by the Company, 185, 186; 
 Clive's reorganization of the Bengal service (1766), 186; dual system 
 of administration, 186, 187; Warren Hastings (1772-1785), his
 
 14 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 administrative work, 1S7, 188 ; policy to Native chiefs, 188; Hastings 
 makes Bengal pay, 188, 189 ; sells Allahabad and Kora to the 
 Wazir of Ondh, 189; the Rohilla war (1773-1774), 189; fines on 
 Chait Singh and the Oudh Begam, 190 ; Hastings' impeachment and 
 trial in England, 190; first Maratha war (1779-1781), 190, 191; 
 war with Mysore (1780-1784), 191, 192; Lord Comwallis (1786- 
 1793), 192, 193; Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 192, 193; 
 second Mysore war (1790-1792), 193; Marquess Wellesley (1798- 
 1805), 193-198 ; French influence in India (1798-1800), 194; India 
 before Lord Wellesley (1798), 194, 195; Lord Wellesley's policy, 
 ,195; treaty with the Nizam (1798), 195, 196; third Mysore war 
 (1799), 196; second Maratha war (1802-1804), 197, 198; India 
 after Lord Wellesley (1805), 198; materials for reference, 199. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Consolidation OF British India . . . 200-221 
 
 Marquess Cornwallis' second administration (1805), 200; Sir 
 George Barlow (1805), 200 ; Earl of Minto (1807-1813), 200, 201 ; 
 Lord Moira (Marquess of Hastings), 1814-1823, 201-204; t^^ 
 Gurkha war (1814-1815), 201, 202; Pindari war (1817), 202, 203; 
 last Maratha war (1817-1818), and annexation of the Peshwa's 
 territory, 203, 204; Lord Amherst (1S23-1828), 204-206; Burma 
 in ancient times, 204, 205 ; first Burmese war, 205, 206 ; capture of 
 Bhartpur, 206; Lord William Bentinck (1S28-1835), 206-208; 
 Bentinck's financial reforms, 207 ; abolition of Sati and suppression 
 of Thagi, 207, 208 ; renewal of Company's charter (1833), 208 ; 
 Mysore protected and Coorg annexed, 208 ; Lord Metcalfe (1835- 
 1836), 208; Lord Auckland (1836-1842), 208-211 ; the first Afghan 
 campaign and our dealings with Kabul, 209 ; restoration of Shah 
 Shuja by the British (1839), 209, 210; military occupation of 
 Afghanistan by the British (1840-1841), 210 ; rising of the 
 Afghans, and massacre of the British force on its winter retreat to 
 India, 210, 211; Lord Ellenborough (1842-1844^ 211, 212; the 
 army of retribution (1842), 211, 212; Lord Ellenboroiigh's proclama- 
 tion, the gates of Somnath, 212 ; conquest of Sind (1S43), 212 ; Lord 
 Hardinge (1844-1848), 212-214; history of the Sikhs and of their 
 rise into a power under Ranjit Singh, 212,213; first Sikh war (1845), 
 battles of Miidki, Firozshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon, 214; Lord Dal- 
 housie (1848-1856), 214-220; his administrative reforms, the Indian 
 railway system, 214, 215 ; second Sikh war (1848-1849), battles of 
 Chilianwala and Gujrat, 215 ; pacification of the Punjab, 215, 216; 
 second Burmese war (1852), 216; prosperity of Burma, 216; Dal-
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 15 
 
 PAGE 
 
 housie's policy towards the Native States, 217; the doctrine of 
 lapse, 217, 218; lapsed Native States, 218, 219; annexation of 
 Oudh (1856), 219, 220 ; Lord Dalhousie's work in India, 220 ; Lord 
 Canning in India before the Mutiny (1856-1857), 220; materials for 
 reference, 221. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 ..... 222-229 
 Causes of the Mutiny, 222, 223; the 'greased cartridges,' 223; 
 the army drained of its talent, 223, 224 ; the outbreak in May 1857, 
 224; spread of the rebellion, 224, 225 ; Cawnpur, 225, 226; Luck- 
 now, 226; siege of Delhi, 226, 227; reduction of Oudh by Lord 
 Clyde, 227; of Central India by Sir Hugh Rose, 227 ; summary of 
 the history of the Company's charters, 227, 228; India transferred 
 to the Crown (1858), 22S, 229; materials for reference, 229. 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 India under the British Crown, 1S58-1892 . . 230-237 
 
 The Queen's Proclamation of ist November, 1858, 230; the cost 
 of the Mutiny, 230 ; Mr. Wilson's financial reforms, 230, 231 ; legal 
 reforms, 231 ; Lord Elgin (1862-1863), 231 ; Lord Lawrence (1864- 
 1869), the Bhutan war, Orissa famine of 1866, 231 ; Lord Mayo 
 (1869-1872), the Ambala darbdr, visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, 
 establishment of Agricultural Department, reform of internal cus- 
 toms lines. Lord Mayo assassinated at the Andamans, 231, 232 ; 
 Lord Northbrook (1872-1876), dethronement of the Gaekwar of 
 Baroda, visit of the Prince of Wales to India, 232, 233 ; Lord Lytton 
 (1876-1880), Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India, the 
 great famine of 1876-1877, 233; Afghan affairs (1878-1880), 233, 
 234; Marquess of Ripon (1880-1883), 234, 235; conclusion of the 
 Afghan war, 234 ; Education Commission, 234 ; Sir Evelyn Baring, 
 234, 235 ; Native troops in Egypt, 235 ; Marquess of Dufferin (1884- 
 1888), 235, 236; conquest and annexation of Upper Burma (1886), 
 235; Jubilee-year of the Queen-Empress (1887), 236; Marquess of 
 Lansdowne (1888-1892), 236, 237; progress of self-government, 
 236, 237.
 
 NO TE. 
 
 The orthography of proper names follows my system adopted by the 
 Indian Government for the Imperial Gazetteer of India. That system, 
 while adhering to the popular spelling of very well-known places, such as 
 Punjab, Lucknow, &c., employs in all other cases the vowels with the 
 following uniform sounds : — 
 
 a, as in woman : a, as in father : i, as in pz'n : /, as in intrigue : o, as in 
 cc7ld : u, as in bwU : u, as in rwral : e, as in gri?y.
 
 ['7j 
 
 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN 
 PEOPLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Country. 
 
 Situation and Size. — India is a great three-cornered country, 
 stretching southward from mid-Asia into the ocean. Its northern 
 base rests upon the Himalaya ranges ; the chief part of its 
 western side is washed by the Arabian Sea, and the chief part 
 of its eastern side by the Bay of Bengal. But while thus 
 guarded along the whole length of its boundaries by nature's 
 defences, the mountains and the ocean, it has on its north-eastern 
 and on its north-western frontiers two opposite sets of gateways 
 which connect it with the rest of Asia. On the north-east it 
 is bounded by the wild hill-regions between Burma and the 
 Chinese Empire or Tibet; on the north-west by the Muham- 
 madan States of Afghanistan and Baluchistan ; and two streams 
 of population of widely diverse types have poured into India by 
 the passes at these north-eastern and north-western corners. 
 
 India extends from the eighth to the thirty-sixth degree of 
 north latitude, — that is, from the hot regions near the equator 
 to far within the temperate zone. The capital, Calcutta, lies in 
 88 degrees of E. longitude ; so that, when the sun sets at six 
 o'clock there, it is just past mid-day in England. The length 
 of India from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east 
 to west, are both about 1900 miles; but it tapers with a pear- 
 shaped curve to a point at Cape Comorin, its soulhcin cxtremily, 
 To this compact dominion the English have added Burma, or the 
 
 B
 
 1 8 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 country on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. The whole 
 territory thus described contains over i^ millions of square miles, 
 and 288 millions of inhabitants. India, therefore, has an area 
 almost equal to, and a population in excess of, the area and 
 population of all Europe, less Russia. 
 
 The Four Regions. — This noble empire is rich in varieties 
 of scenery and climate, from the highest mountains in the world 
 to vast river-deltas, raised only a few inches above the level of 
 the sea. It teems with the products of nature, from the fierce 
 beasts and tangled jungles of the tropics, to the stunted barley 
 crop which the hillman rears, and the small furred animal which 
 he traps, within sight of the eternal snow. But if we could look 
 down on the whole from a balloon, we should find that India is 
 made up of four well-defined tracts. The first includes the 
 Himalayan mountains, which shut India out from the rest of 
 Asia on the north ; the second stretches southwards from their 
 foot, and comprises the plains of the great rivers which issue 
 from the Himalayas; the third tract slopes upwards again from 
 the southern edge of the river-plains, and consists of a high, 
 three-sided tableland, dotted with peaks, and covering the 
 southern half of India ; the fourth is Burma on the east of the 
 Bay of Bengal. 
 
 First Region : The Himalayas. — The first of these four 
 regions is composed of the Himalayas and their offshoots to the 
 southward. The Himalayas (meaning, in Sanskrit, the Abode 
 of Snow) form two irregular mountain walls, running nearly 
 parallel to each other east and west, with a hollow trough 
 or valley beyond. The southernmost of these walls rises steeply 
 from the plains of India to over 20,000 feet, or four miles in 
 height. It culminates in Mount Everest, 29,002 feet, the 
 highest peak in the world. The crests then subside on the 
 northward into a series of dips, lying about 13,000 feet above 
 the sea. Behind these dips rises the inner range of the Hima- 
 layas, a second wall of mountains and snow. Beyond the 
 double wall thus formed, is the great trough or line of valleys in 
 which the Indus, the Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra gather their 
 waters. From the northern side of these valleys rises the table- 
 land of Tibet, i6,oco feet above the sea. The Himalayas shut
 
 THE HIMALAYAS. 1 9 
 
 out India from the rest of Asia. Their heights between Tibet 
 and India are crowned with eternal snow ; while vast glaciers, 
 one of which is known to be sixty miles in length, slowly move 
 their masses of ice downwards to the valleys. This wild region 
 is in many parts impenetrable to man, and nowhere yields a 
 route for an army. But bold parties of traders, wrapped in 
 sheepskins, force their way across its passes, 18,000 feet high. 
 The bones of worn-out mules and ponies mark their path. The 
 little yak cow, whose bushy tail is manufactured in Europe into 
 lace, is employed in the Himalayas as a beast of burden, and 
 patiently toils up the steepest gorges with a heavy load on her 
 back. The sheep are also used to carry bags of borax to 
 markets near the plains. They are then shorn of their fleeces 
 and eaten as mutton. A few return into the inner mountains 
 laden with sugar and cloth. 
 
 Offshoots of the Himalayas. — The Himalayas not only 
 form a double wall along the north of India, but at both ends 
 send out hilly offshoots southwards, which protect its north- 
 eastern and north-western boundaries. On the north-east, these 
 offshoots, under the name of the Naga and Patkoi mountains, 
 form a barrier between the civilized British Districts and the 
 wild tribes of Upper Burma. But the barrier is pierced, just 
 at the corner where it strikes southwards from the Himalayas, 
 by a passage through which the Brahmaputra river rushes into 
 the Assam valley. On the opposite or north-western frontier 
 of India, the hilly offshoots run down the entire length of the 
 British boundary from the Himalayas to the sea. As they pro- 
 ceed southwards, they are in turn known as the Safed Koh, the 
 Sulaiman range, and the Hala mountains. This western barrier 
 has peaks over 11,000 feet in height; but it is pierced at the 
 corner where it strikes southwards from the Himalayas by an 
 opening, the Khaibar pass, near which the Kabul river flows 
 into India. The Khaibar pass, with the Kuram pass to the 
 south of it, the Gwalari pass near Dera Ismail Khan, and the 
 famous Bolan pass, still further south, form the gateways from 
 India to Afghanistan and Baluchistan. 
 
 Himalayan Water -Supply. — The rugged Himalayas, 
 while thus keeping out enemies, are a source of food and wealtii 
 
 B 2
 
 20 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 to the Indian people. They collect and store up water for the hot 
 plains below. Throughout the summer, vast quantities of moisture 
 are exhaled from the distant tropical seas. This moisture 
 gathers into vapour, and is carried northward by the monsoon, 
 or regular wind, which sets in from the south in the month of 
 June. The monsoon drives the masses of vapour northwards 
 before it across the length and breadth of India, — sometimes in 
 the form of long processions of clouds, which a native poet has 
 likened to flights of great white birds ; sometimes in the shape 
 of rain-storms, which crash through the forests, and leave a line 
 of unroofed villages and flooded fields on their track. The 
 moisture which does not fall as rain on its aerial voyage over 
 India, is at length dashed against the Himalayas,. These stop 
 its further progress northwards, and the moisture descends as 
 rain on their outer slopes, or is frozen into snow in its attempts 
 to cross their inner heights. Very little moisture passes beyond 
 them, so that while their southern sides receive the heaviest 
 rainfall in the world, and pour it down in torrents to the Indian 
 rivers, the great plain of Tibet on the north gets scarcely any 
 rain. At CherraPunjf, where the monsoon first strikes the hills 
 in Assam, 523 inches of rain fall annually; while in one year 
 ( 1 861) as many as 805 inches are reported to have poured down, 
 of which 366 inches fell in the single month of June. While, 
 therefore, the yearly rainfall in London is about two feet, and 
 that of the plains of India from one to seven, the usual rainfall 
 at Cherra Punji is thirty feet, or enough to float the largest man- 
 of-war ; while in one year sixty-seven feet of water fell from the 
 sky, or sufficient to drown a high three-storeyed house, 
 
 Himalayan Products and Scenery. — This heavy rainfall 
 renders the southern slopes of the Himalayas very fertile. Their 
 upper ranges form bare grey masses, but wherever there is any 
 depth of soil a forest springs up ; and the damp belt of lowland 
 at their foot, called the Tarai, is covered with dense fever- 
 breeding jungle, habitable only by a few rude tribes and wild 
 beasts. Thickets of tree-ferns and bamboos adorn their 
 eastern ranges ; tracts of rhododendron, which here grows into 
 a forest tree, blaze red and pink in the spring ; the deodar, or 
 Himalayan cedar, rises in dark stately masses. The branches
 
 THE HIMALAYAS. 2i 
 
 of the trees are themselves clothed with mosses, ferns, and 
 flowering creepers or orchids. In the autumn, crops of red and 
 yellow millet run in ribands of brilliant colour down the hill- 
 sides. The chief saleable products of the Himalayas are timber 
 and charcoal ; barley, small grains or millets, grown in the hot 
 valleys and upon terraces formed with much labour on the 
 slopes ; potatoes, other vegetables, and honey. Strings of 
 ponies and mules straggle with their burdens along the narrow 
 paths, at places cut out of the sheer precipice. The muleteers 
 and their hard-working wives load themselves also with pine 
 stems and conical baskets of grain. 
 
 The Destruction of the Forests. — The high price of wood 
 on the plains has caused many of the hills to be stripped of 
 their forests, so that the rainfall now rushes quickly down their 
 bare slopes, and no new woods can spring up. The potato 
 crop, introduced from England, leads to a further destruction of 
 timber. The hillman clears his potato ground by burning a 
 ring round the stems of the great trees, and laying out the side 
 of the mountain into terraces. In a few years the bark drops 
 off the trees, and the forest stands bleached and ruined. Some 
 of the trees rot on the ground, like giants fallen in a confused 
 fight ; others still remain upright, with white trunks and skeleton 
 arms. In the end, the rank green potato crop marks the spot 
 where a forest has been slain and buried. Several of the ruder 
 hill tribes follow an even more wasteful mode of tillage. Desti- 
 tute of either ploughs or cattle, they burn down the jungle, and 
 exhaust the soil by a quick succession of crops, raised by the 
 hoe. In a year or two the whole settlement moves off to a 
 fresh patch of jungle, which they clear and exhaust, and then 
 desert in like manner. 
 
 The Himalayan River System. — The special feature of 
 the Himalayas, however, is that they send down the rainfall 
 from their northern as well as from their southern slopes upon 
 the Indian plains. For, as we have seen, they form a double 
 mountain-wall, with a deep trough or valley beyond. Even the 
 rainfall which passes beyond their outer or southern heights is 
 slopped by their inner or northern ridges, and drains into the 
 trough behind. Of tlie three great rivers of India, — the two
 
 2 2 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 longest — namely, the Indus and the Brahmaputra — take their 
 rise in this trough lying on the north of the double wall of the 
 Himalayas ; while the third, the Ganges, receives its waters 
 from their southern slopes. 
 
 Indus and Sutlej. — The Indus, with its mighty feeder the 
 Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra rise not very far from each other, 
 in lonely valleys, which are separated from India by mountain 
 barriers 15,000 feet high. The Indus and the Sutlej first flow 
 westwards. Then, turning south, through openings in the 
 Himalayas, they join with shorter rivers in the Punjab, and 
 their united stream falls into the Indian Ocean after a course 
 of 1800 miles. 
 
 Brahmaputra. — The Brahmaputra, on the other hand, strikes 
 to the east, flowing behind the Himalayas until it searches out 
 a passage for itself through their clefts at the north-eastern 
 corner of Assam. It then turns sharply round to the west, and 
 afterwards to the south, and so finally reaches the Bay of Bengal. 
 Like the Indus, it has a course of about 1800 miles. Thus, 
 while the Indus and the Brahmaputra rise close to each other 
 behind the Himalayas, and run an almost equal course, their 
 mouths lie 1500 miles apart, on the opposite sides of India. 
 Both of them have a long secret existence in the trough 
 between the double mountain wall before they pierce through 
 the hills ; and they bring to the Indian plains the drainage from 
 the northern slopes of the Himalayas. Indeed, the first part 
 of the course of the Brahmaputra is still unexplored. It bears 
 the name of the Sampu for nearly a thousand miles of its 
 passage behind the Himalayan wall, and it is not till it bursts 
 through the mountains into India that the noble stream receives 
 its Sanskrit name of Brahmaputra, the son of Brahma or God. 
 
 The Ganges and its great tributary the Jumna collect the 
 drainage from the southern slopes of the Himalayas ; they join 
 their waters to those of the Brahmaputra as they approach the 
 sea, and, after a course of 1500 miles, enter the Bay of Bengal 
 by a vast network of channels. 
 
 Second Region : The River Plains. — The wide plains 
 watered by the Himalayan rivers form the second of the four 
 regions into which I have divided India. They extend from
 
 THE RIVER PLAINS. 23 
 
 the Bay of Bengal on the east to the Indian Ocean on the 
 west, and contain the richest and most densely-crowded pro- 
 vinces of the Indian Empire. One set of invaders after another 
 have, from very ancient times, entered by the passes at their 
 norih-eastern and north-western corners, and, following the 
 courses of the rivers, pushed the earher comers south towards 
 the sea. About 150 millions of people now hve on and around 
 these river plains, in the provinces known as the Lieutenant- 
 Governorship of Bengal, Assam, Oudh, the North-Western Pro- 
 vinces, the Punjab, Sind, Rajputana, and other Native States, 
 The Indus brings water from the Himalayas to the western 
 side of the river plains of Northern India, the Brahmaputra to 
 their eastern, while the Ganges and its feeders fertilize their 
 central region. 
 
 The Indus, after it unites the five rivers of the Punjab, 
 ceases to obtain further tributaries, and the great desert of Raj- 
 putana stretches from its left bank. The Brahmaputra, on the 
 extreme east of the plains, passes down the still thinly-inhabited 
 valley of Assam ; and it is only in the lower part of its course, 
 as it approaches the Ganges, that a dense population is found 
 on its margin. But the Ganges and its great tributary the 
 Jumna flow for nearly a thousand miles almost parallel to the 
 Himalayas, and receive many streams from them. They do 
 the work of water-carrier for most of Northern India, and the 
 people reverence the bountiful rivers which fertilize their fields. 
 The sources of the Ganges and Jumna in the mountains are 
 held sacred ; their point of junction at Allahabad is yearly 
 visited by thousands of pilgrims ; and a great religious gathering 
 takes place each January on Sagar island, where the united 
 stream formerly poured into the sea. To bathe in Mother 
 Ganges, as she is lovingly called, purified from sin during life ; 
 and the devout Hindu died in the hope that his ashes would be 
 borne by her waters to the ocean. The Ganges is also a river 
 of great cities. Calcutta, Patna, and Benares are built on her 
 banks ; Agra and Delhi on those of her tributary the Jumna ; 
 and Allahabad on the tongue of land where the two sister 
 streams unite. 
 
 The Work done by the Rivers. — In order to understand
 
 24 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 the Indian plains, we must have a clear idea of the part played 
 by these great rivers ; for the rivers first create the land, then 
 fertilize it, and finally distribute its produce. The plains were 
 in many parts upheaved by volcanic forces, or deposited in an 
 aqueous era, long before man appeared on the earth. But in 
 other parts the plains of Northern India have been formed out of 
 the silt which the rivers bring down from the mountains, and at 
 this day we may stand by and watch the ancient, silent process of 
 land-making go on. A great Bengal river like the Ganges has 
 two distinct stages in its career from the Himalayas to the sea. 
 In the first stage of its course, it runs along the bottom of 
 valleys, receives the drainage and mud of the country on both 
 sides, absorbs tributaries, and rushes forward with an ever- 
 increasing volume of water and silt. But by the time that the 
 Ganges reaches the middle of Lower Bengal, it enters on the 
 second stage of its life. Finding its speed checked by the equal 
 level of the plains, it splits out into several channels, like a jet 
 of water suddenly obstructed by the finger, or a jar of liquid 
 dashed on the floor. Each of the new streams thus created 
 throws off its own set of channels to left and right. 
 
 The Bengal Delta. — The country which these numerous 
 channels or offshoots enclose and intersect, forms the Delta of 
 Bengal. The network of streams strugu:les slowly across this 
 vast flat ; and the currents are no longer able, owing to their 
 diminished speed, to carry along the silt or sand which the 
 more rapid parent river had brought down from Northern 
 India. The sluggish split-up rivers of the delta accordingly 
 drop their burden of silt in their channels or on their margins, 
 producing almond-shaped islands, and by degrees raising their 
 beds above the surrounding plains. In this way the rivers of 
 a delta build themselves up, as it were, into high-level canals, 
 which in the rainy season overflow iheir banks, and leave their 
 silt upon the low country on either side. Thousands of square 
 miles in Lower Bengal thus receive each autumn a top-dressing 
 of new soil, brought free of cost by the river-currents from the 
 distant Himalayas, — a system of natural manuring which yields 
 a constant succession of rich crops. 
 
 The Rivers as Land-makers. — As the rivers creep further
 
 TJIE RIVER PLAINS. 25 
 
 down the delta, they become more and more sluggish, and 
 raise their beds still higher above the adjacent plains. Each 
 set of channels has a depressed tract or swamp on both sides, 
 so that the lowest levels in a delta lie often about half-way 
 between the rivers. The stream overflows into these depressed 
 tracts, and gradually fills them up with its silt. The water 
 which rushes from the rivers into the swamps is sometimes 
 yellow from the quantity of silt or sand which it carries. When 
 it has stood a few days in the swamps, and the river-flood 
 subsides, the water flows back from the swamps into the river- 
 channels ; but it has dropped all its silt, and is of a clear dark- 
 brown hue. The silt remains in the swamp, and by degrees 
 fills it up, thus slowly creating new land. 
 
 River Estuaries. — The last scene in the life of an Indian 
 river is a wilderness of forest and swamp at the end of its delta, 
 amid whose malarious solitudes the network of channels merges 
 into the sea. Here all the secrets of land-making stand dis- 
 closed. The streams, finally checked by the dead weight of the 
 sea, deposit their remaining silt, which rises above the surface of 
 the water in the shape of banks or curved headlands. The 
 ocean-currents also find themselves impeded by the down-flow 
 from the rivers, and drop the burden of sand which the tides 
 sweep along the coast. In this way, while the shore gradually 
 grows out into the sea, owing to the deposit of river silt, islands 
 or bars are formed around the river mouths from the sand 
 dropped by the ocean-currents, and a double process of land- 
 making goes on. 
 
 The Rivers as Irrigators and Highways. — The great 
 Indian rivers, therefore, not only supply new ground by 
 depositing islands in their beds, and by filling up the low-lying 
 tracts or swamps beyond their margins, but also by forming 
 banks and capes and masses of land at their mouths. They 
 slowly construct their deltas by driving back the sea. The land 
 which they thus create, they also fertilize. In the lower parts of 
 their course, their overflow affords a natural system of irrigation 
 and manuring ; in the higher parts, man has to step in, and to 
 bring their water by canals to the fields. They form, moreover, 
 cheap highways for carrying the produce of the country to the
 
 26 . THE COUNTRY. 
 
 towns and seaports; and what the arteries are to the human 
 body, the rivers are to the plains of Bengal. 
 
 The Rivers as Destroyers. — But the very vastness of their 
 energy causes terrible calamities. Scarcely a year passes with- 
 out floods, which sweep off catde and grain stores, and the 
 thatched cottages, with anxious families perched on their roofs. 
 In the upper part of their courses, where their water is carried 
 by canals to the fields, the rich irrigated lands sometimes breed 
 fever, and are in places destroyed and rendered sterile by a 
 saline crust called reh. Further down, the uncontrollable rivers 
 wriggle across the face of the country, deserting their old beds, 
 and searching out new channels for themselves, it may be at a 
 distance of many miles. During these restless changes, they 
 drown the lands and villages that lie in their path ; and a Bengal 
 proprietor has sometimes to look on helplessly while his estate 
 is being converted into the new bed of a broad, deep stream. 
 Even in their quiet moods the rivers steadily steal land from the 
 old owners, and give it capriciously to a fresh set. Each autumn 
 the mighty currents undermine, and then rend away, the fields 
 and hamlets on their margins. Their activity in land-making 
 stops up their channels with newly formed islands, and has thus 
 left high and dry in ruin many a once important city along 
 their banks. The ancient harbours at their mouths have in like 
 manner been land-locked and shut off from the sea, by islands 
 and bars formed from the silt or sand jointly deposited by the 
 rivers and the ocean-currents. 
 
 Crops and Scenery of the Northern River Plains. — 
 Throughout the river plains of Bengal, two harvests, and in 
 some provinces three, are reaped each year. In many districts, 
 indeed, the same fields have to yield two crops within the twelve 
 months. Wheat and various grains, pease, pulses, oil-seeds, and 
 green crops of many sorts are reaped in spring ; the early rice 
 crops in September ; the great rice harvest of the year and other 
 grains in November or December. Before these last have been 
 gathered in, it is time to prepare the ground again for the spring 
 crops; and the husbandman knows no rest except during the 
 hot weeks of May, when he is anxiously waiting for the rains. 
 The northern and drier regions, along the higher courses of the
 
 THE SOUTHERN TABLELAND. 27 
 
 rivers, roll upwards from their banks into fertile plains, dotted 
 with mud-built villages, and adorned with noble trees. Mango 
 groves scent the air with their blossom in spring, and yield their 
 abundant fruit in summer. The spreading banian with its 
 colonnades of hanging roots, the stately /z/lia/ with its masses of 
 foliage, the leafless wild cotton-tree laden with its heavy red 
 flowers, the tall feathery tamarind, and the quick-growing babul, 
 rear their heads above the crop fields. As the rivers approach 
 the coast, the palms begin to take possession of the scene. 
 
 Crops of the Delta. — The ordinary landscape in the Bengal 
 Delta is a flat stretch of rice fields, fringed round with evergreen 
 masses of bamboos, cocoa-nuts, areca, and other coroneted 
 palms. This densely-peopled tract seems at first sight bare of 
 villages, for each hamlet is hidden amid its own grove of plan- 
 tains and wealth-giving trees. The crops also change as we 
 sail down the rivers. In the north, the principal grains are 
 wheat, barley, and millets, such as jodr and bdjra. The two 
 last form the food of the masses, rice, in Northern Bengal, being 
 only grown on irrigated lands, and consumed by the rich. In 
 the delta, on the other hand, rice is the staple crop and the 
 universal diet. More than a hundred varieties of it are known 
 to the Bengal peasant. Sugar-cane, oil-seeds, cotton, tobacco, 
 indigo, and many precious spices and dyes grow both in the 
 north and the south. The tea-plant is reared on several hilly 
 ranges which skirt the plains, but chiefly around Darjiling or in 
 the Dwars and Assam ; the opium poppy, about half-way down 
 the Ganges, near Benares and Patna ; the silkworm mulberry, 
 still further down in Lower Bengal ; while the jute fibre is 
 essentially a crop of the delta, and would exhaust any soil not 
 fertilized by river floods. Even the jungles yield the costly lac 
 dye and tasar silk cocoons. To name all the crops of the river 
 plains would weary the reader. Nearly every vegetable product 
 which feeds and clothes a people, or enables it to trade with 
 foreign nations, abounds. 
 
 Third Kegion : The Southern Tableland. — Having thus 
 glanced at the leading features of the Himalayas on the north, 
 and of the great river plains at their base, I come now to the 
 third division of India, namely, the three-sided tableland which
 
 28 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 covers the southern half of the peninsula. This tract, known in 
 ancient times as The Deccan, or ' The South' [dakshin), com- 
 prises the Central Provinces, Berar, Madras, and Bombay, and 
 the native territories of the Nizam, Mysore, Sindhia, Holkar, 
 and other feudatory princes. It slopes upwards from the 
 southern edge of the Gangetic plains. Two sacred mountains 
 stand as outposts on the extreme east and west, with confused 
 ranges stretching eight hundred miles between. At the western 
 extremity, INIount Abu, famous for its exquisite Jain temples, 
 rises 5650 feet from the Rdjputana plains, hke an island out 
 of the sea. The Ardvalli chain, the Vindhya mountains, the 
 Satpura and Kaimur ranges, with other highland tracts, run 
 across the country eastwards until they abut on the Ganges 
 valley, under the name of the Rajmahal hills. On the eastern 
 edge of the central mountainous region. Mount Parasndth, also 
 sacred to Jain rites, towers 4400 feet above the level of the 
 Gangetic plains. 
 
 Scenery of the Southern Tableland. — These various 
 ranges form, as it were, the northern wall and buttresses on 
 which rests the central tableland of India. Now pierced by 
 road and rail, they stood in former times as a barrier of 
 mountain and jungle between Northern and Southern India, 
 and greatly increased the difficulty of welding the whole- into 
 one empire. The three-cornered tableland forms a vast mass of 
 forests, ridges, and peaks, broken by cultivated valleys and high- 
 lying plains. Its eastern and western sides are known as the 
 Ghats, a word applied to a flight of steps up a river bank or to 
 a mountain pass. The Eastern Ghats run in fragmentary spurs 
 and ranges down the Madras side of India, sometimes receding 
 inland, and leaving broad plains between them and the coast. 
 The Western Ghats form a great sea-wall for the Bomba}' Presi- 
 dency, with only a narrow strip between them and the shore. 
 At places they rise in magnificent precipices and headlands 
 almost out of the ocean, and truly look like colossal ' landing- 
 stairs ' from the sea. The Eastern and Western Ghats meet at 
 an angle near CapeComorin at the southern extremity of India, 
 and so complete the three sides of the tableland. The inner 
 plateau itself lies far below the snow line, and its ordinary
 
 THE SOUTHERN TABLELAND, 29 
 
 elevation seldom exceeds 2000 to 3000 feet. Its best-known 
 hills are the Nilgiris (Blue INIountains), \vhich contain the summer 
 capital of Madras, Utakamand, 7000 feet above the sea. The 
 highest point is Dodabetta peak, 8760 feet, at the southern 
 extremity of Mysore. 
 
 Rivers of the Southern Tableland. — This inner region of 
 highlands sends its waters chiefly to the eastern coast. The 
 drainage from the northern or Vindhyan edge of the three-sided 
 tableland falls into the Ganges. The Narbada runs along the 
 southern base of the Vindhyas, and carries their southern drain- 
 age due west into the Gulf of Cambay. The Tapti flows almost 
 parallel to the Narbada, a little to the southward, and bears to 
 the Gulf of Cambay the waters from the Satpura hills. But 
 from this point, as we proceed southwards, the Western Ghais 
 rise into a high unbroken barrier between the Bombay coast 
 and the waters of the inner tableland. The drainage has 
 therefore to make its way right across India to the eastwards, 
 now twisting round hill ranges, now rushing down the valleys 
 between them, until the rain, which the Bombay sea-breeze 
 dropped upon the Western Ghats, finally falls into the Bay of 
 Bengal. In this way the three great rivers of the Madras 
 Presidency — namely, the Godavari, the Krishna (Kistna), and the 
 Kaveri — rise in the mountains overhanging the Bombay coast, 
 and traverse the whole breadth of the central tableland before 
 they reach the ocean on the eastern shores of India. 
 
 Forests of the Southern Tableland. — The ancient Sanskrit 
 poets speak of the southern tableland as buried under forests ; 
 and sal, ebony, sissii, teak, and other great trees still abound. 
 The Ghats, in particular, are covered with magnificent vegeta- 
 tion wherever a sapling can take root. But tillage has now 
 driven back the jungle to the hilly recesses ; and fields of wheat, 
 and many kinds of smaller grain or millets, tobacco, cotton, 
 sugar-cane, and pulses, spread over the open country. The 
 black soil of Southern India is proverbial for its fertility ; and 
 the lowlands between the Ghats and the sea rival even Lower 
 Bengal in their fruit-bearing palms, rice harvests, and rich succes- 
 sion of crops. The inner tableland is, however, very liable to 
 droughts; and the people have devised a varied system of
 
 30 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 irrigation, in some districts from wells, in others from tanks, or 
 from artificial lakes formed by damming up the mouths of river 
 valleys. They thus store the rain brought during a few months 
 by the northern and southern monsoons, and husband it for use 
 throughout the whole year. The food of the common people 
 consists chiefly of small grains or millets, such a.sjodr, idj'ra, 
 and rdgi. The principal exports are cotton and wheat. 
 
 Minerals of the Tableland. — It is, moreover, on the three- 
 sided tableland, and among the hilly spurs which project from 
 it, that the mineral wealth of India lies hid. Coal-mining now 
 forms a great industry, both on the north-eastern edge of the 
 tableland in Bengal, and in the valleys of the Central Provinces. 
 Beds of iron ore and limestone hold out a prospect of 
 metal-smelting on a large scale in the future ; copper and other 
 metals exist in small quantities. The diamonds of Golconda 
 were long famous. Gold-dust has from very ancient times been 
 washed out of many of the river beds ; and gold-mining is now 
 being attempted on scientific principles in Madras and Mysore. 
 
 Burma. — Burma, which the English have incorporated into 
 the Indian Empire, consists mainly of the valley of the Irawadi, 
 and a strip of coast along the east side of the Bay of Bengal. 
 It stretches north and south, with the sea on the west, a back- 
 bone of lofty ranges running down the middle, and the moun- 
 tainous frontier of the Chinese Empire and Siam on the east. 
 The central backbone of ranges in Burma is formed by the Yoma 
 mountains. They are covered with dense forests, and separate 
 the Irawadi valley from the strip of coast. The river floats 
 down an abundant supply of teak from the north. A thousand 
 creeks indent the seaboard ; and the whole of the level country, 
 both on the coast and in the Irawadi valley, forms a vast rice- 
 field. Tobacco of an excellent quality supplies the cigars which 
 all Burmese men and women smoke; and large quantities of 
 tobacco leaf are also brought over from the IMadras Presidency. 
 Until 1886 British Burma was divided into three Provinces — 
 Arakan, or the northern coast strip ; Pegu, or the Irawadi valley 
 in the middle ; and Tenasserim, or the narrow maritime tract 
 and islands running down from the south of the Irawadi Delta. 
 In 1886 Upper Burma, or the old kingdom of Ava, was added
 
 BURMA. 31 
 
 to the British Empire. Arakan and Pegu contain mineral oil 
 springs. Tenasserim is rich in tin mines, and in iron ores 
 equal to the finest Swedish, besides gold and copper in smaller 
 quantities, and a very pure limestone. Rice and timber form 
 the staple exports of Burma, and rice is also the universal food 
 of the people. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The materials for a complete study of the physical aspects of India will 
 be found in (i) The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 14 vols. 2nd ed. This 
 again is condensed from the Statistical Survey of India in about 120 
 volumes. (2) The printed Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
 (3) Blanford's Meteorological Memoirs and Meteorology of India.
 
 [32] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The People. 
 
 General Survey of the People. — India is divided into two 
 classes of territories ; first, Provinces under British rule ; 
 second, States under Native Chiefs. The population of the 
 whole amounted in 1891 to 288 millions, or more than double 
 the number estimated for the Roman Empire in the height of 
 its power. But the English, even more than the Romans, 
 have respected the rights of Native Chiefs who are willing to 
 govern well. Such Chiefs still rule on their own account about 
 one-third of the area of India, with over 66 millions of subjects, 
 or nearly a quarter of the whole Indian people. The British 
 territories, therefore, comprise only two-thirds of the area of 
 India, and over three-quarters, or over 221 millions, of its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 The Native States. — The Native princes govern their States 
 with the help and under the advice of a Bridsh Resident, 
 whom the Viceroy stations at their courts. Some of them 
 reign almost as independent sovereigns ; others have less 
 power. They form a great body of feudatory rulers, possessed 
 of revenues and armies of their own. The more important 
 exercise the power of life and death over their subjects; but 
 the authority of all is limited by treaties, by which they, 
 acknowledge their ' subordinate dependence ' to the Bridsh 
 Government. The British Government, as Suzerain in India, 
 does not allow its feudatories to make war upon each other, 
 or to form alliances with foreign States. It interferes when 
 any Chief misgoverns his people; rebukes, and if needful
 
 AREA OF POPULATION OF INDIA. 33 
 
 dethrones, the oppressor; protects the weak, and imposes 
 peace upon all. 
 
 The Twelve British Provinces. — The British possessions 
 are distributed into twelve Provinces. Each has its own 
 Governor or head ; but all are controlled by the supreme 
 Government of India, consisting of a Governor-General in 
 Council. The Governor-General also bears the tide of Viceroy. 
 He holds his court and government at Calcutta in the cold 
 weather; and during summer at Simla, in the Himalayas, 
 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The Viceroy of India 
 is appointed by the Queen of England ; so also are the 
 Governors of Madras and Bombay. The heads of the other 
 Provinces are chosen for their merit from the Anglo-Indian 
 services, almost always from the Civil Service, and are nomin- 
 ated by the Viceroy, subject in the case of the Lieutenant- 
 Governorships to the approval of the Secretary of State. The 
 Queen of England is Empress of India, and is spoken of both 
 officially and commonly in India as ' the Queen-Empress.' 
 
 Area and Population. — The two tables following show the 
 area and population, first, of the twelve Provinces of British 
 India, with the separate jurisdiction of Quetta, excluding Aden 
 and the Andaman Islands ; and, second, the area and population 
 of the Feudatory States arranged in thirteen groups. 
 
 The first table gives the population counted by the 
 Census Officers in British India, exclusive of Aden and the 
 Andaman Islands, in 1891. But as shown in the footnotes to 
 the table, certain additions have to be made for new districts in 
 which the population could only be roughly enumerated or 
 estimated. If we add these numbers, the actual total popula- 
 tion of British India, exclusive of Aden and the Andaman 
 Islands, amounted to over 2215 millions in 1891. 
 
 In the second table, to the total must be added the population 
 in Native States beyond the reach of the Census, but approxi- 
 mately estimated as shown in the footnotes to the table. Making 
 these additions the actual population of Feudatory or Native 
 India in 1891 was nearly 66f millions. Adding this number to 
 the actual population of over 2211 millions in British India, we 
 find that the total population of British and Feudatory India in 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 THE PEOPLE. 
 
 1 89 1 (exclusive of Aden and the Andaman Islands) was in 
 round figures 288 millions. 
 
 Name of Province. 
 
 (Exclusive of the Native 
 
 Slates attached to it.) 
 
 Area in square 
 
 miles. 
 
 Total Popul 
 
 ition, 1891, 
 
 Number 
 
 of Persons 
 
 per square 
 
 mile. 
 
 . . 252 
 
 I. Government of Madras . 
 
 . . 141,189 
 
 
 35,630,440 
 
 2. Goveniment of Bombay* : 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bombay . 
 Sind . 
 
 77.^^5 j 125,127 
 47,852 \ ^' ' 
 
 1^,985,270 ) 
 2,871,774^ 
 
 18,857,044 
 
 tw 
 
 3. Lieut. -Governorship of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bengal 
 
 . • I5i;543 
 
 . . . • 
 
 71,346,987 
 
 , . 460 
 
 4. Lieut. -Governorship of 
 
 
 
 
 
 the Punjab . 
 
 . . 110,66; 
 
 . • • • 
 
 20,866,847 
 
 . . 188 
 
 5. Lieut-Governorship of 
 
 
 
 
 
 the North - Western 
 
 
 
 
 
 Provinces and . 
 
 S3.286 ) 
 
 34,254,254 ) 
 
 
 4") 
 
 6. Chief Commissionership 
 
 ( 107,503 
 
 
 46,905,085 
 
 [436 
 
 ofOudh . 
 
 24,217 ) 
 
 12,650,831 I 
 
 
 522 
 
 7. Chief Commissionership 
 
 
 
 
 
 of the Central Pro- 
 
 
 
 
 
 vinces 
 
 . . . 86,501 
 
 . • • 
 
 10,784,294 
 
 . . 124 
 
 8. Chief Commissionership 
 
 
 
 
 
 of Burmaf : 
 
 
 
 
 
 Upper Burma 
 Lower Burma 
 
 %'SAV<-'-»' 
 
 2,946,9.'..^ ) 
 4,658,627 \ 
 
 7,605,560 
 
 ^^\ 45 
 52 ) ^^ 
 
 9. Chief Commissionership 
 
 
 
 
 
 of Assam . 
 
 . . . 49,004 
 
 . • . . 
 
 5,476,833 
 
 . . Ill 
 
 10. Commissionership of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Berart 
 
 . . . 17,718 
 
 • • • . 
 
 2,897,491 
 
 . .163 
 
 11. Commissionership of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ajmere-Merwara 
 
 . . . 2,711 
 
 . 
 
 • 542,358 
 
 . . 200 
 
 13. Commissionership of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Coorg 
 
 . . . 1,583 
 
 . . . . 
 
 • 173,055 
 
 . . 109 
 
 Quetta § 
 Total for British India . 
 
 
 
 27.270 
 
 
 "' ' ' ~ 
 
 961,994 
 
 221,113,264 
 
 229 
 
 * Excluding Aden, area 75 square miles, population 44,079. 
 
 + In Burma some returns were destroyed, and on the frontier there was only 
 a rough enumeration ; under these two heads there should be added an approxi- 
 mate population of 116,493. 
 
 J Berar consists of the six 'Assigned Districts.' They were made over to 
 British administration by the Nizam of HaidaraLad for the support of the Haidar- 
 abad Contingent, which he was bound by treaty to maintain, and in discharge of 
 other obligations. 
 
 § A rough enumeration of the inhabitants of British Baluchistan, excluding 
 Quetta, returned a population of 145,417.
 
 POPULATION OF INDIA. 35 
 
 The Thirteen Groups of Native States forming 
 Feudatory India (189 i). 
 
 
 
 
 Numberof 
 
 
 Area in 
 
 Total 
 
 persons 
 
 States or Grouts of States. 
 
 square 
 
 Population, 
 
 per 
 
 
 miles. 
 
 1891. 
 
 square 
 mile. 
 
 1. Rajpulana* ..... 
 
 130,268 
 
 X2,0l6,I02 
 
 92 
 
 2. Haidarabad (Nizam's Dominions) 
 
 82,698 
 
 ",537,040 
 
 139 
 
 3. Central India Agency and Bundel- 
 
 
 
 
 khand ..... 
 
 77,808 
 
 10,318,812 
 
 132 
 
 4. Baroda 
 
 8,226 
 
 2,415.396 
 
 293 
 
 5. Mysore ..... 
 
 28,082 
 
 4,943,604 
 
 176 
 
 6. Kashmir 
 
 80,900 
 
 2,543.952 
 
 31 
 
 7. Native States under Bombay Go- 
 
 
 
 
 vernment ..... 
 
 69,045 
 
 8,059,298 
 
 116 
 
 8. Native States under Madras Go- 
 
 
 
 
 1 vernment ..... 
 
 9,609 
 
 3,700,622 
 
 385 
 
 9. Native States under Bengal Go- 
 
 
 
 
 vernment ..... 
 
 35.834 
 
 3,296,379 
 
 91 
 
 10. Native States under Punjab Go- 
 
 
 
 
 vernment ..... 
 
 38,299 
 
 4,263,280 
 
 111 
 
 II. Native States under North-West- 
 
 
 
 
 ern Provinces .... 
 
 5.109 
 
 792,491 
 
 165 
 
 12. Native States under Central Pro- 
 
 
 
 
 vinces ..... 
 
 29.435 
 
 2,160,511 
 
 73 
 
 13. Shan States t (outposts, &c.) 
 
 
 2,992 
 
 — 
 
 Total for Feudatory India + . 
 
 595.313 
 
 66,050,479 
 
 no 
 
 If to the figures in the foregoing tables of the population 
 actually counted by the Census Officers for British and Feuda- 
 tory India, we add the French and Portuguese possessions, we 
 obtain the total for all continental India, e.xclusive of Aden and 
 the Andaman Islands. Thus — 
 
 All India, including Burma 
 
 
 Area in 
 square 
 miles. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Number of 
 persons per 
 square mile. 
 
 British India (1891) 
 Feudatory India 1,1891) . 
 Portuguese Settlements (1881) . 
 
 French Settlements (i 891) . . 
 
 Total for all India, including ) 
 Burma . . • • i 
 
 961,994 
 
 595.313 
 1,086 
 
 178 
 
 221,113,264 
 
 66,050,479 
 
 481,467 
 
 282,923 
 
 229 
 110 
 
 1 Chiefly in 
 > Towns or 
 ) Subuit)an. 
 
 1,558,571 
 
 287,928,133 
 
 184 
 
 * Add Bhils, &c., approximately, not enumerated, 204,241. 
 + Shan States approximately, not enumerated, 372,969. 
 X The returns for Manipur were destroyed during the recent disturbances ; 
 the population of Silikim is approximately 30,458. 
 
 C 2
 
 36 THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Density of the Population. — British India is very thickly 
 peopled ; and some parts are so overcrowded that the inhabit- 
 ants can with difificulty obtain land to cultivate. Each square 
 mile of the British Provinces has to feed, on an average, 229 
 persons. Each square mile of the Native States has to feed, 
 on an average, only no persons, or less than one-half. li we 
 exclude the outlying Provinces of Burma and Assam, the people 
 in British India average 279 to the square mile ; so that British 
 India is two and a half times more thickly inhabited than the 
 Native Slates. How thick this population is, may be realized 
 from the fact that, in 1886, France only had 187 people to the 
 square mile ; while even in crowded England, wherever the 
 density approaches 200 to the square mile the population ceases 
 to be rural, and has to live by manufactures, by mining, or by 
 city industries. 
 
 Few Large Towns in India. — Unlike England, India has 
 few large towns. Thus, in England and Wales, more than one- 
 half of the population, in 1891, lived in towns with upwards of 
 20,000 inhabitants, while in British India less than one-twentieth 
 of the people lived in such towns. India, therefore, is almost 
 entirely a rural country ; and many of the so-called towns are 
 mere groups of villages, in the midst of which the cattle are 
 driven a-field, and ploughing and reaping go on. 
 
 Overcrowded Districts. — We see, therefore, in India a 
 dense population of husbandmen. Wherever their numbers 
 exceed i to the acre, or 640 to the square mile — excepting 
 near towns or in irrigated tracts — they find it difficult to raise 
 sufficient crops from the land to supply them with food. Yet 
 many millions of peasants in India are struggling to live off 
 half an acre apiece. In such districts, if the rain falls short by 
 a few inches, the people suffer great distress ; if the rain fails to 
 a large extent, thousands die of famine. 
 
 Under-peopled Districts. — In some parts of India, there- 
 fore, there are more husbandmen than the land can feed. In 
 other parts, vast tracts of fertile soil still await the cultivator. 
 In England, the people would move freely from the over- 
 populated districts to the thinly-inhabited ones. But in India 
 the peasant clings to his fields ; and parcels them out among
 
 MOVEMENTS OF THE POPULATION. 37 
 
 his children, even when his family has grown too numerous to 
 live upon the crops. If the Indian husbandmen will learn to 
 migrate to tracts where spare land abounds, they will do more 
 than the utmost efforts of Government can accomplish to bettel- 
 themselves and to prevent famines. 
 
 Distribution of the People. — It is not stupidity that 
 makes the Indian peasant cling to his hereditary fields. In 
 old days he could move to other districts or provinces only with 
 great difficulty and danger. Roads for carts or wheeled traffic 
 were few and far between ; and in many parts of India only 
 existed along the chief military routes. During the century of 
 confusion and Native misrule which preceded the establishment 
 of the British Power, travelling even by such roads as did exist 
 was perilous owing to robbers and armed bands. Railways and 
 steamboats, which are the great modern distributors of popula- 
 tion, were altogether unknown in India under Native rule, and 
 have only been introduced into India in our own generation. 
 By the help of roads, railways and river-steamers, it is now 
 possible for the first time for the Indian peasants in overcrowded 
 districts to move to districts where there is still spare land. The 
 Indian cultivators are slowly but surely learning this, and they are 
 moving in large numbers to thinly peopled districts in Eastern 
 and Northern Bengal, Assam, and the Central Provinces. 
 
 The Nomadic System of Husbandry. — Throughout many 
 of the hill and frontier tracts land is so plentiful that it yields no 
 rent. The hillmen settle for a few years in some fertile spot, 
 which they clear of jungle. They then exhaust the soil by a 
 rapid succession of crops, and leave it to relapse into forest. 
 In such tracts no rent is charged ; but each family of wandering 
 husbandmen pays a poll-tax to the Chief, under whose protec- 
 tion it dwells. As the inhabitants increase, this nomadic system 
 of cultivation gives place to regular tillage. Throughout Burma 
 we see both methods at work side by side ; while on the thickly- 
 peopled plains of India the ' wandering husbandmen ' have 
 disappeared, and each peasant family remains rooted to the 
 same plot of ground during many generations. 
 
 Kise in Rents. — Yet only a hundred years ago there was 
 more land even in Bengal than there were cultivators to till it.
 
 38 THE PEOPLE. 
 
 The landlords had to tempt husbandmen to settle on their 
 estates, by giving them land at low rents. Now the cultivators 
 have grown so numerous, that in some districts they will offer 
 any rent for a piece of ground. The Government has, there- 
 fore, had to pass laws to prevent too great a rise in rents. 
 These laws recognize the rights of the cultivators in the fields 
 which they have long tilled ; and the rents of such hereditary 
 husbandmen cannot be raised above fair rates, fixed by the 
 Courts. 
 
 Serfdom abolished. — In the old times the scarcity of people 
 made each family of cultivators of great value to their landlord. 
 In many parts of India, when once a peasant had settled in a 
 village, he was not allowed to go away. In hill districts where 
 the nomadic or wandering system of husbandry still survives, 
 no family is allowed by the Native Chief to quit his territory ; 
 for each household pays a poll-tax to the Chief, and the Chief 
 cannot afford to lose this money. In some Provinces the 
 English found the lower classes of husbandmen attached like 
 serfs to the soil. Our officers in South-Eastern Bengal almost 
 raised a rebellion by their efforts to liberate the rural slaves. 
 The descendants of the old serfs still survive ; but they are now 
 freemen. 
 
 Fourfold Division of the People. — European writers for- 
 merly divided the Indian population into two races, — the Hindus 
 and the Muhammadans. But when we look more closely at the 
 people, we find that they consist of four elements. These are — 
 First, the Non-Aryan Tribes, called the Aborigines, who num- 
 bered in 1872 (when the first Census of India was taken) about 
 18 millions in the British Provinces.* Second, the descendants 
 of the Aryan or Sanskrit-speaking Race, now called Brah- 
 mans and Rajputs, who numbered in 1872 about 16 millions. 
 Third, the great Mixed Population, generally known as the 
 Hindus, which has grown out of the Aryan and non-Aryan 
 elements (chiefly from the latter), and numbered in 1872 about 
 121 millions. Fourth, the Muhammadans, who began to come 
 to India about 1000 a.d., and who numbered in 1872 over 
 
 * For the new system of classification adopted by the Census of 1881 and 
 1 89 1 stc post, p. 50.
 
 THE VARIOUS RACES OF INDIA. 39 
 
 45 millions. These made up the 200 millions of the people under 
 British rule in 1872. Since then the population of British India 
 has grown to over 221 millions in 1891. All the four sections 
 of the population above mentioned have contributed to this in- 
 crease. But many of the non-Aryan or Aboriginal tribes have 
 during the past twenty years been converted to the Hindu 
 religion, and are now reckoned in the Census as Hindus. The 
 same fourfold division applies to the population of the 66 millions 
 in Feudatory India, but we do not know the numbers of the 
 different classes. 
 
 The Two Chief Races of Prehistoric India. — The great 
 sources of the Indian population were, therefore, the non-Aryans 
 and the Aryans ; and we must first try to get a clear view of 
 these ancient peoples. Our earliest glimpses of India disclose 
 two races struggling for the soil. The one was a fair-skinned 
 people, which had lately entered by the north-western passes, — 
 a people who called themselves Aryan, literally of 'noble' 
 lineage, speaking a stately language, worshipping friendly and 
 powerful gods. These Aryans became the Brahmans and Raj- 
 puts of India. The other race was of a lower type, who had 
 long dwelt in the land, and whom the lordly new-comers drove 
 back into the mountains, or reduced to servitude on the plains. 
 The comparatively pure descendants of these two races are now 
 nearly equal in numbers ; the intermediate castes, sprung chiefly 
 from the ruder stock, make up the great mass of the Indian 
 population. We shall afterwards see that a third race, the 
 Scythians, also played an important part in India, about the 
 beginning of the Christian era. The Muhammadans belong to 
 a period a thousand years later. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 Full particulars as to the population of India, accordingf to their birth- 
 place, sex, race, age, religion, their distribution into town and country, 
 and their ability to read and write, are given in the Appendices to my /wa'z'an 
 Empire (Third edition, 1893).
 
 [4o] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The non-Aryans. 
 
 The non- Aryans or Aborigines. — The oldest dwellers in 
 India consisted of many tribes, who, in the absence of a race- 
 name of their own, are called the non-Aryans or Aborigines. 
 They have left no written records ; indeed, the use of letters, 
 or of any simplest hieroglyphics, was to them unknown. The 
 sole works of their hands which have come down to us are 
 rude stone circles, and the upright slabs and mounds beneath 
 which, like the primitive peoples of Europe, they buried their 
 dead. From the remains found in these tombs, we only dis- 
 cover that, at some far distant but unfixed period, they knew 
 how to make round pots of hard thin earthenware, not inelegant 
 in shape ; that they fought with iron weapons and wore 
 ornaments of copper and gold. Earlier remains prove, indeed, 
 that these ancient tomb-builders formed only one link in 
 a chain of primeval races. Before them, India was peopled 
 by tribes unacquainted with the metals, who hunted and warred 
 with polished flint axes and other deftly wrought implements of 
 stone, similar to those found in Northern Europe. And even 
 these were the successors of yet ruder beings, who have left 
 their agate knives and rough flint weapons in the Narbada 
 valley. In front of this far-stretching background of the Early- 
 Metal and Stone Ages, we see the so-called Aborigines being 
 beaten down by the newly-arrived Aryan race. 
 
 The non- Aryans as described by the Aryans. — The vic- 
 torious Aryans from Western or West-Central Asia called the 
 earlier tribes whom they found in India Dasyus, or ' enemies,' 
 and Ddsas, or ' slaves.' The Aryans entered India from the 
 colder north, and prided themselves on their fair complexion. 
 Their Sanskrit word for ' colour ' {varna) came to mean ' race ' 
 or ' caste.' The old Aryan poets, who composed the Veda at 
 least 3000 and perhaps 4000 years ago, praised their bright 
 gods, who, 'slaying the Dasyus, protected the Aryan colour' ]
 
 THE NON-ARYANS OF ANCIENT INDIA. 41 
 
 who ' subjected the black-skin to the Aryan man/ They tell 
 us of their own ' stormy deities, who rush on like furious bulls 
 and scatter the black-skin.' IMoreover, the Aryan, with his 
 finely-formed features, loathed the squat Mongolian faces of 
 the Aborigines. One Vedic poet speaks of the Dasyus or non- 
 Aryans as ' noseless ' or flat-nosed, while another praises his 
 own ' beautiful-nosed ' gods. The same unsightly feature was 
 noticed with regard to a non-Aryan Asiatic tribe, by the com- 
 panions of Alexander the Great on his Indian expedition, 
 more than a thousand years later. But indeed the Vedic hymns 
 abound in scornful epithets for the primitive races of India, as 
 ' disturbers of sacrifices,' ' gross feeders on flesh,' ' raw-eaters,' 
 ' lawless,' ' not-sacrificing,' ' without gods,' and ' without rites.' 
 As time went on, and these rude tribes were driven back into 
 the forest, they were painted in still more hideous shapes, till 
 they became the ' monsters ' and ' demons ' of the Aryan poet 
 and priest. Their ancient race-name, Dasyu, or ' enemy,' thus 
 grew to signify goblin or devil, as the old Teutonic word for 
 enemy or 'the hater' (modern German fcind) has become the 
 English ' fiend.' 
 
 More Civilized non-Aryan Tribes. — Nevertheless all the 
 non-Aryan tribes of ancient India could not have been savages. 
 We hear of wealthy Dasyus or non-Aryans ; and the Vedic 
 hymns speak of their ' seven castles ' and ' ninety forts.' The 
 Aryans afterwards made alliance with non-Aryan tribes ; and 
 some of the most powerful kingdoms of India were ruled by non- 
 Aryan kings. Nor were the non-Aryans devoid of religious rites, 
 or of cravings after a future life. ' They adorn,' says an ancient 
 Sanskrit book, ' the bodies of their dead with gifts, with raiment, 
 with ornaments; imagining that thereby they shall attain the 
 world to come.' These ornaments are the bits of bronze, 
 copper, and gold which we now dig up from beneath their 
 rude stone monuments. In the Ramayana, the Sanskrit epic 
 which narrates the advance of the Aryans into Southern India, 
 a non-Aryan chief describes his race as ' of fearful swiftness, 
 unyielding in battle, in colour like a dark-blue cloud.' 
 
 The non-Aryans as they are.— Let us now examine these 
 primitive peoples as they exist at the present day. Thrust
 
 42 THE NON-ARYANS. 
 
 back by the Aryan invaders from the plains, they have lain 
 hidden away in the mountains, like the remains of extinct 
 animals found in hill-caves. India thus forms a great museum 
 of races, in which we can study man from his lowest to his 
 highest stages of culture. The specimens are not fossils or dry 
 bones, but living tribes, each with its own set of curious customs 
 and religious rites. 
 
 The Andaman Islanders. — Among the rudest fragments of 
 mankind are the isolated Andaman islanders, or npn-Aryans of 
 the Bay of Bengal. The Arab and early European voyagers 
 described them as dog-faced man-eaters. The English officers 
 sent to the islands in 1855 to establish a settlement, found 
 themselves in the midst of naked cannibals ; who daubed 
 their bodies at festivals with red earth, and mourned for their 
 dead friends by plastering themselves with dark mud. They 
 used a noise like crymg to express friendship or joy ; bore only 
 names of common gender, which they received before birth, 
 and which therefore had to be applicable to either sex; and 
 their sole conception of a god was an evil spirit, who spread 
 disease. For five years they repulsed every eflfort at inter- 
 course with showers of arrows ; but our officers slowly brought 
 them to a better frame of mind, by building sheds near the 
 settlement, where some of these poor beings might find shelter 
 and receive medicines and food. 
 
 The Hillmen of Madras. — The Anamalai hills, in Southern 
 Madras, form the refuge of many non-Aryan tribes. The long- 
 haired, wild-looking Puliyars live on jungle products, mice, or 
 any small animals they can catch ; and worship demons. 
 Another clan, the Mundavers, have no fixed dwellings, but 
 wander over the innermost hills with their cattle. They shelter 
 themselves in caves or under little leaf sheds, and seldom 
 remain in one spot more than a year. The thick-lipped, small- 
 bodied Kaders, * Lords of the Hills,' are a remnant of a higher 
 race. They live by the chase, and wield some influence over 
 the ruder forest-folk. These hills abound in the great stone 
 monuments (kistvaens and dolmens) which the ancient non- 
 Aryans erected over their dead. The Nairs, the old military 
 non-Aryan ruling race of South- Western India, still keep up the
 
 THE NON-ARYANS AS THEY ARE. 43 
 
 ancient system of polyandry, according to which one woman is 
 the wife of several husbands, and a man's property descends not 
 to his own sons, but to his sister's children. This system also 
 appears among the non- Aryan tribes of the Himalayas at the 
 opposite extremity of India. 
 
 Non- Aryans of the Vindhya Kanges. — Many wild tribes 
 inhabit the mountain ranges which separate Northern, from 
 Southern India. The best-known of these rude races are 
 perhaps the Bhils, who dwell in the Vindhya hills, from Udai- 
 pur State far north of the Narbada river, southwards to the 
 Khandesh Agency in the Bombay Presidency. They move 
 about with their herds of sheep and goats through the jungly 
 highlands, and eke out a spare livelihood by the chase and the 
 natural products of the forest. In Udaipur State, they are 
 settled in little hamlets, each homestead being built on a 
 separate hillock, so as to render it impossible for their enemies 
 to surprise a whole village at once. A single family may be 
 seized, but the shouts which it raises give the alarm to all the 
 rest, and in a few minutes the war-cry spreads from hill to hill, 
 and swarms of half-naked savages rush together in arms to beat 
 off the intruder. Before the British rule the Bhils were the 
 terror of the neighbouring country, plundering and burning 
 villages far and wide ; while the Native Governments revenged 
 themselves from time to time by fearful Bhfl massacres. In 
 1 818 the East India Company obtained the neighbouring 
 Bombay District of Khandesh, but its first expedition against 
 the Bhils failed miserably ; one-half of our men having perished 
 of fever in the jungles. Soon afterwards Sir James Outram 
 took these wild tribes in hand. He made friends with them 
 by means of feasts and tiger-hunts. Nine Bhi'l warriors, who 
 were his constant companions in tracking the beasts of chase, 
 formed the beginning of a regular Bhfl corps which numbered 
 600 men in 1827, and fought boldly for the British Govern- 
 ment. These loyal Bhfls put a stop to plundering among 
 their wilder fellow-countrymen, and they have proved themselves 
 so trustworthy that they arc now employed as policemen and 
 treasury-guards throughout a large tract in the Khdndesh 
 Political Agency.
 
 44 THE NON-ARYANS. 
 
 Non-Aryans of the Central Provinces. — In the Central 
 Provinces, the non-Aryan races form a large part of the popu- 
 lation. In certain localities they amount to one-half of the 
 inhabitants. Their most important race, the Gonds, have made 
 advances in civilization ; but the wilder tribes still cling to the 
 forest, and live by the chase. Some of them used, within the 
 present generation, flint points for their arrows. They wield 
 bows of great strength, which they hold with their feet, while 
 they draw the string with both hands. They can send an 
 arrow right through the body of a deer. The Maris fly from 
 their grass-built huts on the approach of a stranger. Once 
 a year a messenger comes to them from the local Raja to take 
 their tribute, which consists chiefly of jungle products. He 
 does not, however, enter their hamlets, but beats a drum 
 outside, and then hides himself. The shy INIarfs creep forth 
 from their huts, place what they have to give in an appointed 
 spot, and run back again into their retreats. 
 
 The ' Leaf- wearers ' of Orissa. — Farther to the north-east, 
 in the Tributary States of Orissa, there is a poor tribe, about 
 10,000 in number, of Juangs or Patuas, literally the 'leaf- 
 wearers.' Until twenty years ago, their women wore no clothes, 
 but only a few strings of beads around the waist, with a bunch 
 of leaves before and behind-. In 187 1, the English officer 
 called together the clan, and, after a speech, handed out strips 
 of cotton for the women to put on. They then passed in 
 single file before him in their new clothes, and made obeisance. 
 Finally, they gathered the bunches of leaves, which had formed 
 their sole clothing, into a great heap, and solemnly set fire to it. 
 
 Himalayan Tribes. — Proceeding to the northern boundary 
 of India, we find the slopes and spurs of the Himalayas peopled 
 by a great variety of rude non-Aryan tribes. Some of the 
 Assam hillmen have no word for expressing distance by miles 
 or by any land-measure, but reckon the length of a journey by 
 the number of plugs of tobacco or betel-leaf which they chew 
 upon the way. They hate work ; and, as a rule, they are fierce, 
 black, undersized, and ill-fed. In old times they earned a 
 scanty livelihood by plundering the hamlets of the Assam 
 valley. We now use them as a sort of police, to keep the
 
 THE SANTALS. 45 
 
 peace of the border, in return for a yearh' gift of cloth, hoes, 
 and grain. Their very names bear witness to their former wild 
 life. One tribe, the Akas of Assam, is divided into two clans, 
 whose names literally mean ' The eaters of a thousand hearths,' 
 and ' The thieves who lurk in the cotton-field.' 
 
 More advanced non-Aryan Tribes. — IMany of the ab- 
 original tribes, therefore, remain in the same early stage of 
 human progress as that ascribed to them by the Vedic poets 
 more than 3000 years ago. But others have made great ad- 
 vances, and form communities of a well-developed type. These 
 higher races, like the ruder ones, are scattered over the length 
 and breadth of India, and I must confine myself to a very brief 
 account of two of them, — the Santals and the Kandhs. 
 
 The Santals. — The Santals have their home among the hills 
 which abut on the valley of the Ganges in Lower Bengal. 
 They dwell in villages of their own, apart from the people of 
 the plains, and, when first counted by British ofiicers, numbered 
 about a million. Although still clinging to many customs of a 
 hunting forest tribe, they have learned the use of the plough, 
 and have setded down into skilful husbandmen. Each hamlet 
 is governed by its own headman, who is supposed to be a 
 descendant of the original founder of the village, and who is 
 assisted by a deputy headman and a watchman. The boys of 
 the hamlet had their separate officers, and were strictly con- 
 trolled by their own headman and his deputy till they entered 
 the married state. The Santals know not the cruel distinctions 
 of Hindu caste, but trace their tribes, usually fixed at seven, to 
 the seven sons of the first parents. The whole village feasts, 
 hunts, and worships together. So strong is the bond of race, 
 that expulsion from the tribe used to be the only Santal punish- 
 ment. A heinous criminal was cut off from ' fire and water ' 
 in the village, and sent forth alone into the jungle. Smaller 
 offences were forgiven upon a public reconciliation with the 
 tribe ; to effect which the guilty one had to provide a feast, with 
 much rice-beer, for his clansmen. 
 
 Santal Ceremonies. — The Santals do not allow of child- 
 weddings. They marry about the age of 15 to 17, when the 
 young people are old enough to choose for themselves. At the
 
 46 THE NON-ARYANS. 
 
 end of the ceremony the girl's relatives pound burning charcoal 
 with the household pestle, and extinguish it with water, in 
 token of the breaking up of her former family ties. The 
 Santals respect their women, and do not take a second wife 
 during the life of the first, except when the first is childless. They 
 solemnly burn their dead, and whenever possible they used to 
 float three fragments of the skull down the Damodar river, the 
 sacred stream of the race. 
 
 Santal Religion. — The Santal has no knowledge of bright 
 and friendly gods, such as the Vedic singers of the Aryan 
 Indians worshipped. Still less can he imagine one omnipotent 
 and beneficent Deity, who watches over mankind. Hunted and 
 driven back before the Hindus and Muhammadans, the Santal 
 does not understand how a Being can be more powerful than 
 himself without wishing to harm him. ' What,' said a Santal 
 to an eloquent missionary who had been discoursing on the 
 omnipotence of the Christian God, — ' what if that strong One 
 should eat me ? ' He thinks that the earth swarms with demons, 
 whose ill-will he tries to avert by the sacrifice of goats, cocks, 
 and chickens. There are the ghosts of his forefathers, river- 
 spirits, forest-spirits, well-demons, mountain-demons, and a 
 mighty host of unseen beings, whom he must keep in good 
 humour. These dwell chiefly in the ancient sal trees which 
 shade his village. In some hamlets the people dance round 
 every tree, so that they may not by evil chance miss the one in 
 which the village-spirits happen to be dwelling. 
 
 Santal History. — Until near the end of the last century, 
 the Santals lived by plundering the adjacent plains. But under 
 British rule they settled down into peaceful cultivators. To 
 prevent disputes between them and the Hindu villagers of the 
 lowlands, our officers set up in 1832 a boundary of stone 
 pillars. But the Hindu money-lender soon came among them ; 
 and the simple hillmen plunged into debt. Their strong love of 
 kindred prevented them from running away, and they sank into 
 serfs to the Hindu usurers. The poor Santal gave over his 
 whole crop each year to the money-lender, and was allowed 
 just enough food to keep his family at work. When he died, 
 the life-long burden descended to his children ; for the high
 
 THE KANDHS. 47 
 
 sense of honour among the Santdls compels a son to take upon 
 himself his lather's debts. In 1848 three entire villages threw 
 up their clearings, and fled in despair to the jungle. In 1855 
 the Santals started in a body of 30,000 men, with their bows 
 and arrows, to walk to Calcutta and lay their condition before 
 the Governor-General. At first they were orderly; but the 
 way was long ; they had to live, and the hungry ones began to 
 plunder. Quarrels broke cut between them and the British 
 police ; and within a week they were in armed rebellion. The 
 rising was put down, not without mournful bloodshed. Their 
 complaints were carefully inquired into, and a simple system of 
 government, directly under the eye of a British officer, was 
 granted to them. They are now a prosperous people. But 
 their shyness and superstition make them dread any new thing. 
 A few of them took up arms to resist the Census of 1881. 
 
 The Kandhs or Kondhs. — The Kandhs, literally ' The 
 IMountaineers,' a tribe about 100,000 strong, inhabit the steep 
 and forest-covered ranges which rise from the Orissa coast. 
 Their system of government is purely patriarchal. The family is 
 Strictly ruled by the father. The grown-up sons have no pro- 
 perty during his life, but live in his house with their wives and 
 children, and all share the common meal prepared by the 
 grandmother. The head of the tribe is usually the eldest son 
 of the patriarchal family ; but if he be not fit for the post he is 
 set aside, and an uncle or a younger brother is appointed. He 
 enters on no undertaking without calling together the elders of 
 the tribe. 
 
 Kandh Wars and Punishments. — Up to 1835, when the 
 English introduced milder laws, the Kandhs punished murder 
 by blood-revenge. The kinsmen of the dead man were bound 
 to kill the slayer, unless appeased by a payment of grain or 
 cattle. Any one who wounded another had to maintain the 
 sufferer until he recovered from his hurt. A stolen ariicle must 
 be returned, or its value paid ; but the Kandh twice convicted 
 of theft was driven forth from his tribe — the greatest punish- 
 ment known to the race. Disputes were settled by duels, or by 
 deadly combats between armed bands, or by the ordeal of 
 boiling oil or heated iron, or by taking a solemn oath on an
 
 48 THE NOiX-ARYANS. 
 
 ant-hill, or on a tiger's claw, or on a lizard's skin. If a house- 
 father died leaving no sons, his land was parcelled out among 
 the other male heads of the village ; for no woman was allowed 
 to hold land, nor indeed any Kandh who could not with his 
 own arms defend it. 
 
 Kandh Agriculture. — The Kandh system of tillage repre- 
 sents a stage half way between the migratory cultivation of the 
 ruder non-Aryan tribes and the settled agriculture of the 
 Hindus. The Kandhs do not, like the ruder non-Aryans, 
 merely burn down a patch in the jungle, take a few crops off 
 it, and then move on to fresh clearings. Nor, on the other 
 hand, do they go on cultivating the same fields, like the Hindus, 
 from father to son. When their lands show signs of exhaustion, 
 they desert them ; and it was a rule in some of the Kandh 
 settlements to change their village sites once in fourteen years. 
 
 Kandh Marriages by ' Capture.' — A Kandh wedding 
 consists of forcibly carrying off the bride in the middle of a 
 feast. The boy's father pays a price for the girl, and usually 
 chooses a strong one, several years older than his son. In this 
 way Kandh maidens are married about fourteen, Kandh boys 
 about ten. The bride remains as a servant in her new father- 
 in-law's house till her boy-husband grows old enough to live 
 with her. She generally acquires a great influence over him ; 
 and a Kandh may not marry a second wife during the life of 
 his first one, except with her consent. 
 
 Serfs of the Kandh Village. — The Kandh engages only 
 in husbandry and war, and despises all other work. But 
 attached to each village is a row of hovels inhabited by a lower 
 race, who are not allowed to hold land, to go forth to battle, or 
 to join in the village worship. These poor people do the dirty 
 work of the hamlet, and supply families of hereditary weavers, 
 blacksmiths, potters, herdsmen, and distillers. They are kindly 
 treated, and a portion of each feast is left for them. But they 
 can never rise in the social scale. No Kandh could engage in 
 their work without degradation, nor eat food prepared by their 
 hands. They are supposed to be the remnants of a ruder race, 
 whom the Kandhs found in possession of the hills, when they 
 themselves were pushed backwards by the Aryans from the plains.
 
 THE KANDHS. 49 
 
 Kandh Human Sacrifices. — The Kandhs, like the Santals, 
 have many deities, race-gods, tribe-gods, family-gods, and a 
 multitude of malignant spirits and demons. But their great 
 divinity is the earth-god, who represents the productive energy 
 of nature. Twice each year, at sowing-time and at harvest, 
 and in all seasons of special calamity, the earth-god required a 
 human sacrifice. The duty of kidnapping victims from the 
 plains rested with the lower race attached to the Kandh village. 
 Brahmans and Kandhs were the only classes exempted from 
 sacrifice, and an ancient rule ordained that the off'ering must 
 be bought with a price. The victim, on being brought to the 
 hamlet, was welcomed at every threshold, daintily fed, and 
 kindly treated till the fatal day arrived. He was then solemnly 
 sacrificed to the earth-god, the Kandhs shouting in his dying 
 ear, ' We bought you with a price ; no sin rests with us ! ' His 
 flesh and blood were portioned out among the village lands. 
 
 The Kandhs under British Rule. — In 1835 the Kandhs 
 passed under our rule, and human sacrifices were put down. 
 Roads have been made through their hills, and fairs estab- 
 lished. The English officers interfere as litUe as possible with 
 their customs ; and the Kandhs are now a peaceable and well- 
 to-do race. 
 
 The Three non-Aryan Stocks. — Whence came these 
 primidve peoples, whom the Aryan invaders found in the land 
 more than 3000 years ago, and who are still scattered over 
 India, the fragments of a prehistoric world.-* Written annals 
 they do not possess. Their traditions tell us little. But from 
 their languages we find that they belong to three stocks. First, 
 the Tibeto-Burman tribes, who entered India from the north- 
 east, and still cling to the skirts of the Himalayas. Second, 
 the Kolarians, who also seem to have entered Bengal by the 
 north-eastern passes. They dwell chiefly along the north- 
 eastern ranges of the central tableland which covers the southern 
 half of India. Third, the Dravidians, who appear, on the other 
 hand, to have found their way into the Punjab by the north- 
 western passes. They now inhabit the southern part of the 
 three-sided tableland as far down as Cape Comorin, the southern- 
 most point of India. 
 
 D
 
 5© THE NON-ARYANS. 
 
 Character of the non- Aryans. — As a rule, the non-Aryan 
 races, when fairly treated, are truthful, loyal, and kind. Those 
 in the hills make good soldiers ; while even the thieving tribes 
 of the plains can be turned into clever police. The non-Aryan 
 low-castes of Madras supplied the troops which conquered 
 Southern India for the British ; and some of them fought at the 
 battle of Plassey, which won for us Bengal. The gallant 
 Gurkhas, a non-Aryan tribe of the Himalayas, now rank among 
 the bravest regiments in our Indian army, and have covered 
 themselves with honour in every recent war, from Afghanistan 
 to Burma. 
 
 The Future of the Non- Aryans. — In many countries of the 
 world, the ruder tribes have been crushed, or killed off by 
 superior races. This has been the case, to a large extent, with 
 the primitive peoples of Mexico and Peru, with the Red Indians 
 of North America, and with the Aborigines of Australia and, to 
 some extent, in New Zealand. But the non-Aryan tribes of 
 India are prospering instead of decreasing under British rule. 
 Hill-fairs and roads through their mountains and jungles have 
 opened up to them new means of livelihood ; and the Census, 
 both in 1872 and 1881, showed that they have a larger pro- 
 portion of children than the other Indian races. As they grow 
 rich, they adopt Hindu customs, and numbers of them every year 
 pass within the pale of Hinduism. Others become converts to 
 Christianity, and it seems likely that in the course of two or 
 three generations there will be but a small remnant of the non- 
 Aryan races which still cling to their aboriginal customs and 
 rites. The Census in 1881 and 1891 included many of them 
 among the low caste Hindus, and returned a much smaller 
 number of pure Aborigines than the figures which I have 
 given at page 38 for the aboriginal population, from the 
 Census of 1872. This arises partly from the fact that the 
 aboriginal races are merging into the Hindu community: 
 partly because the system of classification adopted in 1S72 
 exhibited the Aborigines more fully according to their race than 
 the later Census enumerations in 1881 and 1891.
 
 THE NO N- ARYAN RACES. 5 1 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 Particulars will be found regarding the various aboriginal races in the 
 Imperial Gazctleer of India, 2nd ed., under the heading of their respective 
 locaUties. Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal, Hislop's Aboriginal Tribes of 
 the Central Provinces, Sir Henry Elliot's Races of the North Western 
 Froviftces of India (Beanies' edition), Sir William Hunter's Atmals of 
 Rural Bengal, Ibbetson's Census Report for the Punjab, 1881, Bishop 
 Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South htdian 
 languages, and Risley's Tribes and Castes of Bengal are the standard 
 authorities. 
 
 n 2
 
 [62] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Aryans in India. 
 
 The Aryan Stock. — At a very early period we catch sight 
 of a nobler race from the north-west, forcing its way in among 
 the primitive peoples of India. This race belonged to the 
 splendid Aryan or Indo-Germanic stock, from which the 
 Brahman, the Rajput, and the Englishman alike descend. Its 
 earliest home seems to have been in Western Asia. From that 
 common camping-ground certain branches of the race started 
 for the east, others for the further west. One of the western 
 offshoots built Athens and Sparta, and became the Greek nation ; 
 another went on to Italy, and reared the city on the Seven Hills, 
 which grew into Imperial Rome. A distant colony of the same 
 race excavated the silver ores of prehistoric Spain ; and when we 
 first catch a sight of ancient England, we see an Aryan settle- 
 ment fishing in wattle canoes, and working the tin mines of 
 Cornwall. Meanwhile other branches of the Aryan stock had 
 gone forth from the primitive Asiatic home to the east. Power- 
 ful bands found their way through the passes of the Himalayas 
 into the Punjab, and spread themselves, chiefly as Brahmans 
 and Rajputs, over India. 
 
 The Aryans conquer the Early Races in Europe and 
 Asia. — The Aryan offshoots, alike to the east and to the west, 
 asserted their superiority over the earlier peoples whom they 
 found in possession of the soil. The history of ancient Europe 
 is the story of the Aryan settlements around the shores of the 
 Mediterranean ; and that wide term, modern civilization, merely 
 means the civilization of the western branches of the same race. 
 The history of India consists in like manner of the history of 
 the eastern offshoots of the Aryan stock who settled in that 
 land.
 
 THE ARYANS IN THEIR COMMON HOME. 53 
 
 The Aryans in their Primitive Home. — We know little 
 regarding these noble Aryan tribes in their early camping- 
 ground in Western Asia. From words preserved in the 
 languages of their long-separated descendants in Europe and 
 India, scholars infer that they roamed over the grassy steppes 
 with their cattle, making long halts to raise crops of grain. 
 They had tamed most of the domestic animals ; were acquainted 
 with iron ; understood the arts of weaving and sewing ; wore 
 clothes ; and ate cooked food. They lived the hardy life of the 
 comparatively temperate zone ; and the feeling of cold seems to 
 be one of the earliest common remembrances of the eastern and 
 the western branches of the race. 
 
 Eviropean and Indian Languages merely Varieties of 
 Aryan Speech. — The forefathers of the Greek and the Roman, 
 of the English and the Hindu, dwelt together in Western Asia, 
 spoke the same tongue, worshipped the same gods. The 
 languages of Europe and India, although at first sight they seem 
 wide apart, are merely different growths from the original Aryan 
 speech. This is especially true of the common words of family 
 life. The names for father, mother, brother, sister, and widoiv 
 are the same in most of the Aryan languages, whether spoken 
 on the banks of the Ganges, of the Tiber, or of the Thames. 
 Thus the word daughter, which occurs in nearly all of them, has 
 been derived from the Aryan root dugh, which in Sanskrit has 
 the form of diih, to milk ; and perhaps preserves the memory of 
 the time when the daughter was the little milkmaid in the 
 primitive Aryan household. 
 
 Common Origin of European and Indian Religions. — 
 The ancient religions of Europe and India had a common origin. 
 They were to some extent made up of the sacred stories or 
 myths, which our joint-ancestors had learned while dwelling 
 together in Asia. Several of the Vedic gods were also the gods 
 of Greece and Rome ; and to this day the Divinity is adored by 
 names derived from the same old Aryan word ideva, the Shining 
 One), by Brahmans in Calcutta, by the Protestant clergy of 
 England, and by Roman Catholic priests in Peru. 
 
 The Indo-Aryans on the March. — The Vcdic hymns 
 exhibit the Indian branch of the Aryans on their march to the
 
 54 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 south-east, and in their new homes. The earliest songs disclose 
 the race still to the north of the Khaibar pass, in Kabul ; the 
 later ones bring them as far as the Ganges. Their victorious 
 advance eastwards through the intermediate tract can be traced 
 in the Vedic writings almost step by step. The steady supply 
 of water among the five rivers of the Punjab, led the Aryans to 
 settle down from their old state of wandering half-pastoral tribes 
 into regular communities of husbandmen. The Vedic poets 
 praised the rivers which enabled them to make this great 
 change — perhaps the most important step in the progress of 
 a race. ' May the Indus,' they sang, ' the far-famed giver of 
 wealth, hear us ; (fertilizing our) broad fields with water.' The 
 Himalayas, through whose south-western passes they had reached 
 India, and at whose southern base they long dwelt, made a 
 lasting impression on their memory. The Vedic singer praised 
 ' Him whose greatness the snowy ranges, and the sea, and the 
 aerial river declare.' The Aryan race in India never forgot its 
 northern home. There dwelt its gods and holy singers; and 
 there eloquence descended from heaven among men ; while high 
 amid the Himalayan mountains lay the paradise of deities and 
 heroes, where the kind and the brave for ever repose. 
 
 The Rig- Veda. — The Rig-Veda forms the great Hterary 
 memorial of the early Aryan settlements in the Punjab. The 
 age of this venerable hymnal is unknown. Orthodox Hindus 
 believe, without evidence, that it existed ' from before all time,' 
 or at least from 3001 years e.g. European scholars have inferred 
 from astronomical data that its composition was going on about 
 1400 B.C. But the evidence might have been calculated back- 
 wards, and inserted later in the Veda. We only know that the 
 Vedic religion had been at work long before the rise of Buddhism 
 in the sixth century b.c. The Rig- Veda is a very old collection 
 of 1017 short poems, chiefly addressed to the gods, and con- 
 taining 10,580 verses. Its hymns show us the Aryans on the 
 banks of the Indus, divided into various tribes, sometimes at war 
 with each other, sometimes united against the ' black-skinned ' 
 Aborigines. Caste, in its later sense, is unknown. Each father 
 of a family is the priest of his own household. The chieftain 
 acts as father and priest to the tribe ; but at the greater festivals
 
 THE ARYANS OF THE VEDIC HYMNS. 55 
 
 he chooses some one specially learned in holy offerings to 
 conduct the sacrifice in the name of the people. The kirg 
 himself seems to have been elected ; and his title of Vis-pati, 
 literally ' Lord of the Settlers,' survives in the old Persian Vis- 
 paiti, and as the Lithuanian Wi^z-patis in east-central Europe at 
 this day. Women enjoyed a high position ; and some of the 
 most beautiful hymns were composed by ladies and queens. 
 Marriage was held sacred. Husband and wife were both ' rulers 
 of the house ' {dampati) ; and drew near to the gods together in 
 prayer. The burning of widows on their husbands' funeral pile 
 was unknown ; and the verses in the Veda which the Brahmans 
 afterwards distorted into a sanction for the practice, have the 
 very opposite meaning. ' Rise, woman,' says the Vedic text to 
 the mourner ; * come to the world of life. Come to us. Thou 
 hast fulfilled thy duties as a wife to thy husband.' 
 
 Aryan Civilization in the Veda. — The Aryan tribes in 
 the Veda have blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and goldsmiths 
 among them, besides carpenters, barbers, and other 'artisans. 
 They fight from chariots, and freely use the horse, although 
 not yet the elephant, in war. They have settled down as 
 husbandmen, till their fields with the plough, and live in villages 
 or towns. But they also cling to their old wandering life, with 
 their herds and ' cattle-pens.' Cattle, indeed, still form their 
 chief wealth — the coin in which payment of fines is made — 
 reminding us of the Latin word for vaonty , pecu7tta, horn pecus, a 
 herd. One of the Vedic worcte for war literally means ' a desire 
 for cows.' Unlike the modern Hindus, the Aryans of the Veda 
 ate beef ; used a fermented liquor or beer, made from the soma 
 plant; and offered the same strong meat and drink to their gods. 
 Thus the stout Aryans spread eastwards through Northern India, 
 pushed on from behind by later arrivals of their own slock, and 
 driving before them, or reducing to bondage, the earlier ' black- 
 skinned ' races. They marched in whole communities from one 
 river valley lo another ; each house-father a warrior, husband- 
 man, and priest ; with his wife, and his little ones, and his cattle. 
 
 The Gods of the Veda. — These free-hearted tribes had a 
 great trust in themselves and their gods. Like other conquer- 
 ing races, they believed that both themselves and their deities
 
 56 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 were altogether superior to the people of the lana, and to their 
 poor, rude objects of worship. Indeed, this noble self-confidence 
 is a great aid to the success of a nation. Their divinities — 
 devas, literally ' the shining ones/ from the Sanskrit root div, ' to 
 shine ' — were the great powers of nature. They adored the 
 Father-heaven, — Dyaush-pitar in Sanskrit, the Dies-piier or 
 Jupiter of Rome, the Zeus of Greece.; and the Encompassing 
 Sky — Varuna in Sanskrit, Urajius in Latin, Ouranos in Greek. 
 Indra, or the Aqueous Vapour that brings the precious rain 
 on which plenty or famine still depends each autumn, received 
 the largest number of hymns. By degrees, as the settlers realized 
 more and more keenly the importance of the periodical rains to 
 their new life as husbandmen, he became the chief of the Vedic 
 gods. ' The gods do not reach unto thee, O Indra, nor men ; 
 thou overcomest all creatures in strength.' Agni, the God of 
 Fire (Latin tgnis\ ranks perhaps next to Indra in the number of 
 hymns addressed to him. He is ' the Youngest of the Gods,' * the 
 Lord and Giver of Wealth.' The Maruts are the Storm Gods, 
 ' who make the rock to tremble, who tear in pieces the forest.' 
 Ushas, ' the High-born Dawn ' (Greek Eos), * shines upon us 
 hke a young wife, rousing every living being to go forth to his 
 work.' The Asvins, the ' Horsemen ' or fleet outriders of the 
 dawn, are the first rays of sunrise, ' Lords of Lustre.' The Solar 
 Orb himself (Surya), the Wind (Vayu), the Sunbhine or Friendly 
 Day (Mitra), the intoxicating fermented juice of the Sacrificial 
 Plant (Soma), and many other deities are invoked in the Veda — 
 in all, about thirty-three gods, ' who are eleven in heaven, eleven 
 on earth, and eleven dwelling in glory in mid-air.' 
 
 The Vedic Idea of God.— The Aryan settler lived on excel- 
 lent terms with his bright gods. He asked for protection, with 
 an assured conviction that it would be granted. At the same 
 time, he was deeply stirred by the glory and mystery of the 
 earth and the heavens. Indeed, the majesty of nature so filled 
 his mind, that when he praises any one of his Shining Gods, he 
 can think of none other for the time being, and adores him as 
 the supreme ruler. Verses may be quoted declaring each of 
 the greater deities to be the One Supreme : * Neither gods nor 
 men reach unto thee, O Indra.' Another hymn speaks of Soma
 
 THE VEDIC HYMNS. 57 
 
 as ' king of heaven and earth, the conqueror of all.' To Varuna 
 also it is said, ' Thou art lord of all, of heaven and earth ; thou 
 art king of all those who are gods, and of all those who are 
 men.' The more spiritual of the Vedic singers, therefore, may 
 be said to have worshipped One God, though not One alone. 
 
 A Vedic Hymn. — ' In the beginning there arose the Golden 
 Child. He was the one born lord of all that is. He established 
 the earth and this sky. Who is the God to whom we shall offer 
 our sacrifice ? 
 
 ' He who gives life, he who gives strength ; whose command 
 all the Bright Gods revere ; whose shadow is immortality, whose 
 shadow is death. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our 
 sacrifice ? 
 
 * He who, through his power, is the one king of the breathing 
 and awakening world. He who governs all, man and beast. 
 Who is the God to whom we shall ofifer our sacrifice ? 
 
 ' He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm ; he 
 through w-hom the heaven was established, nay, the highest 
 heaven ; he who measured out the light and the air. Who is 
 the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice } 
 
 ' He who by his might looked even over the water-clouds ; he 
 who alone is God above all gods. Who is the God to whom 
 we shall offer our sacrifice .? ' 
 
 Burning of the Dead. — While the aboriginal races buried 
 their dead in the earth or under rude stone monuments, the 
 Aryan — alike in India, in Greece, and in Italy — made use of the 
 funeral-pile. Several exquisite Sanskrit hymns bid farewell to 
 the dead : — ' Depart thou, depart thou by the ancient paths to 
 the place whiiher our fathers have departed. Meet with the 
 Ancient Ones ; meet with the Lord of Death. Throwing off 
 thine imperfections, go to thy home. Become united with a 
 body ; clothe thyself in a shining form.' ' Let him depart to 
 those for whom flow the rivers of nectar. Let him depart to 
 those who, through meditation, have obtained the victory ; who, 
 by fixing their thoughts on the unseen, have gone to heaven. 
 Let him depart to the mighty in batUe, to the heroes who have 
 laid down their lives for others, to those who have bestowed their 
 goods on the poor.' The doctrine of transmigration was at first
 
 58 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 unknown. The circle round the funeral-pile sang with a firm 
 assurance that their friend went direct to a state of blessedness 
 and reunion with the loved ones who had gone before. 'Do 
 thou conduct us to heaven,' says a hymn of the later Atharva- 
 Veda ; ' let us be with our wives and children.' ' In heaven, 
 where our friends dwell in bliss — having left behind the infirmities 
 of the body, free from lameness, free from crookedness of limb 
 — there let us behold our parents and our children.' ' May the 
 water-shedding Spirits bear thee upwards, cooling thee with their 
 swift motion through the air, and sprinkling thee with dew.' 
 ' Bear him, carry him ; let him, with all his faculties complete, go 
 to the world of the righteous. Crossing the dark valley which 
 spreadeth boundless around him, let the unborn soul ascend to 
 heaven. Wash the feet of him who is stained with sin ; let him 
 go upwards with cleansed feet. Crossing the gloom, gazing 
 with wonder in many directions, let the unborn soul go up to 
 heaven.' 
 
 Later Vedic Literature. — By degrees the old collection of 
 hymns, or the Rig- Veda, no longer sufficed. Three other col- 
 lections or service-books were therefore added, making the 
 Four Vedas. The word Veda is from the same root as the 
 Latin vid-ere, to see : the early GreQk/ei'd-e7iat, infinitive of oida, 
 I know : and the English wisdom, or I wtl. The Brabmans 
 taught that the Veda was divinely inspired, and that it was 
 literally * the wisdom of God.' There was, first, the Rig- Veda, 
 or the hymns in their simplest form. Second, the Sdma-Veda, 
 made up of hymns of the Rig- Veda to be used at the Soma 
 sacrifice. Third, the Yajur-Veda, consisting not only of Rig 
 Vedic hymns, but also of prose sentences, to be used at the 
 great sacrifices ; and divided into two editions, the Black and 
 White Yajur. The fourth, or Atharva-Veda, was compiled from 
 the least ancient hymns at the end of the Rig- Veda, very old 
 religious spells, and later sources. Some of its spells have a 
 similarity to the ancient German and Lithuanian charms, and 
 appear to have come down from the most primitive times, before 
 the Indian and European branches of the Aryan race struck out 
 from their common home. 
 
 The Brahm.anas. — To each of the four Vedas were attached
 
 THE FOUR CASTES FORMED. 59 
 
 . prose works, called Brahmanas, in order to explain the sacrifices 
 and the duties of the priests. Like the four Vedas, the Brah- 
 manas were held to be the very word of God. The Vedas and 
 the Brahmanas form the revealed Scriptures of the Hindus — the 
 sruti, literally ' Things heard from God.' The Vedas supplied 
 their divinely-inspired psalms, and the Brahmanas their divinely- 
 inspired theology or body of doctrine. To them were after- 
 wards added the Sutras, literally * Strings of pithy sentences ' 
 regarding laws and ceremonies. Still later the Upanishads were 
 composed, treating of God and the soul; the Aranyakas, or 
 'Tracts for the forest recluse'; and, after a very long interval, 
 the Puranas, or ' Traditions from of old.' All these ranked, 
 however, not as divinely-inspired knowledge, or things ' heard 
 from God ' (sriiti), like the Vedas and Brahmanas, but only as 
 sacred traditions — smriti, literally * The things remembered! 
 
 The Four Castes formed. — Meanwhile the Four Castes 
 had been formed. In the old Aryan colonies among the Five 
 Rivers of the Punjab, each house-father was a husbandman, 
 warrior, and priest. But by degrees certain gifted families, who 
 composed the Vedic hymns or learned them off by heart, were 
 always chosen by the king to perform the great sacrifices. In 
 this way probably the priestly caste sprang up. As the Aryans 
 conquered more territory, fortunate soldiers received a larger 
 share of the lands than others, and cultivated it not with their 
 own hands, but by means of the vanquished non-Aryan tribes. 
 In this way the Four Castes arose. First, the Priests or Brah- 
 mans. Second, the warriors or fighting companions of the 
 king, called Rajputs or Kshattriyas, literally 'of the royal stock.' 
 Third, the Aryan agricultural settlers, who kept the old name 
 of Vaisyas, from the root vis, which in the primitive Vedic 
 period had included the whole Aryan people. Fourth, the 
 Sudras, or conquered non-Aryan tribes, who became serfs. The 
 three first castes were of Aryan descent, and were honoured by 
 the name of the Twice-born Castes. Tliey could all be present 
 at the sacrifices, and they worshipped the same Bright Gods. 
 The Sudras were 'the slave-bands of black descent' of the Veda. 
 They were distinguished from their ' Twice-born ' Aryan con- 
 querors as being only ' Once-born,' and by many contemptuous
 
 6o THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 epithets. They were not allowed to be present at the great 
 national sacrifices, or at the feasts which followed them. They 
 could never rise out of their servile condition ; and to them was 
 assigned the severest toil in the fields, and all the hard and dirty 
 work of the village community. 
 
 The Brahman Supremacy established. — The Brahmans 
 or priests claimed the highest rank. But they seem to have had 
 a long struggle with the Kshatlriya or warrior caste, before they 
 won their proud position at the head of the Indian people. 
 They afterwards secured themselves in that position, by teaching 
 that it had been given to them by God. At the beginning of 
 the world, they said, the Brahman proceeded from the mouth of 
 the Creator, the Kshattriya or Rajput from his arms, the Vaisya 
 from his thighs or belly, and the Sudra from his feet. This 
 legend is true so far, that the Brahmans were really the brain- 
 power of the Indian people' the Kshattriyas its armed hands, 
 the Vaisyas the food-growers, and the Sudras the down-trodden 
 serfs. When the Brahmans had established their power, they 
 made a wise use of it. From the ancient Vedic times they 
 recognized that if they were to exercise spiritual supremacy, 
 they must renounce earthly pomp. In arrogating the priestly 
 function, they gave up all claim to the royal ofiSce. They were 
 divinely appointed to be the guides of nations and the counsellors 
 of kings, but they could not be kings themselves. As the duty 
 of the Sudra was to serve, of the Vaisya to till the ground and 
 follow middle-class trades or crafts ; so the business of the 
 Kshattriya was to fight the public enemy, and of the Brahman 
 to propitiate the national gods. 
 
 Stages of a Brahman's Life. — Each day brought to the 
 Brahmans its routine of ceremonies, studies, and duties. Their 
 whole life was mapped out into four clearly-defined stages of dis- 
 ciphne. For their existence, in its full religious significance, 
 commenced not at birth, but on being invested at the close of 
 childhood with the sacred thread of the Twice-born. Their 
 youth and early manhood were to be entirely spent in learning 
 the Veda by heart from an older Brahman, tending the sacred 
 fire, and serving their preceptor. Having completed his long 
 studies, the young Brahman entered on the second stage of his
 
 THE BR AH MA MS. 6 1 
 
 life, as a householder. He married, and commenced a course 
 of family duties. When he had reared a family, and gained 
 a practical knowledge of the world, he retired into the forest 
 as a recluse, for the third period of liis life ; feeding on roots or 
 fruits, practising his religious duties with increased devotion. 
 The fourth stage was that of the ascetic or religious mendicant, 
 wholly withdrawn from earthly affairs, and striving to attain a 
 condition of mind which, heedless of the joys, or pains, or wants 
 of the body, is intent only on its final absorption into the deity. 
 The Brahman, in this fourth stage of his life, ate nothing but 
 what was given to him unasked, and abode not more than one 
 day in any village, lest the vanities of the world should find 
 entrance into his heart. This was the ideal life prescribed for 
 a Brahman, and ancient Indian literature shows that it was to 
 a large extent practically carried out. Throughout his whole 
 existence the true Brahman practised a strict temperance ; 
 drinking no wine, using a simple diet, curbing the desires ; shut 
 off from the tumults of war, as his business was to pray, not to 
 fight, and having his thoughts ever fixed on study and contem- 
 plation. 'What is this world.'*' says a Brahman sage. 'It is 
 even as the bough of a tree, on which a bird rests for a night, 
 and in the morning flies away.' 
 
 The Modern Brahmans. — The Brahmans, therefore, were 
 a body of men who, in an early stage of this world's history, 
 bound themselves by a rule of life the essential precepts of 
 which were self-culture and self-restraint. The Brahmans of the 
 present India are the result of 3000 years of hereditary education 
 and temperance ; and they have evolved a type of mankind 
 quite distinct from the surrounding population. Even the 
 passing traveller in India marks them out, alike from the bronze- 
 cheeked, large-limbed, leisure-loving Rajput or Kshattriya, the 
 warrior caste of Aryan descent ; and from the dark-skinned, flat- 
 nosed, thick-lipped low castes of non-Aryan origin, with their 
 short bodies and bullet heads. The Brahman stands apart 
 from both, tall and slim, with finely-modelled lips and nose, fair 
 complexion, high forehead, and slightly cocoa-nut shaped skull 
 — the man of self-centred refinement. He is an example of a 
 class becoming the ruling power in a country, not by force of
 
 62 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 arms, but by the vigour of hereditary culture and temperance. 
 One race has swept across India after another, dynasties have 
 risen and fallen, religions have spread themselves over the land 
 and disappeared. But since the dawn of history the Brahman 
 has calmly ruled ; swaying the minds and receiving the homage 
 of the people, and accepted by foreign nations as the highest 
 type of Indian mankind. The position which the Brahmans 
 won resulted in no small measure from the benefits which they 
 bestowed. For their own Aryan countrymen they developed 
 a noble language and literature. The Brahmans were not only 
 the priests and philosophers, but also the lawgivers, the men of 
 science, and the poets of their race. Their influence on the 
 aboriginal peoples, the hill and forest races of India, was even 
 more important. To these rude remnants of the flint and stone 
 ages they brought, in ancient times, a knowledge of the metals 
 and the gods. 
 
 Brahman Theology. — The Brahmans, among themselves, 
 soon began to see that the old gods of the Vedic hymns were 
 in reality not supreme beings, but poetic fictions. For when 
 they came to think the matter out, they found that the Sun, the 
 Aqueous Vapour, the Encompassing Sky, the Wind, and the 
 Dawn could not each be separate and supreme creators, but 
 must have all proceeded from one First Cause. They did not 
 shock the more ignorant castes by any public rejection of the 
 Vedic deities. They accepted the old ' Shining Ones ' of the 
 Veda as beautiful manifestations of the divine power, and con- 
 tinued to decorously conduct the sacrifices in their honour. But 
 among their own caste the Brahmans taught the unity of God. 
 The mass of the people were left to believe in four castes, four 
 Vedas, and many deities. But the higher thinkers among the 
 Brdhmans recognized that in the beginning there was but one 
 caste, one Veda, and one God. 
 
 The Hindu Trinity. — The confused old groups of deities 
 or Shining Ones in the Veda thus gave place to the grand concep- 
 tion of one God, in his three solemn manifestations as Brahmd 
 the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer and 
 Reproducer. Each of these had his prototype among the Vedic 
 deities; and they remain to this day the three persons of the
 
 brAhman theology. 63 
 
 Hindu trinity. Brahma, the Creator, or first person of the 
 trinity, was too abstract an idea to be a popular god. Vishnu, 
 the second person of the trinity, was a more useful and friendly 
 deity. He is said to have ten times come down from heaven 
 and lived on the earth. These were the ten incarnations {avatars) 
 of Vishnu. Siva, the third person of the trinity, appears as 
 both the Destroyer and Reproducer ; and thus shows to the eye 
 of faiih, that death is but a change of state, and an entry into 
 a new life. Vishnu and Siva, in their diverse male and female 
 shapes, now form the principal gods of the Hindus. 
 
 Brahman Philosophy. — The Brahmans thus built up a re- 
 ligion for the Indian people. They also worked out a system 
 of philosophy, and arranged its doctrines in six schools — dar- 
 sanas, literally mirrors of knowledge — at least 500 years before 
 Christ. They had moreover a circle of sciences of their own. 
 The Sanskrit grammar of Panini, compiled about 350 b. c, is 
 still the foundation of the study of Aryan language. In this 
 subject the Brahmans were far before the Greeks or Romans, 
 or indeed any European nation down to the present century. 
 Their Sanskrit, or ^perfected speech,' succeeded after a long 
 interval to the earlier language of the Veda. But Sanskrit 
 seems to have been used only, or chiefly, by the learned. The 
 people spoke a simpler form of the same language, called 
 Prakrit. From this old Prakrit the modern dialects of India 
 descend. The Brahmans, however, always wrote in Sanskrit, 
 which sunk in time into a dead language unknown to the people. 
 The Brahmans alone, therefore, could read the sacred books or 
 write new ones ; and in this way they became the only men of 
 learning in India. 
 
 Indian Literature. — As early as 250 b. c. two alphabets, or 
 written characters, were used in India. But the Brahmans 
 preferred to hand down their holy learning by memory, rather 
 than to write it out. Good Brdhmans had to learn the Veda 
 by heart, besides many other books. This was the easier, as 
 almost all their literature was in verse {slokas\ In the very 
 ancient times, just after the Vedic hymns, a pure style of prose, 
 simple and compact, had grown up. But during more than 
 2000 years the Brahmans have composed almost entirely in
 
 64 THE ARYANS IN INDIA, 
 
 verse; and prose-writing was for long almost a lost art in 
 India. 
 
 Brahman Astronomy. — The Brahmans studied the move- 
 ments of the heavenly bodies, so as to fix the proper dates for 
 the annual sacrifices. More than 3000 years ago, the Vedic 
 poets had worked out a fairly correct calculation of the solar 
 year, which they divided into 360 days, with an extra month 
 every five years to make up for the odd ^\, days per annum. 
 They were also acquainted with the phases of the moon, the 
 motions of the planets, and the signs of the zodiac. The 
 Brahmans had advanced far in astronomy before the Greeks 
 arrived in India in 327 b. c. They were not, however, ashamed 
 to learn fpom the new-comers ; and one of the five systems of 
 Brahman astronomy is called the Romaka or Greek science. 
 But in time the Hindus surpassed the Greeks in this matter. 
 The fame of the Brahman astronomers spread westward, and 
 their works were translated by the Arabs about 800 a. d., and 
 so reached Europe. After the Muhammadans began to ravage 
 India in 1000 a.d.. Brahman science declined. But Hindu 
 astronomers arose from time to time, and their observatories 
 may still be seen at Benares and elsewhere. An Indian 
 astronomer, the Raja Jai Singh, was able to correct the list of 
 stars published by the celebrated French astronomer De la 
 Hire, in 1702. 
 
 Brahman Medicine. — The Brahmans also worked out a 
 system of medicine for themselves. As they had to study the 
 heavenly bodies in order to fix the dates of their yearly 
 festivals, so they made their first steps in anatomy, by cutting 
 up the animals at the sacrifice, with a view to offering the 
 different parts to the proper gods. They ranked medical 
 science as an Upa-Veda, or later revelation from heaven. The 
 ancient Brahmans did not shrink from dissecting the dead 
 bodies of animals. They also trained their students by means 
 of operations performed on wax spread over a board, instead 
 of flesh, and on the stems of plants. The hospitals which 
 the Buddhist princes set up throughout India for man and 
 beast, gave great opportunities for the study and treatment of 
 disease.
 
 BRAHMAN SCIENCE. 65 
 
 In medicine the Brahmans learned nothing from the Greeks, 
 
 but taught them much. Arab medicine was founded on trans- 
 lations from Sanskrit works about 800 a.d. Mediaeval Euro- 
 pean medicine, in its turn, down to the seventeenth century, was, 
 in many important respects, based upon the Arabic. The Indian 
 physician Charaka was quoted in European books of medicine 
 written in the middle ages. 
 
 Decline of Hindu Medicine. — As Buddhism passed into 
 modern Hinduism (600-1000 a.d.), and the shackles of caste 
 were imposed with an iron rigour, the Brahmans more 
 scrupulously avoided contact with blood or diseased matter. 
 They left the medical profession to the Vaidyas, a lower caste, 
 sprung from a Brahman father and a mother of the Vaisya or 
 cultivating class. These in their turn shrank more and more 
 from touching dead bodies, and from those ancient operations 
 on 'the carcase of a bullock,' &c., by which alone surgical 
 skill could be acquired. The abolition of the public hospitals, 
 on the downfall of Buddhism, must also have proved a great 
 loss to Indian medicine. The Muhammadan conquests, com- 
 mencing in 1000 A. D., brought in a new school of foreign 
 physicians, who derived their knowledge from the Arabic 
 translations of the Sanskrit medical works of the best period. 
 These INlusalman doctors or hakims monopolized the patronage 
 of the Muhammadan princes and nobles of India. The decline 
 of Hindu medicine continued until it sank into the hands of 
 the village kahirdj, whose knowledge consists of a jumble of 
 Sanskrit texts, useful lists of drugs, aided by spells, fasts, and 
 quackery. But Hindu students now flock to the medical 
 colleges established by the British Government, and in this way 
 the science is again reviving in India. 
 
 Indian Music. — The Brahmans had also an art of music of 
 their own. The seven notes which they invented, at least four 
 centuries before Christ, passed through the Persians to Arabia, 
 and were thence introduced into European music in the eleventh 
 century a. u. Hindu music declined under the Muhammadan 
 rule. Its complex divisions or modes and numerous sub-tones 
 prevent it from pleasing the modern European ear, which has 
 been trained on a diflerent system ; but it is highly original and 
 
 £
 
 66 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 interesting from a scientific point of view. A great revival of 
 Indian music has been brought about by patriotic native 
 gentlemen in our own days, and its strains give delight to 
 millions of our Indian fellow-subjects. 
 
 Brahman Law. — The Brahmans made law a part of their 
 religion. Their earliest legal works were the Household Maxims 
 {Grihyd Siitras), some of them perhaps as early as 500 B.C. 
 The customs of the Brahmans in Northern India were collected 
 into the Code of Manu, composed in its present final form 
 between 100 and 500 a.d. Another famous compilation, known 
 as the Code of Yajnavalkya, was drawn up later ; apparently 
 in the sixth or seventh century a.d. These codes, and the com- 
 mentaries written upon them, still rule the family life of the 
 Hindus. They set forth the law in three branches, — namely, 
 (i) domestic and civil rights and duties; (2) the administration 
 of justice; (3) religious purifications and penance. They con- 
 tain many rules about marriage, inheritance, and food. They 
 keep the castes apart, by forbidding them to intermarry or to 
 eat together. They were accepted as almost divine laws by the 
 Hindus; and the spread of these codes was the work of the 
 Brahmans as the civilizers of India. But they really record 
 only the customs of the Brahman kingdoms in the north, and 
 do not truly apply to all the Indian races. The greatest Hindu 
 lawgivers agree that the usages ot each different country in India 
 are to be respected ; and in this way they make allowance for 
 the laws or customs of the non-Aryan tribes. Thus among the 
 Brahmans it would be disgraceful for a woman to have two 
 husbands. But among the Nairs of Southern India and other 
 non-Aryan races it is the custom ; therefore it is legal for such 
 races, and all the laws of inheritance among these peoples are 
 regulated accordingly. 
 
 Brahman Poetry. — The Brahmans were not merely the 
 composers and keepers of the sacred books, the philosophers, 
 the men of science, and the law-makers of the Hindu people — 
 they were also its poets. They did not write history; 
 but they told the ancient wars and the lives of the Aryan 
 heroes in epic poems. The two most famous of these are 
 the Mahabharata, or chronicles of the Delhi kings, and the
 
 THE MAHABHARATA. 67 
 
 Ramdyana, or story of the Aryan advance into Southern 
 India. 
 
 The Mahabharata. — The Mahabharata is a great collection 
 of Indian legends in verse, some of them as old as the Vedic 
 hymns. The main story deals with a period not later than 
 I2CO B.C. But it was not put together in its present shape till 
 more than a thousand years later. An idea of the extent of the 
 Mahdbharata may be gained from the fact that it contains 
 220,000 lines; while the Iliad oi Homer does not amount to 
 16,000 lines, and Virgil's Aeiieid coviX.2Xvi'& less than 10,000. 
 
 Its Central Story. — The central story of the Mahabharata 
 occupies scarcely one-fourth of the whole, or about 50,000 lines. 
 It narrates a struggle between two families of the ruling Lunar 
 race for a patch of country near Delhi. These families, alike 
 descended from the Royal Bharata, consisted of two brother- 
 hoods, cousins to each other, and both brought up under the 
 same roof. The five Pandavas were the sons of King Pandu, 
 who, smitten by a curse, resigned the sovereignty to his brother 
 Dhrita-rashtra, and retired to a hermitage in the Himalayas, 
 where he died. The ruins of his capital, Hastinapura, or the 
 ' Elephant City,' are pointed out beside a deserted bed of the 
 Ganges, 57 miles north-east of Delhi, at this day. His brother 
 Dhrita-rashtra ruled in his stead ; and to him one hundred sons 
 were born, who took the name of the Kauravas from an ancestor, 
 Kuru. Dhrita-rashtra acted as a faithful guardian to his five 
 nephews, the Pandavas, and chose the eldest of them as heir to 
 the family kingdom. His own sons resented this act of super- 
 cession ; and so arose the quarrel between the hundred Kauravas 
 and the five Pandavas, which forms the main story of the 
 Mahabharata. 
 
 Its Outline. — The hundred Kauravas forced their father to 
 send away their five Pandava cousins into the forest, and there 
 they treacherously burned down the hut in which the five 
 Pandavas dwelt. The Pandavas escaped, and wandered in the 
 disguise of Brahmans to the court of King Draupada, who had 
 proclaimed a swayam-vara, or maiden's ' own-choice.' This 
 was a contest of arms, or with the bow, among the chiefs, at 
 which the king's daughter would take the victor as her husband. 
 
 £ 2
 
 68 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 Arjuna, one of the five Pandavas, bent the mighty bow which 
 had defied the strength of all the rival chiefs, and so obtained 
 the fair princess, Draupadi, who became the common wife of the 
 five brethren. Their uncle, the good Dhrita-rashtra, recalled 
 them to his capital, and gave them one half of the family 
 territory, reserving the other half for his own sons. The 
 Pandava brethren hived off to a new settlement, Indra-prastha, 
 afterwards Delhi ; clearing the jungle, and driving out the Nagas 
 or forest-races. 
 
 For a time peace reigned. But the Kauravas tempted 
 Yudhishthira, ' firm in fight,' the eldest of the Pandavas, to a 
 gambling match, at which he lost his kingdom, his brothers, 
 himself, and last of all his wife. Their father, however, forced 
 his sons to restore their wicked gains to their cousins. But 
 Yudhishthira was again seduced by the Kauravas to stake his 
 kingdom at dice, again lost it, and had to retire with his wife 
 and brethren into exile for twelve years. Their banishment 
 ended, the five Pandavas returned at the head of an army to win 
 back their kingdom. Many battles followed, gods and divine 
 heroes joined in the struggle, until at last all the hundred 
 Kauravas were slain, and of the friends and kindred of the 
 Pandavas only the five brethren remained. Tlieir uncle, Dhrita- 
 rashtra, made over to them the whole kingdom. For a long 
 time the Pandavas ruled gloriously, celebrating the asva-medha, 
 or 'great horse sacrifice,' in token of their holding imperial 
 sway. But their uncle, old and blind, ever taunted them with 
 the slaughter of his hundred sons, until at last he crept away, 
 with his few surviving ministers, his aged wife, and his sister-in- 
 law, the mother of the Pandavas, to a hermitage, where the 
 worn-out band perished in a forest fire. The five brethren, 
 smitten by remorse, gave up their kingdom ; and, taking their 
 wife, Draupadi, and a faithful dog, they departed to the 
 Himalayas to seek the heaven of Indra on Mount Meru. One 
 by one the sorrowful pilgrims died upon the road, until only the 
 eldest brother, Yudhishthira, and the dog reached the gate of 
 heaven. Indra invited him to enter, but he refused if his lost 
 wife and brethren were not also admitted. The prayer was 
 granted ; but he still declined unless his faithful dog might come
 
 THE RAM A VAN A. 69 
 
 in w'ilh him. This could not be allowed ; and Yudhishthira, 
 after a glimpse of heaven, was thrust down to hell, where he 
 found many of his old comrades in anguish. He resolved to 
 share their sufferings rather than to enjoy paradise alone. But, 
 having triumphed in this crowning trial, the whole scene was 
 revealed to him to be mdyd or illusion, and the reunited band 
 entered into heaven, where they rest for ever with Indra. 
 
 Remainder of the Mahabharata. — The struggle for the 
 kingdom of Hasiinapur forms, however, only a fourth of the 
 Mahabharata. The remainder is made up of other early 
 legends, stories of the gods, and religious discourses, intended 
 to teach the military caste its duties, especially its duty of 
 reverence to the Brahmans. Taken as a whole, the Mahabharata 
 may be said to form the cyclopaedia of the Heroic Age in 
 Northern India. 
 
 The Ramayana. — The second great Indian epic, the Rama- 
 yana, recounts the advance of the Aryans into Southern India. 
 It is said to have been composed by the poet Valmfki ; and its 
 main story refers to a period loosely estimated at about 1000 
 B.C. But the Ramayana could not have been put together in 
 its present shape many centuries, if at all, before the Christian 
 era. Parts of it may be earlier than the Mahabharata, but the 
 compilation as a whole apparently belongs to a later date. The 
 Ramayana consists of about 48,000 lines. 
 
 Outline of the Ramayana. — As the ]\Iahabharata celebrates 
 the Lunar race of Delhi, so the Ramayana forms the epic 
 (or poetic history) of the Solar race of Ayodhya, the capital of 
 the modern province of Oudh. The two poems thus preserve 
 the legends of the two most famous Aryan kingdoms at the two 
 opposite, or eastern and western, borders of the old Middle Land 
 of Hindustan (Madhya-desa). The opening books of the Rama- 
 yana recount the wondrous birth and boyhood of Rama, eldest 
 son of Dasaratha, King of Ayodhya or Oiidh ; his marriage 
 with the princess Sfta, after he proved himself the victor at her 
 ' own choice ' of a husband {swayam-vara\ by bending the mighty 
 bow of Siva in the contest of chiefs ; and his selection as heir- 
 apparent to his father's kingdom. A zatuvia intrigue ends in the 
 youngest wife of Dasaratha (Rama's father) obtaining the succcs-
 
 70 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 sion for her own son, Bharata, and in the exile of Rama, with 
 his bride Sita, for fourteen years to the forest. The banished 
 pair wander south to Prayag, the modern Allahabad, already a 
 place of sanctity, and thence across the river to the hermitage 
 of Valmfki, among the jungles of Bundelkhand, where a hill is 
 still pointed out as the scene of their abode. Meanwhile Rama's 
 father dies; and the loyal younger brother, Bharata, although 
 declared the lawful successor, refuses to enter on the inheritance, 
 and goes in search of Rama to bring him back as rightful heir. 
 A contest of fraternal affection takes place ; Bharata at length 
 returning to rule the family kingdom in the name of Rama, 
 until the latter should come to claim it at the end of his fourteen 
 years of banishment. 
 
 The Aryans advance Southwards. — So far, the Rama- 
 yana merely narrates the local annals of the court of Ayodhya. 
 In the third book the main story begins. Ravana, the demon or 
 aboriginal king of the far south, smitten by the fame of Sita's 
 beauty, seizes her at the hermitage while her husband Rama is 
 away in the jungle, and flies off with her in a magic chariot 
 through the air to Ceylon. The next three books (4th, 5th, 6th) 
 recount the expedition of the bereaved Rama for her recovery. 
 He allies himself with the aboriginal tribes of Southern India, 
 who bear the names of monkeys and bears, and raises among 
 them a great army. The Monkey general, Hanuman, jumps 
 across the straits between India and Ceylon, discovers the 
 princess in captivity, and leaps back with the news to Rama. 
 The monkey troops then build a causeway across the narrow 
 sea, — the Adam's Bridge of modern geography, — by which 
 Rdma marches across, and, after slaying the monster Ravana, 
 delivers Sita. The rescued wife proves her faithfulness to him, 
 during her stay in the palace of Ravana, by the ancient ordeal 
 of fire. Agni, the god of that element, himself conducts her 
 out of the burning pile to her husband ; and, the fourteen years 
 of banishment being over, Rama and Sita return in triumph to 
 Ayodhya. There they reigned gloriously ; and Rama celebrated 
 the great horse sacrifice {asva-medha) as a token of his imperial 
 sway over India. But a famine having smitten the land, Rama 
 regards it as a punisshment sent by God for some crime com-
 
 LATER HINDU LITERATURE. 7 1 
 
 mitted in the royal family. Doubts arise in his heart as to his 
 wife's purity while in her captor's power at Ceylon. He accord- 
 ingly banishes the faithful Sita, who wanders forth again to 
 Vdlmfki's hermitage, where she gives birth to Rama's two sons. 
 After sixteen years of exile, she is reconciled to her repentant 
 husband, and Rama and Sita and their children are at last 
 reunited. 
 
 Later Sanskrit Epics. — The Mahabharata and the Rama- 
 yana, however overlaid with fable, form the chronicles of the 
 kings of the IMiddle Land of Hindustan (Madhya-desa), their 
 family feuds, and their national enterprises. In the later San- 
 skrit epics, the stories of the heroes give place more and more 
 to legends of the gods. Among them the Raghu-vansa and 
 the Kumara-sambhava, both assigned to Kalidasa, take the first 
 rank. The Raghu-vansa celebrates the Solar line of Raghu, 
 King of Ayodhya, and especially his descendant Rama. The 
 Kumara-sambhava recounts the Birth of the War-god. These 
 two poems could not have been composed in their present 
 shape before 350 a.d. 
 
 The Sanskrit Drama. — In India, as in Greece and Rome, 
 scenic representations seem to have taken their rise in the rude 
 pantomime of a very early age, possibly as far back as the 
 Vedic ritual ; and the Sanskrit word for the drama, ndlaka, is 
 derived from naia, a dancer. But the Sanskrit plays of the 
 classical age which have come down to us probably belong to 
 the period between the first century b.c. and the eighth century 
 A.D. The father of the Sanskrit drama is Kalidasa, already 
 mentioned as the composer of the two later Sanskrit epics. 
 According to Hindu tradition, he was one of the ' Nine Gems,' 
 or distinguished men at the court of Vikramaditya, King of 
 Ujjain, in 57 b.c But as a matter of fact there were several 
 king Vikramadityas, and the one under whom Kalidasa flourished 
 appears to have ruled over Malwa in the sixth century a.d. 
 
 Sakuntala. — The most famous drama of Kalidasa is Sakun- 
 tala, or the Lost Ring. Like the ancient Sanskrit epics, it 
 divides its action between the court of the king and the hermit- 
 age in the forest. Prince Dushyanta, an ancestor of the noble 
 Lunar race, weds a beautiful Brahman girl, Sakuntala, at her
 
 72 THE ARYANS IN INDIA. 
 
 father's retreat in the jungle. Before returning to his capital, 
 he gives his bride a ring as a pledge of his love ; but, smitten 
 by a curse from a Brahman, she loses the ring, and cannot be 
 recognized by her husband till it is found. Sakuntala bears a 
 son in her loneliness, and sets out to claim recognition for 
 herself and child at her husband's court. But she is as one 
 unknown to the prince, till, after many sorrows and trials, the 
 ring comes to light. She is then happily reunited with her 
 husband, and her son grows up to be the noble Bharata, the 
 chief founder of the Lunar dynasty, whose achievements form 
 the theme of the Mahabhaiata. Sakuntala, like Si'ta, is a type 
 of the chaste and faithful Hindu wife ; and her love and sorrow, 
 after forming the favourite romance of the Indian people for 
 perhaps eighteen hundred years, supplied a theme for Goethe, 
 the greatest European poet of our age. 
 
 Other Dramas. — Among other Hindu dramas may be men- 
 tioned the INIrichchhakati, or Toy Cart, in ten acts, on the old 
 theme of the innocent cleared and the guilty punished ; and the 
 poem of Nala and Damayanti, or the Royal Gambler and the 
 Faithful Wife. Many plays, often founded upon some story 
 in the IMahabharata or Ramayana, issue every year from the 
 Indian press. 
 
 Beast Stories. — Fables of animals have from old been 
 favourites in India. The Sanskrit Pancha-tantra, or Book of 
 Beast Tales, was translated into Persian as early as the sixth 
 century a.d. ; and thence found its way to Europe. The 
 animal fables of ancient India are the familiar nursery stories 
 of England and America at the present day. 
 
 Lyric Poetry. — Besides the epic chronicles of their gods 
 and heroes, the Brahmans composed many religious poems. 
 One of the most beautiful is the Gfta Govinda, or Song of the 
 Divine Herdsman, written by Jayadeva about 1200 a.d. The 
 Puranas are an enormous collection of religious discourses in 
 verse ; they will be described hereafter at p. 103. 
 
 Brahman Influence. — In order to understand the long 
 rule of the Brahmans, and the influence which they still wield, 
 it is necessary ever to keep in mind their posi:ion as the great 
 literary caste. Their priestly supremacy has been repeatedly
 
 BRAHMAN INFLUENCE. 73 
 
 assailed, and during a space of nearly a thousand years it was 
 overborne by the Buddhists. But throughout twenty-five centuries 
 the Brahmans have been the writers and thinkers of India, the 
 counsellors of Hindu princes and the teachers of the Hindu 
 people. The education and learning which so long gave them 
 their power, have ceased to be the monopoly of their caste; 
 and may now be acquired by all races and all classes of Her 
 Majesty's Indian subjects. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The literature on ancient India is so copious that it must suffice to name 
 a few of the most useful and most easily available works. Weber's History 
 of Indian Literature is perhaps the most compendious; a new edition of 
 Max Vi\\\\.<ixs History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (1859) would be a 
 boon to the student, and his Chips from a German Workshop are delight- 
 ful. Among standard treatises may be mentioned John Muir's valuable 
 translations of Sanskrit Texts (5 vols. 2nd ed. 186S-73); Max Dunckers 
 Ancient History of India; Lassen's Indische Alterthnmskunde; James 
 Prinsep's Essays on Indian Antiquities ; Horace Hayman Wilson's 
 Collected Works ; and the writings of Roth, Eenfey, K. M. Banarji, General 
 Cunningham, Hoernle, .Liihier, and Burnell. Some of the most valuable 
 original Sanskrit texts are now rendered available to the English student 
 in Max MuUer's magnificent series of Sacred Books of the East. His new 
 edition of the Rig-Veda- Samliita forms a splendid monument alike to the 
 Indian prince who provided the cost of the work, and to the European 
 scholar who has executed it.
 
 [74j 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Buddhism— 543 B C. to 1000 A.D. 
 
 Rise of Buddhism, 543 B.C.* — The Brahmans had firmly 
 established their power 6oo years before Christ. But after that 
 date a new religion arose in India, called Buddhism, from the 
 name of its founder, Gautama Buddha. This new religion was 
 a rival to Brahmanism during more than a thousand years. 
 About the ninth century a.d. Buddhism was driven out of India. 
 But it is still professed by 500 millions of people in Asia, and 
 has more followers than any other religion in the world. 
 
 The Legend of Buddha : his Early Life. — Gautama, 
 afterwards named Buddha, ' The Enlightened,' was the only 
 son of Suddhodana, King of Kapilavastu. This prince ruled 
 over the Sakya people, about 100 miles north of Benares, and 
 within sight of the snow-topped Himalayas. The king wished 
 to see his son grow up into a warrior like himself. But the 
 young prince shunned the sports of his playmates, and spent 
 his time alone in nooks of the palace garden. When he 
 reached manhood, however, he showed himself brave and skilful 
 with his weapons. He won his wife by a contest at arms over 
 all rival chiefs. For a time he forgot the religious thoughts of 
 his boyhood in the enjoyment of the world. But in his drives 
 through the city he was struck by the sights of old age, disease, 
 and death which met his eye ; and he envied the calm of a holy 
 man, who seemed to have raised his soul above the changes 
 and sorrows of this life. After ten years, his wife bore to him 
 an only son ; and Gautama, fearing lest this new tie should 
 bind him too closely to the things of earth, retired about the 
 age of thirty to a cave in the jungles. The story is told how 
 he turned away from the door of his wife's lamp-lit chamber, 
 denying himself even a parting caress of his new-born babe, lest 
 he should wake the sleeping mother, and galloped off into the 
 
 * The Nirvana or death of Buddha is assigned to 543 or to 478 B.C.
 
 THE LIFE OF BUDDHA. 75 
 
 darkness. After a gloomy night ride, he sent back his one 
 companion, the faithful charioteer, with his horse and jewels to 
 his father. Having cut off his long warrior hair, and exchanged 
 his princely raiment for the rags of a poor passer-by, he went 
 on alone a homeless beggar. This giving up of princely pomp, 
 and of loved wife and new-born son, is the Great Renunciation 
 which forms a favourite theme of the Buddhist Scriptures. 
 
 Legend of Buddha's Forest Life, set. 30 to 36. — For a 
 time Gautama studied under two Brahman hermits, in Patna 
 District. They taught him that the peace of the soul was to be 
 reached only by mortifying the body. He then buried himself 
 deeper in the jungles near Gaya, and during six years wasted 
 himself by austerities in company with five disciples. The 
 temple of Buddha-Gaya marks the site of his long penance. 
 But instead of earning peace of mind by fasting and self- 
 torture, he sank into a religious despair, during which the 
 Buddhist Scriptures affirm that the enemy of mankind, Mara, 
 wrestled with him in bodily shape. Torn with doubts as to 
 whether all his penance availed anything, the haggard hermit 
 fell senseless to the earth. When he recovered, the mental 
 agony had passed. He felt that the path to salvation lay not 
 in self-torture in mountain-jungles or caves, but in preaching 
 a higher life to his fellow-men. He gave up penance. His 
 five disciples, shocked by this, forsook him ; and he was left 
 alone in the forest. The Buddhist Scriptures depict him as 
 sitting serene under a fig-tree, while demons whirled round him 
 with flaming weapons. From this temptation in the wilderness 
 he came forth with his doubts for ever laid at rest, seeing his 
 way clear, and henceforth to be known as Buddha, literally 
 * The Enlightened.' 
 
 Public Teaching of Buddha, set. 36 to 80. — Buddha 
 began his public teaching in the Deer-Forest, near the great 
 city of Benares. Unlike the Brahmans, he preached, not to 
 one or two disciples of the sacred caste, but to the people. His 
 first converts were common men, and among the earliest were 
 women. After three months he had gathered around him 
 sixty disciples, whom he sent forth to the neighbouring coun- 
 tries with these words : ' Go ye now, and preach the most
 
 76 BUDDHISM, 
 
 excellent law.' Two-thirds of each year he spent as a wander- 
 ing preacher. The remaining four months, or the rainy season, 
 he abode at some fixed place, teaching the people who flocked 
 around his little dwelling in the bamboo grove. His five old 
 disciples, who had forsaken him in the time of his sore tempta- 
 tion in the wilderness, now came back to their master. Princes, 
 merchants, artisans, Brahmans and hermits, husbandmen and 
 serfs, noble ladies and repentant women who had sinned, were 
 added to those who believed. Buddha preached throughout 
 Behar, Oudh, and the adjacent districts in the North-Western 
 Provinces. He had ridden forth from his father's palace as a 
 brilliant young prince. He now returned to it as a wandering 
 preacher, in dingy yellow robes, with shaven head and the 
 begging bowl in his hand. The old king heard him with 
 reverence. The son, whom Buddha had left as a new-born 
 babe, was converted to the faith; and his beloved wife, from 
 the threshold of whose chamber he had ridden away into the 
 darkness, became one of the first of Buddhist nuns. 
 
 Legend of Buddha's Death and Last Words. — Buddha's 
 Great Renunciation took place in his thirtieth year. After long 
 self-preparation, his public teaching began when he was about 
 thirty-six, and during forty-four years he preached to the people. 
 In foretelling his death, he said to his followers : ' Be earnest, 
 be thoughtful, be holy. Keep steadfast watch over your own 
 hearts. He who holds fast to the law and discipline, and faints 
 not, he shall cross the ocean of life and make an end of sorrow.' 
 * The world is fast bound in fetters,' he added ; ' I now give it 
 deliverance, as a physician who brings heavenly medicine. 
 Keep your mind on my teaching : all other things change, this 
 changes not. No more shall I speak to you. I desire to 
 depart. I desire the eternal rest {Nirvana)! He spent the 
 night in preaching, and in comforting a weeping disciple. His 
 latest words, according to one account, were, ' Work out your 
 salvation with diligence.' He died calmly, at the age of eighty, 
 under the shadow of a fig-tree, according to the commonly re- 
 ceived tradition in 543 B.C.; or according to later criticism in 
 478 B.C. 
 
 The Law of Karma. — The secret of Buddha's success was,
 
 THE LIFE OF BUDDHA. 77 
 
 that he brought spiritual deliverance to the people. He 
 preached that salvation was equally open to all men, and that 
 it must be earned, not by propitiating imaginary deities, but 
 by our own conduct. He thus did away with sacrifices, and 
 with the priestly claims of the Brahmans as mediators between 
 God and man. He taught that the slate of a man in this life, 
 in all previous and in all future lives, is the result of his own 
 acts {Karma). What a man sows, that he must reap. As no 
 evil remains without punishment, and no good deed without 
 reward, it follows that neither priest nor God can prevent each 
 act from bringing about its own consequences. Misery or 
 happiness in this hfe is the unavoidable result of our conduct 
 in a past life ; and our actions here will determine our happi- 
 ness or misery in the life to come. When any creature dies, 
 he is born again in some higher or lower state of existence, 
 according to his merit or demerit. His merit or demerit consists 
 of the sum total of his actions in all previous lives. A system 
 like this, in which our whole well-being — past, present, and to 
 come — depends on ourselves, leaves little room for a personal 
 God. 
 
 The Liberation of the Soul. — Life, according to Buddha, 
 must always be more or less painful ; and the object of every 
 good man is to get rid of the evils of existence by merging his 
 individual soul into the universal soul. This is Nirvana, 
 literally ' cessation.' Some scholars explain it to mean that the 
 soul is blown out like the flame of a lamp. Others hold that it 
 is the extinction of the sms, sorrows, and selfishness of a man's 
 individual life — the final rest of the soul. The pious Buddhist 
 strives to reach a state of holy meditation in this world, and he 
 looks forward to an eternal calm in a world to come. Buddha 
 taught tliat this end could only be reached by leading a good 
 life. Instead of the Brahman sacrifices, he laid down three 
 great duties, namely, control over self, kindness to other men, 
 and reverence for the life of all living creatures. 
 
 Missionary Aspects of Buddhism. — He urged on his 
 disciples that they must not only follow the true path them- 
 selves, but that they should preach it to all mankind. Bud- 
 dhism has from the first been a missionary religion. One of the
 
 78 BUDDHISM. 
 
 earliest acts of Buddha's public ministry was to send forth the 
 Sixty Disciples. He also formed a religious order, whose duty 
 it was to go forth unpaid and preach to all nations. While, 
 therefore, the Brahmans kept their ritual for the Twice-born 
 Aryan castes, Buddhism addressed itself not only to those 
 castes and to the lower mass of the people, but to all the 
 non- Aryan races throughout India, and eventually to the whole 
 Asiatic world. 
 
 The First and Second Councils. — On the death of Buddha 
 i" 543 B.C., five hundred of his disciples met in a vast cave 
 near Patna, to gather together his sayings. This was the first 
 Council. They chanted the lessons of their master in three 
 great divisions, — the words of Buddha to his disciples ; his 
 code of discipline ; and his system of doctrine. These became 
 the Three Collections of Buddha's teaching; and the word for 
 a Buddhist Council means literally ' a singing together.' 
 
 A century afterwards, a Second Council, of seven hundred, 
 was held in 443 b.c, to settle disputes between the more and 
 the less strict followers of Buddhism. 
 
 Asoka. — During the next two hundred years Buddhism 
 spread over Northern India. About 257 b.c, Asoka, the King 
 of Magadha or Behar, became a zealous convert to the faith. 
 He was grandson of Chandra Gupta, whom we shall afterwards 
 hear of in Alexander's camp. Asoka is said to have supported 
 64,000 Buddhist priests ; he founded many religious houses ; 
 and his kingdom is called the Land of the Monasteries (Vihara 
 or Behar) to this day. Asoka did for Buddhism what the Em- 
 peror Constantine afterwards effected for Christianity — he made 
 it a State religion. This he accomplished by five means, — (i) 
 by a Council to settle the faith ; (2) by Edicts setting forth its 
 principles ; (3) by a State Department to watch over its purity ; 
 {4) by Missionaries to spread its doctrines ; and (5) by an Au- 
 thoritative Revision or Canon of the Buddhist Scriptures. 
 
 The Work of Asoka. — In 244 e.g., Asoka convened at 
 Patna the Third Buddhist Council, of one thousand elders. 
 Evil men, taking on them the yellow robe of the Buddhist order, 
 had given forth their own opinions as the teaching of Buddha. 
 Such heresies were now corrected ; and the Buddhism of
 
 THE WORK OF ASOKA. 79 
 
 Southern Asia practically dates from Asoka's Council. In a 
 number of edicts, both before and after that Council, he pub- 
 lished throughout his empire the grand principles of the faith. 
 Forty of these royal sermons are still found graven upon pillars, 
 caves, and rocks throughout India. Asoka also founded a State 
 department, with a Minister of Justice and Religion at its head, 
 to watch over the purity, and to direct the spread, of the faith. 
 Wells were to be dug and trees planted along the roads for the 
 wearied wayfarers. Hospitals were established for man and 
 beast. Officers were appointed to watch over family life and 
 the morals of the people, and to promote instruction among the 
 women as well as the youth. Asoka thought it his duty to con- 
 vert all mankind to Buddhism. His rock inscriptions record 
 how he sent forth missionaries ' to the utmost limits of the bar- 
 barian countries,' to ' intermingle among all unbelievers ' for the 
 spread of religion. They were to mix equally with soldiers, 
 Brahmans, and beggars, with the dreaded and the despised, both 
 within the kingdom ' and in foreign countries, teaching better 
 things.' But conversion was to be eifected by persuasion, not 
 by the sword. Buddhism was at once the most intensely 
 missionary religion in the world, and the most tolerant. Asoka, 
 however, not only laboured to spread his religion — he also took 
 steps to keep its doctrines pure. He collected the Buddhist 
 sacred books into an authoritative version, in the Magadhi 
 language of his central kingdom in Behar, — a version which for 
 two thousand years has formed the Southern Canon of the Bud- 
 dhist Scriptures. 
 
 Kanishka. — The fourth and last of the great Buddhist 
 Councils was held under the Scythian King Kanishka, who 
 ruled in North-Western India about 40 a.d. He again revised 
 the sacred books, and his version has supplied the Northern 
 Canon to the Buddhists of Tibet, Tartary, and China. Mean- 
 while Buddhist missionaries were preaching all over Asia. 
 About 244 B.C., Asoka's son is said to have carried his father's 
 Southern Canon of the sacred books to Ceylon, whence it spread 
 in later times to Burma and the Eastern ArchipeLigo. The 
 Northern Canon of Buddhism, as laid down at the Council of 
 Kanishka, became one of the State religions of China in 65 A.n. ;
 
 8o BUDDHISM. 
 
 and it is still professed by the northern Buddhists from Tibet 
 to Japan. The Buddhist ritual and doctrines also spread west- 
 wards, and exercised an influence upon early Christianity. 
 
 Buddhism as a National Religion. — Buddhism was thus 
 formed into a State religion by the Councils of Asoka and 
 Kanishka. It did not abolish caste. On the contrary, rever- 
 ence to Brahmans and to the spiritual" guide ranked as one of 
 the three great duties, along with obedience to parents and acts 
 of kindness to all men and animals. Buddha, however, divided 
 mankind not by their caste, but according to their religious merit. 
 He told his hearers to live good lives, not to offer victims to the 
 gods. The public worship in Buddhist countries consists, there- 
 fore, in doing honour to the relics of holy men who are dead, 
 instead of sacrifices. Its sacred buildings were, originally, not 
 temples to the gods, but monasteries for the monks and nuns, 
 with their bells and rosaries ; or memorial shrines, reared over 
 a tooth or bone of the founder of the faith. 
 
 Buddha's personality denied. — While, on the one hand, 
 many miraculous stories have grown up around Buddha's life 
 and death, it has been denied, on the other hand, that such a 
 person as Buddha ever existed. The date of his birth cannot 
 be fixed with certainty; the dates which I have given for his life 
 are those of the received Indian tradition. Some scholars hold 
 that Buddhism is merely a religion based on the Brahmanical 
 or Sankhya philosophy of Kapila. They argue that Buddha's 
 birth is placed at a purely allegorical town, Kapila- Vastu, ' the 
 abode of Kapila '; that his mother is called Maya-devi, in refer- 
 ance to the Maya or 'illusion' doctrine of Kapila's system; and 
 that the very name of Buddha is not that of any real person, but 
 merely means ' The Enlightened.' This theory is so far true, 
 that Buddhism was not a sudden invention of any single mind, 
 but was worked out from the Brahman philosophy and religion 
 which preceded it. But such a view leaves out of sight the two 
 great traditional features of Buddhism, namely, the preacher's 
 appeal to the people, and the undying influence of his own 
 beautiful life. 
 
 Brahmanism never crushed. — Buddhism never drove Brah- 
 manism out of India. The two religions lived together during
 
 StLADITYA. 8 1 
 
 more than a thousand years, from before 250 b.c. to about 900 
 A.D. Modern Hinduism is the joint product of both. In certain 
 kingdoms of India, and at certain periods, Buddhism prevailed. 
 But Brahmanism was at no time crushed; and the Brahmans in 
 the end claimed Buddha as the ninth incarnation of their own 
 god, Vishnu. The Chinese Pilgrims to India in 400 and 630 a.d. 
 found Buddhist monasteries and Brahman temples side by side. 
 
 Council of Siladitya, 634 A.D. — In Northern India, for ex- 
 ample, a famous Buddhist king, Siladitya, ruled at the latter date. 
 He seems to have been an Asoka of the seventh century a.d.; and 
 he strictly carried out the two great Buddhist duties of charity 
 and spreading the faith. He tried to extend Buddhism by 
 means of a General Council in 634 a.d. Twenty-one tributary 
 sovereigns attended, together with the most learned Buddhist 
 monks and Brahmans of their kingdoms. But the object of 
 the Council was not merely to assert the Buddhist faith. It 
 dealt with the two religions of India at that time. First, a 
 discussion took place between the Buddhists and the Brahmans; 
 second, a dispute between the two Buddhist sects who followed 
 respectively the Northern Scriptures or Canon of Kanishka and 
 the Southern Scriptures or Canon of Asoka. The rites of the 
 populace were as mixed as the doctrines of their teachers. On 
 the first day of the Council, a statue of Buddha was installed 
 with great pomp ; on the second, an image of the Brahman 
 Sun-god ; on the third, an idol of the Hindu Siva. 
 
 Siladitya's Charity. — Siladitya held a solemn distribution 
 of his royal treasures every five years. The Cliinese Pilgrim 
 Hiuen Tsiang describes how, on the plain where the Ganges 
 and the Jumna unite their waters, near Allahabad, all the kings 
 of the empire, and a multitude of people, were feasted for 
 seventy-five days. Sfladitya brought forth the stores of his palace, 
 and gave them away to Brahmans and Buddhists, monks and 
 heretics, without distinction. At the end of the festival he 
 stripped off his jewels and royal raiment, handed them to the 
 bystanders, and, like Buddha of old, put on the rags of a beggar. 
 By this ceremony the king commemorated the Great Renuncia- 
 tion of Buddha, and also practised the highest duty laid down by 
 the Brahmans, namely, almsgiving. 
 
 r
 
 82 BUDDHISM. 
 
 Monastery of Nalanda. — The vast Buddhist monastery of 
 Nalanda, near Gaya, formed a seat of learning which recalls the 
 Christian abbeys and universities of mediaeval Europe. Ten 
 thousand monks and novices of the eighteen Buddhist schools 
 here studied theology, philosophy, law, science, especially medi- 
 cine, and practised their devotions. They lived in learned ease, 
 fed by the royal bounty. But even this stronghold of Buddhism 
 is a proof that Buddhism was only one of two hostile creeds in 
 India. During one short period (about 640 a.d.) it was three 
 times destroyed by the enemies of the Buddhist faith. 
 
 Victory of Brahmanism, 700 to 900 A.D. — Between 700 
 and 900 A.D. there arose various great reformers of the Brahman 
 faith. After 800 a.d. Brahmanism gradually became the ruling 
 religion. Legends dimly tell of persecutions stirred up by Brah- 
 man reformers. But although there were severe local persecu- 
 tions of Buddhists, the downfall of Buddhism seems to have 
 resulted partly from its own decay, and from new movements of 
 religious thought, rather than from any general suppression by 
 the sword. In the tenth century, only outlying states, such as 
 Kashmir and Orissa, remained faithful ; and before the Muham- 
 madans fairly came upon the scene, Buddhism as a popular 
 faith had almost disappeared from India. 
 
 Buddhism an Exiled Religion, 900 A.D. — During the last 
 thousand years Buddhism has been a banished religion from its 
 native Indian home. But it has won greater triumphs in its exile 
 than it could have ever achieved in the land of its birth. It 
 created a literature and a religion for nearly one-half of the human 
 race ; and it is supposed, by its influence on early Christianity, to 
 have affected the beliefs of a large part of the other half. Five 
 hundred millions of men, or forty per cent, of the inhabitants of 
 the world, still follow the teaching of Buddha. Afghanistan, 
 Nepal, Eastern Turkistan, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, China, 
 Japan, the Eastern Archipelago, Siam, Burma, Ceylon, and 
 India, at one time or another marked the magnificent circle of 
 its conquests. Its shrines and monasteries stretched from what 
 are now provinces of the Russian empire, to Japan and the 
 islands of the Malay Sea. During twenty-four centuries. Bud- 
 dhism has encountered and outlived a series of rival faiths. At
 
 THE JAINS. 83 
 
 this day it forms, with Christianity and Islam, one of the three 
 great religions of the world ; and the most numerously followed 
 of the three. 
 
 The Jains. — Even in India Buddhism did not altogether 
 die. Many of its doctrines still live in Hinduism. It also left 
 behind a special sect, the Jains, who number about i^ millions 
 in India. Like the Buddhists, they deny the authority of the 
 Veda, except in so far as it agrees with their own tenets ; 
 disregard sacrifice ; practise a strict morality ; believe that their 
 past and future states depend upon their own actions rather 
 than on any external deity; and refuse to kill either man or 
 beast. The Jains divide time into three eras ; and adore twenty- 
 {onrjinas, or just men made perfect, in the past age, twenty-four 
 in the present, and twenty-four in the era to come. The colossal 
 statues of this great company of saints stand in their temples. 
 They choose wooded mountains and the most lovely retreats of 
 nature for their places of pilgrimage, and cover them with ex- 
 quisitely carved shrines in white marble or dazzling stucco. The 
 Jains of India are usually merchants or bankers. Their charity 
 is boundless; and they form the chief supporters of the beast 
 hospitals, which the old Buddhistic tenderness for animals has 
 left in many of the cities of India. They claim, not without 
 evidence, that the Jain religion is even older than Buddhism; 
 and that the teaching of Buddha was based on the Jain faith. 
 
 The Present Influence of Buddhism in India. — Bud- 
 dhism is still the religion of Burma, and has there nearly seven 
 millions of followers, or nine-tenths of the population. The Bud- 
 dhist monasteries have from ancient times been schools for the 
 young as well as religious houses for the monks ; and they now 
 form the basis of the British system of Public Instruction through- 
 out Burma. In all the rest of British India there are only about 
 133.000 pure Buddhists, chiefly in the Bengal Districts adjacent 
 to Burma, and in the remote valleys of the Himalayan ranges. 
 From time to time Buddhism seems to take a new start in Lower 
 Bengal, and Buddhist journals are published in Calcutta and 
 elsewhere. The Jain faith, an allied religion to Indian Buddhism, 
 has been described in the last paragraph. But the noblest 
 survivals of Buddhism in India are to be found not among any 
 
 F 2
 
 84 BUDDHISM. 
 
 peculiar body, but in the religion of the whole Hindu people ; in 
 that principle of the brotherhood of man, with the re-assertion 
 of which each new revival of Hinduism starts ; in the asylum 
 which the great Hindu sect of Vaishnavs affords to women who 
 have fallen victims to caste rules, to the widow and the outcast ; 
 in that gentleness and charity to all men, which take the place of 
 a poor-law in India, and give a high significance to the half- 
 satirical epithet of the ' mild ' Hindu. 
 
 Materials fop. Reference. 
 
 The most convenient English summary of this subject will be found in 
 Professor Rhys Davids' Buddhism, his Buddhist Birth-Stories, and Hibbert 
 Lectures. Among many other works may be mentioned Bishop Bigandet's 
 Life and Legend of Biidd ha (London edition, iS8o) ; Spence Hardy's yJ/(Z««a/ 
 of Buddhism (modern), and his Eastern Monachism ; Oldenherg's Bziddha, 
 sein Leben (and English translation by Hoey, 1SS2, an admirable work) ; 
 Rockhill's Life of the Buddha (from Tibetan sources) ; Senart's Essai sur 
 la Legende du Bouddha ; Beale's Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the 
 Chinese ; Edkin's Chinese Buddhism ; Childers' Dictionary of the Pali 
 Laiiguage (s. v. Buddho, &c.) ; General Cunningham's Ancient Geography 
 of India, his Corpus Inscriptionum Indicaruni, and his other archreological 
 writings, of which the latest is the Alahdbodhi, or the Great Buddhist Temple 
 at Buddha-Gaya (1892). An interesting Buddhist magazine, entitled The 
 Journal of the Mahdbodhi Society, is published monthly in Calcutta (1S92).
 
 [85] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Greeks in India, 327 to 161 B.C. 
 
 External Sources of the History of India. — The ex- 
 ternal history of India commences with the Greek invasion in 
 327 B.C. Some indirect trade between India and the Mediter- 
 ranean seems to have existed from very ancient times. Homer 
 was acquainted with tin, and other articles of Indian merchandise 
 by their Sanskrit names ; and a long list has been made of 
 Indian products mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The first 
 Greek historian who speaks clearly of India is Hekataios of 
 Miletos (549-486 B.C.); the knowledge of Herodotos (450 b.c.) 
 ended at the Indus; and Ktesias, the physician (401 b.c), 
 brought back from his residence in Persia only a few facts about, 
 the products of India, its dyes and fabrics, monkeys and parrots. 
 India to the east of the Indus was first made known to Europe 
 by the historians and men of science who accompanied Alexan- 
 der the Great, King of Mace don, in 327 b.c 
 
 Alexander's Expedition. — Alexander the Great entered 
 India early in 327 B.C.; crossed the Indus above Attock, and 
 advanced, without a struggle, over the intervening territory of 
 the Taxiles to the Jehlam (Hydaspcs). He found the Punjab 
 divided into petty kingdoms jealous of each other, and many 
 of them inclined to join an invader rather than to oppose him. 
 One of these local monarchs, Porus, disputed the passage of the 
 Jehlam with a force which, substituting chariots for guns, about 
 equalled the army of RanjiL Singh, the ruler of the Punjab in the 
 present century. Plutarch gives a vivid description of the battle 
 from Alexander's own letters. Having drawn up his troops at 
 a bend of the Jehlam, about 14 miles west of the modern field 
 of Chilianwala, the Greek king crossed undef shelter of a 
 tempestuous night. The chariots hurried out by Porus stuck in 
 the muddy bank of the river. In the engagement which fol- 
 lowed, the elephants of the Indian prince refused to face the 
 Greeks, and, wheeling round, trampled Porus' own army under foot. 
 His son fell early in the onset ; Porus himself fled wounded ;
 
 86 THE GREEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 but, on tendering his submission, he was confirmed in his king- 
 dom, and became Alexander's trusted friend. Alexander built 
 two memorial cities on the site of his victory — Bucephala, on 
 the west bank of the Jehlam (near the modern Jalalpur), named 
 after his beloved charger slain in the battle; and Nikaia, the 
 present IMong, on the east side of the river, 
 
 Alexander in the Punjab. — Alexander advanced south- 
 east through the kingdom of the younger Porus to Amritsar, 
 and, after a sharp bend backward to the west to fight the 
 Kathaei at Sangala, he reached the Beas (Hyphasis). Here, at 
 a spot not far from the modern battle-field of Sobraon, he 
 halted his victorious standards. He had resolved to march to 
 the Ganges ; but his troops were worn out by the heats of the 
 Punjab summer, and broken in spirit by the hurricanes of the 
 south-west monsoon. The native tribes had already risen in 
 his rear ; and the Conqueror of the World was forced to turn 
 back before he had crossed even the frontier Province of India. 
 The Sutlej, the eastern Districts of the Punjab, and the mighty 
 Jumna still lay between him and the Ganges. A single defeat 
 might have been fatal to his army ; if the battle on the Jehlam 
 had gone against him, not a Greek would probably have reached 
 the Afghan side of the passes. Yielding at length to the clamour 
 of his men, he led them back to the Jehlam. He there em- 
 barked 8000 of his troops in boats, and floated them down the 
 river through the Southern Punjab to Sind ; the remainder of 
 his army marched in two divisions along the banks. 
 
 Alexander in Sind. — The country was hostile, and the 
 Greeks held only the land on which they encamped. At Miiltan, 
 then as now the capital of the Southern Punjab, Alexander had 
 to fight a pitched battle with the Malli, and was severely wounded 
 in taking the city. His enraged troops put every soul within it 
 to the sword. Farther down, near the confluence of the Five 
 Rivers of the Punjab, he made a long halt, built a town, Alexan- 
 dria, — the modern Uchh, — and received the submission of the 
 neighbouring states. A Greek garrison and satrap, whom he 
 here left behind, laid the foundation of a lasting Greek influence. 
 Having constructed a new fleet, suitable for the greater rivers on 
 which he was now to embark, Alexander proceeded southwards
 
 ALEXANDER AND CHANDRA GUPTA. 87 
 
 through Sind, and followed the course of the Indus until he 
 reached the ocean. In the apex of the delta, he founded or 
 refounded a city — Patala — which survives to this day as Hai- 
 darabad, the native capital of Sind. At the mouth of the Indus, 
 Alexander beheld for the first time the majestic phenomenon of 
 the tides. One part of his army he shipped off under the com- 
 mand of Nearchus to coast along the Persian Gulf ; the 
 remainder he himself led through Southern Baluchistan and 
 Persia to Susa, where, after terrible losses from want of water 
 and famine on the march, he arrived in 325 B.C. 
 
 Results of Alexander the Great's Expedition. — During 
 his two years' campaign in the Punjab and Sind, Alexander 
 subjugated no Province; but he made alliances, founded cities, 
 and planted Greek garrisons. He had given much territory to 
 Indian chiefs devoted to his cause ; every petty Indian court 
 had its Greek faction ; and the troops which he left behind at 
 many points, from the Afghan frontier on the west to the Beas 
 river on the east, and as far south as the Sind delta, seemed 
 visible pledges of his return. A large part of his army remained 
 in Bactria ; and in the partition of the empire after Alexander's 
 death in 323 b. c, Bactria and India fell to Seleukos Nikator, 
 the founder of the Syrian monarchy. 
 
 Chandra Gupta. — Meanwhile a new power had arisen in 
 India. Among the Indian adventurers who thronged Alexan- 
 der's camp in the Punjab, each with his plot for winning a 
 kingdom or crushing a rival, Chandra Gupta, an exile from the 
 Gangetic valley, seems to have played a somewhat ignominious 
 part. He tried to tempt the wearied Greeks on the banks of 
 the Bcas with schemes of conquest in the rich Provinces of 
 Hindustan to the south-east ; but, having personally offended 
 Alexander, he had to fly the camp (326 B.C.). In the confused 
 years which followed, he managed, with the aid of plundering 
 hordes, to found a kingdom on the ruins of the Nanda dynasty 
 in Magadha, or Behar (316 b.c). He seized their capital, 
 Pataliputra, the modern Patna ; established himself firmly in the 
 Gangetic valley, and compelled the north-western principalities, 
 Greek garrisons and Indian princes alike, to acknowledge his 
 suzerainty. While the Greek general Seleukos was winning his
 
 '88 THE GREEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 way to Lhe Syrian monarchy during the eleven years which 
 followed Alexander's death, Chandra Gupta was building up an 
 empire in Northern India. Seleukos reigned in Syria from 312 to 
 280 B.C.; ChandraGuptain theGangeticvalleyfrom 31610 292B.C. 
 In 312 B.C. these two monarchs advanced their kingdoms to each 
 other's frontier ; they had to decide whether they were to live in 
 peace or at war. Seleukos in the end sold the Greek conquests 
 in the Kabul valley and the Punjab to Chandra Gupta, and gave 
 his daughter in marriage to the Indian king. He also stationed a 
 Greek ambassador at Chandra Gupta's court from 306 to 298 b.c. 
 
 Megasthenes' Account of India. — This ambassador was 
 the famous Megasthenes. His description of India is perhaps 
 the best that reached Europe during two thousand years, from 
 300 B.C. to 1700 A.D. He says that the people were divided 
 into seven castes instead of four — namely, philosophers, hus- 
 bandmen, shepherds, artisans, soldiers, inspectors, and the 
 counsellors of the king. The philosophers were the Brahmans, 
 and the prescribed stages of their religious life are indicated. 
 Megasthenes draws a distinction between the Brahmans (Brach- 
 manes) and the Sramans {Sarmanat), from which some scholars 
 infer that the Buddhist Sramanas or monks were a recognized 
 order fifty years before the Council of Asoka. But the Sarmanai 
 of Megasthenes probably also include Brahmans in the first and 
 third stages of their hfe, as students and forest recluses. The 
 inspectors, or sixth class Of Megasthenes, have been identified 
 with the Buddhist supervisors of morals. Arrian's name for 
 them, episkopoi, is the Greek word which has become our modern 
 Bishop or overseer of souls. 
 
 Indian Society, 300 B. C. — The Greek ambassador 
 observed with admiration the absence of slavery in India, the 
 chastity of the women, and the courage of the men. In valour, 
 he says, they excelled all other Asiatics ; they required no locks 
 to their doors ; above all, no Indian was ever known to tell a 
 lie. Sober and industrious, good farmers, and skilful artisans, 
 they scarcely ever had recourse to a lawsuit, and lived peaceably 
 under their native chiefs. The kingly government is portrayed 
 almost as described in the Code of Manu. Megasthenes men- 
 tions that India was divided into 118 kingdoms ; some of which,
 
 INDIAN SOCIETY, 300 B.C. 89 
 
 as the Prasii under Chandra Gupta, exercised suzerain powers 
 over other kings or dependent princes. The Indian village 
 system is well described, each of the village communities seem- 
 ing to the Greek an independent republic. Megasthenes 
 remarked the exemption of the husbandmen (Vaisyas) from war 
 and public services ; and enumerates the dyes, fibres, fabrics, 
 and products (animal, vegetable, and mineral) of India. Hus- 
 bandry then as now depended on the periodical rains ; and 
 forecasts of the weather, with a view to ' make adequate provi- 
 sion against a coming deficiency,' formed a special duty of the 
 Brahmans. ' The philosopher,' he says, ' who errs in his pre- 
 dictions observes silence for the rest of his life.' 
 
 Later Greek Invasions. — After the time of Alexander the 
 Great the Greeks made no important conquests in India. 
 Antiochos, the grandson of Seleukos, entered into a treaty with 
 the famous Buddhist king, Asoka, the grandson of Chandra 
 Gupta, in 256 b.c The Greeks had founded a powerful 
 kingdom in Bactria, to the north-west of the Himalayas. During 
 the hundred years after the Indo-Greek treaty of 256 b.c. the 
 Greco-Bactrian kings sent invading hosts into the Punjab ; 
 some of whom reached eastwards as far as Muttra, or even 
 Oudh, and southwards to Sind and Cutch, between 181 and 
 161 B.C. But they founded no kingdoms; and the only traces 
 which the Greeks left in India were their science of astronomy, 
 their beautiful sculptures, and their coins. Some of the early 
 Buddhist statues, after 250 b.c, have exquisite Greek faces; 
 and the same type is preserved in the most ancient carvings on 
 the Hindu temples. By degrees even this trace of Greek in- 
 fluence faded away ; but specimens of Indo-Greek sculptures 
 may still be found in the museums of India. 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The works most easily available to the Enjjlish reader are Mr. 
 McCrindle's admirable series of translations of the Greek writers, and 
 fragments dealing with India, eppecially his Conime7-ce and Navigation of 
 the Erythtccan Sca\ General Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India; 
 Weber's History of Indian literature ; and the Reports of the Archceolo- 
 gical Survey of India, especially of Western India. Mr. McCrindle's trans- 
 lations are about to be republished by Mr. Constable under the title of 
 The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, 
 Quintus Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch, and fustin (iS()2).
 
 [9o] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The ScytMc Inroads, from about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. 
 
 The Scythians in Central Asia. — The Greek or Bactrian 
 expeditions into India ended more than a century before 
 Christ ; but a new set of invaders soon began to pour into India 
 from the north. These came from Central Asia, and, for want 
 of a more exact name, have been called the Scythians. They 
 belonged to many tribes, and they form a connecting link 
 between Indian and Chinese history. As the Aryan race 
 in the west of Asia had, perhaps 3000 years before Christ, 
 sent off branches to Europe on the one hand, and to India 
 on the other ; so the Scythians, who dwelt to the east of 
 the old Aryan camping-ground in Asia, swarmed forth into 
 India and to China. These Scythic inroads went on during 
 a great period of time. Buddha himself is said by some to 
 have been a Scythian. But they took place in very great 
 force during the century preceding the birth of Christ. They 
 were the forerunners of a long series of inroads which devastated 
 Northern India more than a thousand years later, under such 
 leaders as Changiz Khan and Timur, and which in the end 
 founded the Mughal empire. 
 
 Scythic Kingdoms in Northern India. — About the year 
 126 B.C., the Tartar or Scythian tribe of Su are said to have driven 
 out the Greek dynasty from the Bactrian kingdom, on the 
 north-west of the Himalayas. Soon afterwards the Scythians 
 rushed through the Himalayan passes and conquered the 
 Greco-Bactrian settlements in the Punjab. About the beginning 
 of the Christian era, they had founded a strong monarchy 
 in Northern India and in the countries just beyond. Their 
 most famous king was Kanishka, who summoned the Fourth 
 Buddhist Council about 40 a.d. King Kanishka held his court
 
 KING VIKRAMADITYA. 9 1 
 
 in Kashmfr ; but his suzerainty extended from Agra and Sind 
 in the south, to Yarkand and Khokand on the north of the 
 Himalayas. He seems to have carried on successful wars as 
 far as China. Six hundred years afterwards, in 630 a.d., a town 
 called China-pati in the Punjab was pointed out as the place 
 where King Kanishka kept his Chinese hostages. The Scythian 
 monarchies of Northern India came in contact with the Buddhist 
 kingdom under the successors of Asoka in Hindustan. The 
 Scythians themselves became Buddhists ; but they made changes 
 in that faith. The result was, as we have seen, that while the 
 countries to the south of India had adopted the Buddhist 
 religion as settled by Asoka's Council in 244 b.c, the Buddhist 
 religion as settled by Kanishka's Council in 40 a.d. became 
 the faith of the Scythian nations to the north of India, from 
 Central Asia to Japan {ante, p. 79). 
 
 Scythic Races still in India. — Kanishka was the most 
 famous of the Scythian kings in India, but there were many 
 other Scythian settlements. Indeed, the Scythians are believed 
 to have poured into India in such numbers as to make up a 
 large proportion of the population in the north-western frontier 
 Provinces at the present day. For example, two old Scythian 
 tribes, the Getae and the Dahae, are said to have dwelt side by 
 side in Central Asia, and perhaps advanced together into India. 
 Some writers hold that the Jats, who form nearly one-half of the 
 inhabitants of the Punjab, are descended from these ancient 
 Getae ; and that a great subdivision of the Jats, called the Dhe, 
 in like manner sprang from the Dahae. Other scholars try to 
 show that certain of the Rajput tribes are of Scythian origin. 
 However this may be, it is clear that many Scythian inroads 
 took place into India from the first century b.c. to the fifth 
 century a.d. 
 
 King Vikramaditya, 57 B.C. —During that long period 
 several Indian monarchs won fame by attempting to drive out 
 the Scythians. The best known of these is Vikramaditya, 
 King of Ujjain in Malwa, in honour of whose victories one of 
 the great eras in India, or systems of reckoning historical 
 dates, is supposed to have been founded. It is called the 
 Savivat era, and begins in 57 b.c. Its reputed founder is still
 
 92 THE SCYTHIC INROADS. 
 
 known as Vikramaditya Sakari, or Vikramaditya the enemy 
 of the Scythians. According to the Indian tradition, he was 
 a learned as well as a valiant monarch, and he gathered round 
 him the poets and philosophers of his time. The chief of these 
 were called ' The Nine Jewels ' of the court of Vikramaditya. 
 They became so famous, that in after times a great many of the 
 best Sanskrit poems or dramas, and works of philosophy or 
 science, were ascribed to them ; although the style and contents 
 of the works prove that they must have been written at widely 
 different periods. The truth is that the name Vikramaditya is 
 merely a royal title, meaning ' A very Sun in Prowess,' which 
 has been borne by several kings in Indian history. But the Vikra- 
 maditya of the first century before Christ was the most famous 
 of them — famous alike as a defender of his country against the 
 Scythian hordes, as a patron of men of learningj and as a good 
 ruler of his subjects. 
 
 King Salivahana, 78 A.D. — About a hundred years later, 
 another valiant Indian king arose against the Scythians. His 
 name was Salivahana ; and a new era, called the Sdka or 
 Scythian, was founded in his honour in 78 a.d. These two 
 eras — the Samvat, beginning in 57 B.C., and the Sdka, com- 
 mencing in 78 A.D. — still form two well-known systems of 
 reckoning historical dates in India. 
 
 Later Opponents of the Scythians. — During the next five 
 centuries, three great Indian dynasties maintained the struggle 
 against the Scythians. The Sah kings reigned in the north-west 
 of Bombay from 60 to 235 a.d. The Gupta kings reigned in 
 Oudh and Northern India from 319 to 470 a.d., when they 
 seem to have been overpowered by fresh hosts of Huns or 
 Scythians. The Valabhi kings ruled over Cutch, Malwa, 
 and the north-western districts of Bombay from 480 to after 
 722 A.D. The Greek traders in the Red Sea heard of the 
 Huns as a powerful nation of Northern India about 
 535 A.D. The Chinese Pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, gives a full 
 account of the court and people of Valabhf (630-640 a.d.). 
 His description shows that Buddhism was the State religion ; 
 but heretics (i.e. Brahmans) abounded ; and the Buddhists 
 themselves were divided between the northern school of the
 
 INDIAN DYNASTIES, lOO TO 700 A.D. 93 
 
 Scythian dynasties, and the southern or Indian school of Asoka. 
 The Valabhf dynasty seems to have been overthrown by the 
 early Arab invaders of Sind in the eighth century a.d. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The leading sources for this obscure and confused period are the Reports 
 of the ArchcEological Survey of Western India ; the coins and inscriptions 
 of the Gupta, Sah, and other dynasties ; Rockhill's Life of the Buddha ; 
 the Gazetteers or District Statistical Surveys of Northern and Western India 
 and of the Central Provinces ; articles contributed to the Indian Antiquary ; 
 Colonel Tod's not always trustworthy Annals ajid Antiquities of Rdjdsthdn ; 
 the magnificent volumes of the Corpus Inscriptionuni Indica7~um. ; and 
 various papers in the Royal Asiatic Society s Journal by Dr. James Fergusson 
 and other polemical scholars.
 
 [94] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Growth of Hinduism, 700 to 1500 A.D. 
 
 The Three Sources of the Indian People. — We have 
 now got a view of the three races which make up the Indian 
 people. These were, first, the non- Aryans, or the earliest 
 inhabitants of the country, sometimes called the aborigines. 
 Second, the Aryan race, who came to India from Central Asia 
 in prehistoric times. Third, the Scythians or Tartars, who had 
 also begun to move into India before the dawn of history, and 
 whose later hordes came in great force between the first century 
 B.C. and the fifth century after Christ. Each of these races had 
 their own customs, their own religion, and their own speech. 
 
 The Aryans and the non-Aryans. — The non-Aryans 
 were hunting tribes. In their family life, some of them kept up 
 the early form of marriage, according to which a woman was the 
 wife of several brethren, and a man's property descended, not 
 to his own, but to his sister's children. In their religion, the 
 non-Aryans worshipped demons, and tried by bloody sacrifices 
 or human victims to avert the wrath of the malignant spirits 
 whom they called gods. The Aryans early advanced beyond 
 the rude existence of the hunter to the semi-settled industry of 
 the cattle-breeder and tiller of the soil. In their family life, a 
 woman had only one husband, and their customs and laws of 
 inheritance were nearly the same as those which now prevail in 
 India. In their religion, they worshipped bright and friendly gods. 
 
 The Scythians.— The third race, or the Scythians, held a 
 position between the other two. The early Scythians, indeed, 
 who arrived in prehistoric times, may have been as wild as the 
 non-Aryans, and they probably supplied a section of what we 
 call the aborigines of India. But the Scythian hordes, who 
 l^oured into India from 126 b.c. to 400 a.d., were neither 
 hunters like the Indian non-Aryan tribes, nor half-cultivators like 
 the Aryans. They were shepherds or herdsmen, who roamed
 
 THE ARYAN CIVILIZATION OF INDIA. 95 
 
 across the plains of Central Asia with their cattle, and whose 
 one talent was for war. 
 
 The Aryan Work of Civilization. — The Aryans supplied, 
 therefore, the civilizing power in India. One of their divisions 
 or castes, the Vaisyas, brought the soil under the plough ; 
 another caste, the Kshattriyas, conquered the rude non-Aryan 
 peoples ; their third caste, the Brahmans, created a religion and 
 a literature. The early Brahman religion made no account of 
 the lower races ; but, as we have seen, about 500 b. c. a wider 
 creed, called the Buddhist, was based upon it. This new faith 
 did much to bring the early non- Aryan tribes under the influence 
 of the higher Aryan race, and it was accepted by the later 
 Scythian hordes who came into India from 126 B.C. to 400 a.d. 
 Buddhism was therefore the first great bond of union among the 
 Indian races. It did something to combine the non-Aryans, 
 the Aryans, and the Scythians into a people with similar 
 customs and a common faith. But it was driven out of India 
 before it finished its work. 
 
 The Brahmans. — The work was continued by the Brahmans. 
 This ancient caste, which had held a high place even during 
 the triumph of the Buddhist religion, became all-powerful upon 
 the decay of that faith. The Chinese Pilgrim to India in 
 640 A.D. relates how the Brahmans, or, as he calls them, the 
 heretics, were again establishing their power. The Buddhist 
 monasteries had, even at that time, a struggle to hold their own 
 against the Brahman temples. During the next two centuries 
 the Brahmans gradually got the upper hand. The conflict 
 between the two religions brought forth a great line of Brahman 
 apostles, some of whose lives are almost as beautiful as that of 
 Buddha himself. The first of these, Kumarila, a holy Brahman 
 of Behar, began his preaching in the eighth century a.d. He 
 taught the old Vedic doctrine of a personal Creator and 
 God. The Buddhists had no personal God. According 
 to a later legend, Kumarila not only preached against the 
 Buddhists, but persuaded a king of Southern India to per- 
 secute them. This prince, it is said, ' commanded his servants 
 to put to death the old men and the young children of the 
 Buddhists, from the southernmost point of India to the Snowy
 
 96 GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 Mountain, Let him who slays not, be slain.' At that time, 
 liowever, there was no king in India whose power to persecute 
 reached from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. The story is 
 probably an exaggerated account of a local persecution by one 
 of the many princes of Southern India. The Brahmans gained 
 the victory partly because Buddhism was itself decaying, and 
 partly because they offered a new bond of union to the Indian 
 races. This new bond of union was Hinduism. 
 
 Twofold Basis of Hinduism. — Hinduism is a social league 
 and a religious alliance. As a social league, it rests upon caste, 
 and has its roots deep down in the race elements of the Indian 
 people. As a religious alliance, it represents the union of the 
 Vedic faith of the Brahmans with Buddliism on the one hand, 
 and with the ruder rites of the non-Aryan peoples on the other. 
 We must get a clear view of both these aspects of Hinduism 
 — as a social league, and as a religious alliance. 
 
 Caste Basis of Hinduism. — As a social league, Hinduism 
 arranged the people into the old division of the ' Twice-born ' 
 Aryan castes, namely the Brahmans, Kshattriyas, Vaisyas ; and 
 the ' Once-born ' castes, consisting of the non-Aryan Siidras, and 
 the classes of mixed descent. This arrangement of the Indian 
 races remains to the present day. The ' Twice-born ' castes 
 still wear the sacred thread, and claim a joint, although an 
 unequal, inheritance in the holy books of the Veda. The ' Once- 
 born ' castes are still denied the sacred thread ; and they were 
 not allowed to study the holy books, until the English set up 
 schools in India for all classes of the people. But while caste 
 is thus founded on the distinctions of race, it has been influenced 
 by two other systems of division, namely, the employments of the 
 people, and the localities in which they live. Even in the oldest 
 times, the castes had separate occupations assigned to them. 
 They could be divided either into Brahmans, Kshattriyas, 
 Vaisyas, and Sudras ; or into priests, warriors, husbandmen, 
 and serfs. They are also divided according to the parts of India 
 in which they live. Even the Brahmans have among themselves 
 ten distinct classes, or rather nations. Five of these classes or 
 Brahman nations live to the north of the Vindhya mountains ; 
 five of them live to the south. Each of the ten feels itself to be
 
 CASTE AS A TRADE GUILD. 97 
 
 quite apart from the rest ; and they have among themselves no 
 fewer than 1886 subdivisions or separate Brahmanical tribes. In 
 like manner, the Kshattriyas or Rajputs number 590 separate 
 tribes in different parts of India. 
 
 Complexity of Caste. — While, therefore, Indian caste 
 seems at first a very simple arrangement of the people into 
 four classes, it is in reality a very complex one. For . it rests 
 upon three distinct systems of division ; namely, upon race, 
 occupation, and geographical position. It is very difficult even 
 to guess at the number of the Indian castes. But there are not 
 fewer than 3000 01 them w^hich have separate names, and which 
 regard themselves as separate classes. The different castes 
 cannot intermarry with each other, and most of them cannot 
 eat together. The ordinary rule is that no Hindu of good caste 
 can touch food cooked by a man of inferior caste. By rights, 
 too, each caste should keep to its own occupation. Indeed, 
 there has been a tendency to erect every separate kind of 
 employment or handicraft in each separate Province into a 
 distinct caste. But, as a matter of practice, the castes often 
 change their occupation, and the lower ones sometimes raise 
 themselves in the social scale. Thus the Vaisya caste were in 
 ancient times the tillers of the soil. They have in most Provinces 
 given up this toilsome occupation, and the Vaisyas are now the 
 great merchants and bankers of India. Their fair skins, intelligent 
 faces, and polite bearing, must have altered since the days when 
 their forefathers ploughed, sowed, and reaped under the hot sun. 
 Such changes of employment still occur on a smaller scale 
 throughout India. 
 
 Caste as a System of Trade-guilds. — The system of caste 
 exercises a great influence upon the industries of the people. 
 Each caste is, in the first place, a trade-guild. It ensures the 
 proper training of the youth of its own special craft ; it makes 
 rules for the conduct of the caste-trade ; it promotes good 
 feeling by feasts or social gatherings. The famous manufactures 
 of medioeval India, its muslins, silks, cloth of gold, inlaid 
 weapons, and exquisite work in precious stones — were brought 
 to perfection under the care of the castes or trade-guilds. Such 
 guilds may still be found in full work in many parts of India. 
 
 G
 
 98 GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 Thus, in the North-Western Districts of Bombay, all heads of 
 artisan families are ranged under their proper trade-guild. The 
 trade-guild or caste prevents undue competition among the 
 members, and upholds the interest of its own body in any 
 dispute arising with other craftsmen. 
 
 In 1873, for example, a number of the bricklayers in Ahmada- 
 bad could not find work. Men of this class sometimes added to 
 their daily wages by rising very early in the morning, and 
 working overtime. But when several families complained that 
 they could not get employment, the bricklayers' guild met, and 
 decided that as there was not enough work for all, no member 
 should be allowed to work in extra hours. In the same city, the 
 clothdealers in 1872 tried to cut down the wages of the sizers or 
 men who dress the cotton cloth. The sizers' guild refused to 
 work at lower rates, and remained six weeks on strike. At 
 length they arranged their dispute, and both the trade-guilds 
 signed a stamped agreement fixing the rates for the future. 
 Each of the higher castes or trade-guilds in Ahmadabad 
 receives a fee from young men on entering their business. 
 The revenue derived from these fees, and from fines upon 
 members who break caste rules, is spent in feasts to the 
 brethren of the guild, and in helping the poorer craftsmen or 
 their orphans. A favourite plan of raising money in Surat is for 
 the members of the trade to keep a certain day as a holiday, 
 and to shut up all their shops except one. The right to keep 
 open this one shop is put up to auction, and the amount bid is 
 expended on a feast. The trade-guild or caste allows none of 
 its members to starve. It thus acts as a mutual assurance 
 society and takes the place of a poor law in India. The 
 severest social penalty which can be inflicted upon a Hindu is 
 to be put out of his caste. 
 
 The Religious Basis of Hinduism. — Hinduism is, how- 
 ever, not only a social league resting upon caste — it is also a 
 religious alliance based upon worship. As the various race 
 elements of the Indian people have been welded into caste, 
 so the simple old beliefs of the Veda, the mild doctrines of 
 Buddha, and the fierce rites of the non-Aryan tribes, have been 
 thrown into the melting-pot, and poured out thence as a
 
 BUDDHIST INFLUENCES ON HINDUISM. 99 
 
 mixture of precious metal and dross, to be worked up into the 
 complex worship of the Hindu gods. 
 
 Buddhist Influences. — Buddhism not only inspired Hindu- 
 ism with its noble spirit of charity, but also bequeathed to it 
 many of its institutions. The Hindu monasteries in Orissa in 
 our own day recall the Buddhist convents of King Sfladitya 
 eleven hundred years ago. At the present time, the bankers' 
 guild of Surat devotes a part of the fees which it levies on bills 
 of exchange to maintain a hospital for sick animals — a true 
 survival of the system of medical aid for man and beast which 
 King Asoka founded in 244 b. c. The religious life of the Hindu 
 Vishnuite sect is governed by the old rules laid down by 
 Buddha himself. The great Bengal scholar, Rajendra Lala 
 Mitra, himself a Vishnuite, believed that the car festival of 
 Jagannath is a relic of a Buddhist procession. 
 
 Non-Aryan Influences. — Hinduism also drew much of its 
 strength, and many of its rites, from the non-Aryan peoples of 
 India. To them is due the worship of stumps of wood, of rude 
 stones, and of trees, which makes up the religion of the villagers 
 of Bengal. Each hamlet has usually its local god, which it 
 adores in the form either of an unhewn stone, or a stump, or 
 a tree marked with red-lead. Sometimes a lump of clay placed 
 under a tree does service for a deity. Serpent-worship, and 
 the honour paid by certain sects of Hindus to the linga, or 
 symbol of m.ale creative energy, may probably be traced back 
 to the Scythian tribes who came to India, in very early times, 
 from Central Asia. 
 
 The Hindu Book of Saints. — Hinduism boasts a line of 
 religious founders stretching from about 700 a. d. to the present 
 day. The lives of the mediaeval saints and their wondrous 
 works are recorded in the Bhakta-Mdla, or The Garland of 
 the Faithful, compiled by Nabhajf about three centuries ago. 
 It is the Book of Saints and Golden Legend of Hinduism. The 
 same wonders are not recorded of each of its apostles, but 
 miracles abound in the life of all. The greater ones rank as 
 divine incarnations prophesied of old. According to the Hindu 
 stories, some were born of virgins ; others overcame lions ; 
 raised the dead; their hands and feet when cut off sprouted 
 
 G 2
 
 lOO GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 afresh ; prisons were opened to them ; the sea received ihem 
 and returned them to the land unhurt, while the earth opened 
 and swallowed up their slanderers. Their lives were mar- 
 vellous, and the deaths of the greatest of them a solemn 
 mystery. ■ 
 
 Sankara Acharya, Ninth Century A.D. — The first in the 
 line of apostles was Kumarila, a Brahman of Behar, who has 
 been already referred to as having stirred up a legendary per- 
 secution of Buddhism throughout India in the eighth century a.d. 
 His yet more famous disciple was Sankara Acharya, with whom 
 we reach historical ground, Sankara was born in IMalabar, 
 wandered as an itinerant preacher over India as far as Kashmir, 
 and died at Kedarnath in the Himalayas, aged 32. He moulded 
 the Vedanta philosophy of the Brahmans into its final form, and 
 popularized it into a national religion. It is scarcely too much 
 to say, that since his short life in the eighth or ninth century 
 every new Hindu sect has had to start with a personal God. 
 He addressed himself to the high-caste philosophers on the one 
 hand, and to the low-caste multitude on the other. He left 
 behind, as the twofold results of his life's work, a compact 
 Brahman sect and a popular religion. 
 
 Forms of Siva and his Wife. — In the hands of Sankara's 
 followers and apostolic successors, Siva-worship became one 
 of the two chief religions of India. Siva, at once the Destroyer 
 and Reproducer, represented profound philosophical doctrines, 
 and was early recognized as being in a special sense the god of 
 the Brahmans. To them he was the symbol of death as merely 
 a change of life. On the other hand, his terrible aspects, pre- 
 served in his long list of names, from the Roarer (Rudra) of the 
 Veda, to the Dread One (Bhfma) of the modern Hindu pan- 
 theon, well adapted him to the religion of fear prevalent among 
 the ruder non-Aryan races. Siva, in his twofold character, thus 
 became the deity alike of the highest and of the lowest castes. 
 He is the Maha-dcva, or Great God of modern Hinduism ; his 
 ■wife is Devi, literally and pre-eminently the Goddess. His 
 symbol of worship is the linga, or emblem of male repro- 
 duction ; his sacred beast, the bull, is connected with the same 
 idea; a trident tops his temples. His images partake of his
 
 TWOFOLD ASPECTS OF SIVA-WORSHIP. lOi 
 
 double nature. The Brahmanical conception of Siva is 'repre- 
 sented by his attitude as a fair-skinned man, seated in profound 
 thought, the symbol of the fertilizing Ganges above his head, 
 and the bull (emblem alike of procreation and of Aryan plough- 
 tillage) near at hand. The wilder non-Aryan aspects of his 
 character are signified by his necklace of skulls, his collar of 
 twining serpents, his tiger-skin, and his club with a human head 
 at the end. Siva has five faces and four arms. His wife Devi, 
 in like manner, appears in her Aryan or Brahmanical form as 
 Uma, * Light,' a gentle goddess and the type of high-born love- 
 liness ; in her composite character as Durga, a golden-coloured 
 woman, beautiful but menacing, riding on a tiger ; and in her 
 terrible non-Aryan aspects as Kali, a black fury, of a hideous 
 countenance, dripping with blood, crowned with snakes, and 
 hung round with skulls. 
 
 Twofold Aspects of Siva-worship. — The ritual of Siva- 
 worship preserves, in an even more striking way, the traces of 
 its double origin. The higher minds still adore the godhead 
 by silent contemplation, as prescribed by Sankara, without the 
 aid of external rites. The ordinary Brahman hangs a wreath 
 of flowers around the phallic linga, or places before it harmless 
 offerings of rice. But the low-castes pour out the lives of 
 countless goats at the feet of the terrible Kali, the wife of Siva ; 
 and until lately, in time of pestilence and famine, tried in their 
 despair to appease that relentless goddess by human blood. 
 During the famine of 1866, in a temple of Kali, a boy was 
 found with his neck cut, the eyes staring open, and the stiff 
 clotted tongue thrust out between the teeth. In another temple 
 at Hugh' (a railway station only twenty-four miles from Calcutta), 
 ahead was left before the idol, decked with flowers. Such cases 
 are true survivals of the regular system of human sacrifices 
 which we have seen among the non-Aryan tribes. They have 
 nothing to do with the old mystic piirusha-medha, or man- 
 offering, whether real or symbolical, of the ancient Aryan faith, 
 but form a part of the non-Aryan religion of terror, w-hich 
 demands that the greater the need, the greater shall be 
 the propitiation. 
 
 The Thirtoen Sivaite Sects. — The thirteen chief sects of
 
 I02 GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 Siva-worshippers faithfully represent the composite character 
 of their god. The Smdrta Brahmans, the lineal successors of 
 Sankara's disciples, still maintain their life of calm monastic 
 piety in Southern India. The Dandis, or ascetics, divide their 
 time between begging and meditation. Some of them adore, 
 without rites, Siva as the third person of the Aryan trinity. 
 Others practise an apparently non-Aryan ceremony of initiation, 
 by drawing blood from the inner part of the novice's knee as 
 an offering to the god in his more terrible form, Bhairava. 
 The Dandis follow the non-Aryan custom of burying their dead, 
 or commit the body to a sacred stream. The Yogis include 
 every class of devotee, from the speechless mystic, who by long 
 suppressions of the breath has lost the consciousness of exist- 
 ence in an ecstatic union with Siva, to the impostor who pre- 
 tends that he can sit upon air, and the juggler who travels with 
 a performing goat. The Sivaite sects descend, through various 
 gradations of self-mortification and abstraction, to the Agliorh, 
 who eat carrion and gash their bodies with knives. The lowest 
 sects follow non- Aryan rather than Aryan types, alike as regards 
 their use of animal food and their bloody sacrifices. 
 
 Vishnu-worship. — Vishnu had always been a very human 
 god, from the time when he makes his appearance in the Veda 
 as a solar myth, the ' Unconquerable Preserver,' striding across 
 the universe in three steps. His later incarnations or avatars 
 made him the familiar friend of man. Of these incarnations or 
 ' descents ' on earth, which vary according to tradition from ten 
 or twenty-two in number, Vishnu-worship, with the unerring in- 
 stinct of a popular religion, chose the two most beautiful for 
 adoration. In his two human forms as Rama and Krishna, 
 the god Vishnu attracted to himself innumerable loving legends. 
 Rama, his seventh incarnation, is the hero of the Sanskrit epic, 
 the Ramayana. In his eighth incarnation, as Krishna, Vishnu 
 appears as a high-souled prince in the other epic, the Maha- 
 bharata. As Krishna, also, he afterwards grew into the central 
 figure of Indian pastoral poetry ; was spiritualized into the 
 supreme god of the Vishnuite Puranas ; and now flourishes 
 as the most popular deity of the Hindus. Under his title of 
 Jagannath, ' The Lord of the World,' Vishnu is especially wor-
 
 VISHNUITE REFORMERS. 103 
 
 shipped at Purf, whence his fame has spread through the 
 civihzed world. But nothing can be more unjust than the 
 vulgar story which associates his car festival with the wholesale 
 self-murder of his worshippers. Vishnu is essentially a bright and 
 friendly god, who asks no offerings but flowers, and to whom 
 the shedding of blood is a pollution. The official records, and 
 an accurate examination on the spot, disprove the calumnies of 
 some English writers on this subject. Fatal accidents frequently 
 happened amid an excited crowd. Suicides on occasions have 
 taken place. But the stories of wholesale bloodshed at one 
 time told about Jagannath, were merely ignorant libels on a 
 gentle and peaceful god, to whom no sacrifice which cost the 
 life even of a kid could be offered. The Vishnu sects are 
 called Vaishnavas. 
 
 The Vishnu Purana, circ. 1045 A.D. — In the eleventh cen- 
 tury the Vishnuite doctrines were gathered into a religious treatise. 
 The Vishnu Purana dates from about 1045 a.d., and probably 
 represents, as indeed its name implies, 'ancient' traditions of 
 Vishnu which had co-existed with Sivaism and Buddhism for 
 centuries. It derived its doctrines from the Vedas, not, how- 
 ever, in a direct channel, but filtered through the two great 
 epic poems. It forms one of the eighteen Puranas or Sanskrit 
 theological works, in which the Brahman moulders of Vish- 
 nuism and Sivaism embodied their rival systems. These works 
 especially extol the second and third members of the Hindu 
 triad, now claiming the pre-eminence for Vishnu as the sole 
 deity, and now for Siva; but in their higher flights rising to 
 a recognition that both are but forms for representing the one 
 eternal God. They are said to contain I7} million lines. But 
 they exhibit only the Brahmanical aspect of Vishnu-worship and 
 Siva-worship, and are devoid of any genuine sympathy for the 
 lower castes. 
 
 Vishnuite Apostles — Ramanuja, 1150 A.D. — The first 
 of the line of Vishnuite reformers was Ramanuja, a Brahman 
 of Southern India. In the middle of the twelfth century, he led 
 a movement against the Sivaites, proclaiming the unity of God, 
 under the title of Vishnu, the Cause and the Creator of all things. 
 Persecuted by the Chola king in Southern India, who tried to
 
 104 GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 enforce Sivaite conformity throughout his dominions, Ramanuja 
 fled to the Jain sovereign of Mysore. This Jain prince he con- 
 verted to the Vishnuite faith by expelhng an evil spirit from his 
 daughter. Seven hundred monasteries, of which four still remain, 
 are said to have been erected by his followers before his death. 
 
 Ramanand, 1300-1400 A.D. — Ramanand stands fifth in 
 the apostolic succession from Ramanuja, and spread his doc- 
 trine through Northern India. He had his headquarters in 
 a monastery at Benares, but wandered from place to place, 
 preaching the one God under the name of Vishnu. He 
 chose twelve disciples, not from the priests or nobles, but 
 among the despised castes. One of them was a leather- 
 dresser, another a barber, and the most distinguished of all 
 was the reputed son of a weaver. Ramanuja had addressed 
 himself chiefly to the pure" Aryan castes, and wrote in the 
 Sanskrit language of the Brahmans. Ramanand appealed to 
 the people, and the literature of his sect is in the dialects 
 familiar to the masses. The Hindi vernacular owes its develop- 
 ment into a written language, partly to the folk-songs of the 
 peasantry and the war-ballads of the Rajput court-bards, but 
 chiefly to the literary requirements of the new popular religion 
 of Vishnu. 
 
 Kabir, 13S0-1420 A.D. — Kabir, one of the twelve disciples 
 of Ramanand, carried his doctrines throughout Bengal. As 
 his master had laboured to gather together all castes of the 
 Hindus into one common faith, so Kabir, seeing that the 
 Hindus were no longer the whole inhabitants of India, tried, 
 about the beginning of the fifteenth century, to build up a religion 
 that should embrace Hindu and Muhammadan alike. The 
 writings of his" sect acknowledge that the God of the Hindu 
 is also the God of the Musalman. His universal name is The 
 Inner, whether he be invoked as the All of the IMuhammadans, 
 or as the Rama of the Hindus. ' To Ali and to Rama we owe 
 our life,' say the scriptures of Kabir's sect, ' and we should 
 show like tenderness to all who live. . . . The Hindu fasts every 
 eleventh day ; the Musalman on the Ramazan. Who formed 
 the remaining months and days, that you should venerate but 
 one ? . . . The city of the Hindu God is to the east [Benaresj,
 
 VISHNUITE REFORMERS. 1 05 
 
 the city of the IMusalman God is to the west [Mecca]; but 
 explore your own heart, for there is the God both of the 
 Musalmans and of the Hindus. Behold but One in all 
 things. He to whom the world belongs, he is the father of 
 the worshippers alike of All and of Rama. He is my guide, he 
 is my priest.' 
 
 Chaitanya, 1485-1527 A.D. — In 1485 Chaitanya ^vas born, 
 and spread the Vishnuite doctrines, with the worship of 
 Jagannath, throughout the deltas of Bengal and Orissa. Signs 
 and wonders attended Chaitanya through life; and during 
 four centuries he has been worshipped as an incarnation of 
 Vishnu. Extricating ourselves from the halo of legend which 
 surrounds this apostle of Jagannath, we know little of his private 
 life except that he was the son of a Brahman settled at Nadiya 
 in Bengal; that in his youth he married the daughter of a 
 celebrated saint ; that at the age of twenty-four he forsook the 
 world, and, renouncing the state of a householder, repaired to 
 Orissa, where he devoted the rest of his days to the propagation 
 of the faith. He disappeared in 1527 a.d. But with regard to 
 his doctrine we have the most ample evidence. He held that 
 all men are alike capable of faith, and that all castes by faith 
 become equally pure. Implicit belief and incessant devotion 
 were his watchwords. Contemplation rather than ritual was his 
 pathway to salvation. Obedience to the religious guide is one 
 of the leading features of his sect ; but he warned his disciples 
 to respect their teachers as second fathers, and not as gods. 
 The great end of his system, as of all Indian forms of worship, 
 is the liberation of the soul. He held that such hberation does 
 not mean the annihilation of separate existence. It consists 
 in nothing more than an entire freedom from the stains and 
 the frailties and sinful desires of the body. 
 
 The Chaitanya Sect. — The followers of Chaitanya belong 
 to every caste, but they acknowledge the rule of the descendants 
 of the original disciples [gosdms). The sect is open alike to 
 the married and unmarried. It has its celibates and wandering 
 mendicants, but its religious teachers are generally married men. 
 They live with their wives and children in clusters of houses 
 around a temple to Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu). The
 
 io6 GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 adoration of the founder, Chaitanya, is thus a sort of family wor- 
 ship in Orissa. The landed gentry worship him with a daily ritual 
 in household chapels dedicated to his name. After his death, 
 a sect arose among his followers, who asserted the spiritual 
 independence of women. In their monastic enclosures, male 
 and female cenobites live in celibacy, — the women shaving their 
 heads, with the exception of a single lock of hair. The two 
 sexes chant the praises of Vishnu and Chaitanya together in 
 hymn and solemn dance. But the really important doctrine of 
 the sect is their recognition of the value of women as instructors 
 of the outside female community. For long they were the only 
 teachers admitted into the zandnas of good families in Bengal. 
 Fifty years ago they had effected a change for the better in the 
 state of female education ; and the value of such instruction 
 was assigned as the cause of the sect spreading so widely in 
 Calcutta. 
 
 Vallabha-Swami, circ. 1520 A.D. — The death of Chaitanya 
 marked the beginning of a spiritual decline in Vishnu-worship. 
 About 1520, Vallabha-Svvami preached in Northern India that 
 the liberation of the soul did not depend upon the mortification 
 of the body ; and that God was to be sought, not in nakedness 
 and hunger and sohtude, but amid the enjoyments of this life. 
 An opulent sect had, from an early period, attached itself to the 
 worship of Krishna and his bride Radha — a mystic significance 
 being of course assigned to their pastoral loves. Still more 
 popular among Hindu women is the adoration of Krishna as 
 the Bala Gopala, or the Infant Cowherd, perhaps unconsciously 
 affected by the Christian worship of the Divine Child. Another 
 influence of Christianity on Hinduism may possibly be traced in 
 the growing importance assigned by the Krishna sects to bhakti, 
 or faith, as an all-sufBcient instrument of salvation. 
 
 Krishna-worship. — Vallabha-Swami was the apostle of 
 Vishnuism as a religion of pleasure. The special object of 
 his homage was Vishnu in his pastoral incarnation, in which 
 he took the form of the divine youth Krishna, and led an 
 Arcadian life in the forest. Shady bowers, lovely women, 
 exquisite viands, and everything that appeals to the luscious 
 sensuousness of a tropical race, are mingled in his worship.
 
 THE RELIGIOUS BOND OF HINDUISM. 107 
 
 His daily ritual consists of eight services, in which Krishna's 
 image, as a beautiful boy, is delicately bathed, anointed with 
 essences, splendidly attired, and sumptuously fed. The fol- 
 lowers of the first Vishnuite reformers dwelt together in 
 secluded monasteries, and went about scantily clothed, living 
 upon alms. But the Vallabha-Swami sect performs its de- 
 votions arrayed in costly apparel, anointed with oil, and 
 perfumed with camphor or sandal-wood. It seeks its converts 
 not among weavers, or leather-dressers, or barbers, but among 
 wealthy bankers and merchants, who look upon life as a thing 
 to be enjoyed, and upon pilgrimage as a holiday excursion, or 
 an opportunity for trade. 
 
 The Religious Bond of Hinduism. — The worship of 
 Siva and Vishnu acts as a religious bond among the Hindus, in 
 the same w^ay as caste supplies the basis of their social organiza- 
 tion. Theoretically, the Hindu religion starts from the Veda, 
 and acknowledges its divine authority. But, practically, we 
 have seen that Hinduism takes its origin from many sources. 
 Vishnu-worship and Sivaite rites represent the two most popular 
 combinations of these various elements. The highly cultivated 
 Brahman is a pure theist; the less cultivated worships the 
 Divinity under some chosen form, his ishta-devatd. The ordinary 
 Brahman, especially in the south, takes as his 'chosen deity' 
 Siva in his deep philosophical aspects as the fountain of being 
 and of reproduction, the symbol of death deprived of its terrors 
 and welcomed as the entrance into new forms of life. The 
 phallic linga serves him as an emblem of the unseen God. The 
 middle classes and the trading community adore some incarna- 
 tion of Vishnu. The low-castes propitiate Siva the Destroyer, 
 or one of his female manifestations, such as the dread Kali. 
 But almost every Hindu of education feels that his outward 
 object of homage is merely his ishta-devaid, or a ' chosen ' form 
 under which to adore the supreme Deity, Param-eswara. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 Hinduism is the joint product of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and the non- 
 Aryan worships, dealt with in Chapters III, IV, and V. But in addition to 
 the works cited at the end of those chapters, the following may be specially
 
 io8 GROWTH OF HINDUISM. 
 
 noted : Earth's Religions of India ; H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus, 
 and his Vishnu Purana; Sir Alfred Lj'all's Asiatic Studies; Colebrooke's 
 Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus ; Garvin de Tassy's 
 Histoire de la Litterature Hindouie et Hindoustaizie, and his Les AtttetDS 
 Hindoiistanis et leurs Ouvrages ; Graf Bjornstjerna's Die Theogonie Philo- 
 sophie und Kosmogonie der Hindus ; Fergusson's History of Indian and 
 Eastern Architecture, and his Tree and Serpent Worship ; Trumpp's Die 
 Religion der Sikhs, and his Nanak ; Mozoomdar's Faith and Progress of 
 the Brahmo-Somaj (Calcutta, 1S82) ; and Miss Collet's Brahmo Year- 
 Book; Sir Monier Williams' Non-Christian Religious Systems, Hinduism, 
 and his Religious Thought and Life in India ; Sir William Hunter's 
 Orissa, and his Rural Bengal ; Dr. J. Wilson's Indian Caste, and Sherring's 
 Hindu T7-ihes and Castes (two works of great original value) ; Steele's 
 Law and Custom of Hindu Castes (for Western India) ; Nelson's View of 
 Hindu Law, and Burnell's Dayavibhdga (for the Madras Presidency). 
 Also again Max Miiller's Hibbert Lectures and his Sacred Books of the 
 East, together with the easily accessible volumes of Triibner's Oriental 
 Sei-ies and in the Bibliotheca Indica too numerous to specify.
 
 [109] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Early Muhammadan Conquerors, 714-1526 A.D. 
 
 Muhammadan Influence on Hinduism. — Hinduism was 
 for a lime submerged, but never drowned, by the tide of 
 Muhammadan conquest, which set steadily towards India about 
 1000 A.D. At the present day, the south of India remains 
 almost entirely Hindu. By far the greater number of the Indian 
 Feudatory Chiefs are still under Brahman influence. But in 
 the north-west, where the first waves of invasion have always 
 broken, about one-third of the population now profess Islam. 
 The upper valley of the Ganges boasts a succession of IMusal- 
 man capitals ; and in the swamps of Lower Bengal, the bulk of 
 the non-Aryan or aboriginal population have become converts 
 to the IMuhammadan religion. The Musalmans now make 
 57 millions of the total of 288 millions in India. 
 
 Early Muhammadan Dynasties, 714-1526 A.D. — The 
 present chapter is devoted to the early IMuhammadan conquerors 
 in the north of India before the rise of the Mughal Empire. 
 But it is convenient to give in this place a chronological list of 
 all the IMuhammadan dynasties, whose succession makes up so 
 large a part of the history of mediaaval India. 
 
 Chronological Summary of IMuhajimadan Conquerors 
 AND Dynasties of India, 1001-1S57. 
 
 IV. House of Khilji. 
 
 I. House of Ghazni (Tiirki). 
 1001-1186. Mahmud of Ghazni to 
 
 Sultan Khusru. 
 
 II. House OF Ghor (Afghani 
 
 1 186-1206. Muhammad of Ghor 
 (Shahab-ud-din). 
 
 III. Slave Kings (chiefly Turki). 
 1206-1290. Kutab-ud-dia to ilalban 
 and Kaikubad. 
 
 1290-1320. Jalal-ud-dintoNasir-ud- 
 din Khusru. 
 
 V. House of Tughlak (Punjab 
 
 Tvirki). 
 I, ",20. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak. 
 1,^,25. Muhammad Tughlak. 
 1 35 1. Firuz Shah Tughlak. 
 1414. End of Ike Tughlak dynasty.
 
 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 1398. [Irruption of the Mughals 
 under Timur (Tamerlane) in 
 1398-99, leaving behind a 
 fifteen years' anarchy under the 
 last of the line of Tughlak, 
 until the accession of the Say- 
 yids in 1414.] 
 
 VI. The Sayyids. 
 1 41 4-1 450. Curtailed power of the 
 Delhi Kingdom. 
 
 VII. The Lodis (Afghan). 
 J450-1526. Feeble reigns; indepen- 
 dent States multiply. 
 
 VIII. House of Timur (Mughal). 
 
 1 526-1 530. Babar. 
 
 1530-1556. Humayiin. 
 
 [Sher Shah, the Afghan Gover- 
 nor of Bengal, drives Huma- 
 yun out of India in 1542, 
 and his Afghan dynasty rules 
 
 till I55.S-] 
 1 556-1605. Akbar the Great. 
 1605-1627. Jahangir. 
 1628-1658. Shahjahan; deposed. 
 
 1658-J707. Aurangzeb or Alam- 
 gir I. 
 
 1 707-1 7 1 2. Bahadur Shah, or Shah 
 Alam I. 
 
 1712. Jahandar Shah. 
 
 1713-1718. Farukhsiyyar. 
 
 1 719-1748. Muhammad Shah (after 
 temporary Emperors). 
 
 [Irruption of Nadir Shah the 
 Persian, 1738-1739.] 
 
 1 748-1 754. Death of Muhammad 
 Shah ; and accession of Ahmad 
 Shah, deposed 1754. 
 
 1754-1759- Alamgirll. 
 
 [Six invasions of India by 
 Ahmad Shah Durani, the 
 Afghan, 1748-1 761.] 
 
 1759-1806. Shah Alam II, titular 
 Emperor. 
 
 1S06-1837. Akbar II, titular Em- 
 peror. 
 
 1837-1857. Muhammad Bahadur 
 Shah, titular Emperor; the seven- 
 teenth and last Mughal Emperor; 
 gave his sanction to the Mutiny 
 of 1857, and died a State prisoner 
 at Rangoon in 1862. 
 
 The Rise of Islam. — While Buddhism was giving place to 
 Hinduism in India, a new faith had arisen in Arabia. Muham- 
 mad, born in 570 a.d., created a conquering religion, and died 
 in 632. Within a hundred years after his death, his followers 
 had invaded the countries of Asia as far as the Hindu Kush. 
 Here their progress was stayed ; and Islam had to consolidate 
 itself, during three more centuries, before it grew strong enough 
 to grasp the rich prize of India. But almost from the first the 
 Arabs had fi.xed eager eyes upon that wealthy empire, and 
 several premature inroads foretold the coming storm. 
 
 Early Arab Invasions of Sind, 647 to 828 A.D. — 
 About fifteen years after the death of the prophet, Usman sent 
 a naval expedition to Thana and Broach on the Bombay coast 
 (647 .''). Other raids towards Sind took place in 662 and 664, 
 with no lasting results. In 711, however, the youthful Kdsim
 
 THE ARABS IN STND. 1 1 1 
 
 advanced into Sind, to claim damages for an Arab ship which 
 had been seized at an Indian port. After a brilliant campaign, 
 he settled himself in the Indus valley ; but the further advance 
 of the Musalmans depended on the personal daring of their 
 leader, and was arrested by his death in 714 a.d. The despair- 
 ing valour of the Hindus struck the invaders with wonder. One 
 Rajput garrison preferred utter extermination to submission. 
 They raised a huge funeral pile, upon which the women and 
 children first threw themselves. The men having bathed, took 
 a solemn farewell of each other, and, throwing open the gates, 
 rushed upon the weapons of the besiegers, and perished to a man. 
 In 750, the Rajputs are said to have expelled the Muhammadan 
 governor from Sind; but it was not till 828 a.d. that the Hindus 
 regained possession of that province, 
 
 India on the Eve of the Muhammadan Conquest. — 
 The armies of Islam had carried the crescent throughout Asia 
 west of the Hindu Kush, and through Africa and Southern Europe, 
 to distant Spain and France, before they obtained a foothold in the 
 Punjab. This long delay was due not only to the daring of the 
 Indian tribes, such as the Sind Rajputs just mentioned, but to the 
 military organization of the Hindu kingdoms. To the north of 
 the Vindhyas, three separate groups of Hindu princes governed 
 the great river-valleys. The Rajputs ruled in the north-west, 
 throughout the Indus plains, and along the upper waters of the 
 Jumna. The ancient Middle Land of Sanskrit times (Madhya- 
 desa) in the valley of the Ganges, was divided among powerful 
 Hindu kingdoms, under the over-lordship of Kanauj. The 
 lower Gangetic valley, from Behar downwards, was still in part 
 governed by Pal or Buddhist dynasties, whose names are found 
 from Benares to jungle-buried hamlets deep in the Bengal Delta. 
 The Vindhya ranges stretched their wall of forest and mountain 
 between the northern and southern halves of India. Their 
 eastern and central regions were peopled by fierce hill tribes. 
 At their western extremity, towards the Bombay coast, lay the 
 Plindu kingdom of Malwd, with its brilliant literary traditions of 
 Vikramaditya, and a vast feudal array of fighting men. India 
 to the south of the Vindhyas was occupied by a number of war- 
 like princes, chiefly of non-Aryan descent, but loosely grouped
 
 112 EARLY MUHAMMAD AN CONQUERORS. 
 
 under three great semi-Hindu or semi-Buddhistic over-lords 
 represented by the Chera, Chola, and Pandya dynasties. 
 
 Hindu Power of Resistance. — Each of these groups of 
 kingdoms, alike in the north and in the south, had a certain 
 power of coherence to oppose to a foreign invader ; while the 
 large number of the groups and units rendered conquest a very 
 tedious process. For even when the over-lord or central 
 authority was vanquished, the separate groups and units had to 
 be defeated in detail ; and each supplied a nucleus for sub- 
 sequent revolt. We have seen how the biilliant attempt in 711, 
 to found a lasting Muhammadan dynasty in Sind, failed. Three 
 centuries later, the utmost efforts of a series of IMusalman 
 invaders from the north-west only succeeded in annexing a 
 small portion of the frontier Punjab Provinces, between 977 and 
 1 1 76 A.D. The Hindu power in Southern India was not com- 
 pletely broken till the battle of Talikot in 1565 ; and within a 
 hundred years, in 1650, the great Hindu revival had commenced, 
 which, under the form of the Maralha Confederacy, was destined 
 to break up the Mughal Empire in India. That empire, even 
 in the north of India, was only consolidated by Akbar's policy of 
 incorporating Hindu Chiefs and statesmen into his government 
 (1556- 1 605). Up to Akbar's time, and during the earlier years 
 of his reign, a series of Hindu or Rajput wars had challenged 
 the Muhammadan supremacy. In less than two centuries after 
 his death, the Mughal successor of Akbar was a puppet and 
 a prisoner in the hands of the Hindu INIarathas at Delhi. 
 
 Muhammadan Conquests only Partial and Tem- 
 porary. — The popular notion that India fell an easy prey to 
 the Musalmans is opposed to the historical facts. Muhammadan 
 rule in India consists of a series of invasions and partial con- 
 quests, during eleven centuries, from Usman's raid about 647 
 A.D. to Ahmad Shah's tempest of devastation in 1761. They 
 represent in Indian history the overflow of the tribes and 
 peoples of Central Asia to the south-east ; as the Huns, Turks, 
 and various Tartar tribes disclose in early European annals 
 the westward movements from the same great breeding-ground 
 of nations. At no time was Islam triumphant throughout all 
 India. Hindu dynasties always ruled over a large area. At the
 
 MAHM&D OF GHAZNT. 1 13 
 
 height of the Muhammadan power, the Hindu princes paid 
 tribute, and sent agents to the imperial court. But even this 
 modified supremacy of the Mughal Empire of Delhi did not last 
 for one and a half centuries (1560-1707). Before the end of 
 that brief period, the Hindus had again begun the work of re- 
 conquest. The Hindu chivalry of Rajputana was closing in 
 upon Delhi from the south-east ; the religious confederation of 
 the Sikhs was growing into a military power on the north-west. 
 The Marathas, who combined the fighting powers of the 
 Hindu low-castes with the statesmanship of the Brahmans, had 
 begun to subject the Muhammadan kingdoms in Southern India 
 to tribute. So far as can now be estimated, the advance of the 
 English power in the last century alone saved the Mughal Empire 
 from reverting to the Hindus. 
 
 First Turki Invasions — Subuktigin, 977 A. D. — The 
 first collision between Hinduism and' Islam on the Punjab 
 frontier was the act of the Hindus. In 977, Jaipal, the Hindu 
 Chief of Lahore, annoyed by Afghan raids, led his troops through 
 the mountains against the Muhammadan kingdom of Ghazni, in 
 Afghanistan. Subuktigin, the Ghaznivide prince, after severe 
 fighting, took advantage of a hurricane to cut off the retreat of the 
 Hindus through the pass. He allowed them, however, to return 
 to India, on the surrender of fifty elephants, and the promise of 
 one million dirhams (about ;;^2 5,000). Tradition relates how 
 Jaipal, having regained his capital, was counselled by the Brah- 
 mans standing at his right hand not to disgrace himself by 
 paying ransom to a barbarian; while his nobles and warrior 
 Chiefs, standing at his left, implored him to keep faith. In the 
 end, Subuktigin swept through the hills to enforce his ransom, 
 defeated Jaipal, and stationed an Afghan officer with io,oco 
 horse to garrison Peshawar (977). Subuktigin was soon after- 
 wards called away to fight in Central Asia, and his Indian raid 
 left behind it only this Peshawar outpost. But henceforth the 
 Afghans held both ends of the Khaibar pass. 
 
 Mahmiid of Ghazni, 1001-1030.— In 997, Subuktigfn 
 died, and was succeeded by his son, Mahmiid of Ghaznf, aged 
 sixteen. This valiant monarch reigned for thirty-three years, 
 and extended his father's little Afghan kingdom into a great
 
 1 1 4 EARL Y MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS, 
 
 sovereignty stretching from Persia on the west, to far within the 
 Punjab on the east. Having spent four years in consolidating 
 his power in Afghanistan to the west of the Khaibar Pass, Mah- 
 mud led in looi a. d. the first of his seventeen invasions of India. 
 Of these, thirteen were directed to the subjugation of the Western 
 Punjab, one was an unsuccessful incursion into Kashmir, and the 
 remaining three were short but furious raids against more 
 distant cities, — Kanauj, Gwalior, and Somnath. Jaipal, the 
 Hindu frontier Chief of Lahore, was again defeated. Accord- 
 ing to Hindu custom, a twice-conquered prince was deemed 
 unworthy to reign ; and Jaipal, mounting a funeral pile, solemnly 
 made over his kingdom to his son, and burned himself in his 
 regal robes. Another local Chief, rather than yield himself to the 
 victor, fell upon his own sword. In the sixth expedition (1008 
 A. D.), the Hindu ladies melted their ornaments, while the poorer 
 women spun cotton, to support their husbands in the war. In 
 one great battle the fate of the invaders hung in the balance. 
 Mahmud, alarmed by a coalition of the Indian kings as far as 
 Oudh and Malwa, entrenched himself near Peshawar. A sortie 
 which he made was driven back, and the wild Ghakkar tribe 
 burst into the camp and slaughtered nearly 4000 Musalmans. 
 
 The Sack of Somnath, 1024. — But each expedition ended 
 by further strengthening the Muhammadan foothold in India. 
 Mahmud carried away enormous booty from the Hindu temples, 
 such as Thaneswar and Nagarkot ; and his sixteenth and most 
 famous expedition was directed against the temple of Somnath 
 in Gujarat (1024 a. d.). After bloody repulses, he took the town. 
 The Hindu garrison, at the end of their gallant defence, left 
 5000 of their warriors dead, and put out in boats to sea. The 
 famous idol of Somnath was merely one of the twelve renowned 
 Iwgas or phallic emblems of Siva-worship erected in various 
 parts of India. But Mahmud, having taken the name of the 
 'Idol-Smasher,' the modern Persian historians gradually con- 
 verted the plunder of Somnath into a legend of his pious zeal. 
 Forgetting the contemporary accounts of the idol as a rude 
 block of stone, Firishta tells how Mahmud, on entering the 
 temple, was offered an enormous ransom by the priests if he 
 would spare the image. But Mahmud cried out that he would
 
 mahmOd of giiaznl 115 
 
 rather be remembered as the breaker than the seller of idols, and 
 clove the god open with his mace. Forthwith a vast treasure of 
 jewels poured forth from its vitals, which explained the liberal 
 offers of the priests, and rewarded the disinterested piety of the 
 monarch. The growth of this fable can be clearly traced, but it is 
 still repeated. Mahmud carried off the temple gates, with frag- 
 ments of the phallic emblem of Siva-worship, to Ghazni, and on the 
 way nearly perished with his army in the Indus desert. But the 
 so-called ' sandal-wood gates of Somnath,' brought back as a 
 trophy from Ghazni by Lord Ellenboroi^h in 1842, and paraded 
 through Northern India, were as clumsy a forgery as the story 
 of the jewel-bellied idol himself. Mahmud died at Ghazni in 
 1030 A. D. 
 
 Results of Mahmud's Invasions. — As the result of seven- 
 teen invasions of India, and of twenty-five years' fighting, 
 Mahmud had reduced the western districts of the Punjab to the 
 control of his Afghan kingdom of Ghazni, and left the remem- 
 brance of his raids throughout northern India as far as Kanauj 
 on the east and Gujarat in the south. He never set up as a 
 resident sovereign in India. His expeditions beyond the Punjab 
 were the adventures of a religious knight-errant, with the plunder 
 of a temple-city, or the demolition of an idol, as their object, 
 rather than serious efforts at conquest. But as his father 
 Subuktigfn had left Peshawar as an outpost garrison of Ghaznf, 
 so Mahmud left the Punjab as an outlying Province of that 
 Afghan kingdom. 
 
 Stories about Mahmud. — The Muhammadan chroniclers 
 tell many stories, not only of his valour and piety, but also of 
 his thrift. One day a poor woman complained that her son had 
 been killed by robbers in a distant desert of Irak. Mahmud 
 said he was very sorry, but that it was difficult to prevent such 
 accidents so far from the capital. The old woman rebuked him 
 with the words, 'Keep no more territory than you can rightly 
 govern ' ; and the Sultan forthwith rewarded her, and sent troops 
 to guard all caravans passing that way. Mahmud was an 
 enlightened patron of poets, and his liberality drew the great 
 Ferdousi to his court. The Sultan listened with delight to his 
 Shdh-ndmah, or Book of Kings, and promised him a dirham, 
 
 H 2
 
 Ii6 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 meaning a golden one, for each verse on its completion. After 
 thirty years of labour, the poet claimed his reward. But the 
 Sultan, finding that the poem had run to 60,000 verses, offered 
 him 60,000 silver dirha7ns,vs\%X.t2L^oidirhams of gold. Ferdousi 
 retired in disgust from the court, and wrote a bitter satire, which 
 to this day tells the story of the alleged base birth of the monarch. 
 Mahmiid forgave the satire, but remembered the great epic, and, 
 repenting of his meanness, sent 100,000 golden dirhams to the 
 poet. The bounty came too late ; for, according to the legend, 
 as the royal messengers bearing the bags of gold entered one 
 gate of Ferdousi's city, the poet's corpse was being borne out by 
 another. 
 
 House of Ghor, 1152-1186, — During a century and a half 
 the Punjab remained under Mahmud's successors as an Afghan 
 Musalman Province in India. There had long been a feud 
 between the Afghan towns of Ghor and Ghazni. Mahmud 
 subdued Ghor in loio; but about 1051 the Ghor chief captured 
 Ghaznf and dragged its principal men to his own capital, where 
 he cut their throats, and used their blood in making mortar for 
 the fortifications. After various reprisals, Ghor finally triumphed 
 over Ghazni in 1152; and Khusru, the last of Mahmud's line, 
 fled to Lahore, the capital of his outlying Indian territory. In 
 1 186 this also was wrested from him; and the Ghor prince 
 Shahab-ud-dfn, better known as IVIuhammad of Ghor, began the 
 conquest of India on his own account. But each of the Hindu 
 principalities fought hard, and some of them still survive, seven 
 centuries after the torrent of Afghan invasion swept over their 
 heads. 
 
 Hindu Resistance to Muhammad of Ghor, 1191.— On 
 his first expedition towards Delhi in 1191, Muhammad of Ghor 
 was utterly defeated by the Plindus at Thaneswar in the Punjab, 
 badly wounded, and barely escaped with his life. His scattered 
 hosts were chased for forty miles. But he gathered together the 
 wreck of his army at Lahore, and, aided by new hordes from 
 Afghanistan, again marched into Hindustan in 1193. Family 
 quarrels among the Rajputs prevented a united effort against 
 him. The cities of Delhi and Kanauj stand forth as the centres 
 of rival Hindu monarchies, each of which claimed the first place
 
 MUHAMMAD OF GHOR. 117 
 
 in Northern India. A Chauhan Rajput prince, ruling over 
 Delhi and Ajmere, bore the proud name of Prithwi Raja or 
 Suzerain. The Rahtor Rajput king of Kanauj, whose capital 
 can still be traced across eight square miles of broken bricks and 
 rubbish in Farukhabad District, celebrated a feast, in the spirit of 
 the ancient Hindu Horse-Sacrifice (see pp. 68, 70), to proclaim 
 himself the overlord. At such a feast all menial ofi&ces had to 
 be filled by royal vassals; a*nd the Delhi monarch was summoned 
 as a gatekeeper, along with the other princes of Hindustan. 
 During the ceremony, the daughter of the King of Kanauj was 
 to make her swayam-vara, or ' own-choice ' of a husband, as in 
 the Sanskrit epics (see pp. 67, 69). The Delhi Raja loved 
 the maiden, but he could not brook to stand at another man's 
 gate. As he did not arrive, the Kanauj king set up a mocking 
 image of him at the door. When the princess entered the hall 
 to make her choice, she looked calmly round the circle of kings, 
 then, stepping proudly past them to the door, threw her bridal 
 garland over the neck of the ill-shapen image. Forthwith, says 
 the story, the Delhi monarch rushed in, sprang with the princess 
 on his horse, and galloped off towards his northern capital. The 
 outraged father led out his Kanauj army against the runaways, 
 and, having, according to the legend, called in the Afghans to 
 attack Delhi on the other side from the west, brought about the 
 ruin of both the Hindu kingdoms of Delhi and Kanauj. 
 
 Distribution of Rajputs, 1193. — The tale serves to record 
 the disputes among the Rajput princes, which prevented a united 
 resistance to Muhammad of Ghor. Muhammad found Delhi 
 occupied by the Tomara clan, Ajmere by the Chauhans, and 
 Kanauj by the Rahtors. These three Rajput States formed the 
 natural breakwaters against invaders from the north-west. But 
 their feuds are said to have left the King of Delhi and Ajmere, 
 then united under one Chauhan overlord, only 64 survivors out 
 of his 108 warrior Chiefs, In 1193, the Afghans again swept 
 down on the Punjab. Prithwf Raja of Delhi and Ajmere was 
 defeated and slain. His heroic queen burned herself on his 
 funeral pile. Muhammad of Ghor, having occupied Delhi, 
 pressed on to Ajmere; and in 11 94 overthrew the rival Hindu 
 monarch of Kanauj, whose body was identified on the field of
 
 1 1 8 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS, 
 
 battle by his false teeth. The brave Rahtor Rajputs of Kanauj, 
 with others of the Rajput clans in Northern India, quitted their 
 homes in large bodies rather than submit to the stranger. They 
 migrated to the regions bordering on the desert of the Indus, 
 and there founded the military kingdoms which bear their name, 
 Rajputana, to this day. History takes her narrative of these 
 events from the matter-of-fact statements of the Persian annalists. 
 But the Hindu court-bard of Prithwi Raja left behind a patriotic 
 version of the fall of his race. His ballad-chronicle, known as 
 the Prithwiraj Rdsau of Chand, is one of the earliest poems in 
 Hindi. It depicts the Musalman invaders as beaten in all the 
 battles except the last fatal one. Their leader is taken prisoner 
 by the Hindus, and released for a heavy ransom. But the 
 quarrels of the Chiefs ruined the Hindu cause. 
 
 Muhammadan Conquest of Bengal, 1203. — Setting aside 
 these patriotic songs, Benares and Gwalior mark the south- 
 western limits of Muhammad of Ghor's own advance. But his 
 general, Bakhtiyar Khilji, conquered Behar in 1199, and Lower 
 Bengal down to the delta in 1203. On the approach of the 
 Musalmans, the Brahmans advised Lakshman Sen, the Hindu 
 King of Bengal, to remove his capital from Nadiya to some 
 more distant city. But the prince, a religious old man of eighty, 
 could not make up his mind, until the Afghan general had seized 
 his capital, and burst into the palace one day while His Majesty 
 was at dinner. The monarch slipped out by a back door with- 
 out having time to put on his shoes, and fled to Puri in Orissa, 
 where he spent his remaining days in the service of the god 
 Jagannath. Meanwhile the Sultan, Muhammad of Ghor, divided 
 his time between campaigns in Afghanistan and Indian invasions. 
 Ghor was his capital, and he had little time to consolidate his 
 Indian conquests. Even in the Punjab, the tribes were defeated 
 rather than subdued. In 1203, the Ghakkars issued from their 
 mountains, took Lahore, and devastated the whole Province. 
 In 1206, a party of the same clan swam the Indus, on the bank 
 of which the Afghan camp was pitched, and stabbed the Sultan 
 while asleep in his tent. 
 
 Muhammad of Ghor's Work in India. — Muhammad of 
 Ghor was no religious knight-errant of Islam like Mahmud of
 
 THE SLAVE DYNASTY. I19 
 
 Ghaznf, but a practical conqueror. The objects of his distant 
 expeditions were not temples but Provinces. Subuktigin had left 
 Peshawar as an outpost of Ghazni (977 a. d.); and Mahmud had 
 reduced the Western Punjab to an outlying Province of the same 
 kingdom (1030 a. d.). That was the net result of the Turki 
 invasions of India from Ghaznf (977-1 186). But Muhammad of 
 Ghor left the whole north of India, from the delta of the Indus 
 to the delta of the Ganges, under skilful Muhammadan generals, 
 who on his death set up as kings on their own account (1206 
 
 A. D.). 
 
 Kutab-ud-din, 1206-1210. — His Indian Viceroy, Kutab- 
 ud-dfn, proclaimed himself sovereign of India at Delhi, and 
 founded a line which lasted from 1206 to 1290. Kutab claimed 
 the control over all the Muhammadan leaders and soldiers of 
 fortune in India from Sind to Lower Bengal. His name is pre- 
 served at his capital by the Kutab Mosque, with its graceful 
 colonnade of richly-sculptured Hindu pillars, and by the Kutab 
 Mmdr, which raises its tapering shaft, encrusted with chapters 
 from the Kuran, high above the ruins of old Hindu Delhi. 
 Kutab-ud-din had started life as a Turki slave, and several of his 
 successors rose by valour or intrigue from the same low con- 
 dition to the throne. His dynasty is accordingly known as that 
 of the Slave Kings. Under them India became for the first time 
 the seat of resident INIuhammadan sovereigns. Kutab-ud-din 
 died in 12 10. 
 
 The Slave Dynasty, 1206-1290. — The Slave Dynasty 
 found itself face to face with the three dangers which have beset 
 the Muhammadan rule in India from the outset, and beneath 
 which that rule eventually succumbed. First, rebellions by its 
 own servants — Musalman generals, or viceroys of Provinces ; 
 second, revolts of the Hindus ; third, fresh invasions, chiefly by 
 Mughals, from Central Asia. 
 
 Altamsh, 1211-1236. — Altamsh, the third and greatest Sultan 
 of the Slave Dynasty, had to reduce the Muhammadan governors 
 of Lower Bengal and Sind, both of whom set up as independent 
 rulers ; and he narrowly escaped destruction by a Mughal in- 
 vasion from Central Asia. The Mughals under Changiz Khan 
 pierced through the Indian passes in pursuit of an Afghan prince;
 
 I20 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 but their progress was stayed by the Indus, and Delhi remained 
 untouched. Before the death of Altamsh (1236 a. d.), the Hindus 
 had ceased for a time to struggle openly; and the Muhammadan 
 Viceroys of the Slave Dynasty of Delhi ruled all India north of 
 the Vindhya range, including the Punjab, the North-Western 
 Provinces, Oudh, Behar, Lower Bengal, Ajmere, Gwalior, Malwa, 
 and Sind. The Khalif of Baghdad acknowledged India as a 
 separate Muhammadan kingdom during the reign of Altamsh, 
 and coins were struck in recognition of the new Empire of Delhi 
 (1229 A. D.). Altamsh died in 1236. 
 
 The Empress Raziya, 1236-1239.— His daughter Raziyd 
 was the only lady who ever occupied the INIuhammadan throne 
 of Delhi. Learned in the Kuran, industrious in public business, 
 firm and energetic in every crisis, she bears in history the 
 masculine name of the Sulldn Raziya. But the favour which 
 she shovi'ed to her master of the horse, an Abyssinian slave, 
 offended her Afghan generals; and, after a troubled reign of 
 three and a half years, she was deposed and put to death. 
 
 Mughal Irruptions and Rajput Revolts. — Mughal irrup- 
 tions from Central Asia and Hindu revolts within India soon 
 began to undermine the Slave Dynasty. The Mughals are 
 said to have burst through Tibet into North-Eastern Bengal in 
 1245; and during the next forty-three years they repeatedly 
 marched down the Afghan passes into the Punjab (i 245-1 288). 
 The wild Indian tribes, such as the Ghakkars and the hillmen 
 of Mewat, ravaged the Muhammadan provinces in the Punjab 
 almost up to the gates of Delhi. Rajput revolts foreshadowed 
 that inextinguishable vitality of the Hindu military races, which 
 was to harass, from first to last, the Muhammadan dynasties, 
 and to outlive them. Under the Slave Kings, even the north of 
 India was only half subdued to the Muhammadan sway. The 
 Hindus rose again and again in Malwa, Rajputana, Bundel- 
 khand, and along the Ganges and the Jumna, as far as Delhi 
 itself. 
 
 Balban, 1265-1287. — The last but one of the Slave line, 
 Balban, had not only to fight the Mughals, the wild Indian 
 tribes, and the Rdjput clans — he was also compelled to battle 
 with his own viceroys. Having in his youth entered into a
 
 SLAVE DYNASTY AND THE HOUSE OF KHILJL 1 21 
 
 compact for mutual support and advancement with forty of his 
 Turk: fellow-slaves in the palace, he had, when he came to the 
 throne, to break the powerful confederacy thus formed. Some 
 of his provincial governors he publicly scourged; others were 
 beaten to death in his presence ; and a general who failed to 
 reduce the rebel Muhammadan Viceroy of Bengal was hanged. 
 Balban himself moved down to the Gangetic delta, and crushed 
 the Bengal revolt with merciless skill. His severity against 
 Hindu rebels knew no bounds. He nearly exterminated the 
 Rajputs of Mewat, south of Delhi, putting 100,000 of them to 
 the sword. He then cut down the forests which formed their 
 retreats, and opened up the country to tillage. The miseries 
 caused by the Mughal hordes at that time in Central Asia drove 
 a crowd of princes and poets from Afghanistan and other Mu- 
 hammadan countries to seek shelter at the Indian court. Balban 
 boasted that no fewer than fifteen once independent sovereigns 
 had fed on his bounty, and he called the streets of Delhi by 
 the names of their late kingdoms, such as Baghdad, Kharizm, 
 and Ghor. He died in 1287 a.d. His successor was poisoned, 
 and the Slave Dynasty ended in 1290. 
 
 House of Khilji, 1290-1320.— In that year, Jalal-ud-din, a 
 ruler of Khilji, succeeded to the Delhi throne, and founded a 
 line which lasted for thirty years. The Khilji dynasty extended 
 the Muhammadan power into Southern India. Ala-ud-din, the 
 nephew of Jalal-ud-dfn, when governor of Karra near Allaha- 
 bad, pierced through the Vindhya ranges with his cavalry, and 
 plundered the Buddhist temple-city of Bhilsa, 300 miles off. 
 After trying his powers against the rebellious Hindu princes of 
 Bundelkhand and Malwa, Ala-ud-dfn formed the idea of a 
 grand raid into the Deccan. With a band of only 8000 horse, 
 he rode into the heart of Southern India. On the way he gave 
 out that he was flying from his uncle Jalal-ud-din's court, to seek 
 service with the Hindu King of Rajamahendri. The generous 
 Rajput princes abstained from attacking a refugee in his flight ; 
 and Ala-ud-dfn surprised the great city of Deogiri, the modern 
 Daulatabad, at that time the capital of the Hindu kingdom of 
 Maharashtra. Having suddenly galloi)ed into its streets, he 
 announced himself as only the advance guard of the whole imperial
 
 122 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 army, levied an immense booty, and carried it back 700 miles 
 to the seat of his governorship on the banks of the Ganges. 
 He then lured the Sultan Jalal-ud-din, his uncle, to Kan-a, in 
 order to divide the spoil, and murdered the old man in the act 
 of clasping his hand (1295 a.d.). 
 
 Reign of Ala-ud-din, 1295-1315. Ala-ud-dfn scattered 
 his spoils in gifts or charity like a devout IMusalman, and pro- 
 claimed himself Sultan. The twenty years of his reign estab- 
 lished the Muhammadan sway in Southern India. He recon- 
 quered Gujarat from the Hindus in 1297; captured Rintimbur, 
 after a difficult siege, from the Jaipur Rajputs in 1300; took 
 the fort of Chitor, and partially subjected the Sesodia Rajputs 
 (1303); and, having thus reduced the Hindus on the north of 
 the Vindhyas, prepared for the conquest of Southern India or 
 the Deccan. But before starting on this great expedition he 
 had to meet five Mughal inroads from Central Asia, In 1295, 
 he defeated a Mughal invasion under the walls of his capital, 
 Delhi; in 1304-5, he encountered four others, sending all his 
 prisoners to Delhi, where the Chiefs were trampled by elephants, 
 and the common soldiery slaughtered in cold blood. He 
 crushed with equal cruelty several rebellions which took place 
 among his own family during the same period — first putting 
 out the eyes of his insurgent nephews, and then beheading them 
 (1299-1300). 
 
 His Conquest of Southern India. — His affairs in Northern 
 India being thus settled, he undertook the conquest of the 
 south. In 1303, he had sent his eunuch slave, Malik Kafur, 
 with an army, through Bengal, to attack Warangal, the capital 
 of the south-eastern Hindu kingdom of Telingana. In 1306, 
 Kafur marched victoriously through Malwa and Khandesh into 
 the Maratha country, where he captured Deogiri, and persuaded 
 the Hindu king Ram Deo to return with him to do homage at 
 Delhi. Meanwhile the Sultan Ala-ud-din was conquering the 
 Rajputs in Marwar. His slave general, Kafur, made expeditions 
 through Maharashtra and the Karnatik, as far south as Adam's 
 Bridge, at the extremity of India, where he built a mosque. 
 
 Extent of the Muhammadan Power in India, 1306. — 
 The Muhammadan Sultan of India was no longer merely an
 
 ALA-UD-DIN IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 1 23 
 
 Afghan King of Delhi. Three great waves of invasion from 
 Central Asia had created a large Muhammadan population in 
 Northern India. First came the Turkfs, represented by the 
 house of Ghaznf ; then the Afghans (commonly so called), repre- 
 sented by the house of Ghor ; next the Mughals, having failed 
 to conquer the Punjab, took service in great numbers with the 
 Sultans of Delhi. Under the Slave Kings the Mughal mer- 
 cenaries had become so powerful as to require to be massacred 
 (1286). About 1292, three thousand INIughals, having been 
 converted from their old Tartar rites to Islam, received a 
 suburb of Delhi, still called Mughalpur, for their residence. 
 Other Mughals followed. After various plots by them, Ala-ud- 
 din slaughtered 15,000 of the settlers, and sold their families as 
 slaves (13 1 1 A.D.). The unlimited supply of soldiers which he 
 could thus draw upon from the Turk!, Afghan, and Mughal 
 settlers in Northern India and from countries beyond, enabled him 
 to send armies farther south than any of his predecessors. But 
 in his later years the Hindus revolted in Gujarat ; the Rajputs re- 
 conquered Chitor; and many of the Muhammadan garrisons 
 were driven out of the Deccan. On the capture of Chitor in 
 1303, the Rajput garrison had preferred death to submission. 
 The peasantry still chant an early Hindi ballad, telling how 
 the queen and thirteen thousand women threw themselves on 
 a funeral pile, while the men rushed upon the swords of the 
 besiegers. A remnant cut their way to the Aravalli hills ; and 
 the Rajput independence, although in abeyance during Ala-ud- 
 dfn's reign, was never crushed, Having imprisoned his sons, 
 and given himself up to paroxysms of rage and intemperance, 
 Ala-ud-din died in 13 15, helped to the grave, it is said, by 
 poison given by his favourite general, Kafur. 
 
 A Renegade Hindu Emperor, 1316-1320. — During the 
 four remaining years of the house of Khilji, the actual power 
 passed to Khusru Khan, a low-caste renegade Hindu, who 
 imitated the military successes and vices of his patron, the 
 General Kafur, and in the end murdered him. Khusru became 
 all in all to the new Emperor, the debauchee Mubarik ; then 
 slew him, and seized the throne. While outwardly professing 
 Islam, Khusru desecrated the Kuran by using it as a seat, and
 
 124 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 degraded the pulpits of the mosques into pedestals for Hindu 
 idols. In 1320 he was slain by his revolted soldiery, and the 
 Khilji dynasty disappeared. 
 
 House of Tughlak, 1320-1414. — The leader of the rebel- 
 lion was Ghiyas-ud-dfn Tughlak, who had started life as a Tiirkl 
 slave, and risen to the frontier governorship of the Punjab. He 
 founded the Tughlak dynasty, which lingered on for ninety-six 
 years, although submerged for a time by the invasion of Timiir 
 (Tamerlane) in 1398. Ghiyas-ud-dfn (1320-25 a.d.) removed 
 the capital from Delhi to a spot about four miles farther east, 
 and called it Tughlakabad, 
 
 Muhammad Tughlak, 1325-1351. — His son and successor, 
 Muhammad Tughlak, was an accomplished scholar, a skilful 
 general, and a man of severe abstinence. But his ferocity of 
 temper, perhaps inherited from the tribes of the steppes of Cen- 
 tral Asia, rendered him merciless as a judge, and careless of 
 human suffering. The least opposition drove him into outbursts 
 of insane fury. He wasted the treasures accumulated by Ala- 
 ud-din in buying off the Mughal hordes, who again and again 
 swept through Afghanistan into the Punjab. On the other hand, 
 in fits of ambition, he raised an army for the invasion of Persia, 
 and is said to have sent out an expedition of 100,000 men 
 against China. The force against Persia broke up for want of 
 pay, and plundered his own dominions ; the army against China 
 perished almost to a man in the Himalayan passes. He planned 
 great conquests into Southern India, and dragged the whole 
 inhabitants of Delhi to Deogiri, to which he gave the name of 
 Daulatabad, 800 miles off in the far south. Twice he allowed 
 the miserable suppliants to return to Delhi ; twice he compelled 
 them on pain of death to quit it. One of these forced migra- 
 tions took place amid the horrors of a famine ; the citizens 
 perished by thousands, and in the end the king had to give up 
 the attempt. Having drained his treasury, he issued a forced 
 currency of copper coins, by which he tried to make the king's 
 brass equal to other men's silver. During the same century, the 
 Mughal conqueror of China, Kublai Khan, had extended the 
 use of paper notes, early devised by the Chinese ; and Kai 
 Khatii had introduced a bad imitation of them into Persia.
 
 MUHAMMAD TUGHLAK. 125 
 
 Tughlak's forced currency quickly brought its own ruin. Foreign 
 merchants refused the worthless brass tokens, trade came to a 
 stand, and the king had to take payment of his taxes in his own 
 depreciated coinage. 
 
 Revolt of the Provinces, 1338-1351. — Meanwhile the 
 Provinces began to throw off the Delhi yoke. JNIuhammad 
 Tughlak had succeeded in 1324 to the greatest empire which 
 had, up to that time, acknowledged a INTuhammadan Sultan in 
 India. But his bigoted zeal for Islam forbade him to confide 
 in Hindu princes or Hindu officers; he dared not trust his 
 own kinsmen ; and he thus found himself compelled to fill every 
 high post with foreign Muhammadan adventurers, who had no 
 interest in the stability of his rule. The annals of the period 
 present a long series of outbreaks, one part of the empire throw- 
 ing off its allegiance as soon as another had been brought back 
 to subjection. His own nephew rebelled in Malwa, and, being 
 caught, was flayed alive (1338). The Punjab governor revolted 
 (1339), was crushed, and put to death. The Musalman viceroys 
 of Lower Bengal and of the Coromandel coast set up for them- 
 selves (about 1340), and could not be subdued. The Hindu 
 kingdoms of Karnata and Telingana recovered their indepen- 
 dence (1344), and expelled the Musalman garrisons. The 
 Muhammadan governors in the Deccan also revolted ; while the 
 troops in Gujarat rose in mutiny. Muhammad Tughlak rushed 
 with an army to the south to take vengeance on the traitors, but 
 hardly had he put down their rising than he was called away by 
 insurrections in Gujarat, Malwa, and Sind. He died in 1351, 
 while chasing rebels in the lower valley of the Indus. 
 
 Muhammad Tughlak's Revenue Exactions. — INTuham- 
 mad Tughlak was the first IMusalman ruler of India who can be 
 said to have had a regular revenue-system. He increased the 
 land tax between the Ganges and the Jumna — in some Districts 
 tenfold, in others twentyfold. The husbandmen fled before his 
 tax-gatherers, leaving their villages to lapse into jungle, and 
 formed themselves into robber clans. He cruelly punished all 
 who trespassed on his game preserves ; and he invented a kind 
 of man-hunt without precedent in the annals of human wicked- 
 ness. He surrounded a large tract with his army, ' and then
 
 126 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 gave orders that the circle should close towards the centre, and 
 that all within it (mostly inoffensive peasants) should be slaugh- 
 tered like wild beasts.' This sort of hunt was more than once 
 repeated ; and on another occasion there was a general massacre 
 of the inhabitants of the great city of Kanauj. Such horrors 
 led in due time to famine ; and the miseries of the country 
 exceeded all powers of description. 
 
 Firuz Shah Tughlak, 1351-1388. — His son, Ffruz Tugh- 
 lak, ruled mercifully, but had to recognize the independence of 
 the Muhammadan kingdoms of Bengal and in the Deccan, and 
 suffered much from bodily infirmities and court intrigues. He 
 undertook many public works, such as dams across rivers for 
 irrigation, tanks, caravan-sarais, mosques, colleges, hospitals, 
 and bridges. But his greatest achievement was the old Jumna 
 Canal. This Canal drew its waters from the Jumna near a 
 point where it leaves the mountains, and connected that river 
 with the Ghaggar and the Sudej by irrigation channels. Part 
 of it has been reconstructed by the British Government, and 
 spreads a margin of fertility on either side at this day. But the 
 dynasty of Tughlak soon sank amid Muhammadan mutinies and 
 Hindu revolts ; and under Mahmiid, its last real king, India fell 
 an easy prey to the great Mughal invasion of 1398. 
 
 Timur (Tamerlane's) Invasion, 1398. — In that year, 
 Timur (Tamerlane) swept through the Afghan passes at the 
 head of the united hordes of Tartary. He defeated the Tughlak 
 King Mahmud under the walls of Delhi, and entered the capital. 
 During five days a massacre raged ; * some streets were rendered 
 impassable by heaps of dead'; while Timiir calmly looked on 
 and held a feast in honour of his victory. On the last day of 
 1398, he resumed his march; first offering a 'sincere and 
 humble tribute of grateful praise' to God, in Firuz Shah's 
 marble mosque on the banks of the Jumna. Timur then crossed 
 the Ganges, and proceeded to Hardwar, after a great massacre 
 at Meerut. After skirting the foot of the Himalayas, he retired 
 westwards into Central Asia (1399). Timur left no traces of 
 his power in India, save desolate cities. On his departure, 
 Mahmud Tughlak crept back from his retreat in Gujarat, and 
 nominally ruled till 141 2.
 
 HINDU KINGDOMS OF THE SOUTH. 127 
 
 The Sayyids and the Lodis. — The Tughlak line finally 
 ended in 1414. The Sa}7id dynasty ruled from 1414 till 1450; 
 and the Afghan house of Lodi from 1450 to 1526. But some 
 of these Sultans reigned over only a few miles round Delhi ; 
 and during the whole period the Hindu princes and the local 
 Muhammadan kings were practically independent throughout 
 the greater part of India. The house of Lodi was crushed 
 beneath the Mughal invasion of Babar in 1526. 
 
 Hindu Kingdoms of the South. — Babar founded the 
 INIughal Empire of India, whose last representative died a British 
 State prisoner at Rangoon in 1862. Before entering on the 
 story of that empire, I turn to the kingdoms, Hindu and 
 Muhammadan, on the south of the Vindhya range. The three 
 ancient kingdoms, Chera, Chola, and Pandya, occupied the 
 Dravidian country of Southern India, peopled by Tamil-speaking 
 races. Pandya, the largest of them, had its capital at Madura, 
 and traces its foundation to the fourth century B.C. The Chola 
 kingdom had its headquarters at Combaconum and Tanjore. 
 Talkad, in Mysore, now buried by the sands of the Kaveri, was 
 the capital of the Chera kingdom from 288 to 900 a.d. The 
 1 16th king of the Madura or Pandya dynasty was overthrown by 
 the Muhammadan general Malik Kafur in 1304. But the Musal- 
 mdns failed to establish their power in the extreme south, and a 
 series of Hindu dynasties ruled from Madura over the old Pandya 
 kingdom until the eighteenth century. NoEuropeankingdomcan 
 boast a continuous succession such as that of Pandya or Madura, 
 traced back by the piety of genealogists for more than two 
 thousand years. The Chera or Mysore and Travancore king- 
 dom enumerates fifty kings, and the Chola or Tanjore sixty-six, 
 besides minor offshoot dynasties. 
 
 Kingdom of Vijayanagar. — But authentic history in 
 Southern India begins with the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar 
 or Narsingha, from 11 18 to 1565 a.d. The capital can still be 
 traced within the Madras District of Bcllary, on the right bank 
 of the Tungabhadra river — vast ruins of temples, fortifications, 
 tanks, and bridges, haunted by hyaenas and snakes. For at 
 least three centuries, Vijayanagar ruled over the southern part 
 of the Indian peninsula. Its Hindu Rajas waged war and made
 
 128 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 peace on equal terms with the Muhammadan Sultans of the 
 Deccan. 
 
 Muhammadan States in the Deccan. — The Muhamma- 
 dan kings of Southern India sprang out of the conquest of 
 Ala-ud-dfn (i 303-1 306). After a period of confused fighting, 
 the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan emerged as the representa- 
 tive of Muhammadan rule in Southern India. Zafar Khan, an 
 Afghan general during the reign of Muhammad Tughlak (1325- 
 1351), defeated the Delhi troops, and set up as Musalman sove- 
 reign of the Deccan. Having in early youth been the slave of 
 a Brahman, who had treated him kindly, and foretold his future 
 greatness, he took the title of Bahmanf, and transmitted it to his 
 successors. 
 
 The Bahmani Dynasty. — The rise of the Bahmanf dynasty 
 is usually assigned to the year 1347, and it lasted for 178 
 years, until 1525. Its capitals were successively at Gulbargah, 
 Warangal, and Bidar, all in the modern Haidarabad territories ; 
 and it loosely corresponded with the Nizam's dominions of the 
 present day. At the height of their power, the Muhammadan 
 Bahmani kings claimed sway over half the Deccan, from the 
 Tungabhadra river in the south to Orissa in the north, and 
 from Masulipatam on the east to Goa on the west. Their direct 
 government was, however, much more confined. They derived 
 support, in their early struggle against the Delhi throne, from 
 the Hindu southern kingdoms of Vijayanagar and Warangal. 
 But during the greater part of its career, the Bahmani dynasty 
 represented the cause of Islam against Hinduism on the south 
 of the Vindhyas. Its alliances and its wars alike led to a 
 mingling of the Musalman and Hindu populations. For 
 example, the King of Malwa invaded the Bahmani dominions 
 with a mixed force of 12,000 Muhammadan Afghans and Hindu 
 Rajputs. The Hindu Raja of Vijayanagar recruited his armies 
 from Afghan Musalmans, whom he paid by assignments of land, 
 and for whom he built a mosque. The Bahmani Muhammadan 
 troops, on the other hand, were frequently led by converted 
 Hindus. The Bahmanf armies were themselves made up of 
 two hostile sects of Musalmans. One sect consisted of Shias, 
 chiefly Persians, Turks, or Tartars from Central Asia ; the other,
 
 MUHAMMADAN KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN. 129 
 
 of native-born Musalmans of Southern India, together with 
 Abyssinian mercenaries, professing the Sunnf faith. The rivalry 
 between these Musalman sects frequently imperilled the 
 Bahmanf throne. The dynasty reached its highest power under 
 Ala-ud-dfn II about 1437, ^"d was broken up by its discordant 
 elements between 1489 and 1525. 
 
 Five Muhammadan States oftheDeccan, 1489-1688. — 
 Out of its fragments, the five independent Muhammadan king- 
 doms in the Deccan were formed. These were — (i) The Adil 
 Shahi dynasty, with its capital at Bijapur, founded in 1489 by a 
 son of Amurath II, Sultan of the Ottoman Turks; annexed by the 
 Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1 686-1 688. (2) The Kutab 
 Shahi dynasty, with its capital at Golconda, founded in 151 2 
 by a Turkoman adventurer ; also annexed by Aurangzeb in 
 1687-1688. (3) The Nizam Shahi dynasty, with its capital at 
 Ahmadnagar, founded in 1490 by a Brahman renegade from 
 the Vijayanagar Court; subverted by the Mughal Emperor 
 Shah Jahan in 1636. (4) The Imad Shahi dynasty of Berar, 
 with its capital at Ellichpur, founded in 1484 also by a Hindu 
 from Vijayanagar; annexed to the Ahmadnagar kingdom 
 (No. 3) in 1572. (5) The Barid Shahi dynasty, with its capital 
 at Bfdar, founded 149 2- 1498 by a Turki or Georgian slave. 
 The Bidar territories were small and ill-defined ; and were 
 independent till after 1609. Bfdar fort was taken by Aurangzeb 
 in 1657. 
 
 Fall of Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar. — It is beyond 
 my scope to trace the history of these local Muhammadan 
 dynasties of Southern India. They preserved their independence 
 until the firm establishment of the Mughal Empire in the north, 
 under Akbar and his successors. For a time they had to 
 struggle against the great Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar. In 
 1565 they combined against that power, and, aided by a rebellion 
 within Vijayanagar itself, they overthrew it at Talikot in 1565. 
 The battle of Talikot marks the final downfall of Vijayanagar 
 as a great Hindu kingdom. But its local Hindu Chiefs or 
 Nayaks kept hold of their respective fiefs, and the Muhammadan 
 kings of the south were only able to annex a ])art of its 
 dominions. From the Nayaks are descended the well-known 
 
 I
 
 130 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS. 
 
 Palegars (Polygars) of the Madras Presidency, and the Maharaja 
 of Mysore. One of the blood-royal of Vijayanagar fled to 
 Chandragiri, and founded a line which exercised a prerogative 
 of its former sovereignty, by granting the site of Madras to the 
 English in 1639. Another scion, claiming the same high 
 descent, lingers to the present day near the ruins of Vijayanagar, 
 and is known as the Raja of Anagundi, a feudatory of the 
 Nizam of Haidarabad. The independence of the local Hindu 
 Rajas in Southern India throughout the Muhammadan period 
 is illustrated by the Manjarabad family, a line of petty Chiefs, 
 which maintained its authority from 1397 to 1799. 
 
 Independence of the Provinces. — Lower Bengal threw off 
 the authority of Delhi in 1340. Its Muhammadan governor, 
 Fakfr-ud-di'n, set up as sovereign, with his capital at Gaur, and 
 stamped coin in his own name. A succession of twenty kings 
 ruled Bengal until 1538, when it was temporarily annexed to the 
 Mughal Empire of Delhi by Humayun. Bengal was finally 
 incorporated into that empire by Akbar in 1576. The great 
 Province of Gujarat in Western India had in like manner grown 
 into an independent Muhammadan kingdom, which lasted for 
 two centuries, from 137 1 till conquered by Akbar in 1573. 
 Malwa, which had also risen to be an independent State 
 under its Muhammadan governors, was annexed by the King 
 of Gujarat in 1531. Even Jaunpur, including the territory of 
 Benares, in the centre of the Gangetic valley, maintained its 
 independence as a Musalman State for nearly a hundred years, 
 from 1393 to 1478, during the disturbed rule of the Sayyids 
 and the first Lodi at Delhi. 
 
 Weakness of the early Delhi Empire. — The position of 
 the early Muhammadan rulers of Delhi was a very difficult 
 one. Successive Musalman hordes of Tiirks, Afghans, and Tar- 
 tars swept down the passes, and wrested India from the preceding 
 invaders of their own Muhammadan faith. The Delhi Empire 
 was therefore beset by three perpetual dangers. First, new 
 IMuhammadan invasions from Central Asia ; second, rebellious 
 JMuhammadan generals or Governors within India ; third, the 
 Hindu races whom the early Delhi kings neither conciliated nor 
 crushed. It was reserved for Akbar the Great to remedy the
 
 WEAKNESS OF THE EARLY DELHI SULTAnS. 131 
 
 inherent weakness of the position ; and by incorporating the 
 Hindus into his government, to put a curb alike on INIuhammadan 
 invaders from without, and on too powerful Muhammadan 
 subjects within. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone's History of India (Cowell's 
 Edition) is still the standard popular work for the whole Muhammadan 
 period ; Sir Henry Elliot's eight volumes, entitled The History of India as 
 told by its own Historians, i.e. the Arab and Persian travellers and 
 chroniclers (Dowson's edition), are the main original sources; also Edward 
 Thomas' Chronicles of the Pathdn Kings of Delhi (especially from 1193 to 
 1554); Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari (^Calcutta, 1S73) and Gladwin's older 
 translation (1800); ^X.&\izx\!s History of Bengal from the first Muhammadan 
 Invasion to 1757 (Calcutta, 1S47) ; and Briggs' Firishta (subject to correction 
 from Sir Henry Elliot's eight volumes). The District Gazetteers or Statistical 
 Surs'eys of Northern India contain a mine of still unexhausted historical 
 materials, which have, so far as permitted by the space allowed, been con- 
 densed in Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer of India (Second Edition) and his 
 Indian Empire. 
 
 13
 
 [I32] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Mughal Dynasty, 1526-1761. 
 
 Babar, 1482-1530. — When, therefore, Babar the Mughal 
 invaded India in 1526, he found it divided among a number of 
 local Muhammadan kings and Hindu princes. An Afghan 
 Sultan of the house of Lodi, with his capital at Agra, ruled over 
 what little was left of the historical kingdom of Delhi. Babar, 
 literally ' the Lion,' born in 1482, was the sixth in descent from 
 Timiir the Tartar. At the early age of twelve, he succeeded 
 his father in the petty kingdom of Ferghana on the Jaxartes 
 (1494) ; and, after romantic adventures, conquered Samarkand, 
 the capital of Tamerlane's Hne, in 1497. Overpowered by 
 a rebellion, and driven out of the valley of the Oxus, Babar seized 
 the kingdom of Kabul in 1504. During twenty-two years he 
 grew in strength on the Afghan side of the Indian passes, till 
 in 1526 he burst through them into the Punjab, and defeated 
 the Delhi sovereign, Ibrahfm Lodi at Panipat. This was the 
 first of three great battles which, within modern times, have 
 decided the fate of India on that same plain of Panipat, viz. in 
 1526, 1556, and 1761. Having entered Delhi, Babar received 
 the allegiance of the Muhammadans, but was speedily attacked 
 by the Rajputs of Chitor. Those clans had brought all Ajmere, 
 Mewar, and Malwa under their rule, and now threatened to 
 found a Hindu empire. In 1527, Babar defeated them at 
 Fatehpur Si'kri, near Agra, after a battle memorable for its 
 perils, and for Babar's vow in his extremity never again to touch 
 wine. He rapidly extended his power as far as Miiltan in the 
 Southern Punjab, and Behar in the eastern valley of the Ganges. 
 Babar died at Agra in 1530, leaving an empire which stretched 
 from the river Amu in Central Asia to the borders of the 
 Gangetic delta in Lower Bengal. 
 
 Humayun, Emperor, 1530-1556. — His son, Humayun, sue-
 
 THE EMPEROR HUMAYUN. 133 
 
 ceeded him in India, but had to make over Kabul and the 
 Western Punjab to his brother and rival, Kamran, Humayun 
 was thus left to govern the new conquest of India, and at the 
 same time was deprived of Afghanistan and the Punjab frontier 
 from which his father had drawn his armies. The descendants 
 of the early Afghan invaders, long settled in India, hated the 
 new Muhammadan or Mughal hordes of Babar even more than 
 they hated the Hindus. After ten years of fighting, Humayun 
 was driven out of India by these Afghans under Sher Shah, the 
 Governor of Bengal. While Humayun was flying through the 
 desert of Sind to Persia, his son Akbar was born in the petty fort 
 of Umarkot (1542). Sher Shah, the Afghan governor of Bengal, 
 set up as emperor of Delhi, but was killed while storming the 
 fortress of Kalinjar (1545). His son succeeded. But, under 
 Sher Shah's grandson, the Indian Provinces (including Malwa, the 
 Punjab, and Bengal) revolted against the Afghan dynasty from 
 Bengal. Humayun returned to India, and Akbar, then only in 
 his fourteenth year, defeated the Afghan army of Sher Shah's 
 dynasty after a desperate battle at Panfpat (1556). India now 
 passed finally from the Afghans to the Mughals. Sher Shah's 
 line disappears from Northern India and the Delhi throne, 
 although it lingered on for a time in Lower Bengal. Humayun, 
 having recovered his Kabul dominions, reigned again for a few 
 months at Delhi, but died in 1556. 
 
 The Reign of Akbar, i 556-1 605. 
 
 Chronological Summary. 
 
 1542. Bom at Umarkot in Sind. 
 
 1556. Regains the Delhi throne for his father, Humayun, by the victory 
 
 over the Afghans at I'anipat (Bairam Khan in actual command). 
 
 Succeeds his fathera few months after, under the regency of Bairam Khan. 
 1560. Assumes the direct management of the kingdom. Revolt of Bairam 
 
 Khan, who is defeated and pardoned. 
 1566. Invasion of the Punjab by Akbar's rival brother. Hakim, who is 
 
 defeated. 
 1561-1568. Akbar subjugates the Rajput kingdoms to the Muglial Empire. 
 157^-157.^- Campaign in Gujarat, and its re-annexation to the Delhi Empire. 
 1576. Akbar's conquest of Bengal; its final annexation to theMughal Empire. 
 1581-1593. Insurrection in Gujarat. The Province finally subjugated in 
 
 1593 to the Mughal Empire.
 
 134 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 The Reign of Akbar {continued^. 
 1586. Conquest of Kashmir ; its final revolt quelled in 1592. 
 1592. Conquest and annexation of Sind to the Mughal Empire. 
 
 1594. Subjugation of Kandahar, and consolidation of the Mughal Empire 
 over all India north of the Vindhyjis as far as Kabul and Kandahar. 
 
 1595. Unsuccessful expedition of Akbar's arniy into the Deccan against 
 Ahmadnagar under his son, Prince Murad. 
 
 1599. Second expedition against Ahmadnagar by Akbar in person, who 
 
 captures the town, but fails to establish Mughal rule. 
 1 60 1. Annexation of Khandesh, and return of Akbar to Northern India. 
 1605. Akbar's death at Agra. 
 
 Akbar the Great, 1556-1605. — Akbar the Great, the real 
 founder of the Mughal Empire as it existed for one and a half 
 centuries, succeeded his father at the age of fourteen. Born in 
 1542, his reign lasted for almost fifty years, from 1556 to 1605, 
 and was therefore contemporary with that of our own Queen 
 Elizabeth (1558-1603). His father, Humayun, left but a small 
 kingdom in India, not so large as the present British Province 
 of the Punjab : Akbar expanded that small kingdom into an 
 Indian Empire. At the time of Humayun's death, Akbar (a 
 mere boy) was absent in the Punjab, under the guardianship of 
 Bairam Khan, fighting the revolted Afghans. Bairam, a 
 Turkoman by birth, had been the support of the exiled Huma- 
 yun, and held the real command of the army which restored him 
 to his throne at Panfpat. He now became the regent for the 
 youthful Akbar, under the honoured tide of Khan Baba, 
 equivalent to ' the King's Father.' Brave and skilful as a 
 general, but harsh and overbearing, he raised many enemies ; and 
 Akbar, having endured four years of thraldom, took advantage 
 of a hunting party to throw off his minister's yoke (1560). 
 The fallen regent, after a struggle between his loyalty and his 
 resentment, revolted, was defeated, and pardoned. Akbar 
 granted him a liberal pension ; and Bairam was in the act of 
 starting on a pilgrimage to IMecca, when he fell beneath the knife 
 of an Afghan assassin, whose father he had slain in, battle. 
 
 Akbar's Work in India. — The reign of Akbar was a reign 
 of pacification. On his accession in 1556 he found India split 
 up into petty Hindu and Muhammadan kingdoms, and seething 
 with discordant elements; on his death in 1605, he bequeathed 
 it an almost united empire. The earlier invasions by Turks,
 
 AKBAR'S CONCILIATION OF THE HINDUS. 135 
 
 Afghans, and Mughals had left a powerful IMuhammadan popu- 
 lation in India under their own Kings. Akbar reduced these 
 Musalman States to Provinces of the Delhi Empire. Many of 
 the Hindu kings and Rajput nations had also regained their 
 independence : Akbar brought them into political dependence 
 upon his authority. This double task he effected partly by force 
 of arms, but in part also by alliances. He enlisted the Rajput 
 princes by marriage and by a sympathetic policy in the support 
 of his throne. He then employed them in high posts, and played 
 off his Hindu generals and Hindu ministers alike against the 
 Mughal party in Upper India, and against the Afghan faction in 
 Lower Bengal. 
 
 Reduction of the Rajputs, 1561-1568. — Humayun, as we 
 have seen, left but a small kingdom, confined to the Punjab, 
 with the Districts round Delhi and Agra. Akbar quickly 
 extended it, at the expense of his nearest neighbours, namely, 
 the Rajputs. Jaipur was reduced to a fief of the empire ; and 
 Akbar cemented his conquest by marrying the daughter of its 
 Hindu prince. Jodhpur was in like manner overcome ; and 
 Akbar married his son, Salfm, who afterwards reigned under 
 the title of Jahangir, to the grand-daughter of the Raja. The 
 Rajputs of Chitor were overpowered after a long struggle, but 
 would not mingle their high-caste Hindu blood even with that of 
 a Muhammadan emperor. They found shelter among the 
 mountains and deserts of the Indus, whence they afterwards 
 emerged to recover most of their old dominions, and to found 
 their capital of Udaipur, which they retain to this day. They 
 still boast that alone, among the great Rajput clans, they never 
 gave a daughter in marriage to a Mughal emperor. 
 
 Conciliation of the Hindus. — Akbar pursued his policy of 
 conciliation towards all the Hindu States. He also took care to 
 provide a career for the lesser Hindu nobility. He appointed 
 his brother-in-law, the son of the Jaipur Raja, Governor of the 
 Punjab. Raja Man Singh, also a Hindu relative of the Emperor's 
 family, did good war service for Akbar from Kabul to Orissa, and 
 ruled as his Governor of Bengal from 1589 to 1604. Akbar's 
 great finance minister, Raja Todar INTall, was likewise a Hindu, 
 and carried out the first regular land-settlement and survey of
 
 136 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 India. Out of 415 mansabddrs, or commanders of horse, 51 
 were Hindus. Akbar abolislied ihtjazmh, the hated tax on non- 
 Musalmans, and placed all his subjects upon a political equality. 
 He had the Sanskrit sacred books and epic poems translated 
 into Persian, and showed a keen interest in the religion of his 
 Hindu subjects. He respected their laws, but he put down 
 their inhumane rites. He forbade trial by ordeal, animal 
 sacrifices, and child marriages before the age of puberty. He 
 legalized the re-marriage of Hindu widows ; but he failed to 
 abolish widow-burning on the husband's funeral pile, although 
 he took steps to ensure that the act should be voluntary. 
 
 Muhammadan States reduced. — Akbar thus incorporated 
 his Hindu subjects into the effective force, both civil and military, 
 of his empire. With their aid he reduced the independent Mu- 
 hammadan kings of Northern India. He subjugated the petty 
 Hindu potentates from the Punjab to Behar. After a struggle, 
 he wrested Lower Bengal in 1576 from its Afghan princes of the 
 house of Sher Shah (see page 133). From the time of Akbar's 
 conquest of Lower Bengal, it remained for nearly two centuries 
 a province of the Mughal Empire, under governors from Delhi 
 (i 576-1 765). In 1765, it passed by an imperial grant to the 
 British. Orissa, on the Bay of Bengal, submitted to Akbar's 
 armies, under his Hindu general, Todar Mall, in 1574. On the 
 opposite coast of India, Gujarat was reconquered from its 
 independent Muhammadan king (1572-73), although not finally 
 subjugated until 1593. INIalwa had been reduced in 1572. 
 Kashmir was conquered in 1586, and its last revolt quelled in 
 1592. Sind was also annexed in 1592 ; and by the recovery of 
 Kandahar in 1594, Akbar extended the Mughal Empire from 
 the heart of Afghanistan across all India north of the Vindhyas, 
 eastward to Orissa, and westward to Sind. He removed the 
 seat of government from Delhi to Agra, and founded F"atehpur 
 Sikri as the future capital of the empire. From this project he 
 was afterwards dissuaded, by the superior position of Agra on 
 the great waterway of the Jumna. In 1566, he built the Agra 
 fort, whose red sandstone battlements majestically overhang the 
 river to this day. 
 
 Akbar's Wars in Southern India. — Akbar's efi'orts to
 
 AKBAR'S NEW RELIGION. 1 37 
 
 establish the Mughal Empire in Southern India were less suc- 
 cessful. Those efforts began in 1586, but during the first 
 twelve years they were frustrated by the valour and statesman- 
 ship of Chand Bibf, the IMusalman queen of Ahmadnagar. This 
 celebrated lady skilfully united the usually hostile Abyssinian 
 and Persian setders in Southern India, together with their armies, 
 and strengthened herself by an alliance with Bijapur and other 
 Muhammadan States of the south. In 1599, Akbar led his armies 
 in person against the princess ; but notwithstanding her assas- 
 sination by her mutinous troops, Ahmadnagar was not reduced 
 till the reign of Akbar's grandson, Shah Jahan, in 1636. Akbar 
 subjugated Khandesh, and with this somewhat precarious 
 annexation his conquests in Southern India ceased. He re- 
 turned to Northern India, perhaps feeling that the conquest of 
 the south was beyond the strength of his young empire. 
 
 Akbar's Death. — His last years were embittered by the 
 intrigues of his family, and by the misconduct of his beloved 
 son. Prince Salim, afterwards the Emperor Jahangfr. In 1605, 
 he died, and was buried in the noble mausoleum at Sikandra, 
 whose mingled architecture of Buddhist design and Saracenic 
 tracery bears witness to the composite faith of the founder of 
 the Mughal Empire. In 1873, ^he British Viceroy, Lord North- 
 brook, presented a cloth of honour to cover the plain marble 
 slab beneath which Akbar lies. 
 
 Akbar's New Faith. — Akbar's conciliation of the Hindus, 
 and his interest in their hterature and religion, made him many 
 enemies among the pious Musalmans. His favourite wife was 
 a Rajput princess ; another of his wives is said to have been 
 a Christian. On Fridays (the Sabbath of Islam), he loved to 
 collect professors of many religions around him. He listened 
 impartially to the arguments of the Brahman and the IMusal- 
 man, the Zoroastrian, the Jew, the Jesuit, and the sceptic 
 philosopher. The history of his life, the Akbar-tidinah, records 
 such a conference, in which the Christian priest Redif di.sputed 
 with a body of Muhammadan mullds before an assembly of the 
 doctors of all religions, and is allowed to have had the best 
 of the argument. Starting from the broad ground of general 
 toleration, Akbar was gradually led on by free discussion to
 
 138 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 question the truth of his inherited Muhammadan creed. The 
 counsels of his friend Abul Fazl, coinciding with that sense of 
 superhuman omnipotence which is bred of despotic imperial 
 power, led Akbar at last to promulgate a new State religion, 
 called ' The Divine Faith,' based upon natural theology, and 
 comprising the best practices of all known forms of belief. Of 
 this made-up creed Akbar himself was the prophet, or rather 
 the head of the Church. Every morning he worshipped in 
 public the sun, as the representative of the divine soul which 
 animates the universe, while he was himself worshipped by the 
 ignorant multitude. It is doubtful how far he encouraged this 
 popular adoration of his person, but he certainly allowed his 
 disciples to prostrate themselves before him in private. The 
 stricter Muhammadans accused him, therefore, of accepting a 
 homage permitted only to God. 
 
 Akbar's Organization of the Empire. — Akbar not only 
 subdued all India to the north of the Vindhya mountains, he 
 also organized it into an empire. He partitioned it into Pro- 
 vinces, over each of which he placed a governor, or viceroy, 
 with full civil and military control. This control was divided 
 into three departments — the military, the judicial, including the 
 police, and the revenue. With a view to preventing mutinies 
 of the troops, or assertions of independence by their leaders, he 
 re-organized the army on a new basis. He substituted, as far 
 as possible, money payments to the soldiers for the old system 
 of grants of land {jdgirs) to the generals. Where this change 
 could not be carried out, he brought the holders of the old 
 military fiefs under the control of the central authority at Delhi. 
 He further checked the independence of his provincial generals, 
 by a sort of feudal organization, in which the Hindu tributary 
 princes took their place side by side with the Mughal nobles. 
 The judicial administration was presided over by a lord justice 
 {inir-i-adt) at the capital, aided by kdzis or law-officers in the 
 principal towns. The police in the cities were under a "super- 
 intendent or kohvdl, who was also a magistrate. In country 
 districts, where police existed at all, they were left to the 
 management of the landholders or revenue officers. But 
 throughout rural India no regular police force can be said to
 
 AKBAR'S REVENUE SYSTEM. 139 
 
 have existed for the protection of person and property until after 
 the establishment of British rule. The Hindu village-system had 
 its hereditary \vatchman for each hamlet. These village watch- 
 men were in many parts of the country taken from the preda- 
 tory castes, and were as often leagued with the robbers as 
 opposed to them. The landholders and revenue officers had 
 each their own set of personal police, who plundered the 
 peasantry in their names. 
 
 Akbar's Revenue System. — Akbar's revenue system was 
 based on the ancient Hindu customs, and survives to this day. 
 He first executed a survey or actual measurement of the fields. 
 His officers then found out the produce of each acre of land, 
 and settled the Government share, amounting to one-third of 
 the gross produce. Finally, they fixed the rates at which this 
 share of the crop might be commuted into a money payment. 
 These processes, known as the land settlement, were at first 
 repeated every year. But, to save the peasant from the ex- 
 tortions and vexations incident to an annual inquiry, Akbar's 
 land settlement was afterwards made for ten years. His officers 
 strictly enforced the payment of a third of the whole produce ; 
 and Akbar's land revenue from Northern India exceeded what 
 the British levy at the present day. From his fifteen Provinces, 
 including Kabul beyond the Afghan frontier, and Khandesh in 
 Southern India, he demanded 14 millions sterling per annum; 
 or, excluding Kabul, Khandesh, and Sind, 12,4 millions. The 
 British land tax from a much larger area of Northern India was 
 only 12 millions in 1883. Allowing for the diff'erence in area 
 and in purchasing power of silver, Akbar's tax was about three 
 times the amount which the British take. Two later returns 
 show the land revenue of Akbar at i6| and 17^ millions 
 sterling. The Provinces had also to support a local militia 
 {biii7if), in contradistinction to the regular royal army, at a cost 
 of at least 10 millions sterling. Excluding both Kabul and 
 Khandesh, Akbar's demand from the soil of Northern India 
 exceeded 22 millions sterling per annum, under the two items 
 of land revenue and militia cess. There were also a number 0/ 
 miscellaneous taxes. Akbar's total revenue is estimated at 
 42 millions sterling.
 
 140 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 Akbar's Ministers. — Akbar's Hindu minister, Raja Todar 
 Mall, conducted the revenue settlement, and his name is still 
 a household word among the husbandmen of Bengal. Abul 
 Fazl, the man of letters, and finance minister of Akbar, com- 
 piled a statistical survey of the empire, together with many vivid 
 pictures of his master's court and daily life, in the Ain-i-Akbari, 
 which may be read with interest at the present day. Abul Fazl 
 was killed in 1503, at the instigation of Prince Salim, the heir 
 to the throne. The fate of Abul Fazl was the disgrace of 
 Akbar's old age. 
 
 Jahangir, Emperor, 1605-1627. — Salfm, the favourite son 
 of Akbar, succeeded his father in 1605, and ruled until 1627, 
 under the title of Jahangfr, or Conqueror of the World. His 
 reign of twenty-two years was spent in reducing the rebellions 
 of his sons, in exalting the influence of his wife, and in festive 
 self-indulgence. He carried on long wars in Southern India 
 or the Deccan, but he added little to his father's territories. 
 India south of the Vindhyas still continued apart from the 
 northern Empire ot Delhi. Malik Ambar, the Abyssinian 
 minister of Ahmadnagar, maintained, in spite of reverses, the 
 independence of that kingdom. At the end of Jahangir's reign, 
 his own son, Prince Shah Jahan, was a rebel and a refugee in 
 the Deccan, in alliance with Malik Ambar against the imperial 
 troops. The Rajputs also began to reassert their independence. 
 In 1614, Prince Shah Jahan, on behalf of his father the em- 
 peror, defeated the Udaipur Raja. But the conquest was only 
 partial and for a time. IMeanwhile the Rajputs formed an im- 
 portant contingent of the imperial armies, and 5000 of their 
 cavalry aided Shah Jahan to put down a revolt in Kabul. The 
 Afghan Province of Kandahar was wrested from Jahangfr by 
 the Persians in 1621. The land tax of the Mughal Empire 
 remained at 1 7I millions under Jahangfr, but his total revenues 
 are estimated at 50 millions sterling. 
 
 The Empress Nur Jahan. — The principal figure in 
 Jahangir's reign is his empress, Nur Jahan, the ' Light of the 
 World,' otherwise known as Nur Mahal, the 'Light of the 
 Palace.' Born in great poverty, but of a noble Persian family, 
 her beauty won the love of Jahangfr while they were both in
 
 THE EMPEROR JAHANGIR, 141 
 
 their first youth, during the reign of Akbar. The old emperor 
 tried to put her out of his son's way, by marrying her to a 
 brave soldier, who obtained high employment in Lower Bengal. 
 Jahangfr, on his accession to the throne, commanded her 
 divorce. The husband refused, and was killed. The wife, 
 being brought into the imperial palace, lived for some time in 
 chaste seclusion as a widow, but in the end emerged as the 
 Empress Nur Jahan, the Light of the World. She surrounded 
 herself with her relatives, and at first influenced the self- 
 indulgent emperor Jahangfr for his good. But the jealousy of 
 the imperial princes and of the Mughal generals against her 
 party led to intrigue and rebellion. In 1626, her successful 
 general, Mahabat Khan, found himself compelled, in self- 
 defence, to turn against her. He seized the emperor, whom he 
 kept, together with Niir Jahan, in captivity for six months. 
 Jaliangfr died in the following year, 1627, in the midst of a 
 rebellion against him by his son, Shah Jahan, and his greatest 
 general, Mahabat Khan. 
 
 Jahangir's Personal Character. — Jahangfr's personal cha- 
 racter is vividly portrayed by Sir Thomas Roe, the first British 
 ambassador to India (16 15). Agra continued to be the central 
 seat of the government, but the imperial army on the march 
 formed in itself a splendid capital. Jahangfr thought that Akbar 
 had too openly severed himself from the Muhammadan faith. 
 The new emperor conformed more strictly to the outward 
 observances of Islam, but lacked the inward religious feeling of 
 his father. While he forbade the use of wine to his subjects, he 
 spent his own nights in drunken revelry. He talked religion 
 over his cups until he reached a certain stage of intoxication, 
 when he ' fell to weeping, and to various passions, which kept 
 them to midnight.' In public he maintained a strict appear- 
 ance of virtue, and never allowed any person whose breath 
 smelt of wine to enter his presence. On one occasion, a cour- 
 tier who had shared his midnight revel, indiscreetly alluded to it 
 next morning. The Sultan gravely examined him as to who 
 could possibly have been the companions of such a debauch, 
 and bastinadoed them so severely that one of them died. 
 
 When sober, Jahangfr tried to work wisely for his empire. A
 
 142 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 chain hung down from the citadel to the ground, and communi- 
 cated with a cluster of golden bells in his own chamber, so that 
 every suitor might apprise the emperor of his demand for justice, 
 without the intervention of the courtiers. INIany European 
 adventurers repaired to his court, and Jahangir patronized alike 
 their arts and their religion. In his earlier years he had 
 accepted the new religion, or ' Divine Faith' of his father Akbar. 
 It is said that on his accession he had even permitted the divine 
 honours paid to Akbar to be continued to himself Jahangir's 
 first wife was a Hindu princess. Figures of Christ and the 
 Virgin Mary adorned his rosary; and two of his nephews 
 embraced Christianity with his approval. 
 
 Shah Jahan, Emperor, 1628-1658. — On the news of his 
 father's death, Shah Jahan hurried north from the Deccan, and 
 proclaimed himself emperor at Agra in January 1628. He 
 put down for ever the court faction of the Empress Nur Jahdn, 
 by confining her to private life upon a liberal allowance ; and 
 by murdering his brother Shahriyar, with all the other members 
 of the house of Akbar who might become rivals to the throne. 
 But he was just to his people, blameless in his habits, a good 
 financier, and as economical as a magnificent court, splendid 
 public works, and distant military expeditions could permit. 
 Under Shah Jahan the Mughal Empire was finally shorn of its 
 Afghan Province of Kandahar ; but it extended its conquests in 
 Southern India or the Deccan, and raised the magnificent build- 
 ings in Northern India which now form the most splendid 
 memorials of the jMughal dynasty. After a temporary occupa- 
 tion of Balkh, and the actual reconquest of Kandahar by the 
 Delhi troops in 1637, Shah Jahan lost much of his Afghan 
 territories, and the Province of Kandahar was severed from 
 the Mughal Empire by the Persians in 1653. On the other 
 hand, in the Deccan, the kingdom of Ahmadnagar (to which 
 EUichpur had been united in 1572) was at last annexed to the 
 Mughal Empire in 1636; Bidar fort was taken in 1657; while 
 the two other of the five kingdoms, namely Bijapur and 
 Golconda, were forced to pay tribute, although not finally 
 reduced until the succeeding reign of Aurangzeb. But the 
 Marathas now appear on the scene, and commenced, unsuccess-
 
 THE EMPEROR SHAH J AH AN. 143 
 
 lully at Ahmadnagar in 1637, that series of persistent Hindu 
 attacks which were destined in the next century to break down 
 the Mughal Empire. The imperial princes, Aurangzeb and his 
 brothers, carried on the wars in Southern India and in Afghanistan 
 for their father Shah Jahan. 
 
 Shah Jahan's Buildings. — Except during one or two 
 military expeditions, Shah Jahan lived a magnificent life in the 
 north of India. At Agra he raised the exquisite mausoleum of 
 the Taj Mahal, a dream in marble, ' designed by Titans and 
 finished by jewellers.' His Pearl Mosque, the marble Moii 
 Afasjtd, within the Agra fort, is perhaps the purest and 
 loveliest house of prayer in the world. Not content with 
 enriching his grandfather Akbar's capital with these and other 
 architectural glories. Shah Jahan planned the re-transfer of the 
 seat of government to Delhi, and adorned that city with build- 
 ings of unrivalled magnificence. Its Great Mosque, or Jama 
 Masjid, was commenced in the fourth year of his reign, and 
 completed in the tenth. The palace at Delhi, now the fort, 
 covered a vast parallelogram, 1600 feet by 3200, with exquisite 
 and sumptuous buildings in marble and fine stone. The 
 entrance consists of a deeply recessed gateway leading into 
 a vaulted hall, which springs up two storeys high, like the 
 nave of a gigantic Gothic cathedral, 375 feet in length; — 'the 
 noblest entrance,' says Fergusson, the historian of architecture, 
 ' to any existing palace.' The Dhvdn-i-Khds, or Court of 
 Private Audience, overlooks the river, — a masterpiece of deli- 
 cate inlaid work and poetic design. Shah Jahan spent many 
 years of his reign at Delhi, and ])rcpared the city for its destiny 
 as the most magnificent capital in the world under his successor 
 Aurangzeb. But exquisite as are its public buildings, the 
 manly vigour of Akbar's red-stone fort at Agra, with its bold 
 sculptures and square Hindu construction, has given place to 
 a certain effeminate beauty in the marble structures of Shah 
 Jahan. 
 
 Shah Jahan's Revenues. — Under Shah Jahan, the Mughal 
 Empire attained its highest union of strength with magnificence. 
 His son and successor, Aurangzeb, added to its extent, but at 
 the same time sowed the seeds of its decay. Akbar's land
 
 144 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 revenue of 17^ millions had been raised, chiefly by new 
 conquests, to 22 millions sterling under Shah Jahan. But this 
 sum included Kashmir, and five Provinces in Afghanistan, some 
 of which were lost during his reign. The land revenue of the 
 Mughal Empire within India was 2 of- millions. The magnifi- 
 cence of Shah Jahan's court was the wonder of European 
 travellers. His Peacock Throne, with its tail blazing in the 
 shifting natural colours of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, was 
 valued by the jeweller Tavernier at 6.} millions sterling. 
 
 Rebellion of Prince Aurangzeb, 1657. — Akbar's dynasty 
 lay under the curse of rebellious sons. As Jahangir had risen 
 against his most loving father, Akbar, and as Shah Jahan had 
 mutinied against Jahangfr; so Shah Jahan in his turn suff'ered 
 from the intrigues and rebellions of his family. In 1657, the 
 old king fell ill; and Aurangzeb, after a treacherous conflict 
 with his brethren, deposed his father, and proclaimed himself 
 emperor in 1658. The unhappy emperor was kept in confine- 
 ment for seven years, and died a State prisoner in the fort of 
 Agra in 1666. 
 
 The Reign of Aurangzeb, 1658-1707. 
 Chronological Summary. 
 
 1658. Deposition of Shah Jahan, and usurpation of Aurangzeb. 
 
 1659. Aurangzeb defeats his brothers Shuja and Dara. Dara. being betrayed 
 by a chief with whom he had sought refuge, is put to death. 
 
 1660. Continued struggle of Aurangzeb with his brother Shuja, who ulti- 
 mately flies to Arakan, and there perishes miserably. 
 
 1661. Aurangzeb executes his youngest brother, Murad, in prison. 
 
 1662. Unsuccessful invasion of Assam by Auiangzeb's general, Mir Jumla. 
 Disturbances in the Deccan. War between Bijapur and the Maratbas 
 under Sivaji. After various changes of fortune, Sivaji, the founder of 
 the Mardtha power, retains a considerable territory. 
 
 1662-1665. Sivaji the Maratha in rebellion against the Mughal Empire. 
 In 1664, he assumes the title of Raja, and asserts his independence. 
 In 1665, on a large army being sent against him, he makes sub- 
 mission, and proceeds to Delhi, where he is placed under restraint, but 
 soon afterwards escapes. 
 
 1666. Death of the deposed emperor, Shah Jahan. War in the Deccan, 
 and defeat of the Imperial Army from Delhi by the King of Bijapur. 
 
 1667. Sivaji makes peace with Aurangzeb, and obtains an extension of 
 territory. Sivaji levies tribute from Bijapur and Golconda.
 
 THE EMPEROR AURANGZEB. 1 45 
 
 The Reign of Aurangzeb (contimied). 
 
 1670. Sivaji the Mardtha ravages Khandesh and the Deccan, and tliere levies 
 for the first time ihautk, or a contribution of one-fourth of the revenue. 
 
 1672. Defeat of the Mughal or Imperial troops by Sivaji. 
 
 1677. Aurangzeb revives ihtjaziah, or poll-tax on non-Muhammadans. 
 
 1679. Aurangzeb at war with the Rajputs. Rebellion of Prince Akbar, 
 Aurangzeb's youngest son, who joins the Rajputs, but whose army 
 deserts him. Prince Akbar is forced to fly to the Marathas. 
 
 1672-1680. Progress of the Marathas in the Deccan. Sivaji crowns him- 
 self an independent sovereign at Raigarh in 1674. His wars with 
 Bijapur and the Mughal or Imperial troops. Sivaji dies in 1680, and 
 is succeeded by his son, Sambhaji. 
 
 1683. Aurangzeb invades the Deccan in person, at the head of his Grand 
 Army. 
 
 1686-1688. Aurangzeb conquers Bijapur and Golconda, and annexes them 
 to the empire. 
 
 1689. Aurangzeb captures Sambhaji, the head of the Marathas, and bar- 
 barously puts him to death. 
 
 1692. Guerilla war with the Marathas under their various leaders. 
 
 1698. Aurangzeb's general captures Ginji from the Marathas. 
 
 1699-1701. Capture of Satara and Maratha forts by Aurangzeb. Apparent 
 ruin of the Marathas. 
 
 1 702-1 705. Fresh successes of the Marathas. 
 
 1706. Aurangzeb retreats to Ahmadnagar ; and, 
 
 1707. Miserably dies there. 
 
 Aurangzeb, Emperor, 1658-1707. — Aurangzeb proclaimed 
 himself emperor in 1658, in the room of his imprisoned father, 
 under the title of Alamgfr, the Conqueror of the Universe, and 
 reigned until 1707. Under Aurangzeb the Mughal Empire 
 reached its widest limits. But his long rule of forty-nine years 
 merely presents on a more magnificent stage the usual tragic 
 drama of a Mughal reign. In its personal character, it began 
 with his rebellion against his father ; consolidated itself by the 
 murder of his brethren ; and darkened to a close amid the 
 mutinies, intrigues, and jealousies of his own sons. Its public 
 aspects consisted of a magnificent court in Northern India ; 
 conquests of the independent Muhammadan kings in the south ; 
 and wars against the Hindu powers, which, alike in Rajpulana 
 and in Southern India or the Deccan, were gathering strength 
 for the overthrow of the Mughal Empire. 
 
 Aurangzeb murders his Brothers. — The year after his 
 accession, Aurangzeb defeated and put to death his eldest 
 
 K
 
 146 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 brother, the noble but impetuous Dara (1659). After another 
 twelve months' struggle, he drove out of India his second 
 brother, the self-indulgent Shuja (1660), who perished miserably 
 among the insolent savages of Arakan. His remaining brother, 
 the brave young Murad, was executed in prison the following 
 year (1661). Aurangzeb had from boyhood been a Muham- 
 madan of the stern puritan type. Having now killed off his 
 rival brethren, he set up as an orthodox sovereign of the 
 strictest sect of Islam, while his invalid father, Shah Jahan, 
 lingered on in prison, mourning over his murdered sons, until 
 his own death in 1666. 
 
 Aurangzeb's Campaigns in Southern India. — Aurangzeb 
 continued, as emperor, that persistent policy of the subjugation 
 of Southern India which he had brilliantly commenced as his 
 father's lieutenant. Of the five Muhammadan kingdoms of the 
 Deccan, Bi'dar and Ahmadnagar with Ellichpur had fallen to his 
 arms, as the prince in command of the Imperial armies, before 
 his accession to the throne. The two others, Bijapur and 
 Golconda, struggled longer, but Aurangzeb was determined at 
 any cost to annex them to the Mughal Empire. During the 
 first half of his reign, or exactly twenty-five years, he waged war 
 in the south by means of his generals (1658-83). A new 
 Hindu power had, as we have seen, arisen in the Deccan — the 
 Marathas, whose history will be traced in more detail in a sub- 
 sequent chapter. The task before Aurangzeb's armies was not 
 only the old one of subduing the IMuhammadan kingdoms of 
 Bijapur and Golconda, but also the new one of crushing the 
 quick growth of the Hindu or Maralha confederacy. 
 
 Slow Conquest of Southern India. — During a quarter of 
 a century, his utmost efforts failed. Bijapur and Golconda were 
 not conquered. In 1670, the Maratha leader, Sivaji, levied 
 chauth, or one-fourth of the revenues, as tribute from the 
 Mughal Provinces in Southern India; and in 1674 he crowned 
 himself an independent sovereign at Raigarh. In 1680-1681, 
 Aurangzeb's son. Prince Akbar, having rebelled against his 
 father, joined the Maratha army. Aurangzeb felt that he must 
 either give up his magnificent palace in the north for a soldier's 
 tent in the Deccan, or he must relinquish his most cherished
 
 AVRANGZEB'S WARS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 147 
 
 scheme of conquering Southern India. He accordingly pre- 
 pared an expedition, on an unrivalled scale of numbers and 
 splendour, to be led by himself. In 1683, he arrived at the 
 head of his Grand Army in the Deccan, and spent the next 
 half of his reign, or twenty-four years, in the field in Southern 
 India. Golconda and Bijapur fell after another severe struggle, 
 and were finally annexed to the Mughal Empire in 1688. 
 
 The Marathas, 1688-1707. — But the conquests of these 
 last of the five Muhammadan kingdoms of the Deccan only left 
 the arena bare for the operations of the Marathas. Indeed, the 
 attacks of the Marathas on the two Muhammadan States had 
 prepared the way for their annexation by Aurangzeb. The 
 emperor waged war during the remaining twenty years of his 
 life (1688-1707) against the rising Hindu power of the Mara- 
 thas. Their first great leader, Sivaji, had proclaimed himself 
 king in 1674, and died in 1680. Aurangzeb captured his son 
 and successor, Sambhaji, in 1689, and cruelly put him to death; 
 seized the Maratha capital, with many of their forts; and 
 seemed in the first year of the new century to have almost 
 stamped out their existence (1701). But, after a guerilla war- 
 fare, the Marathas again sprang up into a powerful fighting 
 nation. In 1705, they recovered their forts; while Aurangzeb 
 had exhausted his health, his treasures, and his troops, in the 
 long and fruidess struggle. His soldiery murmured for arrears ; 
 and the emperor, now old and peevish, told the malcontents 
 that if they did not like his service they might quit it, while he 
 disbanded some of his cavalry to ease his finances. 
 
 Aurangzeb hemmed in. — Meanwhile the Marathas were 
 pressing hungrily on the imperial camp. The Grand Army of 
 Aurangzeb had grown during a quarter of a century into an 
 unwieldy capital. Its movements were slow, and incapable of 
 concealment. If Aurangzeb sent out a rapid small expedition 
 against the Marathas, who plundered and insulted the outskirts 
 of his camp, they cut it to pieces. If he moved out against 
 them in force, they vanished. His own soldiery feasted with 
 the enemy, who prayed, with mock ejaculations, for the health 
 of the emperor as their best friend. 
 
 Aurangzeb's Death. — In 1706, the Grand Army was so
 
 148 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 disorganized, that Aurangzeb opened negotiations with the 
 ]Marathas. He even thought of submitting the Imperial or 
 Mughal Provinces to their tribute or chauth. But the insolent 
 exultation of the Maratha chiefs led to the treaty being broken 
 oif; and Aurangzeb, in 1706, found shelter in Ahmadnagar, 
 where he died in February of the following year (1707). Dark 
 suspicion of his sons' loyalty, and just fears lest they should 
 subject him to the cruel fate which he had inflicted on his father, 
 left him solitary in his last days. On the approach of death, he 
 gave utterance in broken sentences to his worldly counsels and 
 adieus, mingled with terror and remorse, and closing in an agony 
 of desperate resignation : * Come what may, I have launched 
 my vessel on the waves. Farewell ! Farewell ! Farewell ! ' 
 
 Mir Jumla's Expedition to Assam, 1662. — The conquest 
 of the Deccan or Southern India was the one inflexible purpose 
 of Aurangzeb's life, and has therefore been dealt with here in a 
 continuous narrative. In the north of India, great events had 
 also transpired. His general Mir Jumla led the imperial troops 
 as far as Assam, the extreme eastern Province of India (1662). 
 But amid the pestilential swamps of the rainy season his army 
 melted away, its supplies were cut off", and its march was 
 surrounded by swarms of natives, who knew the country and 
 were accustomed to the climate. Mir Jumla succeeded in ex- 
 tricating the main body of his troops, but died of exhaustion 
 and a broken heart before he reached Dacca, in the Bengal 
 Delta. 
 
 Aurangzeb's Bigoted Policy. — In the north-west of India, 
 Aurangzeb was not more fortunate. During his time the Sikhs 
 (a theistic and military sect of Hindus) were growing into 
 a power, but it was not till the succeeding reigns that they 
 commenced the series of operations which in the end wrested 
 the Punjab from the Mughal Empire. Aurangzeb's bigotry 
 arrayed against him all the Hindu princes and peoples of 
 Northern India. He revived ihtjaziah, or insulting poll-tax on 
 non-Musalmdns (1677); drove the Hindus out of the adminis- 
 tration ; and oppressed the widow and children of his father's 
 faithful Hindu general, Jaswant Singh. A local sect of Hindus 
 in Northern India was persecuted into rebellion in 1676 ; and in
 
 AURANGZEB'S BIGOTED POLICY. 149 
 
 1677, the Rajput States combined against him. The emperor 
 waged a protracted war against them, — at one time devastating 
 Rdjputana, at another time saving himself and his army from 
 extermination only by a stroke of genius and rare presence of 
 mind. In 16S0, his rebel son, Prince Akbar, went over to the 
 Rajputs with his division of the Mughal or Imperial army. 
 From that 3'ear the permanent alienation of the Rajputs from 
 the Mughal Empire dates ; and the Hindu chivalry, which had 
 been a source of strength to Akbar the Great, became an 
 element of ruin to Aurangzeb and his successors. The emperor 
 pillaged and slaughtered throughout the Rajput States of Jaipur, 
 Jodhpur, and Udaipur. The Rajputs retaliated by ravaging the 
 Muhammadan Provinces of Malwa, defacing the mosques, in- 
 sulting the mullds, or priests of Islam, and burning the Kuran. 
 In 1681, the emperor patched up a peace in order to allow him 
 to lead the Grand Army into the Deccan, from which he was 
 destined never to return. But Akbar's policy of conciliating 
 the Hindus, and welding them into one empire with his 
 Muhammadan subjects, came to an end under Aurangzeb. 
 
 Aurangzeb's Revenues. — All Northern India except Assam, 
 and the greater part of Southern India, paid revenue to 
 Aurangzeb. His Indian Provinces covered nearly as large 
 an area as the British Empire at the present day, although 
 their dependence on the central government was less direct. 
 From these Provinces his net land revenue demand is returned 
 at 30 to 38 millions sterling — a sum which represented at 
 least three times the purchasing power of the land revenue 
 of British India at the present day. But it is doubtful whether 
 the enormous demand of 38 millions was fully realized during 
 any series of years, even at the height of Aurangzeb's power, 
 before he left Delhi for his long southern wars. It was estimated 
 at only 30 millions sterling in the last year of his reign, after 
 his absence of a quarter of a century in the Deccan. Fiscal 
 oppressions led to evasions and revolts; and one or other of 
 the Provinces was always in open war against the emperor. 
 The standard return of Aurangzeb's land revenue was nei, 
 £34,505,890; and this remained the nominal demand in the 
 accounts of the central exchequer during the next half-century
 
 150 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY, 
 
 notwithstanding that the empire had fallen to pieces. When 
 the Afghan invader, Ahmad Shah Duranj, entered Delhi in 1761, 
 the treasury officers presented him with a statement showing the 
 land revenue of the empire at £34,506,640. The highest land 
 revenue of Aurangzeb, after his annexations in Southern India, 
 and before his final reverses, was returned at 38} millions 
 sterling; of which nearly 38 millions were from Indian Pro- 
 vinces, and the remainder from Kashmir and Kabul. The total 
 revenue of the Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb, from all sources, 
 was estimated in 1695 at 80 millions sterling, and in 1697 at 77.^ 
 millions sterling. The gross taxation levied from British India, 
 deducting the opium excise, which is paid by the Chinese 
 consumer, averaged 38 millions sterlmg during the ten years 
 ending 1883. 
 
 Character of Aurangzeb. — Aurangzeb tried to live the life 
 of a model IMuhammadan emperor. Magnificent in his public 
 appearances, simple in his private habits, diligent in business, 
 exact in his religious observances, an elegant letter-writer, and 
 ever ready with choice passages alike from the poets and from 
 the Kuran, his life would have been a blameless one, if he had 
 had no father to depose, no brethren to murder, and no Hindu 
 subjects to oppress. But his bigotry made an enemy of every 
 one who did not share his own faith ; and the slaughter of his 
 kindred compelled him to entrust his whole government to 
 strangers. The Hindus never forgave him ; and the Sikhs, the 
 Rajputs, and the Marathas, immediately after his reign, began 
 to close in upon the empire. His Muhammadan generals and 
 viceroys, as a rule, served him well during his vigorous life ; but 
 at his death they usurped his children's inheritance. 
 
 Decline of the Mughal Empire. — The succeeding emperors 
 were puppets in the hands of the too powerful soldiers or states- 
 men who raised them to the throne, controlled them while on it, 
 and killed them when it suited their purposes to do so. The 
 subsequent history of the empire is a mere record of ruin. The 
 chief events in its decline and fall are summarized on page 154. 
 For a time IVIughal emperors still ruled India from Delhi. But 
 of the six immediate successors of Aurangzeb, two were under 
 the control of an unscrupulous general, Zul-fikar Khan, while
 
 DECLINE OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 151 
 
 the four others were the creatures of a couple of Sayyid adven- 
 turers, who well earned their title of the ' king-makers.' 
 
 Independence of the Deccan and of Oudh. — From the 
 year 1720 the breaking up of the empire took a more open 
 form. The Nizam-ul-Wulk, or Governor of the Deccan, severed 
 the largest part of Southern India from the Delhi rule (1720- 
 1748). The Governor of Oudh, originally a Persian merchant, 
 who had risen to the post of wazir, or prime minister of the 
 empire, practically established his own dynasty as the Nawab 
 Wazfr of Oudh which had been committed to his care (1732- 
 
 1743)- 
 
 Hindu Risings : Sikhs and Marathas. — The Hindu 
 subjects of the empire were at the same time asserting their 
 independence. The Sikh sect in the Punjab was driven by the 
 oppression of the Delhi Emperors into revolt, and was merci- 
 lessly crushed (17 10-17 16). The indelible memory of the 
 cruelties then inflicted by the Mughal troops nerved the Sikh 
 nation with that hatred to Delhi which served the British cause 
 so well in 1857. Their leader, Banda, was carried about in an 
 iron cage, tricked out in the mockery of imperial robes, with 
 scarlet turban and cloth of gold. His son's heart was torn out 
 before his eyes, and thrown in his face. He himself was then 
 pulled to pieces with red-hot pincers ; and the Sikhs were 
 exterminated like mad dogs (17 16). The Hindu princes of 
 Raj putana were more fortunate. Ajit Singh of Jodhpur asserted 
 his independence, and Rajputana practically severed its con- 
 nection with the IMughal Empire in 1715. The Marathas 
 having enforced their claim to black-mail (chauth) throughout 
 Southern India, burst through the Vindhyas into the north, and 
 obtained from the Delhi emperors the cession of Malwa(i743) 
 and Orissa (1751), with an imperial grant of tribute from Bengal 
 
 (1751)- 
 
 Invasions from Central Asia, 1739-1761. — Wliilc the 
 Muhammadan governors and Hindu subjects of the empire 
 were thus becoming independent of the Delhi emperors, two 
 new sets of external enemies appeared ; one set from Central 
 Asia, the other set from the sea. In 1739, Nadir Shah, the 
 Persian monarch, swooped down on India, with his destroying
 
 152 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 host, and, after a massacre in the streets of Delhi and a fifty- 
 eight days' sack, returned through the north-western passes 
 with a booty estimated at 32 millions sterling. The destroying 
 host of the Persian king was succeeded by a series of invasions 
 from Afghanistan. Six times the Afghans burst through the 
 passes under Ahmad Shah Durani, pillaging, slaughtering, and 
 then scornfully retiring to their homes with the plunder of the 
 Mughal empire. In 1738, Kabul, the last Afghan Province of 
 the Mughals, was severed from Delhi; and, in 1752, Ahmad 
 Shah obtained the cession of the Punjab from the miserable 
 emperor. The cruelties inflicted upon Delhi and Northern 
 India during these six Afghan invasions form an appalling tale 
 of bloodshed and wanton cruelty. The wretched capital opened 
 her gates, and was fain to receive the Afghans as guests. Yet 
 on one occasion it suflFered for six weeks every enormity w'hich 
 a barbarian army can inflict upon a prostrate foe. Meanwhile 
 the Afghan cavalry were scouring the country, slaying, burning, 
 and mutilating, in the meanest hamlet as in the greatest town. 
 They took especial delight in sacking the holy places of the 
 Hindus, and murdering the defenceless votaries at the shrines. 
 
 Misery of the Provinces. — A single example must suffice 
 to show the miseries inflicted by the invaders of India from the 
 North-west. A horde of 25,000 Afghan horsemen swooped 
 down upon the sacred city of Muttra during a festival, while it 
 was thronged with peaceful Hindu pilgrims engaged in their 
 devotions. ' They burned the houses,' says the Tyrolese Jesuit 
 Tieftenthaler, who was in India at that time, ' together with 
 their inmates, slaughtering others with the sw-ord and the 
 lance ; haling off into captivity maidens and youths, men and 
 women. In the temples they slaughtered cows ' (the sacred 
 animal of the Hindus), ' and smeared the images and pavement 
 with the blood.' The borderland between Afghanistan and 
 India lay silent and waste ; indeed. Districts far within the 
 Indian frontier, which had once been densely inhabited, and 
 which are now again thickly peopled, were swept bare of in- 
 habitants. Thus Gujranwala, the seat of the ancient capital 
 of the Punjab in Buddhist times, was utterly depopulated. Its 
 present inhabitants are immigrants of comparatively recent date.
 
 FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 153 
 
 The District, which was stripped of its inhabitants in the last 
 century, has now a new population of a million. 
 
 Fall of the Empire, 1761-1765. — The other set of invaders 
 came from over the sea. In the wars between the French and 
 English in Southern India, the last vestiges of the Delhi authority 
 in the Karnatik disappeared (1748-61). Bengal, Behar, and 
 Orissa were handed over to the English by an imperial grant in 
 1765. We obtained these three fertile Provinces as the nominee 
 of the emperor; but the battle of Panfpat had already reduced 
 the throne of Delhi to a shadow. That battle was fought in 
 1 761, between the Afghan invader Ahmad Shah and the 
 Maratha powers, on the memorable plain of Panfpat on which 
 Babar and Akbar had twice won the sovereignty of India. The 
 Afghans defeated the Marathas; but although the Muhammadans 
 could still win victories, they could no longer rule India. During 
 the anarchy which followed, the British patiendy built up a 
 new power out of the wreck of the JNIughal Empire. Puppet 
 emperors continued to reign at Delhi over a numerous 
 seraglio, under such lofty titles as Akbar II. or Alamgir II. 
 But their power was confined to the palace, while INIarathas, 
 Sikhs, and Englishmen were fighting for the sovereignty of 
 India. The last of these pensioned Mughal kings of Delhi 
 emerged for a moment as a rebel during the Mutiny of 1857, 
 and died a State prisoner in Rangoon, the capital of British 
 Burma, in 1862. 
 
 Causes of its Fall. — Akbar had rendered a great Empire 
 possible in India by conciliating the native Hindu races. Pie 
 thus raised up a powerful third party, consisdng of the native 
 military peoples of India, which enabled him alike to prevent 
 new Muhammadan invasions from Central Asia, and to keep in 
 subjection his own Muhammadan Governors of Provinces. 
 Under Aurangzeb and his miserable successors this wise policy 
 of conciliation was given up. Accordingly, new jMuhammadaji 
 hordes soon swept down from Afghanistan ; the IMuhammadan 
 Governors of Indian Provinces set up as independent potentates : 
 and the warlike Hindu races, who had helped Akbar to create 
 the Mughal Empire, became, under his foolish posterity, the 
 chief agents of its ruin.
 
 154 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY. 
 
 The British won India, not from the Mughals, but 
 from the Hindus. — Before we appeared as conquerors, the 
 Mughal Empire had broken up. Our final and most perilous 
 wars were neither with the Delhi king, nor with his revolted 
 IMuhammadan viceroys, but with the two Hindu confederacies, 
 the Marathas and the Sikhs, Muhammadan princes fought 
 against us in Bengal, in the Karnatik, and in INIysore ; but the 
 longest opposition to the Bridsh conquest of India came from 
 the Hindus. Our last IMaratha war dates as late as 1818, and 
 the Sikh Confederation was overcome only in 1849. 
 
 The following summary must suffice to show the principal 
 events in the ruin of the Mughal Empire after the death of 
 Aurangzeb, the last of the great Mughal emperors, in 1707. 
 
 The Decline and Fall of the IMughal Empire, i 707-1 862. 
 
 1707. Succession contest between Muazzim andAlam,two sons of Aurang- 
 zeb ; victory of the former, and his accession with the title of Bahadur 
 Shah ; but under the complete control of his military prime minister, 
 Zulfikar Khan. Revolt of Prince Kambaksh ; his defeat and death. 
 
 1 710. Expedition by the Mughal emperor against the Sikhs. 
 
 1 712. Death of the emperor Bahadur Shah, and accession of his eldest 
 son, Jahandar Shah, who only ruled as the creature of his prime 
 minister, Zul-fikar Khan. Revolt of his nephew, Farukhsiyyar ; and 
 murder of the emperor, Jahandar Shah, and his wazir. 
 
 1 713. Accession of Farukhsiyyar as emperor under the control of the two 
 Sayyid ' king-makers,' Husain Ali and Abdulla. 
 
 1 7 16. Invasion of the imperial territories by the Sikhs; their defeat, and 
 cruel persecution. 
 
 1 71 9. Deposition and murder of the emperor Farukhsiyyar by the two 
 Sayyids. They nominate in succession three boy emperors, the first 
 two of whom die within a few months ; the third, Muhammad Shah, 
 commences his reign in September 1719. 
 
 1720. Overthrow of the two Sayyids, the 'king-makers.' 
 
 1720-1748. The Governor of the Dcccan or Southern India, or Nizam-ul- 
 Miilk, establishes his independence at Haidarabad. 
 
 1732-1743. The Governor of Oudh, who was also luazlr or prime minister 
 
 t of the empire, becomes practically independent of Delhi. 
 
 1 735-1 751. General decline of the empire ; revolts within it : invasion of 
 Nadir iShah from Persia (i739\ First invasion of India ly Ahmad 
 Shah Durani (1747). The Marathas finally secure the cession of 
 Malwa (1743) ; and of Southern Orissa and tribute from Bengal (1751). 
 
 1748-1750. Accession of the emperor Ahmad Shah, son of Muhammad Shah; 
 disturbances by the Rohillas in Oudh, and defeat of the imperial troops.
 
 FALL OF TILE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 1 55 
 
 1 75 1. The Rohilla insurrection crushed by the imperial troops, with the aid 
 oi the Marathas. 
 
 1751-1752. Second invasion from Afghanistan by Ahmad Shah Duiani, 
 and cession of the Punjab to him. 
 
 1754. Deposition of the emperor, and accession of Alamgir II. 
 
 1756. Third invasion from Afghanistan by Ahmad Shah Durani, and sack 
 of Delhi. 
 
 1759. Fourth invasion of Ahmad Shah Durani, and murder of the emperor 
 Alamgir II. by his prime minister, Ghazi-ud-din. Maratha conquests 
 in Northern India, and their capture of Delhi. 
 
 1761-1805. Third battle of Panipat, and defeat of the Marathas by the 
 Afghans (1761). The nominal emperor on the death of Alamgir II. 
 is Shah Alam II., who resides till 1771, at Allahabad, a pensioner of 
 the British. The Marathas then practically become masters of the 
 Delhi territories and of the person of the emperor. The emperor is 
 blinded and imprisoned by rebels ; rescued by the Marathas, but 
 virtually a prisoner in their hands till 1S03, when the Maratha power 
 is overthrown by Lord Lake. 
 
 1806-1837. Akbar II. succeeds as emperor, under British protection, bat 
 only to the nominal dignity. 
 
 1837-1862. Muhammad Bahadur Shah, the seventeenth Mughal emperor, 
 and last of the race of Timiir. For his complicity in the Mutiny of 
 1857 he was banished to Rangoon, where he died in 1862. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The original sources for the Mughal Period are Sir Henry Elliot's eight 
 volumes, Blochmann's Ain-l-Akbari, with Gladwin's older translation, 
 Briggs' Firishia, and other works cited at p. 1 31. The popular narrative 
 is still Elphinstone's History of India. Among valuable monographs may 
 be cited Edward Thomas's Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire, 
 General Cunningham's letter on Some Copper Coins of Akbar {Journal 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1SS5), Aurangzeb's Letters (Persian lithograph), 
 and the biographical or autobiographical memoirs of Babar and other of 
 the Mughal emperors, Graf Noer's Kaiser Akbar (Leiden, 18S0), Erskine's 
 History of India, ^c, under Bc'ibar and Ilumdyiift, and the narratives of 
 Bernier, Tavernier, and other travellers during the Mughal period. Mr. 
 Stanley Lane-Poole's History of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan, illus- 
 trated by their Coins (1892), gives a correct historical outline of the period 
 together with valuable original data. The volumes on Akbar anA Aurangzeb 
 in the Rulers of India Series furnish a graphic account of the rise, the 
 meridian and the fall of the Mughal empire.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 The Marathas, 1650-1818. 
 
 Rise of the Marathas. — About the year 1634, a Maratha 
 soldier of fortune, Shahji Bhoxsla by name, began to play a 
 conspicuous part in Southern India. He fought on the side of 
 the two independent Muhammadan States, Ahmadnagar and 
 Bijapur, against the Mughals ; and left a band of followers, 
 together with a military fief, to his son Sivajf, born in 1627. 
 Sivajf formed a national party out of the Hindu tribes of the 
 Deccan — a native Hindu party which was opposed alike to the 
 imperial armies from the north, and to the independent Muham- 
 madan kingdoms of the south. There were thus, from 1650 
 onwards, three powers in the Deccan, — first, the ever-invading 
 troops of the Delhi Empire; second, the forces of the two 
 remaining independent Muhammadan States of Southern India, 
 namely, Ahmadnagar and Bijapur ; third, the military organiza- 
 tion of the local Hindu tribes, which ultimately grew into the 
 Maratha Confederacy. 
 
 Their Growth as a * Third Party ' in the Deccan. — 
 During the eighty years' war of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, 
 with a view to the conquest of the independent Muhammadan 
 kingdoms in Southern India (162 7-1 707), this third or Hindu 
 party fought sometimes for the Delhi emperors, sometimes for 
 the independent Muhammadan kingdoms, and obtained a con- 
 stantly increasing importance. The Mughal armies from the 
 north, and the independent Muhammadan kingdoms of the 
 south, gradually exterminated each other. Being foreigners, 
 they had to recruit their exhausted forces from outside. The 
 Hindu or INIaratha Confederacy drew its inexhaustible native 
 levies from the wide tract known as Maharashtra, stretching 
 from the Berars in Central India to near the south of the Bombay 
 Presidency. The Marathas were therefore courted alike by the
 
 SIVAJL I5Y 
 
 imperial generals from Delhi and by the independent Muham- 
 madan kingdoms of the Dcccan. Those kingdoms, with the 
 help of the INIarathas, long proved a match for the imperial 
 troops. But no sooner were the Delhi armies driven back, than 
 the Manithas proceeded to despoil the independent Musalman 
 kingdoms. On the other hand, the Delhi generals, when allied 
 with the Marathas, could overpower the Muhammadan States. 
 
 Sivaji, 1627-1680. — Sivajf, the great Maratha leader, saw 
 the strength of his position, and, by a life of treachery, assas- 
 sination, and hard fighting, he won for the Marathas the practical 
 supremacy in Southern India. As a basis for his operations, he 
 perched himself safe in almost impregnable hill forts among 
 the Western Ghats. His troops consisted of Hindu spearmen, 
 mounted on hardy ponies. They were the peasant proprietors 
 of Southern India, and they could be dispersed or promptly 
 called together according to the season of the agricultural year. 
 Except at seed time and harvest, they were always at leisure for 
 war. Sivaji had therefore the command of an unlimited body of 
 men, without the expense of a standing army. With these he 
 swooped down upon his enemies, exacted tribute, or forced them 
 to come to terms. He then paid off his soldiery by a part of 
 the plunder, and retreated with the lion's share to his hill forts. 
 In 1659, he lured the general of the independent Muhammadan 
 kingdom of Bijapur into an ambush, stabbed him at a friendly 
 conference, and exterminated his army. In 1662, Sivaji pil- 
 laged as far as the extreme north of the Bombay Presidency, 
 and sacked the imperial city of Surat. In 1664, he assumed 
 the title of king (Raja), with the royal prerogative of coining 
 money in his own name. The year 1665 found Sivaji helping 
 the Mughal armies against the independent Musalman State of 
 Bijapur. In 1666, he was induced to visit Delhi. Being coldly 
 received by the Emperor Aurangzeb, and placed under restraint, 
 he escaped to the south and raised the standard of revolt. In 
 1674, Sivaji enthroned himself with great pomp at Raigarh, 
 weighing himself in a balance against gold, and distributing his 
 weight in gold among his Brdhmans. After sending forth his 
 hosts as far as the Karnatik in 1676, he died in 1680. 
 
 Aurangzeb's Mistaken Policy, 1688-1707. — The Em-
 
 158 THE MA RATH AS. 
 
 peror Aurangzeb would have done wisely to have left the 
 independent Musalman Kings of the Deccan alone, until he had 
 crushed the rising Maratha power. Indeed, a great statesman 
 would have buried the old quarrel between the Muhammadans 
 of the north and south, and would have united the whole forces 
 of Islam against the Hindu Confederacy, which was rapidly 
 growing to be the strongest power in the Deccan. But the fixed 
 resolve of Aurangzeb's life was to annex to Delhi the Muham- 
 madan kingdoms of Southern India. By the time he had 
 carried out this scheme, he had wasted his armies, and left the 
 Mughal Empire ready to break into pieces at the first touch of 
 the Maratha spear. 
 
 The Line of Sivaji. — Sambhaji succeeded his father, Sivaji, 
 in 1680, and ruled till 1689. His reign was spent in wars 
 against the Portuguese settlements on the south-western coast 
 of India, and against the armies of the Mughal Empire. In 
 1689, Aurangzeb captured him, blinded his eyes with a red-hot 
 iron, cut out the tongue which had blasphemed the Prophet, and 
 struck off his head. His son, Sahu, then six years of age, was 
 also captured and kept a prisoner till the death of Aurangzeb. 
 In 1707 he was restored, on acknowledging allegiance to Delhi. 
 But his long captivity among the Mughals left him only half a 
 Maratha. He wasted his life in his seraglio, and resigned the 
 government of his territories to his Brahman minister, Balaji 
 VIshwanath, with the title of Peshwa. This office of Peshwa or 
 prime minister became hereditary, and the power of the Peshwa 
 superseded that of the Maratha kings. The royal family of 
 Sivajf only retained the little principalities of Satara and Kolha- 
 pur. Satara lapsed to the British, for want of a direct heir, in 
 1849. Kolhapur has survived throughBritishclemency,andisnow 
 ruled, under British control, by the representative of Sivaji's hne. 
 
 The Peshwas. — Meanwhile the Peshwas were building up 
 at Poena the great Maratha Confederacy. In 171 8, Balaji, the 
 first Peshwa, marched an army to Delhi in support of the Sayyid 
 'king-makers.' In 1720, he extorted an imperial grant of the 
 chaiilh, or 'one-fourth' of the revenues of the Deccan. The 
 Marathas were also confirmed in the sovereignty of their own 
 Southern countries round Poena and Satara. The second
 
 THE PESHWAS. 159 
 
 Peshwa, Baj: Rao (1721-40), converted the grant of the tribute 
 of the Deccan, which had been given by the Delhi emperor in 
 1 720, into a Maratha sovereignty over the Deccan. The second 
 Peshwa also wrested the Province of Malwa from the Mughal 
 Empire (1736), together with the country on the north-west of 
 the Vindhyas, from the Narbada to the Chambal. In 1739, he 
 captured Bassein from the Portuguese. Malwa was finally 
 ceded by the Delhi Emperor to the Marathas in 1743. 
 
 Third Peshwa, 1740-1761. — The third Peshwa, Balajf Baji 
 Rao, succeeded in 1740, and carried the IMaratha terror into the 
 heart of the Mughal Empire. The Deccan became merely a 
 starting-point for a vast series of their expeditions to the north and 
 the east. Within the Deccan itself the Peshwa augmented his 
 sovereignty, at the expense of the INIuhammadan Nizam of 
 Haidarabad, after two wars. The great centres of the Maratha 
 power were now fixed at Poona in Bombay and Nagpur in the 
 Central Provinces. In 1741-42, a general of the Nagpur 
 branch of the Maratha Confederacy known as the Bhonslas, 
 swept down upon Lower Bengal ; but, after plundering to the 
 suburbs of the Muhammadan capital of Murshidabad, he was 
 driven back through Orissa by the Viceroy Ali Vardf Khan. 
 The ' Maratha Ditch,' or semi-circular moat around part of 
 Calcutta, records to this day the panic which then spread 
 throughout Lower Bengal. Next year, 1743, the head of the 
 Nagpur branch, Raghuji Bhonsla, invaded Lower Bengal in 
 person. From this date, notwithstanding quarrels between the 
 Poona and Nagpur Marathas over the spoil, the fertile Provinces 
 of the Lower Ganges became a plundering ground of the 
 Bhonslas. In 1751, they obtained a formal grant from the 
 Viceroy Alf Vardf of the chaiilh, or ' quarter revenue ' of Lower 
 Bengal, together with the cession of Orissa. In Northern 
 India, the Poona Marathas raided as far as the Punjab, and 
 drew down upon them the wrath of Ahmad Shah Duranf, 
 the Afghan, who had already wrested that Province from Dcllii. 
 At the battle of Panfpat in 1761, as we have seen, the Maralluis 
 were overthrown by the combined Muhammadan forces of the 
 Afghans and of the northern Provinces which still nominally 
 remained to the Mughal Empire.
 
 l6o THE MAR ATI! AS. 
 
 The Five Maratha Houses. — The fourth Peshwd, Madhu 
 Rao, succeeded to the Maratha sovereignty in this moment of 
 ruin (1761). The Hindu Confederacy seemed doomed to 
 destruction, alike by internal dissensions and by the superior force 
 of the Afghan arms. As early as 1742, the Poona and Nagpur 
 branches had taken the field against each other, in their quarrels 
 over the plunder of Bengal. Before 1761, two other branches, 
 under Holkar and Sindhia, held independent sway in the old 
 Mughal Province of Malwa and the neighbouring tracts, now 
 divided between the States of Indore and Gwalior. At Panipat, 
 Holkar, the head of the Indore branch, deserted the line of 
 battle the moment he saw the tide turn, and his treachery ren- 
 dered the Maratha rout complete. The Peshwa was now little 
 more than the nominal head of the five great Maratha houses. 
 These five Maratha houses or dynasties had separate territories 
 and armies. Their five capitals w'ere at Poona, the seat of the 
 Peshwas ; at Nagpur, the capital of the Bhonslas, in the Central 
 Provinces ; at Gwalior, the residence of Sindhia ; at Indore, the 
 capital of Holkar ; and at Baroda, the seat of the rising power 
 of the Gaekwars. Madhu Rao, the fourth Pesh\Ya, just managed 
 to hold his own against the Muhammadan princes of Haidara- 
 bad and Mysore, and against the Bhonsla branch of the Mara- 
 thas in Berar. His younger brother, Narayan Rao, succeeded 
 him as fifth Peshwa in 1772, but was quickly assassinated. The 
 Peshwas were the great Maratha power in Southern India ; the 
 other four or northern Maratha branches were Sindhia and 
 Holkar, the Bhonslas of Nagpur, and the Gaekwars of Baroda. 
 We shall briefly relate the fortunes of these four northern 
 branches. 
 
 Sindhia and Holkar. — The Peshwa's power at Poona 
 began to grow weak, as that of his nominal masters, the royal 
 descendants of Sivajf, had faded out of sight. The Peshwas 
 came of a high Brahman lineage, while the actual fighting force 
 of the Maralhas consisted of low-caste Hindus. It thus hap- 
 pened that each Maratha general who rose to independent 
 territorial sway was inferior in caste to, although possessed of 
 more real power, than the Peshwa, the titular head of the con- 
 federacy. Of the two great northern houses, Holkar was
 
 THE FIVE MARATIIA HOUSES. i6l 
 
 descended from a shepherd, and Sindhia from a slipper-bearer. 
 The INIarathas under Holkar and Sindhia lay quiet for a time 
 after their crushing disaster at Panfpat in 1761. But within ten 
 years of that fatal field they had established themselves through- 
 out Malwa, and proceeded to invade the Rajput, Jat, and 
 Rohilla Provinces, from the Punjab on the west to Oudh in the 
 east (1761-1771). In 1765, the titular emperor. Shah Alam, 
 had sunk into a British pensioner, afier his defeat by Sir Hector 
 Munro at Baxar in 1764. In 1771, the emperor gave himself 
 over to the Marathas. Sindhia and Holkar nominally maintained 
 him on his throne at Delhi, but held him a virtual prisoner till 
 1803-4, when they were overthrown by our second Maratha 
 war. The dynasties of both Sindhia and Holkar have preserved 
 to the present day their rule over the most fertile portion of 
 JMahva. 
 
 The Bhonslas of Nagpur, 1751-1853. — The third of the 
 northern iMaralha houses, namely the Bhonslas of Berar and 
 the Central Provinces, occupied themselves with raids to the 
 east. Operating from their base at Nagpur, they had (as we 
 have seen) extorted in 1751 the chatith, or 'quarter revenue' 
 of Lower Bengal; together with the sovereignly of Orissa. 
 The acquisition of Lower Bengal by the British (i 756-1 765) 
 put a stop to their raids. In 1803, a division of our army drove 
 the Bhonsla Marathas out of Orissa. In 181 7, their power was 
 finally broken by our last Maraiha war. Their headquarter 
 territories, now forming the Central Provinces, were administered 
 under the guidance of British Residents from 181 7 to 1853. 
 On the death of the last Raghuji Bhonsla without a direct male 
 heir, in 1853, the Nagpur Maratha territories (now known as 
 the Central Provinces), lapsed to the British. 
 
 The Gaekwars of Baroda. — The fourth of the northern 
 Maraiha houses, namely, Baroda, extended ils power throughout 
 Gujarat, on the north-western coast of Bombay, and the adjacent 
 peninsula of Kathiawar. The scattered but wealthy dominions 
 known as the territories of the Gaekwdr were thus formed. 
 Since our last Maratha war, m 181 7, Baroda has been ruled by 
 the Gaekwars, with the help of an Englisli Resident. In 1874, 
 the reigning Gaekwar was tried by a High Commission, com- 
 
 L
 
 l62 THE MAR ATI! AS. 
 
 posed of three European and three Native members, on the 
 charge of attempting to poison the Resident, and deposed. But 
 the British Government refrained from annexing the State, and 
 raised a descendant of the founder of the family from obscure 
 poverty to the State cushion. 
 
 First Maratha War with the British, 1779-1781. — 
 While the four northern houses of the Marathas were pursuing 
 their separate careers, the Peshwa's power was being broken to 
 pieces by family intrigues. The sixth Peshwa, Madhu Rao 
 Narayan, was born after his father's death ; and during his short 
 life of twenty-one years the power remained in the hands of his 
 minister, Nana Farnavis. Raghubd, the uncle of the late Pesh- 
 wa, disputed the birth of the posthumous child (Madhu Rao), 
 and claimed for himself the office of Peshwa. The infant's 
 guardian, Nana Farnavis, having called in the French, the 
 British at Bombay sided with Raghuba. These alliances 
 brought on the first Maratha war (1779-1781), ending with the 
 treaty of Salbai (1782). That treaty ceded the islands of 
 Salsette and Elephanta near Bombay, together with two others 
 to the British, secured to Raghuba a handsome pension, and 
 confirmed the child-Peshvva in his sovereignty. But the young 
 Peshwa only reached manhood to commit suicide at the age of 
 twenty-one. 
 
 Second Maratha War, 1802-1804. — His cousin, Baji 
 Rao II., succeeded him in 1795 as the seventh and last Peshwa. 
 The northern Maratha house of Holkar now took the lead 
 among the Marathas, and forced the Peshwa to seek protection 
 from the English. By the treaty of Bassein in 1802, Bajf Rao 
 the Peshwa agreed to receive a British force to maintain him in 
 his dominions. The northern Maratha houses combined to 
 break down this treaty. The second Maratha war followed 
 (1802-1804). General Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Welling- 
 ton) crushed the forces of the Sindhia and Nagpur branches of 
 the INIaraihas on the fields of Assaye and Argaum in the south, 
 while Lord Lake disposed of the Maratha armies at Laswari and 
 Delhi in the north. In 1804, Holkar was completely defeated 
 at Dfg. These campaigns led to large cessions of territory to 
 the British, to the final overthrow of French influence in India,
 
 MA RATH A WARS. 163 
 
 and to the restoration of the titular Delhi Emperor under the 
 protection of the English. 
 
 Last Maratha War, 1817-1818.— In 1 8 1 7-1 8 1 8,the Peshwa, 
 Holkar, and the Bhonsla at Nagpur, took up arms, each on his 
 own account, against the British, and were defeated in detail. 
 That war broke the Maratha power for ever. The Peshwa, 
 Baji Rao, surrendered himself to the British, and his territories 
 were annexed to our Bombay Presidency. The Peshwa re- 
 mained a British pensioner at Bithur, near Cawnpur in Northern 
 India, on a magnificent allowance, till his death. His adopted 
 son grew up into the infamous Nana Sahib of the Mutiny of 
 1857, when the last relic of the Peshwas disappeared from the 
 eyes of men. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 Among the original authorities easily available to the English reader 
 for Maratha history may be mentioned: — (i) James Grant DuiVs History 
 of the Mardthds, 3 vols. (Bombay reprint, 1S63) ; (2) Edward Scott 
 Waring's History of the Mardthds (quarto, 1810); (3) Major William 
 Thorn's Memoir of the War in India conducted by General Lord Lake 
 (quarto, 1818) ; (4) Sidney J. Owen's Selections from the Despatches of the 
 Marquess Welles ley (1877); (5) Selections frotn the Indian Despatches 
 of the Duke of Wellington (1880); (6) Henry T. Prinsep's Narrative of 
 Political and Military Transactions of British India under the Marquess of 
 Hastings (quarto, 1820). The very brief notfce of the Marathas which the 
 scope of the present work allows, precludes an exhaustive use of these 
 storehouses. Keene's volume on Mddhava Rao Sindhia in the Rulers of 
 India Series gives an interesting account of the chief Maratha leader in the 
 second half of the eighteenth century. The leading incidents of Maratha 
 history are described under the heading of their respective localities in the 
 Imperial Gazetteer of India. 
 
 L 2
 
 [i64] 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Early European Settlements, 1500-1700. 
 
 Europe and India before 1500 A.D. — The Muhammadan 
 invaders of India had entered from the north-west. The Christian 
 conquerors of India came by the sea from the south. From the 
 time of Alexander the Great (327 b. c.) to that of Vasco da Gama 
 (1498 A. D.), Europe held little direct intercourse with the East. An 
 occasional traveller brought back stories of powerful kingdoms 
 and of untold wealth. Commerce never ceased entirely. It 
 was carried across Western Asia ; or through Egypt and the 
 Red Sea, and finally fell to the Italian cities on the Mediterra- 
 nean which traded with the Asiatic ports of the Levant. In 
 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed westwards under the Spanish 
 flag to seek India beyond the Atlantic, bearing with him a letter 
 to the great Khan of Tartary. He found America instead. 
 
 Vasco da Gama, 1498. — An expedition under Vasco da 
 Gama started from LisbSn five years later, in the opposite 
 or eastern direction. It doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 cast anchor off the city of Calicut on the south-western coast 
 of India on the 20th IVIay 1498, after a voyage of nearly eleven 
 months. From the first. Da Gama encountered hostility from 
 the IMoors, or rather Arabs, who monopolized the sea-borne 
 trade of the Malabar coast ; but he seems to have found favour 
 with the Zamorin, or Hindu Raja of Calicut. After staying 
 nearly six months on the Malabar coast, he returned to Europe, 
 bearing with him the following letter from the Zamorin to the 
 King of Portugal : — ' Vasco da Gama, a nobleman of your 
 household, has visited my kingdom, and has given me great 
 pleasure. In my kingdom there is abundance of cinnamon, 
 cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones. What I seek from 
 thy country is gold, silver, coral, and scarlet.'
 
 THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA. 165 
 
 Early Portuguese Governors. — In 1502, the King of 
 Portugal obtained from Pope Alexander VI. a bull consti- 
 tuting him ' Lord of the Navigation, Conquests, and Trade of 
 Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India/ In that year Vasco da 
 Gama set sail a second time for India, with a fleet numbering 
 twenty vessels. He formed an alliance with the Rajas of 
 Cochin and Cannanore against the Zamorin of Calicut, and 
 bombarded the latter in his capital. In 1503, the great 
 Affonso de Albuquerque sailed to the East in command of one 
 of three expeditions from Portugal. In 1505, a large fleet 
 of twenty-two sail and fifteen hundred men was sent under 
 Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy of 
 India. In 1509, Albuquerque succeeded him as Governor, 
 and widely extended the area of Portuguese influence. Having 
 failed in an attack upon Calicut, Albuquerque seized Goa 
 in 1510, which has since remained the capital of Portuguese 
 India. Then, sailing round Ceylon, he captured IMalacca, the 
 key to the navigation of the Indian Archipelago, and opened up 
 trade with Siam and the Spice Islands. Lastly, Albuquerque 
 sailed back westwards, and, after penetrating into the Persian 
 Gulf and the Red Sea, returned to Goa, only to die, in 151 5. 
 In 1524, Vasco da Gama came out to the East for the third 
 time, and died at Cochin in the same year. 
 
 Cruelties of the Portuguese in India. — For exactly a 
 century, from 1500 to 1600, the Portuguese enjoyed a mono- 
 poly of Oriental trade. But the Portuguese had neither the 
 political strength nor the personal character necessary to found 
 an empire in India. Their national temper had been formed 
 in their contest with the INIoors at home. They were not 
 traders, but knights-errant and crusaders, who looked on every 
 pagan as an enemy of Portugal and of Christ. Only those 
 who have read the contemporary narratives of their conquests, 
 can realize the superstition and the cruelty with which their 
 history in the Indies is stained. Albuquerque alone endea- 
 voured to win the goodwill of the natives, and to win the 
 friendship of the Hindu princes. In such veneration was 
 his memory held, that the Hindus of Goa, and even the 
 Muhammadans, were wont to repair to his tomb, and there to
 
 1 66 EARL V EUROPEAN SE TTLEMENTS. 
 
 utter their complaints, as if in the presence of his spirit, and 
 to call upon God to deliver them from the tyranny of his 
 successors. 
 
 Downfall of the Portuguese in India. — In 1580, the 
 Portuguese crown was united with that of Spain under Philip II. 
 The interests of Portugal in Asia were henceforth subordinated 
 to the European interests of Spain. In 1640, Portugal again 
 became a separate kingdom. But in the meanwhile two 
 hardier rivals, the Dutch and English, had appeared in the 
 Eastern seas, and the Portuguese empire of the Indies was 
 withering away as rapidly as it had sprung up. 
 
 The Portuguese Possessions in 1892. — The only posses- 
 sions in India now remaining to the Portuguese are Goa, 
 Daman, and Diu, all on the west coast, with an area of 
 1 100 square miles, and a population of under 500,000 souls. 
 There are also about 500 Portuguese in British India, besides 
 a larger number of mixed descent. Over 30,000 of mingled 
 blood are found in Bombay (' Portuguese ' half-castes), and 
 20,000 in Bengal, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Dacca and 
 Chittagong. The latter are known as Firinghis; and, except- 
 ing that they retain the Roman Catholic faith and European 
 surnames, are scarcely to be distinguished, either by colour, 
 language, or habits of life, from the natives among whom 
 they live. 
 
 The Dutch in India. — The Dutch were the first European 
 nation who broke through the Portuguese monopoly. During 
 the 1 6th century, Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam became 
 the great emporia whence Indian produce, imported by the 
 Portuguese, was distributed to Germany, and even to England. 
 At first the Dutch, following in the track of the English, 
 attempted to find their way to India by sailing round the north 
 coasts of Europe and Asia. William Barents is honourably 
 known as the leader of three of these Dutch arctic expeditions, 
 in the last of which he perished. The first Dutchman to 
 double the Cape of Good Hope was Cornelius Houtman, who 
 reached Sumatra and Bantam in 1596. Forthwith private com- 
 panies for trade with the East were formed in many parts of 
 Holland or the United Provinces; but in 1602 they were all
 
 THE DUTCH IN INDIA. 167 
 
 amalgamated by the States-General into * The Dutch East 
 India Company.' In 1619, the Dutch laid the foundation of 
 the city of Batavia in Java, as the seat of the supreme govern- 
 ment of their possessions in the East Indies. Their principal 
 factory had previously been at Amboyna. At about the same 
 time the Dutch discovered the coast of Australia, and in North 
 America they founded the city of New Amsterdam or Manhat- 
 tan, now New York. 
 
 Dutch Supremacy in the Eastern Seas. — During the 17th 
 century, the Dutch maritime power was the first in the world. 
 Their memorable massacre of the English at Amboyna, in 1623, 
 forced the British Company to retire from the Eastern Archipe- 
 lago to the continent of India, and thus led to the foundation of 
 our Indian Empire. The long naval wars and bloody battles 
 between the English and the Dutch in the Eastern seas, were 
 not terminated until William of Orange united the two countries 
 in 1689. In the Indian Archipelago the Dutch ruled for a time 
 without a rival, and gradually expelled the Portuguese from 
 almost all their territorial possessions. In 1635, they occupied 
 Formosa ; in 1640, they took Malacca — a blow from which the 
 Portuguese never recovered; in 1647, they were trading at 
 Sadras, on the South-eastern coast of India; in 1651, they 
 founded a colony at the Cape of Good Hope, as a half-way 
 station to the East ; in 1652, they built their first Indian factory 
 at Palakollu, on the Madras coast; in 1658, they captured 
 Jaffnapatam, the last stronghold of the Portuguese in Ceylon. 
 In 1664, they wrested from the Portuguese all the earlier Portu- 
 guese settlements on the pepper-bearing coast of Malabar ; and 
 in 1669, they expelled the Portuguese from St. Thomd and from 
 Macassar. 
 
 Short-sighted Policy of the Dutch. — The fall of the 
 Dutch colonial empire resulted from its short-sighted commercial 
 policy. It was deliberately based upon a strict monopoly of 
 the trade in spices, and remained from first to last destitute of 
 sound economical principles. Like the Phoenicians of old, the 
 Dutch stopped short of no acts of cruelty towards their rivals in 
 commerce ; but, unlike the Phoenicians, they failed to introduce 
 their civilization among the natives with whom they came in
 
 i68 EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 contact. The knell of Dutch supremacy in India was sounded 
 by Clive, when in 1758 he attacked the Dutch at Chinsurah 
 both by land and water, and forced them to an ignominious 
 capiulation. During the great French wars from 1793 to 181 5, 
 England wrested from Holland her Eastern colonies ; but Java 
 was restored in 18 16, and Sumatra exchanged for Malacca in 
 1824. At the present time, the Dutch flag flies nowhere on the 
 mainland of India. Quaint houses with Dutch tiles and orna- 
 ments in the now British towns of Chinsurah, Negapatam, 
 Jaff"napatam, and at several petty ports on the Coromandel and 
 Malabar coasts, together with the formal canals or water-channels 
 in some of these old settlements, remind the traveller of scenes 
 in the Netherlands. 
 
 Early English Adventurers, 1496-1596. — The earliest 
 English attempts to reach India were made by the North-west 
 or Arctic Sea. In 1496, Henry VII. granted letters patent to 
 John Cabot and his three sons (one of whom was the famous 
 Sebastian) to fit out two ships for the exploration of this North- 
 western route. They failed, but discovered the island of New- 
 foundland, and sailed along the coast of America from Labrador 
 to Virginia. In 1553, the ill-fated Sir Hugh Willoughby 
 attempted to force a passage north-east, through the Arctic Sea 
 along the north of Europe and Asia, the successful accomplish- 
 ment of which has been reserved for a Swedish olTicer in our own 
 day. Sir Hugh perished ; but his second in command, Chan- 
 cellor, reached a harbour on the White Sea, now Archangel. 
 Many subsequent attempts were made to find a North-west 
 passage from 1576 to 161 6. They have left on our modern 
 maps the imperishable names of Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and 
 Baffin. Meanwhile, in 1577, Sir Francis Drake had sailed 
 round the globe, and on his way home had touched at Ternate, 
 one of the Moluccas, the king of which island agreed to supply 
 the English nation with all the cloves it produced. The first 
 modern Englishman known to have visited India was Thomas 
 Stephens, rector of the Jesuits' College in Salsette, in 1579. In 
 1583, three English merchants — Ralph Fitch, James Newberry, 
 and Leedes — went out to India overland as mercantile adven- 
 turers. The jealous Portuguese threw them into prison at
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE EASl INDIA COMPANY. 169 
 
 Ormuz, and again at Goa. At length Newberry settled down 
 as a shopkeeper at Goa ; Leedes entered the service of the 
 Mughal Emperor; and Fitch, after lengthened wanderings in 
 Ceylon, Bengal, Pegu, Siam, IMalacca, and other parts of the 
 East Indies, returned to England. The defeat of the ' Invin- 
 cible Armada,' sent by the united kingdom of Spain and 
 Portugal against the English in 1588, gave a fresh stimulus 
 to our maritime enterprise ; and the successful voyage of Cor- 
 nelius Houtman in 1596 showed the way round the Cape 
 of Good Hope into waters hitherto monopolized by the 
 Portuguese. 
 
 English East India Companies. — The English East India 
 Company had its origin in the commercial rivalry between Lon- 
 don and Amsterdam. In 1599, the Dutch raised the price of 
 pepper against the English from 3J. to 6j. and ^s. per pound. 
 The merchants of London held a meeting on the 22nd Septem- 
 ber 1599, at Founders' Hall, with the Lord INIayor in the chair, 
 and agreed to form an association for the purposes of trading 
 directly with India. Queen Elizabeth also sent Sir John INIilden- 
 hall by way of Constantinople to the INIughal Emperor to apply 
 for privileges for an English company. On the 31st December 
 1600, the English East India Company was incorporated by 
 royal charter, under the title of ' The Governor and Company 
 of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies.' The 
 original Company had only 125 shareholders, and a capital of 
 £70,000, which was raised to £400,000 in 1612, when voyages 
 were first undertaken on the joint-stock account. Courten's 
 Association, known as 'The Assada Merchants,' from a factory 
 subsequently founded by it in Madagascar, was established in 
 1635, but, after a period of keen rivalry, it combined with the 
 London Company in 1C50. In 1655, the ' Company of Mer- 
 chant Adventurers' obtained a charter from Cromwell to trade 
 with India, but united with the original Company two years 
 later. A more formidable rival subsequently appeared in the 
 English Company, or ' General Society trading to the East 
 Indies,' which was incorporated under powerful patronage in 
 1698, with a capital of two millions sterling. However, a com- 
 promise was effected through the arbitration of Lord Godolphin,
 
 170 EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 and the 'London' and the 'English' Companies were finally 
 amalgamated in 1709, under the style of 'The United Company 
 of ]\Ierchants of England trading to the East Indies.' 
 
 The First Voyages of the London Company. — The 
 Indian Archipelago was the destination of the first English ships 
 that penetrated into Eastern seas. Captain Lancaster, in the 
 pioneer voyage of the Company (1602), established commercial 
 relations with the King of Achin, and founded a factory, or 
 ' house of trade,' at Bantam. In the following years, cargoes of 
 pepper and rich spices were brought back from Sumatra and 
 the Moluccas, Banda, Amboyna, and Bantam. The jealous 
 Portuguese were still supreme along the western coast of India, 
 and resisted English intrusion by force of arms. In 161 1, Sir 
 Henry Middleton resolutely took on board a cargo of Indian 
 goods at Cambay in the teeth of Portuguese opposition. In 
 16 1 5 occurred the famous sea-fight of Swally, near the mouth 
 of the Tapti river off the Bombay coast, in which Captain Best 
 four times beat back an overwhelming force of Portuguese 
 ships, and for ever inspired the minds of the natives with respect 
 for English bravery. In the same year. Sir Thomas Roe, sent 
 out by King James I. as ambassador to the court of the Great 
 Mughal (the Emperor Jahangir), succeeded in obtaining favour- 
 able conces?ions for English trade. 
 
 The Massacre of Amboyna, 1623. — The Dutch in the 
 Spice Islands proved more dangerous rivals to the English 
 than the Portuguese in India had done. The massacre of 
 Amboyna, which made so deep an impression on the English 
 mind, marked the climax of the Dutch hatred to us in the 
 Eastern seas. After long and bitter recriminations, the Dutch 
 seized our Captain Towerson at Amboyna, with 9 Englishmen, 
 9 Japanese, and i Portuguese sailor, in February 1623. They 
 tortured the prisoners at their trial, and found them guilty of a 
 conspiracy to surprise the garrison. The victims were executed 
 in the heat of passion, and their torture and judicial murder led 
 to an outburst of indignation in England. Ultimately, commis- 
 sioners were appointed to adjust the claims of the Dutch and 
 English nations; and the Dutch had to pay a sum of £3615 as 
 satisfaction to the heirs of the servants of the English Company
 
 EARLY ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA. 171 
 
 who had suffered. But from that time the Dulch remained 
 masters of Banda and the Spice Islands. They monopolized 
 the whole trade of the Indian Archipelago, until the great naval 
 wars which commenced in 1793. 
 
 Early English Settlements in Madras. — The result of 
 the massacre of Amboyna wasto drive the English from the 
 Spice Islands to the mainland of India. Their first settlements 
 were on the Coromandel coast. An English agency had been 
 established at IMasulipatam as early as 161 1 ; and this was now 
 (1632) raised to the rank of a factory under the authority of 
 2i farnidn, known as 'the go\d&n /a7-mdn,' from the Sultan of 
 Golconda. A few years earlier (1626) an English factory had 
 also been founded at Armagaon (now a ruined place in Nellore 
 District), which mounted 12 guns, and employed 23 European 
 agents. At last, in 1639, Mr. Francis Day, the Chief of Arma- 
 gaon, bought from the Raja of Chandragiri a more favourable 
 site lower down the coast, called Madaraspatam or Chennapatam. 
 Here he built Fort St. George, and became the founder of 
 Madras. Madras was the first territorial possession of the 
 Company in India. For some years it remained subordinate to 
 the English factory at Bantam in Java, but in 1653 it was 
 created an independent Presidency. 
 
 Early English Settlements in Bombay. — On the west 
 coast of India, Surat was long the headquarters of English 
 trade. The factory was established here in 16 12-15, with 
 agencies at Gogra, Ahmadabad, and Cambay, as the first-fruits 
 of the naval victory over the Portuguese off Swally. At this 
 time Surat was the principal port in the Mughal Empire, through 
 which flowed all trade between Northern India and Europe. 
 In 1 661, the island of Bombay was ceded by Portugal to the 
 British Crown, as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza, 
 queen of Charles II. ; but it was not delivered up by the Portu- 
 guese until 1665. In 1668, King Charles II. sold his rights 
 over Bombay to the East India Company for an annual jiay- 
 ment of £10. The city of Bombay was then a mere fishing 
 village, dominated by an old Portuguese fort, and notorious 
 even in the East for its unhcalthiness. But it had the supreme 
 advantage of being placed on an island, secure from the raids of
 
 172 EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 Maratha horsemen. In 1663, the city of Surat, although not 
 the Enghsh factory, had been pillaged by the Maratha leader, 
 Sivajf. Accordingly, it was thought wiser to withdraw the seat 
 of the Western Presidency from Surat to Bombay. This was 
 ordered in 1685, and accomplished two years afterwards 
 (1687). 
 
 Early English. Settlements in Bengal. — The settlements 
 in Bengal were later in time, and at first more precarious, than 
 those in Madras or Bombay. Small agencies, offshoots from 
 Surat, were opened at Ajmere, at Agra, and as far east as Patna, 
 by 1620; but access was not gained to the Bengal seaboard 
 until 1634. In that year ^. farmdn was granted by the Mughal 
 Emperor, allowing the Company to trade in Bengal. Their 
 ships, however, were to resort only to Pippli, in Orissa, a port 
 now left far inland by the sea, and of which the very site has to 
 be guessed. The factory at Hugh' in Lower Bengal was estab- 
 lished in 1640, and that at Balasor in Orissa in 1642. Three 
 years later, in 1645, Mr. Gabriel Broughton, surgeon of the 
 Hopewell, obtained from the Emperor Shah Jahan exclusive 
 privileges of trading for the Company in Bengal, as a reward 
 for his professional services. In 1681, the English factories in 
 Bengal were separated from Madras ; and ]\Ir. Hedges was 
 appointed agent and governor of the Company's affairs in the 
 Bay of Bengal, and of the subordinate factories at Kasimbazar, 
 Patna, Balasor, Maldah, and Dacca. But the English had not 
 yet acquired any territorial possessions in Bengal, as they had 
 in Madras and Bombay. Their little settlements, planted in 
 the midst of populous cities, were exposed to every outburst of 
 hostility or caprice of the Native governors. In 1686, the 
 Nawab of Bengal, Shaista Khan, issued orders confiscating 
 all the English factories in Bengal. The merchants at Hugh', 
 under their president, Job Charnock, retreated about 26 miles 
 down the river Hugli to Sutanatf, then a village amid the 
 swamps, now a northern quarter of Calcutta. Here they laid 
 the foundations of the original Fort William; and in 1700 they 
 purchased from Prince Azfm, son of the Emperor Aurangzeb, 
 the three villages of Sutanati, Kalikata, and Govindpur, which 
 were united to form the modern Calcutta.
 
 OTHER EAST INDIA COMPANIES. 1 73 
 
 The English Company embarks on Territorial Sway. — 
 
 It was about this same time (1689) that the Company deter- 
 mined to build up its power in India by acquiring territorial 
 possessions, so as to enable it to resist the oppression of the 
 Mughals and Maralhas. With that view they passed the fol- 
 lowing resolution for the guidance of their servants in India : 
 — * The increase of our revenue is the subject of our care, as 
 much as our trade; 'tis that must maintain our force when 
 twenty accidents may interrupt our trade ; 'tis that must make 
 us a nation in India.' With the same view, Sir John Child 
 was appointed ' Governor-General and Admiral of India,' with 
 full power to make peace or war, and to arrange for the safety 
 of the Company's possessions. 
 
 Other ' East India Companies.' — The Portuguese at no 
 time attempted to found a large mercantile company, but kept 
 their Eastern trade as a royal monopoly. The first private 
 company was the English, established in 1600. It was quickly 
 followed by the Dutch, in 1602. The Dutch conquests, how- 
 ever, were made in the name of the State, and ranked as national 
 colonies, not as private possessions. Next came the French, 
 whose first East India Company was founded in 1604; the 
 second, in 1611; the third, in 1615; the fourth (Richelieu's), 
 in 1642; the fifth (Colbert's), in 1644. The sixth was formed 
 by the union of the French East and West India, Senegal, and 
 China Companies, under the name of ' The Company of the 
 Indies,' in 1719. The exclusive privileges of this Company 
 were, by the French King's decree, suspended in 1769; and the 
 Company was abolished by the National Assembly in 1790. 
 The first Danish East India Company was formed in 16 12, and 
 the second in 1670. ' The Danish settlements of Tranquebar 
 and Serampur were both founded in 1616, and acquired by the 
 English by purchase from Denmaik in 1845. Other Danish 
 settlements on the mainland of India were Porto Novo, with 
 Eddova and Holcheri, on the Malabar coast. The Company 
 started by the Scotch in 1695 may be regarded as having been 
 still-born. The ' Royal Company of the Philippine Islands,' 
 incorporated by the King of Spain in 1733, had little to do with 
 the Indian continent. Of more importance was ' The Ostend
 
 174 EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 Company,' incorporated by the Austrian monarch Charles VI, 
 in 1723, its foctors being chiefly persons who had served the 
 Dutch and English Companies. But the opposition of the 
 European maritime powers forced the Court of Vienna in 1727 
 to suspend the Company's charter for seven years. The Ostend 
 Company, after a precarious existence, prolonged by the desire 
 of the Austrian Government to participate in the growing East 
 India trade, became bankrupt in 1784. The last nations of 
 Europe to engage in maritime trade with India were Sweden and 
 Prussia. When the Ostend Company was suspended, a number 
 of its servants were thrown out of employment. Mr. Henry 
 Koning, of Stockholm, took advantage of the knowledge which 
 these men had acquired of the East, and obtained a charter for 
 the ' Swedish Company,' dated 13th June 1731. Its operations 
 were, however, of little importance. King Frederick the Great 
 of Prussia gave his patronage in 1750 and 1753 to two short- 
 lived Prussian Companies trading to the East. 
 
 The Survival of the Fittest. — The Indian trade was thus 
 a prize for which many of the European nations strove with 
 each other during four hundred years ; and dreams of an Indian 
 Empire had allured some of the greatest European monarchs. 
 The English East India Company outlived all its rivals. To 
 the Portuguese and Spaniards, India seemed a second Peru 
 where diadems might be torn from the brows of princes: another 
 New World to plunder and to convert. To the Dutch, it formed 
 a great market which afforded, however, little room for indi- 
 vidual enterprise, as the profit from the India trade was a strictly 
 guarded national monopoly. To the French, India was a 
 theatre for lucrative intrigue, in which splendid reputations 
 might be won ; but reputations fatal in the end to their owners, 
 and sterile of results to the nation. The methods of the English 
 Company were less showy, but more sure. Its youth was 
 passed under the stern self-restraints imposed by having to 
 make a hazardous private enterprise pay. It laid in a store of 
 knowledge of the country before it embarked on any scheme of 
 conquest. At length, when the breaking up of the Mughal 
 Empire compelled it to choose between being driven out of 
 India or ruling over India, it firmly made up its mind. No
 
 EARL Y EUR OPE AN SE TTLEMENTS, 1 7 5 
 
 sufF«^rings, no disasters ever shook for a moment its resolution ; 
 nor did the British nation ever fail its East India Company in 
 any crisis of peril. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 A chronological list of the most noteworthy of the mediecval travellers 
 to India from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries is given in my Indian 
 Empire, chapter xiv. Among authorities available to the English reader 
 may be noted — (i) Sir George Birdwood's Report on ike Miscellaneous Old 
 Records in the India Office; (2) Peter Auber's Analysis of the Constitution 
 of the East India Ooinpany and Bruce's Antials of the Honourable 
 East India Company ; (3) the Abbe Raynal's History of the Settle- 
 ments and Trade of the Europeans in the East and IVest Indies (not 
 always accurate) ; (4) Orme's History of Alilitary Transactions in Indo- 
 stan (a masterpiece of minute history) ; (5) Hamilton's New Account of the 
 East Indies ; (6) Colonel Malleson's admirable History of the French in 
 India; (7) Mr. G. W. Forrest's valuable Reports on the Government 
 Records at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay ; (8) Mr. Morse Stephens' 
 Albuqiierqtie, and the Portuguese Settlements in India, in the Rulers of 
 India Series ; (9) the articles on the various settlements in The Ivipcrial 
 Gazetteer of India ; (10) the chapters in Mill's IIisto?y of British India, 
 which deal with this period, are fairly trustworthy.
 
 Li76] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Foundation of British Rule in India, 1746-1805. 
 
 The object of this history is to give a concise survey ot the 
 Indian peoples. What English rule has done for those peoples 
 may best be realized by comparing India under the Muhamma- 
 dans, as shown in Chapters IX. and X., with India at the present 
 day. Such a comparison lies beyond the scope of this work ; 
 and a brief narrative of events must here suffice. 
 
 1758. 
 
 Governors. 
 (afterwards 
 
 Lord) 
 
 1760 
 1760 
 
 Chronology : Clive to the Marquess of Lansdowne. 
 
 British Governors and Governors-General of India under 
 the East India Company, i 758-1858. 
 
 1805. Marquess Cornwallis (second 
 time). 
 
 1805. Sir George Barlow, Bart. 
 (temporary). 
 
 1807. Lord (aft. Earl of) Minto. 
 
 181 3. Earl of Moira (Marquess of 
 Hastings). 
 
 1S23. John Adam (officiating). 
 
 1S23. Lord (aft. Earl) Amherst. 
 
 1828. \Vm. BulterworthBayley (offi- 
 ciating). 
 
 1828. Lord William Cavendish Ben- 
 tinck. 
 
 1835. Sir Charles Metcalfe, after- 
 wards Lord Metcalfe 
 (temporary). 
 
 1836. Lord (aft. Earl of) Auckland. 
 1842. Lord (aft. Earl of) Ellen- 
 borough. 
 
 1844. Sir Henry (aft. Viscount) 
 Hardinge. 
 
 1848. Earl (afterwards Marquess) of 
 Dalhousie. 
 
 1856. Viscount (aft. Earl) Canning. 
 
 Colonel 
 Clive 
 J. Z. Holwell (officiating). 
 H. Vansittart. 
 
 1764. John Spencer (officiating). 
 
 1765. Lord Clive (second time). 
 1767. Harry Verelst. 
 1769. John Cartier. 
 1772. Warren Hastings. 
 
 Governors-General. 
 
 1774. Warren Hastings. 
 
 17S5. Sir John Macpherson, Bart. 
 (officiating). 
 
 1786. Earl (aft. Marquess) Corn- 
 wallis. 
 
 1793. Sir John Shore, Bart. (Lord 
 Teignmouth). 
 
 1 79S. Sir Alured Clarke(officiating). 
 
 1798. Earl of Momington (Marquess 
 Wellesley).
 
 FRENCH WARS IN THE KARNATIK. \11 
 
 Viceroys of India under the Crown, 1858-92. 
 
 i8.t8. Earl Canning. 
 
 1862. Earl of Elgin. 
 
 1863. Sir Robert Napier, afterwards 
 
 Lord Napier of Magdala 
 (officiating). 
 
 1863. Sir William Denison (offici- 
 
 ating). 
 
 1864. Sir John Lawrence, Bart. 
 
 (Lord Lawrence). 
 1869. Earl of Mayo. 
 
 1873. Sir John Strachey (officiating). 
 1872. Lord Napier of Merchistoun 
 
 (officiating). 
 1S72. Lord(aft.Earlof)Northbrook, 
 JS76. Lord (aft. Earl of) Lytton. 
 iSSo. Marquess of Ripon. 
 1884. Earl of Dufferin (afterwards 
 
 Marquess of Dufferin and 
 
 Ava) . 
 i838. Marquess of Lansdowne. 
 
 The French and English in the South. — The political 
 history of the British in India begins in the eighteenth century 
 with the French wars in the Karnatik. It was at Arcot, in the 
 Madras Presidency, that Clive's star first shone forth ; and it was 
 on the field of Wandiwash in the same Presidency that the 
 French dream of an Indian Empire was for ever shattered. 
 Fort St. George, or Madras, was, as we have seen, the first ter- 
 ritorial possession of the English on the mainland of India, 
 having been founded by Mr. Francis Day in 1639. The French 
 settlement of Pondicherri, about 100 miles lower down the 
 Coromandel coast, was established in 1674; and for many 
 years the English and French traded side by side without rivalry 
 or territorial ambition. 
 
 Southern India after 1707. — On the death of the Mughal 
 emperor, Aurangzeb, in 1707, Southern India gratiually became 
 independent of Delhi. In the Deccan proper, the Nizam-ul 
 Miilk founded a hereditary dynasty, with Haidarabad for its 
 cai)ital, which exercised a nominal authority over the entire 
 south. The Karnatik, or the lowland tract between the central 
 plateau and the Bay of Bengal, was ruled by a deputy ot the 
 Nizam, known as the Nawab of Arcot, who in his turn asserted 
 claims to hereditary sovereignty. Farther south, Trichinopoli 
 was the capital of a Hindu Raja ; Tanjore formed another 
 Hindu kingdom under a degenerate descendant of the Maratha 
 leader, Sivajf. Inland, Mysore was gradually growing into a 
 third Hindu State ; while everywhere local chieftains, called 
 pdkgdrs or 7idyaks, were in semi-independent possession of 
 citadels or hill-forts. These represented the feudal chiefs or
 
 178 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 fief-holders of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar ; and 
 many of them had maintained a practical independence, subject 
 to irregular payments of tribute, since the fall of that kingdom 
 in 1565 (see ante, pp. 129, 130). 
 
 Our First War in the Karnatik, 1746-1748. — Such was 
 the condition of affairs in Southern India when war broke out 
 between the English and the French in Europe in 1743. 
 Dupleix was at that time the French Governor of Pondicherri, 
 and Clive was a young civil servant or ' writer ' at Madras. An 
 English fleet appeared first on the Coromandel coast, but Dupleix 
 by a judicious present induced the Nawab of Arcot to interpose 
 and forbid hostilities. In 1746, a French squadron arrived, 
 under the command of La Bourdonnais. Madras surrendered 
 to it almost without a blow; and the only settlement left to the 
 English was Fort St. David, some miles south of Pondicherri, 
 where Clive and a few other fugitives sought shelter. The 
 Nawab of Arcot, faithful to his impartial policy, marched with 
 10,000 men to drive the French out of Madras, but was defeated. 
 In 1748, an Enghsh fleet arrived under Admiral Boscawen, 
 and attempted the siege of Pondicherri, while a land force 
 co-operated under Major Stringer Lawrence. The French re- 
 pulsed all attacks; but the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the 
 same year, restored Madras to the English. 
 
 Dupleix. — The first war with the French was merely an in- 
 cident in the greater contest in Europe. The second war had 
 its origin in Indian politics, while England and France were at 
 peace. The easy success of the French arms had inspired 
 Dupleix with the ambition of founding a French empire in India, 
 under the shadow of the Muhammadan powers. Disputed suc- 
 cessions among the reigning families both at Haidarabad and 
 at Arcot gave him his opportunity. On both thrones Dupleix 
 placed nominees of his own, and for a time he posed as the 
 arbiter of the entire south. In boldness of conception, and in 
 knowledge of Oriental diplomacy, Dupleix has probably had no 
 equal. But he was no soldier, and he was desdned to encounter 
 in the field the ' heaven-born genius ' of Clive. The English of 
 Madras, under the instinct of self-preservation, had maintained 
 the cause of another candidate to the throne of Arcot, in op-
 
 BATTLE OF WANDIIVASH. 179 
 
 position to the nominee of Dupleix. Their candidate was 
 IMuhammad Ah', afterwards known in history as Wala-jah, 
 
 Clive. — The war which ensued between the French and 
 English in Southern India has been exhaustively described by 
 Orme. The one incident that stands out conspicuously is the 
 capture and subsequent defence of Arcot by Clive in 1751. 
 This heroic feat, even more than the battle of Plassey, spread 
 the fame of English valour throughout India. Shortly after- 
 wards, Clive returned to England in ill-health, but the war 
 continued fitfully for many years. On the whole, the English 
 influence predominated in the Karnatik or Madras coast, and 
 their candidate, Muhammad Alf, maintained his position at 
 Arcot. But, inland, the French were supreme in Southern 
 India, and they were also able to seize the maritime tract called 
 'the Northern Circars.' 
 
 Battle of Wandiwash, 1760. — The final struggle did not 
 take place until 1760. In that year. Colonel (afterwards Sir 
 Eyre) Coote won the decisive victory of Wandiwash over the 
 French general, Lally, and proceeded to invest Pondicherri, 
 which was starved into capitulation in January 1761. A few 
 months later, the hill fortress of Ginjf (Gingi) also surrendered. 
 In the words of Orme, ' that day terminated the long hostilities 
 between the two rival European powers in Coromandel, and 
 left not a single ensign of the French nation avowed by the 
 authority of its Government in any part of India.' 
 
 Native Rulers of Bengal, 1707-1756. — Meanwhile the 
 narrative of British conquests shifts with Clive to Lower Bengal. 
 At the time of Aurangzeb's death, in 17 7, the Nawab or 
 Governor of Lower Bengal was Murshid Kulf Khan, known 
 also in European history as Jafar Khan. By birth a Brahman, 
 and brought up as a slave in Persia, he united the administrative 
 ability of a Hindu to the flmaticism of a renegade. Hitherto 
 the capital of Lower Bengal had been at Dacca, on the eastern 
 frontier of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the 
 Portuguese and of the Arakanese or Maghs could be most 
 easily checked. Murshid Kulf Khdn transferred his residence 
 to Murshidabad, in the immediate neighbourhood of Kasim- 
 bazar, which was then the river port of the Gangetic trade. The 
 
 M 2
 
 l8o THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 English, the French, and the Dutch had each factories at Kasim- 
 bazar, as well as at Dacca, Patna, and INIaldah. But Calcutta 
 was the separate headquarters of the English, Chandarnagar of 
 the French, and Chinsurah of the Dutch, — these three towns 
 being situated not far from one another on the lower reaches of 
 the Hugh', where the river was navigable for sea-going ships. 
 Murshid Kulf Khan ruled over Lower Bengal prosperously for 
 twenty-one years, and left his power to a son-in-law and a 
 grandson. The hereditary succession was broken in 1740 by All 
 Vardi Khan, a usurper, but the last of the great Nawabs ot Bengal. 
 In his days the Maratha horsemen ravaged the country, and the 
 inhabitants of Calcutta obtained permission in 1742 to erect an 
 earthwork, known to the present day as the ' IMaratha Ditch.' 
 
 'BJack Hole' of Calcutta. — Alf Vardi Khan died in 1756, 
 and was succeeded by his grandson, Siraj-ud-daula (Surajah 
 Dowlah), a youth of only eighteen years, whose ungovernable 
 temper led to a rupture with the English within two months 
 after his accession. In pursuit of one of his own family who 
 had escaped from his vengeance, he marched upon Calcutta 
 with a large army. Many of the English fled down the river in 
 their ships. The remainder suiTendered after some resistance, 
 and were thrust for the night into the ' Black Hole ' or military 
 jail of Fort William, a room about 18 feet square, with only two 
 small windows barred with iron. It was our ordinary garrison 
 prison in those times of cruel military discipline. But although 
 the Nawab does not seem to have been aware of the conse- 
 quences, it meant death to a crowd of English men and women 
 in the stifling heats of June. When the door of the prison was 
 opened next morning, only 23 persons out of 146 remained alive. 
 
 Clive and Watson. — The news of this disaster fortunately 
 found Clive back again at Madras, where also was a squadron 
 of King's ships under Admiral Watson. Clive and Watson 
 promptly sailed to the mouth of the Ganges with all the troops 
 they could get together. Calcutta was recovered with little 
 fighting ; and the Nawab consented to a peace, which restored 
 to the English Company all their privileges, and gave them 
 ample compensation for their losses. 
 
 Battle of Plassey, 1757. — It is possible that matters might
 
 BATTLE OF PLASSEY. l8l 
 
 have ended thus, if a fresh cause of hostilities had not suddenly 
 arisen. War had just been declared between the English and 
 French in Europe ; and Clive, following the traditions of warfare 
 in the Karnatik, captured the French settlement of Chandarnagar 
 on the Hugh'. Siraj-ud-daula, enraged by this breach of neu- 
 trality within his dominions, sided with the French. But Clive, 
 again acting upon the policy which he had learned from Dupleix 
 in Southern India, provided himself with a rival candidate (Mfr 
 Jafar) to the throne. Undaunted, he marched out to the grove 
 of Plassey, about 70 miles north of Calcutta, at the head of 1000 
 Europeans and 2000 sepoys, with 8 pieces of artillery. The 
 Bengal Viceroy's army numbered 35,000 foot and 15^000 horse, 
 with 50 cannon. Clive is said to have fought in spite of his 
 council of war. The truth is, he could scarcely avoid a battle. 
 The Nawab attacked with his whole artillery, at 6 a.m.; but 
 Clive kept his men well under shelter, ' lodged in a large grove, 
 surrounded with good mud-banks.' At noon the enemy drew 
 oft' into their entrenched camp for dinner. Clive only hoped to 
 make a ' successful attack at night.' Meanwhile, the enemy 
 being probably undressed over their cooking-pots, he sprang 
 upon one of their advanced posts, which had given him trouble, 
 and stormed ' an angle of their camp.' Several of the Nawab's 
 chief officers fell. The Nawab himself, dismayed by the unex- 
 pected confusion, fled on a camel ; his troops dispersed in a 
 panic ; and Clive found he had won a great victory. Mir 
 Jdfar's cavalry, which had hovered undecided during the battle, 
 and had been repeatedly fired on by Clive, ' to make them keep 
 their distance,' now joined our camp; and the road to IMurshi- 
 dabad, the Nawab's capital, lay open. 
 
 Mir Jafar, 1757. — The battle of Plassey was fought on June 
 23, 1757, an anniversary afterwards remembered when the 
 IMutiny of 1857 was at its height. History has agreed to adopt 
 this date as the beginning of the British Empire in the East. 
 But the immediate results of the victory were comparatively 
 small, and several years passed in hard fighting before even the 
 Bengalis would admit the superiority of the British arms. For 
 the moment, however, all opposition was at an end. Clive, again 
 following in the steps of Dupleix, placed his nominee, Mfr Jafar,
 
 l82 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 upon the viceregal throne at Murshidabad, as Nawab of Bengal, 
 and obtained for his appointment z. farmdn from the Mughal 
 emperor of Delhi. Enormous sums were exacted from Mfr 
 Jafar as the price of his elevation. The Company claimed ten 
 million rupees as compensation for its losses. For the English, 
 Hindu, and Armenian inhabitants of Calcutta were demanded, 
 respectively, 5 million, 2 million, and i million rupees ; for the 
 naval squadron and the army, 2 J million rupees apiece. The 
 members of the Council received the following amounts : — Mr. 
 Drake, the Governor, and Colonel CHve, as second member of the 
 Select Committee, 280,000 rupees each; and Mr. Becker, Mr. 
 Watts, and Major Kilpatrick, 240,000 rupees each. Colonel 
 Clive also received 200,000 rupees as Commander-in-Chief, and 
 1,600,000 rupees 'as a private donation.' Additional ' dona- 
 tions ' were likewise made to the other Members of the Council, 
 amounting in the case of Mr. Watts to 800,000 rupees. The 
 whole claim of the British amounted to £2,697,750. The 
 English still cherished extravagant ideas of Indian wealth. But 
 no funds existed to satisfy their inordinate demands, and they 
 had to be content with one-half the stipulated sums. Even of 
 this reduced amount one-third had to be taken in jewels and 
 plate, there being neither coin nor ingots left. 
 
 Grant of the Twenty-four Parganas, 1757. — At the same 
 time the new Nawab of Bengal made a grant to the Company of the 
 zaTtiinddrt or landholder's rights over an extensive tract of coun- 
 try round Calcutta, now known as the District of the Twenty- 
 Four Parganas. The area of this tract was 882 square miles. 
 In 1757, the Company obtained only the zammddn rights, — i.e. 
 the right to collect the cultivator's rents, together with the reve- 
 nue jurisdiction attached, subject to the obligation of paying 
 over the assessed land-tax to the Nawab, as the representative 
 of the Delhi Emperor. But, in 1759, the land-tax also was 
 granted by the emperor, the nominal suzerain of the Nawab, in 
 favour of Clive, who thus became the landlord of his own 
 masters, the Company. This military fief, or Clive's jdgir, as 
 it was called, subsequently became a matter of inquiry in Eng- 
 land. Lord Clive's claims to the property as feudal suzerain 
 over the Company were contested by it in 1764. But finally
 
 CLIVE GOVERNOR OF BENGAL. 183 
 
 in 1765, when he returned to Bengal, a new deed was issued, 
 confirming the unconditional jagir to Lord Clive for ten years, 
 with reversion afterwards to the Company in perpetuity. This 
 deed, having received the Delhi emperor's sanction on the 12 th 
 August, 1765, gave absolute validity to the original yV/^/r grant 
 in favour of Lord Clive. It transferred eventually to the Com- 
 pany the Twenty-four Parganas as a perpetual property, based 
 upon a jdgir grant. The annual sum of Rs. 222,958, the 
 amount at which the land-rent was assesi^ed when first made 
 over to the Company in 1757, was paid to Lord Clive from 1765 
 until his death in 1774, when the whole proprietary right 
 reverted to the Company. 
 
 Clive, First Governor of Bengal, 1758. — In 1758, Clive 
 was appointed by the Court of Directors the first Governor of all 
 the Company's settlements in Bengal. Two powers threatened 
 hostilities. On the north-west, the Shahzada or imperial prince, 
 afterwards the Emperor Shah Alam, with a mixed army of 
 Afghans and Marathas, and supported by the Nawab Wazj'r of 
 Oudh, was advancing his own claims to the Province of Bengal. 
 In the south, the influence of the French under Lally and Bussy 
 was overshadowing the British at INLadras. The name of Clive 
 exercised a decisive effect in both directions. Our Nawab of 
 Bengal, Mir Jafar, was anxious to buy off the Shahzada, who 
 had already invested Patna. But Clive marched in person to 
 the rescue, with an army of only 450 Europeans and 2500 
 sepoys, and the Mughal army dispersed without striking a blow. 
 In the same year, Clive despatched a force southwards under 
 Colonel Forde, which recaptured Masulipatam on the Madras 
 coast from the French, and permanently established British 
 influence in the Northern Circars, and at the Nizam's court of 
 Haidarabad in Southern India. Clive next attacked the Dutch, 
 the only other European nation who might yet prove a rival to the 
 English. He defeated them both by land and water ; and their 
 settlement at Chinsurah existed thenceforth only on sufferance. 
 
 Mismanagement, 1760-1764. — From 1760 to 1765, Clive 
 was in England. He had left no system of government in 
 Bengal, but merely the tradition that unlimited sums of money 
 might be extracted from the natives by the terror of the English
 
 1 84 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 name. In 1761, it was found expedient and profitable to 
 dethrone Mfr Jafar, our Nawab of Murshidabad, and to substi- 
 tute his son-in-law, Mir Kasim, in his place. On this occasion, 
 besides private donations, the English received a grant of the 
 three Districts of Bardwan, Midnapur, and Chittagong, estimated 
 to yield a net revenue of half a million sterling a year. 
 
 Revolt of Mir Kasim, 1763. — But the freshly appointed 
 Nawab of Bengal, Mir Kasim, soon began to show a will of his 
 own, and to cherish dreams of independence. He retired from 
 Murshidabad to Monghyr, a strong position on the Ganges 
 which commanded the line of communication with the north- 
 west. There he proceeded to organize an army, drilled and 
 equipped after European models, and to carry on intrigues with 
 the Nawab Wazfr of Oudh. He was resolved to try his strength 
 with the English, and he found a good pretext. The Company's 
 servants claimed the privilege of carrying on their private trade 
 throughout Bengal, free from the Nawab's inland imposts. The 
 assertion of this claim caused affrays between the customs 
 officers of the Nawab and the native traders, who, whether truly 
 or not, represented that they were acting on behalf of the servants 
 of the Company. The Nawab alleged that his civil authority 
 was everywhere set at nought. The majority of the Council at 
 Calcutta would not listen to his complaints. The Governor, 
 Mr. Vansittart, and Warren Hastings, then a junior member of 
 Council, attempted to effect some compromise. But the con- 
 troversy had become too hot. The Nawab's officers fired upon 
 an English boat, and a general rising against the English took 
 place. Two thousand of our sepoys were cut to pieces at Patna; 
 about 200 Englishmen, who there and in other various parts of 
 Bengal fell into the hands of the Muhammadans, were massacred. 
 
 Re-conquest of Bengal, 1764. — But as soon as regular 
 warfare commenced, Mir Kasim met with no more successes. 
 His trained regiments were defeated in two pitched batdes by 
 Major Adams, at Gheria and at Udhunala; and he himself 
 took refuge with the Nawab VVazir of Oudh, who refused to 
 deliver him up to us. This led to a prolongation of the war. 
 Shah Alam, who had now succeeded his father as emperor, and 
 Shuja-ud-daula, the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, united their forces,
 
 DECISIVE BATTLE OF BAXAR. 1 85 
 
 and threatened Patna, which the Enghsh had recovered. A more 
 formidable danger appeared in the EngHsh camp, in the form 
 of the first sepoy mutiny. It was quelled by Major (afterwards 
 Sir Hector) Munro, who ordered twenty-four of the ringleaders 
 to be blown from guns, an old IMughal punishment. In 1764, 
 Major IMunro won the decisive battle of Baxar, which laid Oudh 
 at the feet of the conquerors, and brought the Mughal Emperor, 
 Shah Alam, as a suppliant to the English camp. The old de- 
 posed Nawab of Bengal, Mfr Jafar, was brought forth from his 
 retirement, and was again appointed Nawab in place of Mir 
 Kasim, who had risen against us. The English Council in 
 Calcutta had thus twice found the profitable opportunity which 
 they loved, of creating a new Nawab of Bengal, and of receiving 
 the donations and large sums of money distributed to them by 
 each of the Nawabs on his accession. 
 
 Olive's Second Governorship, 1765-1767. — But, in 1765, 
 Clive (now Baron Clive of Plassey in the peerage of Ireland) 
 arrived at Calcutta, as Governor of Bengal for the second time. 
 Two landmarks stand out in his policy. First, he sought the 
 substance, although not the name, of territorial power, under the 
 fiction of a grant from the Mughal Emperor. Second, he de- 
 sired to purify the Company's service, by prohibiting illicit 
 gains, and guaranteeing a reasonable salary from honest sources. 
 In neither respect were his plans carried out by his immediate 
 successors. But our efforts at good government in India 
 date from this second governorship of Clive in 1765, as our 
 military supremacy had dated from his victory at Plassey in 1757. 
 
 Grant of the Diwani of Bengal, 1765. — Clive advanced 
 rapidly up from Calcutta to Allahabad, and there settled in 
 person the fate of nearly the northern half of India. Oudh was 
 given back to the Nawdb Wazfr, on condition of his paying half 
 a million sterling towards the expenses of the war. The Pro- 
 vinces of Allahabad and Kora, lying between the Ganges and 
 the Jumna, were handed over to the Emperor Shah Alam, who 
 in his turn granted to the English Company the diwani or fiscal 
 adminislr tion of [Lower] Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and also 
 the territorial jurisdiction of the Northern Circars. A puppet 
 Nawab was slill maintained at IMurshidabad, who received an
 
 1 86 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 annual allowance from us of £600,000. Half that amount, or 
 about £300,000, we paid to the emperor as tribute from Bengal, 
 Eehar, and Orissa, Thus was constituted the dual system of 
 government, by which the English received all the revenues of 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and undertook to maintain the army ; 
 while the criminal jurisdiction was vested in the Nawab. In 
 Indian phraseology, the Company was diwdn, and the Nawab was 
 nizdni. The actual collection of the revenues still remained for 
 seven years in the hands of native officials (i 765-1 772). 
 
 Olive's Reorganization of the Bengal Service, 1766. — 
 Clive's other great task was the reorganization of the Company's 
 service. All the officers, civil and military alike, were tainted 
 with the common corruption. Their legal salaries were paltry, 
 and quite insufficient for a livelihood. But they had been per- 
 mitted to augment them, sometimes a hundredfold, by means of 
 private trade and by gifts from the Native powers. Despite the 
 united resistance of the civil servants, and an actual mutiny of 
 two hundred military officers, Clive carried through his reforms. 
 Private trade and the receipt of presents were prohibited for the 
 future, while a fair increase of pay was provided out of the 
 monopoly of salt. 
 
 Dual System of Administration, 1767-1772. — Lord Clive 
 quitted India for the third and last time in 1767. Between that 
 date and the governorship of Warren Hastings in 1772, little of 
 importance occurred in Bengal, beyond the terrible famine of 
 1770, which is officially reported to have swept away one-third 
 of the inhabitants. The dual system of government established 
 in 1765 by Clive had proved a failure. The English were the 
 real rulers, but the administration of the districts was still carried 
 on by native officials. There w^as thus a divided responsibility, 
 and when any disaster occurred it was impossible to find out 
 who was really to blame. Even the distant Court of Directors 
 in England discerned that a complete change had become 
 necessary in the government of Bengal. Warren Hastings, a 
 tried servant of the company, distinguished alike for intelligence, 
 for probity, and for knowledge of Oriental manners, was nomi- 
 nated Governor by the Court of Directors, with express instruc- 
 tions to carry out a predetermined series of reforms. In their
 
 WARREN HASTINGS. 1 87 
 
 own words, the Court had resolved to ' stand forth as dhvdn, 
 and to take upon themselves, by the agency of their own ser- 
 vants, the entire care and administration of the revenues.' In 
 the execution of this plan, Hastings removed the exchequer from 
 Murshidabad to Calcutta, and appointed European officers, 
 under the now familiar title of Collectors, to superintend the 
 collections and preside in the revenue courts. 
 
 Warren Hastings, 1772-1785. — Clive had laid the terri- 
 torial foundations of the British Empire in Bengal. Hastings 
 may be said to have created a British administration for that 
 empire. The wars forced on him by Native powers in India, 
 the clamours of his masters in England for money, and the 
 virulence of Sir Philip Francis with a faction of his colleagues at 
 the Council table in Calcutta, retarded the completion of his 
 schemes. But the manuscript records disclose the patient 
 statesmanship and indomitable industry which he brought to 
 bear upon them. From 1765 to 1772, Clive's dual system 
 of government, by corrupt Native underlings and rapacious 
 English chiefs, had prevailed. Thirteen years were now spent by 
 Warren Hastings in experimental efforts at rural administration 
 by means of English officials (i 772-1 785). The completion of 
 the edifice was left to his successor. But Hastings was the 
 administrative organizer, as Clive had been the territorial 
 founder, of our Indian Empire. 
 
 Hastings' Work in India. — Hastings rested his claims as 
 an Indian ruler on his administrative work. He reorganized 
 the Indian service, reformed every branch of the revenue collec- 
 tions, created courts of justice and laid the basis of a police. 
 But history remembers his name, not for his improvements in 
 the internal administration, but for his bold foreign policy in 
 dealing with the Native States. From 1772 to 1774, he was 
 Governor of Bengal; from the latter date to 1785, he was the 
 first Governor-General of India, presiding over a Council nomi- 
 nated, like himself, under a statute of Parliament known as the 
 Regulating Act (1773). In his domestic policy he was greatly 
 hampered by the opposition of his colleague in council, Sir Philip 
 Francis, whom he ultimately wounded in a duel. But in his 
 external relations with Oudh, with the Marathas and with
 
 1 88 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 Haidar Alf, Hastings was generally, although not always, able to 
 compel assent to his views. 
 
 Hastings' Policy to Native Rulers. — His relations with 
 the Native powers, like his domestic policy, formed ji wefll- 
 considered scheme. Hastings had to find money for the Court 
 of Directors in England, whose thirst for the wealth of India 
 was not less keen, although more decorous, than that of their 
 servants in Bengal. He had also to protect the Company's 
 territory from the Native powers, which, if he had not destroyed 
 them, would have annihilated him. Beyond the Bengal frontier 
 a group of Muhammadan viceroys or governors of the old 
 Mughal Empire had established independent States, the most 
 important of which was Oudh. Beyond this group of Muham- 
 madan States, the Marathas were practically the masters of 
 Northern India, and held the nominal Emperor of Delhi as a 
 puppet under their control. The wise policy of Warren Has- 
 tings was to ally himself with the independent Muhammadan 
 States, that is to say principally with Oudh, just beyond his own 
 frontier. If he could make these Muhammadan States strong, he 
 hoped that they would prevent the Marathas from pouring down 
 into Bengal. But these Muhammadan States were themselves 
 so weak that this policy only obtained a partial success. In the 
 end Warren Hastings found himself compelled to advance the 
 British territories further up the Ganges, and practically to bring 
 the Muhammadan States under his own control. 
 
 Hastings makes Bengal pay. — Warren Hastings had in 
 the first place to make Bengal pay. This he could not do 
 under Clive's dual system of administration. When he abolished 
 that double system, he cut down the Nawab of Bengal's allow- 
 ance to one-half, and so saved about £160,000 a year. As a 
 matter of fact, the titular Nawab, being then a minor, had 
 ceased to render even any nominal service for his enormous 
 income. Clive had himself reduced the original £600,000 to 
 £450,000 on the accession of a new Nawab in 1766; and the 
 grant was again cut down to £350,000 on a fresh succession in 
 1769. The allowance had practically been of a fluctuating and 
 personal character. Its further reduction in 1772 in the case of 
 the new child-Navvab had, moreover, been expressly ordered by
 
 HASTINGS AND THE ROHTLLAS. 189 
 
 the Court of Directors six months before Hastings took office 
 as Governor of Bengal. 
 
 Hastings stops the Tribute to Delhi, 1773. — Hastings' 
 next financial stroke was to stop payment of the tribute of 
 £300,000 to the Delhi emperor, which Clive had agreed to, in 
 return for the grant of Bengal to the Company. But the em- 
 peror had now been seized by the Marathas. Hastings held 
 that His Majesty was no longer independent, and that to pay 
 money to the emperor would practically be paying it to the 
 Marathas, who were our most formidable enemies, and whom 
 he clearly saw that we should have to crush, unless we were 
 willing to be crushed by them. Hastings therefore withheld the 
 tribute of £300,000 from the puppet emperor, or rather from 
 his Maratha custodians. 
 
 Hastings sells Allahabad and Kora, 1773-1774. — On 
 the partition of the Gangetic valley in 1765, Clive had also 
 allotted the Provinces of Allahdbad and Kora to the emperor 
 Shah Alam. The emperor, now in the hands of the Marathas, 
 made them over to his new masters, Warren Hastings held 
 that by so doing His Majesty had forfeited his title to these 
 Provinces. Hastings accordingly resold them to the Wazir of 
 Oudh. By this measure he freed the Company from a military 
 charge of nearly half a million sterling, and obtained a price of 
 over half a million for the Company. The terms of sale in- 
 cluded the loan of British troops to subdue the Rohilla Afghans, 
 who had seized and for some time kept hold of a tract on the 
 north-western frontier of Oudh. The Rohillas were Muham- 
 madans and foreigners ; they had cruelly lorded it over the Hindu 
 peasantry ; and they were now intriguing with the Marathas, our 
 most dangerous foes. The Wazfr of Oudh, supported by the 
 British troops lent to him by Hastings, completely defeated the 
 Rohillas. He compelled most of their fighting men to seek new 
 homes on the other side of the Ganges river, in a neighbouring 
 and equally fertile district, but one in which they could no 
 longer open the northern frontier of Oudh to the Marathas. 
 By the foregoing series of measures, Hastings ceased to furnish 
 the Maratha custodians of the Delhi emperor with the Bengal 
 tribute ; he also strengthened our ally the Wazfr of Oudh, and
 
 IQO THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 closed his frontier against Maratha invasions ; he bettered the 
 Company's finances in Bengal by a million sterling a year in 
 both its revenue and expenditure : say two millions /ifr annum. 
 
 Fines on Chait Singh and on the Oudh Begam. — Has- 
 tings further improved the financial position of the Company by 
 contributions from Chait Singh and from the Begam of Oudh. 
 Chait Singh, the Raja of Benares, had grown rich under British 
 protection. He resisted the just demand of Warren Hastings 
 to subsidize a military force, and entered into correspondence 
 with the enemies of the British Government. This led to his 
 arrest. He escaped, headed a rebellion, and was crushed. His 
 estates were forfeited, but transferred to his nephew, subject to 
 an increased tribute. The Begam, or Queen-Mother, of Oudh 
 was charged with abetting Chait Singh, the Benares Raja, in 
 his rebellion. A heavy fine was laid upon her, which she 
 resisted to the utmost. But after severe pressure on herself 
 and the eunuchs of her household, over a million sterHng was 
 obtained. 
 
 Hastings' Trial in England, 1788-1795. — On his return 
 to England, Warren Hastings was impeached by the House of 
 Commons for these and other alleged acts of oppression. He 
 was solemnly tried by the House of Lords, and the proceed- 
 ings dragged themselves out for seven years (i 788-1 795). 
 They form one of the most celebrated State trials in English 
 history, and ended in a verdict of not guilty on all the charges. 
 Meanwhile the cost of the defence had ruined Warren Hastings, 
 and left him dependent upon the generosity of the Court of 
 Directors, — a generosity which never failed. 
 
 First Maratha "War, 1779-1781. — The Bombay Govern- 
 ment looked with envy on the territorial conquests of Madras 
 and Bengal. It accordingly resolved to establish its supremacy 
 at the Maratha court of Poona. This ambition found scope, in 
 1775, by the treaty of Surat, by which Raghuba, one of the 
 claimants to the headship of the Marathas as Peshwa, agreed to 
 cede Salsette and Bassein to the English, in consideration of 
 being himself restored to Poona. The military operations that 
 followed are known as the first Maratha war (see p. 162). 
 Warren Hastings, who in his capacity of Governor-General
 
 THE FIRST MYSORE WAR. 191 
 
 claimed a right of control over the decisions of the Bombay 
 Government, strongly disapproved of the treaty of Surat. But 
 when war actually broke out, he threw the whole force of the 
 Bengal army into the scale. One of his favourite officers, 
 Colonel Goddard, marched across the peninsula of India from 
 sea to sea, and conquered the rich Province of Gujarat almost 
 without a blow. Another, Captain Popham, stormed the rock- 
 fortress of Gwalior, which was regarded as the key of Hindu- 
 stan. These brilliant successes of the Bengal troops atoned for 
 the disgrace of the convention of Wargaum in 1779, when the 
 Marathas had overpowered and dictated terms to our Bombay 
 force; but the war was protracted until 1781. It was closed 
 in 1782 by the treaty of Salbai, which practically restored the 
 status quo. Raghuba, the English nominee for the Peshwaship, 
 was set aside on a pension; Gujarat was restored to the INIaralhas; 
 and only Salsette, with Elephanta and two other small islands, 
 was retained by the English. 
 
 War with Mysore, 1780-1784. — Meanwhile, Warren 
 Hastings had to deal with a more dangerous enemy than even 
 the Maratha Confederacy. The reckless conduct of the Madras 
 Government had roused the hostility of Haidar All of INIy.sore 
 and also of the Nizam of the Deccan, the two strongest IMusal- 
 man powers in India. These attempted to draw the Maraihas 
 into an alliance against the English. The diplomacy of Hastings 
 won back the Nizam and the Maratha Raja of Nagpur ; but 
 the army of Ilaidar Alf fell like a thunderbolt upon the British 
 possessions in the Karnatik. A strong detachment under 
 Colonel Baillie was cut to pieces at Perambakam, and Haidar 
 All's Mysore cavalry ravaged the country up to the walls of 
 Madras. For the second time the Bengal army, stimulated by 
 the energy of Hasdngs, saved the honour of the English name. 
 He despatched Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of Wandiwash, to 
 relieve Madras by sea, with all the men and money available, 
 while Colonel Pearse marched south overland to overawe the 
 Raja of Bcrar and the Nizam. The war was hotly contested, 
 for the aged Sir Eyre Coote had lost his energy, and the 
 Mysore army was not only well-disciplined and equipped, but 
 skilfully handled by Haidar and his son Tipii. Haidar died in
 
 192 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 1782, and peace was finally concluded with Tipii in 1784, on 
 the basis of a mutual restitution of all conquests. Warren 
 Hastings retired from the Governor-Generalship in 1785. 
 
 Marquess Cornwallis, 1786-1793. — In 1786 arrived Lord 
 Cornwallis, the first English nobleman who undertook the 
 office of Governor-General of India. Between these two great 
 names an interregnum of twenty months took place under Sir 
 John IMacpherson, a civil servant of the Company (Feb. 1785 
 to Sept. 1786). Lord Cornwallis twice held the high post of 
 Governor-General. His first rule lasted from 1786 to 1793, 
 and is celebrated for two events, — the introduction of the 
 Permanent Settlement into Bengal, and the second Mysore 
 war. If the foundations of the system of civil administration 
 were laid by Hastings, the superstructure was raised by Corn- 
 wallis. He made over the higher criminal jurisdiction to 
 European officers, and established the Nizamat Sadr Adalat, 
 or Supreme Court of Criminal Judicature, at Calcutta ; in the 
 rural districts, he separated the functions of Revenue Collector 
 and Civil Judge. The system thus organized in Bengal was 
 afterwards extended to Madras and Bombay, when those Presi- 
 dencies also grew into great territorial divisions of India. 
 
 The Revenue Settlement of Bengal. — But the achieve- 
 ment most familiarly associated with the name of Cornwallis 
 is the Permanent Settlement of the land revenue of Bengal. Up 
 to this time the revenue had been collected pretty much accord- 
 ing to the old Mughal system. The zarninddrs, or Government 
 farmers, whose office always tended to become hereditary, were 
 recognized as having a right to collect the revenue from the 
 actual cultivators. But no principle of assessment existed, and 
 the amount actually realized varied greatly from year to year. 
 Hastings tried to obtain experience, from a succession of five 
 years' settlements, so as to furnish a standard rate for the future. 
 Sir Philip Francis, the great rival of Hastings, advocated, on 
 the other hand, a limitation of the State demand in perpetuity. 
 The same view recommended itself to the authorities at home, 
 partly because it would place their finances on a more stable 
 basis, partly because it seemed to identify the za7mnddr with the 
 landlord of the English system of property. Accordingly,
 
 LORD CORNWALLIS, 1787-1793. 193 
 
 Cornwallis took out with him in 1787 instructions to introduce 
 a Permanent Settlement of the land-tax of Bengal. 
 
 The Permanent Settlement, 1793. — The process of 
 assessment began in 1789, and terminated in 1791. No attempt 
 was made to measure the fields or calculate the out-turn, as had 
 been done by Akbar, and as is now done whenever settlements 
 are made in the British Provinces. The amount to be paid in 
 the future was fixed by reference to what had been paid in the 
 past. At first the settlement was decennial, or 'for ten years,' 
 but in 1793 it was declared permanent. The total assessment 
 amounted to Sikka Rs. 26,800,989, or about three millions sterling 
 for Bengal. Lord Cornwallis carried the scheme into execution ; 
 but the praise or blame, so far as details are concerned, belongs 
 to Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, a civil servant, 
 whose knowledge of the country was unsurpassed in his time. 
 Shore would have proceeded more cautiously than Cornwallis' 
 preconceived idea of a proprietary body, and the Court of 
 Directors' haste after fixity, permitted. 
 
 Second Mysore War, 1790-1792. — The second Mysore 
 war of 1 790-1792 is noteworthy on two accounts. Lord Corn- 
 wallis, the Governor-General, led the British army in person, 
 with a pomp and a magnificence of supply which recalled the 
 campaigns of Aurangzeb. The two great southern powers, 
 the Nizam of the Deccan and the Maratha Confederacy, co- 
 operated as allies of the British. In the end, Tipu Sultan sub- 
 mitted when Lord Cornwallis had commenced to beleaguer his 
 capital. He agreed to yield one-half of his dominions to be 
 divided among the allies, and to pay three millions sterling 
 towards the cost of the war. These conditions he fulfilled, 
 but ever afterwards he burned to be revenged upon his English 
 conquerors. Lord Cornwallis retired in 1793, and was succeeded 
 by Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth. 
 
 Marquess Wellesley, 1798-1805. — The period of Sir 
 John Shore's rule as Governor-General, from 1793 to 1798, was 
 uneventful. In 1798, Lord Mornington, better known as the 
 Marquess Wellesley, arrived in India, already inspired with 
 imperial projects which were destined to change the map of the 
 country. Lord Mornington was the friend and favourite of Pitt, 
 
 N
 
 194 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 from whom he is thought to have derived his far-reaching 
 political vision, and his antipathy to the French name. From 
 the first he laid down as his guiding principle, that the English 
 must be the one paramount power in the Indian peninsula, and 
 that Native princes could only retain the insignia of sovereignty 
 by surrendering their political independence. The history of 
 India since his time has been but the gradual development of this 
 policy, which received its finishing touch when Queen Victoria 
 w-as proclaimed Empress of India on the ist of January 1877. 
 
 French Influence in India, 1798-1800. — To frustrate 
 the possibility of a French invasion of India, led by Napoleon in 
 person, was the immediate governing idea of Wellesley's foreign 
 policy. France at this time, and for many years later, filled the 
 place afterwards occupied by Russia in the minds of Indian 
 statesmen. Nor was the danger so remote as might now be 
 thought. French regiments guarded and overawed the Nizam 
 of Haidarabad. The soldiers of Sindhia, the military head of 
 the Maratha Confederacy, was disciplined and led by French 
 adventurers. Tipii Sultan of Mysore carried on a secret cor- 
 respondence with the French Directory, allowed a tree of 
 liberty to be planted in his dominions, and enrolled himself in 
 a republican club as ' Citizen Tipu.' The islands of Mauritius 
 and Bourbon afforded a convenient half-way rendezvous for 
 French intrigue and for the assembling of a hostile expedition. 
 Above all, Napoleon Buonaparte was then in Egypt, dreaming 
 of the Indian conquests of Alexander the Great, and no man 
 knew in what direction he might turn his hitherto unconquered 
 legions. 
 
 India before Lord Wellesley, 1798. — Wellesley conceived 
 the scheme of crushing for ever the French hopes in Asia, by 
 placing himself at the head of a great Indian confederacy. In 
 Lower Bengal, the sword of Clive and the policy of Warren 
 Hastings had made the English paramount. Before the end 
 of the century, our power was consolidated from the seaboard 
 to Benares, high up the Gangetic valley. Beyond our frontier, 
 the Nawab Wazfr of Oudh had agreed to pay a subsidy for 
 the aid of British troops. This sum in 1797 amounted to 
 £760,000 a year; and the Nawab, being always in arrears,
 
 LORD WELLESLEY'S POLICY. 195 
 
 entered into negotiations for a cession of territory in lieu of 
 a cash payment. In 1801, the treaty of Lucknow made over to 
 the British the Doab, or fertile tract between the Ganges and 
 the Jumna, together with Rohilkhand. In Southern India, our 
 possessions were chiefly confined, before Lord Wellesley, to the 
 coast Districts of Madras and Bombay. Wellesley resolved to 
 make the British supreme as far as Delhi in Northern India, and 
 to compel the great powers of the south to enter into subordinate 
 relations to the Company's government. The intrigues of the 
 Native princes gave him his opportunity for carrying out this 
 plan without a breach of faith. The time had arrived when the 
 English must either become supreme in India, or be driven out 
 of it. The Mughal Empire was completely broken up ; and 
 the sway had to pass either to the local Muhammadan governors 
 of that empire, or to the Hindu Confederacy represented by the 
 Marathas, or to the British. Lord Wellesley determined that it 
 should pass to the British. 
 
 Lord WeUesley's Policy. — His work in Northern India 
 was at first easy. The treaty of Lucknow in 1801 made us ter- 
 ritorial rulers as far as the heart of the present North- Western 
 Provinces, and established our polidcal influence in Oudh. Be- 
 yond those limits, the northern branches of the Marathas practi- 
 cally held sway, with the puppet emperor in their hands. Lord 
 Wellesley left them untouched for a few years, until the second 
 Maratha war (1802-1804) gave him an opportunity for dealing 
 effectively with their nation as a whole. In Southern India, he 
 saw that the Nizam at Haidarabad stood in need of his protec- 
 tion, and he converted him into a useful follower throughout the 
 succeeding struggle. The other Muhammadan power of the 
 south, Tipu Sultan of Mysore, could not be so easily handled. 
 Lord Wellesley resolved to crush him, and had ample provoca- 
 tion for so doing. The third power of Southern India — namely, 
 the Maratha Confederacy — was so loosely organized, that Lord 
 Wellesley seems at first to have hoped to live on terms with it. 
 When several years of fitful alliance had convinced him that he* 
 had to choose between the supremacy of the Mar^thds or of the 
 British in Southern India, he did not hesitate to decide. 
 
 Treaty with the Nizam, 1798. — Lord Wellesley first 
 
 N 2
 
 196 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 addressed himself to the weakest of the three southern powers, 
 the Nizam of Haidarabad. Here he won a diplomatic success, 
 which turned a possible rival into a subservient ally. The French 
 battalions at Haidarabad were disbanded, and the Nizam bound 
 himself by treaty not to take any European into his service 
 without the consent of the English Government, — a clause since 
 inserted in every engagement entered into with Native powers. 
 
 Third Mysore War, 1799. — Wellesley next turned the 
 whole weight of his resources against Tipu, whom Cornwallis 
 had defeated, but not subdued. Tipu's intrigues with the French 
 were laid bare, and he was given an opportunity of adhering to 
 the new subsidiary system. On his refusal, war was declared, 
 and Wellesley came down in viceregal state to Madras to organize 
 the expedilion in person, and to watch over the course of events. 
 One English army marched into Mysore from Madras, accom- 
 panied by a contingent from the Nizam. Another advanced 
 from the western coast. Tipu, after a feeble resistance in the 
 field, retired into Seringapatam, his capital, and, when it was 
 stormed, died fighting bravely in the breach (1799). Since the 
 battle of Plassey, no event so greatly impressed the Natives 
 as the capture of Seringapatam, which won for General Harris 
 an eventual peerage, and for Wellesley an Irish marquessate. 
 In dealing with the territories of Tipu, Wellesley acted with 
 moderation. The central portion, forming the old State of 
 Mysore, was restored to an infant representative of the Hindu 
 Rajas, whom Haidar All had dethroned ; the rest of Tipu's 
 dominion was partitioned between the Nizam, the Marathas, and 
 the English. At about the same time, the Karnatik, or the part 
 of South-Eastern India ruled by the Nawab of Arcot, and also the 
 principality of Tanjore, were placed under direct British admin- 
 istration, thus constituting the Madras Presidency almost as it 
 has existed to the present day. The sons of the slain Tipu were 
 treated by Lord Wellesley with paternal tenderness. They 
 received a magnificent allowance, with a semi-royal establish- 
 ment, first at Vellore, and afterwards in Calcutta. The last of 
 them, Prince Ghulam Muhammad, who survived to 1877, was 
 long a well-known citizen of Calcutta, and an active Justice of 
 the Peace.
 
 THE SECOND MARATHA WAR. 197 
 
 The Marathas in 1800. — The Mardthas had been the 
 nominal allies of the English in both their wars with Tipu, 
 But they had not rendered active assistance, nor were they 
 secured to the English side as the Nizam had been. The 
 Maratha powers at this time were five in number. The 
 recognized head of the confederacy was the Peshwa of Poona, 
 who ruled the hill country of the Western Ghats, the cradle 
 of the Maratha race. The fertile Province of Gujarat was 
 annually harried by the horsemen of the Gaekwar of Baroda. 
 In Central India, two military leaders, Sindhia of Gwalior and 
 Holkar of Indore, alternately held the pre-eminence. Towards 
 the east, the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur reigned from Berar to 
 the coast of Orissa. Wellesley laboured to bring these several 
 Maratha powers within the net of his subsidiary system. In 
 1802, the necessities of the Peshwa, who had been defeated 
 by Holkar, and driven as a fugitive into British territory, 
 induced him to sign the treaty of Bassein. By that he pledged 
 himself to the British to hold communications with no other 
 power, European or Native, and granted to us Districts for 
 the maintenance of a subsidiary force. This greatly extended 
 the English territorial influence in the Bombay Presidency. 
 But it led to the second Maratha war, as neither Sindhia nor 
 the Raja of Nagpur would tolerate the Peshwa's betrayal of 
 the Maratha indejiendence. 
 
 Second Maratha War, 1802-1804. — The campaigns which 
 followed are perhaps the most glorious in the history of the 
 British arms in India. The general plan, and the adequate 
 provision of resources, were due to the Marquess Wellesley, 
 as also the indomitable spirit which refused to admit of defeat. 
 The armies were led by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards 
 Duke of Wellington) and General (afterwards Lord) Lake. 
 Wellesley operated in the Dcccan, where, in a few short 
 months, he won the decisive victories of Assaye and Argiium, 
 and captured Ahmadnagar. Lake's campaign in Hindustan 
 was equally brilliant, although it has received less notice from 
 historians. He won pitched battles at Alfgarh and Laswari, 
 and took the cities of Delhi and Agra. He scattered the 
 French troops of Sindhia, and at the same time stood forward
 
 1 98 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 as the champion of the Mughal Emperor in his hereditary 
 capital. Before the end of 1803, both Sindhia and the 
 Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur sued for peace. Sindhia ceded all 
 claims to the territory north of the Jumna, and left the blind 
 old Emperor Shah Alam once more under British protection. 
 The Bhonsla forfeited Orissa to the English, who had already 
 occupied it with a flying column in 1803, and Berar to the 
 Nizam, who gained fresh territory by every act of complaisance 
 to the British Government. The freebooter Jaswant Rao 
 Holkar alone remained in the field, supporting his troops by 
 raids through Malwa and Rajputana. The concluding years 
 of Wellesley's rule were occupied with a series of operations 
 against Holkar, which brought little credit on the British 
 name. The disastrous retreat of Colonel Monson through 
 Central India (1804) recalled memories of the convention 
 of Wargaum, and of the destruction of Colonel Baillie's force 
 by Haidar Ah. The repulse of Lake in person at the siege 
 of Bhartpur (Bhurtpore) is memorable as an instance of a 
 British army in India having to turn back with its object 
 unaccomplished (1805). Bhartpur was not finally taken till 
 1827. 
 
 India after Lord Wellesley, 1805. — Lord Wellesley during 
 his six years of office carried out almost every part of his 
 territorial scheme. In Northern India, Lord Lake's campaigns 
 brought the North-Western Provinces (the ancient Madhya- 
 desa) under British rule, together with the custody of the 
 puppet emperor. The new Districts were amalgamated with 
 those previously acquired from the Nawab Wazir of Oudh 
 into the ' Ceded and Conquered Provinces.' This arrangement 
 of Northern India remained till the Sikh wars of 1845 and 
 1849 ga-ve us the Punjab. In South-Eastern India, we have 
 seen that Lord Wellesley's conquests constituted the Madras 
 Presidency almost as it exists at the present date. In South- 
 western India, the Peshwa was reduced to a vassal of the 
 Company. But the territories now under the Governor of 
 Bombay were not finally built up into their existing form until 
 the last IMarathd war in 1 8 1 8.
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BRITISH POWER, i-j^^-iSoi. 199 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 James Mill's History of British India would be the standard work on 
 this and the subsequent periods dealt with in the present Brief History, but 
 for the unfortunate prejudices and misrepresentations which disfigure that 
 able writer's work. H. H. Wilson's edition of Mill to some extent cor- 
 rects those misrepresentations ; but an accurate history of British India 
 from the original sources has yet to be written. Among trustworthy works 
 available to the English reader may again be noted Orme's History of the 
 Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indosfan, Cambridge's 
 War on the Coast of Coromandel, Wilk's Historical Sketches of the 
 South of India, Dirom's Narrative of the Campaign in India, which 
 terminated the War with Tippoo Sultan in 1792, and Malleson's 
 History of the Frettch in India, together with his Filial Struggles of the 
 French in India, and his Decisive Battles of India. Also Anderson's 
 English in Western India, which well deserves to be reprinted ; Keene's 
 Moghul Empire from the Death of Aurangzeb to the Overthrow of the 
 Mardthd Power; Ovren?, India on the Eve of the British Cortquest. Sir 
 Charles Aitchison's Treaties and Engage?nents relating to htdia form the 
 foundation of any accurate political history of the period. Sir John 
 Strachey's Hastings and the Rohilla War, with Sir James Stephen's work 
 on the trial of Nuncomar and Mr. Busteed's Old Calcutta are valuable mono- 
 graphs. Among the very numerous biographies of the statesmen and 
 soldiers who laid the foundations of the British Rule, may be mentioned 
 as most easily available to the English reader, the half-crown volumes on 
 Lord Clive, Dupleix, Warren Hastings, the Marqticss Cornwallis, and the 
 Marquess Wellesley, in the ' Rulers of India ' Series (Clarendon Press).
 
 [ 200 ] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 The Consolidation of British India. 
 
 Marquess Cornwallis again, 1805. — The financial strain 
 caused by these great operations of Lord Wellesley had mean- 
 while exhausted the patience of the Court of Directors at 
 home. In 1805, Lord Cornwallis was sent out as Governor- 
 General a second time, with instructions to bring about peace 
 at any price, while Holkar was still unsubdued, and with 
 Sindhia threatening a fresh war. But Cornwallis was now an 
 old man, and broken in health. Travelling up to the north- 
 west during the rainy season, he sank and died at Ghazipur, 
 before he had been ten weeks in the country. 
 
 Sir George Barlow, 1805. — His immediate successor was 
 Sir George Barlow, a civil servant of the Company, who as a 
 locum tenens had no alternative but to carry out the commands 
 of his employers. Under these orders he curtailed the area of 
 British territory, and, in violation of engagements, abandoned 
 the Rajput Chiefs to the cruel mercies of Holkar and Sindhia. 
 During his administration, also, occurred the mutiny of the 
 Madras sepoys at Vellore (1806), which, although promptly 
 suppressed, sent a shock of insecurity through the empire. The 
 feebly economical poHcy of this interregnum proved most disas- 
 trous. But fortunately the rule soon passed into firmer hands. 
 
 Earl of Minto, 1807-1813. — Lord Minto, Governor General 
 from 1807 to 1813, consolidated the conquests which Wellesley 
 had acquired. His only military exploits were the occupation 
 of the island of Mauritius, and the conquest of Java by an 
 expedition which he accompanied in person. The condition of 
 Central India continued to be disturbed, but Lord Minto 
 succeeded in preventing any violent outbreaks without himself 
 having recourse to the sword. The Company had ordered him 
 to follow a policy of non-intervention, and he managed to obey 
 this instruction without injuring the prestige of the British name.
 
 LORD MINTO, 1807-1813; LORD HASTINGS, 1814-23. 201 
 
 Under his auspices, the Indian Government opened relations 
 with a new set of foreign powers, by sending embassies to the 
 Punjab, to Afghanistan, and to Persia. The ambassadors had 
 been trained in the school of Wellesley, and formed perhaps the 
 most illustrious trio of ' politicals ' whom the Indian services 
 have produced. Metcalfe went as envoy to the Sikh Court of 
 Ranjft Singh at Lahore ; Elphinstone met the Shah of Afghani- 
 stan at Peshawar ; and Malcolm was despatched to Persia. 
 It cannot be said that these missions were fruitful of permanent 
 results ; but they introduced the English to a new set of 
 diplomatic relations, and widened the sphere of their influence. 
 In 1 81 3 the East India Company's Charter was renewed for 
 twenty years, but its monopoly as a trading Company with 
 India was abolished. 
 
 Lord Moira, 1814-1823. — The successor of Lord Minto was 
 the Earl of Moira, better known by his later title as the Marquess 
 of Hastings. The Marquess of Hastings completed Lord 
 Wellesley' s conquests in Central India, and left the Bombay 
 Presidency almost as it stands at present. His long rule of nine 
 years, from 1814 to 1823, was marked by two wars of the first 
 magnitude, namely the campaigns against the Gurkhas of Nepal, 
 and the lasj,t Maratha struggle- 
 Nepal War, 1814-1815. — The Gurkhas, the present ruling 
 race in Nepal, are Hindu immigrants, who claim a Rajput 
 origin. The indigenous inhabitants, called Newars, belong to 
 the Indo-Tibetan stock, and profess Buddhism. The sovereignty 
 of the Gurkhas over Nepal dates only from 1767, in which year 
 they overran the valley of Khatmandu, and gradually extended 
 their power over the hills and valleys of Nepal. Organized upon 
 a feudal basis, they soon became a terror to their neighbours, 
 marching east into Sikkim, west into Kumaun, and south into 
 the Gangetic plains. In the last quarter their victims were 
 British subjects, and it became necessary to check their advance. 
 Sir George Barlow and Lord Minto had remonstrated in vain, and 
 nothing was left to Lord Moira but to take up arms. The cam- 
 paign of 1 81 4 was at first unsuccessful. After overcoming the 
 natural difficulties of a malarious climate and precij^ilous hills, 
 our troops were on several occasions fairly worsted by the
 
 202 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 impetuous bravery of the little Gurkhas, whose heavy knives or 
 kukris dealt terrible execution. But, in the cold weather of 1814, 
 General Ochterlony, who advanced by way of the Sutlej, stormed 
 one by one the hill forts which still stud the Himalayan States, 
 now under the Punjab Government, and compelled the Nepal 
 darhdr to sue for peace. In the following year, 1815, the 
 same general made his brilliant march from Patna into the 
 lofty valley of Khatmandu, and finally dictated the terms 
 which had before been rejected, within a few miles of the 
 capital. By the treaty of Segauli, which defines the English 
 relations with Nepal to the present day, the Gurkhas withdrew 
 on the south-east from Sikkim; and on the south-west, from 
 their advanced posts in the outer ranges of the Himalayas, which 
 have supplied to the English the health-giving stations of Naini 
 Tal, Mussooree, and Simla. 
 
 The Pindaris, 1804-1817. — Meanwhile the condition of 
 Central India was every year becoming more unsatisfactory. 
 The great Maratha Chiefs had learned to live as princes rather 
 than as predatory leaders. But their old example of lawless- 
 ness was being followed by a new set of freebooters, known as 
 the Pindaris. As opposed to the Marathas, who were at least 
 a Hindu nationality bound by traditions of confederate govern- 
 ment, the Pindaris were merely plundering bands, corresponding 
 to the free companies of mediaeval Europe. Of no common 
 race, and without any common religion, they welcomed to their 
 ranks the outlaws and broken tribes of all India — Afghans, 
 Marathas, or Jats. They represented the debris of the Mughal 
 Empire, the broken men who had not been incorporated by the 
 Muhammadan or the Hindu powers which sprang out of its ruins. 
 For a time, indeed, it seemed as if the inheritance of the Mughal 
 might pass to these armies of banditti. In Bengal, similar hordes 
 had formed themselves out of the disbanded Muhammadan troops 
 and the Hindu predatory castes. But they had been dispersed 
 under the vigorous rule of Warren Hastings. In Central India, 
 the evil lasted longer, attained a greater scale, and was only 
 stamped out by a regular war. 
 
 Pindari War, 1817.^ — The Pindari headquarters were in 
 Malwa, but their depredations were not confined to Central
 
 THE LAST MARATHA WAR, 1817. 203 
 
 India. In bands, sometimes of a few hundreds, sometimes of 
 many thousands, they rode out on their forays as far as the 
 opposite coasts of IMadras and of Bombay. The most powerful 
 of the Pindari captains, Amir Khan, had an organized army of 
 many regiments, and several batteries of cannon. Two other 
 leaders, known as Chftu and Karfm, at one time paid a ransom 
 to Sindhia of £100,000. To suppress the Pindari hordes, who 
 were supported by the sympathy, more or less open, of all the 
 INIaratha Chiefs, Lord Hastings (1817) collected the strongest 
 British army which had been seen in India, numbering 120,000 
 men. One-half operated from the north, the other half from the 
 south. Sindhia was overawed, and remained quiet. Amir Khan 
 disbanded his army, on condition of being guaranteed the 
 possession of what is now the Principality of Tonk. The 
 remaining bodies of Pindaris were attacked in their homes, 
 surrounded, and cut to pieces. Karfm threw himself upon the 
 mercy of the conquerors. Chftu fled to the jungles, and was 
 killed by a tiger. 
 
 Last Maratha War, 1817-1818. — In the same year (18 17), 
 and almost in the same month (November), as that in which the 
 Pindarfs were crushed, the three great Maratha powers at Poona, 
 Nagpur, and Indore rose separately against the British. The 
 Peshwa Baji Rao had long been chafing under the terms imposed 
 by the treaty of Bassein (1802). A new treaty of Poona, in 
 June 1817, now freed the Gaekwar from his control, ceded 
 fresh districts to the British for the pay of the subsidiary force, 
 and submitted all future disputes to the decision of our Govern- 
 ment. The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, then our Resident 
 at his court, foresaw a storm, and withdrew to Kirki, whither he 
 had ordered up a European regiment. The Residency was 
 burnt down by the Mardthas, and the Peshwa attacked Kirki 
 with his whole army. The attack was bravely repulsed, and the 
 Peshwa immediately fled from his capital. Almost the same 
 plot was enacted at Nagpur, where the honour of the British 
 name was saved by the sepoys, who defended the hill of Sftabaldi 
 against enormous odds. The Mardthd army of Holkar was de- 
 feated in the following month at the pitched battle of Mehidpur. 
 
 Results of last Maratha War. — All open resistance was
 
 204 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 now at an end. Nothing remained but to follow up the fugitives, 
 and to impose conditions for a general pacification. In both 
 these duties Sir John Malcolm played a prominent part. The 
 dominions of the Peshwa were annexed to the Bombay Presi- 
 dency, and the nucleus of the present Central Provinces was 
 formed out of the territory rescued from the Pindarfs, The 
 Peshwa himself surrendered, and was permitted to reside at 
 Bithur, near Cawnpur, on a pension of £80,000 a year. His 
 adopted son was the infamous Nana Sahib of the Mutiny of 1857. 
 To fill the Peshwas place as the traditional head of the Maratha 
 Confederacy, the lineal descendant of Sivajl was brought forth 
 from obscurity, and placed upon the throne of Satara. An 
 infant was recognized as the heir of Holkar; and a second 
 infant was proclaimed Raja of Nagpur under British guardian- 
 ship. At the same time, the States of Rajputana accepted the 
 position of feudatories to the paramount British power. The 
 map of India, as thus drawn by Lord Hastings, remained 
 substantially unchanged until the time of Lord Dalhousie. But 
 the proudest boast of Lord Hastings and Sir John Malcolm was, 
 not that they had advanced the British frontier, but that they had 
 conferred the blessings of peace and good government upon 
 millions who had groaned under the extortions of the Marathas 
 and Pindarfs. 
 
 Earl Amherst, 1823-1828. — The Marquess of Hastings 
 was succeeded by Lord Amherst, after the interval of a few 
 months, during which Mr. Adam, a civil servant, acted as 
 Governor-General. The Maratha war in the peninsula of India 
 was hardly completed, when our armies had to face new enemies 
 beyond the sea. Lord Amherst's administration lasted for five 
 years, from 1823 to 1828. It is known in history by two 
 prominent events — the first Burmese war, and the capture of 
 Bhartpur. 
 
 Buj-ma in Ancient Times. — For years our eastern frontier 
 of Bengal had been disturbed by Burmese raids. The peninsula 
 was known to the Greeks in ancient times as the ' Golden 
 Chersonese.' Burmese traditions pretend that a pious Indian 
 Prince from Benares founded a kingdom on the coast of 
 Arakan, centuries before the birth of Christ. They also assert
 
 LORD AMHERST, 1S23-1828. 205 
 
 that the southern parts of Burma were peopled by settlers 
 from the coast of Coromandel on the Madras side of the Bay of 
 Bengal. However this may be, it is certain that the Buddhist 
 religion, which is professed by the Burmese at the present day, 
 came from India at a very early date. Indeed, the State establish- 
 ment of Buddhism in Burma is said to have taken place in 164 a.d. 
 While a stream of civilisation reached Burma from India on the 
 north-west, the wild Shan tribes and other races of Tibeto- 
 Chinese origin poured into the Irawadi valley from the north-east. 
 Waves of invaders thus passed over Burma during many centuries, 
 some coming from Siam on the south-east, others from the wild 
 mountains of the Chinese frontier on the north-east. These 
 gradually established themselves into three separate kingdoms, 
 namely, Arakan on the Burmese coast ; Ava in the upper valleys 
 of the Irawadi ; and Pegu in the delta of that river. They 
 became the ruling races of Burma, races of Tibeto-Chinese 
 descent, who professed or adopted the Buddhist religion which 
 had originally come from India. The three Burmese kingdoms 
 fought against each other with all the cruelties and massacres 
 which characterize the Tibeto-Chinese tribes ; but the learning 
 and civilization of Buddhism survived every shock and flourished 
 around its ancient pagodas. European travellers in the six- 
 teenth century visited Pegu and Tenasserim, which they describe 
 as flourishing marts of maridme trade. During the period of 
 Portuguese predominance in the East, Arakan became the 
 asylum for desperate European adventurers. With their help, 
 the Arakanese extended their power inland, occupied Chittagong, 
 and (under the name of the Maghs) became the terror of the 
 Gangetic delta. About 1750, a new dynasty arose in Burma, 
 founded by Alaungpaya or Alompra, with its capital at Ava. 
 His descendants ruled over Independent Burma undl 1885. 
 
 First Burmese War, 1824-1826. — The successors of 
 Alompra, after having subjugated all Burma, and overrun 
 Assam, which was then an independent kingdom, began a series 
 of encroachments upon the British Districts of Bengal. As 
 they rejected all peaceful proposals with scorn. Lord Amherst 
 was at last compelled to declare war in 1824. One expedition 
 with gunboats proceeded up the Brahmaputra into Assam.
 
 206 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 Another marched by land through Chittagong into Arakan, for 
 the Bengal sepoys refused to go by sea. A third, and the 
 strongest, sailed from Madras direct to the mouth of the Ira- 
 wadi. The war was protracted over two years. After a loss 
 to us of about 20,000 lives, chiefly from the pestilential climate, 
 and an expenditure of £14,000,000, the King of Ava signed, 
 in 1826, the treaty of Yandabu. By this he abandoned all 
 claim to Assam, and ceded to us the Provinces of Arakan and 
 Tenasserim, already in the military occupation of the British. 
 He retained the whole valley of the Irawadi, down to the sea at 
 Rangoon. 
 
 Bhartpur taken, 1827. — A disputed succession led to the 
 British intervention in Bhartpur, the great Jat State of Central 
 India, The capture of the city by Lord Combermere, in 
 January 1827, wiped out the repulse which Lord Lake had 
 received in January 1805. Artillery could make little impres- 
 sion upon the massive walls of mud. But at last a breach was 
 effected by mining, and Bhartpur was taken by storm, thus 
 removing the popular notion throughout India, that it was 
 impregnable — a notion which had threatened to become a 
 political danger. 
 
 Lord William Bentinck, 1828-1835. — The next Governor- 
 General was Lord William Bentinck, who had been Governor 
 of Madras twenty years earlier, at the time of the mutiny of 
 Vellore (1806). His seven years' rule is not signalized by any 
 of those victories or extensions of territory by which chroniclers 
 measure the growth of an empire. But it forms an epoch in 
 administrative reform, and in the slow process by which a 
 subject population is won over to venerate as well as to obey 
 its foreign rulers. The modern history of the British in India, 
 as benevolent administrators, ruling the country with a single 
 eye to the good of the natives, may almost be said to begin with 
 Lord William Bentinck. According to the inscription upon his 
 statue at Calcutta, from the pen of Macaulay : ' He abolished 
 cruel rites ; he effaced humiliating distinctions ; he gave liberty 
 to the expression of public opinion ; his constant study was to 
 elevate the intellectual and moral character of the nations com- 
 mitted to his charge.'
 
 LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK, 1828-1835. 207 
 
 Bentinck's Financial Reforms. — Lord William Bentinck's 
 first care on arrival in India was to restore equilibrium to the 
 finances, which were tottering under the burden imposed upon 
 them by the Burmese war. This he effected by three series 
 of measures — first, by reductions in permanent expenditure, 
 amounting to i^- millions sterling a year; second, by augment- 
 ing the revenue from land which had unfairly escaped assess- 
 ment; third, by duties on the opium of Malwa. He also 
 widened the gates by which educated Natives could enter the 
 service of the Company. Some of these reforms were dis- 
 tasteful to the covenanted service and to the officers of the 
 army. But Lord William was staunchly supported by the 
 Court of Directors and by the Ministry at home. 
 
 Abolition of Sati, and Suppression of Thagi. — His two 
 most memorable acts are the abolition of sati (suttee), or widow- 
 burning, and the suppression of the thags (thugs). At this 
 distance of time, it is difficult to realize the degree to which 
 these two barbarous practices had corrupted the social system 
 of the Hindus. European research has proved that the text 
 in the Vedas adduced to authorize the immolation of Hindu 
 widows was a wilful mistranslation. But the practice had been 
 enshrined in Hindu opinion by the authority of centuries, and 
 had acquired the sanctity of a religious rite. The Emperor 
 Akbar tried to prohibit it, but failed to put it down. The early 
 English rulers did not dare to violate the religious traditions of 
 the people. In the year 1817, no fewer than 700 widows are 
 said to have been burned alive in the Bengal Presidency alone. 
 To this day, the holy spots of Hindu pilgrimage are thickly 
 dotted with little white pillars, each commemorating a sati. In 
 spite of strenuous opposition, both from Europeans and Natives, 
 Lord William Bentinck carried a regulation in Council, on the 
 4th December 1829, by which all who abetted sati were de- 
 clared guilty of ' culpable homicide.' The honour of suppress- 
 ing thagi must be shared between Lord William Bentinck and 
 Captain Sleeman. Thags were hereditary assassins, who made 
 strangling their profession. They travelled in gangs, disguised 
 as merchants or pilgrims, and were banded together by an oath 
 based on the rites of the bloody goddess Kalf. Between 1826
 
 208 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 and 1835, as many as 1562 //jags were apprehended in different 
 parts of British India ; and, by the evidence of approvers, this 
 moral plague-spot was gradually stamped out. 
 
 Renewal of Charter, 1833. — Two other historical events 
 are connected with the administration of Lord William Ben- 
 tinck. In 1833, the charter of the East India Company was 
 again renewed for twenty years, but on condition that the Com- 
 pany should abandon its trade entirely, alike with India and 
 China, and permit Europeans to freely settle in India. At the 
 same time, a fourth or Law Member was added to the Governor- 
 "General's Council, who need not necessarily be a servant of the 
 Company; and a Commission was appointed to revise and 
 codify the law. Macaulay was the first legal member of Council, 
 and the first President of the Law Commission. 
 
 Mysore protected and Coorg annexed. — In 1830, it was 
 found necessary to take Mysore under British administration. 
 This arrangement continued until March 1881, when Mysore 
 was restored to Native government. In 1834, the frantic 
 misrule of the Raja of Coorg brought on a short and sharp 
 war. The Raja was permitted to retire to Benares ; and the 
 brave and proud inhabitants of his mountainous little territory 
 decided to place themselves under the sway of the Company. 
 This was the only annexation effected by Lord William Ben- 
 tinck, and it was done ' in consideration of the unanimous wish 
 of the people.' He retired in 1835. 
 
 Lord Metcalfe, 1835-1836. — Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) 
 Metcalfe succeeded Lord William Bentinck, being senior member 
 of Council. His short term of office is memorable for the 
 measure which his predecessor had initiated, but which he 
 carried into execution, for giving entire liberty to the press. 
 Public opinion in India, as well as the express wish of the 
 Court of Directors at home pointed to Metcalfe as the fittest 
 person to carry out the policy of Bentinck, not provisionally, 
 but as Governor-General for a full term. 
 
 Lord Auckland, 1836-1842. — Party exigencies, however, 
 led to the appointment of Lord Auckland. From this date com- 
 mences a new era of war and conquest, which may be said to 
 have lasted for twenty years. All looked peaceful, until Lord
 
 LORD AUCKLAND, 1836-42. 209 
 
 Auckland, prompted by his evil genius, attempted to place Shah 
 Shuja upon the throne of Kabul — an attempt conducted with 
 gross mismanagement, and ending in the annihilation of the 
 British garrison placed in that city. 
 
 Afghanistan under the Dnranis, 1747-1826. — Almost 
 for the first time since the days of the Sultans of Ghazni and 
 Ghor, Afghanistan had obtained a national king, in 1747, in 
 Ahmad Shah Duranf. This resolute soldier found his oppor- 
 tunity in the confusion which followed the death of the Persian 
 conqueror, Nadir Shah. Before his own decease in 1773, 
 Ahmad Shah had conquered a wide empire, from Herat to 
 Peshawar, and from Kashmir to Sind. His intervention on the 
 field of Panipat (1761) turned back the tide of Maraiha con- 
 quest, and replaced a Muhammadan emperor on the throne of 
 Delhi. But Ahmad Shah never cared to settle down in India, 
 and kept state alternately at his two Afghan capitals of Kabul 
 and Kandahar. The Duranf kings were prolific in children, 
 who fought to the death with one another on each succession. 
 At last, in 1826, Dost Muhammad, head of the powerful 
 Barakzai family, succeeded in establishing himself as ruler of 
 Kabul, with the title of Amir, while two fugitive brothers of the 
 Durani line were living under British protection at Ludhiana, on 
 the Punjab frontier. 
 
 Our Early Dealings with Kabul. — The attention of the 
 English Government had been directed to Afghan affairs ever 
 since the time of Lord Wellesley, who feared that Zeman Shah, 
 then holding his court at Lahore (1800), might follow in the 
 path of Ahmad Shah, and overrun Hindustdn. The growth of 
 the powerful Sikh kingdom of Ranjit Singh, however, gradually 
 dispelled such alarms for the future. Subsequently, in 1809, 
 while a French invasion of India was still a possibility to be 
 guarded against, IMountstuart Elphinstone was sent by Lord 
 Minto on a mission to Shah Shuja, brother of Zeman Shall, to 
 form a defensive alliance. Before the year expired. Shah 
 Shuja had been driven into exile, and a third brother, Mahmiid 
 Shah, was on the throne. 
 
 Restoration of Shah Shuja by the British, 1839.— In 
 1837, when the curtain rises upon the drama of English inter- 
 
 o
 
 2IO THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 ference in Afghanistan, the usurper Dost Muhammad Barakzai 
 was firmly established at Kabul. His great ambition was to 
 recover Peshawar from the Sikhs. When, therefore, Captain 
 Alexander Burnes arrived on a mission from Lord Auckland, 
 with the ostensible object of opening trade, the Dost was willing 
 to promise everything, if only he could get Peshawar. But 
 Lord Auckland had another and more important object in view. 
 At this time the Russians were advancing rapidly in Central 
 Asia ; and a Persian army, not without Russian support, was 
 besieging Herat, the traditional bulwark of Afghanistan on the 
 east. A Russian envoy was at Kabul at the same time as 
 Burnes. The latter was unable to sadsfy the demands of Dost 
 Muhammad in the matter of Peshawar, and returned to India 
 unsuccessful. Lord Auckland forthwith resolved upon the 
 hazardous plan of placing a more subservient ruler upon the 
 throne of Kabul. Shah Shuja, one of the two royal Afghan 
 exiles at Ludhiana, was selected for the purpose. At this time 
 both the Punjab and Sind were independent kingdoms ; and 
 both lay between British India and Afghanistan. Sind was the 
 less powerful of the two, and accordingly a British army 
 escorting Shah Shuja made its way through Sind into Southern 
 Afghanistan by way of the Bolan Pass. Kandahar surrendered, 
 Ghazni was taken by storm. Dost Muhammad fled across the 
 Hindu Kush, and Shah Shuja was trium.phantly led into the 
 Bala Hissar at Kabul in August 1839. After one more brave 
 struggle. Dost Muhammad surrendered, and was sent to Calcutta 
 as a State prisoner. The Governor-General, Baron Auckland, 
 was created Earl of Auckland in 1839. 
 
 British Retreat from Afghanistan, 1841-1842. — But 
 although we could enthrone Shah Shuja, we could not win for 
 him the hearts of the Afghans. To that nation he seemed a 
 degenerate exile thrust back upon them by foreign arms. During 
 two years Afghanistan remained in the military occupation of 
 the British. The catastroi)he occurred in November 1841, 
 when our Political Agent, Sir Alexander Burnes, was assas- 
 sinated in the city of Kabul. The troops in the cantonments 
 were under the command of General Elphinstone (not to be 
 confounded with the able civilian and historian, the Hon.
 
 THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR, 1839-42. 211 
 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone, formerly Governor of Bombay). Sir 
 William Macnaghten was the Political Officer. General Elphin- 
 stone, an old man, proved unequal to the responsibilities of 
 the position. Macnaghten was treacherously murdered at an 
 interview with the Afghan chief Akbar Khan, eldest son of 
 Dost Muhammad. After lingering in its cantonments for two 
 months, the British army set off in the depth of winter, under 
 a fallacious guarantee from the Afghan leaders, to find its way 
 back to India through the passes. When it started, it numbered 
 4000 fighting men, with 12,000 camp-followers. A single 
 survivor, Dr. Brydon, reached the friendly walls of Jalalabad, 
 where General Sale was gallantly holding out. The rest 
 perished in the snowy defiles of Khurd-Kabul and Jagdalak, 
 from the knives and matchlocks of the Afghans, or from the 
 effects of cold. A few prisoners, chiefly women, children, and 
 officers, were considerately treated by the orders of Akbar Khan. 
 Lord Ellenborough, 1842-1844: The Army of Retri- 
 bution, 1842. — The first Afghan enterprise, begun in a spirit 
 of aggression, and conducted amid dissensions and mismanage- 
 ment, had ended in the disgrace of the British arms. The real 
 loss, which amounted only to a single garrison, was magnified 
 by the horrors of the winter march, and by the completeness 
 of the annihilation. Within a month after the news reached 
 Calcutta, Lord Auckland had been superseded by Lord Ellen- 
 borough, whose first impulse was to be satisfied with drawing 
 off in safety the garrisons from Kandahar and Jalalabad. But 
 bolder counsels were forced upon him. General Pollock, who 
 was marching straight through .the Punjab to relieve General 
 Sale, was allowed to penetrate to Kabul. General Nott, although 
 ordered to withdraw from Kandahar, resolved to go round by 
 way of Kabul. Lord Ellenborough gave his commands in well- 
 chosen words, which would leave his generals responsible for 
 any disaster. General Nott accepted that responsibility, and, 
 instead of retreating south-east to the Indus, boldly marched 
 north to Kabul. After hard fighting, the two British armies, 
 under Pollock and Nott, met at their common destination in 
 Kabul, in September 1842. The great Idzar of Kabul was 
 blown up with gunpowder, to fix a stigma upon the city; the 
 
 2
 
 212 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 British prisoners were recovered ; and our armies marched back 
 to India, leaving Dost IMuhammad to take undisputed possession 
 of his throne. The drama closed with a bombastic proclamation 
 from Lord Ellenborough, who had caused the gates from the 
 tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni to be carried back as a memorial 
 of ' Somnath revenged.' The gates were a modern forgery ; 
 and their theatrical procession through the Punjab formed a 
 vainglorious sequel to Lord Ellenborough's timidity while the 
 fate of our armies hung in the balance. 
 
 Conquest of Sind, 1843. — Lord Ellenborough, who loved 
 military pomp, had his tastes gratified by two more wars. In 
 1843, the Muhammadan rulers of Sind, known as the INIfrs or 
 Amirs, whose chief fault was that they would not surrender 
 their independence, were crushed by Sir Charles Napier. The 
 victory of Miani, in which 3000 British troops defeated 12,000 
 Baluchfs, is one of the brilliant feats of arms in Anglo-Indian 
 history. But valid reasons can scarcely be found for the 
 annexation of the country. In the same year a disputed 
 succession at Gwalior, fomented by feminine intrigue, resulted 
 in an outbreak of the overgrown army which the Sindhia family 
 kept up. Peace was restored by the battles of INIaharajpur and 
 Panniar, at the former of which Lord Ellenborough was 
 present in person. 
 
 Lord Hardinge, 1844-1848. — In 1844, Lord Ellenborough 
 was recalled by the Court of Directors, who differed from him 
 on points of administration, and distrusted his erratic genius. 
 He was succeeded by a veteran soldier. Sir Henry (afterwards 
 Lord) Hardinge, who had served through the Peninsular war, 
 and lost a hand at Ligny. It was felt on all sides that a trial of 
 strength between the British and the one remaining Hindu 
 power in India, the great Sikh nation, was near. 
 
 The Sikhs. — The Sikhs w^ere not a nationality like the 
 Marathas, but originally a religious sect, bound together by the 
 additional tie of military discipline. They trace their origin to 
 Nanak Shah, a pious Hindu reformer, born near Lahore in 
 1469, before the ascendency of either Mughals or Portuguese 
 in India. Nanak, like other zealous preachers of his time, 
 preached the abolition of caste, the unity of the Godhead, and
 
 LORD HARD INGE, 1844-48. 213 
 
 the duty of leading a pure life. From Nanak, ten gurus or 
 apostles are traced down to Govind Singh in 1708, with whom 
 the succession stopped. Cruelly persecuted by the ruling 
 Muhammadans, almost exterminated under the miserable 
 successors of Aurangzeb, the Sikh martyrs clung to their faith 
 with unflinching zeal. At last the downfall of the Mughal 
 Empire transformed the sect into a territorial power. It was 
 the only political organization remaining in the Punjab. The 
 Sikhs in the north, and the INIarathas in Southern and Central 
 India, grew into the two great Hindu powers who partitioned 
 the IMughal Empire. 
 
 Ranjit Singh, 1780-1839. — Even before the rise of Ranjit 
 Singh, offshoots from the Sikh viisls or confederacies, each led 
 by its elected sarddr or chief, had carved out for themselves 
 feudal principalities along the banks of the Sutlej, some of which 
 endure to the present day. Ranjit Singh, the founder of the 
 Sikh kingdom of the Punjab, was born in 1780. In his twentieth 
 year he obtained the appointment of Governor of Lahore from 
 the Afghan king, and formed the project of building up his per- 
 sonal rule on the religious fanaticism of his countrymen. He 
 organized the Sikhs, or ' the liberated,' into an army under Euro- 
 pean ofhcers, which for steadiness and religious fervour has had 
 no parallel since the ' Ironsides ' of Cromwell. From Lahore, 
 as his capital, he extended his conquests south to INIultan, west 
 to Peshawar, and north to Kashmir. On the east side alone, he 
 was hemmed in by the Sutlej, up to which river the authority of 
 the British Government had advanced in 1804. Till his death 
 in 1839, Ranjit Singh was ever loyal to the engagements which 
 he entered into with Metcalfe in 1809. But he left no son 
 capable of wielding his sceptre. Lahore was torn by dissensions 
 between rival generals, ministers, and queens. The only strong 
 power in the Punjab was the army of the khdlsd, or Central 
 Council of the Sikhs, which, since our disaster in Afghanistan, 
 burned to measure its strength with the British sepoys. Ranjit 
 Singh's skilful European Generals, Avitabile and Court, were 
 foohshly ousted from their commands in the Sikh army, and the 
 supreme military power was vested in a series of paticlidjals, or 
 elective committees of five.
 
 214 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 First Sikh War, 1845. — In 1845, the Sikh army, numbering 
 60,000 men, with 150 guns, crossed the Sutlej and invaded 
 British territory. Sir Hugh Gough, the Commander-in-Chief, 
 .accompanied by the Governor-General, hurried up to the frontier. 
 Within three weeks, four pitched battles were fought, at Mudki, 
 Firozshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon. The British loss on each oc- 
 casion was heavy ; but by the last victory the Sikhs were fairly 
 driven back across the Sutlej, and Lahore surrendered to the 
 British. By the terms of peace which we granted, Dhulip Singh, 
 a supposed infant son of Ranji't and a dancing-girl, was recog- 
 nized as Raja ; the Jalandhar Doab, or tract between the Sutlej 
 and the Beas, was annexed ; the Sikh army was limited to a 
 specified number ; Major Henry Lawrence was appointed to be 
 Resident at Lahore; and a British force sent to garrison the 
 Punjab for a period of eight years. Sir H. Hardinge received 
 a peerage, and returned to England in 1848. 
 
 Earl (afterwards Marquess) of Dalhousie, 1848-1856. — 
 Lord Dalhousie succeeded. The eight years' rule of this greatest 
 of Indian proconsuls left more conspicuous results than that of 
 any Governor-General since Lord Wellesley, perhaps even since 
 Clive. A high-minded statesman, of a most sensitive con.science, 
 and earnestly desiring peace, Lord Dalhousie found himself 
 forced against his will to fight two wars, and to embark on a 
 policy of annexation. His campaigns in the Punjab and in 
 Burma ended in large acquisitions of territory ; while Nagpur, 
 Oudh, and several minor States also came under British rule, 
 through failure of direct heirs. But Dalhousie's deepest interest 
 lay in the improvement of the moral and material condition of 
 the country. The system of administration carried out in the 
 conquered Punjab, by the two Lawrences and their assistants, 
 is probably the most successful piece of governing ever ac- 
 complished by Englishmen. British Burma has prospered under 
 our rule not less than the Punjab. In both cases. Lord Dalhousie 
 himself laid the foundations of our administrative success, and 
 deserves a large share of the credit. No branch of the adminis- 
 tration escaped his reforming hand. He founded the Public 
 Works Department, with a view to creating the network of roads 
 and canals which now cover India. He opened the Ganges Canal,
 
 LORD DALHOUSIE, 1848-56. 215 
 
 Still the largest work of the kind in the country ; he turned the 
 sod of the first Indian railway. He promoted steam communi- 
 cation with England via the Red Sea ; he introduced cheap post- 
 age and the electric telegraph. It is Lord Dalhousie's misfortune 
 that these benefits are loo often forgotten in the recollections of 
 the Mutiny, which followed his policy of annexation, after the 
 firm hand which had remodelled British India was withdrawn. 
 
 Second Sikh War, 1848-1849. — Lord Dalhousie had not 
 been six months in India before the second Sikh or Punjab war 
 broke out. Two British officers were treacherously assassinated 
 at Miiltan. Unfortunately, Henry Lawrence, our Resident at 
 Lahore, was at home on sick leave. The British army was not 
 ready to act in the hot weather; and, despite the single-handed 
 exertions of Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Herbert) Edwardes, 
 this outbreak of fanaticism led to a general rising in the Pun- 
 jab. The khalsd army of the Sikhs again came together, and 
 once more fought on even terms with the British. On the fatal 
 field of Chilianwala, which English patriotism prefers to call a 
 drawn battle, the British lost 2400 officers and men, four guns, 
 and the colours of three regiments (13th January 1849). Before 
 reinforcements could come out from England, with Sir Charles 
 Napier as Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gough had restored his 
 reputation by the crowning victory of Gujrat, which absolutely 
 destroyed the Sikh army. Multdn had pieviously fixllen, and the 
 allied Muhammadan cavalry from Afghanistan, who had forgotten 
 their religious antipathy to the Sikhs, and joined with them in 
 a common hatred of the British name, were chased back with 
 ignominy to their native hills. The Punjab, annexed by procla- 
 mation on the 29th IMarch 1849, became a British Province — 
 a virgin field for the administrative talents of Dalhousie and the 
 two Lawrences. Maharaja Dhulip Singh received an allowance 
 of £58,000 a year, on which he lived for many years as an 
 English country gentleman in Norfolk. In 1849 the Earl of 
 Dalhousie was advanced to a Marquessate. 
 
 Paciflcation of the Punjab. — The first step in the pacifica- 
 tion of the Punjab was a general disarmament, which resulted in 
 the delivery of no fewer than 120,000 weapons of various kinds. 
 Then followed a settlement of the land tax, village by village, at
 
 21 6 THE CONSOLIDA TION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 an assessment much below the rates to which it had been raised 
 by Silch exactions ; and the introduction of a loose but equitable 
 code of civil and criminal procedure. Roads and canals were 
 laid out by Colonel Robert Napier (afterwards Lord Napier of 
 ]Magdala). The security of British peace, and the personal in- 
 fluence of British officers, inaugurated a new era of prosperity, 
 which was felt to the farthest corners of the Province. It thus 
 happened that, when the Mutiny broke out in 1857, the Punjab 
 remained not only quiet, but loyal. 
 
 Second Burmese War, 1852. — The second Burmese war, 
 in 1852, arose out of the ill-treatment of some European mer- 
 chants at Rangoon, and the insults offered to the captain of a 
 British frigate who had been sent to remonstrate. The whole 
 valley of the Irawadi, from Rangoon up to Prome, was occupied 
 in a few months. As the King of Ava refused to treat, the con- 
 quered tracts of Lower Burma were annexed by proclamation, 
 on the 20th December 1852, under the name of Pegu, to the 
 Provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim, which we had acquired in 
 1826, after the first Burmese war. 
 
 Prosperity of British Burma. — Since annexation, the 
 inhabitants of Rangoon had multiplied fourteenfold by 1891. 
 The trade of the port, which four years after its annexation 
 (1857-58) amounted to £2,131,055, had increased in 1881-82 
 to £11,723,781. The towns and the rural tracts have alike 
 pros; ered. Before 1826, Amherst District was the scene of per- 
 petual warfare between the Kings of Siam and Pegu, and was 
 stripped of inhabitants. In February 1827, a Taking Chief 
 with 10,000 followers settled in the neighbourhood of Maulmain; 
 and, after a few years, a further influx of 20,000 immigrants 
 took place. In 1855, the population of Amherst District 
 amounted to 83,146 souls; in i860, to 130,953 ; and in 1S81, 
 to 301,086. Or, to take the case of a seaport. In 1826, when 
 we annexed the Province of Arakan, Akyab was a poor fishing 
 village. By 1830 it had developed into a little town, with a 
 trade valued at £7000. In 1881 the trade approached 2 J mil- 
 lions sterling ; so that the trade of Akyab multiplied nearly four 
 hundredfold in fifty years. The population of Lower Burma has 
 increased from \\ millions in 1855, to over 4^ millions in 1891.
 
 dalhousie's policy to native states. 217 
 
 Lord Dalhousie and the Native States. — Lord Dal- 
 housie's dealings with the Feudatory States of India revealed the 
 whole nature of the man. That rulers only exist for the good 
 of the ruled, was his supreme axiom of government, of which he 
 gave a conspicuous example in his own daily life. That British 
 administration was better for the people than Native rule, seemed 
 to him to follow from this axiom. The truth is that the system 
 of British protectorates, as developed by Lord Wellesley and his 
 successors, had proved by no means a complete success. It 
 practically secured to the Native Chiefs their principalities and 
 revenues, however they might abuse their position and oppress 
 their subjects. A remedy for this state of things has since been 
 worked out in the India of the Queen by enforcing a higher 
 standard of personal responsibility on the Feudatory princes of 
 India. But in Lord Dalhousie's time the old unreformed system 
 was bearing its last and worst fruits. Dalhousie was thus led to 
 regard Native Chiefs as mischievous anomalies, to be abolished 
 by every fair means. Good faith must be kept with princes on 
 the throne, and with their legitimate heirs. But no false senti- 
 ment should preserve dynasties which had forfeited our sympa- 
 thies by generations of misrule, or prolong those that had no 
 natural successor. The ' doctrine of lapse ' was the practical 
 application of these principles, complicated by the Indian practice 
 of adoption. It has never been doubted that, according to 
 Hindu private law, an adopted son entirely fills the place of a 
 natural son, whether to perform the religious obsequies of his 
 father or to inherit his property. In all respects he continues 
 the rights of the deceased. But it was argued, both as a matter 
 of historical fact and on grounds of political expediency, that 
 the succession to a throne stood upon a different footing. The 
 paramount power could not recognize such a right, which might 
 be used as a fraud to hand over the happiness of millions to a 
 base-born impostor. Here came in Lord Dalhousie's maxim of 
 ' the good of the governed.' In his mind, the benefits to be 
 conferred through British administration weighed heavier than a 
 superstitious and often fraudulent fiction of inheritance. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie's Doctrine. — When a Native Chief left 
 direct male heirs of his body, Lord Dalhousie recognized their
 
 2l8 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 right to succeed alike to the private fortune and the public 
 government of their father. But when there was only an 
 adopted son, Lord Dalhousie, while scrupulously respecting the 
 claims of the heirs to the private fortune of the late chief, denied 
 the right of the adopted son to succeed to the public govern- 
 ment of the State. He held the government of a Native State 
 to be a public trust ; he also held that, in the absence of 
 direct male issue with a lawful claim to succeed, the succession 
 must be decided by the British Government, not in the interests 
 of the family of the late chief, but in the interests of the people. 
 Those interests he believed to be most effectually protected by 
 bringing them under direct British rule. 
 
 Lapsed Native States. — The first State to escheat to the 
 British Government, in accordance with these principles, was 
 Satara, which had been reconstituted by Lord Hastings on the 
 downfall of the Peshwa in 1818. The Raja of Satara, the last 
 direct representative of Sivajf, died without a son in 1848, and 
 his deathbed adoption of a son was set aside (1849). In the 
 same year, the Rajput Slate of Karauli was saved by the Court 
 of Directors, who drew a fine distinction between a dependent 
 principality and a protected ally. In 1853, Jhansi suffered the 
 same fate as Satara. But the most conspicuous application of 
 the doctrine of lapse was the case of Nagpur. The last of the 
 Maratha Bhonslas, a dynasty older than the British Government 
 in India, died without a son, natural or adopted, in 1853. His 
 territories were annexed, and became the Central Provinces. 
 That year also saw British administration extended to the Berars, 
 or the Assigned Districts, which the Nizam of Haidarabad was 
 induced to hand over to us as a territorial guarantee for the 
 subsidies which he perpetually left in arrear. The relics of 
 three other dynasties also passed away in 1853, although with- 
 out any attendant accretion to British territory. In the extreme 
 south, the titular Nawab of the Karnatik and the titular Raja of 
 Tanjore both died without heirs. Their rank and their pensions 
 died with them, but compassionate allowances were continued to 
 their families. In the north of India, Baji Rao, the ex-Peshwa, 
 who had been dethroned in 181 8, lived on till 1853 in the 
 enjoyment of his annual pension of £80,000. His adopted son,
 
 THE ANNEXATION OF OUDIf, 1856. 219 
 
 Nana Sahib, inherited his accumulated savings, but could obtain 
 no further recognition. 
 
 Annexation of Oudh, 1856. — Lord Dalhousie annexed 
 the Kingdom of Oudh on different grounds. Ever since the 
 Nawab Wazfr, Shuja-ud-daula, received back his forfeited terri- 
 tories of Oudh from Lord Clive in 1765, the existence of his 
 dynasty had depended on the protection of British bayonets. 
 Guarded alike from foreign invasion and from domestic rebellion, 
 the line of Oudh Nawabs had sunk into private debauchees and 
 public oppressors. Their one virtue was steady loyalty to the 
 British Government. The fertile districts between the Ganges 
 and the Gogra, which now support a denser agricultural popula- 
 tion than almost any rural area of the size on this globe, had been 
 groaning for generations under an anarchy for which each 
 British Governor -General felt himself in part responsible. 
 Warning after warning had been given to the Nawabs (who had 
 assumed the title of Shah or King since 18 19) that they must 
 put their house in order. What the benevolent Bentinck and 
 the soldierly Hardinge had only threatened, was now performed 
 by Lord Dalhousie, who united an equal honesty of purpose 
 with sterner decision of character. He laid the whole case 
 before the Court of Directors. After long and painful hesitation, 
 the Court of Directors resolved on annexation. Lord Dalhousie, 
 then on the eve of retiring, felt that it would be unfair to 
 bequeath this perilous task to his successor in the first moments 
 of his rule. The tardy decision of the Court of Directors left 
 him, however, only a few weeks to carry out the work. But he 
 solemnly believed that work to be his duty to the people of 
 Oudh. ' With this feeling on my mind,' he wrote privately, 
 ' and in humble reliance on the blessing of the Almighty (for 
 millions of His creatures will draw freedom and happiness from 
 the change), I approach the execution of this duty gravely and 
 not without solicitude, but calmly and altogether without doubt.' 
 
 Grounds of Annexation. — Accordingly, at the commence- 
 ment of 1856, the last year of his rule, Dalhousie gave orders to 
 General (afterwards Sir James) Outram, then Resident at the 
 Court of Lucknow, to assume the administration of Oudh, on 
 the ground that ' the British Government would be guilty in the
 
 220 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 sight of God and man if it were any longer to aid in sustaining 
 by its countenance an administration fraught with suffering to 
 millions.' The proclamation was issued on the 13th February 
 1856. The King of Oudh, Wajid All, bowed to irresistible 
 force, although he refused to recognize the justice of his deposi- 
 tion. After a mission to England by way of protest and appeal, 
 he settled down in the pleasant suburb of Garden Reach, near 
 Calcutta, in the enjoyment of a pension of £120,000 a year. 
 Oudh was thus annexed without a blow. But this measure, on 
 which Lord Dalhousie looked back with the proudest sense of 
 rectitude, was perhaps the act of his rule that most alarmed 
 Native public opinion. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie's Work in India. — The INIarquess of 
 Dalhousie resigned office in March 1856, being then only forty- 
 four years of age ; but he carried home with him the seeds of a 
 lingering illness, which resulted in his death in i860. Excepting 
 Cornwallis, he was the first, though by no means the last, of 
 English statesmen who have fallen victims to their devotion to 
 India's needs. Lord Dalhousie completed the fabric of British 
 rule in India. The Indian Empire, as mapped out by Lord 
 Wellesley and Lord Hastings during the first quarter of the 
 century, had received the addition of Sind in 1843. The Mar- 
 quess of Dalhousie finally filled in the wide spaces covered by 
 Oudh, the Central Provinces, and smaller States within India, 
 together with the great outlying territories of the Punjab on the 
 north-western frontier, and the richest part of British Burma 
 beyond the sea. 
 
 Lord Canning, 1856-1862. — The great Governor-General 
 was succeeded by his friend Lord Canning, who, at the farewell 
 banquet in England given to him by the Court of Directors, 
 uttered these prophetic words : ' I wish for a peaceful term of 
 office. But I cannot forget that in the sky of India, serene as it 
 is, a small cloud may arise, no larger than a man's hand, but 
 which, growing larger and larger, may at last threaten to burst 
 and overwhelm us with ruin.' In the following year, the sepoys 
 of the Bengal army mutinied, and all the valley of the Ganges 
 from Patna to Delhi was enveloped in the flame.
 
 THE HALF-CENTURY FROM 1S05 TO 1S56. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 In addition to the more general histories of India cited ante, p. 199. 
 the following are a few of the leading and easily available works bearing 
 more specially on the half-century (1S05 to 1856) dealt with in this chapter. 
 Malcolm's Political History of India fro7n 17S4 to 1823 (London, ed. 1826) ; 
 Life and Letters of Lord Minto in India ; H. T. Prinsep's Political and 
 Alilitary Transactions in India, 1813 to 1823; Major Ross of Bladens- 
 burg's Marquess of Hastings, in the ' Rulers of India ' Series ; Malcolm's 
 Memoir of Central India (ed. 1832) ; Cotton's Alotintstuart Elphinstojie 
 and the Making of South- Western India, in the 'Rulers of India' Series; 
 Phayre's History of Burma (18831, and the •British Bnrma Gazetteer 
 (2 vols., Rangoon, 1879-80). Boulger's Lord William Bentinck, in the 
 •Rulers of India' Series, condenses the materials available for 1828 to 
 1835. Kaye's History of the War in Afghanistan is still the standard 
 work on that sad period ; Miss Eden's Journal in India in 1837 and 1838 
 portrays the social aspects of Lord Auckland's rule ; Lord Colchester's 
 Indian Administration of Lord Ellenborough unconsciously but definitely 
 reveals from Lord E!lenborough's own letters the vainglorious meanness of 
 that Governor-General. The volumes on Lord Hardinge, by his son, and 
 on the Marquess of Dalhousic. in the ' Rulers of India ' Series, with the 
 lives of Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Herbert Edwardes, and Lord Lawrence, 
 indicate the materials for the succeeding period from 1844 to 1856.
 
 [ 222 ] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. 
 
 Causes of the Sepoy Mutiny. — The various motives 
 assigned for the Mutiny appear inadequate to the European 
 mind. The truth seems to be that Native opinion throughout 
 India was in a ferment, predisposing men to believe the wildest 
 stories, and to rush into action in a paroxysm of terror. Panic 
 acts on an Oriental population like drink upon a European 
 mob. The annexation policy of Lord Dalhousie, although 
 dictated by the most enlightened considerations, was distasteful 
 to the Native mind. The spread of education, the appearance 
 at the same moment of the steam-engine and the telegraph wire, 
 seemed to reveal a deep plan for substituting an English for an 
 Indian civilization. The Bengal sepoys especially thought that 
 they could see further than the rest of their countrymen. Most 
 of them were Hindus of high caste ; many of them were re- 
 cruited from Oudh. They regarded our reforms on Western 
 lines as attacks on their own nationality, and they knew at first 
 hand what annexation meant. They believed it was by their 
 prowess that the Punjab had been conquered, and that all India 
 was held. The numerous dethroned princes, or their heirs and 
 widows, were the first to learn and take advantage of this spirit 
 of disaffection and panic. They had heard of the Crimean war, 
 and were told that Russia was the perpetual enemy of England. 
 Our munificent pensions had supplied the funds with which they 
 could buy the aid of skilful intriguers. 
 
 Other alleged causes of the Mutiny. — On the other hand, 
 the Company had not sufficiently opened up the higher posts in 
 its service to natives of education, talent, or proved fidelity. It 
 had taken important steps in this direction in respect to the 
 lower grades of appointments. But the prizes of Indian official 
 life, many of which are now thrown open to natives of India by
 
 CAUSES OF THE MUTINY. 223 
 
 the Crown, were then the monopoly of a handful of English- 
 men. Shortly before the Mutiny, Sir Henry Lawrence pointed 
 out that even the army supplied no career to a native officer, 
 which could satisfy the reasonable ambition of an able man. 
 He insisted on the serious dangers arising from this state of 
 things ; but his warnings were unheeded till too late. In the 
 crisis of the Mutiny they were remembered. He was nominated 
 provisional Governor-General in event of any accident happen- 
 ing to Lord Canning; and the Queen's proclamation, on the 
 transfer of the Government from the Company to the Crown at 
 the end of the great struggle, affirmed the principle which he 
 had so powerfully urged. ' And it is our further will,' are Her 
 IVIajesty's gracious words, ' that, so far as may be, our subjects, 
 of whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted to 
 offices in our service, the duties of which they may be qualified 
 by their education, ability, and integrity duly to discharge.' 
 Under the Company this liberal policy was unknown. The 
 Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, therefore, found many of the Indian 
 princes, especially the dethroned dynasties, hostile to the Com- 
 pany ; while a multitude of its own native officers were either 
 actively disloyal or indifferent to its fate. 
 
 The * Greased Cartridges.' — In this critical state of affairs, 
 a rumour ran through the Native army that the cartridges served 
 out to the Bengal regiments had been greased with the fat of 
 pigs — animals which are unclean alike to Hindu and IVIuham- 
 madan. No assurances could quiet the minds of the Sepoys. 
 Indeed the evidence shows that a disastrous blunder had in truth 
 been made in this matter — a blunder which, although quickly 
 remedied, was remedied too late. Fires occurred nightly in the 
 Native lines; officers were insulted by their men; confidence 
 was gone, and only the form of discipline remained. 
 
 The Army drained of its Talent.— In addition, the out- 
 break of the storm found the Native regiments denuded of many 
 of their best officers. The administration of the great empire 
 to which Dalhousie had put the corner-stone, required a larger 
 staff than the civil service could supply. The practice of select- 
 ing able military men for civil posts, which had long existed, 
 received a sudden and vast development. Oudh, the Punjab,
 
 2 24 THE MUTINY. 
 
 the Central Provinces, British Burma, were administered to a 
 large extent by picked officers from the Company's regiments. 
 Good and skilful commanders remained ; but the Native army 
 had nevertheless been drained of many of its brightest intellects 
 and firmest wills at the very crisis of its fate. At the same time 
 the British troops in India had, in spite of Lord Dalhousie's 
 remonstrances, been reduced far below the strength which the 
 great Governor-General declared to be essential to the safety of 
 our rule. His earnest representations on this subject, and as 
 to the urgent necessity for a reform alike of the Native and the 
 British armies of India, were lying disregarded in London when 
 the panic about the 'greased cartridges' spread through the 
 Native regiments, and the storm burst upon Bengal. 
 
 Outbreak of the Mutiny, May 1857. — On the afternoon 
 of Sunday, loth May 1857, the sepoys at IMeerut (Mirath) 
 broke into open mutiny. They forced open the jail, and rushed 
 in a wild torrent through the cantonments, cutting down any 
 European whom they met. They then streamed off to the 
 neighbouring city of Delhi, to stir up the Native garrison and 
 the criminal population of that great city, and to place them- 
 selves under the authority of the discrowned ]\Iughal emperor. 
 Meerut was then the largest military station in Northern India, 
 with a strong European garrison of foot, horse, and guns, suffi- 
 cient to overwhelm the mutineers long before they could have 
 reached Delhi. But as the Sepoys acted in irrational panic, so 
 the British officers, in but too many cases, behaved with equally 
 irrational indecision. The news of the outbreak was telegraphed 
 to Delhi, and nothing more was done at Meerut that night. 
 At the moment when one strong will might have saved India, 
 no soldier in authority at Meerut seemed able to think or act. 
 The next morning the Muhammadans of Delhi rose, and all that 
 the Europeans there could do was to blow up the magazine. 
 
 Spread of the Mutiny, June 1857. — A rallying centre and 
 a traditional name were thus given to the revolt, which forth- 
 with spread like wild-fire through the North-Western Provinces 
 and Oudh down into Lower Bengal. The same narrative must 
 suffice for all the outbreaks, although each episode has its own 
 story of sadness and devotion. The sepoys rose on their officers,
 
 C AWN PUR. 225 
 
 usually without warning, sometimes after protestations of 
 fidelity — protestations in some cases perhaps true at the moment. 
 The Europeans, or persons of Christian faith, were often mas- 
 sacred ; occasionally, also, the women and children. The jail 
 was broken open, the treasury plundered, and the mutineers 
 marched off to some centre of revolt, to join in what had now 
 become a national war. Only in the Punjab were the sepoys 
 anticipated by stern measures of repression and disarmament, 
 carried out by Sir John Lawrence and his lieutenants, among 
 whom Edwardes and Nicholson stand conspicuous. The Sikh 
 population never wavered. Crowds of willing Muhammadan 
 recruits joined us from the Afghan hills. And thus the Punjab, 
 instead of being itself a source of danger, was able to furnish 
 a portion of its own garrison for the siege of Delhi. In Lower 
 Bengal most of the sepoys mutinied, and then dispersed in 
 different directions. The Native armies of Madras and Bom- 
 bay remained, on the whole, true to their colours. In Central 
 India, the contingents of some of the great Chiefs sooner or 
 later threw in their lot with the rebels, but the Muhammadan 
 State of Haidarabad was kept loyal by the authority of its able 
 minister. Sir Salar Jang. 
 
 Cawnpur. — The main interest of the Sepoy War gathers 
 round the three cities of Cawnpur, Lucknow and Delhi. The 
 cantonments at Cawnpur contained one of the great Native 
 garrisons of India. At Bithur, not far off, was the palace of 
 Dundhu Panth, the heir of the last Peshwa, whose more familiar 
 name of Nana Sahib will ever be handed down to infamy. At 
 first the Nana was profuse in his professions of loyalty; but 
 when the sepoys mutinied at Cawnpur on the 6lh June, he 
 put himself at their head, and was proclaimed Peshwa of the 
 Marathas. The Europeans at Cawnpur, numbering more 
 women and children than fighting men, shut themselves up in 
 an ill-chosen hasty entrenchment, where they heroically bore a 
 siege for nineteen days under the sun of a tropical June. Every 
 one had courage and endurance to suffer or to die ; but the 
 directing mind was again absent. On the 27th June, trusting 
 to a safe-conduct from the Nana — a safe-conduct supposed to 
 hold good as far as Allahabad — they surrendered ; and to the 
 
 p
 
 2 26 THE MUTINY. 
 
 number of 450 embarked in boats on the Ganges. A mur- 
 derous fire was opened upon them from the river bank. Only 
 a single boat escaped ; and four men, who swafn across to the 
 protection of a friendly Raja, survived to tell the tale. The 
 rest of the men were massacred on the spot. The women and 
 children, numbering 125, were reserved for the same fate on 
 the 15th July, when the avenging army of Havelock was at 
 hand. 
 
 Lucknow. — Sir Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner 
 of Oudh, had foreseen the storm. He fortified and provisioned 
 the Residency at Lucknow ; and thither he retired, with all the 
 European inhabitants and a weak British regiment, on 2nd 
 July. Two days later, he was mortally wounded by a shell. 
 But the clear head was here in authority. Sir Henry Law- 
 rence had deliberately chosen his position ; and the little gar- 
 rison held out, under unparalleled hardships and against enor- 
 mous odds, until relieved by Havelock and Outram on 25th 
 September. But the relieving force was itself invested by fresh 
 swarms of rebels ; and it was not till November that Sir Colin 
 Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) cut his way into Lucknow, 
 and effected the final deliverance of the garrison (i6th Novem- 
 ber 1857). Our troops then withdrew to more urgent work, 
 and did not permanently reoccupy Lucknow till March 1858. 
 
 Siege of Delhi. — The siege of Delhi began on 8th June, a 
 month after the original outbreak at Meerut. Siege in the 
 proper sense of the word it was not ; for our army, encamped 
 on the historic ' ridge ' of Delhi, never exceeded 8000 men, 
 while the rebels within the walls were more than 30,000 strong. 
 In the middle of August, Nicholson arrived with a reinforcement 
 from the Punjab; his own inspiring presence was perhaps even 
 more valuable than the reinforcement he brought. On 14th 
 September the assault was delivered ; and, after six days' des- 
 perate fighting in the streets, .Delhi was again w^on. Nicholson 
 fell heroically at the head of the storming party. Hodson, the 
 daring but unscrupulous leader of a corps of irregular horse, 
 hunted down next day the old Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah, 
 and his sons. The emperor was afterwards sent a State prisoner 
 to Rangoon, where he lived till 1862. As the mob pressed in
 
 SUPPHESSION OF THE MUTIXY, 1S57-5S. 227 
 
 on the guard around the emperor's sons, near Delhi, Hodson 
 thought it necessary to shoot down the princes (who had been 
 captured unconditionally) with his own hand. 
 
 Oudh reduced by Lord Clyde.— After the fall of Delhi 
 and the final relief of Lucknow, the war loses its dramatic 
 interest, although fighting still went on in various parts of the 
 country for about eighteen months. The population of Oudh 
 and Rohilkhand, stimulated by the presence of the Begam of 
 Oudh, the Nawab of Bareilly, and Nana Sahib himself, had 
 joined the mutinous sepoys en masse. In this quarter of India 
 alone, it was the revolt of a people rather than the mutiny of an 
 army that had to be quelled. Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards 
 Lord Clyde) conducted the campaign in Oudh, which lasted 
 through two cold seasons. Valuable assistance was lent by Sir 
 Jang Bahadur of Nepal, at the head of his gallant Gurkhas. 
 Town after town was occupied, fort after fort was stormed, until 
 the last gun had been recaptured, and the last fugitive had been 
 chased across the frontier by January 1859. 
 
 Central India reduced by Sir Hugh. Rose. — In the 
 meanwhile, Sir Hugh Rose (afterwards Lord Stralhnairn), with 
 another army from Bombay, was conducting an equally brilliant 
 campaign in Central India. His most formidable antagonists 
 were the disinherited Rani or Princess of Jhansi, and Tantia 
 Topf, whose military talent had previously inspired Nand Sahib 
 with all the capacity for resistance that he ever displayed. The 
 princess fell fighting bravely at the head of her troops in June 
 1858. Tantia Topi, after doubling backwards and forwards 
 through Central India, was at last betrayed and run down in 
 April 1859. 
 
 Summary of the Company's Charters, 1600 to 1784. — 
 The Mutiny sealed the fate of the East India Company, after a 
 life of more than two and a half centuries. The original Com- 
 pany received its charter of incorporation from Elizabeth in 
 1600. Its poHtical powers, and the constitution of the Indian 
 Government, were derived from the Regulating Act of 1773, 
 passed by the ministry of Lord North. By that statute the 
 Governor of Bengal was raised to the rank of Governor- 
 General ; and, in conjunction with his Council of four members,
 
 2 28 THE MUTINY. 
 
 he was entrusted with the duty of controlling the Governments 
 of Madras and Bombay, so far as regarded questions of peace 
 and war : a Supreme Court of Judicature was appointed at Cal- 
 cutta, to which the judges were nominated by the Crown ; and 
 a power of making rules and regulations was conferred upon the 
 Governor-General and his Council. Next came the India Bill 
 of Pitt (1784), which founded the Board of Control in England ; 
 strengthened the supremacy of Bengal over the other Presi- 
 dencies ; and first authorized the historic phrase, ' Governor- 
 General-in-Council.' 
 
 Renewals of the Company's Charter, 1813-1853. — The 
 renewed charter of 181 3 abolished the Company's monopoly of 
 Indian trade, and compelled it to direct its energies to the good 
 government of the people. The Act of 1833, at the next 
 renewal of the Company's charter for another twenty years, did 
 away with its remaining trade to China. It also introduced 
 successive reforms into the constitution of the Indian Govern- 
 ment. It added to the Council a new (legal) member, who 
 need not be chosen from among the Company's servants, and 
 who was at first entitled to be present only at meetings for 
 making laws and regulations ; it accorded the authority of Acts 
 of Parliament to the laws and regulations so made, subject to 
 the disallowance of the Court of Directors ; it appointed a Law 
 Commission; and it finally gave to the Governor-General-in- 
 Council a control over the other Presidencies, in all points 
 relating to the civil or military administration. The charter of 
 the Company was renewed for the last time in 1853, not for a 
 definite period of years, but only for so long as Parliament 
 should see fit. On this occasion the number of Directors was 
 reduced, and their patronage as regards appointments to the 
 civil service was taken away, to make room for the principle of 
 open competition. 
 
 India transferred to the Crown, 1858. — The Act for the 
 Better Government of India (1858), which finally transferred 
 the administration from the Company to the Crown, was not 
 passed without an eloquent protest from the Directors, nor 
 without bitter party discussions in Parliament. It enacted that 
 India shall be governed by, and in the name of, the Queen of
 
 INDIA TRANSFERRED TO THE CROWN 229 
 
 England through one of her Principal Secretaries of State, 
 assisted by a Council of fifteen members. The Governor- 
 General received the new title of Viceroy. The European 
 troops of the Company, numbering about 24,000 officers and 
 men, were amalgamated with the royal service, and the Indian 
 navy was abolished. By the Indian Councils Act (1861), the 
 Governor-General's Council, and also the Councils at Madras 
 and Bombay, were augmented by the addition of non-official 
 members, either Natives or Europeans, for legislative purposes 
 only ; and, by another Act passed in the same year. High Courts 
 of Judicature were constituted out of the old Supreme Courts at 
 the Presidency towns. 
 
 Materials for Reference. 
 
 The literature of the Indian Mutiny is too copious, too recent, and still 
 in too active a state of production to permit of its being safely summarized. 
 The standard worlc is Kaye and Malleson's History of the Sepoy War and 
 the Indian Mutiny (6 vols.). The original authorities are to be found in 
 the official publications of the period ; particularly the reports and evidence 
 laid before Parliament ; in the published personal journals and the Indian 
 newspapers of the period, and in the numerous memoirs and biographies of 
 the actors in the great drama. Among the last class may be mentioned 
 especially Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence ; with the volumes by 
 Sir Henry Cunningham on Lord Ca7i7ting, by Sir Charles Aitchison on Lord 
 Lawrence, and by Major-General Sir Owen Tudor Burne on Lord Clyde 
 and Lord Strathnairn, in the ' Rulers of India ' Series. Many ques- 
 tions connected with the period are still in dispute. The brief narrative 
 which I have given in this chapter is based upon the carefully verified 
 evidence of those who had the best opportunities of observing the facts 
 and discerning the causes with their own eyes, and particularly of Sir John 
 (afterwards Lord) Lawrence.
 
 [230] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 India under the British Crown. 
 
 The Queen's Proclamation, 1st November 1858. — It 
 
 fell to the lot of Lord Canning both to suppress the Mutiny 
 and to introduce the peaceful revolution which followed. He 
 preserved his equanimity unruffled in the darkest hours of peril ; 
 and the strict impartiality of his conduct incurred alternate 
 praise and blame from partisans of both sides. The epithet 
 then scornfully applied to him, of 'Clemency' Canning, is now 
 remembered only to his honour. On ist November 1858, at 
 a grand darbdr held at Allahabad, he sent forth the royal 
 proclamation, which announced that the Queen had assumed 
 the government of India. This document, which is, in the 
 truest and noblest sense, the Magna Charta of the Indian 
 people, declared in eloquent words the principles of justice and 
 religious toleration as the guiding policy of the Queen's rule. 
 It also granted an amnesty to all except those who had directly 
 taken part in the murder of British subjects. Peace was pro- 
 claimed throughout India on the 8th July 1859. In the 
 following cold weather, Lord Canning made a viceregal pro- 
 gress through the Northern Provinces, to receive the homage of 
 loyal Princes and Chiefs, and to guarantee to them the right of 
 adoption. 
 
 Mr. Wilson's Financial Reforms. — The suppression of 
 the Mutiny increased the debt of India by about 40 millions 
 sterling ; and the military changes which ensued augmented the 
 annual expenditure by about 10 millions. To grapple with 
 this deficit, a distinguished political economist and parUamentary 
 financier, the Right Honourable James Wilson, was sent out 
 from England as financial member of Council. He reorganized 
 the customs system, imposed an income tax and a licence duty,
 
 LORDS ELGIN, LAWRENCE, AND MAYO. 231 
 
 and created a State paper currency. He died in the midst of 
 his splendid task; but his name still lives as that of the first 
 and greatest finance minister of India. The Bengal Tenancy 
 Act, a memorable measure which secured the land-rights of the 
 peasantry of Bengal, was passed under Lord Canning's auspices 
 in 1859; the Penal Code, originally drawn up by Macaulay in 
 1837, became law in i860; with Codes of Civil and Criminal 
 Procedure in 1861. 
 
 Lord Elgin, 1862-1863. — Lord Canning left India in 
 March 1862, and died before he had been a month in England. 
 His successor, Lord Elgin, only lived till November 1863. 
 He expired at the Himalayan station of Dharmsala, and there 
 he lies buried. 
 
 Lord Lawrence, 1864-1869. — He was succeeded by Sir 
 John Lawrence, the saviour of the Punjab. The chief incidents 
 of his rule were the Bhutan war, followed by the annexation of 
 the Dwars {Dooars), a submontane strip on the North-Eastern 
 frontier of Bengal, in 1864, and the terrible Orissa famine of 
 1866. In a later famine in Bundelkhand and Upper Hindustan 
 in 1 868-1 869, Lord Lawrence laid down the principle, for the 
 first time in Indian history, that the officers of the Government 
 would be held personally responsible for taking every possible 
 means to avert death by starvation. An inquiry was conducted 
 into the status of the peasantry of Oudh, and an Act was passed 
 with a view to securing them in their customary rights. After 
 a period of fratricidal war among the sons of Dost Muhammad, 
 the Afghan territories were concentrated in the hands of Sher 
 AH, who was acknowledged as Amfr by Lord Lawrence. A 
 commercial crisis took place in 1866, which seriously threatened 
 the young tea industry in Bengal, and caused widespread ruin 
 at Bombay. Sir John Lawrence retired in January 1869, after 
 having passed through every grade of Indian service, from 
 an assistant magistracy to the viceroyalty. On his return to 
 England, he was raised to the peerage. He died in 1879, and 
 lies in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Lord Mayo, 1869-1872. — Lord Mayo succeeded Lord 
 Lawrence in 1869, and urged on the material progress of 
 India. The Ambala darhdr, at which Sher All was formally
 
 232 INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN. 
 
 recognized as Amir of Afghanistan, although in one sense the 
 completion of what Lord Lawrence had begun, owed its brilliant 
 success to Lord Mayo (1869). The visit of His Royal High- 
 ness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869- 18 70 gave deep pleasure 
 to the natives of India, and introduced a tone of personal 
 loyalty into our relations with the feudatory princes. Lord 
 Mayo reformed several of the great branches of the adminis- 
 tration, created an Agricultural Department, and introduced 
 the system of Provincial Finance. The impulse to local self- 
 government given by the last measure has done much, and will 
 do more, to develope and husband the revenues of India, to 
 quicken the sense of responsibility among the English adminis- 
 trators, and to awaken political life among the people. Lord 
 Mayo also laid the foundation for the reform of the salt duties. 
 He thus enabled his successors to abolish the old pernicious 
 customs-lines which had for long walled off Province from 
 Province, and strangled the trade between British India and the 
 Feudatory States. He developed the material resources of the 
 country by an immense extension of roads, railways, and canals. 
 He carried out the beneficent system of public works which 
 Lord Dalhousie had inaugurated. Lord Mayo's splendid vigour 
 defied alike the climate and the vast tasks which he imposed on 
 himself. He anxiously and laboriously studied with his own 
 eyes the wants of the farthest Provinces of the empire. But his 
 life of noble usefulness was cut short by the hand of an assassin, 
 in the convict settlement of the Andaman Islands, in 1872. 
 
 Lord Northbrook, 1872-1876.— His successor was Lord 
 Norlhbrook, whose ability found pre-eminent scope in the 
 department of finance. During his viceroyalty, a famine which 
 threatened Lower Bengal in 1874 was successfully averted by 
 a vast organization of State relief. The Maratha Gaekwar of 
 Baroda was dethroned in 1875 for misgovernment, and for his 
 attempt to poison the British Resident at his Court. But his 
 dominions were continued to a child of his race. The Prince 
 of Wales made a tour through the country in the cold weather 
 of 1875-1876. The presence of His Royal Highness evoked 
 a passionate burst of loyalty never before known in the annals 
 of British India. The feudatory Chiefs and ruling houses of
 
 THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED EMPRESS, 1877. 233 
 
 India felt for the first time that they were incorporated into the 
 Empire of an ancient and a splendid dynasty. 
 
 Lord Lytton, 1876-1880. — Lord Lytton followed Lord 
 Northbrook in 1876. On January i, 1877, Queen Victoria 
 was proclaimed Empress of India at a darhdr of unparalleled 
 magnificence, held on the historic ' ridge ' overlooking the 
 ancient Mughal capital of Delhi. But while the princes and 
 high officials of the country were flocking to this gorgeous 
 scene, the shadow of famine was darkening over Southern India. 
 The monsoons of 1876 had failed to bring their due supply 
 of rain, and the season of 1877 was little better. This long- 
 continued drought stretched from the Deccan to Cape Comorin, 
 and subsequently invaded Northern India, causing a famine 
 more widely spread than any similar calamity known in Indian 
 history. Despite vast importations of grain by sea and rail, 
 despite the most strenuous exertions of the Government, which 
 incurred a total expenditure on this account of 11 millions 
 sterling, the loss of life from actual starvation and its attendant 
 train of diseases was lamentable. The deaths from want of 
 food, and from the diseases incident to a famine-stricken popu- 
 lation, were estimated at 5^ milHons. 
 
 Afghan Affairs, 1878-1880. — In the autumn of 1878, the 
 aff'airs of Afghanistan again forced themselves into notice. 
 Sher Alf, the Amfr, who had been hospitably entertained by 
 Lord Mayo, was found to be favouring Russian intrigues. A 
 British envoy was refused admittance to the country, while 
 a Russian mission was received with honour. This led to 
 a declaration of war. British armies advanced by three routes, 
 — the Khaibar (Khyber), the Kuram, and the Bolan, — and with- 
 out much opposition occupied the inner entrances of the passes 
 (1878). Sher Alf fled to Afghan Turkistan, and there died. 
 A treaty was entered into with his son, Yakub Khan, at 
 Gandamak (May 1879), by which the British frontier was 
 advanced to the crests or Afghan edge of the passes, and a 
 British officer was admitted to reside at Kabul. Within a few 
 months, the British Resident, Sir Louis Cavagnari, was treach- 
 erously attacked and massacred, together with his escort 
 (September 1879), and a second war became necessary.
 
 2 34 INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN. 
 
 Yakub Khan abdicated, and was deported to India; Kabul 
 and Kandahar were occupied in force, and a national rising of 
 the Afghan tribes, which imperilled the British garrison at 
 Kabul, was decisively repulsed by Sir Frederick Roberts 
 (1879-80). 
 
 Marquess of Ripon, 1880-84. — At this crisis a general 
 election in England resulted in the defeat of the Conservative 
 Ministry. Lord Lytton resigned along with the Home Govern- 
 ment, and the Marquess of Ripon was appointed his successor 
 in April 1880. In that summer a British brigade suffered 
 defeat at Maiwand, between Kandahar and the Helmand river, 
 from the Herat troops of Ayiib Khan, — a defeat promptly 
 retrieved by the brilliant march of General Sir Frederick Roberts 
 from Kabul to Kandahar, and by the total rout of Ayub Khan's 
 army on ist September 1880. Abdur Rahman Khan, the eldest 
 male representative of the stock of Dost Muhammad, was 
 recognized by us as Amir. The British forces retired from 
 Kabul, leaving Abdur Rahman in possession of the capital (i 881). 
 Ayiib Khan again took the field. His success, however, was 
 short-lived, and Abdur Rahman is still sovereign in Afghanistan 
 (July 1892). Lord Ripon availed himself of the unbroken 
 peace which has prevailed in India since 1881 to enter on a 
 series of internal reforms. The years 1882 and 1883 will be 
 memorable for these great measures. By repealing the Verna- 
 cular Press Act, he set free the native journals from the last 
 restraints on the free discussion of public questions. His scheme 
 of Local Self-Government has opened a new era of political life 
 to the natives of India. At the same time, by the appointment 
 of an Education Commission, with a view to the spread of 
 popular instruction on a broader basis, he has sought to fit the 
 people for the safe exercise of the rights which he has conferred. 
 He also laid the foundations for the great measure of land- 
 legislation for Bengal which was passed into law under his 
 successor. Lord DufTerin. In 1882, Lord Ripon's Finance 
 Minister, Sir Evelyn Baring, took off the import duties on 
 cotton goods, and the whole Indian import duties were, with 
 a few exceptions, abolished. This distinguished financier left 
 India in the following year (1883), to assume the high office
 
 LORD RIPON AND LORD DUFFERLN. 235 
 
 of British Representative at Cairo, amid the universal regret 
 of the Indian people. 
 
 In 1882, a contingent of Indian Native troops was sent to 
 take part with the British forces in the successful occupation of 
 Egypt. They displayed conspicuous powers of endurance in 
 the campaign, and of gallantry in the field. A chosen band 
 of the Indian officers and men were afterwards sent to England. 
 and received an enthusiastic welcome from all classes of the 
 people. Early in his rule Lord Ripon had re-established the 
 Department of Agriculture; and he took measures to guard 
 the country against famine. In 1884 he deputed officers to 
 England, to give evidence before the Parliamentary Committee, 
 with a view to the extension of Indian railways. Lord Ripon 
 retired at the end of 1884. Some of his measures for the 
 promotion of local self-government, and especially his proposal 
 to give to the higher class of Native judges a larger amount of 
 jurisdiction in the case of offences committed by British-born 
 subjects, were considered by the European community to be 
 unsuited to the actual condition of India. But whether or not 
 in advance of the time, it is now realized that they point out the 
 directions in which progress must sooner or later take place. 
 Lord Ripon loved the people, and was greatly beloved by them. 
 
 Marquess of Dufierin, 1884-88. — The Earl of Dufferin suc- 
 ceeded as Viceroy, 1884. In the spring of 1885, Lord Dufferin 
 held a magnificent Darbar at Rawal Pindi for the reception of 
 the Amir of Afghanistan, and strengthened our friendly relations 
 with that ruler. In the summer, a war with Russia seemed 
 imminent, and the Native States came forward with loyal offers 
 of their armies and resources to the British government. To- 
 wards the end of 1885 the persistent misconduct of King 
 Thebau in Upper Burma, his ill-treatment of British subjects, 
 and his rejection of all conciliatory offers, led to an army being 
 sent against him, under General Prendergast. The King was 
 dethroned and removed to India. On the ist January, 1886, 
 his territories were annexed, and soon afterwards were con- 
 stituted a British province together with Lower Burma under a 
 Chief Commissioner. Early in 1886, also, a great camp of 
 exercise was held on the memorable battle-plain of Panfpat
 
 236 INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN. 
 
 in the Punjab : and the fortress of Gwalior was given back by 
 Lord Dufferin's government to its hereditary chief, the Maharaja 
 Sindhia. During 1887 the new territories of Upper Burma were 
 being gradually reduced to order, and the dakait bands dis- 
 persed. In the same year the Jubilee (or fiftieth year of the reign) 
 of Her Majesty the Queen-Empress Victoria was celebrated 
 with universal enthusiasm throughout India. A great Com- 
 mission inquired into the question of more largely employing 
 Native officers in the higher branches of the administration. 
 The Earl of Dufferin retired in 1888, and was created IMarquess 
 of Dufferin and Ava for the services which he had rendered 
 during his Viceroyalty. 
 
 The Marquess of Lansdowne, 1888-1892, succeeded Lord 
 Dufferin, and still remains Viceroy at the time when this book is 
 written. Under Lord Lansdowne's rule (with Sir Frederick, after- 
 wards Lord, Roberts as his Commander-in-Chief) the defences 
 of the North-Western frontier of India have been strengthened, 
 and the Passes from Afghanistan have been secured against any 
 possible invaders. At the same time, the Native chiefs have 
 been allowed to take a more important position than before in 
 the armies of India. A number of them had come forward with 
 offers of money and troops to aid in the defence of the country. 
 Under Lord Lansdowne these offers were accepted. Many of 
 the Feudatories now maintain regiments, carefully drilled and 
 armed, which in time of war would serve with the troops of the 
 British Government. These regiments are kept up free of cost 
 to the British Government, and are a free-will offering to it 
 from the loyalty of the Native princes, who have greatly pros- 
 pered under the Queen's rule. 
 
 Progress of Self-Government. — While the Native princes 
 are thus zealous to aid the Sovereign Power, the peoples and 
 races in the British provinces have been learning the first 
 lessons of local self-government. Municipal Councils and 
 District Boards have, during the past thirty years, been 
 gradually created throughout India. Their members consist 
 chiefly of Native gentlemen, many of whom are elected by 
 their fellow citizens. These Municipal Councils and District 
 Boards now manage many branches of the Local Adminis-
 
 PROGRESS OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 237 
 
 tration. Their legal powers and their practical ability to do 
 good work are increasing. At the same time, a ' National Con- 
 gress' of delegates from all parts of India has since 1886 been 
 held each December in one of the provincial capitals, such as 
 Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Allahabad. This Congress 
 discusses plans for opening a larger share in the work of 
 legislation, alike in the Viceregal and Provincial Legislative 
 Councils, to natives of India. It desires, among other things, 
 that a proportion of the members of the Viceregal and Provincial 
 Legislative Councils should be elected, and not all appointed 
 as heretofore by the Government. The more advanced party 
 in the Indian Congress advocates the general adoption of a 
 system of popular elections for members of the Legislative 
 Councils. In 1892 the British Parliament passed an Act which 
 increased the number of the members of those Councils, and 
 introduced a stronger non-official element. But it left the 
 question of the election or the nomination of such members 
 to be worked out by the Local Governments in India, in 
 accordance with the needs and conditions of the separate 
 provinces. Side by side with this political movement, efforts 
 (which to a partial extent have been embodied into legislation 
 by Lord Lansdowne) are being made to reform certain evils in 
 the social and domestic life of the Hindus, arising out of the 
 customs of the enforced celibacy of Hindu widows and the 
 marriage of very young children.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abdur Rahman Khan, Amir of 
 Afghanistan (1881), 234. 
 
 Aborigines or aboriginal tribes, 40- 
 51. See also Non- Aryans. 
 
 Abu, Mount, 28. 
 
 Abul Fazl, minister of Akbar, 13S, 
 140. 
 
 Adam, John, Acting Governor- 
 General (1823), 204. 
 
 Adams, Major, defeated Mir Kasim, 
 184. 
 
 Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur, 129. 
 
 Afghanistan, passes from, into India, 
 19 ; Muhammadan invasions from, 
 113-119; Akbar ruled over, 136 ; 
 lost by the Mughals, 142, 152 ; 
 English Mission sent to (1809), 
 201, 209 ; first war in (1839-42), 
 209-212; second war in (1878- 
 80), 233, 234. See also Kabul, 
 Kandahar. 
 
 Aghoris, carrion-eating sect of Si- 
 vaite ascetics, 102. 
 
 Agni, God of Fire, 56. 
 
 Agra, Akbar makes his capital, 136 ; 
 Shah Jahan's buildings at, 143 ; 
 taken by Lord Lake, 197. 
 
 Ahmad Shah Durani, his invasions 
 of India, 152; defeats the Mara- 
 thas at Panipat (1761), 153, 159; 
 his empire and dynasty, 209. 
 
 Ahmadabad, the castes as trade 
 guilds at, 98. 
 
 Ahmadnagar, Muhammadan dynasty 
 of, 129; resists Akbar, 137; con- 
 quered by Shah Jahan, 142 ; 
 Aurangzeb dies at, 148 ; taken by 
 Wellington, 197. 
 
 Ajmcre, Rajput dynasty of, over- 
 thrown, 117. 
 
 Akas, aboriginal hill tribe in Assam, 
 45- 
 
 Akbar the Great, third Mughal Em- 
 peror (1556-1605), 133-140; 
 summary of his reign, 133, 134; 
 his work in India, 134, 135 ; re- 
 duction of the Rajputs, 135 ; con- 
 ciliation of the Hindus, 135, 136; 
 conquest of Muhammadan States, 
 136 ; efforts in Southern India, 
 136, 137 ; religious faith, 137, 
 138 ; organization of the Empire, 
 138, 139; revenue system, 139; 
 ministers, 140. 
 
 Akbar, son of Aurangzeb, his re- 
 bellion, 146, 149. 
 
 Akbar Khan murders Macnaghten 
 (1841), 211. 
 
 Akyab, prosperity under British rule, 
 216. 
 
 Ala-ud-din, second king of the house 
 of Khilji (1295-1315), 121-123; 
 his conquests in Southern India, 
 122. 
 
 Albuquerque, Affonso de, Portu- 
 guese governor, 165. 
 
 Alexander the Great, his expedition 
 to India, campaigns in the Punjab 
 and Sind, 85-87. 
 
 All Vardi Khan defeats the Marathas, 
 159 ; Nawab of Bengal, 180. 
 
 Aligarh, battle of (1803), 193. 
 
 Aliwal, battle of (1845), 214. 
 
 Allahabad, its situation, 23 ; sold to 
 Wazir of Oudh, 1S9. 
 
 Almeida, Francisco de, first Portu- 
 guese Viceroy, 165. 
 
 Alompra (Alaungpaya) founded dy- 
 nasty at Ava, 205. 
 
 Altamsh, third king of the Slave 
 dynasty (1211-36), 119, 120. 
 
 Ambala, Darbar at (1869), 231, 232. 
 
 Ambar, Malik, minister of Ahmad- 
 nagar, 140.
 
 240 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Amboyna, massacre at (1623), 170. 
 
 Amherst, Earl, Governor-General 
 (1823-28), 204-206 ; first Bur- 
 mese war, 205, 206 ; capture of 
 Bhartpur, 206. 
 
 Amherst District, prosperity under 
 British rule, 216. 
 
 Amir Khan, Pindari leader, 203. 
 
 Anagondi, Raja of, descendant of 
 Vijayanagar kings, 130. 
 
 Andaman islanders, 42. 
 
 Arab invasions of Sind, no, III. 
 
 Arakan, kingdom of, 205 ; ceded to 
 the English (1826), 206. 
 
 Arcot, dive's defence of (1751\ 179. 
 
 Area and Population of India, 33- 
 
 35- 
 
 Argaum, battle of (1803), 169, 197. 
 
 Armagaon, English factory founded 
 at (1626), 171. 
 
 Aryans in India, 52-73. See Table 
 of Contents, chap. iv. 
 
 Asoka, Buddhist king of Magadha 
 or Behar, 78, 79. 
 
 Assam, Mir Jumla's invasion of, 148. 
 
 Assaye, battle of (1803), 162, 197. 
 
 Astronomy, Brahman system of, 64. 
 
 Auckland, Earl of, Governor-General 
 (1836-42), 208-211; Afghan 
 affairs and British occupation of 
 Afghanistan, 209, 210; the mas- 
 sacre of the British retreating 
 army, 211. 
 
 Aurangzeb, sixth Mughal Emperor 
 of India (1658-1707), 144-150; 
 summary of his reign, 144, 145 ; 
 murder of his brothers, 145, I46 ; 
 long campaign in Southern India, 
 146-148 ; expedition to Assam, 
 148; bigoted policy, 148, 149; 
 revenues, 149, 150; character, 150. 
 
 Ava, kingdom of, 205 ; first war 
 with, 205, 206 ; second war, 216. 
 
 Avitabile, General, European officer 
 of Kanjit Singh, 213. 
 
 Ay lib Khan, his victory at Maiwand 
 and subsequent defeat, 234. 
 
 Babar, first Mughal Emperor of India 
 (1526-30) ; his victory at Panipat, 
 132. 
 
 Bahadur Shah, last titular Mughal 
 Emperor, his complicity in the 
 Mutiny of 1S57, 224; arrest and 
 banishment, 226. 
 
 Bahmani dynasty in the Deccan, 128, 
 129. 
 
 Baillie, Col., defeat of, 191. 
 
 Bairam Khan, guardian of Akbar 
 the Great, 134. 
 
 Baji Rao, second Maratha Peshwa 
 (1721-40), 159. 
 
 Baji Rao II, seventh and last Ma- 
 ratha Peshwa (1795-1818), 162, 
 163 ; signed the treaty of Bassein 
 (1802), 197 ; defeated and de- 
 posed (1818), 203, 204; his death, 
 218. 
 
 Baktiyar Khilji conquered Behar 
 (1199) and Bengal (1203), 118. 
 
 Balaji 13aji Rao, third Maratha 
 Peshwa (1740-61), 159. 
 
 Balaji Vishwanath, first Maratha 
 Peshwa (1707-21), 158. 
 
 Balasor, English factory founded at 
 (1642), 172. 
 
 Balban, king of Delhi of the Slave 
 dynasty (1265-87), 120, 121. 
 
 Banda, Silih leader, defeated and 
 executed, 151. 
 
 Bardwan, ceded to the English 
 (1761), 184. 
 
 Barents, William, Dutch navigator, 
 166. 
 
 Barid Shahi dynasty of Bidar, 129. 
 
 Baring, Sir Evelyn, his financial re- 
 forms, 134. 
 
 Barlow,Sir George, acting Governor- 
 General (^1805-7), 200. 
 
 Baroda. See Gaekwar. 
 
 Bassein, taken by the Marathas 
 (1739), 159; treaty of (1802), 162, 
 197. 
 
 Baxar, battle of (1765), 185. 
 
 Beast stories and fables in Sanskrit, 
 
 72- 
 
 Becker, Mr., sums received by, after 
 Plassey, 182. 
 
 Behar, the ' land of monasteries,' 
 78 ; ceded to the English (1765), 
 186. 
 
 Bengal, conquered by the Muham- 
 madans (1203), 118 ; becomes in- 
 dependent (1340), 125,130; con- 
 quered by Akbar (1576), 136; 
 plundered by the Marathas, 159 ; 
 early English settlements in, 172; 
 its rulers (1707-56), 179, 180; 
 ceded to the English (1765), 186 ; 
 Hastings' administration of, 188 ;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 241 
 
 the Permanent Settlement of, 192, 
 193 ; measures for tenants' relief, 
 
 231, n^- 
 
 Bentinck, Lord William, Governor- 
 General (1828-35), 206-208; 
 financial reforms, 207 ; abolition 
 of sati and suppression of thagi, 
 207, 208 ; renewal of the Com- 
 pany's charter, 208 ; Mysore pro- 
 tected and Coorg annexed, 20S. 
 
 Berar, assigned by the Nizam (1853), 
 218. 
 
 Best, Captain, his victory at Swally 
 (1615), 170. 
 
 Bhakta-Mala or Hindu Book of 
 Saints, 99. 
 
 Bhartpur, Lord Lake repulsed from 
 (18U5), 19S; taken by Comber- 
 mere (1827), 206. 
 
 Ehils, the, numerous non-Aryan 
 race, 43. 
 
 Bhilsa plundered by Ala-ud-din 
 Khilji, 121. 
 
 Bhonslas, the Maratha dynasty of, 
 Nagpur, 161, 197 ; ceded Orissa 
 to the English (1804), 19S ; 
 their dominions annexed (1853), 
 3l8. 
 
 Bhutan, war with (1864), 231. 
 
 Bidar, Muhammadan kingdom of, 
 129 ; annexed to Mughal Empire, 
 142. 
 
 Bijapur, Muhammadan kingdom of, 
 129 ; made tributary to the 
 Mughals, 142 ; annexed by Aur- 
 angzeb (1688), 147. 
 
 * Black Hole ' of Calcutta, 180. 
 
 Bolan Pass, the, 19. 
 
 Bombay, ceded to the English 
 (1661), 171, 172. 
 
 Boscawen, Admiral, besieged Pondi- 
 cherri (1748), 178. 
 
 Brahma, the first person of the Hindu 
 trinity, 63. 
 
 Brahmanas, sacred Sanskrit writings 
 explanatory of the sacrifices and 
 duties of priests, 58, 59. 
 
 Brahmans, the priestly caste in the 
 ancient fourfold Hindu organiza- 
 tion, 59 ; establishment of their 
 supremacy, 60; stages of a Brah- 
 man's life, 60, 61 ; modern Biah- 
 mans, 61, 62 ; Brahman theology, 
 62 ; philosophy, 63 ; literature, 
 63, 64 ; astronomy, 64 ; medicine. 
 
 64, 65 ; music, 65, 66 ; law, 66 , 
 
 poetry, 66-71; drama, 71, 72; 
 lyric poetry, 72 ; their influence. 
 
 Brahman work of civilization, 95, 96. 
 
 Brahmaputra river, 22. 
 
 British India, the twelve provinces, 
 33 ; area and population, 34. 
 
 Broughton, Gabriel, obtains right of 
 trading for the English from Shah 
 Jahan (1645), 172. 
 
 Brydon, Dr., only survivor of the 
 British army in Afghanistan, 211. 
 
 Buddhism and life of Gautama 
 Buddha, 74-84. See Table of 
 Contents, chap. v. 
 
 Burma, geography and products, 30, 
 31 ; converted to Buddhism, 79, 
 80 ; its population still Buddhist, 
 83 ; its early history, 204, 205 ; 
 first Burmese war (1824-26), 206, 
 207; second Burmese war ; 1852), 
 216 ; prosperity of Lower Burma 
 under British rule, 216; third 
 Burmese war (18b5), 235 ; an- 
 nexation of Upper Burma (1886), 
 
 235- 
 Burnes, Sir Alexander, murdered at 
 Kabul (1841), 210. 
 
 Calcutta, founded, 172; taken by 
 
 Sirrij-ud-daula and recovered by 
 
 Clive, iSo. 
 Calicut, the Portuguese first reach, 
 
 164 ; bombarded by them, 165. 
 Campbell, Sir Colin (Lord Clyde), 
 
 second relief of Lucknow by, 226 ; 
 
 reduced Oudh, 227. 
 Canning, Earl (1856-62), succeeds 
 
 Dalhousie as Ciovernor-General, 
 
 220; liis Viceroyalty, 230, 231. 
 ' Cartridi^es, The Greased,' 223. 
 Caste not known in the Vedas, 54. 
 Castes, the four, formed. 59, 60. 
 Caste-system, the, its religious and 
 
 social aspects, 96-98. 
 Cavagnari, Sir Louis, murder of, at 
 
 Kabul (1879), 233. 
 Cawnpur, the mutiny and massacre 
 
 at (1857), 225, 226. 
 Chaitanya, Vishnuite religious re- 
 former (1485-1527), 105, 106. 
 Chait Singh, Raja of Benares, his 
 
 treatment by Warren Hastings, 
 
 190.
 
 242 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Chandarnagar, French headquarters 
 in Bengal, 180; taken by Clive, 
 181. 
 
 Chand Bibi, her defence of Ahmad- 
 nagar against Akbar, 137. 
 
 Chandragiri, Raja of, descendant of 
 Vijayanagar dynasty, 130; sells 
 site of Madras to the English 
 (1639), 171. 
 
 Chandra Gupta, king of Magadha, 
 87, 88. 
 
 Changiz Khan, his invasion of 
 Afghanistan, 119. 
 
 Charnock, Job, founded Calcutta, 
 172. 
 
 Charters of the East India Company, 
 227, 228. 
 
 Chaiith, levied by the Marathas in 
 Southern India, 151, 158 ; in Ben- 
 gal, 159- 
 
 Chera, Hindu kingdom in Southern 
 ladia, 127. 
 
 Cherra Piinji, its enormous rainfall, 
 20. 
 
 Child, Sir John, Governor-General 
 and Admiral of India, 173. 
 
 Chilianwala, battle of (,1849), 215. 
 
 Chinsurah, Dutch headquarters in 
 Bengal, 180. 
 
 Chitor, taken by Ala-ud-din Khilji 
 (1303), 122, 123. 
 
 Chittagong ceded to the English 
 ^(1761), 1 84. 
 
 Chitu, Pindari leader, 203. 
 
 Chola, Hindu kingdom in Southern 
 India, 127. 
 
 Chronological table of Muham- 
 madan dynasties (1001-1857), 
 109, 110 ; of the Governors, 
 Governors-General and Viceroys 
 of British India (1758-1892), 176, 
 177. 
 
 Clive, Lord, his wars with the 
 French in the Karnatik, 178, 179 ; 
 recovery of Calcutta, iSo; victory 
 of Plassey, 180, 181 ; Clive's 
 jdgir, 182, 183 ; first govemor- 
 ship of Bengal (1758-60), 18- ; 
 second governorship (1765-67J, 
 185, 186; administrative reforms, 
 186. 
 
 Coal mining in India, 30. 
 
 Combermere, Lord, took Bhartpur 
 (1827), 206. 
 
 Consolidation of British India, 200- 
 
 221. See Table of Contents, 
 chap. xiv. 
 
 Coorg, annexation of (1834), 208. 
 
 Coote, Gen. Sir Eyre, defeats Lally 
 at Wandivvash (1760), and takes 
 Pondicherri (1761), 179 ; his cam- 
 paign against Haidar All, 191. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, Governor-General 
 (1786-93\ 192, 193 ; the Per- 
 manent Settlement of Bengal, 193 ; 
 second Mysore war, 193; his 
 second Governor - Generalship 
 (1805), 200. 
 
 Court, General, one of Ranjit Singh's 
 European officers, 213. 
 
 Crops and scenery of the northern 
 river plains, 26, 27 ; of the Bengal 
 Delta, 27; of the southern table 
 land, 28-30. 
 
 Dacca, capital of Bengal moved 
 from, 179. 
 
 Dalhousie, Marquess of (1848-56), 
 214-220 ; administrative reforms, 
 214, 215; second Sikh war, and 
 annexation of the Punjab, 215 ; 
 second Burmese war and annexa- 
 tion of Pegu, 216 ; policy towards 
 Native States, 217, 21 8; lapsed 
 Native States, 218, 219; annexa- 
 tion of Oudh, 219-220; his work 
 in India, 220. 
 
 Dandis, a sect of Sivaite mendicant 
 ascetics, 102. 
 
 Danish settlements in India, 173. 
 
 Dara, Prince, put to death by Aur- 
 rangzeb, 145. 
 
 Daulatabad, pillaged by Ala-ud-din 
 Khilji, 121 ; taken by Malik 
 Kafur, 122 ; capital removed to 
 from Delhi, 124. 
 
 Day, Francis, founds Madras (1639), 
 171, 177. 
 
 Deccan, the geographical situation, 
 28 ; invaded by Ala-ud-din Khilji, 
 121; Muhammadan governors in, 
 revolt, 125 ; the Muhammadan 
 States of, 128, 129; Aurangzeb's 
 campaign in, 146, 147 ; Maratha 
 sovereignty over, 159. 
 
 Decline and Fall of the Mughal Em- 
 pire (1707-65), 150-155. 
 
 Delhi, Hindu kingdom of, conquered 
 by the Afghans, 117; Kutab-ud- 
 din's buildings at, 119; Shah
 
 INDEX. 
 
 243 
 
 Jahan's buildings at, 143 ; sacked 
 by Nadir Shah, 151 ; Maidthas 
 supreme at, 161, 188; taken by 
 Lord Lake, 197 ; siege of (1857), 
 226, 227. 
 
 Delta of Bengal, the, 24, 27. 
 
 Density of population, 36. 
 
 Deogiri. See Daulatabad. 
 
 Destructiveness of Indian rivers, 
 26. 
 
 Dhulip Singh, Maharaja, 214, 215. 
 
 Dig, battle of (1804), 162. 
 
 Dtwdni, grant of the, of Bengal, 
 Behar and Orissa to the East 
 India Company (1765), 185, 186. 
 
 Doctrine of Lapse, the, 217. 
 
 Dodabetta peak, 29. 
 
 Dost Muhammad, Amir of Afghan- 
 istan, 209, 210. 
 
 Drake, Mr., Governor of Bengal, 
 money given to, after Plassey, 
 182. 
 
 Drama, the Sanskrit, 71, 72. 
 
 Dravidians, the non-Aryan inhabi- 
 tants of Southern India, 49. 
 
 Dufferin, Marquess of. Viceroy 
 (1884-88), 235, 236; annexation 
 of Upper Burma, 235. 
 
 Dupleix, M., French administrator, 
 his wars in the Karnatik, 178,1 79. 
 
 Dutch, the, in India, 166-168 ; their 
 supremacy in the Eastern Seas, 
 167 ; the massacre of Amboyna 
 (1628), 170, 171; defeated by 
 Clive, 183. 
 
 Dwars, the, annexed by Lord Law- 
 rence (1864), 231. 
 
 Early Muhammadan conquerors, 
 
 109-131. &e Table of Contents, 
 
 chap. ix. 
 Early voyages of the English East 
 
 India Company, 170. 
 East India Companies, English, 169, 
 
 170; Dutch, Frencli, Danish, Os- 
 
 tend and Swedish, 173, 174. 
 Edinburgh, Duke of, visit to India 
 
 (1869-70), 232. 
 Edwardes, Sir Herbert B., besieges 
 
 Mulian, 215 ; aids Lawrence in 
 
 the Mutiny, 225. 
 Egypt, Indian contingent in (1882), 
 
 2.3.5- 
 Elephanta ceded to the English, 162, 
 191. 
 
 Elgin, Earl of. Viceroy (1862-63), 
 
 231. 
 
 EUenborough, Earl of, Governor- 
 General (1842-44), 211, 212 ; 
 conquest of Sind, 212. 
 
 EUichpur, Muhammadan kingdom 
 of, 129. 
 
 Elphinstone, Gen. W. K., conduct 
 at Kabul (1841), 210, 211. 
 
 Elphinstone, Hon. Mountstuart, en- 
 voy to Afghanistan, 201, 209 ; at 
 battle of Kirki, 203. 
 
 English settlements, early, in Ma- 
 dras, 171 ; Bombay, 171, 172 ; 
 Bengal, 172. 
 
 Estuaries of Indian rivers, 25 
 
 European and Indian languages 
 merely varieties of Aryan speech, 
 
 53- 
 European settlements, early, 176- 
 
 199. See Table of Contents, 
 
 chap. xii. 
 Everest, Mount, loftiest peak in the 
 
 Himalayas, 18. 
 
 Fakir-ud-din, Muhammadan go- 
 vernor of Bengal, becomes inde- 
 pendent (1340), 130. 
 
 Famines in India, 124, 23T, 233. 
 
 Farukhsiyyar, Mughal Emperor of 
 Delhi (1713-19), 154. 
 
 Fatehpur Sikri, battle of (1527), 
 132. 
 
 Ferdousi, Persian poet, Mahmiid of 
 Ghazni and, 115, 116. 
 
 Firinghis, name given to Portuguese 
 half-castes in Bengal, 166. 
 
 Firozshah, battle of (1845), 214. 
 
 Firuz Shah Tughlak, third king of 
 the Tughlak dynasty (1351-88), 
 126. 
 
 Fitch, Ralph, English adventurer in 
 the East (1583), 16S, 169. 
 
 Forde, Col., his campaign and cap- 
 ture of Masulipatain, 183. 
 
 Forests in the Himalayas, 20, 21 ; 
 in the southern table land, 29, 30. 
 
 Foundation of British rule in India, 
 176-199. .S^^ Table of Contents, 
 chap. xiii. 
 
 Fourfold division of Indian peoples, 
 
 38> 39- 
 Irancis, Sir Philip, opponent of 
 
 Warren Hastings, 187, 192. 
 French East India Companies, 173. 
 
 Q 2
 
 244 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 French, wars of the, with the English 
 in Southern India, 177-179, 183; 
 their influence in India 1,1798- 
 1800), 194; overthrown by Lord 
 Wellesley, 196, 197. 
 
 Gaekwars of Baroda, Maratha dy- 
 nasty, 161, 162; recognized as 
 independent of the Peshwa (1817), 
 203 ; deposition of a Gaekvvar 
 (1875), 232. 
 
 Gama Vasco da, first Portuguese to 
 reach India (1498), 164; second 
 visit (1502), and death at Cochin 
 (1524), 165. 
 
 Gandamak, treaty of (1879), 233. 
 
 Ganges river, 22, 23 ; its sanctity, 23. 
 
 Gaur, capital of Muhammadan king- 
 dom of Bengal, 130. 
 
 Gautama Buddha, life and doctrines 
 of, 74-77. 
 
 Geography of India, 17-31. See 
 Table of Contents, chap. i. 
 
 Ghakkars, the, attack camp of the 
 Afghans (1008), 114; devastate 
 the Punjab (1203), 118. 
 
 Ghats, Eastern and Western, 28. 
 
 Ghazni, the dynasty of, 113; con- 
 quered by the Ghor chiefs, 116; 
 taken by the English (1839), 
 210. 
 
 Gheria, battle of (1765), 184. 
 
 Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak, founder of 
 the Tughlak dynasty (1320-25), 
 124. 
 
 Ghor, d}Tiasty of (1152-86), 116- 
 119. 
 
 Ghulam Muhammad, Prince, last 
 descendant of Tipu, 196. 
 
 Gingi, taken by Aurangzeb (1698), 
 145; byCoote (1761), 179. 
 
 Goa taken by Albuquerque (1510), 
 165. 
 
 Godavari river, 29. 
 
 Goddard, Col., his march across 
 India, 191. 
 
 Gods of the Veda, 56. 
 
 Golconda, Muhammadan kingdom, 
 129 ; annexed by Aurangzeb 
 (1688), 147. 
 
 Gonds, principal aboriginal tribe in 
 the Central Provinces, 44. 
 
 Gough, Gen. Lord, defeats the Sikhs 
 (1«45), 214; (1849), 215. 
 
 Governors, Governors- General, and 
 
 Viceroys of India (1758-1892), 
 table of, 176, 177. 
 
 Govind Singh, last of the Sikh^;^rM,f 
 (1708), 213. 
 
 Grammar, Brahman, 63. 
 
 Greeks, the, in India, 85-89. See 
 Table of Contents, chap. vi. 
 
 Growth of Hinduism, 94-ioS. See 
 Table of Contents, chap. viii. 
 
 Gujarat invaded by Mahmud of 
 Ghazni (1024), 114; conquered 
 by Ala-ud-din Khilji (1297), 122 ; 
 independent Muhammadan king- 
 dom of, 130 ; conquered by Akbar 
 (1573), 136; by the Gaekwar of 
 Baroda, 161 ; by Col. Goddard, 
 191 ; restored to the Marathas 
 (17&2), 191 ; harried by the Gaek- 
 war, 197. 
 
 Gujranwdla depopulated by Afghan 
 invasions, 152. 
 
 Gujrat, battle of (1849), 215. 
 
 Gupta dynasty in Oudh and North- 
 ern India, 92. 
 
 Gurkhas, war with, in Nepal (1814- 
 15), 201, 202. 
 
 Gwalari pass, 19. 
 
 Gvvalior attacked by Mahmud of 
 Ghazni, 114; becomes Sindhia's 
 capital, 160 ; taken by Popham, 
 191 ; restored to Sindhia (li86), 
 236. 
 
 Ilaidarabad (Deccan). See Nizam. 
 
 Haidarabad (Sind) founded by Alex- 
 ander the Great, 87. 
 
 Haidar All, his war with the English 
 (1780-84), defeat of the English 
 and ravages, 191. 
 
 Hal a mountains, the most southerly 
 offshoot of the Himalayas, 19. 
 
 Hardinge, Lord, Governor-General 
 (1844-48), 212-214 ; the first 
 Sikh war, 214. 
 
 Harris, Gen. Lord, took Seringa- 
 patam (1799), 196. 
 
 Hastings, Marquess of, Governor- 
 General (1814-23), 201-204; the 
 Nepal war, 201, 202 ; the Pindari 
 war, 202-203 ; the last Maratha 
 war, 203. 
 
 Hastings, Warren, Governor-General 
 (1774-85), 1S7-192 ; tries to com- 
 promise with Mir Kasim (1763"!, 
 1S4 ; his appointment as Governor
 
 INDEX. 
 
 245 
 
 of Bengal (1772), 186 ; adminis- 
 trative reforms, 187, 188; policy 
 to Native States, iSS ; makes Ben- 
 gal pay, 1 88, 189 ; stops the- tri- 
 bute to Delhi, 189; sells Allaha- 
 bad and Kora to the Wazir of 
 Oudh, 189 ; the Rohillawar, 189, 
 190; imposes fines on Chait Singh 
 and the liegam of Oudh, 190 ; his 
 impeachment and trial in England, 
 190; the first Maratha war, 190, 
 191 ; the Mysore war with Haidar 
 All, 191, 192. 
 Havelock, Gen. Sir Henry, relieves 
 
 Lucknow (1857), 226, 
 Hedges, \^'illiam, first agent and 
 
 governor of Bengal (1681), 172. 
 Hekataios, first Greek writer who 
 
 speaks clearly of India, 85. 
 Herat besieged by the Persians, 
 
 210. 
 Hill tribes of Madras, 42, 43 ; of the 
 Vindhya ranges — the Bhils, 43 ; 
 of the Himalayas, 44, 45 ; of Ben- 
 gal — theSantals, 45-47 ; ofOrissa 
 — the Kandhs, 47-49. 
 Himalayas, the, main ranges of, 18, 
 19 ; offshoots, 19 ; water-supply 
 and rainfall, 19, 20 ; products and 
 scenery, 20, 21 ; forest destruction 
 and nomadic cultivation, 21 ; 
 Himalayan river system, 21, 22; 
 hill tribes of, 44, 45. 
 Hinduism, Growth of (700-1500), 
 94-108. See Table of Contents, 
 chap. viii. 
 Hiuen Tsiang, Chinese Buddhist 
 
 pilgrim, quoted, 81, 92, 95. 
 Hodion, Maj. H., kills the imperial 
 
 princes at Delhi (1857), 227. 
 Holkar, Maratha dynasty founded 
 by, 160, 161 ; defeated at Dig 
 (1804), 162 ; defeats Col. Monsoii, 
 198. 
 Houtman, Cornelius, pilots first 
 Dutch fleet round the Cape, 166. 
 Hiigli, English factory founded at 
 (1640), descitcd for Calcutta 
 (16S6), 172. 
 Human sacrifice among the Kandhs, 
 
 49 ; later instances, loi. 
 Humayun, second Mughal Emperor 
 (15dO-5G), his defeat and expul- 
 sion from India, and subsequent 
 restoration, 132, 133. 
 
 Ibrahim Lodi, defeat of by Babar at 
 
 Panipat (1526), 132. 
 Imad Shahi, Muhammadan dynasty 
 
 of Ellichpur, 129. 
 Impeachment and trial of Warren 
 
 Hastings, 190. 
 Import duties, abolition of (1882), 
 
 India on the eve of the Muham- 
 madan conquest, iii, 112. 
 
 India, population of, 35. 
 
 India transferred to the Crown 
 (1858), 228, 229. 
 
 India under the British Crown (1858- 
 92), 230-237. 6Ve Table of Con- 
 tents, chap. xvi. 
 
 Indian society in 300 B. C. as de- 
 scribed by Megasthenes, 88, 89. 
 
 Indo-Aryans, the, on their march to 
 India, as described in the Vedic 
 hymns, 53, 54 ; Aryan civilization 
 as disclosed in the Veda, 55 ; the 
 Vedic gods, 55-57 ; a Vedic hymn, 
 
 57- 
 
 Indo-European languages and re- 
 ligions, 53. 
 
 Indra, Vedic god, 56. 
 
 Indus river, 22. 
 
 Irawadi river, 30. 
 
 Irrigation work performed by the 
 Deltaic rivers, 25. 
 
 Jagannath, his car festival a relic of 
 a Buddhist procession, 99 ; an in- 
 carnation of Vishnu, 102, 103 ; 
 stories of bloodshed in honour of, 
 exaggerated, 103. 
 
 Jahdngir, fourth Mughal Emperor 
 (16U5-27), 140-142 ; his personal 
 character and administration, 141, 
 142. 
 
 Jains, the, in India, 83. 
 
 Jaipal, Hindu chief of Lahore, de- 
 feated by Subuktigin and Mahmiid 
 of Ghazni, 113, 114. 
 
 Jaiimr conquered by Akbar, 135. 
 
 Jai Singh, Raja, Indian astronomer, 
 64. 
 
 Jalalabad, defence of (1841-42), 211. 
 
 Jalal-ud-din, first king of the Khilji 
 dynasty (1290-95), 121, 122. 
 
 Jalandhar Doab, the, ceded to the 
 English (1846), 214. 
 
 Jang Bahadur of Nepal assists in 
 suppression of the Mutiny, 327.
 
 246 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Jats, descendants of the ancient Scy- 
 thians in the Punjab, 91. 
 Jaunpur, independent Muhammadan 
 
 State (1393-1478), i?,o. 
 Java conquered by the English, 200. 
 Jaziah or poll-tax on non-Musal- 
 
 mans, abolished by Akbar, 136; 
 
 re-imposed by Aurangzeb, 148. 
 Jhansi, State of, annexed, as lapsed 
 
 to the Company (1853), 218; 
 
 Rani of, killed in the Mutiny 
 
 (1858), 227. 
 Jodhpur, conquered by Akbar, 1 35 ; 
 
 becomes independent, 151. 
 Juangs, a leaf-wearing aboriginal 
 
 tribe in Orissa, 44. 
 Jumna Canal, made by Firuz Shah 
 
 Tughlak, 126. 
 Jumna river, 23. 
 
 Kabir, Vishnuite religious reformer 
 (1380-1420), 104, 105. 
 
 Kabul seized by Babar (1504), 132 ; 
 lost but reconquered by Humayun, 
 133; ruled by Akbar, 139; lost 
 by the Mughals (1738), 152; 
 Ahmad Shah's dynasty at, 2og ; 
 occupied by the English (1839), 
 210; taken by Pollock and Nott 
 (1842), 211, 212 ; murder of Ca- 
 vagnari at (1879), 233 ; aban- 
 doned by the English (1881), 234. 
 
 Kaders, a hunting hill tribe in 
 Madras, 42. 
 
 Kafur, Malik, hisexpeditions through 
 Southern India, 122, 127; mur- 
 dered by Khusru, 123. 
 
 Kaimur range, 28. 
 
 Kali, hideous form of Siva's wife. 
 Id. 
 
 Kalidasa, Hindu poet and dramatist, 
 
 Kalinjar, Sher Shah killed at (1545), 
 
 133-. 
 
 Kanauj attacked by Mahmiid of 
 Ghazni, 114; Hindu kingdom of, 
 overthrown by Muhammad of 
 Ghor, 116-118. 
 
 Kandahar taken by Akbar (1594), 
 136; lost byShahJahan (16531, 
 142 ; a capital of Ahmad Shah, 
 309 ; taken by the English (1839), 
 210; Ayiib Khan defeated at 
 (1880), 234. _ 
 
 Kandhs, aboriginal hill tribe in 
 
 Orissa, 47-49 ; patriarchal go- 
 vernment, 47 ; wars and punish- 
 ments, 47, 48 ; agriculture, 48 ; 
 marriage by ' capture,' 48 ; serfs 
 of the Kandh villages, 48 ; re- 
 ligion, human sacrifice, 49 ; the 
 Kandhs under British rule, 49. 
 
 Kanishka, Buddhist king in North- 
 western India (40 A. D.), his Bud- 
 dhist Council, 79, 80 ; his reign, 
 90,91. 
 
 Karauli, Native State, not annexed 
 under doctrine of lapse, 218. 
 
 Karim, Pindari leader, 203. 
 
 Karma, the Buddhist law of, 76, 77. 
 
 Karnatik, Malik Kafur invaded the, 
 ] 22 ; French and English wars in 
 the, 1 77-179 ; ravaged by Haidar 
 All, 191. 
 
 Kashmir invaded by Mahmud of 
 Ghazni, 1 14 ; ruled by Aurangzeb, 
 150 ; conquered by Ranjit Singh, 
 213. 
 
 Kasim, his campaign in Sind (712- 
 14), no, III. 
 
 Kasimbazar, early European fac- 
 tories at, 179, 180. 
 
 Kaveri river, 29. 
 
 Khaibar, mountain pass in the Hima- 
 layas from Peshawar to Afghanis- 
 tan, 19 ; both ends held by the 
 Afghans under Subuktigin, 113; 
 forced by the English (1879), 
 23.3. 
 
 Khandesh, the Bhils in, 43 ; invaded 
 by Malik Kafur (1306), 122 ; con- 
 quered by Akbar, 137. 
 
 Khilji dynasty of kings of Delhi 
 (1200-1320), 121-124. 
 
 Khusru, last of Mahmud of Ghazni's 
 descendants, defeated, 116. 
 
 Khusru Khan, renegade Hindu king 
 of the Khilji dynasty (1316-20), 
 123, 124. 
 
 Kilpatrick, Maj., money received by, 
 after Plassey, 182. 
 
 Kirki, battle of (1817), 203. 
 
 Kistna river, 29. 
 
 Kolarians, non-Aryan or aboriginal 
 tribes iu Bengal and Central India, 
 49. 
 
 Kolhapur, Native State ruled by a 
 representative of Sivaji, 158. 
 
 Koning, Henry, founded Swedish 
 East India Company (1731), 174.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 247 
 
 Krishna-worship, 102, 106, 107. 
 Kshattriyas, the second or warrior 
 caste among the Hindus, 59, 60, 
 
 97- 
 
 Ktesias, his knowledge of India 
 
 (40rB. c.\ 85. 
 Kumarila, Brahman preacher and 
 
 apostle, 95. 
 Kuram pass, 19. 
 Kutab Shahi, Muhammadan dynasty 
 
 of Golconda, 129. 
 Kutab-ud-din, the first of the Slave 
 
 kings of Delhi (1206-10), 119. 
 
 La Eourdonnaistook Madras (1746), 
 
 Lahore, Khusni driven from (1186), 
 116; taken by the Ghakkars 
 (1203), iiS; Metcalfe's mission 
 to, 201 ; the capital of Ranjit 
 Singh, 213; Sir H. Lawrence ap- 
 pointed Resident at, 214. 
 
 Lake, Gen. Lord, his campaigns in 
 Hindustan (1802-1805), 162, 197, 
 1 98. 
 
 Lakshman Sen, last Hindu king of 
 Bengal, defeated (1203), 118. 
 
 Lally defeated by Coote at Wandi- 
 wash (1760), 179. 
 
 Lancaster, first English Captain in 
 the Eastern Seas (1602), 170. 
 
 Lansdowne, Marquess of, Viceroy 
 (1888-92), 236, 237. 
 
 Laswari, battle of (1S03), 162, 
 197. 
 
 Law, Brahman, 66. 
 
 Lawrence, John, Lord, Viceroy 
 11864-68), 231 ; held the Punjab 
 in the Mutiny, 225. 
 
 Lawrence, Maj. Stringer, besieged 
 Pondicherri (1748), 178. 
 
 Lawrence, Sir Henry, appointed 
 Resident at Lahore (1846), 214; 
 foresaw the Mutiny, 223 ; his de- 
 fence of Lucknow, 226. 
 
 Leaf-wearing tribe in Orissa, 44. 
 
 Lcedes, early English adventurer in 
 Lulia (1583), 168, 169. 
 
 Literature of the Brahmans, 63, 64. 
 
 ],odi dynasty at Delhi (1450-1526), 
 127. 
 
 Lucknow, treaty of (1801), 195 ; 
 siege and reliefs of (1857-8), 
 226. 
 
 Lyric poetry of the Brahmans, 72. 
 
 Lytton, Earl of. Viceroy (1876-80), 
 233. 234 ; famine of 1876-77, 
 234 ; Afghan war, 233, 234. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, inscription of Ben- 
 tinck's statue, 206 ; first legal 
 member of Council, 208 ; his 
 Penal Code, 231. 
 
 Macnaghten, Sir William, killed at 
 Kabul (1841), 211. • 
 
 Macpherson, Sir John, acting Go- 
 vernor-General (1785-86\ 192. 
 
 Madhu Rao, fourth Maratha Peshwa 
 (1761-72), 160. 
 
 Madhu Rao Narayan, sixth Maratha 
 Peshwa (1774-y5j, 162. 
 
 Madras founded (1639), 171, 177; 
 taken by the French (1746), 178. 
 
 Magadha (Behar), Asoka, king of, 
 78 ; Chandra Gupta, king of, 87. 
 
 Mahabat Khan, kept Jahangir in 
 captivity (1626-27), 141. 
 
 Mahabharata, epic poem of the 
 heroic age in Northern India, its 
 story, 67-69. 
 
 Maharajpur, battle of (1843), 212. 
 
 Mahmud of Ghazni (1001-30), his 
 seventeen invasions of India, 1 13, 
 114; sack of Somnath, 114, 115; 
 stories about, 115, 116. 
 
 Mahmud Shah, Amir of Afghanis- 
 tan, 209. 
 
 Mahmud Tughlak, king of Delhi 
 (1388-1412), 126. 
 
 Maiwand, battle of (1880), 234. 
 
 Malcolm, Sir John, his mission to 
 Persia, 201 ; pacification of Cen- 
 tral India, 204. 
 
 Malwa, Malik Kafur in (1306\ 122 ; 
 independent State, 130 ; conquered 
 by Akbar (1572), 136; ravaged 
 by Rajputs, 149 ; conquered by 
 the Marathas, 159, 160. 
 
 Manjarabad, Hindu Raja of, main- 
 tained his authority from 1397 to 
 1799, 130. 
 
 Man Singh, Raja, governed Bengal 
 under Akbar (l.')89-1604), 135. 
 
 Manu, Code of, 66. 
 
 'Maratha Ditch' at Calcutta, 159, 
 180. 
 
 Marathas, the, 156-163. Sec Table 
 of Contents, chap. xi. 
 
 Maratha war, the first (1779-81), 
 162, 190, 191 ; the second (1802-
 
 248 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 1804), 1^2, iGc,, 197, 198; the 
 
 third (1817-18)", i6?„ 203. 
 Maris, aboriginal tribe in the Cen- 
 tral Provinces, 44. 
 Maruts, the Storm-gods of the Veda, 
 
 56. 
 Masnliiiatam, English agency (1611) 
 
 and factory (l(Jo2), 171 ; taken by 
 
 Col. Forde (1758), 1S3. 
 Mauritius, the. conquest of, 200. 
 Mayo, Earl of. Viceroy (1869-72), 
 
 231, 232. 
 Medicine, Brahman system of, 64,65. 
 Meerut, Timur's massacre at (13^)8), 
 
 126; outbreak of the Mutiny at 
 
 (1857), 224. 
 Megasthenes, Seleukos' ambassador 
 
 to the court of Chandra Gupta, his 
 
 account of Indian society (300 
 
 B.C.), 88, 89. 
 Mehidpur, battle of (1817), 203. 
 Metcalfe, Charles, Lord, acting 
 
 Governor- General (1835- 36 j, 
 
 208 ; his mission to Lahore 
 
 (1809), 201, 213. 
 Miani, battle of (1843), 212. 
 Middleton, Sir Henry, takes a cargo 
 
 at Cambay (1611), 170. 
 Midnapur ceded to the English 
 
 (1761), 184. 
 Minerals of India and Burma, 30, 
 
 31- 
 
 Minto, Earl of, Governor- General 
 1807-13), 200, 201 ; expeditions 
 to Java and the Mauritius, 200 ; 
 embassies to the Punjab, Afghan- 
 istan, and Persia, 201. 
 
 Mir Jafar made Nawab of Bengal 
 by Clive (1757), iSi, 182; de- 
 throned (1761), 184; restored 
 (1764),_^i85. 
 
 Mir Jumla's unsuccessful invasion of 
 Assam (166-2), 148. 
 
 Mir Kasim made Nawab of Bengal 
 (1761), 184 ; his revolt and mas- 
 sacre of Patna (1763), 184; de- 
 feated and deposed (1764), 184, 185. 
 
 Moira, Earl of. See Hastings, Mar- 
 quess of. 
 
 Monson, Col., his retreat before the 
 Marathas (1804), 198. 
 
 Monsoon, the, 20. 
 
 Mornington, Earl of. See Wellesley, 
 Marquess. 
 
 Mount Everest, loftiest peak in the 
 
 Himalayas and in the known 
 world, 18. 
 
 Mubarik Shah, last king of Delhi of 
 the house of Khilji, murdered by 
 Khusni Khan (1316), 123. 
 
 Mudki, battle of (1845), 214. 
 
 Mughal dynasty, the (1526-1761), 
 132-155. See Table of Contents, 
 chap. X. 
 
 Mughals, irruptions of the, 119, 120, 
 122, 123, 126. 
 
 Muhammad of Ghor (1191-1206), 
 his conquests in India, 116-119. 
 
 Muhammad 'I'ughlak, second king 
 of the Tughlak dynasty (1325-51), 
 124-126; his ferocity of temper, 
 124; change of capital, 124; 
 forced currency, 124, 125 ; revenue 
 exactions, 125, 126. 
 
 Muhammadan conquerors of India 
 (714-1526), 109-131. 6"^^ Table 
 of Contents, chap. ix. 
 
 Muhammadan influence on Hindu- 
 ism, 109. 
 
 Muhammadan States in the Deccan, 
 128, 129. 
 
 Multan caj^tured by Alexander the 
 Great, 86 : conquered by Ranjit 
 Singh, 213 ; siege of (1848), 215. 
 
 Mundavers, cave-dwelling pastoral 
 tribe in Madras, 42. 
 
 Munro, Sir Hector, wins battle of 
 Baxar (1764), 185. 
 
 Murad, Prince, executed by Aurang- 
 zeb (1661), 146. 
 
 Murshidiibdd made capital of Bengal, 
 179. 
 
 Murshid Kuli Khan, Nawab of Ben- 
 gal (1707-28), 179, 180. ^ 
 
 Music, art of, among the Brahmans, 
 65, 65. 
 
 Mutiny of 1857, the, 222-329. See 
 Table of Contents, chap. xV. 
 
 Muttradestroyed by the Afghans, 152. 
 
 Mysore, Hindu State of, 177; first 
 Mvsore war with Ilaidar All 
 (1780-84), 19T, 192 ; second My- 
 sore war with Tipu (1790-92), 
 193 ; third Mysore war with Tipd 
 (1799), 196; taken under British 
 protectorate (1830), 20S ; restored 
 to its Maharaja (lfc81), 209. 
 
 Nadir Shah, his invasion of India 
 and sack of Delhi (1739), 151, 152.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 249 
 
 Naga and Patkoi hills, north-eastern 
 oftshoot of the Himalayas, 19. 
 
 Nagpur, capital of the Maratha 
 house of Ehonsla, 161 ; an infant 
 proclaimed Raja of, under British 
 guardianship (1817), 204; an- 
 nexed by Dalhousie as lapsed 
 State (1853), 218. 
 
 Nairs, non-Aryan race in South- 
 western India, 42, 43. 
 
 Nalanda, ancient Buddhist monas- 
 tery, 82. 
 
 Nana Parnavis, guardian and mi- 
 nister of the sixth Maratha Peshv, a, 
 162. 
 
 Nana Sahib, adopted son of the last 
 Maralha Peshwa, 163 ; not al- 
 lowed to succeed to the Peshwa's 
 pension, 21S, 219 ; his connection 
 with the Mutiny of 1857 and the 
 Cawnpur massacre, 225, 226; 
 joined the rebels in Oudh, 227. 
 
 Nanak Shah, founder of the Sikh re- 
 ligion, 212. 
 
 Napier, Gen. Sir Charles, conquered 
 Sind (1843), 212 ; nominated 
 Commandt r-in-Chief (1849), 215. 
 
 Napier of Magdala, Gen. Robert, 
 Lord, his public works in the 
 Punjab, 216. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, apprehension 
 caused by his presence in Egypt, 
 
 794- 
 
 Narayan Rao, fifth Maratha Peshwa 
 (1772-74), 160. 
 
 Narbada river, 29. 
 
 Narsingha. See Vijayanngar. 
 
 Native States of India, their relation 
 to the paramount British power, 
 32 ; area and population, 35 ; 
 Warren Hagi^iiialoaUilude to, 
 1S8 ; Lord^.\ \ ellesley sj attitude 
 to, 195 ;-Lora i^ainousie s attitude 
 to, 217,218; Lord Canning's pro- 
 clamation to, 230. 
 
 Nepal, warwith (1814-15), 201,202. 
 
 Nevvbeiry, James, English adven- 
 turer in India (1583), 168, 169. 
 
 Nicholson, Gen. John, aided Law- 
 rence in the Punjab (1§57), 225 ; 
 his death at the storming of Delhi, 
 226. 
 
 Nilgiri hills, 29. 
 
 Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahniad- 
 nagar, 129. 
 
 Nizam-nl-Mulk becomes indepen- 
 dent ruler of Haidarabad (Dec- 
 can), 151, 177; wars with the 
 Marathas, i;'9 ; French influence 
 at the Court of, 178, 183, 194; 
 checked by Warren Hastings, 191 ; 
 aided Cornwallis against Tipti, 
 193 ; Lord Wellesley's treaty with, 
 overthrowing French influence, 
 195, 196; receives part of Tipii's 
 territories, 196; made to assign 
 Berar by Lord Dalhousie (1853), 
 21 8 ; faithful in the Mutiny, 225. 
 
 Nomadic tillage and destruction of 
 forest, 21, 38. 
 
 Non-Aryan or aboriginal population, 
 40-51. See Table of Contents, 
 chap. iii. 
 
 Northbrook, Earl of. Viceroy (1872- 
 76), 232, 233 ; presents cloth of 
 honour for Akbar's tomb (1873), 
 
 137- 
 ' Northern Circars,' French influence 
 
 supreme in, 179; granted to the 
 
 English by the Emperor (1765), 
 
 185. 
 Nott, Gen. Sir William, his march 
 
 from Kandahar to Kabul (1842), 
 
 211. 
 Ni'ir Jahan, Empress of Jahangir, 
 
 140, 141. 
 
 Ochterlony, Gen. Sir David, cam- 
 paigns against the Gurkhas (1814- 
 15), 202. 
 
 Orissa conquered by Akbar (1574), 
 136 ; southern ceded to the Mara- 
 thas (1751), 150; ruled by the 
 Bhonslas, 161 ; fl'/wcw/ of, granted 
 to the I'^ast India Company (1765), 
 1S5, 186 ; ceded by the Bhonslas 
 (18U4), 19S; famine in (1866), 
 231. 
 
 Orme, Robert, historian, quoted, 
 179. 
 
 Ostend East Indian Company, 173, 
 174. 
 
 Oudh, Bcgam of, fined by Warren 
 Hastings, 190. 
 
 Oudh, Gupta kings ruled over, 92 ; 
 becomes independent under the 
 Nawab Wazir (1732-43), 151; 
 restored to the Wazir by Clive 
 (1765), 185; Allahabad sold to 
 (1773), 1S9; subsidy paid by,
 
 250 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 194 ; ceded the Doab and Rohil- 
 khand (1801), 195 ; annexation of 
 (1856), 219, 220; the Mutiny of 
 1857 in, 226, 227; peasant rights 
 secured in, 231. 
 Outram, Gen. Sir James, tamed the 
 Bhils, 43 ; assumed government 
 of Oudh (185(5), 219 ; at relief of 
 Lucknow (1857), 226. 
 
 Palegars of the Madras Presidency, 
 their origin, 129, 130 ; practically 
 independent, 177, 178. 
 
 Pandya, ancient Hindu kingdom in 
 Southern India, 127. 
 
 Panini compiled a Sanskrit grammar 
 (about 350 B. c), 63. 
 
 Panipat, defeat of Ibrahim Lodi at, 
 by Babar (1526), 132; defeat of 
 the Afghans by Akbar at (1556), 
 133; defeat of the Marathas by 
 Ahmad Shah Durani at (1761), 
 i''3> 159; camp of exercise at 
 (i886), 235. 
 
 Panniar, battle of (1843), 212. 
 
 Parasnalh, sacred mountain, 28. 
 
 Partial character of the Muham- 
 madan conquests, 112, 113. 
 
 Patna, the capital of Chandra Gupta, 
 87 ; massacre at, by Mir Kasim 
 (1763), 184. 
 
 Peacock throne of Shah Jahan, 144. 
 
 Pearse, Col., his march from Cal- 
 cutta southwards, iqi. 
 
 Pegu, annexation of (1852), 216. 
 
 People, the, of India, 32-39. See 
 Table of Contents, chap. ii. 
 
 Perambakam, Baillie defeated at,i 91 . 
 
 Permanent Settlement of Bengal 
 (1793), 193. 
 
 Peshawar, taken by Subuktigin, 113 ; 
 Mahmud of Ghazni defeated at, 
 IT4; taken by Ranjit Singh, 213. 
 
 Pindaris, the (1804-17), 202 ; de- 
 feated by Lord Hastings, 202,203. 
 
 Plassey, battle of (1757), 180, 181. 
 
 Poetry, epic, of the Brahmans — the 
 stories of the Mahabharata and 
 Ramayana, 66-71. 
 
 Poetry, lyric, of the Brahmans, 72, 
 
 Pollock, Gen. Sir George, his march 
 from the Punjab to Jalalabad and 
 Kabul (1842 >, 211. 
 
 Polyandry among the Nairs in 
 Southern India and the northern 
 
 Himalayan tribes, 42, 43, 66 ; of 
 Draupadi in the Mahabharata. 
 68. 
 
 Pondicherri besieged by Boscawen 
 (1748), 178; taken by Coote 
 (1761), 179. 
 
 Popham, Maj., takes fort of Gwalior, 
 191. 
 
 Population, density of the Indian, 36 ; 
 town and rural population, 36 ; 
 overcrowded and under-peopled 
 districts, 36, 37 ; distribution of 
 the people, 37 ; nomadic system 
 of husbandry, 37 ; rise of rents in 
 crowded districts, 37, 38. 
 
 Portuguese in India, their history 
 and ancient power, 164-166 ; their 
 present possessions, 166. 
 
 Porus, Hindu sovereign defeated by 
 Alexander the Great, 85, 86. 
 
 Potato-cultivation in the Himalayas, 
 method and effects of, 21. 
 
 Prakrit, the spoken language of 
 ancient India, 63. 
 
 Pre-historic remains in India, 40. 
 
 Prendergast, Gen. Sir H., conquers 
 Upper Burma (1885), 235. 
 
 Prithwi Raja, the, of Delhi and Aj- 
 mere, defeated by Muhammad of 
 Ghor(1193), 117. 
 
 Proclamation, the Queen's, of i No- 
 vember, 1858, 223, 230. 
 
 Products and scenery of the Hima- 
 layas, 20, 21 ; of the northern 
 river plains and Bengal Delta, 26, 
 27 ; of the southern table-land, 
 28-30. 
 
 Prussian East India Companies, 174. 
 
 Puliyars, wild tribe in Aladras, 42. 
 
 Punjab, the, Aryans settled down in, 
 54 ; Alexander the Great's cam- 
 paign in, 85, 86 ; Kanisidca's king- 
 dom in, 90, 91 ; conquered by 
 Malimud of Ghazni, 115; ravaged 
 by Ghakkars and Mewatis, 120; 
 devastated by the Afghans, 152; 
 the kingdom of Ranjii Singh, 213; 
 annexed (1849 ', 215 ; pacification 
 of, 215, 216; loyalty of in the 
 Mutiny of 1857, 225, 226. 
 
 Puranas, the, Sanskrit theological 
 works, 103. 
 
 Races of prehistoric India. See 
 Aryans, Non-Aryans.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 2^1 
 
 Raghuba, pretender to the Maratha 
 Peshwaship, 162, 190, 191. 
 
 Raghuji Bhonsla invaded Bengal 
 (1743), 159- 
 
 Railways commenced in India by 
 Lord Dalhousie, 216 : extended 
 by Lord Mayo, 232. 
 
 Rainfall in the Himalayas, 20. 
 
 Rajmahal hills in Bengal, 28. 
 
 Rajputana reduced by Akbar, 135 ; 
 devastated by Aurangzeb, 149 ; 
 becomes independent (1715), 151 ; 
 ravaged by Holkar, 198 ; States of, 
 become feudatory to the British 
 power, 204. 
 
 Rajput resistance to Muhammadan 
 invasions, 116-118, 120, 122, 123. 
 
 Rama, the hero-god of the Rama- 
 yana, 69-71. 
 
 Rama, the seventh incarnation of 
 Vishnu, 102. 
 
 Ramanand, Vishnuite religious re- 
 former (1300-1400 A.D.), 104. 
 
 Ramanuja, Vishnuite religious re- 
 former (1150 A. D.), 103, 104. 
 
 Ramayana, Sanskrit epic relating 
 the Aryan advance into Southern 
 India, its story, 69-71. 
 
 Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh 
 kingdom (1780-1839), 213. 
 
 Rawal Pindi, Darbar at (1885), 235. 
 
 Raziya, empress of the Slave dy- 
 nasty (1236-39), 120. 
 
 Reh, saline crust brought down by 
 the Indian rivers, 26. 
 
 Religious bond of Hinduism, 98, 99. 
 
 Rents, rise of, in overcrowded dis- 
 tricts, 37. 
 
 Revenue of Akbar, 139; of Jahan- 
 gir, 140; of Shah Jahan, 143, 
 144; of Aurangzeb, 149, ifo. 
 
 Revenue Settlement of Bengal under 
 Cornwallis (1793), 193. ^ 
 
 Rig- Veda, the earliest Sanskrit 
 hymnal, 54-58. 
 
 Rintimbur, taken by Ala-ud-din 
 Khiiji (1300), 122. 
 
 Ripon, Marquess of, Viceroy (1880- 
 84), 234, 235 ; conclusion of the 
 Afglian war, 234; measures for 
 local self-government, 235. 
 
 River plains of Northern India, 22— 
 27 ; work done by the rivers, 23, 
 24; the Bengal Delta, 24; rivers 
 as land-makers, 24, 25 ; river es- 
 
 tuaries, 25 ; rivers as irrigators 
 and highways, 25, 26 ; rivers as 
 destroyers, 26 ; crops and scenery 
 of the northern river plains, 26, 
 27 ; of the Bengal Delta. 27. 
 
 River system of the Himalayas, 21, 
 22; of the southern table-land, 29. 
 
 Roberts, Gen. Lord, his victories at 
 Kabul and Kandahar (1879-80), 
 234; commander-in chief, 236. 
 
 Rock edicts of Asoka, 79. 
 
 Roe, Sir Thomas, his description of 
 Jahangir, 141 ; sent as ambas- 
 sador to India by James I, 170. 
 
 Rohilkhand, ceded to the English 
 (1801), 195. 
 
 Rohillas, war with the (1774), 189. 
 
 Rose, Sir Hugh (Lord Strathnairn), 
 his campaign in Central India 
 (1858-59), 227. 
 
 Safed Koh mountains, offshoot of 
 the Himalayan range in Afghan- 
 istan, 19. 
 
 Sagar island, religious festival at, 
 
 23- 
 
 Sah dynasty (60-235 A.D.), 92. 
 
 Sahu, grandson of Sivaji, left govern- 
 ment of the Marathas to the 
 Peshwa, 15S. 
 
 Saints, Hindu book of, 99, 100. 
 
 Sdka era, 92. 
 
 Sakuntala, famous Sanskrit drama, 
 ,71, 72. 
 
 Salar Jang, Sir, kept Haidarabad 
 loyal in the Mutiny, 225. 
 
 Salbai, treaty of (1782\ 162, 191. 
 
 Sale, Gen. Sir Robert, his defence of 
 Jalalabad (1842), 211. 
 
 Salivahana, King (78 A. D.), his wars 
 with the Scythians, 92. 
 
 Salsette ceded to the English by the 
 treaty of Salbai, 162, 191. 
 
 Sambhnji, son of Sivaji, ruled the 
 Marathas (1680-89), put to death 
 by Aurangzeb, 147, 158. 
 
 Saiiivat era, 91. 
 
 Sankara Acharya, Sivaite religious 
 reformer, loo. 
 
 Sanskrit language, 53, 63 ; litera- 
 ture and science, 63-72. 
 
 Santals, aboriginal hill tribe in Ben- 
 gal, 45-47 ; their location and 
 system of government, 45 ; social 
 and religious ceremonies, 45, 46 ;
 
 252 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 religion, 46 ; history, 46, 47 ; 
 
 Santal rising (1855), 47. 
 
 Satara, petty State left to descen- 
 dants of Sivaji, 1 58, 204 ; annexed 
 as having lapsed (1849\ 218. 
 
 Satl not sanctioned by the Vedas, 
 55 ; Akbar's efforts to suppress, 
 136; made illegal (1829), 207. 
 
 Satpiira range of mountains, 28. 
 
 Sayyid dynasty of Delhi (1414- 
 50), 127. 
 
 Sayyid 'kingmakers' (1713-20), 
 
 '15I5 154- 
 
 Scvthian inroads intolndia (100 B.C.- 
 500 A.D.), 90-93. See Table of 
 Contents, chap. vii. 
 
 Scythian kingdoms in Northern 
 India, 90, 91. 
 
 Segauli, treaty of (1816), 202. 
 
 Seleukos, Alexander's successor to 
 the Greek conquests in Bactria 
 and India, 87 ; his alliance with 
 Chandra Gupta, 88. 
 
 Self-government in India under the 
 British Crown promoted by Lord 
 Ripon, 235; extension of, 236, 237. 
 
 Serfdom abolished, 38. 
 
 Seringapatam besieged (1792), 193; 
 taken (1799), 196. 
 
 Serpent-worship in India, 99. 
 
 Shahab-ud-din. See Muhammad of 
 Ghor. 
 
 Shah Alam,MughalEmperor(1761- 
 1805), 155 ; nominally restored 
 by the Marathas (1771), i6t ; be- 
 sieges Patna (1758), 183 ; defeated 
 at Baxar (1764), 185 ; Warren 
 .Hastings stops the English tribute 
 to (1773), 1S9 ; restored to Delhi 
 by Lord Lake (1803), 198. 
 
 Shah Jahan, fifth Mughal Emperor 
 of Delhi 1,1628-58), 142-144; his 
 magniiicent public buildings, 143 ; 
 his revenues, 143, 144; deposed 
 by his son Aurangzeb, 144. 
 
 Shahji Bhonsla, founder of the 
 Maratha power, 156. 
 
 Shahriyar murdered by his brother 
 Shah Jahan, 142. 
 
 Shah Shuja installed by the British 
 as Amir of Afghanistan (1839), 
 209, 210. 
 
 Shaista Khan, Nawab of Bengal, 
 confiscates the English factories 
 (1686), 172. 
 
 Sher All, recognized as Amir of Af- 
 ghanistan, 231 ; war with and 
 death (1878), 233. 
 
 Sher Shah drives Humayun out of 
 India (1542), sets up as emperor, 
 and is killed (1545), 133. 
 
 Shore, Sir John (Lord Teignmouth), 
 Governor-General (1793-98), 193; 
 draws up Permanent Settlement of 
 Bengal, 193. 
 
 Shuja, Prince, driven into Arakan by 
 Aurangzeb (1660), 146. 
 
 Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab Wazir of 
 Oudh, defeated at Baxar (1764), 
 184, 185 ; arrangements of War- 
 ren Hastings with, 189. 
 
 Sikhs, the, persecuted by the Mu- 
 hammadans, 148, 151 ; a religious 
 sect, 212, 213; their rise into 
 power, 213; Ranjit Singh, 213; 
 the first Sikh war (1845), 214; 
 the second Sikh war (1848-49), 
 and annexation of the Punjab, 
 
 ,215- 
 
 Siladitya, Buddhist king in Northern 
 India, his Council (634 A. D.), and 
 his charity, 81. 
 
 Sind, Alexander the Great's cam- 
 paign in, 86, 87 ; early Arab in- 
 vasions of (647-828 A. D.), 110, 
 III ; conquered by Akbar (1592), 
 136 ; annexed by the English 
 (1843), 212. 
 
 Sindhia, Maratha dynasty, 160, 161 ; 
 troops of, organized by French 
 officers, 194 ; defeated by Lord 
 Lake, 197, 198; defeated at Maha- 
 rajpurand Panniar (1843), 212; fort 
 of Gwalior restored to (1886), 
 236. 
 
 Siraj-ud-danla, Nawab of Bengal, 
 took Calcutta (1756), 180 ; de- 
 feated at Plassey (1757"), 181. 
 
 Sita, wife of Rama, the heroine of 
 the Ramayana, 70, 71. 
 
 Sftabaldi, battle of (1817), 203. 
 
 Siva, early conception of, 62, 63 ; 
 Siva and Siva-worship, 100-102 ; 
 forms of Siva and his wife, 100, 
 101 ; twofold aspects of Siva- 
 worship, loi ; the thirteen Sivaite 
 sects, loi, 102. 
 
 Sivaji the Great, Maratha king 
 (1627-80), his guerilla warfare 
 with the Muhammadans, 147;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 253 
 
 forms a national Hindu party in 
 
 the Deccan, 156; his reign and 
 
 establishment of the Maratha 
 
 power, 157 ; his descendants, 158. 
 Slave dynasty of Delhi, the (1206- 
 
 90), 119-121. 
 Sleeman, Sir W. H., suppressed 
 
 thagi, 207. 
 Smarta Brahmans, lineal successors 
 
 of the disciples of Sanl^ara 
 
 Acharya, 102. 
 Sobraon, battle of (1845\ 214. 
 Somnath, sack of, by Mahmud of 
 
 Ghazni (1024), 114, 115; the so- 
 called gates of, brought to India 
 
 (1842), 115, 212. 
 Sources of the Indian people — 
 
 Aryan, non-Aryan, and Scythian, 
 
 94. 
 Southern table-land, the, 27-30 ; 
 
 scenery, 28, 29; rivers, 29; 
 
 forests, 29, 30; minerals, 30. 
 Stephens, Thomas, first modem 
 
 Englishman in India (1579), 168. 
 Strathnairn, Gen. Lord. See Rose, 
 
 Sir Hugh. 
 Subuktigin, Turki invader of India 
 
 (977 A. D.), 113. 
 Siidras or serfs, the lowest caste in 
 
 the ancient Hindu fourfold organ- 
 ization, 59, 60. 
 Sulaiman mountains, offshoot of the 
 
 Himalayas in Afghanistan, 19. 
 Surat, the trade guilds at, 98, 99 ; 
 
 orit^inal English headquarters on 
 
 north-western coast of India, 171 ; 
 
 treaty of (1775), 190. 
 Sutlej river, 22. 
 Sii'.ras, earliest Brahman legal works, 
 
 66. 
 Swally, defeat of the Portuguese 
 
 fleet at, by the British (1015), 
 
 170. 
 Swaymn-vara, or maiden's own 
 
 choice, 67, (I9, 117. 
 Swedish luiit India Company, 174. 
 
 Taj Mahal, the, built by Shah Jahdn 
 
 at Agra, 143. 
 Talikot, battle of (1565), 112, 129. 
 Tamerlane. See Timiir. 
 Tanjore, kingdom in Southern India, 
 
 177 ; annexed by the English, 196. 
 T^ntia Topi, ablest mutineer leader, 
 
 defeated by Sir H. Rose, 227. 
 
 Tapti river, 29. 
 
 Tarai, the, 20. 
 
 Tea, cultivation of, 27 ; crisis in the 
 tea industry, 231. 
 
 Teignmouth, Lord. See Shore, Sir 
 John. 
 
 Tenasserim annexed (1826\ 206. 
 
 Thagi suppressed, 207, 208. 
 
 Thaneswar, Muhammad of Ghor 
 defeated at (1191), 116. 
 
 Thebau, king of Upper Burma, de- 
 feated and dethroned (1885), 235. 
 
 Tibeto-Burman, the non-Aryan or 
 aboriginal tribes inhabiting the 
 skirts of the Himalayas, 49. 
 
 Tieffenthaler, Father, quoied on Af- 
 ghan ravages in the eighteenth 
 century, 152. 
 
 Timiir's invasion of India and mas- 
 sacre at Delhi (1398), 126. 
 
 Tipu Sultan succeeds his father 
 Haidar Ali (17821, 191 ; defeated 
 by Lord Cornwallis (1790-92), 
 193 ; his intrigues with the French, 
 194; defeated and killed at Se- 
 ringapatam (1799), 196. 
 
 Todar Mall. Raja, Akhar's finance 
 minister, his revenue settlement, 
 I ',5, 140 ; conquered Orissa 
 (i574), 136. 
 
 Towerson, Captain, murdered at 
 Amboyna (1623), 170. 
 
 Town and rural population of India, 
 36. 
 
 Trade-guilds, caste as a system of, 
 97, 98. 
 
 Tughlakdynastyof Delhi,the (1320- 
 1414), 124-127. 
 
 Tiirki invasions of India, the first 
 (977 A.D.), 113. 
 
 Twenty-four Parganas, Grant of the, 
 to the East India Company (1757), 
 1S2, 183. 
 
 Udaipur, Rajput dynasty of, refused 
 
 to make alliance with Akbar, 135 ; 
 
 defeated by Jahangir (1614), 140; 
 
 attacked by Auran<^zeb, 149. 
 Udhunala, battle of (1764), 184. 
 Usman sends Arab expeditions to 
 
 India (647 A.D.), 110. 
 
 Vaishnavs, Hindu sect, 84. 
 Vaisyas, the tliird or cultivating caste 
 in the ancient Hindu organization,
 
 254 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 59, 60 ; their change of occupa- 
 tion, 97. 
 
 Valabhi dynasty of Cutch, Malwa, 
 and northern Bombay (480-722 
 A.D.), 92, 93. 
 
 Vallabha-Swami, Vishnuite religious 
 reformer (1520), 106. 
 
 Vansittart, Henry, Governor of Ben- 
 gal(1760-6i), attempted tomakea 
 compromise witli Mir Kasim, 184. 
 
 Varuna, Vedic god, 56, 57. 
 
 Vedas, the, quoted on the non- 
 Aryans, 40, 41 ; the four, 58. See 
 also Rig- Veda. 
 
 Vellore, Mutiny at (1806), 200. 
 
 Victoria, Queen of England, pro- 
 clamation of I Nov. 1858, on as- 
 suming the government of India, 
 223, 230 ; proclaimed Empress of 
 India (1877), 233; celebration of 
 her Jubilee (1887), 236. 
 
 Vijayanagar, Hindu kingdom in 
 Southern India (1118-1565), 127, 
 128; its overthrow (1565), 129; 
 representatives, 130. 
 
 Vikramaditya, king of Ujjain (57 
 B.C.), Kalidasa wrongly said to 
 have flourished at his court, 71 ; 
 his wars with the Scythians, 91, 
 92. 
 
 Vindhya mountains, 28 ; non-Aryan 
 tribes of the, 43. 
 
 Vishnu, early conception of, 62,63 ; 
 Vishnu-worship, 102-107; the in- 
 carnations of Vishnu, 102, 103 ; 
 the Vishnu Purana, 103 ; Vishnu- 
 ite apostles — Ramanuja, 103,104; 
 Ramanand, 104 ; Kabir, 104, 105 ; 
 Chaitanya, 105, 106 ; Vallabha- 
 Swami, 106, 107. 
 
 Wajid AH, last king of Oudh, de- 
 posed (1856), 220. 
 
 Wales, Prince of, visit to India 
 (1875-76), 232, 233. 
 
 Wandiwash, battle of (1760), 179. 
 
 Wargaum, convention of (1779), I9i. 
 
 Watts, Mr., money received by after 
 Plassey, 182. 
 
 Wellesley, Marquess, Governor- 
 General (1708-1805), 193-198 
 French influence in India, 194 
 Lord Wellesley's policy, 195 
 treaty with the Nizam (1798), 
 195, 196 ; third Mysore war and 
 capture of Seringapatam (1799), 
 196 ; second Maratha war (1802- 
 1804), 197, 198; results of his 
 conquests, 19S. 
 
 AVidows, burning of. See Sati. 
 
 Willoughby, Sir Hugh, attempt to 
 force the North-East Passage 
 (1553), 168. 
 
 Wilson, James, his financial reforms, 
 230, 231. 
 
 Yajnavalkya, code of, 66. 
 
 Yak cows, use of, in the Himalayas, 
 
 ^9- , . , 
 
 Yakub Khan, Amir of Afghanistan, 
 
 signed treaty of Gandamak (1879), 
 
 233 ; abdicated, 234. 
 Yand'abu, treaty of (1826), 206. 
 Yogis, Sivaite devotees, 102. 
 
 Zafar Khan, founder of the Bahmani 
 dynasty, 128. 
 
 Zamindars of Bengal recognized as 
 landlords, 192, 193. 
 
 Zamorin of Calicut, connection of 
 the Portuguese with the, 164, 165. 
 
 Zeman Shah held his court at La- 
 hore (1800), 209. 
 
 Zul-fikar Khan, his power as general 
 and minister at Delhi (1707-13), 
 150, 151, 154.
 
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